We came across this post about printing plant tours while researching something else. The writer is a consultant who sells branding, marketing, and design services, and he’s clearly somebody who’s spent a lot of time inside printing plants.
Here’s his conclusion about the value of plant tours as a sales tool:
“The truth is I personally do not care about the equipment. I know that these printers have spent tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars on all these printing presses, but I can not keep up on all the specs of each press. I just need to know you can get my job done and make my client happy with the results.”
His challenge to printers who believe that showing customers around the plant makes a difference: “What does your plant do for me? How does your plant make my life easier and get me more clients or satisfy my clients better?”
He didn’t get any responses to these fair questions at his blog, but perhaps there’ll be some reaction here. Should today’s customers care about or even attempt to understand how printing technology works, or why printers have chosen the presses, etc., that they’ve installed? What exactly does a walkaround contribute to the sales effort? As web-to-print channels start to take hold, doesn’t the whole idea of in-person inspections seem a bit anachronistic?
And if that topic doesn’t draw comment, this one might: the writer’s assertion that “personal variable printing makes lazy marketers.”
Discussion
By Amy on Apr 26, 2011
I believe plant tours are a huge asset to the printing sales force. I disagree that the point of a printing production center tour is to show off expensive equipment to clients, or even make an attempt to explain how each machine functions. Let's face it- print production is a complicated process, so anyone knowledgable in the field knows that explaining each piece of equipment to a client probably wouldn't go very far. I firmly believe the point of tours is to show clients what they can do for them- let them know that their options extend much farther then what they might believe possible. A sales rep can explain over and over again what their company is capable of producing for them, but chances are, the client is going to listen more if they are actually able to see what can be done for them as opposed to just hearing about it.
Personally, I believe designers should take full advantage of this. Knowing what is capable of being printed for them will give them the opportunity to expand their design field to places they may have never imagined.
By Michael on Apr 26, 2011
Plant tours are not for everybody, but we find them a great marketing and sales tool. They do give customers an insight on what happens with their jobs and most customers really appreciate them.
The writer of the original post may be right that machines by themselves, without explanation of the use and benefits don't mean a lot to most customers, but they make it much easier to explain details to them when necessary.
Nothing wrong with showing some pride in what you're doing, either.
By Chuck Gehman on Apr 27, 2011
The decision by a customer to make the effort to visit one of our plants usually means they are planning to spend a lot of money with us.
The plant tour is less about speeds and feeds of the equipment, and more about the customer establishing in their mind that we are a good partner worthy of a commitment; establishing a high level of trust.
I think customers leave our plant with a very clear vision of the benefits it and our caring associates will be providing them, and feeling very confident we'll be doing a great job producing all of their print products.
By Greg on Apr 27, 2011
I've said this for years, and I own a printing company with lots of shiny expensive equipment: Our customers don't care at all about our equipment, what sort of press we own, whose die cutter we run. They just want to make sure we are using this equipment to deliver a fantastic experience to them. Printers always tend to fall in love with their equipment, think that because I spent $2 million on it anybody who sees it is going to be just as impressed.. What the guy said earlier is exactly true - if you're giving a tour and you're not talking about why this equipment is important and instead just walking past a press hoping that the client is impressed by the blinking lights and neat sounds, you might as well have just taken him or her to the local Starbucks. Everyone would've had a better, more useful time...
By David Pilcher on Apr 27, 2011
I agree. Plant tours usually mean someone is very serious about working with you and this is a part of their final decision.
If, on a tour, a potential customer saw older gear, computers and a dirty plant they may have second thoughts about printing there. But a view of great new technology should impress upon them the strength of the business - weather they understand all the details of the technology or not.
I think plant tours should be a great time of repore building - not a time to share equipment specifications. We usually ask prospects to come in and see the technology and then meet the people behind the technology - both are equally important.
By Patty Traynor on Apr 27, 2011
The blogger you quoted may not be interested in looking at equipment, but there are a lot of people who love that sort of stuff. He notes that one of the things that printers have shown him is their "pride and joy" but he would rather know that the company will provide great service or quality. The amount of pride one takes in his/her company's work is certainly one way to show a customer that quality is important, A plant tour can show so much more than the equipment. I once was offered an unscheduled tour of a shop in the middle of winter. I had to climb over a mountain of trim-off waste to get more than 10 feet beyond the office door. The employees were wearing coats and wore gloves (sans fingertips). It didn't matter what equipment they had. The result was a knowledge that they cared more about being cheap than they did about their employees, safety, or most likely quality. Conversely, I know of a fellow BIA member in the UK that paints the floor under all equipment white in order to facilitate better repair and maintenance efficiency. Making that effort to be able to quickly notice a spot of oil or a dropped screw tells one that they probably also take care to notice the slightest quality issue. As for the second point of the "lazy marketers"... that blog entry was so riddled with grammatical and spelling errors that I didn't finish reading it. For one who is writing a blog about marketing, such laziness in writing creates a credibility issue. It is rather like a plant tour, I suppose. It says, “Here is how we do our work. The attention we take here is the attention we give to your job.”
By Al Zowada on Apr 27, 2011
Touring a printing plant is no different than having a client meeting in the advertising agency’s office. It gives everyone a chance to meet and gain a perspective of the team of people that will be responsible for producing the project accurately.
