Grayson

BFL&S talks to distributors about being compensated for their contributions to the value chain. Forget religion and politics. Money is the subject for stirring things up, especially when salesmanship is the source of that money. Consider the reader response to Editorial Director Bill Drennan's editorial in the April issue of BFL&S, which looked at Landy Chase's views on the questionable contributions of seasoned sales professionals. Comments ranged from relief that it was being addressed to outrage that it was even an issue. This is proof that sales is an elusive and hard-to-define craft. Not surprisingly, deciding how to compensate for the skill

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

Despite a softening economy, the retail market keeps moving along. What goes up must come down. It's a law of gravity—and economics. But even in a sluggish economy some markets manage to stay afloat and help buoy sinking consumer confidence, and one of the best is the retail market. Scott Mollahan, sales executive, Applied Graphics, San Rafael, Calif., has been designing retail print work for the wine industry for seven years. Although he admitted that business slipped a little bit last year, over the long haul, he said, it's remained pretty solid. "One of the great things about the retail market is that it