From slb at inkspot.net Mon Dec 4 20:21:18 2006 From: slb at inkspot.net (Steve Blatman) Date: Mon Dec 4 20:21:34 2006 Subject: [PrintSales] Price strategy question In-Reply-To: <7.0.1.0.2.20061006090706.07fdb290@sorrentomesa.com> References: <45259149.7907.137E820E@slb.inkspot.net> Message-ID: <4574833E.20903.2590B2F@slb.inkspot.net> Scott, I remember reading a post from you (and I wish I could find it again...) about your situation in the dot-com bust, and that sticking to your prices might have made a bad situation worse (I don't remember exactly). I'm currently working with Dave Fellman to fill a sales hole left by the (hopefully temporary) departure (for lowballing pastures) of our largest account. I'm looking, of course, for customers on my terms, meaning those who are willing to pay a fair price for the level of service I can provide. My question is this: There are customers I know I could get right now, if I quoted pricing a bit below where we normally are. In particular, I'm already known (and liked) in a couple of places who use a lot of carbonless forms, and I suspect that the reason we don't do much in that department is that our pricing is somewhat higher than others in our market (but not ridiculously--we're near John Stewart's averages). To what extent, if any, would you lower (some) prices to grab this kind of "easy" business? Steve Steve Blatman Ink Spot Printing & Copy Center, Inc. 14 Church Road, Frazer, PA 19355 USA Tel: 610-647-0776 Fax: 610-647-4560 From Becky at QUALITYPRINTINGONLINE.COM Tue Dec 5 12:34:54 2006 From: Becky at QUALITYPRINTINGONLINE.COM (Becky Whatley) Date: Tue Dec 5 12:32:41 2006 Subject: [PrintSales] Price strategy question In-Reply-To: <4574833E.20903.2590B2F@slb.inkspot.net> References: <45259149.7907.137E820E@slb.inkspot.net> <4574833E.20903.2590B2F@slb.inkspot.net> Message-ID: On Dec 4, 2006, at 5:21 PM, Steve Blatman wrote: > I'm already known > (and liked) in a couple of places who use a lot of carbonless forms, My response is assuming that the above statement means that you already do printing for these clients. Just not ALL the printing. > and I suspect that the reason we don't do much in that department is > that our pricing is somewhat higher than others in our market (but > not ridiculously--we're near John Stewart's averages). > > To what extent, if any, would you lower (some) prices to grab this > kind of "easy" business? I am always of the opinion that you try to do as much as you can for clients. Getting as much of the pie that they provide is my goal. Leaving "holes" which others are filling leaves a hole that someone can walk into. If you can make money at the price you would need to match and if you have excess capacity, I say go for it. Lowball prices are a detriment when you have to work hard to make the jobs happen and if they stop you from printing other more profitable jobs. But if you have a mix of high margin low margin jobs within ONE ACCOUNT, I don't think that's a bad thing. I think of it this way -- we sell trade show printing to some of our customers. That means we sell them promotional items, too. The margins on these items are not great and sometimes they are a hassle because you have to follow up on the orders, etc. and you are working with outside vendor. But we do the full color brochures and the printed items they use and when they sell more, they buy more printing. I would never think of sending them elsewhere to buy their pens, magnets and widgets just because I'm not making the exact margin I want to make overall. To my way of thinking, the carbonless forms would be the promotional item equivalent for you with these customers. I say go for it. You can always put a discount on their jobs that is hidden -- that way you continue to sell carbonless to others at the price you want to, and to these specific customers at a lower rate. One thing I do for this strategy in PrintSmith -- I have a "competitive bid" charge that I use which can track monthly how much money I am giving away. If this becomes "out of line" I can research and see what needs to go. I do this with "in kind" donations, too. GOOD LUCK! Becky Whatley Quality Printing 2061 Third Street, Suite E Riverside, CA 92507 Office (951) 784-4100 ext. 22 Fax (951) 682-1274 Becky@QualityPrintingOnline.com www.QualityPrintingOnline.com From slb at inkspot.net Wed Dec 27 10:35:20 2006 From: slb at inkspot.net (Steve Blatman) Date: Wed Dec 27 10:35:56 2006 Subject: [PrintSales] Headsets, Cardscans, and gadgets In-Reply-To: <4574833E.20903.2590B2F@slb.inkspot.net> References: <7.0.1.0.2.20061006090706.07fdb290@sorrentomesa.com> Message-ID: <45924C68.13750.195DED46@slb.inkspot.net> I'm not a total Luddite, but I usually don't get cool electronic gadgets as gifts--so I usually end up adopting them later, rather than earlier. This year, I was given a telephone headset and a Cardscan business card scanner as gifts(!!). I've heard from a bunch of folks that the headset will be a real help with the amount of telephone calling I'm doing as part of my sales efforts. I'm less certain about the Cardscan, though, so I'm asking for the collective wisdom, here... 1. Do any of you use (or have tried and rejected) a business card scanner? Is it a worthwhile gadget, or an expensive toy that wastes time, or somewhere in between? 2. If, as I suspect, the scanner isn't the best use of the resources, I'm thinking of trading both it and the (wired) headset in for a really good wireless headset. What do you use and/or recommend? 3. Are there any other nifly gadgets you've tried that you can't live without (for your sales efforts--not in general)? (I already use a laptop computer, a pda, a cell phone, and contact management software.) Thanks in advance, Steve Steve Blatman Ink Spot Printing & Copy Center, Inc. 14 Church Road, Frazer, PA 19355 USA Tel: 610-647-0776 Fax: 610-647-4560