I was recently training a printer on how to sell business-to-business web-to-print storefronts to their existing customers. One of the long-term employees said something like this: “Every single print job we produce  is unique, so none of this will work for our customers.” I bet most of you reading this can either relate to that statement or can easily point to an individual in your organization who firmly believes it. This is a real problem in our industry. We are rooted in this belief that we are unique, our customers are unique, every one of our jobs is unique and therefore we have to staff our print businesses with people who are required to make unique decisions in real-time. Basically there can’t be processes or automation because the print industry is so unique it has to be run by humans.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The print industry is no exception and printers cannot afford to continue to run their print businesses according to this outdated model. Here’s a quote which I feel sums it all up.

“Systemize the predictable, so you can humanize the exceptional.” —Gino Wickman