CANVAS Magazine - December 2017 - Play, Plan, Push

EMPOWERING MARKETING SERVICE PROVIDERS

DECEMBER 2017

WHY DESIGNING STRATEGY IS JUST THE BEGINNING

VISION WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING?

OBJECTIVES

MISSION

WHAT WILL BE MEASURED?

WHY ARE YOU BUILDING IT?

STRATEGIES HOW WILL I BUILD THIS BUSINESS?

ACTION PLANS STEPS TO TAKE

DECEMBER VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 6

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Inside this issue

BOILERPLATE

32 20 28 36

ALSO INSIDE CREATIVE CORNER

S2K Graphics founder Dan Pulos on why simplicity in design matters

04

Publisher’s Note

Trek

STAT PACK CORNER OFFICE

UNCOVERING CLIENT PERSONAS

10

Five pillars to success CANVAS Buyer’s Guide as a manager Wide Format Catalog

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

06 12

Industry news & awards

MAKERS’ CORNER CORNER OFFICE

08 P2

Driving visits, leads and new customers in 2018

CANVAS DECEMBER 2017

THE SALES ZONE

How to move your prospects from inactive to active

14

Material Matters

16 17 18

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Inside this issue| Publisher’s Note

BOILERPLATE

CONTRIBUTORS

Linda Bishop, President, Thought Transformation @Linda_Bishop

TREK

Pete Wiltjer Principal Pete Wiltjer Marketing Group @pwiltjer

Our theme for 2018 stems from an age old Zambian proverb that states, “One who enters the forest does not listen to the breaking of twigs in the brush.” In other words, when we embark upon a task, we should not be afraid. We should remain focused on the task despite what we may hear or see on our quest.

Ignoring fruitless or imaginary distractions is the key to achievement.

While the proverb normally is used in formal ceremonies, it is meant to encourage people to remain faithful to their tasks and vocations, especially the calls that are meant to bring life to others. There is no more noble venture in the world than to assist another human being – to help someone to succeed. But every day it becomes harder to reach out and touch our clients and our markets.

Clearly, this is an unsettling time. Despite a booming stock market and a rise in population, there is general uneasiness about our collective safety and personal success. We have been forced to reinvent ourselves and live with great uncertainly going forward. The cold hard truth is that most people are now operating from within some sort of protective bubble.

Connecting with them is harder than ever, and the odds are that it will become even more difficult. The tools at our fingertips keep people at an arms length and new connections become scarce.

So we are left with a strange challenge. What do we do when people are influenced by the people within our bubble, but getting into the bubble is next to impossible? How do we find footing in a changing landscape and earn the trust of an increasingly distrustful public?

A silver lining may be that we now live in a world that rewards sincerity, empathy and truth. Letting go of false narratives, being transparent, checking our egos at the door and focusing on our quest to serve will allow us to make our way in these bewildering times.

As for us, the goal at CANVAS has always been to provide words of wisdom, stories that matter and a place to help you succeed by standing together.

This issue is all about an ambitious path forward and planning is just one of the steps. In our first feature, “Play, Plan, Push,” we delve into why you have to be ready to put your ideas into action so that you can create great relationships with your customers. Also, we explore how to get our customers from inactive to active in “The Sales Zone” and “Uncovering Client Personas.”

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and I wish you the best of luck on your trek ahead.

Letting go of false narratives, being transparent, checking our egos at the door and focusing on our quest to serve will allow us to make our way in these bewildering times.

Chris Harrold, VP Creative Director, Mohawk Fine Papers @tweet_convert Colby B. Jubenville Senior Consultant Brent Consulting Group @drjubenville Benjamin D. Goss Associate Professor Stetson University @drbengoss

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THE CANVAS TEAM MANAGING EDITOR michael j. pallerino ART DIRECTOR brent cashman SALES/MARKETING mark potter

EDITORIAL BOARD gina danner NextPage tom moe Daily Printing dean petrulakis Rider Dickerson david bennett Bennett Graphics

PUBLISHED BY

Happy holidays,

Mark Potter, Publisher @MarkRicePotter

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CANVAS, Volume 11, Issue 6. copyright 2017 CANVAS, All rights reserved. CANVAS is published bi-monthly for $39.00 per year by Conduit, Inc., 2180 Satellite Blvd., Suite 400, Duluth, GA 30097 Periodicals postage pending at Duluth, GA and additional mailings offices. Periodical Publication 25493. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CANVAS, 2180 Satellite Blvd., Suite 400, Duluth, GA 30097. Please note: The acceptance of advertising or products mentioned by contributing authors does not constitute endorsement by the publisher. Publisher cannot accept responsibility for the correctness of an opinion expressed by contributing authors.

CANVAS magazine is dedicated to environmentally and socially responsible operations. We are proud to print this magazine on Opus® Dull Cover 80lb/216gsm and Opus Dull Text 80lb/118gsm, an industry-leading, environmentally responsible paper. Opus contains 10% post consumer waste and SFI and FSC chain of custody certification.

If they aren’t biting...

CATCH THEM WITH CONTENT channeling content & connections | conduit-inc.com

STAT PACK

JUMP ONBOARD

What are the biggest marketing priorities for today’s brands? According to SiriusDecisions’ “2017 Global CMO Study,” the biggest item on the to-do list of marketing professionals over the next two years is driving growth and customer acquisition. In a survey of 270 CMOs from B2B organizations around the globe, 24 percent said their most important strategy for growth focused on new buyers. New markets, new offerings, productivity and acquisition were also high on the list. Here’s what marketers are doing to promote better engagement with current customers over the next two years:

Survey says B2B CMOs focusing on new customers and growth

13.2% Interactive content/visual storytelling

11.1% 11.0% Marketing for mobile devices

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Customer communities to drive customer engagement

Insights

Hello?

Anybody out there?

Are your customers reading your emails? The answer is in the delivery.

According to Ascend2’s “2017 State of Email Marketing” survey, 50 percent of marketers say that message personalization is among the most effective email tactics, while 38 percent cite creating meaningful callsto-action as among the most effective strategies. The report was based on data from a survey of 260 marketers from B2B and B2C firms.

THE NUMBERS GAME

79% 51% 45%

of customers who want brands to “understand and care about” them.

Interestingly, 56 percent are loyal to brands that deeply understand their priorities and preferences. (“How to Know Your Customers Better Than They Know Themselves” by Semarchy)

of marketers who say that B2B marketing and sales communications have improved over the past few years.

On the other side, 24 percent say communications have gotten worse, while 25 percent say they have stayed the same. (Dun & Bradstreet’s “The State of Sales Acceleration” report)

of B2B buyers who say that total cost of ownership is one of the two most important factors they consider when making a business purchase.

In addition, 42 percent say whether the vendor/solution supports their company goals is a major factor, while 40 percent cite efficiency/ROI gains. (“What Do B2B Buyers Want?” survey

by Aberdeen and PJA Advertising)

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Perspective | Leadership | Insights

CORNER OFFICE

BY PETE WILTJER

Driving visits, leads and new customers in Can you believe that the calendar is getting set to turn again? This begs the obvious question for all the sales and marketing folks: How are you feeling about your 2018 marketing and sales plans?

In building your plans (or reviewing your plans, as most will do regularly throughout the year), it pays to make sure your plans have measurable, attainable, data-driven goals.

“We use the V2MOM (vision, values, methods, obstacles and measures) management process that Marc Benioff and Salesforce helped pioneer,” says Drew Beechler, director of marketing for Indianapolis-based High Alpha, a venture studio that develops B2B SaaS startups.

High Alpha’s portfolio companies set forecasts and growth milestones by starting with generating leads and creating a pipeline. “We usually start from the bottom of the funnel,” Beechler says. “How much revenue does marketing need to generate for the company to hit our number, and then work our way back into how many leads and interest at the top of the funnel we need to generate to meet that goal?”

If your company has a good track record with retaining clients, then perhaps your planning started by reflecting on last year’s plans. Deana Lecy, director of sales and marketing for the engineering consulting firm Falk-PLI, understands this approach. But for FalkPLI, Lecy says these historical patterns are matched against any new capital expenditure projects that are anticipated.

“Additionally, we look at potential new projects and clients and assign a dollar value to the project and estimated win percent,” she says. “For instance, if a project is worth $10 million with a 50 percent win rate, then we forecast a $5 million account value for that client. We then modify our projections quarterly, by client.”

This crucial factor that Lecy and her team address in their plans helps ensure that goals are not just measurable, but also attainable. If you don’t factor in market conditions, you won’t be able to decide if they’ll cooperate with your ability to attain your goals.

A new day dawning

What if you have joined a new organization, or were part of a merger?

In that case, you’ll be starting anew in 2018.

Jason Tews, executive VP of sales and marketing for the interactive marketing

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agency Kelmscott, relates to this. Kelmscott is part of the Fuse corporate family, based in Berkley, Ill., which also includes commercial printing and education marketing companies. Tews finds himself and his team in just this situation for 2018, due to the merger of three companies in 2017 that created Fuse.

