Sometimes it seems as if the entire business world revolves around golf. Document professionals regularly close deals on the back nine, manufacturers and suppliers' promotional programs frequently sport golf themes, and industry events often include excursions to state-of-the-art courses. While some industry veterans brag about their low handicaps, Jim Coovert confesses that his less-than-perfect golf game led to a successful forms career and ownership of a $2 million distributorship.
When Coovert was 23, he supported himself by working as a golf assistant pro at a country club in Bellevue, Wash. "I wasn't a very good golfer," he admits, "but I didn't finish college because I was always on the golf course." While teaching members how to perfect their swings, Coovert discovered his true passion--sales. "I was always selling members clubs," he says. Coovert often slipped shiny, new irons into members' bags and urged them to take a few swings. His efforts often ended with sales. After a member told Coovert he didn't need a college education to be a salesperson, the 23-year-old traded his bag of clubs for a sales position with a local envelope manufacturer.
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Jim Coovert (left), president of Printcom Inc., a 15-year-old distributorship in Seattle, and his wife, Judy, the distributorship's corporate secretary, accept a 2000 Better Workplace Award from Mike Lowry, Washington's governor from 1992 to 1996. Given by the Association of Washington Business (the state's chamber of commerce), the award recognized Printcom's innovative benefits and compensation program, including the firm's annual Family Campout event, Pacesetter Walking Program, free flu vaccinations, Costco memberships, profit sharing and wholesale clothing purchases in cooperation with Printcom vendors.
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Thirty years later, golf is now a frequent pastime for the president of Printcom Inc., a 15-year-old distributorship in Seattle. Started as a 1-man company that operated out of a spare bedroom, Coovert has developed Printcom into a successful firm that employs 13 workers and operates out of a 13,000-square-foot facility. The distributorship sells traditional business forms, envelopes, business cards, labels, 4-color posters and promotional products. It operates a print shop and bindery with a total of six Heidelberg, Ryobi and A.B. Dick presses, and offers in-house design services, a sleek internet ordering system, print management services, free warehousing and other services. In 1996, the Puget Sound Business Journal named Printcom one of the 100 fastest-growing private firms in Washington.
Ace Service
One reason for Printcom's success, Coovert says, is the firm's refusal to conform to some industry standards. In fact, the firm's business beliefs are echoed in its tag line: "Printers we are, just printers we're not."
"We don't have standard answers for customers," Coovert says. "We try to query them. If they're out of something, we want to know how out they are." A customer may request a rush order of envelopes, Coovert says, but they could have a 4-day supply remaining. "A rush order to some distributorships is two weeks," he says. "A rush order to us is this afternoon. That's a big difference. Our customers schedule our print shop, we don't....It's that type of thinking that puts you ahead. That's what keeps customers." For Printcom, standard turnaround is three to five days, with no extra charges for rush jobs.
| Printcom produces a quarterly,
4-color magazine for 1,500 customers and prospects. Designed by the firm's freelance graphic designer and printed in house, the magazine features monthly columns on golf, travel, financial planning, promotional products and local charities. It also includes profiles of Printcom employees and a "From the President" column written by the firm's president, Jim Coovert. Coovert also pens the magazine's popular cooking column.
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Printcom offered rapid turnaround even before the distributorship started its own print shop in 1991. Coovert kept a desk at a local printing facility, often arriving at the plant as early as 6:30 a.m. to ensure his jobs were the first to roll off the presses. "I'd do whatever it took to get the job out," he says.
He still does. More than once, Coovert has delivered orders to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport just as customers were boarding planes for business trips. Some distributors wouldn't go to that trouble for a $30 order of business cards, he says. "It's the account you're concerned with, not the order," Coovert says.
Another example of Printcom's nonconformity: It doesn't employ any sales representatives. "If you have salespeople, you can get a couple of big accounts and be so buried that you're almost in trouble," Coovert says. "You can't tell salespeople to stop selling." Coovert and his wife Judy, the distributorship's corporate secretary, market Printcom to new customers through targeted direct mail campaigns. When the distributorship becomes bogged down with orders, they simply stop marketing the company for a few months.
The Cooverts select their clients carefully. "You can't tell salespeople which accounts are good and which accounts aren't," Jim Coovert says. "We almost interview customers when they're interviewing us. We don't sell to the wrong kind of customer." Printcom won't take on clients that plan to order only one item, such as a 4-color brochure that's time-consuming to produce. Instead, the company looks for customers that will buy every item Printcom sells. By filling your print shop with complex, one-time orders, Coovert says, you'll drive away long-time customers who feel they aren't receiving proper service.
