Many CEOs have gotten stuck halfway in transforming their companies to a new business model – losing focus on their existing business, before the new business can support the entire company. They’ve found greener pastures, but starved before the crops could be harvested.

A critical part of migrating your business is ensuring that you make the kind of profits necessary to support the transition. So pay attention to the business you have, and don’t be diverted. Those exciting new opportunities always take longer and cost more to develop than you hoped for.

Can you afford to invest in the new technology? The better question is: “Can you afford not to?” 

Sadly, many firms simply can't justify investing in new technology because they don't have enough business to keep the equipment busy. This just highlights a much more fundamental issue they have to address: "Why aren't we busier? Why aren't we able to earn the kinds of profits that will permit us to stay in the game?"
The answer usually lies in how customers feel about doing business with you.  Do you provide solutions they didn’t know existed? Are you easy to do business with?  Do you make them feel it’s smart to do business with you?

Until you can answer these questions, you really shouldn't be investing in new equipment because you won’t be selling enough of the new capacity. But I’d suggest that you come up with the answers soon, because until then you’re just going to be falling farther behind your competitors.

It’s expensive and time-consuming to move into new areas of business. The best way to pay for the transformation is by extracting more profit from your existing business.

It’s our experience that virtually any plant can produce at least 20% more with the same staff and the same equipment – and 33% more if they get serious about it.
Even the best-established salesforces can produce more business with the proper guidance and encouragement. Most salespeople are just coasting – and most CEOs feel powerless to do anything about it.
Most companies are staffed for business that’s not coming back, and are missing countless opportunities to streamline administrative functions and internal workflows.

So if you’re concerned about generating the funds you need to move forward, start by paying close attention to what you already have.  4%-5% of added profits in an $8 million company will yield $300,000 to $400,000. That will go a long way towards paying for all sorts of progress.

Can you afford to invest in the new technology? The better question is: “Can you afford not to?” 

Sadly, many firms simply can't justify investing in new technology because they don't have enough business to keep the equipment busy. This just highlights a much more fundamental issue they have to address: "Why aren't we busier? Why aren't we able to earn the kinds of profits that will permit us to stay in the game?"
The answer usually lies in how customers feel about doing business with you.  Do you provide solutions they didn’t know existed? Are you easy to do business with?  Do you make them feel it’s smart to do business with you?

Most companies have encountered difficulties in getting their established print salespeople to sell marketing services. Part of the difficulty stems from unfamiliarity, and part from discomfort.

Print salespeople who have a consultive selling approach naturally gravitate to higher-end sales. But most traditional printing salespeople are uncomfortable (and unskilled) in a consultive selling role. They’re anxious about asking clients too many questions, uncomfortable dealing with high-level marketing people and uneasy about the long selling cycle.

So if some of your salespeople have already found their way to consultive selling opportunities, they may be able to sell an even higher-level bundle of services. But if they haven’t already found their way to consultive sales on their own, you’re probably wasting your time trying to get them to sell marketing services.

In addition, you’ll be diverting them from fighting for business within their existing client base. So you’ll be losing in both dimensions. It’s like teaching a pig to sing. It’s a waste of your time, and it makes the pig nervous.

Most print salespeople feel uncomfortable in a consultive selling role. You’ve got to decide whether you’re wasting their time and yours in pursuing high-end sales beyond conventional printing.

Can they identify and research targets, and get in the door to see the right people?  Do they have the patience and determination to research and prepare properly? Can they hold a needs analysis meeting to learn what the client does, how they’re doing it now, what they want to accomplish, and what are their issues?  Can they uncover the client’s challenges and offer solutions?  Can they build partnerships with clients at the right level? Can they deliver a campaign brief / solution proposal in a credible and effective way?

Most companies avoid firing salespeople because they’re scared that the salesperson will take their sales with them.

