Bill’s Perspective: A 55 Year Look at the Printing Industry Through the Eyes of Industry Print Sales Veteran Bill Davison It all changed that tragic morning….the morning of September 11, 2001. I was making coffee at my desk and I felt it. The silence….and from that point on, the coming days, weeks, months were eternally impacted by The New Reality. Our clients, many of whom had come to expect a visit from their reps - weekly, biweekly, monthly, were suddenly out of sight, protected behind the walls of security. I felt a pit in my stomach the very next day; customers, the majority of whom I had built 25+ year relationships, were no longer permitted to let me just drop in. The New Reality morphed into The New Protocol: By Appointment Only This New Reality would impact not only the printing industry. Rather it would have a ripple effect on the entire U.S. Sales industry, west to east and north to south. The clients’ mindset the very next day, now mandated by corporate security, would forever change how a salesperson generated new business and serviced clients. It was a complete paradigm shift, if you will; one that ultimately forced Sales Managers and the reps who followed their lead, to rapidly adapt or perish. In all, sales leaders and their teams felt vulnerable. For The Art of Tried and True Sales Practices, passed along generation to generation, from salesman to salesman, were banished. A mere dusting in the sales person’s rear view mirror. The formula, applied for centuries and drilled into every rep’s head, year in and year out, was fading: The Formula ~ • 8 calls a day (4 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon); The joke use to be if you wanted to be sure and lose a client, stop going by and lose the coat and tie. • The rep, accustomed to talking with an administrative assistant week in and week out, was greeted by kiosks. Keep in mind, this all happened within the blink of an eye, particularly evident at the Big Banks. All in all, this human to kiosk transformation felt so abrupt, icy and cold. So where do you think us reps ended up the morning of September 12th? You got it, back at the office with phonebook in hand. Can you imagine the adjustment from on the road to stuck in the office, smiling and dialing~ yes; we all became a tad squirrely! Keep in mind; a Printer in the 50’s, was as important to the CEO of a Major Corporation as the corporate attorney. Companies truly relied on and respected their printer. Before 911, the client: rep relationship was one built on trust whereby reps had free access to clients’ stock rooms. It was this freedom which allowed us to perform activities which would later fuel our recommendations. Actions such as taking inventory of business forms, collateral and other printed materials. More importantly, the data gathered is what ultimately shaped the advice from rep to client. This is how The rep: customer dynamic developed and strengthened over the years. As time went on, the Procurement Manager became increasingly transparent with his/her rep. Hence, reciprocity between Sales Rep and Procurement began to flourish. Of course not every visit afforded time for a lengthy discussion. On a busy day, The Procurement Manager would quickly pop their head in the stock room shouting “Hi Bill, repeat my last order! Thanks!” Still, no matter what form the visit took, there were two KEY common threads that ran through it, Respect and Trust. A career in sales never occurred to me growing up nor while attending The Citadel and later Presbyterian College. I graduated in the spring of 1958 from Presbyterian with a B.S. in Business Administration. I wasn’t from a sales family and if you had told me then that I’d be spending the next 55 years in sales and printing; I would’ve said you were out of your mind. The seed was planted when I tried to land a summer job after college. It was through a man who attended my church and owned an office supply store. I was given a tour of his print shop which was both interesting and fascinating. While I didn’t get the job that summer, would you believe that same man, seven years later, asked if I would run his print shop with the option to buy. I was flattered by his offer to say the least. Unfortunately, the timing wasn’t good; I was too entrenched in my work. Politely I declined. After serving the military in the Quarter Master, stationed at Fort Lee Virginia, and following discharge; I had the honor of interviewing with several industry business leaders in Charlotte, one of whom was George Morgan, President of Craftsman Printing. George was a reputable businessman with a thriving print business. What made joining his sales team even more exciting was that George Morgan was a Maverick~ While a long standing clique of well-known and respected printers poised a bit of a competitive threat; they had no idea what was coming! They were in for a match! The Craftsman Salesmen were in town; we called ourselves “The Raiders”. Morgan was then, and still is today, a man ahead of his time. Over the course of 20+ years, George grew Craftsman into 9 different companies, integrating everything from printing and business forms to photography and design. He truly was a change agent; one of the first in the industry to bring together designers, photographers and copywriters. In fact if it were today, I bet you George Morgan would be a spotlight in W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne’s book Blue Ocean Strategy. I feel it’s important to take a step back and share with you what the competitive landscape looked like when we Raiders showed up. George, when