Table of Contents
Editor’s note: These letters are
responses to our Question of the Month, “In what ways
does your company partner with “third-party” firms
(design agencies, mail houses, technology providers, etc.), and
how do those relationships benefit customers?”
Design Relationships Pay Off
I work with several independent,
self-employed freelance graphic designers or owners of firms
with one or two skilled people on an ad hoc basis. These
relationships benefit my customers because I’m able to
discern each customer’s need quickly, then give the job
to the most appropriate designer based on the deadline, the
designer’s skill level, available applications and cost.
One designer I work with goes with me side
by side and bills the customer, providing me with previously
agreed compensation. Clients feel as if they’re dealing
with two suppliers who work in harmony instead of two people
from the same company with the same agenda. This often leads to
increased dialogue with one of us and allows whoever has the
greatest connection with the client to maximize the opportunity
for both of us.
This kind of partnership also gives the
customer freedom to express its strong feelings about a
particular aspect of a project with the other supplier (be it
disappointment with design, customer service or print quality).
The customer can maintain good rapport with each person because
it never has to give either one of us “bad news”
directly.
Marc Laucks
Independent Representative
Marc Laucks & Company
York, Pa.
End Users Benefit from Software
Partnerships
Like all distributorships, we have our
third-party industry manufacturers that produce the products we
sell to our customers, and those customers bear the fruit of
everyone’s efforts. We do have affiliations in which we
work with a third party by being a provider of consumables used
with software products that Microsoft Certified Gold Partners
sell to end users. Also, we are the value-added reseller of a
third-party provider’s software by selling a software
MICR check printing package, helping with the installation and
integration of the software, and providing consumables used
with the software.
In our niche, our customers typically save
between 60 percent and 70 percent of their total check-writing
costs compared with their previous methods. End users get a
recommended and trusted provider that helps them at the startup
phase of installation, and we continue to support them with
consumables. Plus, we’re the first line of technical
support should they get into any trouble, which occurs
frequently.
Dick Gray, CDC
President
Xtension Technologies Inc.
Laguna Hills, Calif.
Smart Package for Partners
Our product line and services use packaging
to join documents and labels. Many times, we play the role of
contract packager, taking preprinted forms and packaging them
in custom pressure-sensitive envelopes for application to the
end users’ product or container. We present this service
as SmartPack® contract document packaging. Through our
distributors—we have never taken a direct order—we
sell our products into some of the largest manufacturing
companies in the United States.
Our relationships really begin with the
fundamentals of purchasing and buying. Historically, companies
purchase components, materials, supplies and services that they
don’t wish to handle internally. Companies outsource for
a variety of reasons. The No. 1 reason is to reduce and control
costs. We help companies save time and money by outsourcing the
non-core operation of document packaging for attachment to
their product or container. Customers benefit by freeing their
internal resources to pursue their core competency. The
customer gains access to experts in our field, resources that
aren’t usually available inside the customer’s
company. The customer also gains fair pricing, a commitment to
quality and on-time deliveries. Perhaps most significantly, the
distributor benefits by selling a high-margin product that can
be presented as a unique niche solution to their customer.
George Bastedo
Manager
Lauraville Specialty Products
Geneva, N.Y.
Talk to Us
We encourage feedback about stories
published in Print Solutions, as well as in DMIA’s
E-Weekly and Independent Management Report e-newsletters.
Question of the month: Does your company
segment customers into categories, with some clients receiving
preferred treatment? What advantages or disadvantages does this
strategy yield?
Email your insight to
bholt@printsolutionsmag.com,
or send a letter to Print Solutions, 433 E.
Monroe Ave., Alexandria, VA 22301.
