Printers Must Walk in the Shoes of Their Customers

If you been in the print industry for over any period of time, you may think you know what your customers want better than anyone –right? As long as you offer competitive pricing, keep expanding your print capabilities and run a lean operation -with some old accounts locked in and steady work coming through, your business is solid, right?

Let’s shift perspective and walk a mile in the shoes of your customers. Let’s pose some thoughts to start.
Seeing things from the perspective of your clients is always a good idea to remind yourself what they really want and to question industry “norms”. For example, do your customers buy exclusively based on price? Are you really in the print or communication business? Should you focus on customer facing software first and print equipment second?
Ask the following questions and try to think how your customers would answer. Remember answer from THEIR perspective. Go.

1. Who am I?
2. What do I do?
3. What do I expect from a print partner?
4. What do I really want from a print partner?
5. Where do my marketing assets go?
6. Who is the target of my marketing assets?
7. What is my greatest paint point?

Let’s Go!

Who am I?
I am not a print buyer or a purchasing agent. I am a marketing communications professional who uses print as part of a diverse marketing mix. I also manage branding, messaging and promotional activities.

What do I do?
Day to day I am in charge of making sure our brand connects with prospects and clients in the right mediums using messages that best resonate with them.
I am really busy managing marketing campaigns of all types. I also make sure sales, franchises and affiliates leverage corporate materials to engage with prospects and clients while making sure our brand stays consistent. We use a variety of marketing assets to promote the brand –print, digital, promotional merchandise and apparel.
Our marketing library contains hundreds of assets that need to be accessible remotely and can easy be found.

What do I expect from a print partner?
With everything going on in marketing, I expect you to make my job easier -sort of become an extension of our marketing communications team.
I expect you to go beyond a job to job working relationship and become a partner -provide solutions that simplify and automate asset management, ordering, personalization and distribution of ALL my marketing assets.

What do I really want from a print partner?
Pricing, speed and quality matter, but software matters more. I want you to be a savvy printer that supplies my print demand and leverages technology to make my job easier.
I want you to streamline my entire marketing supply chain. Having to order and track assets from different systems and vendors is simply a nightmare. I want you to handle that hassle for me.
I want you to simplify how I can distribute marketing assets while keeping total control of my brand, budget and inventory.

Where do my marketing assets go?
Our marketing assets go many places, internally and externally. We used them mainly for sales enablement efforts, marketing events, promotional incentives, advertising and for customer gratification just to mention a few.

Who is the target of my marketing assets?
Field agents, employees, partners, affiliates, franchises, customers, and prospects are our main targets. We use marketing assets to educate employees, enable our sales force, and to promote and incite buyers to consider our product/services.

What is my greatest paint point?
Working with multiple vendors to procure all my marketing assets. Using disconnected systems to track costs and performance. Making all these assets available to my end users while making sure the brand stays consistent.

So how did you do? Did you get most of them right?
The first wrong assumption is assuming you know your customers -they evolve, technology too, and new markets emerge.
The second wrong assumption is focusing on a leaner operation first and your customers second. The industry is evolving and customers are looking for printers that go beyond print and can do more for them.
The third wrong assumption is thinking of software as mandatory operational tools (i.e. Photoshop and MIS) and not as tools to create new revenue opportunities and gain a competitive edge (I.e. Marketing Portals, Web-to-print, DAM, Campaigns).
Your customers expect more than print services, they want you to be savvier, and think of their true needs first and yours second.