[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:02] DC: Print Buying UKvUSA is a series dedicated to helping printers create stronger, more meaningful, and more profitable relationships with print customers on both sides of the pond. I’m Deborah Corn, founder of Project Peacock and principal at Print Media Centr.
[0:00:20] MP: And I’m Matthew Parker, the Champion of Print at profitableprintrelationships.com.
[0:00:26] DC: We may not always agree, but that’s when it gets interesting. So, turn up the volume, get out your notepad, and welcome to the
program.
[EPISODE]
[0:00:40] DC: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Podcasts From The Printerverse. This is Deborah Corn, your Intergalactic Ambassador. Today, we are here with the UKvUSA podcast. Hello, Matthew Parker, my rival from the other side of the pond.
[0:00:56] MP: Hello, Deborah Corn, my enemy for whom I always have to put on my heaviest boxing gloves.
[0:01:04] DC: Yes, true, to knock me out, but you never do, Matthew. I always get back up fighting.
[0:01:09] MP: Oh, yes, you wouldn’t be Deborah if you didn’t.
[0:01:11] DC: Thank you, Matthew. I appreciate that. Okay, everybody, we have a pretty serious subject to tackle today, which is budget cuts in marketing and print. Now, with the current situation in the world, we know that marketing budgets are, let’s say being shut down at the moment for only the necessities, if there are even necessities for some companies and everybody’s kind of holding on to their cash to see what’s going to happen towards the end of the year.
Now, I’ve spoken to many printers who tell this to me. I’ve spoken to the agencies who tell this to me, but just in case anybody out there might not understand the reality of the situation, I asked ChatGPT for a little assist to get some stats. So, according to chiefmarketer.com, 39% of CMOs, chief marketing officers, plan to reduce spending this year. Fifty-nine percent of marketing leaders say they don’t have sufficient budgets to execute their full strategies in 2025. That is from adweek.com.
In the B2B space, 39.2% reported no change and 8.4% are reducing their budgets. And the interpretation from the site 6cents.com, is that, that means that the majority of marketing budgets are stagnant and pausing investments, including print. So, just because only 8.4 reduced their budgets, you still have 40% of people using the same budgets that they have for as long as they have and they’re not putting more into the marketing budget.
So, these numbers show that print buyers and marketers are under intense financial pressure, making this the right time for printers to step up and show value and build trust. The printers who invest in relationships now will be the first in line when the spending returns. At least that’s my opinion on it. So, this conversation is going to be about what a printer should be doing in this moment of time when maybe they have customers who are no longer purchasing prints at the moment, or reducing their orders, or quite frankly shopping around looking for the lowest prices they can find. It’s also going to be a conversation about reaching out for new business because if you have shrinking budgets and clients doing less work, you need to find new clients potentially to come in and fill those gaps.
So, let’s start with that. Matthew, when marketing budgets are tight, what should be the first new business outreach from a printer, someone who they’ve never spoken to before?
[0:04:23] MP: The only way that you are going to get through to a company in that sort of situation, well, there’s two ways. The first way I wouldn’t recommend that that’s to go through and go, “I can do cheaper prices,” and probably you will get someone to listen to you but it’s not a great way to sell, and we’ve talked loads of times on this podcast about why that’s a bad sales pitch. I don’t plan to go into it here.
The second way is to justify to that company why they need to listen to you when their budgets are shrinking, when they’re doing less marketing. Those companies still have to get the results. So, if you can go, let me come in and show some successful marketing activity that we’ve done and share that with you as to how that work can help your performance, then I think you’ve got a shot at having that conversation.
But let’s be really clear about this because loads of printing companies think that marketing case studies mean going in and showing some fancy flyers and having a testimonial from a customer who says, “Oh, that was so great to work with. They were on time and on budget.” That means absolutely nothing. You have to go in with statistics and proof on why the strategies that you’ve been using work. That means, sadly, that the majority of printing companies, I’m really going to struggle to get into those companies because they haven’t been monitoring the marketing success of what they’re doing or their customers won’t share it with them.
[0:06:04] DC: Okay. I don’t disagree with you, but that wouldn’t be my approach. It wouldn’t be my approach, but it’s not wrong, what you said, unfortunately, because I would love it if I just thought you were wrong. I still think that that is a little too aggressive to go in there with, like, “Hey, we can do this all for you.” I think this is a good time to season, to like lay the foundation. So, if you know that this company does a lot of direct mail, instead of saying, “We could help you improve your direct mail,” because, as you said, you don’t know what their results are for their direct mail. It could be fantastic.
