Page 10 - Print21 Magazine March April 2021

Leading Article
OThey also serve...
ver capacity is a definin customers who came calling. The ‘black art’ characteristic of the printing had no need for BDMs; customers were put industry ... always was, likely in a queue, and told when their books or always will be. The ability to churn pamphlets would be ready.
out masses of printed material, far more Sometime in the latter part of the last
search results. As expected, the dedicated online businesses such as VistaPrint, and CMYKonline are there; the franchise brands like Snap Print & Design and Minuteman are also prominent, but there are also smaller, traditional owner-operated businesses too, such as Ranz Print in Melbourne and Nick Pattaras’ Picnic Print in Chatswood. There are printers I’ve never heard of such as Five Horizons, which has an average website but a great Facebook presence. There were even some printers on the fi st page that had not upgraded their presence in years.
I don’t know how much the ads cost, or how the search results are tweaked to get that vital fi st page presence. I don’t know how effective the whole exercise is in getting and, importantly, keeping customers. Some serious commercial printers I know scoff t the whole online business, writing it off s
a consumer distraction from servicing their clients. On the other hand there are many successful printing companies that identify solely as online businesses and do little else in promoting their business.
The jury is out, and it’s likely that a mix of BDM relationship selling and online presence will be a part of most printers’ strategy
from now on. But either way it’s important to recognise that nowadays printing is
no longer about production capacity or manufacturing expertise; it’s a service. 21
than the market demands, is a bugbear that has bedevilled printers since the industry’s craft days. It leads to destructive price wars as printers attempt to drive their opposition out of the business.
It’s a self-defeating tactic, as any number of failed businesses testify. Merely keeping the presses rolling without making a working margin is a sure way to go broke. But the need to increase turnover is hard- wired into every print business owner, especially after a disastrous Covid-induced slump of last year.
Developing print sales is a challenge. Ask any BDM (business development manager
– the new name for print sales people). There appears to be a constant demand for print that no amount of promotion can increase. Printers cannot boost sales by holding a Sale! Try selling calendars in July for 50 per cent off. How about printing company fi ancial reports at two for the price of one in January?
BDMs have to compete in the marketplace for the available business. Challenging at
the best of times, it’s almost impossible in lockdown. Getting out to see clients, and maintaining relationships while working from home is not easy. Prospecting for new customers is nigh impossible.
It was not always so. In its craft era printing was selling bespoke products to
century, with craft skills being supplemented and overtaken by computer controlled presses and bindery equipment, printing transformed into a service industry. On- demand delivery, personalised, versionalised, and digitalised print changed the dynamic, putting the customer in charge. There was plenty of resistance from old school printers, who failed to realise the world had changed, but they eventually bowed out.
The great leveller
Unable to differentiate on craft, printing companies took up the challenge of delivering the best service. Print managers and BDMs cut delivery times to whatever the customer required. Many turned to the internet, the other great leveller, sometime dispensing entirely with the services of BDMs, and relying on the algorithms of the search engines to bring in customers.
Accepting the reality of being at large in lockdown, I took a scroll through Google looking for ‘printing in Australia’ to see who’s there and what they’re doing to drive business. It’s an education. Google is the 21st century shop front for all commerce and printing is no exception. On the fi st search page there are around 10 ads for printers, as well as 20 ‘natural’
Patrick Howard
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