Day 2, Bill Ruesch recession recovery diary

Dear Readers,

When I was a young salesman I was taught that “prospecting is like shaving–if you don’t do it everyday you’re a bum.” This quote is attributed to Jack Schwartz, the telephone sales guru.

In the pre-recession, business came to me through referrals. Sometimes I had to send customers elsewhere because I couldn’t handle them all. As a result, I haven’t made prospecting calls in twenty years! I think I’ve forgotten how to prospect, but it is obvious to me now that I’ve got to go out and beat the bushes for new customers. I was never very good at going door-to-door with business cards, calendars, and note pads. That seems to be a method best employed by quick print sales reps.

Asleep for 20 years?

You may have noticed that things have changed in the last twenty years. I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle. It wasn’t that I was asleep, I just didn’t have to deal with some of the harsher realities because my reputation carried me. With the onslaught of the recession everyone I know in the printing business has had a very difficult time.

Now the question is, how do I prospect in a way that boosts my reputation rather than damaging it? After all, I would like to come out of this stronger and not weaker than before. Would mixing it up in the fray of  hungry printing sales reps put me in the category of a me-too supplier? In other words, how do I re-establish myself as more of a consultant instead of just another commissioned salesperson? Not that I hold anything against sales reps per se it is just that consultants earn more money. I got used to a six figure income and would like to have it back again.

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.

What you don’t know about printing can hurt you. Not physically, although there are rare times when people have been hurt physically. Printing presses, after all, are unthinking machines. The rollers, just like those in old-fashioned washing machines will pull through just about anything they can grab. I once heard a story of a woman with long blond hair carrying a baby through  a printing press exhibit. The over-eager press salesman instructed her to lean over for a better look at the working parts. You guessed it, her hair caught in the rollers, and quicker than you can imagine she was pulled into the mechanism. The foolish salesman panicked and instead of either taking the baby, or turning the press off, went screaming through the display floor shouting for help. Cooler heads rushed over, turned the press off, and held the infant while the mother was painfully untangled. No serious damage was done, but do you think the young mother was disposed to recommend buying that particular brand of press, even after collecting her settlement money?

I could go on reciting injuries caused by presses or bindery equipment. I once came within a millisecond of losing a hand on the folder of a cold-web press. Fortunately, the lead pressman was alert and hit the big red stop button before the tip of my right index finger was totally smashed to a pulp. Yes, I got nipped and that nip taught me to respect the heavy iron.

The kind of hurt I’m referring to is more insidious. It isn’t like getting smacked by a baseball bat; it’s more like catching a virus. The baseball bat delivers immediate pain, but the virus doesn’t show itself until days or weeks later. By then you may wish you’d been beaten by a ball bat instead of having the flu or worse. In the case of print buying mistakes, results may not show up right away. It may be years before you discover that there was a better way.

Let me give you another example. I was introduced a few years ago to a retail clothing firm specializing in the large and tall market. They had established friendly ties with a printer just around the corner. It was a good relationship that extended back some twenty years. The problem was the clothing concern had grown over twenty years and honestly, had outgrown the capabilities of the printer. It’s not that the printer was doing a bad job; they just weren’t the right fit anymore. It was like putting a 50 XXL customer into a size 48 regular suit.

It didn’t take me long to see the problem and I got bids from printers and mailing houses  better equipped for their current needs. They were shocked when the price came in $3,000.00 less and we cut the turnaround time by two weeks. It was difficult for them to say goodbye to their old printer, but saying goodbye was a no-brainer.

My customer was upset when they ran the numbers and discovered how much they could have saved over the years, but whose fault was it, really? The printer got the blame, but the printer didn’t twist any arms to get the work. There was an implied question; can the printer do the job? Of course, they could. Bucket brigades can put out a fire, but a modern pumper truck is more efficient. If all you have is a bucket brigade, and your living depends on the bucket brigade, you will do your best to meet the need. If what you have will get the job done, use what you have.

Broken Glass

The bottom line is don’t trust your current printer to tell you if there is a better way. They have a business to run, press payments to make, and employees who need to put food on their tables, turning away good business runs counter to common sense. Don’t blame the printer if you don’t have enough business acumen to make better decisions. If you walk across broken glass barefoot, you can’t blame the glass when you get cut.