I would contact them somehow, whether it’s email and you got a hope that they open it, but otherwise send a package with just some samples of things that you know that they’re not doing along with printed out case studies or a QR code to hear the person who they could connect with, not like a designer talking about how easy it was to – how they like reduce the volume but added some specialty effects to it and it made all the difference to them and they keep doing it. I don’t know what it is, but it’s more about leading them to the water than like putting the hose on them, even though it would be like a light hosing to begin with. I don’t trust that it wouldn’t ramp up pretty fast and all of a sudden become like one of those riot hose things. Thoughts?
[0:07:36] MP: I’m not planning on waterboarding any clients. That’s kind of not one of the sales tactics that I promote.
[0:07:42] DC: Weird example I use there.
[0:07:43] MP: Maybe we should. I mean, maybe that’s the way to get businesses, is the only way is to make them –
[0:07:48] DC: Buy from me, you’re going to get the hose.
[0:07:51] MP: Yes. By the way, if anyone takes this up, it wasn’t our idea. We take no responsibility for any failures that you might have on your sales at that point, or indeed any lawsuits that may be brought to you from –
[0:08:02] DC: True. We’re not providing legal advice.
[0:08:05] MP: No. Otherwise, I think you said pretty much what I said because you said send in a packet with samples and case study and printed out case studies.
[0:08:16] DC: I know, but you went to the, and we can help you do this part. I’m saying leave that out. That’s the only difference.
[0:08:24] MP: Okay. My view in sales is that you always have to have a call to action. People need to be told what to do. If you don’t, they’ll go, “Oh, that’s nice. I’ll show that to my –”
[0:08:33] DC: Want more samples? Join our mailing list. Interested in our upcoming webinar about designing? Sign up for our mailing list. Want to come for a tour and see all of our equipment? Sign up here. So, there could be calls to action that are less salesy.
[0:08:50] MP: There could be. I think, personally, that if times are tough and everyone’s all hands to the pump to try and make their marketing budgets work, no one’s got time for a webinar, for a plant, or they probably don’t even really want any more samples.
[0:09:08] DC: I don’t know what to say about that. You might be right about that one. However, if it’s on demand, they can –
[0:09:13] MP: Okay, [inaudible 0:09:14].
[0:09:16] DC: No. If it’s on demand, they can watch it when they want. And going back to successful marketing is the right message to the right person at the right time. So, it’s not about sending one message out to all your prospects. It’s about sending a really detailed message with meaning to that one company. If you’re talking about things that they’re interested in, I do believe that they will take the next step to hear more or learn more until the point where it gets to, “And we can help you do that.” And, “Hey, Deb, what do you got going on?” You answered two of my emails, and now all of a sudden, I feel that that’s an invitation to hunt you down and try to sell you.
So, that’s what I’m just saying. There’s a fine line there. And to your point, when people are freaking out on the other side, they do not want those phone calls. “Hey, what do you got going on?” I’ve been getting a lot of those, by the way, a lot of emails from people who tell me about their capabilities and then ask me, if they could quote my next job.
[0:10:25] MP: Yes. That just gets you absolutely nowhere.
[0:10:27] DC: Well, considering I’m not a print customer. Yes, just because I’m on their list, I guess I’m connected to them on LinkedIn or something.
[0:10:36] MP: Yes, whichever approach you take, whether you prefer my hard waterboarding approach or Deborah’s gentle sprinkler approach, yes, I’m firmly of the opinion that the only way you’re going to get through to people at the moment is through statistics. They all either know their job or they think they know their job. I appreciate there’s a big difference, but very few of them are going to trust the printing company to teach them about marketing. If a printing company says, and here’s the results we got, suddenly they will.
[0:11:03] DC: Yes. I’m not saying teach them about marketing, but they could have somebody else come and teach them about marketing, an influencer, somebody that the designers know. It’s always great to hear from a peer, so I think that there’s an opportunity, as well.
[SPONSOR MESSAGE]
[0:11:24] DC: Print Media Centr provides printspiration and resources to our vast network of global print and marketing professionals. Whether you are an industry supplier, print service provider, print customer, or consultant, we have you covered, by providing resources and strategies that enable business marketing and creative success, reporting from global events, these podcasts, Project Peacock TV, and an array of community lifting initiatives.
