Align and Conquer
RB: Communication is the key. We need to consistently visit with our partners, whether distributors or suppliers, to stay current with the changes and opportunities that may exist. This can be very challenging, yet this sharing can provide information that could lead to a new product or new market, which we could then share with our reseller base.
MC: Be good to everyone, you never know who is going to hit it big and when they may need your help. Someone doing $300 a year this year could be your $300,000 customer next year.
AS: Could we (by “we” I mean not only us, but our distributors) have been a little more aggressive in our approach with the customer? For business we didn’t get, maybe we needed to be a little more proactive about something as simple as a test run—something that could be part of our proposal. You can quote a price to run a certain type of job. Being more aggressive is making sure our distributors are armed with what they need to go in an offer all the options that we know might be necessary to win the business.
P+P: Is there a particular job or project that you worked on with a distributor that stands out to you?
RB: One of our larger clients recently asked for help in training some of the newer hires on the basics of print. They were not looking for a Flesh Co sales pitch, but rather a broader overview of printing and offline processes. Flesh Co created a presentation that covered offset, flexo, digital and other technologies. We also reached out to other manufacturers to supply us with samples of their printing processes and gave them credit during the presentation so the attendees would have a better understanding of the various print solutions possible.
MC: Recently, we had an existing customer who also has dealt with a competitor of ours for many years on a project for their largest customer. For months, this dealer shared how they wanted to move the business, but with each order that came and went they didn’t. When we asked why, it all came down to the ordering process having become a habit. The order came in, the order was placed, the order came in, the order was placed—something always seemed to happen that left the dealer less than pleased with their current situation, but it was always something they felt they would deal with the next time the order came in, but then didn’t. A few weeks ago, this dealer had lunch with their customer who shared that things needed to go smooth on their next order or they may need to put the work out to bid. To complicate matters they needed this next order rush delivered and special packaged. The dealer made the switch because they said trusted us. We were able to produce and special-finish 1,500-plus rolls of product for this customer in less than a week. The dealer and end-user were thrilled and we now have this business. The only regret anyone had was that the move hadn’t been done sooner.
AS: We had an opportunity with one of our better clients about four months ago. A call came in to my cellphone at 5:15 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. They needed a trailer-load of product delivered by 10 a.m. on Monday. We started the job on our second shift Friday night and we were able to schedule and coordinate an entire shift to come in Saturday to ship out the product on Sunday and have it delivered on Monday. It was a jumbo roll order—something that a customer needed for a very, very important mailing that they had no idea they needed until 5:15 p.m. that Friday. It took a lot of effort because it’s more than just scheduling the manufacturing part—we needed to get the file through our system, we needed to generate plates, we needed to do the prepress, we needed to coordinate the trucking line, which is no small feat these days at that hour on a Friday to come in on a Sunday and deliver on a Monday. It took dedicated employees like what we have to come in on a Saturday, disrupt their weekends for a very important customer and it took a distributor to be able to coordinate all of this well with a customer and well with us to qualify it to make sure it required the action we were going to take on it.
Elise Hacking Carr is senior production editor for Print & Promo Marketing magazine, and managing editor for PRINTING United Journal.