I’ve been waiting a little longer than usual to make this post. My last post the top 5 reasons print brokers p.o. printers is still drawing a good response and I didn’t want to lose any readers before proceeding, either that, or I just didn’t get around to it yet. Both excuses are probably true to some extent.

My promise at the end of the last post was that I would toss out some ideas to reduce friction between Printing Brokers and Printers so that both could benefit. That particular promise will have to wait until the next post as I continue to explore the understanding gap that exists in commercial printing sales.

The following thoughts are mine alone. I would really hope that readers would go to the bottom of the post, past the hat logo, tags, categories, and click on comments. This is where you can leave your opinions. I do have to approve which opinions are accepted, but I promise I only delete those who appear to be spam, or who may incite a law suit. Other than that, you can disagree with me all the live-long day and I’ll let it go through.

I’ve learned that my vantage point is rarely the same as another’s. Just because someone doesn’t see things my way,  doesn’t necessarily make them wrong. I like to say, “I could be wrong about that, I’ve been wrong before, and I’ll probably be wrong again.” The world might be a better place if we all let go of the idea that we have to be right, or I could be wrong about that too. See how it works?

I’m going to be addressing printers primarily, because in my experience it is the printers, who more than print brokers, cut off their noses to spite their faces. Again, please feel free to disagree.

In a conversation with a print rep the other day, we agreed that the negativity thrown at print brokers is  often undeserved. Instead printers should look toward their hired sales representatives. A print broker is more vulnerable, and has to walk a tighter line, in other words a broker has much more too risk. Involving themselves in transactions that are shaky can ruin more  than just a certain project.  The name of my company, for example, is Bill Ruesch Print Broker, LLC. If I screw up, I tarnish my name, my company name, and risk  my entire career. A printer’s sales rep on the other hand can botch something big-time and maybe get fired, but they can, and most always do, migrate to another printer where they can start over.

I read a survey a long time ago that concluded that the mindsets of a successful entrepreneur, a salesman, and a criminal were very similar. To be good at any of those three paths there had to be a willingness to accept a great deal of risk. It seems that the riskier the better. Printing company owners, sales representatives, and print brokers all have risk in common, but it is the effect on careers that makes the critical difference.

For commissioned sales people have immediate needs. You can’t feed the family or pay the mortgage if you don’t earn a paycheck. Therefore, they are often tempted to ram a square peg into the round hole. I don’t care how big the printer is, no company can efficiently serve the needs of every customer. The printer needs work, the sales rep needs a commission, and the customer, unfortunately, sometimes comes up short. And don’t say it never happens at your company because it does. See my previous post about withholding information from a customer to the benefit of the printer.

This may sound like I’m being critical of company sales reps — I’m not — I’m only being critical of the marginal ones. To tell the truth I have a great deal of admiration for those who work for one company. I’ve been there, done that, myself. I often wondered why there were few older folks working in sales. One reason is that it is nearly impossible to please management. Either you are bringing in too much work, or not enough, and the line for the exact perfect amount moves daily. The stress is wearing.

I can tell you that as a broker I don’t miss the constant harangue, not at all.

Print brokers make their living at bringing print jobs to printers able to do the job. They work very hard at finding a good fit. Theoretically a print broker will only bring in jobs that hit the printer’s sweet spot. Sweet spot jobs are those that the printer is best equipped to do.

My point is that brokers are more likely to bring work through the doors that is a better fit, and because it is, it usually runs smoother with fewer complications. Doesn’t that have real intrinsic value? It is one of the many invisible benefits brokers bring to the table that are overlooked by printers.

I envy the printers for one thing in particular, they are updated regularly by paper merchant reps who call on them with the latest developments, updates, and changes. I get my information either second hand or by attending seminars and showings hosted by the merchants. In the last two weeks I attended a seminar on preparing art files for printing, direct mail, and the danger of the opt-out initiative, and digital printing advancements. I never know what a customer is going to ask of me and I have to be prepared.

Yesterday, Sappi paper sent Daniel Dejan, their North American ETC Print/Creative Manager to town to speak about graphic design and file prep. I thanked Daniel for his presentation, but didn’t thank him enough. You see the printers depend on the artists and graphic designers to keep the presses rolling. The graphic designers need the printers to produce their products. But to hear them talk about each other, you’d think there is a war going on. The printers say that graphic designers don’t even try to prepare their files correctly, that they think because something looks right on the screen it will print right. Designers on the other hand, think that the printers are screwing up their files, and if they just knew what they were doing the jobs would all run smoothly.

Stop the bickering. Mr. Dejan framed the problem as having its roots primarily in the graphic programs and in the designers failure to take the finishing steps necessary to make sure their files are correct.

I can tell you from my personal experience that computer design has completely overhauled the printing industry. When the first design programs were introduced, they created more problems than they solved. Over the years we have seen definite improvements. The programs are much better but still far from perfect. Could they get even better? Yes. Are they striving to implement technology that would fix the disconnect between printer and graphic artist? Not really. Daniel says that he has recommended changes that are possible, but are shrugged off as being too expensive, or time consuming, and aren’t worth doing. Millions of dollars every year are wasted in printer and designer time because the needed tweaks aren’t happening. Printers and designers need to get together and insist that the software is improved. Maybe working on changes that would throw up red flags when art is incomplete or wrong isn’t sexy, but it would go along way to reducing wasted hours and angry phone calls.

“The single most important thing a designer can do to communicate the job to the printer,” according to Daniel, “is to provide a hard-copy dummy. Herein lies the rub, most files are now emailed to the printer or go by way of ftp. It used to be that the print rep picked up the art and delivered it to the printer. Hard-copy dummies were more common then. We have gotten away from them today, but they are still critical to successful communication. I hate to say it, but it seems to me that we need to take a step backward and have the print reps pick up the disk and hard-copy dummy to take back to the shop. We’ve lost an important communication opportunity along the way.

The second most important task for the designer is to pre-flight their own files. A good pre-flight program provides information about problem spots like low-res photos, but also tosses all the false starts and junk that accumulate as the design is developing. It’s like delivering a finished statue without cleaning it up or sweeping the debris around it. It’s not just ugly; it confuses the rip and leads to wrong fonts being selected, and other problems.

Every printer in the world would love for Daniel Dejan of Sappi to personally instruct the graphic designers, but that isn’t possible. What is possible is that the word gets out about dummies, and pre-flights and most of the problems would be resolved early.

As for Adobe and the others, come on, give us a break. Listen to Daniel, take his advice, and endow your programs with the tweaks needed to help stop the war.

Sappi’s website is www.sappi.com. If you would like to discuss other design-print problems with Daniel, his company email is daniel.dejan@sappi.com.

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