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If Tiger Woods Were a Distributor

Let’s say you wanted to hire a golf coach to help you work on your game. Let’s pretend that Tiger Woods has agreed to be your coach. In fact, he really wants to help you be the best golfer possible. Then he tells you what it costs to hire him. You might decide you can’t afford it and walk away. You might decide the value of having Tiger Woods as a teacher is worth the money. But you can bet that negotiating over the price isn’t going to happen. Why? I think there are two reasons: First, everyone knows who Tiger Woods is. His familiarity commands a higher price. Secondly, Tiger Woods is an expert at what he does. His expertise commands a higher price.

In this industry, expertise means more than knowing the products you sell. It means knowing the businesses you sell to, and the problems they face. Sometimes it’s hard to tell when distributors and printers are real experts and when they simply talk a good game. There’s one specialty, however, where the difference is obvious—document security. Document security experts are the pro athletes of the printing industry. The reason is that you can’t fake expertise in security printing. There’s too much at stake, and your customers know it.

There is a big difference between selling checks and being a security printing expert. Experts know the laws governing document security. They know the technology. They know the methods counterfeiters use and how to deter them. They can spot their clients’ security weaknesses and offer custom solutions for strengthening them.

This issue of Print Solutions challenges distributors to embrace the learning curve associated with document security—or get out of the game. If you won’t be an expert, then start looking for other types of products to sell. If you’re up to the challenges, start by reading “Age of the Specialist” on page 18 for an overview of how the security printing world has changed. Then check out “Handle With Care” for a primer on e-document security solutions and how they interact with printed documents.

Andy Brown
Managing Editor
abrown@PSDA.org