Distributors report that the rewards far outweigh the hassles when promoting commercial printing.
It's about time for distributors to sell commercial printing—literally. The time and energy spent turning around a commercial printing job are much greater than that involved with traditional products, but then so are the rewards.
Of those who ranked among BFL&S' Top 100 Distributors this year, 22 percent sell commercial printing. Here, three of them discuss their transitions into this market and how it differs from working with traditional products.
Repeating Business
When Janis McNeal left her employer in 1987 to establish her own distributorship, she agreed not to sell traditional products to area customers. Instead, the president of Memphis, Tennessee-based McNeal Graphics wanted to serve commercial printing needs.
"I find color work much more exciting," said McNeal, "and I already had a marketing background from working at FedEX with additional experience in coated papers, inks and binding."
Posters, booklets and bro-chures are among the products McNeal provides. "We do a lot of brochures, which are usually designed by a company's ad agency," she said, "but we sometimes get involved in design aspects as well."
McNeal pointed out that every industry utilizes marketing materials, whether it's a lobby display in a bank, a calendar for a local merchant or a manual for a manufacturer. Getting orders for manuals is always nice, noted McNeal.
"If they're not perfect-bound," said McNeal, "you usually end up selling binders and tabs. It's like getting three orders in one."
Although very rewarding, McNeal readily admits that there are some challenges to providing commercial printing. "Printing quality is more critical and typically requires a four-step proof process—a laser proof from disk, a dylux proof, a match print proof and a press proof. Not only is it very time-consuming, but it's very expensive to make changes," she said.
Currently, there are four commercial printers McNeal primarily deals with. "These are suppliers I trust for quality and quick turnaround, which can vary from 24 hours to five days. Sometimes you only have two days to print, cut, pack and deliver a job."
After all of the time spent on consulting and design, McNeal said she is always conscious of repeat order potential. "On the first run, you rarely make any money. The real value is when the order is repeated," she said.
McNeal also pointed out that distributors are not dealing with purchasing departments for commercial printing, but with the marketing, advertising and corporate communications groups involved with the consumer.
"They're the same people re-sponsible for buying ad specialty items, which can be a great door opener to that market," said McNeal.
Looking for Trouble
Satisfying these visually-oriented marketing people with high-end color work requires
a committed, knowledgeable distributor.
"We're very fortunate in that our reps have strong backgrounds in technology and production," said Jeff Scott, vice president of Emerging Markets, Monroe, Wash., a division of Merrill. "We know from beginning to end on a project what needs to be done and the potential problems that could occur—it's important to know how to troubleshoot."
When customers began re-questing commercial printing services, the company was al-ready looking to expand beyond forms management, said Scott. Outside training programs helped the staff get up to speed and years of industry experience honed their skills.
Now commercial printing—including brochures, annual reports, point-of-purchase pieces and high-quality marketing collateral—accounts for 44 percent of Emerging Markets' total annual sales.
Selling high-resolution, quality-sensitive printing is much more demanding and time consuming than traditional products, noted Scott, with prepress file issues posing major challenges at times.
But like McNeal, Scott finds selling commercial printing rewarding. "We enjoy the creativity of providing a valuable, artistic service to the customer," he said.
Learning the Ropes
Andrew Duke, president of Metrographics Printing & Computer Services, Fairfield, N.J., said the only aspects business forms and commercial printing have in common are paper and ink. "Otherwise, they're completely different," said Duke.
The company was heavily into traditional products up until 10 years ago, when Duke started getting requests for commercial printing. It then slowly gravitated toward the market as more customers expressed interest.
"We took a lot of lumps in the beginning," Duke recalled. "There was much to learn about prepress, color separation, scanning and high-resolution files."
Early on, however, Duke was fortunate to work with some very knowledgeable customers who provided direction. "If neither the distributor nor the customer knows what is happening, you've got a recipe for disaster," he said.
Duke recalled that at the time, even the DMIA wasn't offering any training in commercial printing, so the company en-rolled its sales staff in evening classes at a local college.
"A semester was sufficient to be able to speak the language of commercial print intelligently enough to sell," Duke added. "Through experience, the staff acquired the knowledge it needed for confidence."
One unique challenge Duke described is having a customer "on press"—accompanying the customer to the plant to sign off on proofs, especially with color-critical pieces.
"Color is a very subjective thing," he explained, "especially when it involves a $50,000 to $60,000 order for 50,000 posters."
Although he uses a network of local printers, the diversity of commercial printing work takes Duke to other suppliers who specialize in certain areas. "So logistically, this is very de-manding and frequently in-volves plane travel," said Duke. "We have eight reps and every day at least one of them is on press."
Approximately 20 percent of commercial printing orders repeat, as opposed to the 90 percent to 95 percent with traditional products, but Duke explained that the extra effort is repaid through customer retention.
"Things like event posters and programs are generally one-shot deals. Even presentation folders get upgraded looks and need information updated," said Duke.
"But customers come to trust and depend on you for future needs, even if you are $500 higher on a job than another distributor.
"I enjoy watching the piece go from the infancy of design to the finished product," Duke continued. "There's more pressure, but the rewards are certainly greater—and so are the profits."
By Maggie DeWitt