Ask yourself this: if a salesperson isn’t effective, why would customers give him/her a full share of their work? In fact, the more potential an account may have, the more likely it is that there’s more business you’re not getting. Why would a worthwhile account favor an ineffectual salesperson who isn’t capable of helping them? That’s why you need to make a plan to replace them on their accounts with a better salesperson.
In our experience, when companies terminate a salesperson for non-performance, they INCREASE the amount of business they get from key accounts more than two-thirds of the time, IF they assign a more effective salesperson to the account.

How can you get through to your clients’ marketing people? It may sound too simple, but it starts with finding the right people to speak with, and then it’s asking the right questions, so they let you know their marketing objectives: what does success look like for them?

The most successful companies have found their opportunity lies in helping clients to understand the range of solutions they can provide. After all, no one grew up understanding highly-targeted marketing programs, and professional training hasn’t been much help either.

But that’s precisely the source of the opportunity: making people aware of an entirely new approach to their particular marketing problem – an approach that you’ve thought of for them – and can deliver. That’s your real opportunity.

Even when companies add expensive new equipment, things rarely get better by themselves. People run the speeds they’re used to, and your company gets few of the benefits from the expensive equipment.

Why? Plant managers are too busy chasing constantly changing schedules to set performance standards – let alone enforce them.  Since people perform to the standards of their leaders, no standards lead to no performance. And that’s what happens in most printing plants.

We’ve built a process for helping convince plant managers that faster throughput is a requirement and that they need to build clear production goals and a process for improving throughput.

Most plant managers don’t do a very good job of managing, because they’re prisoners of production schedules and spend all their time getting the work out on time.

You should help your plant manager understand that just getting the work out on time isn’t cause for celebration. Clarify your priorities – emphasizing that they must find ways to reduce costs and turnaround times, rather than simply focusing on the schedule.

Few plant managers have gotten much managerial training and most don’t know how to provide guidance to their staff members. And since most of them came up from shop-floor jobs, they’re self-conscious about setting standards for people who are in the same positions they were in.

We’ve developed some tools you can use in helping them to see their job more positively – not as critics or judges, but as coaches helping people to achieve better results by removing the obstacles that get in the way of them doing their jobs as easily, as well or as quickly as possible.

Most printers don’t produce jobs very efficiently. The problem is caused by unpredictable and unreasonable schedules. Plant managers are too busy just getting the work out on time without any major mistakes.

It’s ironic to pay full price for 16,000 per hour presses, but accept 9,000 per hour; to pay for 10,000 per hour folders or stitchers, but accept 5,000 per hour. How does it all get paid for? It doesn’t!

You’ve got to help your plant manager understand that he has to get beyond on-time deliveries – producing jobs cost-effectively. That way you can make customers happy while also making a profit.

We’ve found that when CEOs commit to a program that focuses on improving throughput, dramatic improvements in productivity can be achieved. 20% isn’t remarkable and 33% improvements aren’t unusual.  It’s not an overnight process, but there’s no mystery to it. Focus and relentless determination are all that’s required.

Almost all sheetfed presses run much slower than they should, largely because most press operators are accustomed to running older equipment. They’ve got personal copies of The Pressman’s Manual of Excuses – which gives them all the reasons why:

• The press sounds better running at 11,000.  It’s better to run steady than to run fast.
• Running slower means less mistakes. It’s dangerous to run a press close to the red-line. What difference does running speed make, since the run lengths are so short?

That thinking dates back to the olden days, and it’s entirely outdated . Your challenge lies in proving to them that presses really can deliver in register while running steadily at high speeds.

We’ve developed an amazingly simply way to increase running speeds without threats or punishment. The press won’t trip off, it will register and pretty soon you’ll see it running 2,000 an hour faster – or 3,000 – without quality problems.

Digital presses don’t yield their promised output for the same reasons your litho presses don’t run at 16,000 / hr. It’s the operators.

With litho presses, it’s often old habits and attitudes. With digital presses, it’s usually because the operators don’t understand both the limitations and the possibilities of the equipment.

Just as with digital pre-press people, mastery of the software is far more important than the speed of their computers. The same is true – more or less – for digital presses.

Digital presses are not just expensive copying machines that turn out X copies a minute. That’s why training is just as crucial as it is on conventional printing equipment. Yet most companies give their operators only a few days of training and then leave them to figure things out for themselves or rely on inadequate phone support.