We also work with OEMs, suppliers, industry organizations, and event producers, helping you connect and engage with our vast audience, and achieve success with your sales, marketing, and conference endeavors. Visit Print Media Centr and connect with the Printerverse. Links in the show notes. Print long and prosper.
[EPISODE CONTINUES]
[0:12:18] DC: Okay, budget cuts create competition. So, how can printers differentiate themselves with new business prospects without offering to reduce pricing? I will refer everybody to the last podcast we did about print management companies that dives into this topic in a greater length. But right now, we’re talking about quick hits and quick wins.
[0:12:45] MP: Well, the first thing printers should do is invest in my book, How to Stop Buyers Choosing On Price, because there’s a whole chapter on that about differentiation. But let me give you a few things. So, all the printers that I got who tried to differentiate themselves said, we’ve got better quality, we’ve got better service, your difference is me. All these sorts of things. Yes, okay, Deborah, we’re on video as well. Deborah is making a cringe-inducing face.
[0:13:09] DC: No, I was laughing because like the difference is me. I know, I hear that all the time. And by the way, sometimes it is, but we’ve also discussed, great, that doesn’t make me sticky to the company, it makes me sticky to the person.
[0:13:22] MP: Yes, and even if the difference – you’re not going to prove that to me yet, so don’t lead with it. Your difference is not your printing press, it’s not your location unless you’ve got something really time-specific. Yes, all these things that printing companies love to lead with don’t work.
What I say is the differences have to be specific so that is something that the customer can actually understand. It’s not some huge idea of, what if someone says my difference is my quality, what does that actually mean? My difference is my marketing expertise. What does that mean? They have to be valuable to the buyer and this is where you can show a difference that is valuable typically by being an expert in that customer’s market segment. So, don’t be a printing company that is all things to all people. Be a printing company that works really well, has a big track record in the insurance business, or works with restaurants, or whatever it is, that’s a really good one to have. It also has to be proprietary. So, try and make something that’s hard to copy. I’m the trainer in the printing industry who’s been approached by 1,400 different printing companies in my buying career. Yes, that’s something that very few people, if any, can actually copy at that point.
Those are the things that you have to think about. Creating difference is hard. When I run my workshops on this, this is probably the most difficult bit for everyone and I totally get that. But yes, you have to come up with something that’s relevant to the client that they understand that’s hard to copy. So, not that easy, but it’s a way to do it.
[0:14:58] DC: I think one way that the printers can reach out and differentiate themselves is to try to set up new business meetings, not new business for the printers, but new business meeting for the customers if they happen to be a client that has customers. And go in to understand what their goals are, especially when they have less money to work with and become a strategic advisor on where is a good point to insert print and where maybe go to digital media tools and hopefully printers are able to provide both of those. That’s also what I would say.
If you have a customer that let’s just say they print magazines and they’re printing less magazines. Okay, also make sure you’re offering them an electronic version of that. So maybe they can still distribute it to people or use them as teasers to, “Hey, here’s a free edition of the July issue of our magazine, and hopefully if you like it, here’s an offer to subscribe or whatever it might be.” So, I think that the focus isn’t on the printing business or selling print, but about how to help the person on the other side, and it also depends upon who the person is on the other side, like a print buyer or an agency isn’t going to have that type of information and they’re not going to have time to have a new business meeting with you. But a small business would a regional chain of somebody, anybody that doesn’t have a giant marketing agency working for them. And if they do, try to have a conversation with those marketing people, which is also a great way of finding new customers.
Instead of going after the brands or the stores, go after these little design agencies and talk to them about your capabilities. See if you can make some print brokering situation with them if they print with you. I don’t know if that’s legal or not legal. Is that fair to do, Matthew? Are you allowed to do that?
[0:17:12] MP: Yes. Yes. You can do that over here.
[0:17:12] DC: I’m not a print broker, so I don’t know what the rules are about that.
[0:17:16] MP: I can’t speak for America, but yes, in the UK, that’s fine. It’s not an issue.
[0:17:19] DC: Okay. Well, whatever it is, as long as everything is transparent and nobody’s doing anything shady, it should be fine. But that goes back to being a partner and not just a provider.
