Printing Sales - Finding New Business In This Tough Economy

Discussion in 'Printing Business Practices' started by discountprintingservice, Jun 29, 2011.

  1. discountprintingservice

    discountprintingservice Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2007
    Messages:
    141
    Location:
    Georgia
    I started a small commercial printing company in 2002, pretty much as a one man shop. Business progressively grew each year then in 09 business dropped off dramatically due to the economy. I have done the cold calling door to door to businesses to try to build it back to where it was in 08, but it seems as if I need to re-learn how to sell as I don't seem to be effective anymore with my sales skills. Most of what I print is 1 & 2 color offset work, some digital color and process color. I do graphic design but that has declined dramatically with customers doing their own files, I offer full bindery service with specialized bindery sub-ed out, and offer commercial mailing too. I seem to stay so busy running the shop that I don't have time to sell, so I am trying to force myself to make time. But I feel like I need a refresher on selling. Mostly, when I enter a business cold calling I introduce myself, give them a business card, usually mentioning that we do good quality work quickly and at great prices. I pretty much built my business doing that. I have yellowpage ads coming out for a large area, 3 books out others to be out by Dec. but I am not getting the calls like I anticipated, at least as of yet and they have been out a couple of months. I would like to know what other sales approaches you would recommend based on what is working for you. I firmly believe in helping other printers as we all need to stick together to help each other out as much as we can, you never know when it might be you that needs help of some sort from your fellow printer....

    Basically I'm not getting rich by no means, in 08 it was a decent year and I made a decent salary for a 1 man shop, but since then I am barely getting by, and if I can't turn things around I am considering shutting it down. Printing is a multi-billion dollar a year industry and ideally I only need a minimum of around $100K in annual sales as a one man operation, but even in 08 I didn't reach that.....

    Also in the last 2-3 years a lot of my clients (mostly small accounts - mom & pop type businesses) have simply gone out of businesses and I can't seem to replace them fast enough, and larger accounts seem nearly impossible to land for me.

    And on top of that, many of my existing clients are paying slower than ever.

    Any suggestions???????

    Thanks in advance for you advice,
    John
     
    pressmenBD likes this.
  2. discountprintingservice

    discountprintingservice Senior Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Georgia
    OK 80 views now and no one has a reply??? Come on, someone step up to the plate....
     
  3. RichardK

    RichardK Senior Member

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    Location:
    Derby, UK
    The lack of response may be symptomatic of the current lacklustre economy...not just in the US but globally (I'm in the UK)

    As a one man band it is a real uphill struggle to promote your business. You can spread yourself too thin just to keep overheads down by not employing help.

    Have you thought of setting on a sales person perhaps on commission only terms?

    What about direct mailing to clients you want to attract? You'd need to give incentives of course, everyone expects a discount of some sort.

    But each strategy comes with pitfalls and in over 20 years of running my own print business I've not found the perfect solution to getting more sales.

    Employ a salesperson and when they leave, perhaps taking their/your sales with them.

    Heavy discounting? You ain't gonna last long on that boat.

    The kind of local, small printshop that it seems you are... and me come to that, is fast becoming a rarity. That's why I get very defensive when Chinese/Asian/East European or basically non-home grown companies attempt to sneak business away from the UK/US...many times via this site.

    So much for the environmentalists wanting to keep their carbon footprint low...it doesn't amount to much when there's £££ or $$$ to be earned by outsourcing to the Far East.

    Rant over...

    Basically if there was a magic solution to increasing sales we'd all be doing it.
     
  4. rossio

    rossio Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2009
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    159
    Location:
    Baltic Sea,Germany
    One important fact is the web. You can´t ignore that people compare offers by web, call it bargain-hunter mentality.
    It´s like a sport here in Germany, sadly. If you google "Druckerei" you´ll get hundreds of URL´ls offering mostly standard products. Much more URL´s than really printshops exist. Often only an agent is the owner.
    Squeeze-out-price, bad quality and service, fraud are frequently themes. And many straight printshops suffer.
    But not only small shops suffer, big ones too. The scissor between price erosion and high investments, material price, staff expenses, taxes and expenses....turns wider every day.
     
  5. RichardK

    RichardK Senior Member

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    Location:
    Derby, UK
    And when there are very printers left...watch the price rise.
     
  6. plotter

    plotter Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 2009
    Messages:
    376
    Location:
    south wales uk
    people on ebay doing 5000 a5 flyers for example for £60 (how do they do it?)

    these people are killing our businesses and undermining the value of our work. (tossers)
     

  7. HPC

    HPC Senior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2011
    Messages:
    125
    Location:
    Illinois
    Unfortunately, this is not a new problem. I have been in our business (forms) since 82. Never seen a recession/recovery, cluster...... like this before. We were once a 42 person plant running 3 shifts, we are now still 3 shifts but down to 24. Cold calls, never netted much in results, discounts... don't do it your just gonna shoot yourself in the foot. Only thing you can do is wait this thing out, be the last man standing, granted this is not a business plan. Only other suggestion I have is find someone else that wants to get out of the business and buy em out. Be careful on that last one, been there done that. Take care.
     
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