Glenn Martin

Distributors talk about evaluating and compensating their sales representatives' job performances. These are penny-pinching times and, more than ever, sales professionals must go the extra mile to edge out competitors and convince customers to expend precious financial resources. So, just what is it that keeps printed products distributors going day after day? Here, 12 company executives—identified in the chart below— share their views on compensating, training and hiring. New Blood When it comes to hiring sales representatives, the consensus is that industry experience is a definite plus, although both Sherie Bartlett and Walt Smith observed that it isn't always easy to come by. Mark

Distributors discuss how value-added product and service solutions impact sales approaches. Offering customers the very best is not a new concept for industry sales professionals. They will tell you that this has always been their mission. But just as technology and a progressive marketplace have changed the way business is conducted, so have they changed the way salespeople approach their customers. Today, these professionals use contemporary marketing terms and their thinking has become more proactive than reactive. This is mainly because product and service solutions are far more sophisticated; they are value-added. This requires manufacturers to educate their distributor partners who, in

Offering direct mail services can help distributors penetrate accounts and boost shrinking revenues. Like lava slowly flowing down a mountain, the proliferation of distributors offering direct mail products has spread slowly but surely over the last decade, fueled by the twin fires of cost-consciousness and demand. As people throughout the forms and labels world desperately try to figure out what the future holds for this maturing industry, attention has turned toward finding new products and services to take the place of older, more commodities-oriented offerings. Direct mail products, with their ability to offer users significant savings over traditional stuffed envelopes, as well as

As the industry matures, distributors look for new opportunities With advances in technology and the economic growth of small businesses, the future looks more than optimistic for the commercial print industry. "The forms industry is shrinking," said Chip Grayson, president of Systems Business Forms, Savannah, Ga., "and we need to concentrate on other areas, such as commercial print, to sustain profits." He added that there is high profit in print services and, with the proliferation of digital equipment to produce black-and-white and color printing, the demand for time-sensitive pieces has grown quickly. "Customers who are confident in your company worry less about price