So ask your operators where their production obstacles lie, and invest in some more training. You’ll be happy you did. We’ve seen 50% improvements in output.

Many CEOs want to transform their company in the hope of handing it down to their children. But transforming your business model is a daunting task, and you must be brutally honest with yourself in considering your long-term options.

Start by asking: “Do I have the insights to make the right moves in a new direction? Can I find the staff I need? Do I have the energy and will to make it happen?  And do I have enough time and money to complete the process?”

Consider all your options before making the decision – and above all, be realistic. Maybe there are merger partners out there who can share capabilities and eliminate extra costs. Could they permit you to reduce your debt burden or add capabilities and talent you can’t develop yourself. Might you be able to generate the funds to retire without struggling endlessly or throwing up your hands?

There’s no single answer, but before making a once-in-a-lifetime decision, it’s worth taking a careful look around.

Everyone talks about the need to be competitive and everyone wants to be profitable. But is it possible to be more competitive and more profitable at the same time? Yes! In fact the two go hand-in-hand. Unless you’re organized to be competitive – offering what clients want, how they want it, at a cost that they're willing to pay – you simply won't be able to sell enough to be profitable.

Remember the clients who were willing to pay more because you made them feel good. Where are they now? All gone. And they’re not coming back.  The profit leaders know that the market sets the price, and has the final say. They know that unless they're responsive, high-quality, cost-effective providers of services that clients value, they don't have a chance of being really profitable.

With the continuing erosion of demand in many areas of print, the industry’s consolidation will certainly continue.

Twenty years ago, mergers became a high-visibility financial game in our industry. Now they've gone back to what they were when I got into the business – a very useful tool that normal companies can use in building their value and reducing their business risks.

That’s why more and more mergers are being done for strategic reasons within the same regional markets – by companies that make a good operating fit with each other. They’re joining forces to share their sales and their capabilities while reducing their costs and becoming stronger competitors in their markets.

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Lots of companies are struggling, yet lots of mergers are being done – because companies that make a good fit together can create surprising value by combining operations.

Even if your company isn’t profitable, it still has value to the right partner. For example, a nearby company might value your market position, your salesforce, your customers and even some of your production capabilities. It could be faster, easier and less to build sales and profits by combining forces.

We’ve found that even when companies are doing a lot of things right, they may not have much to show for it. If you’re like most printers, the eroding demand for traditional printed products is making it more difficult to extract profits from your business. It feels like you’re shoveling against the tide.

In most companies, we find a number of small but meaningful profit leaks throughout the company – in the plant, in scheduling, order-processing and administration. And in most companies there are missed sales opportunities from unfocused and undisciplined sales efforts.

Even in reasonably well-run companies, a little here and a little there often adds up to a 5% or 6% increase in profits. So a pre-tax loss of 5% or 6% of sales can turn into a break-even. And a 3% or 4% profit can turn into profit-leading results.

Many people have plenty of spare capacity, but are unwilling to consider selling some jobs at prices the market is willing to pay. Sadly, there isn’t enough work to keep most people busy at full prices. So if you’re only taking jobs with comfortable pricing, chances are that your cost sheets will look good, but you won’t be winning enough business to cover your overheads.

If you have unused capacity, consider taking some added work at less than full mark-up. After all, you’re already paying your staff whether you have the added work or not.  Of course, you mustn’t cut pricing across the board. But if it’s a new customer or business you wouldn’t otherwise get, take it and use some of that excess capacity.

If you’re like most printers, you work all year to fill in the hole left by two or three problem sales months. Maybe it’s July or August and November or January. Whatever the months, the pattern is the same. Sales are shockingly low in a few months, and each year you resolve to do something about it, but in the press of daily business, time gets away.

We’ve developed a systematic approach to fixing clients’ problem sales months – defining the problem months and building a simple and hard-hitting approach to dealing with them – including systematically opportunistic pricing to open new accounts or develop new business from existing accounts.