[0:17:32] MP: I totally agree with trying to get in at the beginning and the planning parts and the process. One of the number one issues that I hear from many printers over here, they say, “They could have done this job so much better, if only they talked to use earlier.” I go, “Why don’t you?” They go, “We’ve been asking to do these many times, and they just won’t involve us earlier on.” I don’t know why companies don’t because it’s in their interests. But it’s really hard to do. I can’t disagree with what you’re saying at all and I can’t disagree with the target type of company that you’re talking about at all. But I still think you will suggest that. If you’re really, really lucky, you’ll get a hit rate of one in five, which is far better than a hit rate of nothing.
But it’s a really tough thing to do, at least in the UK. Companies don’t want to talk to their supply chain. They don’t want to understand how their supply chain can outvalue because it’s just one more thing for them to think about. So yes, I agree, but it has to come with a reality check as well, sadly.
[0:18:36] DC: What’s the best way to follow up with someone who says we’re not spending right now?
[0:18:42] MP: It depends how salesy you want to be. I’m tempted to go, what would make you spend now? What would make you play some business with me right now? Not what prints you want, but what result would you need to get in order to play some business with me? And potentially, that starts the conversation where you’re beginning to talk about projects and goals, as opposed to, can I supply you with some print?
So, that would be the number one I go down. The other one is literally, “That’s fine. I understand. If you don’t mind, I’m going to carry on sending some resources. They’re yours. Use them as you’d like. If you’d like to use them with your current suppliers, I don’t have an issue with that. When should I ring you? When are you having your next budgets? When can I ring you to see if you’re in a position to talk about spending?” That way, at least you’re keeping in touch with Deborah, keep them warm, gentle, sprinkler, let the grass grow type effect.
But at least you have their permission, you can get back in touch to them and go, “Hey, we spoke whenever it was, you suggested that around about now you’d be revising your budgets. I just wanted to get in touch and find out if we can have the conversation we couldn’t have before.” And those are my two very quick answers to that one.
[0:20:00] DC: Yes. Is it 1989? Because that’s what it sounds like in your world. That’s very old-school sales, isn’t it, Matthew? What you just said? I mean, I’ll follow up at the cadence that you want and I’ll contact you the way that you want me to contact you and I will put in my CRM to follow up in September and basically say, “So, you got anything coming up.” It’s not a relationship at all.
[0:20:28] MP: It’s not. But if you’re sending the resources at the same time, then you’re –
[0:20:34] DC: But you’ve asked them if they want to opt out of that. Okay, let’s divide this into two different categories. One is the prospect that you don’t know at all, and one is a customer you have who’s not spending right now. So, answer again in those two categories, because I don’t know who you’re talking to. If you’re talking to the prospect this way, I’m going to lose it.
[0:20:59] MP: Okay. So, I was talking to the cold prospect at that point, because I think that too many people waste time trying to spend time with prospects aren’t going to convert.
[0:21:14] DC: So, you put all the work on them to opt out of everything? Okay, we’ll definitely get everybody buckled up now because here it comes. Go ahead.
[0:21:23] MP: I didn’t say they could opt out. I said, I’m going to send you resources. Yes, if you want to use them with another supplier, that’s fine by me. But at least that way, I’m going, yes, I’m going to send you stuff, and I keep in touch. I mean, what else would you suggest at this point? Because if I say to someone, I’m not spending, I don’t want to hear from you, and someone keeps ringing me, I’m going to be exceedingly rude to them on the phone very, very quickly for an email. So, I’m intrigued. Come on, let’s hear the 2025 sales bit about this.
[0:21:51] DC: I would become Deborah Corn and be the inspiration person and just keep sending the coolest stuff I have ever seen to this company and of course, related to what they do. So, if they do a lot of out-of-home advertising, let’s just say. Then the next time I see a really cool billboard or something, I send it to them and say, “I saw this and I thought of you. Or sending something that what you said before, some statistics, “Hey, I thought you’d be interested in this.” The responses from retailers reaching out to customers who have left things in shopping carts has really lifted sales.
So, I thought you might be interested in this data. Then back away, without the, “And we can help you do this.” At some point, I define sales as when a need and a relationship meets. And if they’re not spending right now, that doesn’t mean they’re not a customer of you. They could be a customer of your information. They could be a customer of your statistics. They could be a customer of the education you provide, such as, if you’re going to create an image in AI, here is the prompt to make sure that it’s printable. I think you could be really, really, really helpful when somebody’s not spending right now, so that when they do spend, they remember all the things you can do because it’s in front of them and you’re sending them relevant information at the right time.
