Digital Original: How Successful Printers are Increasing Sales

Successful printers don’t need to have a name change to get new leads. They are actively seeking out new customers. They have sales funnels that collect leads, and then they work those leads until they become profitable customers. They aren’t worried about customers finding them. They are too busy working with the customers they have already found.

Printing for Tomorrow

Is there a future in printing? I just visited one shop where all of the printing equipment was more than 40 years old and the owner was seeing sales growth every year. I visited another printer who is running letterpress equipment and selling the printing at a very high profit. Those examples show that printing isn’t going to go away and that printers can still be profitable. Integrating the new communication services with printing will open new opportunities and can help move printers out of the “commodity pool.” There is going to be a big future in printing for those who get out and talk to their customers about the services they offer and benefits those services can bring.

Successful printers seem to be putting less sales emphasis on the print portion of their business and more on the value added services. Printers are getting in

front of customers by talking about how they can help customers get more leads, not how cheaply they can put ink on paper. Successful printers are talking about new communication tools to perk customer interest. Customers want to talk about the Web and social media. Successful print owners are having the dialog about the new services and then saying, “By the way, do you realize how using print will make the new technology even more powerful?”

Printers are always going to have challenges. The ways people communicate are changing. The age of buyers is changing – they do things differently than their predecessors. Printers will get more involved in content and long term planning with the customers.

The future can be very good for printers. They just have to stop fighting the changes, learn the new role of print in the communication process, and get out and sell it.