A proper tour should demonstrate the interdependence of people and machines. The client is given the opportunity to see, firsthand, this interaction taking place on their behalf. When the client witnesses the value their input has on the performance of the plant, he or she becomes engaged.
Seeing an entire plant working in unison to ensure the client is satisfied, should be valuable enough to warrant the tour. The tour also offers a unique opportunity to gain the confidence of the the client and that, in turn, should generate additional revenue.
PS: If traditional touring is no longer interesting, try my backwards approach. I begin at the shipping dept. and work backwards through bindery/finishing to printing then, plating, prepress and color management, then production and finally, the sales office.
This version shows a clear “domino effect” in which each department relies on the previous one before they can proceed and "everyone" relies on the designer/customer.
By paul borkowski on Apr 27, 2011
Anyone who thinks printing presses cost 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars definitely needs a plant tour. Our presses cost millions of dollars and our customers appreciate our faith in them and their businesses to keep them running. If they prosper we prosper. Any printer who does not want to provide a tour of their facility must not be very proud of their facility. Simple customer service and basic sales 101 clearly points to the nurturing effect a plant tour can have on a business relationship. If a client does not want a plant tour it is a huge red flag. That client will buy graphic media at the lowest price they can find and never give you the opportunity to have the last look before they send their low margin work elsewhere.
By Gary Larivee on Apr 28, 2011
Lots of high falutin theories but what most buyers really want is to have a good excuse to get away from his desk, a big lunch and a few drinks.
By Diane D on Apr 28, 2011
Hi: First a caveat; Salespeople do not call me, I have brought most of my work in-house!!! If you call on the basis of this comment you will be eliminated from consideration. All work is done within our service footprint and is short-run. Thank you. Plant tours are important to me as a buyer. I've even taken marketing depts.for a tour. 1. Is there "pride of place?" Is the plant clean and orderly? Is the restroom clean? Is the sample room stocked? 2. Do employees seem happy? Can I meet/talk with them? Are they rushed? Is there tension in the air? 3. Will I be provided with a list of inside contacts? 4. Will I do an okay at press? 5. Does an officer/owner come to meet me? 6. Security-Cyber? Firewalls? Supplied info guarded? Employee training? Compliance documentation? 7. Security-Safety-Can I feel safe coming for a press okay in the middle of the night? 8. Do I feel that your organization wants a partnership with mine? Can I avail myself of your resources even if no work is in your plant? All of these are important to me as a potential plant user/print buyer. Even if I don't go into the plant later, I really need to have this experience. It has worked for me for many years . By the way,I'm not looking for lunch, I'm determining the correct placement of my company's marketing dollars.I generally am too tight on time and would not want to feel obligated to a potential vendor. I find that comment to be professionally insulting. Diane
By Jim B. on Apr 29, 2011
It is all about the customer. Plant tours are good and become great if one can relate the printing capabilities being shown to the solutions offered. Don't explain the shop's printing capabilities, but do explain the ability of the shop to fulfill the client's needs. So before a tour is conducted, first listen and learn the needs of the customer. Offer a solution with the shop tour being a proof of concept. Then expand your tour by discussing the unique value the shop provides as related to the solution being offered. Now you have differentiated yourself which should provide higher margins. And higher margins brings sustainability.
By Kevin Cross on May 05, 2011
Plant Tours Sell! 80% of prospects that agree to take the time to have a tour of a plant will at least give you the opportunity to look at a future project. It's not about the equipment, it's about establishing confidence with the prospect.
By David Jacobs on May 05, 2011
I'll put my two cents in and say that I generally agree with Diane on this one but that Gary also has an interesting point.
We work with many many printers throughout North America and China. We capture equipment lists, past price quotations, production times, customer satisfaction. Basically, anything that can be quantified and saved, we capture and try to leverage that information.
When everything is working well, prices are competitive, projects deliver on time and customers are happy with quality then I have no need to visit the plant.
The plant itself becomes a black box and I really don't care how it works as long as it is working. I feed in PDFs and a work order, the plant produces my books and an invoice.
Where the plant tour is helpful and the lunch with the sales/csr/mgmt team really provides value is when that first problem occurs.
Only by spending time with the people do you understand their approach and willingness to work things out. Will this printer be a vendor or a partner? Will I spend extra time to resolve job issues or move on to another printer? This is what I am able to decide through the tour.
"Who are these people? Can I trust them to do the right thing when a problem occurs? Do I want to build a long term relationship with the Plant (not just a single individual)? These questions can only be decided by meeting everyone and experiencing the working environment.
And for the fancy lunch, if we are eating steaks instead of hamburgers I assume the cost of the steak will be buried somewhere in one of my jobs.
David
By Scott Burford on Jun 08, 2011
I agree that plant tours with clients are essentially worthless. I began my career as a manufacturers rep, and the numerous tours I provided for various clients never led to anything significant in sales, or in strengthening a client relationship. As a matter of fact, if you take a client on a tour of your facility, there are several things that can happen on that tour that could shape the clients perspective and harm your relationship. Providing results, being dependable, and always responding quickly to a client need or question are all a million times more important than taking a client on a tour. My company does not own any equipment, nor do my clients care about that. They care about execution and results.
Discussion
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