[0:23:28] MP: I maybe wouldn’t have sent all the same things that you did, but I did say I’ll keep sending them information. So, we’re not a million miles away. There is a huge –
[0:23:36] DC: Yours is attached with the sales pitch though, correct?
[0:23:40] MP: No.
[0:23:41] DC: Okay, you just said you always have a call to action.
[0:23:43] MP: I just said I’ll keep sending you some resources. So, in this particular instance, I said, I’ll keep sending you the resources, open brackets, not saying this to the prospect, so you remember me, close brackets, then I’ll actually do my sales call to action bit when you told me I should.
[0:24:02] DC: Fine. I’m not telling anybody when I’m ready to spend. I’ll be like, “How the hell do I know?” It’s going to happen when it happens, right?
[0:24:09] MP: Lots of people will tell you when budgets are going to be reviewed. For me as a buyer, I often tell printers that because it was a great delaying tactic. It means I can go, I’m not doing anything now. I’m doing a review in September and you know what, that would get rid of 90% of printers who forget to contact me at that point anyway.
[0:24:25] DC: Okay.
[0:24:26] MP: One of the things that I should remember –
[0:24:29] DC: Right. My prediction is that everyone’s going to hold on to their budgets to the last quarter and then they’re going to dump all that money into trying to get sales at the end of the year to salvage something in 2025, and it will be madness. So, if you’re out there, now’s the time to be laying tracks for those phone calls and inquiries to come to you. I want you to answer the same question. We’re not spending right now, but it’s a customer that you have, that a printer has.
[0:25:01] MP: Okay, so just before I do, the one thing I’d say is be very careful about who you nurture and who you’re wasting your time on, because a lot of people spend a lot of time following up people they shouldn’t be in my experience. So, people that we know. For that one, it’s a trickier one. So, they’ve been a customer and they’re now not spending. It depends how good the relationship is. I’d be tempted.
[0:25:23] DC: Oh, what do you know?
[0:25:25] MP: Yes, I’d be tempted. I’ve never said it’s not, but I’d be tempted to try and have a
quick call and just going, “Hey, you’ve been spending with us and now you’re not. Can I just have 10 minutes of your time just so we can have a quick chat so I can understand what’s going on? I can update my budgets, which gives you an excuse.” Yes, if that’s how they help you out. Okay. But equally, yeah, can I find out what’s going on, what’s causing you to stop spending, and how we carry on things from here, will be my probable route of doing this.
Again, there’s so many variables in that customer as to how I’d respond. So, I’m thinking of that with a reasonably high spending customer who’s gone to pretty much zero, maybe not completely zero, but pretty much zero, but I’ve got a good relationship with, then I want to find out what’s happening.
[0:26:16] DC: Okay, but we know what’s happening. They’re holding on to their money because there’s uncertainty in the world. This is a specific point in time.
[0:26:24] MP: Unless they’ve told us that, we don’t know that. They could have gone with a competitor, they could be switching to e-communications instead. There’s all sorts of reasons that they might be moving, or might be stopping working. So, we don’t know that. There’s a fairly good likelihood that you’re absolutely right, but let’s hear it from them and find out. Did we mess up on a job and they’ve suddenly moved everything in anger and I as a salesperson never knew about it, what can I do to try and make that right to get back in again?
[0:26:51] DC: Okay.
[SPONSOR MESSAGE]
[0:26:54] MP: Do you need some direction or new ideas for your business? Would sales goals setting and accountability improve your revenues? Or do you have a member of staff who could be performing better? I’m Matthew Parker, the Champion of Print at profitableprintrelationships.com, and I offer a personal mentoring service. Together, we work out exactly what you need. We create a personal mentoring program for you, and then we speak twice a month. You get set goals and action points to make sure you progress.
What makes me different is that I’m the buyer. I’ve been approached by over 1,400 different printing companies, so I know what works, and I know what doesn’t. If you’d like to find out more, go to profitableprintrelationships.com, click the training tab, and then go to mentoring. Or, alternatively, just hit me up on LinkedIn. I look forward to working with you.
