Print manufacturing is typically a part of a larger business workflow. For example, the printers who manufacture credit cards are one of many steps to getting us that new Visa card after we dropped ours into the sewer (recent fun experience). The printers who print the packaging on toilet paper sold into supermarkets have been very busy lately, since we are using the bathroom way more at home than at the office these days. The packaging was part of a larger supply chain challenge that the market segment faced during the global pandemic. 

For years, people like me and others in the industry have been talking about how strategic printers are expanding their offerings to provide a broader solution set that extends before and after the print manufacturing. For example, variable-data tools help customers personalize their content prior to printing and fulfillment services assist customers with the distribution of their content after the printing. More and more sales meetings are dominated by the customer describing up and downstream challenges and very time dedicated to the actual print manufacturing.

I’ve been involved in so many sales processes where the printer or the vendor selling print engines into a corporation doesn’t fully understand where the customer sees the value. The print customer’s idea of value has migrated upstream and downstream of the print manufacturing. In one instance, I was the “web-to-print partner” of a large corporate in-plant sales process. The vendor (a major manufacturer of printing devices) had prepared to fill the entire sales pitch with device strategies. The customer drove the conversation to their prioritized value, which happened to be the customer experience of ordering print (web-to-print). So a piece of software technology that represented a very small fraction of the deal drove the decision makers and consumed 90% of the sales pitch. Customers expect the printing, they are looking for printers to solve tangential challenges.