he became President, stayed connected with customers; he stepped out of The Ivory Tower. I believe this philosophy sprung from his roots as a print salesman. Thus, Morgan was often seen on sales appointments since to George: Customer Acquisition and Customer Retention were one of the same, both equally crucial to the growth of his business. His belief often mirrored Ogilvy, the Agency Guru of the time, who emphasized that a company’s brand wasn’t measured by showing off one’s fancy building on a slick brochure. Rather the brand was its promise; its authenticity which was tested minute by minute, day by day, month by month, year to year. The truth of the matter was; the actions and behaviors of the CEO and his Brand Ambassadors, namely his employees, would dictate whether the brand was truly what it said. At his core, George believed that a business is built on strong relationships with both employees and customers. “I hired competent people and gave them the chance to succeed,” shared Morgan at the 2013 Print Industries of the Carolinas (PICA) 47th Awards Gala. George Morgan became Chairman of the Board for PICA in 1971 and has since served as a PICA Foundation Trustee for more than four decades. “I liked to hire people who weren’t worried about clocking in and out, who just wanted to do a better job than the other guy,” continued Morgan. Up to this point, it was industry practice to promote someone from within the company to sales. In tune with U.S. business trends, George observed an emerging pattern in Corporate America. Corporations were onboarding college graduates and promoting them into Senior Level Management Positions; many who had authority to buy printing. Since George recognized that people prefer to buy from people who are like them; he immediately followed suit, raising the bar. From that point on, in order to be considered for a sales position at Craftsman; one had to hold a college degree. Let’s take a break for a minute and talk about what was transpiring at the same time historically. It was 1953 and The Korean War had just ended. The new GI Bill rolled out rewarding those, who had served in the war, with free financing at a college and/or university of their choice. As you can imagine, colleges and universities were flooding in with applicants. For the first time in American History they were full! Morgan instilled from the get go, that the five of us in sales represented the bird dogs for the company, responsible ultimately for its short and long term growth. This in and of itself was a tall order. It went further than that however. Turns out, because we arranged meetings with prospective clients and customers; we bird dogs, through our positive or negative interactions, could at the end of day make or break the Craftsman Brand; its image and reputation in the community. In fact, marketing teams didn’t exist; therefore we didn’t have a team to watch over and protect the brand if something had happened. It truly was a gift learning to sell from the best of the best. The sales knowledge, customer centric philosophy and best business practices absorbed at Craftsman resulted in me landing a Fortune 500 customer in the snack food industry. While it took me an entire year to land the account (1960) I was so excited! Over time I’ve met everyone from the CEO to purchasing to the entire marketing team where there exists a Brand Manager for each and every product. Additionally, I earned the business of a large plastics company. I spent a year on their catalogue with photographers, writers and designers. I enjoyed being part of the entire process. All colors had to tie together. There were six different ads which appeared in all the Plastic Industry Trade publications. I was also involved in the execution of all the graphics for their National Sales Meetings. It was $1M dollar worth of work which in the 1960’s was a lot. The core values from George and Harold Villas, our Key Sales Manager, were instrumental in providing the essential ingredients and solid foundation from which to grow and develop my career in print sales in the years to come. Core Values I Adhere To Then and Still Today I. Value The Customer & The Customer Has To Be First – I learned early on, to favor our customers and to do everything within my power to retain them. The customer had to be first and foremost. I was to look out for them, think ahead for them and earn their trust by being knowledgeable, accountable and dependable. Our key decision maker was The Purchasing Agent and everything flowed through them. I would return to the office and enter my orders for the day. All jobs were delivered by the reps to the plant manager who would review the job jacket and enter it into production. It became a rat race! We’d scramble back, knowing full well “he who wanted their job on press FIRST had better get it in that day!” II. Deliver Exceptional Work – Be honest and Fair; don’t overpromise and under deliver. I believe my customers would say “Bill is dependable.” My feeling is the customer either likes you or not. We communicate together. I want to understand their problems (they don’t have to understand mine!) Being able to think fast on my feet has helped me succeed. I feel it’s my job to make them look good and whenever an issue arose; I could make a simple phone call and provide an alternative. If the client didn’t have a specific deadline, I ensured I created one since I was familiar with how long certain jobs take. From there, I relayed to the customer specific benchmarks; managing expectations on both sides. All in all, I always had