[EPISODE CONTINUED]
[0:27:47] DC: How can printers keep prospects interested and engaged when they’re not ready to buy? It’s not that they don’t have money, they’re just not ready to pull triggers on anything at the moment.
[0:28:00] MP: I think it comes back to the discussion that we had about sending people the resources. So, I’m a great believer in not contacting people too often, but staying front of mind with them. Again, there’s a delicate balance there. But I think it’s really making sure that you are sending those people, individual resources. Hey, send them chocolate and cake as well. Because unless it’s a – you’ve got a – when I worked at a company that had a strict no gifts policy, even getting a chocolate bar was out of order, but most companies aren’t that strict.
So, send them cake and chocolate. I’m shallow buyer. The person who sends me the most cake is probably going to get a good chance of seeing me fairly early on. And make sure that you are in all the right community places, I’m choosing my words carefully here, the right community places during that time. And by that, I mean yes beyond LinkedIn and do the social media thing, but actually where do your customers hang out? Are there shows that you should be going to where people see you? Are there forums where they hang out and can you go on to some of those groups and participate helpfully as opposed to as a salesperson? Are there social events that they go to where you can go and sponsor a round of drinks or something and just be there to say hi to people?
But be visible in their community. You’re not going to do it just by shouting out on LinkedIn or on Facebook or whatever social media channels you use, unless your customers are hanging out there as well. And just do little things like send them a nice card. It doesn’t have to be any interesting statistics, but just send them a nice card going high every now and again. That can be done every three months or so. It doesn’t have to be a long labor-intensive one, but people notice that sort of thing. Do things stand out? What about you, Deborah? What do you think?
[0:30:00] DC: Well, everything you just said isn’t going to stand out because other people are doing the same exact thing. So, maybe you’re only one of three companies doing it when 25 could, but you’re still one of three. Then you go back to how do I differentiate myself if three people are sending little notes to keep in touch.
I go back to education because I talk to the print customers and they don’t know what’s going on out there and either do the marketers, as far as all of the possibilities, the ecosystems that they could be working within. So, to your point before this month is realtor marketing month at the print shop and there is an open house event where a very successful realtor is going to discuss their marketing ideas, and you have a designer there, and you have people who are just there to help the realtors understand that, yes, those little yard signs really do work and there’s other opportunities of putting little cards in the house, like, this is a new fireplace. These floors were replaced two years ago. There’s a new roof. There’s a new refrigerator.
I mean, thank you notes for the realtors, for people who come to their showings. So, the realtors can be connected to potential home owners, who they need to market to. And then you could just go vertical by vertical. At the end of the day, most of the time, everything that a printer is doing can be packaged into something that works in most verticals. So, whether you are having meeting planner Monday, and on Monday you are only sharing information about marketing for events and getting more bodies to the seats and writing blog content about it, and then hosting an event at your print shop or local restaurant who’s one of your customers. You know what I’m saying? Go into the community. Who are your customers? Do any of them own restaurants or bars or meeting spaces if you’re going after meeting planners and really start creating a community around your products and services because the era of people who really understand print buying, Matthew, is over.
It breaks my heart to say this, but that’s why we talked about the print management companies last time, because the way that the industry is going through automation and everything, the same sales system is, I just don’t think is going to work for much longer. So, I believe that sales will fall under the need and the relationship, and until that need arises, printers need to treat everybody as a customer of their information, as a customer of their community, as a customer of their partnership opportunities with other customers that they might have and make it an ecosystem that they want to be part of.
If they happen to be a marketing agency or a design agency or just a designer who has a meeting planner, and a realtor, and a local restaurant as a customer, then they have even more reason to engage with you and work with you if you’re providing them a consistent stream of information that makes them more valuable to their customers. I win.
[0:33:41] MP: Two comments and two stories.
[0:33:44] DC: Okay, go ahead.
[0:33:45] MP: So, the first comment is –
[0:33:45] DC: Are you going to burst my bubble? I just need to know.
[0:33:47] MP: Yes, of course I am.
[0:33:49] DC: All right, go ahead, try.
[0:33:51] MP: So, first comment is when you were telling me about all those very useful real estate ideas, I was beginning to feel a bit sold to at that point. Here’s all my products. I know you weren’t doing it and saying, “Hey, you’re going to buy them, but there was that kind of underlying bit there.” Maybe I’m just quite being [inaudible 0:34:09]. But I’m thinking, well, they’re showing me all that because they want me to buy it.
