One would think that the printing industry, an industry with such close ties to the advertising and design community, would have mastered how to properly market products and services to print buyers. Only a minority in the industry understand this. These are the 20% doing 80% of the business.

Printers that decide their message to customers should be centered around the craft theme, they will never be seen as a technology company. They will be unable to capitalize on opportunities that come about, because customers will select competitors that effectively communicate the correct message to the market.

Printing executives cannot rely on sales people to deliver the correct message. I guarantee that if an owner spent five minutes with each sales person and asked them to define what their company stood for - most reps would tell a story that is different and not in line with the ownership of the company. This is why printing executives must define the message and teach sales people how to make it part of their mantra. Everyone in the organization from CSRs to pressmen should understand what it is the company stands for and be capable of delivering this single message to every person they come in contact with outside the organization.