Alicia Moranz attended a computer users group meeting eight years ago and walked away with more than computer help. A fellow attendee who worked for a medical facility complained to Moranz about problems with his binder supplier. The supplier frequently delivered binders late, sent contents with holes that didn't align with hole punches in the index tabs or provided contents with holes punched through text.
"I said, 'Give me a copy of the binder, and I'll take care of it from beginning to end,'" says Moranz, CEO of Multi-Graphic Company Inc., a distributorship in Lancaster, Pa. Moranz remained true to her word. Multi-Graphic supplies the medical facility's main location and 30 satellite facilities with approximately 4,000 flexible poly binders yearly. The blue binders, which serve as communication directories, include 11Ž2-inch circle metal rings. The front and back are imprinted with the medical facility's white logo, and the spine reads, "Communication Directory."
Multi-Graphic also supplies the binder's "guts"--sets of index tabs and 300-plus pages listing names, addresses and phone numbers of doctors, hospitals, assisted-living groups and other health care providers. In addition, the distributorship packages and distributes the directories to each facility.
"We do the whole shebang," says Moranz, who adds that supplying the medical group's binders fits her company's mission. "Our [goal] is to create solutions for our customers to help them grow their businesses." During the past eight years, she says, Multi-Graphic has helped the medical customer operate more efficiently by taking control of the time-consuming binder distribution operation and creating an online version of the binder contents, so departments can update directory information as needed.
Presenting New Items to the Mix
Binders aren't the only products Multi-Graphic provides from start to finish. Mark Deller, a sales associate at the distributorship, sells sister items--presentation folders. Deller recently supplied 2,000 high-end folders to a trucking and warehousing company to hold its proposals and other company literature.
The folder (shown on p. 32) includes a gold foil stamped outline of the continental United States. The Eastern states appear on the front; the Western states appear on the back. Pennsylvania, where the customer is based, also is outlined in foil stamping, with a starburst in a PMS blue ink indicating the company's location within the state. The trucking and warehousing company's name is embossed on the bottom of the folder, printed with a PMS blue ink and underlined with gold foil stamping. The firm's mission statement appears on the folder's back, inside the outline of the Western states. The folder also features a full-length, 3Ž4-inch tab imprinted with the company's web address.
The closed folder makes quite an impression, and it's equally eye-catching on the inside. Its left-hand pocket includes text promoting the company; its right-hand pocket includes slits for inserting two side-by-side business cards. The company's address, phone numbers, web site information and motto appear below the cards. A collage of 4-color photos of the company's trucks, warehouse and building appears above the pockets. Deller also provided some of the guts for the presentation folders, including three marketing brochures.
Deller admits this interesting job had sore spots. First, it lasted approximately three months, from conception through production. He spent a significant amount of time on proofs, with the client second-guessing several design decisions. Along the way, he also faced a few technical hurdles. "Four-color process can match certain PMS colors, but not exactly," Deller says. The client insisted on using the PMS blue, one of its corporate colors. So the inside photos were printed in 4-color, then the manufacturer added spot PMS colors.
Overall, the headaches were a small price to pay, Deller says. "When you help a customer put that much into a presentation folder or binder," he says, "next time they order they're definitely coming back to you."
The Guts and the Glory
Selling folders and binders (and what they contain) wins loyalty from customers.
BY SUSAN KEEN FLYNN
Mark Deller, a sales associate at Lancaster, Pa., distributorship Multi-Graphic Company Inc., brainstormed with a customer to design this presentation folder. The client, a trucking and warehouse company, ordered 2,000 folders. Each folder included gold foil stamping and embossing on the outside and 4-color photos and a spot PMS color on the inside.
Wayne Weller sells presentation folders such
as these to clients in a variety of industries, from aerospace to insurance. "Any company that hands out materials--real estate agents, mortgage companies, insurance companies--are good prospects," says Weller, president of Potomac Printed Products, a distributorship in Falls Church, Va.
6 Sales Tips
1. Offer more than office supply stores. Companies can buy run-of-the-mill binders and presentation folders at any office supply giant, so distributors need to offer value-added solutions. Dick Scott, owner of Oklahoma City distributorship Binders Plus, often suggests that clients add padding to binders. Consider these other creative ideas: folders with thermochromic ink that changes color when touched, binders with cover materials that look and feel like footballs or baseballs, folders with corrugated wave textures, and odd-sized binders.
2. Think quality, not just quantity. Mark Deller, a sales associate at Lancaster, Pa., distributorship Multi-Graphic Company Inc., has sold orders as small as 50 complete binders, with tabs and innards included. Such detailed binders can sell for $60 each. "It doesn't have to be a huge quantity to add up," Deller says.
