Published in:
Georgia Printer, Summer 2001
Do We See Ourselves?
When will we get out from behind our desks, and out of the safety of our offices and plants – and go visit our current and potential customers to learn what they're struggling to accomplish?
Lunch with two print buyers from a major manufacturing company in the Carolinas left me asking myself, "How do we get the word across to our graphic arts organizations?" As no small footnote, these two buyers had asked me to take them to lunch, saying, "We need to talk to you!"
While we're all in the midst of a soft economy, the print budgets for this particular buying organization have remained in multiple seven figures – in several categories, with four full-time print buyers. And because of their unusually wide range of needs, this manufacturer still uses multiple print and fulfillment suppliers.
During lunch, each buyer openly complained about current print suppliers not being able to execute the most fundamental requirements. They were also unhappy because their sales reps were not able to follow up and deliver what had been promised or was clearly expected.
Now, I'll grant you that neither of these two buyers are what I call "typical." Each buyer has previously sold high-end commercial printing, and they both volunteered that they were now working for a company that is unusual in its management disciplines. For instance, as print buyers and production managers, they are each required to map out internally, in writing, each print procurement project in terms of both specifications and detailed, expected production timelines – before they can obtain final budget approval or begin working with a selected supplier.
Their primary complaint: "We increasingly can't get many of our previously reliable print suppliers to do what we've asked, in writing – that they've already agreed to do. Interestingly, we don't hear back from the supplier's rep or CSR when something's wrong or isn't as expected. Is something changing in how graphic arts companies are operating? Has something changed recently?"
If this kind of disappointment is being experienced by a major print buying organization, what's being experienced by the smaller, average customer? (And if you think this isn't you, please read on.)
From the Top
Yes, something has changed. In a soft economy that's not expected to "pull out" or "come back" quickly, printers appear to have organizationally gained an extra dimension of panic or paralysis, and lost sight of the central purpose of our existence: to organizationally serve our customers' performance to the degree that they are enthusiastic about our being their supplier!
It's my observation that key personnel appear to be practically hiding in their offices and production and administrative positions, and not getting out to where the real "heavy-duty lifting" is occurring – in front of demanding customers.
When was the last time your production manager, pressroom supervisor or prepress manager accompanied a sales rep to visit a customer and purposefully discuss what the customer was working to achieve? When was the last time your lead financial person visited a customer along with a sales rep, or wrote a personal letter to thank a customer for prompt (or usually prompt) payment practices? And when was the last time the president discussed your company's differentiation in the market with one or more sales reps and followed up by personally initiating an appointment to a treasured customer (s)he had not seen in more than a year?
If any of these or similar conditions are recognizable in your company, you're predictably incurring significant opportunity costs that stretch far into the future as a result of buyers consolidating suppliers.
An Effective Strategy
My personal rule of thumb? As a minimum, each key person in a production or administrative position, including CSRs and estimators, must invest a half-day each month in front of customers with a sales rep. That's the minimum.
There are few other effective strategies that both reliably and organizationally create a common, focused, customer-oriented understanding – that works to ensure development of perceived customer value company-wide.
Through such a strategy, we gain an understanding of customer and marketplace conditions and issues. Through such a strategy, we can create organizational empathy and meaningful support for what our sales reps are confronting. And through such a strategy, we can create an organizational focus – and urgency – for what's expected and needed, no matter how outrageous or demanding.
Problems relating to organizational focus, sense of purpose, commitment, and follow-through are created from lack of understanding of what's expected and why. The person who sees their position exclusively in terms of internal job requirements is missing a critical element of understanding: "What does the customer expect and need?"
On returning to my office from the luncheon, I called the CEO of a client company who had been mentioned by the print buyers in the critical review. His almost-too-quick response when I simply mentioned the buying organization's name, "Oh yes, we recently met with them after an unfortunate incident, identified the problems, and sent a letter containing our follow-up findings along with detailed corrective actions we'd taken."
Further questioning revealed that neither the CEO, production manager, nor CFO had visited the buyer's location with the sales rep to personally review the problems. And as no small footnote, this printer is receiving less than two percent of this customer's purchases.
An Industry in Transition
Two years ago, an industry association executive asked me if the Internet was reducing print demand since he'd recently witnessed the demise of three members who collectively employed more than 300 skilled people. (Aside from the fact that I was flattered that he thought I might have the answer, I was aware that many times we can deduce the answer to a thorny, illusive question by asking other questions.)
I asked, "Of the 300-plus employees at those three member companies, how many do you believe had jobs back in our industry in less than 90 days?"
His response left me stunned: "That's interesting, because it's my opinion that more than 90 percent of them had jobs with other graphic arts companies in our area – in less than 30 days."
My reflective response: "There's exhibit A to your first question. Print demand isn't so much decreasing, but buyers are having to decide which suppliers are really worth their time, and which aren't."
