Comments on: Top 5 Reasons Print Brokers P.O. Printers

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brother mfc-j265w,mfc-j265w,brother mfc-j265w best uk price — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:37:14 +0000

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[...]Top 5 Reasons Print Brokers P.O. Printers | Talking Through My Hat[...]…

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By: Crombie0421

Crombie0421 — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:45:00 +0000

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By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:10:42 +0000

I’m a print broker and I consider my printers important business partners. They are treated with the same respect and consideration I afford my clients, and as my printers’ partner I supply them with print ready files that are truly “print ready,” and personally follow every job through the plant with experience most clients do not have. I am there to help both sides, and it is a win-win for all concerned.

Because I don’t have much overhead, I can price the printing very competitively without asking the printer to discount. When you start asking for concessions, it will show up somewhere in the product; and I want only the best printing for my clients.

I’ve never had a printer treat me in a sub-standard way, and I think it is ill advised for such treatment to occur. Why would any printer do this? We bring them business they would not otherwise have!

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By: Vinod Thakur

Vinod Thakur — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:21:54 +0000

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for this info.. Could you please help me with contact details of some good print brokers?

Kind Regards,
Vinod

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By: Nichola

Nichola — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:24:22 +0000

Don’t you need to have a strong B in the social sciences to operate a weblog in this way?

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By: Print&IT

Print&IT — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:54:18 +0000

@Philip:
not sure what to say to that.
At the risk of criticising typo’s/grammar (we all make mistakes), I’m not sure I understand your 1st paragraph. I think you’re trying (and incorrectly so) to represent my opinion through extremes in order do devalue the arguments I put forward, but it’s not exactly readable, so I could be wrong.

To Clarify:
We do not take business from brokers with whom we have contracts.
Nor do we chase their customers the minute a contract expires.
We do go up for tenders against brokers.
We do promote ourselves directly at trade fairs.
We do advertise.
We do develop networks of contacts.
We do spend time developing strong brands and cultivating relationships with our direct customers.
AND as much day-to-day contact from broker-sourced customers as part of the contract comes direct (at the request of the broker), our communication skills benefit the broker-customer relationship.

In my opinion, in some cases, it is our business what a broker does for their money. Those brokers who insist on lower price are essentially asking the printer to pay for their service (finding and managing new business). In such cases, printers should be treated as customers.

The confusion always seems to be over what the broker is selling & to whom.
Successful Brokers today, seem to concentrate on selling a service of provisioning and managing printing (not the print products themselves) to the customer (not a salesforce to the printer). The brokers should then approach printers with offers of business.

As an example:
If we advertise print prices, and a customer goes to a broker and says “but this pritner is cheaper”, the broker needs to make clear their selling a serivce, not the print product itself & can provide a level of supplier-independance to reduce risk and inrease flexibility. This is a prime way brokers can add real value for the customer that a printer cannot directly provide (although disaster recovery schemes do help with continuity & trust).

While we as a printer can, and do compete on price, service, reputation, branding, relationship management, data interfaces and client communication, we cannot deliver true supplier-independence as (even with full DR) we are just one supplier.

Sincerely.
Print&IT

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By: Print&IT

Print&IT — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:15:08 +0000

@Michael Christensen :
Valid point about the different print capabilities, but it applies to a far lesser degree for those of us with relatively wide capabilities.

I also agree that many customers will choose pay more to go through a broker as a one-stop-shop for their print outsourcing (hence the term Print Management is often used). But to imply brokers are free (as in the original post) is to mislead.

The general economic model point is that an extra layer in a market
1) obscures the real cost of a product, which can (and I stress can) breed profiteering.
2) generally moves some profit from the supplier to the broker, meaning greater investment is available in those sourcing customers and suppliers, and less for product and technological development in production, which could drive efficiency and innovation.

If the majority of print work goes through brokers then fine. But giving the hard-sell to printers by implying they are fools for going the direct sales route (as per the original post) doesn’t sound like an industry comfortable with it’s position.

Essentially, if a printer’s offering is wide enough, and they have resource enough to generate a strong brand, they will be able to compete with brokers.

So for brokers to truly thrive, they need be more transparent that they sell a procurement and supplier management service to the customer, they do not sell print products. This is where they should be adding value, rather than by squeezing supplier margins, or making unacheivable demands on their timescales (as the lesser among you seem to do).

Sincerely.
Print&IT

p.s.
not so keen on the “heard but have not verified that 95%” statement.
The quote “lies, damn lies and statistics” comes to mind. That’s not to say you intend to mislead. I don’t know how much truth’s in that statistic, but then neither do you.

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By: Philip

Philip — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:22:35 +0000

Print brokers exist puley and simply for two reason only – they teart theor onw sale reps like the scum of th eearth, and most of their customers no differently – Print&It – your a classic case of an unethical theif in my opinion.

It’s none of your freaken business what a broker does for his money.

I came of the street (as a potentially huge new customer) to hand a printer 80K worth of magazine work (for starters), he wanted a clause in the agreemnet where by if my clients approached him direct, he could do their work.

Do freaken people think we came up the river in a bubble or what?

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By: Michael Christensen

Michael Christensen — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:26:24 +0000

The equation above is not exactly valid when you consider the big picture. A print broker represents may vendors that produce many types of print products therefore one print broker expense can be applied to the cost of many vendors considering the corporate entity model. Then there is the cost on our client side to consider as well. They need one supplier instead of 10 if they buy from a print broker. Also consider this from a economic model point of view. Does it make more sense to consolidate the sales effort from many vendors to one print broker vs haveing a sales force for each of those vendors. I have heard but have not verified that 95% of all print sales goes through a print broker. If this is true then the market forces of a free ecomomy seem to verify the the value of the broker / printer / model.

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By: Mike Gruper

Mike Gruper — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:52:49 +0000

This was an enjoyable post. The last company I worked at did not embrace print brokers. In fact, the title print broker made the owners cringe. I personally have many good relationships with print brokers. As long as the print broker is fair and honest I have no problem working with them. I treat my vendors in a fair and honest manner and I expect the same from my broker clients.

Best of luck to you!

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