Today, many of the orders that Dunlap and his associates write are for high-end commercial printing, such as marketing materials and posters. "Our niche is sheet-fed jobs," said Dunlap. "The web market in Dallas is saturated, so those margins are too small with too high of an exposure."
When it comes to prospecting for commercial printing jobs, Dunlap observed that marketing departments are the best places to pitch high-quality jobs, including direct mail campaigns. "Purchasing departments are all about price," he explained, "and bid packages are not going to make distributors any money—nor do they build relationships. Sure, a distributor can go that route, but it's a weaker position to be in. It's better to have the marketing manager call for a purchase order number than the distributor."