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The Print Education Research Foundation reveals results of a survey of print buyers.
Editor’s Note: The Print Education Research Foundation (PERF) teamed with BFMA International, Clemson University and California Polytechnic University to survey print buyers about their attitudes toward suppliers, buying habits and plans for the future. The results are printed here as part of a three-month series. Part 1 appeared on page 64 of last month’s issue.
Buyer Criteria for Choosing Vendors
According to the PERF survey, 17.5 percent of corporate buyers work from a bid system, whether governmental or otherwise; 10 percent single-source; and 7.5 percent work from a preferred vendor list. However, 65 percent of buyers say they work with the vendor that best suits their needs, so opportunities abound.
Corporate customers should know that to meet their needs, manufacturers and distributors often make substantial investments to retool their operations. This is difficult to do in a commodity print environment. If you want your manufacturers to create the kind of flexibility and cost-savings that you demand, they need the price flexibility that allows them to do that.
Ideal Qualities
Sixty-five percent of survey respondents mentioned price, followed by quality and reliability and the ability to meet deadlines. Other factors included turnaround times; proximity of the vendor; consistency of printed output; online ordering, inventory management and control; willingness to upgrade equipment on a regular basis and customer service.
What do buyers dislike about their suppliers? Many are frustrated by lack of print quality, missed deadlines, lack of professionalism, mistakes and outdated equipment in the forms manufacturing industry. Some complain that they have been lied to and defrauded. These appear to be real problems that buyers face every day.
One thing rarely mentioned as desirable in a supplier, however, is value-added services, or the ability to develop programs that save money through applications such as web-to-print. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t important to corporate buyers. It means that buyers focus on day-to-day issues.
Among the comments drawn from various questions:
• Know our business enough to assist us with ideas for marketing our product.
• Take a vested interested in our business relationship. Suggest changes that improve the job, save money or create best practices.
• Be knowledgeable in the printing industry and suggest different ways of producing the product due to new technology or print machines.
• [We are] looking for expertise, new ideas—ways to save money.
• Develop a relationship and take an interest in knowing our business. Also, bring solutions to the table that make sense.
• Add value by coaching us about new ways of doing the work.
One print buyer described the pain of having 70 different print vendors around the country, resulting in headaches, confusion and wasted time. Ultimately, the company consolidated buying with a single print vendor. While the buyer did not describe why the vendor was selected, the survey data indicated that this company was not necessarily the least expensive. Rather, the company invested significant time and money in its plan to streamline and lower the client’s overall cost of production.
Price, Quality and Service
Presses, internet infrastructures, online tracking and job management and online ordering systems carry heavy price tags. When one buyer writes that he or she wants a print supplier to supply a “range of value-added services, quick turnaround, quality and low cost,” as most buyers do, they may be asking too much.
Take print quality, for example. While it sounds simple, achieving consistent print quality day in and out requires extra time and attention in every step of production from prepress, to press maintenance and training. Developing applications and offering solutions also requires time and investment in capital resources such as presses, computer systems, IT infrastructures, software, programmers and customer service staff.
If your provider charges the lowest price, can you expect top drawer products and service? There is a reason that manufacturers who offer consistently high levels of print quality, outstanding customer service, solutions and applications development and consistent on-time deliveries charge more. That level of service cannot be developed in a “lowest cost” bid environment.
Future Needs and Products
Respondents indicated continued reduction, not only in forms but all types of print products. They’re moving to web-based distribution and e-forms, and for products that are still printed, toward consolidation and reduction in duplication, whether by eliminating forms or creating templates that allow form customization. This will result in even lower volumes of print than exist today, less color and more just-in-time production. It’s going to be a digital world.
The issue of security pops up throughout the survey, and this is a real opportunity for forms manufacturers and distributors. Paper-based forms create an element of security, especially when they involve signatures. But the move to web-based products makes it easy to edit a form using word processing, page layout, forms composition, or PDF editing programs.
Document security is perhaps one of the greatest stumbling blocks to clients setting up these systems. “Security products are new and a high priority for most agencies,” notes one corporate buyer. “Finding the right product for the job is trial and error. Costs for most of these items are very high.”
If you can remove the pain in the process by helping customers move to secure, web-based administration and distribution, you can find a new position of value in the eyes of that customer. Customers will move to e-forms and web distribution anyway. They may as well pay you to do it.
The same goes for the consolidation of paper-based forms. Your clients will do it anyway. Why not help them? Be a consultant in the process. Help them sift through forms, eliminate redundancy and develop templates. Try to move them to a web-based interface for customizing and ordering those forms. This makes you more of a consultant with customers and locks them into a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.
New or Different Print Products
Buyers said they planned to purchase the following types of printed products in the future:
• Electronic delivery, such as Internet forms, CDs, and DVDs. (13.1%)
• No change. (47.4%)
• Web-to-print, custom forms and variable data. (13.1%)
• Some kind of specialty products, such as waterproof paper, tamperproof paper, thermal-based products and foreign language products. (13.1%)
• Miscellaneous print products, such as new training materials, billing inserts, boarding passes and tickets. (7.9%)
• Some kind of digital print production. (7.9%)
Vendor Characteristics
How do corporate buyers evaluate potential print partners? Buyers rate vendors on quality, good customer service, on-time delivery, good range of products, service and range of output equipment.
Corporate buyers seem to have consistent problems with their print suppliers in these areas. Indeed, nearly 20 percent said that honesty, fairness and keeping their word were important to them, and when paired with things like “a sense of urgency,” “values-based company (no monkey business),” and “being able to deliver on time,” it is clear there is an underlying concern about the integrity of many print operations.
Buyers want suppliers to do more than print. The phrase “consultative selling” has been overused, but it’s appropriate here. Corporate buyers rely on their forms manufacturers and distributors to help them understand how technology can be used to solve their inventory management problems and lower their costs. They want suppliers to educate them, make suggestions and take a proactive stance in improving their workflows and profit structures.
Reduce the Buying Process
A trend throughout the survey is that buyers want providers who take their business online. When asked how forms manufacturers and distributors can make buyers’ lives easier, for example, the overwhelming response was “by taking our business ‘e’.” Buyers made the following comments:
• “Be able to handle products electronically. Proof using PDF.”
• “Offer a web-enabled ordering, tracking, inventory portal.”
• “Be totally electronic. Accept email RFQs, respond with email quotes, accept PDF art and specs.”
• “Provide products online through a web storefront.”
This article is reprinted from the April 2006 issue of PERF Report, a newsletter focused on industry-specific research. Visit www.theperf.org.