But even though the Kelmscott team is starting anew, it has a long history of measuring visitor, prospect and customer traffic to its website and related digital properties.

“Everything is measured, broken down by Customer, Prospect, Suspect and Win-Back, down to the area clicked on each page (using marketing automation),” Tews says. “We also track all known

In building your plans (or reviewing your plans, as most will do regularly throughout the year), it pays to make sure your plans have measurable, attainable, data-driven goals. data activity, which would be anyone listed as a contact in our CRM, which then reflects their status in our CRM.” Effective measurement allows you to quickly figure out where your ideal customers come from. Analytics data can immediately teach your team about which key words, messages and marketing pieces are successfully engaging your target audience.

Dorn Marketing, located in Geneva, Ill., is a small marketing agency, yet has established a big presence in the industrial manufacturing market due to its focus.

“We have a very clear profile of who we want as a client,” say Dan Roglin, senior VP of strategy and insights. “We go after companies we know have an opportunity to grow and can benefit from our help, rather than reacting to RFPs and one-off projects.”

What about if the boss tells you to trim costs from last year’s marketing and sales budget?

Revenue per employee is a reliable and easy profitability benchmark. Have you pegged any profitability guidelines to your labor, in terms of a per-employee number?

Analyzing staff utilization rates can help determine the success of

your plans, since utilization rate is the variable that most impacts the effective cost of an employee. The peak utilization rates for agency staff is 75 percent. Typical agency gross margins are 30-55 percent, and typical net margins are 10-30 percent.

Lecy says Falk-PLI’s sales forecasts are housed in its project management system that ties directly to its accounting system. Her company will look at travel and entertainment costs closely throughout the year, too.

Driving new opportunities

Of course, nothing beats referrals for driving new revenue. “Your best marketers and salespeople are often your own customers,” Beechler says. “Focus on building a product your customers love and turn them into raving fans.”

And the power of referrals also underscores the advantage of a personal connection, even at a time when inbound digital marketing efforts have moved to the forefront for many organizations. Lecy says Falk-PLI still enjoys a strong track record of engaging with prospects face-to-face at industry conferences and tradeshows.

As long as your sales team is logging those trade show interactions into your CRM, you still control the data and can still measure your efforts.

“We continue to stress to all our sales representatives that they keep their databases updated,” Tews says. “Data changes frequently, and your marketing will suffer if your databases aren’t scrubbed.”

“In the data-driven marketing ecosystem in which we currently live and the increasing shift to more account-based strategies for B2B businesses, I think it’s more important than ever to segment and target your different audiences and provide personalized, contextualized experiences to everyone who interacts with your brand,” Beechler says.

“Measuring your visitor, prospect and customer web traffic is just the beginning of that personalized journey.”

Pete Wiltjer is an inbound marketing and PR consultant, and the owner of Pete Wiltjer Marketing Group Inc., Aurora, Ill. For more information, visit pwmginc.com or contact him on Twitter @pwiltjer.

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Perspective | Leadership | Insights

CORNER OFFICE

BY JAN MAKELA

Five pillars to success as a manager Why does your brand exist, and why should anyone care? Organizations exist to perform – period. Be for-profit or nonprofit, they all exist to do something, make a product, or supply a service.

Today, many employers say they’re having trouble retaining their younger employees – specifically Millennials. At 82 million strong, Millennials are the workforce of the future. Studies have shown they want to work where they can make a difference and contribute to something bigger than themselves.

It’s imperative to realize that the people in your organization – especially young people – are the fuel to your long-term success, and the one person who affects that outcome more than any other is the frontline manager.

Fortunately, there are five defined pillars of success that managers can rely on to help them succeed in their aim to boost employee retention.

No. 1 Have a vision

Engage employees with a compelling vision of what's expected, and provide the mission to achieve that vision. Why? What’s in it for the employee? People respond when they're doing or contributing to something bigger than themselves. Your vision and the culture you create are the reasons you exist.

Tell your people that without them doing what they do, you wouldn’t achieve the results that you desire. The way employees view a job and its role in their life is evolving. Employees don’t just come to work for a paycheck. They seek a purpose, the opportunity to do what they do best every day, and to lead a life they desire for their families and themselves.

No. 2 Make decisions based on productivity

By keeping your eye on the goal and having your people similarly focused, everyone will understand why certain decisions are made and can buy in. If disagreements occur in discussions, they are welcomed because they are focused on achieving a better outcome toward the end objective. When disagreements occur, be sure to ask what the ultimate goal is.

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No. 3 Motivate every team member to take action

People are more likely to take action if they know what's expected of them.

When expectations are clearly defined, employees are less likely to disappoint their manager or their peers. Your employees will work together without your direction or approval when they know what's expected and have

No. 5 Create a culture that you want

Culture impacts every aspect of how you get things done, from hiring and developing the talents of the employees to customer service. Define your desired culture and then take it from words to actions. If you don’t like the culture you currently have or the results that you are currently obtaining, you are the only person who can change it.

Your employees will work together without your direction or approval when they know what’s expected and have bought into achieving the desired results. bought into achieving the desired results. Most people are going to live up or down to their perception of the expectations of them. If your people don’t know what's expected, don’t be surprised by what you get.

No. 4 Have the assertiveness to drive outcomes

Are you more concerned with the process or the outcome? Managers are in place to strive for positive outcomes. Employees may find ways to produce an outcome that the manager never thought of. Provide employees the freedom to experiment and try new ways of doing things. Keep progress results in front of the employees.

If they do not see the progress they're making as a team, they'll lose interest over time and productivity will wane.

When your staff see that their work is making a difference, they'll continue to contribute. If you avoid providing appropriate feedback on your employees’ progress, you’ll immediate notice a decline in the contributions of team members.

Remember, feedback is the breakfast of champions – be generous with your thoughts and expectations.

Your actions have to mirror what you desire. Do you allow the negative behavior to go unchallenged? Realize negative behavior brings down all your good employees. Your employees are watching and if they see you doing nothing, your lack of action has sent a powerful message: You don’t care.

Employees are not going to care if the manager doesn’t care. When employees know that the manager truly cares about them, they'll walk through fire for the manager. When people believe the manager doesn’t care, the employees will let the manager walk off a cliff. This caring gets to the heart of employee engagement.

By creating a workplace where people want to come to work, rather than because they have to come to work, managers will see positive changes. Most people don’t wake up in the morning and say, “I think I will do a bad job today.” Help them achieve the results necessary for the organization, but in a way that each and every employee’s contribution is recognized and appreciated.

Jan Makela is an executive coach, highlysought after speaker and best-selling author of “Cracking the Code to Success” and “Be the Manager People Won’t Leave.”

Makela’s specialty revolves around strengthbased leadership development, with a particular focus on working with senior and mid-level executives, business owners and professionals. For more information, visit www.StrengthBasedLeadership.net.

Perspective | Technology | Insights

CORNER OFFICE

Ping me The email. Can't live with it; can't live without. Which side do you fall on? You might be surprised to find that most American adults check both their work and personal email every few hours throughout the day, according Adobe's "Adobe Consumer Email Survey Report 2017." Check this out – some 44 percent say they check their business email every few hours outside of work, while 51 percent say they check their personal email every few hours while at work. Interestingly, just 20 percent never check their business email outside of normal work hours, and only 10 percent never check their personal email while at work. The report was based on data from a survey conducted among 1,007 white-collar workers in the United States age 18 and older who own a Smartphone.

Listening is so powerful.

Customers want to be listened to and they want to be heard. You have to come up with a modern customer experience approach that is able to evolve and adapt. Ask your customers what they want and then give it to them.”

– Chris Lisica, Director of Customer Success at Qumulo, on the important role listening and responding to customers plays in the customer service process

Why are your customers complaining?

Policies.

Product issues.

Customer service.

Why customers complain?

Let's face it – there are plenty of reasons why the customer interaction process can go off the rails. According to Corra's "How and Why Customers Leave Negative Reviews" report, the worst offender is a customer service mishap.

More than 50 percent say they will take their complaint public if your brand does a poor job of resolving a product or service issue. So, why do they complain? The report, which surveyed 2,000 customers across the country, says that 73.2 percent do it to save other customers from having the same experience, while 48.7 percent like to see a brand be honest and up front.

Content marketing in 2018

Bet big on original content

If Apple is doing it, jump on the train. Recent reports show that the world's most valuable company is investing more than $1 billion in original content. You read that right. That's why Content Markting Institute founder Joe Pulizzi says that producing consistent, original and addictive content will be all the rage in 2018. Pulizzi likens it to the Golden Age of television, although this time, it's happening on any and every device imaginable. Build it and the monetization will come, either directly from customers or prospects, or secondarily from syndication through the Apples and Googles of the world, he says. What’s your strategy in 2018?