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In June 2000, Printcom was one of the first companies to go live with Quantum Net®, an e-commerce system offered by Forms Management Data Systems, a management software supplier in Reno, Nev. This page allows customers to create customized business card templates, indicating design, fonts and standardized information (such as company address and phone numbers) to ease the ordering process for employees.
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Ace Move
The past year has been a challenge for Printcom. The distributorship lost three customers, including one of its largest, when they were purchased by other businesses. A fourth account was retained solely due to a strategic move Printcom made in June 2000--the move to e-commerce.
In late 1999, Printcom was preparing to enter the electronic forms market. After listening to e-forms hype, Coovert began having doubts. "I decided that I'd rather spend the money selling 4-color printing, which I knew, versus selling electronic forms, which I didn't know," Coovert recalls. Not spending the money on e-forms gave Printcom the ability to jump on e-commerce, he says.
"A rush order to some
distributorships is two weeks.
A rush order to us is this afternoon."
Jim Coovert
President
Printcom Inc.
Seattle, Wash.
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Like many distributors, Coovert realized how e-commerce
could help his company. He knew that a slick e-commerce system would
simplify customers' ordering and inventory processes and help build
long-term, service-based relationships. In June 2000, Printcom was one of
the first companies to go live with Quantum Net
®
, an e-commerce system offered by Forms Management Data Systems (FMDS), a management software supplier in Reno, Nev.
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Utilizing Quantum Net seemed like a natural step for Printcom because it had been using Quantum 2000, FMDS' distributor management software system. Printcom uses Quantum 2000 to handle its accounts payable, accounts receivable, invoicing, general ledger, contact management and forms management functions. Quantum Net and Quantum 2000 are integrated, so when customers log on to Printcom's web site and request inventory releases, Printcom can print invoices in seconds without having to input data. Printcom also has a test e-commerce web site, allowing customers to try the system and place mock orders. Since making the move to e-commerce, Printcom's sales have grown 20 percent.
During the summer of 2000, a long-time Printcom customer--a Seattle-based company that produced background music for restaurants, airlines and stores--merged with another music firm. To ease its print-buying process, the new firm, headquartered in Los Angeles, wanted a local printer to handle its printing needs. But Printcom had a proven record with the Seattle music firm--the distributorship was its Vendor of the Year in 1998. The new music company was intrigued by Printcom's e-commerce capabilities, something its printer in Los Angeles didn't offer. Coovert boarded a plane to Los Angeles, where he demonstrated Printcom's e-commerce web site for the company's decision-makers.
The music firm was impressed. Printcom landed all of the company's printing business, including traditional business forms, business cards, letterhead, note cards, mailing labels and envelopes, as well as the firm's 2-color newsletter, distributed monthly to 1,200 clients.
"Printcom has been chosen because they have consistently performed at a high level in the categories of quality, delivery sales, communication, cost/pricing and technical assistance," the manager of the music firm's sales offices announced in a company-wide memo. Printcom saves the firm approximately 40 percent annually on printing.
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Previously, employees at the music firm's 25 sales offices nationwide faxed or mailed order requests to the firm's purchasing department in Los Angeles. Now, they log on to Printcom's web site to place and track their orders online. Sales offices have their own log on IDs and passwords, which allow them to view details about items previously ordered from their specific locations, including number in stock, dates when items were last ordered, prices, monthly usage and carton contents. The sales offices can search for items by description (such as "envelopes") or by form number. Coovert assigns each item a unique 4-digit form number, signifying branch location and type of product. The number allows customers to search for previously ordered items. The sales offices also can view lists of all items that have been ordered previously. (See "Ace System" on page 32.)
Though the music firm's print buying-process has moved online, its purchasing department still can monitor transactions. When orders are placed, emails are sent instantly to the purchaser and to a purchasing department employee, who can change the order if necessary. Quantum Net also has administrative tools, which allow the music company's purchasing department to control payment options, specify maximum dollar amounts per order, view customized reports and more. Clients can view cost-center reports detailing how much each sales office spends on printing to help create annual budgets.
Printcom's e-commerce capabilities make the distributorship look bigger, but that's not what Coovert is most proud of. "The main thing is that we're offering a service to our customers...a way of ordering that's easy and saves them time," he says.