Point two is that all that you say in terms of educating people, people should be learning, but they don’t really want to a lot of the time. It’s really annoying.
[0:34:25] DC: Matthew, I’m going to stop you right there. It’s not that they don’t want to. It’s that there is no central place where you can find all that information. If my printer has that information, I’m going to keep going back to that website to get it. I’m just going to say this last thing and then I will shut up and you can finish your answer. But I used to say to printers, I look up envelope sizes all the time. All the time, I’m constantly looking them up. Where do I go to look them up? A place that sells envelopes because my printer doesn’t have anything handy on their website that tells me all the envelope sizes.
So, instead of going to their website and maybe discovering something new or seeing a blog post that I might be interested in saying, “Oh, my God, we have a project like that coming up.” I’m going to a site that I will never purchase envelopes for just to get their information. I am a customer of their information.
[0:35:26] MP: Okay, so I’m going to illustrate this with two stories. A sad one and a happy one. I did an assignment with one of the largest online printing companies in the UK and they were doing some customer day. So, this is where they were getting in printing companies who were their customers, typically, and good day plans, some nice hospitality, a tour around the plant because that’d be relevant to the customers and they get to learn a lot, talk to some people like me in terms of how to get better results on selling prints, and only a tiny fraction of their customer base turned up. They were really sad. It was enough to make the day worthwhile, but the majority of people just didn’t want to do that.
Now, one of my other clients, I suggested that they did have an event, not too different from what you suggested, but instead of making it an educational event. I said, “Hey, why don’t you get –” so this is a local printer local print shop. I said, “In your town, why don’t you just drop a note to lots of small businesses around there going, ‘Let’s all get together for a business catch-up over a pint.’ Really good results.” But you know what, there was no education in that, but there was community.
[0:36:42] DC: Okay, crawl, walk, run. Start with the pub and then move it to an event. I would say about the first situation, everything you said about the event was about that company and not about the people attending. So, that’s why we’re not –
[0:36:56] MP: That’s why they had people like me talking about stuff that is of interest to them, sales techniques, things like that. So, it wasn’t, some of it was a planter was about then, but there was a lot that wasn’t.
[0:37:09] DC: Okay, well, anything about them is going to – people start weighing like, is this like one of those timeshare situations where I’m going to get a free trip to Puerto Rico, but I’m going to be hearing about condominiums for like 12 hours a day. If it’s completely about the customers and not about the printer at all, I think there is a better shot at it. I mean, I don’t know, who were you talking about sales to? Who were the people in the audience?
[0:37:44] MP: They were either print resellers or printing companies. So, yes, people who –
[0:37:51] DC: Wait. A printer had an event and invited other printing companies over?
[0:37:55] MP: This is an online print company, and you’d be amazed how many printing companies use their services.
[0:38:00] DC: Oh, because they’re a trade printer, so they invited the printers over to sell more print, which benefits them. Okay, that makes sense.
[0:38:06] MP: But then where’s the difference between you defining it that way and saying that people inviting real estate people over and showing all the real estate products that they could be purchasing? Where’s the difference? Because isn’t that just –
[0:38:19] DC: Okay, because –
[0:38:19] MP: – thinking about me as well?
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[0:38:22] DC: Girls Who Print provides women in print and graphic communications with information resources, events, and mentorship to help them navigate their careers and the industry. As the largest independent network of women in print and a nonprofit organization, our global mission to provide resources, skill-building, education, and support for women to lead, inspire, and empower has never been stronger or more accessible. Through our member platform and program, as well as regional groups forming around the world, your access to Girls Who Print is just a click away. Gentlemen, you are most welcome to join us as allies. Get involved and get empowered today. Link in the show notes.
[EPISODE CONTINUES]
[0:39:10] DC: What it is, is showing them the ecosystem, like about things that they don’t know. They might only be buying the same things because that’s what’s in their package, for example. But maybe what they’re not buying is, does this real estate company go to events? Where are they getting their event signage from? Where are they getting their business cards from? Where are they getting any tchotchkes that they hand out to people? I’m saying there’s a whole ecosystem that these people might not be aware that they could get in the same place.