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BEHIND THE CURTAIN

Around the industry

Awards & Recognition

NPES – The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies – has announced that GRAPH EXPO will be held at McCormick Place in Chicago for the next three years. The events will take place Sept. 30–Oct. 3 in 2018, Oct. 13–16 in 2019, and Oct. 4–7 in 2020.

The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies, announces the launch of PrintStats – an innovative and customizable resource for determining current industry market size and forecasting future market opportunities in national, state and local markets. Jointly developed exclusively for NPES members by the economic consulting firm ExpliStats and Strategies for Management, Dr. Joe Webb and Richard Romano, PrintStats utilizes proprietary and industry specific economic modeling to provide a compelling view of both the current state of print-related industries and a forecast of capital expenditures. Data and commentary are available in a variety of formats and industry break-outs that allow users maximum flexibility in determining how best to incorporate it into their internal processes. A 2018 edition, following a similar format with updated industry data and forecasts to 2023, will be released next summer.

The Printing Industries Association, Inc. of Southern California (PIASC) is thrilled to announce that Marina Joyce, President of INEZ D Inc. is being inducted into the Ben Franklin Honor Society of Printing Industries of America (PIA).

Joyce recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of her book, “Designing for Print.” The book is the first on this topic written by a designer/printer to provide practical information about how to design for print, work with printers and control costs. Akin to a “Hall of Fame” for the printing industry, the Ben Franklin Honor Society recognizes and honors leaders and visionaries who have made lasting contributions to advancing the printing and graphic communications industries.

FlexPrint LLC and its family of companies, including Action Imaging Group, Cannon IV, ProCopy Office Solutions and Laser Options, was named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastestgrowing private companies for the eighth consecutive year.

Hopkins Printing won its first "Best of Show" award at the Print Excellence Awards Banquet hosted by the Print Industries of Ohio and Northern Kentucky. The company also received the "Best of Category" award and the "People's Choice" award. All three awards were for the production of the Monmouth College View Book, a college marketing piece designed by Ologie. Hopkins took the top honor for the Division IV, Printers with 101 or more employees.

Personnel Moves J.S. McCarthy Printers, Augusta Maine, has named Jonathan “Jon” Tardiff as its new president. For the past 25 years, Tardiff has worked in the family business in various positions. The award-winning and leading print provider employs more than 230 in its 130,000-square-foot facility in Augusta, Maine. It also has offices in Portland, Maine, Canton, Mass., and Newington and Stamford, Conn.

The Printing Industries Association of San Diego (PIASD), the largest local association serving the printing and graphic arts industry, has elected David Gonzalez, president of Southland Envelope, as Chairman of the Board. The association also installed its 20172018 Board of Directors, including Summer Gould, Eye/Comm, as ViceChairman; Ryan Stevens, Replica Printing, Secretary/Treasurer; and Therese Fleming, R.R. Donnelley, Immediate Past Chairman. The directors installed included T.D. Christian, San Diego Die Cutting; Dan Armstrong, Advanced Web Offset; Tom Liotta, Spicers; Chris Hamm, Tabs, Etc.; Jim Lakdawala, VDP Direct; Susan Purcell,

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Marcoa Media; and Tom Hale, ZUZA. Karen Fulton will serve as the president of PIASD and Ryan Stevens will sit on the PIA National Board Member.

NPES – The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies – has elected a new chairman, several directors and re-elected returning directors. Mark Hischar, president and CEO KBA-North America, was elected Chairman of the Association.

Board members with three-year terms expiring at the 2020 Annual Meeting: Kelly Mandarano, director, WW Marketing & Communications and VP, Print Systems Division, Eastman Kodak Company Doug Schardt, director of Product Management, Komori USA Kevin Abergel, VP of sales & marketing, MGI Board member with two-year term expiring at the 2019 Annual Meeting: Brent Moncrief, VP, Strategic Marketing & Brand Management, FUJIFILM

North America Corporation – Graphic Systems Division Board members with one-year term expiring at the 2018 Annual Meeting: Fred DeBolt, VP marketing excellence, North American Operation, Xerox, and Felix Mueller, Senior VP Equipment, Heidelberg USA. Other directors re-elected to the Board with terms expiring in 2018: Mal Baboyian, EVP, Canon Solutions America (Immediate Past President) D.J. Burgess, President & CEO, Burgess Industries Inc. Marc Olin, CFO, efi Mark Hischar, President & CEO, KBANorth America Ronald Rose, President, Nova Pressroom Products, LLC Nick Bruno, President, Harris & Bruno International

Industry news & more

Mergers & Acquisitons Corporate Press has acquired McArdle Solutions. Now known as the Corporate Communications Group, the company offers a full range of marketing services—from campaign strategies to digital and print communication tactics—all out of its newly renovated 131,000-square-foot facility situated on 13 acres in Upper Marlboro, Md. In addition, Corporate Communications Group will be adding additional equipment and technology as they consolidate the Lanham, Md. and Sterling, Va., facilities into the newly renovated Upper Marlboro facility. This location will also house their mailing and fulfillment center. Complete relocation is expected to be final by mid-December.

LSC Communications has acquired Publishers Press, a leading family-owned printing and digital solutions provider based in Lebanon Junction, Ky., from Publishers Printing Company, LLC and certain of its affiliates. Publishers Press’ capabilities include web-offset printing, prepress and distribution services for magazine and retail brands. With nearly 1,200 employees in Kentucky, the Publishers Printing Business of Publishers Press is ranked among the largest publication printers in North America.

Employee-owned Worth Higgins & Associates Inc., Virginia’s largest sheet-fed commercial printer, has acquired Signs Unlimited Inc. The acquisition is calculated to generate an additional $2 million in annual sales for the company. Signs Unlimited will continue to operate in its current location while building modifications are completed which will combine all wide format operations on the Worth Higgins & Associates’ campus in Henrico, Va. Electronics For Imaging Inc. has acquired Escada Systems (Escada), a leading provider of Corrugator Control systems for the packaging market based in the United Kingdom and with operations also in the United States. The addition of Escada's technology and expertise will enable EFI to expand the Productivity Suite's value to sheet feeders and full corrugated box plants, to also include comprehensive control and traceability for the entire corrugation process. Escada employees, including founder and former principal Gavin Bushby, have joined EFI's Productivity Software business unit.

Partnerships Canon Solutions America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A. Inc., has partnered with OneVision Software AG, an international provider of innovative and costefficient software solutions for the printing, publishing and media industry. As part of the collaboration, the companies plan to redefine customer care through an innovative and unique approach to combining both hardware and software offerings.

The rollout not only unites award-winning, globally recognized hardware and software from Canon Solutions America and OneVision, respectively, but it also helps optimize pre-press workflow management software for scanning, job preparation and data conversion.

In other Canon Solutions America Inc. news, the company has expanded its Professional Services offerings through a partnership with Keypoint Intelligence – InfoTrends. The collaboration will help Canon Solutions America customers uncover new inkjet market opportunities and allow them to make informed decisions when entering the fastest-growing sector within the printing industry.

Xerox and FUJIFILM North America Corporation’s Graphic Systems Division have reached a reseller agreement for Xerox to market and sell the Fujifilm J Press 720S in the United States and Canada. Additionally, Fujifilm is expanding its inkjet product portfolio through its existing production color reseller agreement with Xerox. The agreement adds three inkjet presses, the Xerox Trivor® 2400 Inkjet Press, the Xerox Rialto® 900 Inkjet Press, and the Xerox Brenva® HD Production Inkjet Press, to Fujifilm’s expansive inkjet platform, which also includes the J Press 720S, as well as one of the industry-leading hybrid tag and label and wide format production platforms.

Ricoh USA has expanded its partnership with Idealliance, a nonprofit that serves thousands of members worldwide and strives for a more sustainable, competitive and compelling graphic and visual communications industry. As part of its commitment to empowering digital workplaces, Ricoh will offer Idealliance's G7 Master Qualification, Online Certification Training and Curve4 Software, as well as an option to join Idealliance itself through Ricoh.

WHAT’S LET US GOING KNOW! GET YOUR NEWS HERE. ON?

People news. New products. Trends shaping the way our industry does business. If you have a news item, CANVAS wants to hear about it. All you have to do is email us the information and a photograph, and we’ll do the rest.

Send your information to michael@thecanvasmag.com CANVAS P13

Makers’ Corner

Material Matters At Mohawk, we’re always thinking about materials and the role they play in elevating print. And that includes envelopes. This year I took on the challenge of working with a designer to publish an envelope Field Guide. It proved to be an interesting journey.

As we stood back and thought about envelopes and the role they play, two things became clear: • They are often overlooked in the design process.

• They are terribly undervalued because of their utilitarian function.

These factors combined leave the envelope as little more than an afterthought.

But we knew it could be so much more.

