Still need a New Year’s Resolution? Stop Talking about Print!

5 ways to change the conversation

It’s time to talk Technology. Not Print.

It may sound counterintuitive but as we move into 2015 the PSP business model continues to change fast.  Don’t get left behind.

 “Since we’ve converted to a technology business we’ve been talking less and less about printing… more about full program management, turn-key solutions, and our print volume has increased every year,” says Kenneth Shriber of Ditto Documents. “The less we talk about print, our printing volume has grown significantly!”

The challenge?

How can you talk technology and successfully present your print services and expertise to customers who don’t even realize that they need them? How do you do that with customers who don’t know that PSPs can even provide full marketing campaign execution?

And there’s one rule…

You are not allowed to focus on print!

1. Reposition yourself as a full program technology company – PSPs with the right technology can help customers through the entire creative and marketing process, from design to data management, personalization and cross media. Sell your Value-Added Services and position your business at every opportunity to encourage your customers to think beyond just the initial price per unit.
2. Solve your customers’ challenges – Strive to understand your customers’ mindset so that you can anticipate their needs and exceed their expectations. Subscribe to marketing magazines and newsletters. Attend marketing-focused webinars, conferences and trade shows.  Use this understanding to help your customers to think strategically about their overall campaign.
3. Focus on the end user’s entire experience – Illustrate how your business can match the end-users’ expectations for sophisticated personalization with components linking the recipient to the digital world. Campaign planning software such as XMPie’s Circle™ can help your customers to visualize their end-users’ engagement for each touch point during the entire campaign and monitor the results as it progresses.  Find out about a Free Circle subscription.
4. Transform your team – Get everyone on board with the transition and hire any new staff or specialists to fill the gaps as your staff transfer their skills from selling a commodity-based item – print, to selling client-focused and often complex business solutions.  Strong sales people are critical in today’s market where customers can do most of their early research online.  They don’t need sales reps to repeat information that they can source themselves.  Rather, they are looking for targeted guidance as to how a PSP can address their business needs. Learn what steps  THP Creative Group took to successfully present their new Web-to-print e-commerce customer portals to new and existing customers as their business model became more technologically focused.
5. Practice what you preach – Use your technology for your own self-promotion.  Demonstrate and differentiate your services from the competition by running your own cross media personalized marketing campaigns.