Sometimes walking into a crisis isn't a bad thing, especially if you're the one who saves the day. Greg Rollins found that out a few years ago during a routine sale to a customer in the food industry. "I was doing a little commercial printing with the company and had them as a prospect for labels," says Rollins, owner of ProForma Graphic Information Services, a distributorship in Richmond, Va. "I contacted the operations manager, and that's when I was able to uncover their situation."
Rollins' client sold Italian specialty meats that are sliced, packaged and labeled before being delivered to supermarkets. The company's marketing department had developed art for the label--a complex hand drawing in an Italian motif with a tile background and the customer's multicolored logo featured prominently. The bottom half of the label was to remain blank so that variable information (type of meat, weight and ingredients) could be printed at the plant. The problem was that the label on the package didn't look anything like the label the marketing department had envisioned. The colors didn't match the company logo and varied greatly from run to run. The company had been using the label on packaged meats for a year, but the marketing department was beginning to think the label was hurting sales.
After a little investigating, Rollins identified the problem. He visited the label manufacturer and discovered that the 7-color thermal job was being printed on a 6-color flexographic web press. After the first run, the manufacturer was sending the finished 6-color label back through the press and applying a varnish. The printer had to continually stop and start the press because it could only accommodate a small roll. Rollins also discovered the manufacturer's varnish was being applied inconsistently. So during the thermal transfer process, the image didn't bind to the label properly.
"I found a vendor that had an 8-color press," Rollins says. "With the varnish placed in-line, the color process was successful. I virtually eliminated [the client's] waste." Rollins says he was able to save the company more than $10,000 per year. "It was nice to be able to uncover the problem and work it out," he says.
Labels have become an integral part of our daily lives. Consumers see them on food, mail and at the doctor's office, but labels are so common, people rarely notice them--unless they don't work properly. Although hundreds of applications exist, labels generally are used for identification, merchandising, marketing and transferring information. The most common label is the pressure sensitive label, which consists of a face stock, adhesive and a protective liner. Sales of integrated labels are increasing because they are so convenient to use. Because the label and form are printed on the same stock, integrated labels are favored by the medical and shipping industries.
Thermal transfer and direct thermal labels also are very popular. Thermal transfer labels usually are imaged at the client's location by a heated printhead on a printer that contacts a ribbon. This causes the ink from the ribbon to transfer onto one label and create an image. Direct thermal labels require a similar technology, but no ribbon is involved. The labels include a special coating. When the heated printhead contacts the label, the coating darkens and produces the image. Because of their resiliency outdoors and in warehouses, both labels typically are used for tracking, shipping and identification.
5 Tips on Selling Labels
1. Put labels to the test. When Greg Rollins, owner of ProForma Graphic Information services, a distributorship in Richmond, Va., worked on the project for the client in the food industry, it took a long time to choose the right label. He says cold temperatures and moisture made finding the proper adhesive very difficult. "That's why it's really important to make sure you thoroughly test the label and make sure the customer is satisfied with the way it sticks to the product," Rollins says. "And make sure the customer understands potential problems with the material depending upon the surface the label is put on and where it's being stored."
2. Engage your customers. Because setup costs are expensive, Rollins says clients should be involved in every stage of the label's production process. Often customers don't understand the amount of time that goes into creating a label--especially prime labels incorporating several different colors. "For prime labels, a plate has to be made for each color," Rollins says. "The proofing process should be very involved. The customer has to approve the design beforehand, because once the plate is made, very little can be done to the press to change the design."
3. Develop good follow-through. Once you have ordered a label that meets your customer's needs, follow up with a visit to the client's facility. Stay abreast of changes in your customer's labeling routines. For example, if a client switches to a different type of box, the label adhesive may have to change. Also, observe employees who use the labels. Do they peel labels from their backing correctly or clean the surface the labels must adhere to properly? If not, problems could arise.
4. Target existing customers. It's not likely that you'll get label business from a customer who is unfamiliar with your company. Because label clients rely on vendors they can trust, you should strive to obtain label sales from customers with whom you have solid working relationships. Rollins says that strategy has worked well for his distributorship. His philosophy is, "If I can sell them one thing, I can sell them everything."
5. Become a good detective. If you're going to provide answers, you need to know the questions clients may ask. Make yourself an indispensable asset by investigating the industries your labels will be used in. Also, visit your manufacturer's facility and see the label-making process firsthand so you can better explain it to your customer.