Part of our journey included exploring the role direct mail is playing in our “digitalfirst” world. In the 1990s, email marketing delivered a body blow to direct mail, with its new and novel efficiency – and low cost.

But we discovered mounting evidence that today’s marketers are actively re-evaluating traditional direct mail, given email marketing’s insidious (and overwhelming) creep into everyone’s inbox.

Consider this fact: The average lifespan of direct mail is 17 days, while the lifespan of an email is two seconds.

This has proven to drive much stronger brand recall with direct mail over email.

With that, we chose to recast the role of the envelope beyond simple carrier to the front line of first impression. After all, when a direct mail campaign uses an envelope, its structure, touch and physical properties can be the deciding factor between kitchen-counter-prominence and recycle-bin-irrelevance.

Or, as we like to say at Mohawk, “The most expensive direct mail piece is the one that never gets opened.”

So, we took the five most prominent structural and tactile features that make up an envelope as the basis of our narrative. These are: Texture, Color, Style, Flap and Size. As with any material choice, these features make a subconscious impact.

Using them strategically will help get you to the “open-me-first” spot in the mail, help support the content on the inside and drive results for your customer.

Let me give you a hint of the demonstrations we included in the Maker’s Field Guide to Envelopes as a tease to get one in each of your hands:

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Texture – Textured envelopes can capture your audience through touch. In this section, we show two distinct textures as an example of how surface texture makes a powerful first impression.

Color – Using color can transform a simple, common form like a business envelope into something extra special.

Building a design spec that uses a colored envelope takes a common letter mailing from “ho-hum” to “oh-wow.”

Style – Carefully considering the anatomy of your envelope is crucial to any project that requires an enclosure. In this section, we contrast styles showing a colored square envelope and a pre-printed, textured 9 x 12 catalog envelope.

Flap Shape – Unique to envelopes, flaps offer a clue to what’s inside. From a formal invite to business stationery, flap style can send a message before the envelope is even opened.

Size – From the smallest, attention-getting envelope to the largest unique forms, the size of an envelope is an obvious, but powerful choice. Here we demonstrate the use of an oversized, non-standard shape and super-small standard shape to get you thinking about how these can drive up response and impression.

Remember this: an envelope is a simple and familiar form. Choosing it carefully is a low-risk way to drive high impact. Equal parts function and first impression, an envelope has all of the right elements to take any project from good to great!

To get your copy of the new Maker’s Field Guide to Envelopes, visit www.mohawkconnects.com

By Chris Harrold VP, Business Development & Creative Director Mohawk Fine Papers

>> Visit Mohawk Connects.com

WHAT WILL YOU MAKE TODAY? Introducing A Maker’s Field Guide to Texture and Color, featuring easily applied strategies to elevate your work through the considered use of textured and colored paper. Get yours today at: Mohawkconnects.com/makersfieldguide

CANVAS BUYER’S GUIDE

WIDE FORMAT PRINTING

Wide Format Catalog

Since 1940, GPA has been the leader in innovative, impactful print substrate solutions. They are leaders in digital and offset printing, as well as wide format. And, it is in the wide format category that the company has created a catalog like no other – with almost 50 pages of items, there is a solution for every need and a product for every printer.

The 120 items in the catalog span a wide range of products from fabric to magnets to wood veneers. A selection so unique and a collection so large is unprecedented. “The impact of this catalog on the marketplace is nearly immeasurable. Never before has such a complete guide been available to help printing professionals select the right material for a huge variety of uses,” says the company’s Business Development Director for Wide Format, Matt Buckley.

“ With all these distinctive materials available, from metalized styrene boards to banner materials and floor graphic substrates, customers can count on GPA as their one-stop-shop for every need.” Matt Buckley, GPA’s Business Development Director for Wide Format The catalog was met with a great deal of enthusiasm by customers and industry insiders during its soft launch at PRINT ’17. The ease with which a printer can find just the right product is the catalog’s greatest asset. A useful chart makes identifying the right page number a breeze and there is also a suggested usage guide.

It is divided into seven product sections, as well as a reference section: 1. Concept® Media Solutions 2. Papers: pressure sensitive and photo quality 3. Styrene Boards 4. GPA® and Bantex® Banner Materials 5. Fabrics: including Heytex® 6. Magnets: including Magnum Magnetics® and MagX® 7. Specialty: products such as Birch and Cherry Wood Veneer Boards, AlumiGraphics® GRIP and SMOOTH, blockout materials, polyester backlit films, and more The product lineup: Concept® Media Solutions: This is an expansive range of face materials, adhesives and liners - stocked nationally for same-day shipment. The offering includes general-purpose products, specialty items, and unique solutions to create high-impact graphics.

GPA® Wide Format Metalized Styrene: Create stunning signage and high-end displays with a thin metalize polyester layer and thick styrene base. These lightweight and

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durable sheets can be cut and transformed easily because they provide the appearance of thick metal, but are much thinner and more lightweight.

AlumiGraphics® Specialty Material for Wide Format Presses: These materials are for use on asphalt, concrete, brick, rough surfaces, to create graphics that look like they were painted on. AlumiGraphics® SMOOTH and AlumiGraphics® GRIP are specialized for various surfaces.

GPA® Banner Material for Wide Format Presses: This material is appropriate for a wide variety of signage.

Heytex® Fabric Material for Wide Format Presses: The 100-percent PVC-free material is the highest quality textile for all types of graphics.

Bantex® Banner Material for Wide Format Presses Bantex® Wide Format: This material provides superior print quality, value, stiffness, durability, and opacity.

MagX® Magnet System for Wide Format Presses: High quality printed graphics that can be taken on and off of a variety of surfaces provide ease and durability for a wide variety of signage like menu boards, vehicle signage and the like.

Magnum Magnetics® Magnet Material for Wide Format Presses: This material has a strong magnetic pull and reliable performance, as well as providing superior print quality with pre-magnetized sheets.

GPA® Styrene for Wide Format Presses GPA® Wide Format Styrene: This product offers stability and resilience at a low price. Ideal for displays requiring extreme opacity, this material does not curl from moisture and can be easily cut and transformed.

GPA® Pressure Sensitive Paper for Wide Format Presses: This collection of pressure sensitive papers come in heavyweight options, as well as lightweight, creating endless possibilities and igniting your company's creativity.

GPA® Specialty Material for Wide Format Presses: With solutions for backlit signage, blockout signage, window graphics, retail signage, and much more, this collection is sure to have what you need.

To obtain a copy of GPA’s new Wide Format Catalog, current customers can contact their Business Development Manager, and all others can reach out to Customer Support at 800-395-9000 or customerservice@askgpa.com.

Download the CANVAS Buyer’s Guide app Products and resources just a tap away

Showcase more for less.

Open the window of opportunity wider for your customers with a 6 x 9 Floodcoat Showcase Envelope from Western States Envelope & Label. It makes a bigger, smarter impression for all the right reasons: • Its generous, full-view window highlights the envelope’s contents to pique interest and improve response rates.

ENVELOPES & LABELS

poly window, and a traditional remoistening seal. Black available as a stock product. Other colors available with a minimum order quantity of 250,000.

• It allows for variable data printing and personalized messaging for each recipient.

• It saves on additional envelope printing—the indicia, name, address, etc. are all printed on the insert instead.

Perhaps best of all are the floodcoat benefits that these envelopes deliver. Floodcoating allows the envelope’s color to coincide with the inside contents. Also, colored envelopes are a unique style that sticks out in the mail stream and attracts more attention. Finally, floodcoating is more cost effective than purchasing colored paper, and reduces the need and risk of keeping a costly colored paper inventory.

These 6 x 9 Floodcoat Showcase Envelopes are ideal for any size mailing, or for housing collateral and other promotional materials. They’re manufactured with a two-sideseams-under open side booklet construction, an oversized

Ready to showcase more for less? Get your complimentary sample of 6 x 9 Floodcoat Showcase Envelopes today. Contact us at 888-887-6485 or visit www.wsel.com/floodcoat-showcaseenvelopes/c.

CANVAS P17

CANVAS BUYER’S GUIDE

WIDE FORMAT PRINTING

Welcome to the revolution Mohawk expands wide format inkjet portfolio with key offerings

Fine Paper for art reproduction. Metallic-faced adhesives.

Economy canvas. A non-skid product for floor display graphics. The latest wide format inkjet offerings by Mohawk are helping expand its portfolio, with products designed to meet the needs of the growing display graphics market.

Mohawk Wide Format Inkjet substrates deliver benchmark performance, including outstanding color control and top coat consistency for scratch resistance. The result is vibrant and durable print quality for use across a wide range of applications, including banners/signage, posters, point-of-purchase graphics/displays, wall murals, architectural renderings, and more.

In addition, the products are easily searchable via Mohawk’s Digital Product Selector by media type or ink type.