We talk about this with wide format all the time. The smartest thing I ever heard, Dan Johansson, he said to a room full of commercial printers, “If your customers are not buying wide format from you, they’re buying it from somebody else.” And it was totally true. Sometimes customers don’t think that their printers can do what they’re not purchasing from them, if that makes sense, just because they’re not aware. And they think, “Oh, well, I get my postcards from this place, and I get my banners from this place.”
So, it’s an opportunity to show people without being like, “What could we could do for you?” But just say, here’s a roadmap of everything a realtor might need to promote. We have come up with a way to pick and choose your things and bundle them into a package deal. So, let’s just say that you choose one from Tier A, one from Tier B, one from Tier C, and that’s package one, right? But the point is that that’s what they walk away with that information. While they’re there, you’re only talking to them about why a pull-up banner might not be the best way to exhibit at a booth and different options that they might not be aware of, like soft signage, for example.
[0:41:05] MP: I’m still not seeing the difference between the print events and your events, because that’s exactly what that one was around. So yes, I feel I’m being a bit of a day for downer on today’s conversation, but I’m trying to be realistic on people’s expectations.
[0:41:19] DC: Yours is a sales event, and mine is not. There was no sales –
[0:41:22] MP: It wasn’t a sales event at all. There was no sales in the event at all, Deborah, but it’s still –
[0:41:26] DC: It was an event about sales. I’m saying it was an event about sales.
[0:41:31] MP: The information was about how you can improve your sales techniques, but there was no more selling of print there than there was to –
[0:41:39] DC: Did you inform the audience listening to you, speaking about sales, about ecosystems that they could be selling to their customers? Were you educating them on packages that they could create based on different verticals?
[0:41:56] MP: I was educating them in a whole load of ways in terms of how they could improve their prints. Yes, so we talked about upselling, we talked about quick fixes –
[0:42:04] DC: Sales.
[0:42:04] MP: – to get more customers in. Yes, but that’s what they wanted to hear.
[0:42:09] DC: Exactly. This is a different audience, so it is not the same event.
[0:42:15] MP: But it’s the same type of event. We’re going to go around in circles here. But yes, my experience is that when you put on those ones where you invite people into the printing shop and go with all the good intentions of educating that people view it suspiciously. Do a social event and it works.
[0:42:35] DC: Okay. And like I said, do a social event first then and then invite people over. I mean, and you could do – look, we started this conversation with marketing budgets are being cut. I get it. So, I’m just tossing out grandiose ideas, but modify them if you can. For example, maybe you could sponsor a food truck at a summer event and just wrap it for them so people know that you’re out there. Or support some local something just to get your name out there. And that could be the social way of bringing people to you, including exhibiting at realtor events or joining some local association if you can join it as a sponsor or a supporter or something like that, and handling the community aspect of it. But then inviting them for because now we want to show these people that we’re the experts in this, that we can be consultative and help them understand how things could work together, the best way to follow up with people, how to get more people on their mailing list or on their social media channels. So, when they have houses to sell, they can have more people to share that information with.
I just think that there’s, we’re not saying the event is different, but I’m saying the feeling that people will have at my event versus yours is different.
[0:44:09] MP: Okay, and I disagree, but hey –
[0:44:10] DC: Oh, my God. Okay, well, the people out there are going to agree with me on this one, I really think. Because I’ve got my pulse on the people, Matthew.
[0:44:18] MP: Cool. Let’s see what the audience responds with.
[0:44:22] DC: Okay, that’s fair. If you think Matthew is wrong as always, please let him know in his social media posts.
[0:44:28] MP: And equally, if you think Deborah is wrong, please let her know in any social media posts.
[0:44:35] DC: Well, don’t just create a random one and say Deborah’s wrong. I mean, at least comment on the share of the podcast.
[0:44:40] MP: You know that I wouldn’t do that.
[0:44:42] DC: All right, fine.
[0:44:43] MP: Maybe put a LinkedIn poll on it sometimes.
[0:44:45] DC: All right. Well, now I’m a little heated, so thank you so much for that. I’m wide awake now. Okay, everybody, appreciate your time and attention. Until next time, prospect long and prosper.
[OUTRO]
[0:45:00] DC: Thanks for listening to Podcasts From The Printerverse. Please subscribe, click some stars, and leave us a review. Connect with us through printmediacentr.com. We’d love to hear your feedback on our shows and topics that are of interest for future broadcasts. Until next time, thanks for joining us. Print long and prosper.
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