3. Consider contents and usage. Although Scott doesn't sell binder contents, "I always quiz people when they ask about binders," he says. "What's it for? Do you want it to make an impression? Will it stand on a shelf or go out on the road with sales reps?" The answers to such questions determine binder materials, ring sizes and styles, designs and more. A binder for a country club membership directory, for example, is likely different than one listing a manufacturing firm's supplies.
4. Visit manufacturers regularly. Several times a year, Scott travels to his primary binder manufacturer. Aside from meeting personnel, he examines new fabrics, ink combinations and more. Scott says it's important to keep up-to-date on industry innovations.
5. Provide the total package. "The attraction for a lot of customers is that not only can we do the presentation folders and the inside materials, but we can put it altogether and deliver it for them," Deller says. Multi-Graphic provides binder and folder contents ranging from quotation forms and marketing brochures to note pads and third-party testimonials. The firm also provides fulfillment services.
6. Review the basics. Scott says some vendors get so caught up in the bells and whistles, adding special effects and selecting unique materials, that they ignore the basics. "I'm a print quality nut," he says. "If it's not legible, why spend the time to print it?"
Just the Basics, Please
While Multi-Graphic succeeds supplying the "whole shebang," as Moranz says, another Oklahoma distributorship takes the opposite approach. Dick Scott, owner of Binders Plus in Oklahoma City, sells binders, but leaves the innards to other printing companies. If that seems to make him vulnerable to competitors, think again. Scott is a self-described binder expert--a rarity, he says. "There's an awful lot of printers selling binders, but they don't usually know a whole lot about them," he says.
An auto trim supply company recently asked Scott to provide 4-inch poly binders for information on its fabric and carpet offerings. "Very few men have big enough hands to pick up that loaded binder by the spine," he says. Scott suggested the company split the binder into two volumes--one for fabrics and one for carpeting. "Why wrestle through a 4-inch binder when you only need a 2-inch binder because you only need one section at a time?" Scott says. The auto trim supply company took his advice.
Providing solutions has helped Binders Plus' business grow. Here's just one example: Scott met with a contact at the City of Oklahoma City, who already relied on a binders vendor. The prospect showed him burgundy binders the vendor supplied. "They looked pink to me, and I told her that," Scott says. He won the account when he was able to provide 21Ž2-inch burgundy binders with the city's logo imprinted in white on the front. He supplied several hundred binders, which the city still uses as administrative procedure manuals.
Shortly afterward, Scott received a call from the horticulture center in Oklahoma City. "They said they wanted binders just like the city's," he says. "I said, 'No you don't.'" Surprised by Scott's initial reaction, the contact from the center listened to the distributor's reasoning. The center is constantly damp, and Scott explained the moisture gradually would deteriorate the cardboard inserted into vinyl binders. Instead, Scott provided the horticulture center with 11Ž2-inch blue poly binders.
Accounts with the city and its horticulture center led to business with the police department. Scott has supplied it with numerous binders, including 35-guage poly binders for a violence education class and training binders for the city's police academy recruits.
Problems? No Problem!
Like Scott, Wayne Weller considers himself a problem-solver. Weller, president of Falls Church, Va., distributorship Potomac Printed Products, sells presentation folders to clients in numerous industries, including aerospace, insurance and banking. Recently, an insurance company ordered 5,000 presentation folders to hold information about its new services. "When the project started, we had plenty of time," Weller says. "But then the customer saw proofs, wanted several changes and time just got away from us."
The folders featured the company's logo in blind embossing and text printed in dark blue and metallic silver. Weller also supplied inside materials, including five staggered sheets that fit into the folder's two pockets. The client required fast delivery, but the ink didn't dry quickly. If the folders were folded and packaged, the metallic ink would have cracked and the blue ink would have smeared, Weller says. He and his printer devised a solution: The printer applied a light varnish to seal the ink. Weller then picked up the order and hand-delivered it to the client to meet the deadline.
Sometimes solving problems means going against customers' wants to meet their needs. One of Scott's customers is a plastics manufacturer that asked for 4,000 3/4-inch poly binders. While the 35-guage binders were great for presentation, Scott says they were a "damn nuisance" in the plant. "I wasn't going to sell them something that wasn't going to stand up in the plant," Scott says. He convinced the customer to order binders constructed of a heavier weight poly material that's much more conducive to the harsh demands of a manufacturing environment.
Both Weller and Scott say the occasional hassles involved in selling folders and binders are worthwhile. "While the mark-up on forms is getting tighter and tighter, the return on presentation folders is high," Weller says. And profits aren't the only benefit. "I like selling binders because in my mind, it's creative," Scott says. "And when you sell them, the account often blossoms into something else."
Susan Keen Flynn, a freelance writer based in Cleveland, is a frequent contributor to Print Solutions. Email
us your comments at bholt@printsolutionsmag.com.
Thanks to the following manufacturers for assistance: American Loose Leaf, St. Louis; Fey Line, Edgerton, Minn.; and Presentation Folder Inc., Orange, Calif.