Here's a look at the new items: Strathmore Pure Cotton Inkjet paper – 300gsm Hot Press Smooth finish optimized for Aqueous Pigment inks and is currently stocked in 24-inch x 40-foot and 44-inch x 40-foot rolls.

The lowdown: 100 percent cotton, OBA free, archival and acid free. Suitable for premium art and photo reproduction, gallery reproductions, limited editions, exhibition, gallery and museum prints, photo books, portraits, important documents.

Printable Canvas Expressions Décor Canvas Semi-Gloss 6.5-ounce engineered by Aurora – Optimized for Latex, UV-Cured, Eco-Solvent and Solvent print applications and is currently stocked in 54-inch x 150-foot and 60-inch x 150-foot rolls.

The lowdown: 100 percent polyester with enhanced Expressions coating. Suitable for interior commercial/home/office décor, photo/art reproduction, consumer art reproduction, window displays, indoor banners, wall murals, wall coverings, POP displays, POS retail signage.

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Gold, Rose-Gold and Silver MetaliK with permanent or removable adhesive options – Optimized for Latex, UV-Cured, Eco-Solvent and Solvent print applications.

The lowdown: Mirror effect metallic-faced adhesives in Gold, Rose-Gold and Silver can be dry or wet applied. Perfect for lamination on boards, lettering, logos and designs on glass and smooth surfaces.

Non-Skid Floor Display Film with removable adhesive – Optimized for Latex, UV-Cured, Eco-Solvent and Solvent print applications.

The lowdown: R10 rated, PVC-free, polyester, non-skid media for floor graphics. Tough coating eliminates the need to laminate. Resists tearing, punctures, and skid marks. Suitable for all smooth, hard floors and low pile carpeting/tiles.

White Satin Roll-Up Display Film, 8.3mil – Optimized for UV-Cured, Eco-Solvent and Solvent print applications and is currently stocked in 36-inch x 100-foot and 54-inch x 100-foot rolls.

The lowdown: BOPP/Polypropylene film with satin finish.

Great for roll-up banner displays and posters. White on both sides, can be sewn and grommeted for economical POS applications.

For more information, contact your Mohawk Sales Representative or your local paper merchant.

Report examines most common challenges for today’s salespeople What's the biggest sales challenge on your plate right now? Depends on the situation, right? According to the "Understanding Selling Challenges in 2017" report by Richardson, 49 percent of salespeople say they spend too much time on non-sales activities. The report was based on queries to 350 salespeople in the B2B and B2C segments.

Here's a look at what they say were some of their top challenges in prospecting and negotiating this past year:

Prospecting

Negotiating

17% 14% 12%

24% 20% 17%

Creating a targeted prospecting strategy

Quality of leads from marketing

Gaining appointments

Gaining higher prices

Closing win-win deals

Maintaining profitability

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CREATIVE CORNER

S2K Graphics founder

Dan Pulos

on why simplicity in design matters The S2K team is filled with the kind of experts you want working on your project: Leaders. Innovators. Thinkers. Creatives. Artists.

This dynamic, collaborative and familylike culture is the vision of Dan Pulos.

Pulos launched S2K Graphics in 1989 as Signs 2000, a one-man operation with a five-year plan and a vision of the culture he wanted to create. After 18 years of growing his talent and customer bases, Pulos sold the company to Franke, a Swissbased global enterprise. His new vision? Scale the business nationally. Thanks to the exposure from Franke’s business discipline and best practices, business soared.

Today, with Pulos, VP and GM, leading the charge, the beat goes on. Pulos’ diverse background continues to be the key. Prior to launching S2K, he held positions as a scientific programmer, statistical analyst, corporate financial planner and CFO. Over the years, he has received U.S. patents for signage hardware, merchandising software and 3-D graphic treatments. We sat down with him to see what the design community can expect moving forward:

Give us a snapshot of today’s graphic design/POP market.

Today, we’re seeing three ongoing trends in graphic design.

The first is simplicity. Our clients are supplying simpler, bolder creative. Our retail clients’ goals are to promote quick and effective communication to the customer.

By definition, good graphic design will deliver its intended result. And that result is often the creation of an “understanding” with the customer on product functionality, relevance, a price-focused offer, brand promise, etc.

The second is versioning. We’re seeing multiple versions of the same basic design hitting our presses.

This is an attempt to make the actual in-store element more relevant to the customer. One of our agency clients now gives its retailers around the country options on the background imagery, but with the same verbiage on all designs. The backgrounds incorporate visuals tailored to the area of the country: Northeast versus Southwest, for example. Another client makes available demographic options where the people portrayed in graphics accurately represent local demographics.

For printers, we must realize that almost anyone can print well with today’s modern equipment. The art is gone and science has taken over. To differentiate, do something else really well.

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Creative corner

What’s the best piece of advice you can offer today’s designers and printers?

The third is variable data. We’re receiving increasing requests for on-the-fly customization with individualized website, phone numbers or other site-specific data being ordered, printed and delivered to specific retailers.

For the P.O.P. market, printing has become a commodity.

New clients expect price, quality and service as green fees to bid on their work. It seems that either a one-stop shop offering or value-add services are required to win new business.

One-stop shop means having all printing, finishing, packaging, shipping and support under one roof. We’re primarily a wide-format printer, so not having strong small-format capability can be a liability. On the flip side, we’re strong on field support, innovation and ROI business case studies.

What are your clients looking for today?

Innovative products, ROI case studies and improved in-store merchandising execution seem to be recurring themes.

Clients are always asking, “What’s new?” They want fresh, eye-catching new P.O.P. elements that separate them from their competition and engage their customers in new ways.

We enjoy coming up with new ways of doing old things.

Our clients typically respond well to new, printed products.

ROI statistics accompany and support many of our new products in sales presentations. When a new product is introduced with a business case and proven results, the sale is much easier and a sense of partnership is created between us and the client. Retailers want to make sure their P.O.P. dollars produce appropriate revenue. ROI is one way to do that.

Improving in-store merchandising execution is a constant worry for marketing departments and ad agencies. The most beautiful P.O.P. element improperly installed will not deliver the intended result. P.O.P. must be bulletproof in the field: easy-to-assemble and installed in the exact right place to drive results. Anything less is not optimal.

For the designers, keep it simple. Make it easy for your customers to receive and process whatever message you’re sending. Grab customer attention with five words or less, just like a newspaper headline. If more detail is needed, make that information smaller and less prominent graphically. If customers are intrigued with your “headline,” they’ll make the effort to read the smaller text. There’s no need to shout that out. Use upper and lower case as much as possible as it’s much easier on the reader. Choose appropriate colors and keep your palette limited too. In so many ways, less is more. And the guiding principle in all that you do should be: does what I’m doing make it easy for the consumer to quickly understand what I’m trying to communicate? Stay focused on that and you’ll see the results you hope for.

For printers, we must admit to ourselves that almost anyone can print well with today’s modern equipment. The art is gone and science has taken over. Most of our competitors do a great job on quality, service and price. To differentiate, you’ll have to do something else really well. That could be your creative, order processing, delivery system, client-facing technology, field service offering, etc. Find that extra strength and passion within your organization.

Build on it and market to clients who will value it.

Where is the design/P.O.P. market headed in 2018?

P.O.P. design must now extend thematically and be effective across multiple platforms beyond traditional print. Clients want their digital displays, websites, social media, apps and more to be aligned graphically with their print – or vice versa.

Clients are now asking for a single one-stop solution for all of this graphical communication. For P.O.P., print innovation that creates disruption from the clutter of competing messages is becoming essential. The trajectory of this movement is unchanged from prior years, but the pace is accelerating.

Define print’s role in reaching customers today

Printed P.O.P. is definitely challenged with the advent of digital menu boards, digital displays, self-service kiosks, social media marketing, client apps, and the like. Printers should actively look for ways that printing can complement digital and not fight the trend. HP created a booklet that really addressed this well a few years back. Basically, printing is warm, natural, can be die-cut into any shape and can be dimensional. These attributes engage customers and are hard for digital to replicate. When those attributes deliver ROI results for clients, print has properly found its role in the retailer’s tool box.

CANVAS P21

PERSPECTIVE

WHY DESIGNING STRATEGY IS JUST THE BEGINNING VISION WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING? WHO, WHERE

By Michael J. Pallerino

OBJECTIVES

MISSION

WHAT WILL BE MEASURED? WHAT, SUCCESS/FAILURE

WHY ARE YOU BUILDING IT? WHY

STRATEGIES HOW WILL I BUILD THIS BUSINESS? HOW

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ACTION PLANS STEPS TO TAKE BY WHEN

Cover Story

American business icon T. Boone Pickens once said, “A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius with no plan.”

There’s a lot of truth – and irony – in Pickens’ often quoted perspective of the business planning process.

Skipper says your plan is just the start of the conversation.