Ace Team
Each summer, Printcom employees gather their families and head to a 3,000-acre, privately owned park on Washington's Black River for the distributorship's much-anticipated, 3-day family campout. Employees and their families enjoy volleyball, pickleball (similar to tennis, but played with a WIFFLE
®
ball), basketball, fishing, hiking, horseshoes, music, dancing and food. "It's a nice way for us to get together," says Val Nottle, a 9-year company veteran and Printcom's operations manager. "No phones, no television. It takes you away from a lot of stress and strain of daily life."
The family campout isn't the only way Printcom rewards its employees. A few years ago while at a conference for the Association of Washington Business (the state's chamber of commerce), Judy Coovert won two roundtrip tickets to anywhere Alaska Airlines would fly. Judy and her husband were too busy to go on a trip, so they raffled the tickets to their employees. Rather than having to buy tickets for the raffle, employees were given a certain number of chances to win based on the amount of sick leave they hadn't used that year. The Cooverts were so thrilled with employee response to the raffle that they now give away two tickets for a cruise from Seattle to British Columbia each year. "Sick leave sure has gone down," Jim Coovert jokes.
The distributorship also offers its employees free flu vaccinations (usually given during the company's annual Halloween costume party), Costco memberships, profit sharing and wholesale clothing purchases in cooperation with Printcom vendors. Employees can earn paid holidays, such as the days after Thanksgiving or Christmas, through Printcom's Pacesetter Walking Program, which started seven years ago when the Cooverts noticed their employees weren't taking breaks. From May to August each year, employees are encouraged to walk around the distributorship's business park before or after work, on breaks, or during lunch. Employees record their mileage with stickers on a chart in the office, and can evolve from "pond scum" to "race horses" based on the distance they've walked. At the end of each program, Printcom donates $1 per mile to charities the employees choose.
Printcom's extensive employee benefits haven't gone unnoticed. In 1998, Washington CEO magazine named Printcom one of the 25 best companies to work for in the state. Last year, the distributorship received a Better Workplace Award from the Association of Washington Business. More than half of the firm's employees have been with the company for more than five years. "If you add our employee benefit programs up, they're not very expensive," Coovert says. "But they show that we appreciate them."
Just as important to Printcom's success, Coovert says, are the distributorship's vendors and suppliers, who Coovert aims to treat as well as his customers. "We don't want to buy from vendors that say, 'Our turnaround time is seven days,'" Coovert says. "Our vendors do a lot of good things for us and make us look good to our customers. It's nice to say, 'Thank you.'" For a job well done, Coovert gave 10 pounds of frozen halibut to a vendor who enjoys eating fish. Another vendor received two tickets to the Major League All-Star Game in Seattle this past July.
After Printcom received the music firm's Vendor of the Year award in 1998, the distributorship decided to formally recognize the excellence of its vendors. Each year, Printcom's employees vote for vendors with superior performances in print production, promotional products and support services. Account managers and Coovert give two other awards. Winners are selected based on responsiveness, communication, product quality, dispute resolution and teamwork. They receive clear, Lucite plaques, engraved with their company names and the honors bestowed. "It's about sharing joy in accomplishment and in the promise of future opportunities," Coovert says.
Kara S. Carpenter is an assistant editor at
Print Solutions. Email her your comments at kcarpenter@PSDA.org.
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Table of Contents
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ACE SYSTEM
Printcom Inc.'s e-commerce system
has helped simplify customers' ordering and inventory processes. The
15-year-old Seattle distributorship can build branded web sites for
different departments within the same end user company. Workers in the
marketing department don't have to scroll through items the accounting
department ordered to find a 4-color brochure they need to reorder. "I
don't want my customers hunting around for items they need," says Jim
Coovert, Printcom's president. Customers can also customize business
cards, letterhead and other documents and instantly view images of what
the documents will look like when printed.
The ordering process is simple even
for users that aren't tech-savvy, Coovert says. After selecting an item,
customers key in the number of cartons they need, click "submit," and
instantly receive an order confirmation via email. If the item isn't
stored in Printcom's warehouse, the distributorship receives a purchase
order via email. If the item is warehoused, the system emails Printcom an
inventory release (all warehoused items are paid for up front) and
instantly adjusts the inventory level indicated on the web site. Workers
in Printcom's warehouse print the inventory release, pick and pack the
item, then ship the order. Customers can also drop-ship or mass-ship items
to different cost centers, track current orders, generate inventory
reports, view and print details about past orders, access distribution and
fulfillment, and more.
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