We’ve been looking at some additional ways to grow sales using a business development service, such as Market Movers from Kodak or perhaps more local, a company like IKON. Ideally, both companies offer their services as part of a package price by purchasing a Kodak NexPress or a Ricoh C900, but they also do independent business development services for a price.
So, we’re interviewing companies and their representatives to see if what they have to offer would help us grow our business more quickly. We’re still working on the Kodak avenue to see if it will pan out, but in the meantime we have reviewed the IKON Business Booster package and have our comments on it.
The IKON Business Booster has a theme called “Take Action with IKON” and they do it through a strategy called “ACTION”:
A – Achieve Results
C – Complete Products & Services
T – Targeted Marketing Programs
I – Individual Attention
O – Ongoing Support
N – New Digital Opportunities
IKON says it’s widely used with IKON’s base of customers, so much so that Ricoh (the parent company to IKON) is adopting it for their own use. It comes as a sturdy binder with about 300 pages of information in it, beginning with basic information in the first section and more advanced information as it continues from section to section.
The initial chapter starts with Digital Print Operations, covering design considerations to staffing recommendations. In regards to staffing, it’s more about how to write their job description than it is to give you personnel metrics (i.e. $125K in annual sales for every production person). These metrics would be important to keep you from overstaffing your company and cutting into profits. Again, it’s basic information and anyone in the printing industry would know this. (The $125K number varies depending on how automated your company is; the higher the number the better automated you are. Your own mileage may vary.)
As the book progresses, it gets more into digital printing sales and marketing – prospecting, how to sell variable data (something more printers should be doing, offering it as an additional revenue source instead of throwing it in as I’ve seen more people doing), and most importantly, developing digital print applications. We’ve been doing that with our PageDNA service, building specialized websites catering to a specific niche.
If you haven’t built your business plan, there’s a chapter on that. Typically, your business plan comes before the equipment purchase, but I’ve met many people who have never written a plan. So this gives you insight into why you should, and how to develop your plan, along with a marketing plan. Along with a marketing plan, the IKON Business Booster includes instruction on planning an open house, which is always a great way to bring customers to your door, which in turn will help you build some business.
Last, it touches on measuring variable data printing results. Again, a very important aspect of digital printing. I was in a digital print company a few months ago, and they had just purchased an HP Indigo and some variable data software, and they were gushing about how variable data was going to change their business. When I asked how they would measure the results of their effort for a particular customer they had, they said that the customer (an new car dealer) would see an increase in their business and know it was the result of their VDP marketing. No metrics, just a happy feeling.
Midway through the book you get to the IKON Business Booster CD which contains materials to supplement the book, including Word document sales scripts; power point presentations; design templates and MP3 files with sales information; among other things.
The back half of the book covers more topics: Mailing, Transpromo, Fulfillment and finally Tools & Resources. These were the nuts and bolts of developing niches for your company and I found the information interesting and gleaned a few ideas on expanding our offering in those areas.
I would have liked to see more information on social media and how it can best be utilized for a startup digital print operation, but perhaps that information is too new to add just yet. In our experience with it through the Social Print Experiment, I feel like we’ve learned a lot and yet there is still much to know.
Bottom line: It’s a step-by-step guide to building a digital print business. As a more seasoned digital printer, some of the information seemed basic. Where I think IKON ties it all together with a complete offering is through their Professional Services. They have a number of very talented professionals from within the print industry who have moved into selling equipment (as I once did) who can apply their knowledge and help a company get a good running start.
Cost: Free, with equipment purchase. Professional services additional. Budget $5-10K for comprehensive support.
Locate: http://www.ikon.com
No related posts.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I sell printing (large format, digital and offset) and have spent time with Kodak, IKON and Xerox kits. They all have (basically) the same information but I don’t see any of them that have real-world applicable solutions for the problems that I run into day to day. I can dazzle a prospect for hours with powerpoints, web2print demos, sales scripts and the annoying follow up calls but until our industry equalizes supply to demand, I think it’s impossibly hard to even get an audience. I understand that all of these systems focus on making calls on a C-Level prospect but that group is being so clobbered by sales people right now that getting an appointment without a strong network is the biggest challenge in this game — one that these marketing kits fail to adequately address. Their strategies seem to make sense but if you’re starting at A and can’t even get to B, how do you gain traction?
(note… my sales have been up year to year over the last 5 years so there are opportunities out there… I just don’t think that any of these “kits” had much to do with it. Very interested to read about your experiences with them!)