The truth is that business planning is the glue that ties After everything is put down on paper, so to speak, you have your business goals to your purpose. It’s the vehicle that to set your goals. Then communicate them, and assure your helps you to think through the process of cause and effect. intended goals are achieved by everyone on your team.

The irony is that too many companies have a plan, but Leadership strategist Robin Lawton says that the busitend to, more often than not, sidestep the strategy markness planning process starts with a simple, but powerful ers deemed critically important to successfully push the framework that can link all of your process forward. goals together. The three tenets of None of this is lost on Thomasina that plan should be outcomes, prodSkipper. The founder of Atlanta-based ucts and processes. consulting firm Business Growth “Linking each goal to a specific one Specialists sees this more often than of the three creates a level of consisshe would like. Skipper believes tency and simplicity that clarifies your that business owners must have a focus,” says Lawton, an author, execugrowth mindset and be willing to tive coach and founder of strategic upset the status quo. If they are not planning firm C3 Excellence. Over willing or ready to review every part the years, he has helped strengthen of the organization - the people, the the leadership thinking at brands like processes and the structures - with a Motorola, Honeywell/ AlliedSignal critical eye, the opportunity for real and the Acura Division of American change and the projected outcomes Honda, among many others. will be muted, at best.

Lawton says aligning your goals “The reality is that a plan is the start enables you to continually check of the conversation, not the end of it,” that you have the balance you want. says Skipper, MBA, ChFC, CLU, CLF. For example, if every goal concerns “Business owners must consistently process, those hearing the goals ask ‘why?’, not just ‘what?’ and ‘how?”’ can easily conclude you don’t think That translates into being able to outcomes or products need any change when change is necessary, direction, or are unimportant. something that Skipper says your busiThis overemphasis on process is a ness plan must make accommodacommon malady among leaders and tions for. “You must be willing to have a tends to dampen attention to both vulnerability that’s defined by an open – Thomasina Skipper, Founder, innovation and customers. “Make sure mind, be able to admit to weaknesses Business Growth Specialists you continuously emphasize which of and willingness to face reality.”

“The reality is that a plan is the start of the conversation, not the end of it. Business owners must consistently ask why, not just what and how.”

CANVAS P23

Play, Plan, Push

your stated core values and strategic goals has the highest priority,” he says.

The plan is the plan

Even businesses that have plans don’t really have plans. The one key element to any business plan is clarity. Having a clear understanding of projects, sales goals, client measurements, etc., is critical. Skipper says that too many businesses miss this step in the process.

“It should be clear how the business will do what they do,” she says. “It should be clear who they intend to sell to, contract with and collaborate with.

If, after all is said and done, you have a WHAT ARE pretty plan that does not provide a clear U BUILDING? blueprint for success, it will be worthless.”

HO, WHERE Skipper recommends planning annually and executing quarterly. Don’t take on too many projects - burning resources and capital. Setting an aggressive, but achievable, pace is a healthy strategy.

“Business plans are documents to guide the business, not put your business in a straitjacket,” she says. “There may be some seasonality to a business that makes some projects more feasible during certain times of the year than others. This should be taken into consideration when considering projected time lines in the planning process.”

Lawton says that making goals personally relevant can help, too. At a high level, one of the most effective ways to do this is assure you have a policy in place that is aligned with the goal and the related enterprise’s core values.

Another way to engage others in implementing your business plan is to relate it to the products an individual, or group of individuals, produces. “This makes it easier for employees, suppliers, partners or anyone else supporting the enterprise’s work to strengthen the lineof-sight connection between their work and that of the enterprise.”

VISION

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When your entire company is involved in creating the plan and are accountable for their part (who’s doing what and when, etc.), you will have created a plan that can be tracked daily.

In the end, when your entire company is involved in creating the plan and are accountable for their part (who’s doing what and when, etc.), you will have created a plan that can be tracked daily.

What next?

“We are not that far away from the start of a new year, so if you want better results, you may have to do something different to achieve that,” Skipper says. “I want to know if you have prepared yourself to act differently. What issue/concern have you lived with that you think would make a significant impact on your business if you could resolve? When would you like to establish a business that achieves your most ambitious idea of success?”

The key is in the questions. You set your business plan for you, not anybody else. “If you do it right,” Skipper says, “it will make an impact on your business, your business life and your growth, both personal and professional.”

Play, Plan, Push

Y our One-Page Business Plan The “fill in the blank” simplicity of the One-Page Business Plan (OPBP) is a perfect way to re-strategize your business plan. Here’s what the OPBP offers:

VISION

What Are You Building?

(Who? Where?)

The Vision component is where you define income goals, geographic scope, the target markets and the product and/or services your business will offer.

OBJECTIVES ACTION PLANS What Will Be Measured?

(What? Success/Failure?)

MISSION

Objectives are designed to focus resources to achieve results. They give your business specific targets and establish accountability. Objectives are measurable so they minimize subjectivity and emotionalism.

MISSION Why are You Building It? (Why?) The Mission component is where you distill the reason for the business existence into a statement of 12 words or less. Crafting a brief mission statement rather than a paragraph has the benefit of forcing a high level of clarity to the business owner’s thinking.

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Strategies – How Will I Build This Business? (How?) The Strategy sets the direction, philosophies and values providing a blueprint or road map for building, expanding and growing your business by establishing guidelines for important decisions, etc.

Steps to Take (By When?)

The last component is Action Plans. Implementing and executing your business plan will require that you act. This component provides for a quarterly execution of the business plan. Even when you’re constantly fighting fires, you must not lose sight of your business building projects.

BUSINESS

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Feature Story

Uncovering Client Personas

By Alyssa Ruane

R

ichie Rich. Dream Deferred Diane. Hipster Harvey. No, these are not colorful nicknames – they’re buyer personas. And they’re imperative for your marketing success.

That’s especially true with the bevy of technological assistance Richie Rich. Dream Deferred Diane. Hipster Harvey. No, and ever-increasing internet metrics available to B2B companies. these are not colorful nicknames – they’re buyer personas.

That’s why there are many ways to improve upon selling tactics And they’re imperative for your marketing success. and using persona-based marketing to its fullest potential.

The notion of using buyer personas to target specific audiTechnology is best used for measuring marketing success ences isn’t a new tactic. No matter what you’re selling, the after you’ve created your personas. In order to create your selling process is still the same – you’re selling to humans. personas, you’ll need to get your hands dirty.

That’s how SOL Marketing’s CEO Deb Gabor sees it, anyway.

“It’s come into fashion in the past decade, the idea that B2B customers are still buying things from people,” she says. “B2B Creating personas marketers tend to be behind the times in regards to marketing For Gabor’s team, the first step in creating successful buyer techniques and relying on the four P’s of marketing.” personas is segmentation research that doesn’t only focus Although B2B marketers may be “behind the times,” that on a fake demographic. It digs deeper. doesn’t mean they can’t propel themselves into the present.

“We’ll look for behavioral attributes, attitudes, buying Understanding persona-based marketing is all it takes to start processes, challenges, customs, and the like,” she says. Her targeting the right kinds of customers. team likes to cast a wide net at the When it comes down to it, selling and beginning – quantitative research. marketing boil down to human connecSimilarly, Root says her starting point tion. Ann Root, Ph.D, senior instructor in is a picture of your ideal customer, then Florida Atlantic University’s Department envisioning “a day in the life” of that of Marketing, says building personas is person. “Tell a story of who they are: part of understanding your buyer. age, education, work title, family infor“Since companies are composed of mation, where they live, what keeps people, and marketing is about probthem up at night, what is important to lem-solving and building relationships, them, where do they get news, what do you need to truly understand your they do for fun,” she says. clients and their personal and business She says to imagine you’re an avatar lives if you are going to communicate of your customer and describe their life with them effectively and solve their as you visualize it. “You need to ask, problems,” Root says. “You need to get most importantly, about their goals to know your customer emotionally in and frustrations in life and at work.” order to really communicate with them.”

More questions to ask include: What Gabor says that ultimately, business does it say about this person that they use decision-makers are making decisions this brand? What’s the singular thing this not exclusively on cognitive factors. buyer needs to be able to get from us?

“Ninety-eight percent of what the How do we make ourselves indispensable? brain does happens outside of awareDoing this research connects people ness; it happens because of emotion,” to who most likely needs what the she adds. company is selling. The next “layer” of And successful personas do just that creating personas is what Gabor calls – they tap into the innermost goals, qualitative work, which includes interemotions, fears, and thoughts of ideal views and discussion board research. buyers to better provide them with the Root believes that you’ll need to – Deb Babor, CEO, SOL Marketing solutions they need. interview your customers; that is the

“You have a story you’re trying to tell.

Your job as a B2B marketer is to make your customer the hero in order for him to vote with his heart, mind and wallet.”

