Hi, I’m Joe Truncale, President of NAPL.  And I’m happy to talk to here this morning a little bit about what we viewed and what some of the best companies in the industry are doing now to ensure their best business success going forward.  We’ve identified characteristics of leading companies in the industry.  What they do differently from everybody else and there’s a couple of things that come right to the surface. The first is they have a much different customer facing strategy.  What do I mean by that?  Well, they identify their success with the success of their clients and customers, number one.

Number two, they help keep scores so that their clients and customers not only succeed through their products and services but are aware of the extent to which these members, these leading companies are adding to the success of their customers.  They don’t leave any guesswork, which means they have a different way of approaching customers.  What do I mean by that?  The conversation is different.  The sales force is different.  The selling approach is different.  There’s more team selling.  The whole approach has little to do with printing.  In fact, in many cases the initial visit doesn’t even mention the word print or capabilities at all.

Many times we send our folks in with a set of structured questions designed to get the prospect talking about their business objectives and their business needs.  The second step is to go back, formulate a plan, and come back later on and present that plan and say, “In our first meeting I heard this, this, this, and this as your key issues.  Isn’t that right?  Yes.”  Here’s what we have that will approach a way to solve those problems or help you maximize those opportunities.  A whole different way of looking at customers, a different conversation, a whole different approach to your customer facing strategy.

You’ll be hearing more and learning more about this in reports that we’ll be generating about this specific topic.  It’s the first of many lessons we’ve learned from the most successful companies in the industry.