their best interest at heart. III. Believe in People and Reward – Morgan communicated clear sales goals. We were measured by monthly performance, knowing exactly what was expected. After a profitable year, I have fond memories of all expense paid trips for reps and our spouses to fantastic places: Williamsburg, New York, Charleston. George believed spouses deserved to be rewarded too. For they were the ones who put up with us being gone a lot; working late to meet sales quotas or away from the family for extensive periods of time on business travel. I’ll tell you what; the spouses never forgot those trips! In fact, they talked about them for years! George also showed appreciation for clients. He’d rent a big ‘ole bus and off we’d go to College Football Games. One of my favorites was Duke vs. Navy. I’ll also never forget getting to see Roger Staubach play~ The result of these outings resulted in a significant uptick in customer loyalty as well as overall morale back at the office and thankfully at home! IV. Be Good to the Printing Business & the Printing Business Will Be Good to You~ George use to shout “If you sold it, you made it!” He stressed the importance of building momentum and encouraged us to always remember that once we got over that first hurdle, it truly would get easier; he was right. Sidebar: A Quick Story. Each of us reps had a desk with a window. It was summer and work had slowed down in the plant. A sales meeting was called immediately and George says “I don’t want to see any of you in the office; get out on the road.” One of the reps leans out his window and starts thrashing the bushes shouting “Boss Man! Boss Man! Look! I’m beating the bushes!” V. Learn From The Best – When I was new and green, I rode with the more experienced sales reps. I learned first-hand the art of prospecting and how to best serve customers. We didn’t have client service reps (CSRs) then so when we landed an order; it was our responsibility to enter the job. We also didn’t have estimators. We carried The Franklin Estimating Catalog named after Ben Franklin, The Father of Printing. It was an Industry Standard Manual that all reps in our industry used to price jobs. The paper reps offered training to us too. In fact, my first few weeks at Craftsman were spent traveling with a paper rep who taught me enough to get me started so I could sound knowledgeable right out of the gate. Even as a rookie I could quickly sound credible, specking the right paper for the job. It was a well-known fact, that the paper rep who equipped us print reps the best, with enough knowledge to sound like experts in the field and land business, was the one who ultimately won and kept our business. When I left Craftsman, I became part owner of Colony Printers from 1965 to 1976. I was ready for a New Adventure! Throughout those 11 years, we had as many as 50 employees in the good times and as low as 25 when we closed in 1976. We were unable to sustain ourselves after The Oil Embargo in the early 70’s, when we lost our profitability due to a shortage of paper and inks. It turns out I returned to Craftsman where I spent the next 25 years from 1976 to 2001. During that time, Craftsman was bought in the 90’s, by Graphics Industries Inc. out of Atlanta. Later, Graphic Industries sold 40+ of their plants to Wallace out of Chicago. In 2001, Wallace ordered Craftsman to close; 150 employees were let go. From 2002-2005, I sold for Cadmus. A highlight that still stands out, during my two and a half years there, is that for the first time in my career, I could offer promotional printing and packaging. My large snack foods client followed me and benefitted as well. Due to Cadmus’s capabilities, I could now manage all of their POP. In addition, my sales terrain widened in that I could sell into other companies in the food industry as well as other industries that were big into packaging such as Pharma. The expanded scope of potential clientele kept things interesting and exciting! Cadmus’ unique finishing equipment enabled me to capture work that before I had never dreamed possible. Eventually, when I realized Cadmus was planning to pour all of their energy into the Packaging Business, I made a move to Belk Printing. Belk offered me an opportunity to continue my relationship with the majority of my clients. Further, the company had operated successfully in a competitive environment which appealed to me. While at Belk, 2005-2010, I significantly grew my business. The Belk Culture and I meshed right from the start due to the same Core Belief: To Serve Clients with Quality Work & Excellent Service at A Reasonable Price. In January 2010, Belk announced a decision to merge with Classic, a company who was known all over the Charlotte Market as The Ultimate in the Print Industry. I’m fortunate to have spent my final chapter in sales representing Classic, who ranks in the top 1% nationally. Dave Pitts and Bill Gardner (since retired), always were ahead of the wave and forward thinking. Clients see me as a true partner. The data security standards and high tech that Classic upholds brings a peace of mind to my clients. Classic’s integration of a Team of Experts ensures my clients’ brands remain consistent across the Omni Channel. Back in February 2014, Classic and Imagine! Print Solutions, out of Minneapolis, merged. We became an integrated graphic communications national leader that was still privately held, unheard of in the industry. As a result, during my final sales lap, I represent a $300 million company with a strong national presence and impressive clientele, particularly in the