It’s not a general price cut, and it’s not a last-minute effort driven by fear. If you focus systematically on building a real program, it will work and you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it earlier.

You’ve seen the effect of a really bad sales month, but have probably accepted that sales are unpredictable, so what good are sales projections? Your salespeople probably agree.

Since the impact of a bad month is so obvious, it’s crucial to improve your sales projections. After all, if you know that next month’s sales will be soft, wouldn’t you do something in pricing your current bidding? And wouldn’t that help your salespeople as well?

So it’s your job to help your people understand it’s in everyone’s interest to improve sales projections. The payoff is large and it’s surprisingly easy to do. It takes a little practice, but most of all it requires you to prove that no one will be punished or humiliated for an inaccurate projection.

CEOs are always hesitant to replace struggling salespeople – even when they consistently miss their sales targets.

Do they spend time on customers that are too small or just don’t fit your company, or on work that doesn’t fit. Are they failing to open new accounts or fully penetrate existing  accounts?

If they make promises that somehow never come to pass or just don’t get what your company is aiming to sell, they don’t fit. If they always complain about price, over-promise on deliveries, or over-reach by offering solutions beyond your capabilities, they’re hurting you.

Yes, of course you want their sales. But if they’re ineffectual, you’ll get more from their worthwhile clients by assigning a better salesperson to those accounts.

First, mediocre CSRs and estimators are really BAD employees being called a polite name. They’re hugely expensive in terms of mistakes, slowed jobs, unhappy customers and less effective selling efforts. They weigh down the entire organization.

The good news is that CSRs and estimators need fewer technical skills these days. There’s less magic in the process of getting something printed, so other skills have become more important – skills like good judgment and intelligence. So that means that non-print experts can fulfill those roles, which gives you a much larger pool of candidates to choose from. And those candidates are often much less costly than people with heavy printing experience.

If your new MIS system doesn’t meet your expectations, chances are, the system wasn’t well-implemented. As a result, it turns out to be a disappointing and expensive diversion of time and money.

Most often, we’ve found that once systems are selected, the implementation is handed off to staff members who may not fully understand the system’s capabilities, or may not think through some of the choices involved in specifying standards and designing procedures.  They are often unfamiliar with the system’s report structure or haven’t been able to take the data and generate reports that are well-adapted to management’s needs.

In almost every case we’ve seen, re-visiting the implementation can deliver most of what was promised when the system was selected. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s worth doing. It’s a good bet that there’s useful management information in your database, just waiting to be unlocked and put to use.

CEOs are rarely happy with CFOs. They complain that they don’t get what they want, that the information is late or confusing, and that the CFOs keep adding staff members even after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on new management information systems.

A major part of the blame for the problem may lie with YOU. Most CEOs aren’t really interested in finance and information systems unless there’s a crisis. Then they get REALLY interested! Have you been clear about the information you want, when you want it and how you want it presented? How can the CFO give you what you want if he or she doesn’t KNOW?

Clarify your needs and expectations. Be prepared to listen to the CFO’s side of the conversation, because there are almost certainly obstacles standing in the way of your getting what you want, and your assistance may be required to remove those obstacles.

But remember – you’re the customer for the CFO’s work. It’s time to get what you need.

Slow billing is almost never a billing problem at all. It’s an order entry problem and a sales discipline problem.

Most companies fail to capture all the job details when they’re opened and most salespeople don’t finish writing up the job until after it’s shipped. Confirming the cost of changes is entirely hit or miss.

In hundreds of clients, we’ve found that fixing the problem starts with the CEOs’ determination to make it happen. It starts with having some serious conversations with the salesforce and the CSRs, and requires them to form some new habits – capturing job details from the start, pricing and confirming AAs when they’re incurred.

Most CEOs are looking for a sales manager to be a hero in transforming their sales efforts, but there aren’t many heroes around. You’ve got to recognize your sales manager’s strengths and weaknesses, and work with them or find someone else.

We’ve found that most sales managers are administrators, not coaches or new business developers. And the salespeople know it. Asking them to coach or help in selling is asking them to do a job they’re bad at or uncomfortable with.