CANVAS P29

Uncovering Client Personas

Keys To Building the Perfect Buyer Persona 1. Cast a wide 2. Do focus groups, 3. Detail “a 4. Infuse 5. Everyone net with pay attention day in the humanity into wants to be quantitative to social media life” of your your sales by a hero. Make research channels and personas to keeping your the buyer in order to interview uncover goals, salespeople the hero of develop a basic customers to get frustrations, abreast of their own understanding a qualitative, more and the personas story. of your personalized, view personality you are customers. of who they are. traits. developing.

best way to get into their lives. Use your salespeople. What do they know about your customers? Do some focus groups. Listen on social media channels. Don’t engage, just listen to what they’re talking about. What language do they use?

Conducting qualitative research doesn’t just give you the how, but the why. Gabor says you must look out for common threads and notable characteristics that drive preference for particular B2B brands.

Some of these characteristics may be the person’s role in decision-making, the lifecycle stage of the company, behavioral commonalities, and so on.

All of these small details you learn about your ideal customer help you to understand how to appeal to them better. By understanding the language your customers use, for example, you are then able to use those same words in your crafted messaging. Every detail helps make the sale more personal.

Using personas effectively

Once you’ve uncovered your ideal client personas, it’s time to put them to the test.

Both Gabor and Root suggest implementing content marketing techniques that use the new persona information.

This is where technology comes into play.

“We create scalable digital content for our clients,” Gabor says.

Whether it’s digital advertising, email marketing, social media campaigns or blog posts, each content initiative gives you a chance to hone your company’s digital body language according to the ways people engage with your information and at which point in the buying cycle they do so.

“The cool thing with content marketing is it gives you feedback in real-time,” Gabor says. “We ask ourselves, ‘What kind of content can we use across a decision-making process?’ I love content marketing for refining those personas; they’re so closely intertwined. No amount of research can target exactly how people will behave in the wild.”

And in terms of using personas and content marketing in the B2C versus B2B space, it’s important to realize that the buying processes are different. With

P30 CANVAS DECEMBER 2017

Once you’ve uncovered your ideal client personas, it’s time to put them to the test.

This is where technology comes into play.

consumers, instant gratification reigns.

But the business buyer’s process takes much longer; it’s more complex and often includes multiple decision-makers.

Gabor says it requires different information. Because of this, your content marketing must be more strategic than with consumers. You can’t just create content to create content. It must be deliberate.

“You have to have content at every stage of the decision-making funnel for every persona,” Gabor says. “It has to be in the place when people come across it at the moment they need it. They’re not going to make an immediate purchase; it’s not a straight line.”

To truly drive the sale home with personas, it’s important to identify how to best appease the buyer. Gabor says the key question to ask is, “How do we make each individual person the hero in their own story?”

“What you buy is part of what you’re telling the world, a part of your concept,” she says. “You have a story you’re trying to tell. Your job as a B2B marketer is to make your customer the hero in order for him to vote with his heart, mind and wallet.”

By understanding your customer’s goals – both professional and personal— you are able to market the right aspects of your product to them. You can show them how your product will directly affect their own story.

“You can’t take the humanity out of it,” Gabor says.

Infusing humanity into sales means your salespeople need to be abreast of these personas as well. It is a collaborative process that cannot end with sales. In fact, salespeople are those who most importantly need to be utilized in the process. They’re the ones directly connecting with those “personas,” but they’re no longer dealing with the idea of a person – these are real humans on the other end of the phone or email.

Your customers need to be treated like the personas you created; speak to their goals, frustrations, and what makes them the hero in their own story.

Because everyone wants to be a hero, and you can write their happy ending for them. The bonus is your happy ending, too. .

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MARKETING

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Feature Story

Brand-building lessons from the Man in Black

“ He (Cash) developed Johnny Cash, and once you develop your own creature, you go your own way."

– Merle Kilgore

By Benjamin D. Goss & Colby B. Jubenville It’s the brand that keeps on giving. Johnny Cash is as relevant today as he has ever been. From his look, to his voice, to how he opened his shows, the Man in Black was an entertainer without peer.

So what made Johnny Cash so successful? How can you apply what he did to help you develop and deliver compelling marketing messages?

Here’s a hint – Johnny Cash was not just different, he was groundbreaking. Nobody else before or after sounded anything remotely like him. Of all the voices in modern music history, how many can you name with that one-of a-kind quality?

It took something beyond just being different – it took something unique. Something that was absolutely one of a kind. Something that no one else could ever replicate.

Cash drew his style from his personal perspective, his unique education and the life experiences that he had. In the liner notes to album “The Essential Johnny Cash,” Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock band U2, called Cash “the most male voice in Christendom.”

Here are some of the qualities that you can add to your next marketing strategy session:

Not just real, but authentic

On an episode of CMT network’s show “Inside Fame,” Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill said of Cash: “He’s the truth, you know? He’s real, and he’s not propped up with a bunch of tricks, and this, and that, but he’s the real deal. That’s why rockers love him, and country music purists love him, too.

That’s a real testament to an artistry.”

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Cash Marketing

As an artist, Cash wrote and recorded songs with some of the greatest hooks in music – hooks that all had elements of real life to which people could easily relate: “ I’d let that lonesome whistle/Blow my blues away” “Because you’re mine/I walk the line” “Don’t take your guns to town” These were songs about real things happening to real people.

Not just feeling, but empathy

Empathy is the ability to actually experience the feelings of another person. It goes beyond sympathy, which is caring for and understanding the suffering of others. And empathy is the personal emotion Cash captured and delivered in almost every song he sang.

As performers get older, they tend to take more and more vocal shortcuts. Even when their voices are still strong, they sometimes seem to be in a hurry to get home, thereby lessening their abilities to deliver emotion the essential key to all music.

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With so many marketing stimuli flooding the lives of consumers, your brand must stand out not only in ways that are distinctive, but also in ways that nobody else can copy.

But no matter whether Cash performed a song in concert, on TV, or in the studio, you will hear almost exactly the same melodic delivery of the lyrics, as if he were singing the song for the first time. The audience size might have varied, the band may have grown larger, the tempo may have been quicker, and his health may have been poorer, but his vocal and lyrical delivery was comfortingly consistent.

Cash regularly took steps to make sure the emotional transfer was delivered when the melody of music alone wouldn’t do it. He’d raise or lower the strength of his voice, raise or lower the song’s key, or speak or even shout the lyrics, if that’s what it took to get his point across.

One of his biggest cover songs, the penultimate hit “Hurt,” which has been called “…a stunning blend of virtuosity and vulnerability,” showcases Cash at his best - gritty, unfiltered and totally himself.

Coupled with the virtue of his authenticity, that vulnerability allowed Cash to let others know just how well he could relate to them: He felt what they felt.

“ He’s the truth, you know? He’s real, and he’s not propped up with a bunch of tricks, and this, and that, but he’s the real deal. That’s why rockers love him, and country music purists love him, too. That’s a real testament to an artistry.”

What does this mean for you?

Like Cash, your marketing efforts can’t just be different. They must be unique. With so many marketing stimuli flooding the lives of consumers, your brand must stand out not only in ways that are distinctive, but also in ways that nobody else can copy. This will serve as one of the best insulators from competition that your product (relatively common though it may be) could ever have.

Take the Coca-Cola bottle, for example. The bottle’s shape was intentionally created in 1916 to protect the brand from other look-alike bottled sodas.

While virtually every beverage comes in a bottle or can, only the Coca-Cola bottle has the famous wavy contours that the company also transfers to its canned product in the form of a white, wavy line.

Also like Cash, your marketing efforts can’t just be real. They must be authentic. According to Dictionary.com, the term means, “having the origin supported by unquestionable evidence; verified.” In other words, not just carrying the truth, but carrying a confirmation of the truth.

“Authentic” is a word that helped advance Nike to its early stages of marketing success. With it, Nike could tell its story of its design heritage from University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman, who constructively altered the shoes of his track athletes (including Nike founder and chairman Phil Knight) for better performance.

In fact, in some form, Nike’s packaging and labeling commonly includes the phrase, “Engineered to the exact specifications of championship athletes,” which underscores Nike’s athlete-driven culture, indisputably proven for more than 40 years.

Finally, like Cash, your marketing must transmit empathy. Admittedly, this is a major challenge for most brands, because it exists as a higher-order thinking skill achieved by few people, and probably far fewer brands.

In fact, in an effort to be all things to all people, most brands now mean very little to anyone. But brands can indeed be empathetic. For proof, look at Harley-Davidson. Other motorcycle brands indeed exist - many more flashy, faster, and fleeter than Harleys.

But those motorcycles are cycles made by motor companies. Only Harley has that by-bikers, for-bikers feel that can spawn not only product extensions, but also an entire lifestyle.

The 2005 movie about Johnny Cash’s life, “Walk The Line,” features a tense, dramatic scene in a Memphis, Tenn., recording studio with a then-undiscovered Cash and Sun Records owner Sam Phillips.