Retail and Financial Services sectors. While I haven’t seen price wars disappear my entire time in the industry; I will tell you that being part of an Innovative Industry Leader has been exciting. Anyone can “put print on paper”, as the saying goes; however the companies in our industry who can only do that won’t survive. A fact evident by the staggering number of printers who have dropped off the map over the past five to ten years. That Was Then & This Is Now As I sit and reflect, I think in a lot of ways sales was more fun back in the day. Customers stayed in their positions longer and I’d often hear “Great job Bill!” Today I don’t hear that as much, perhaps because executives don’t stay at companies as long. Another factor is those who do stay are under intense pressure and time constraints, often times required to perform two, three or four peoples’ jobs. The client: rep relationship has suffered as a result in my opinion, since it isn’t afforded the time and attention it once had to solidify. The New Reality did do one good thing in my view; it removed the 8 calls a day. Customers and prospects are far too busy for a rep to drop in however many reps interact with their clients. What we’ve gained in productivity though we’ve lost in client connectivity. I think the pendulum has swung too far the other way with everything being done through email. The days of hand delivering a proof are obsolete. To me, this seems impersonal and disconnected leaving room for more misunderstandings and miscommunications. Reps today are not only supported by Customer Service Reps (CSRs) and Estimators but an entire team of experts: Head of Direct Marketing, Head of Fulfillment, Branded Merchandise or Web Portal Developers. This collaborative approach alleviates some of the pressure in that today’s rep isn’t expected to have ALL the answers. He or she can pull in the right expert at the appropriate time during the sales process. I have witnessed how this approach definitely strengthens the Respect and Trust between rep and client and/or perspective client. In terms of the competitive landscape, the playing field is more level than it’s EVER been. It’s Survival of The Fittest. The printing firms who still stand are bringing value that goes WAY beyond printing. Selling is harder; it’s more complex. What adds to this complexity is the reality that there are often three or more decision makers in the room often times resulting in a longer sales cycle. Gone are the days of a rep coming away from his/her first meeting with an order. What use to result in a day now takes months even years. One Key Principle however still holds true: The sales rep is responsible to know their customer, define client budgets and deadlines as well as convey clients’ expectations to production. No longer bogged down by the administrative duties that order input and estimating produced; he/she can intently focus on acquiring new clients while retaining current customers. A true Advisor, the rep can continue to ‘think ahead’ for his/her client offering the support of an entire team. Futuristic Marketing I witnessed agencies shaking in their boots at Craftsman, due to the fact that we could offer clients similar agency services. The agencies though were still the ones with large Creative Teams, robust with Designers, who created and conceptualized Brand Strategy and managed all media buys [Mad Men] While the Agency was perceived through the customer’s eyes as The Master of Brand Ideation, The Printer was seen as The Master of Execution; or as I like to put it, “we were the Nuts and Bolts, The Managers of Demand Distribution.” Today, the lines have blurred; creative expertise and printing are converging. A sharp sales rep that knows advertising and printing can do better than a print rep. Most companies today, B2B or B2C, market through multiple venues. Despite the ever changing mix of channels, one thing still stands and always will ~ The Brand Promise. It’s a key concern for clients that their brand equity, which they’ve worked so hard to build, isn’t diluted. While I still believe printing is the Nuts and Bolts, today’s Innovative Graphic Communication Companies are paving the way, holistic in their approach, offering a suite of services. Leaders in the Graphic Communications Industry empower companies to be agile and responsive to their customer’s at precisely the right time with the right message through their customer’s preferred channel. Just like the paper rep who won and kept my business by empowering me, successful graphic companies will win and keep their clients’ business by empowering them. In Bill’s Spare Time: Bill purchased his first tennis racket from a friend for $5.00 which became warped from the rain left outdoors. Bill naturally hit from his left side, as he was Ambidextrous …no one could return his backhand if he connected with the sweet spot of his warped racket. Sixty four years later, he played in Rock Hill at Pro-am winning with his mix doubles partner. “I’ve had the good fortune of playing under USTA rules at RHTC, taking lessons from their two coaches, enabling me to play and win matches at the State level. Tennis has been my game and hobby during my career freeing me from the worry and concern of my business for at least two or more hours per match. It has really been a God send for me.” ~Bill Bill Davison officially retires on December 19, 2014 ~Written by Leanne C. Kinsella, Director of Market Development for Classic
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 16:21:24 +0000
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