Drivers for a medical waste disposal company are accustomed to manual labor. They pick up waste containers at hospitals and doctors' offices and load them into their trucks. But one job they don't enjoy is manually tracking the containers. "Imagine a driver trying to keep track of where he's going, what he's picked up and how many containers he has," says Roger Swall, manager of the data collection division for IBF Group, a Boise, Idaho-based distributorship. That's what drivers at one medical waste disposal company did for hundreds of containers before IBF Group offered a bar coded inventory tracking solution.
The company drops off and picks up waste containers from medical facilities, weighs the containers, handles waste disposal and sanitizes containers for reuse. The owner asked Swall for a bar coded solution that would track inventory, comply with the U.S. Department of Transportation's regulations for waste material and improve the accuracy of the invoicing system. The system also had to be driver-friendly because drivers are the main users. "These folks aren't data processing experts," Swall says.
Swall met those requirements, and more, by providing proprietary software, hardware and consumables. Now when drivers drop off or pick up containers at a medical facility, they scan 2 x 1-inch labels with Code 128 bar codes on the containers. The bar codes include serial numbers linked to each container. The scanners from Symbol Technologies Inc., Holtsville, N.Y., include a screen where customers sign, acknowledging the transaction. The drivers then print a receipt with a portable Zebra printer. The receipt includes the bar code number, date and time, name of the facility, and signatures of the driver and customer.
In addition, this information is stored in the hand-held scanner. At the end of the day, the information is uploaded into the medical waste disposal company's computer system. "They have a complete, accurate record of all transactions in their database," Swall says. "If there's any question on the part of the customer or the company, they can access all the information again, along with signatures from the customer and driver."
IBF Group supplied hand-held scanners and portable printers for each of the customer's six trucks. It also licenses the operating software, which was written primarily in house. The distributorship also sells approximately 80,000 removable, weather-resistant labels a year to the client. "A big, big part of our business is repeat consumables," Swall says.
But IBF Group isn't the only one benefiting: Swall says the owner of the medical waste disposal company is happy with the solution, which IBF Group provided last fall. "He doesn't know how he ever got along without an automated system," he says.
7 Tips on Selling Bar Coding
1. Sell total solutions, including consumables, hardware, software and service. "We want to be more than an 800 number or a label seller," says Roger Swall, whose Boise, Idaho-based distributorship, IBF Group, serves as a one-stop shop for bar coded solutions. "We want to provide the value-added, custom approach because every company is different." The distributorship, which created the inventory tracking software for the medical waste disposal firm, attended a national convention for the waste disposal industry this year to market its package to other companies.
2. Know the codes. More than 260 bar code symbologies exist. Familiarize yourself with the most widely used ones such as Code 39, Codabar, Interleaved 2 of 5 and Code 128. Understanding which symbologies can encode letters, numbers and punctuation, and which are fixed versus variable length, allows you to select the ideal one for your application.
3. Meet the standards. Acquire a copy of ANSI standards for the bar code symbologies you sell. If your clients are involved in manufacturing or retail, you may need to work with their compliance programs. Many firms dictate specifications to make their receiving and inventory methods more efficient. Guidelines often dictate specifications such as what paper stocks to use, where bar codes must be placed on products and what size bar codes to use.
4. Sell the system. Most distributors enter the bar coding market by selling bar coded thermal transfer labels, ribbons and other consumables. But once you've mastered those products, don't stop there. Consider selling equipment, including scanners and printers; bar code production software; and consulting services.
5. Get into bar coding in house. The best way to learn about a new technology is often by using it yourself. If you want to ease into the technology, consider installing a stand-alone printer in your office or warehouse to print bar coded labels. After experimenting with that, install printers that link to your company's computers. Bar code your office equipment or inventory in your warehouse.
6. Get help from experts. Bar coding is a complex technology, so you may want to hire an expert to serve customers or partner with an experienced value-added reseller of bar coding systems and services.
7. Expand your customer contacts. Bar coded systems affect many employees within organizations that install them. Be sure you meet with all employees involved in the process, not just the contact signing the purchase order. For example, if you're selling bar coded products to a manufacturing firm, you should consult with the IS director, general plant manager, warehouse manager and other employees who use the bar code system.