Although the scene never actually happened, the Phillips character delivers a great piece of wisdom to the Cash character that can be directly applied to marketing philosophy.

- Vince Gill

After finally convincing Phillips to give him an audition, Cash muddles through a gospel number that fails to impress Phillips.

Before dismissing Cash, Phillips gives him an ultimatum: “If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing one song. One song that people would remember before you’re dirt. One song that would let God know what you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin’ me that’s the song you’ d sing? Or would you sing somethin’ different? Somethin’ real? Somethin’ you felt? ‘Cause I’m telling you right now, that’s the kind of song people want to hear. That’s the kind of song that truly saves people. It ain’t got nothin’ to do with believin’ in God, Mr. Cash. It has to do with believin’ in yourself.”

From there, Cash’s unique, authentic baritone/bass voice blows Phillips away with a rough-but-revealing, empathetic version of “Folsom Prison Blues,” a song that later launched a career that culminated with him as one of only two people inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rockn-Roll Hall of Fame (Elvis Presley is the other).

Like Cash, carve your own path by being more than different; be unique, be more than real; be authentic and be more than sympathetic; be empathetic. .

Benjamin D. Goss, Ed.D., serves as an associate professor in Stetson University’s sport business program in the Department of Marketing.

Colby B. Jubenville, Ph.D., is an author, international speaker, professor, entrepreneur, inventor and consultant. He holds an academic appointment at Middle Tennessee State University and is a senior consultant with Brentwood, Tenn.- based Brent Consulting Group.

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SALES

e v o m o t How spects o r p your active n i m o fr e v i t c to a

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Feature Story

Are you bored? Sluggish? Do tasks – even easy ones – feel like they’re dragging you down? Are you finding it hard to stay focused and on-task?

By Linda Bishop

Warning. It sounds like you’ve left the Sales Zone (that place where you’re pumped and eager to get things done) and entered the Stale Zone. In this shadowy place, tasks you once enjoyed become mind-numbingly routine.

Selling requires energy, drive and determination to succeed. When dropped into a dark hole, you want to climb out as quickly as possible so you can get back to enjoying your profession and earning money. Fortunately, returning to the sales zone is easy. To escape, all you have to do is embrace a challenge to learn something new.

During every day, we do many tasks while comfortably operating on autopilot.

Our brains are built with a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde duality. We crave both routine and novelty. Learning something new cures the condition because it engages your brain and adds manageable complexity to life as you take a journey to explore, learn and practice new skills.

To make sales, you must overcome barriers.

Some barriers are six-inch speed bumps.

Others are monstrous mountains.

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The Sales Zone When you get stuck in the Stale Zone, here are three ways to make a quick exit and get back to loving your job:

Master a new way to manage tasks

Pull out your to-do list and look it over. Which tasks depend solely on you, like making a phone call to a customer? Which tasks require input from other people, like getting a quote on a project?

For years, I looked at my to-do list 50 times a day, but never thought about the time management implications of these two categories. Then one day, I had an elephant-sized epiphany.

All too often, I was in crisis mode because I was waiting for critical input from other people. I was in a time crunch because I had waited until the last minute to ask for what I needed. If I had made my request earlier, I would have gotten what I needed sooner. My self-induced time crunch could have been avoided.

Once I figured this out, I learned a new way to manage time.

My new skills made me more efficient, and came with a bonus benefit – I was less stressed!

If you would like to learn to be more efficient: • Look at your task list • Put a star next to every task that requires input from a team member to complete. Put two stars next to every task that requires input from customers.

• Take two minutes and prioritize.

Consider which are easy and which are hard. What has a critical deadline?

• Take the next 30 minutes and focus on moving as many things forward as you can before you tackle anything else.

As a sales professional, you have developed excellent problem-solving skills. Learning a new way to be more efficient at time management puts problem-solving skills to use. For me, this lesson paid off in a big way, and I suspect you'll find the same.

Be unforgettable in a good way

y c n e u q e r f g in r e t s Ma s t c e p s o r p g in iv g s mean e b o t n io t n e t t a enough t u o h it w , d e r e b remem . m e h t g in y o n n a

When you’re talking to prospects and getting meetings, business development is fun and fulfilling. But every sales pro must also be prepared for periods when no one picks up their phone, responds to your emails, or agrees to meet.

When you’re working, but nothing is happening, it's easy to slip into the Stale Zone and halfheartedly go through the motions without fully embracing them. When you find yourself looking at a list of prospects to call without real enthusiasm, it’s time to step back and look for a way to learn something new.

This could be crafting a better message for an email, practicing how to inject more positive conviction into your voice when you leave a voicemail message, or asking better questions when you're able to reach a prospect on the phone.

Or, you could focus on developing black-belt level selling skills and become a master of mindshare creation.

Mindshare is the amount of space in a prospect’s brain that gets allocated to you. It’s about awareness and

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remembrance. Who are you? What do you do? Why does the buyer need you? Wayne Lynn, who works with me at Thought Transformation, calls mindshare, “accumulated memory,” because prospects develop an information bank of memories over time. Mindshare is what gets you remembered when the buyer is ready to meet, learn or buy. The right amount of mindshare opens doors to new oppor tunities.

To put it another way, in sales it pays to learn how to be unforgettable.

Build unforgettability by using the Thought Transformation mindshare mantra of frequent, positive, repetitive touches.

So how frequently is frequent? That depends on the state of your relationship. If you’re trying to build a relationship with a brand new prospect, you must touch someone frequently before you have a secure place in their memory. This could be a weekly call, a weekly email, and a bi-weekly mail touch.

Let’s say you only call someone every 30 days. If you do this for a long enough period, you'll eventually build mindshare – but more frequent touches would speed up the process.

Mastering frequency means giving prospects enough attention to be remembered, without annoying them.

“Positive” means your touch brings value to the customer.

You could share information on solving a problem, or about something of general interest. Don’t get stuck on feeling like you need every touch to be brilliant. Doing something today is way better than spending the next two weeks trying to come up with the perfect touch. Remember the mantra is: frequent, positive, repetitive touches – not occasional, perfect, repetitive touches.

Repetitive is built around a plan. What do prospects need to know to move forward in the sales cycle? When this is clear in your mind, you will find it easier to make it clear to the prospect.

Feeling stale drags you down, and impacts your prospecting. When it happens, shake off the lethargy by learning new ways to be a master of mindshare. You can learn new skills with Thought Transformation’s 10-Minute Time Management technique:

The Sales Zone Getting your focus back

• Set a timer for 10 minutes • Identify a prospect • A sk yourself what they need to know to buy from you • Come up with a way to convey the information • For the remainder of the time, get started on execution Once again, this technique taps into your natural problem-solving skills, and offers an easy framework to spark engagement and learning.

Figuring out what to do helps you move ahead by mapping a route forward, and getting you started down this path.

I don’t know about you, but me – I hate losing time.

When I feel stale, I lose time because I lack energy and focus. For many years, I passively waited in the Stale Zone for something to change and re-energize me.

Not anymore. Life is short. I’ve got so much I want to do, and I like selling best when I’m moving forward, getting things done and learning new ways to succeed.

The next time you get stuck in the Stale Zone, take a tip from a genius. Leonardo Divinci said, “Learning never exhausts the mind.”

Get reenergized. Learn something new. Take your selling skills to the next level, and be the master of your personal universe.

Good selling.

Be a better barrier-buster

To make sales, you must overcome barriers. Some barriers are six-inch speed bumps. Others are monstrous mountains. To succeed, you must realistically assess barriers and know what it will take to get past them.

When I’m selling, I periodically sit down with a pad of paper and do a reality check. To do that, I split a page of paper into three columns: The name of the account, and why they would or would not buy from me.

Account

Why would they buy from me?

Widget World

Not happy with current supplier

Giant Co.

We provide more services than current supplier

Why wouldn’t they buy from me?

Long-time relationship with competitor so reluctant to change Buyer is purchasing from her brother

This reality check helps me consider all of the angles and identify all of the barriers including: • What is the customer doing now?

• What is the payoff for a change?

• How strong is the buyer’s relationship with competitors?

• Is there any pain? And how painful is the pain?

• Is there any drive to improve?

Or any immediate need to take action?

• Have I met the people who are the actual decision-makers?

• Am I hearing or seeing buying signals? Does the customer’s behavior align with verbal feedback?

• Has the customer told me why they would or would not change? Have I asked them about this?

• Have I done enough to earn the first sale?

This exercise helps you understand what you’re up against. Even when barriers are significant, the right plan helps you break them down over time – if the payoff is worthy of the effort. Plus, the exercise blasts open the windows in your mind, and replaces stale ideas with fresh thinking.

Linda Bishop, a longtime veteran of the commercial printing industry, is the founder of Thought Transformation Inc. (www.thoughttransformation.com), which trains and consults companies and sales professionals on how to sell more and reach their full potential. You can reach her at lindabishop@thoughttransformation.com.

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