Even our Sacramento printing account manager knew the problem before she sat him down with me. She walked into my office and placed his card and flyer on my desk without saying a word. I looked at it and asked her if he was here because his sales were down and she just giggled. She knew she couldn't tell him how bad his Sacramento business printing was and he would only respond to me. However, this didn't make her any less right. His printing was costing him business and he didn't even know it. He was so proud of what he was able to make using his Microsoft office program that he couldn't see the writing on the wall.
Turns out that Mike started off using the Sacramento printing service that his dad had been using. The print shop however closed down when it was bought out by someone who wanted to use the space the Sacramento printing facility had been in for over twenty years for home development. When the printing shop closed, Mike didn't bother looking for another Sacramento printing company to take up the slack and instead worked to design his own business cards and printed them out on his inkjet printer. Handing these out to his sales staff should have been his first indicator. The staff said nothing about their new printing the Sacramento business owner gave them. Instead they took the substandard printing out and distributed as they normally would.
But then the sales started to drop and the business started to get cheaper.
You may think this is just a statement made by a marketer with a Sacramento printing facility to ply, but think about it yourself in your everyday situations. If someone hands you a business card on cheap printing are you going to think of them as a quality company? If you were honest the answer is of course a no. Sacramento printing companies rely on their quality for customer retention, and not even digital printing is as low in quality as homemade inkjet printing. A good Sacramento printing business knows that quality printing not only gives them customer retention, but also helps their customers get more and a better caliber of business as well.
My conversation with Mike immediately went to his printing and to my surprise he was very receptive and got it as soon as I brought it up, being able to tie his business decline directly to the time he started handing out inferior printing to his Sacramento customers. When his order was complete and ready for pick up, two of Mike's reps came in themselves to pick up the order so they could pass them out. When you take pride in what you do as these people obviously did, that pride is shown as confidence to your customers. Amazing what a Sacramento printing company that only works with quality can do.
So look at your business cards, postcards, and brochures and ask yourself, What is your Sacramento printing seed going to give you come harvest time?
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