CANVAS - February 2020 - The Decoupling Effect

EMPOWERING MARKETING SERVICE PROVIDERS

REELING ‘EM IN CIRCLE OF CHANGE THINKING LEADERSHIP

FEBRUARY 2020

THE

DECOUPLING DOWNLOADING EFFECT THERECIPELATESTFOR B2B SELLING

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FEBRUARY VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 1

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Inside this issue

BOILERPLATE

ALSO INSIDE

30 34

THINKING

LEADERSHIP

CIRCLE OF CHANGE

Dr. Wayne Baker on building a collaboration culture

38

Printers dish on what lies ahead

04

Publisher’s Note

Stuff

STAT PACK

06

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

14

Industry news & awards

STRATEGY

16

PRC issues revised proposal for rate setting process

SOCIALLY SPEAKING CORNER OFFICE

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5 business strategy myths you need to stop believing now 7 skill sets guaranteed to bolster your brand’s culture 5 steps for selling to Gen Z customers (and a reminder for everyone else)

CANVAS FEBRUARY 2020

18

ow not to H fail this year

CANVAS Buyer’s Guide

20 21

22 23

Embrace your edge The printer’s edge

CREATIVE CORNER

24

randing Creative B Director Cody Robertson on what clients want today

LAST THOUGHT Let’s get ready to ....

Environmentally sound Small paper gift cards make a big environmental difference

40

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Inside this issue| Publisher’s Note

BOILERPLATE

CONTRIBUTORS Matthew Parker @PrintChampion

Stuff

N

ew beginnings can be a little cliche’, but I am going to go with it. The fact is that while we typically do not change overnight, the calendar did. So maybe it provides us something to use as a lever to make change in our lives. I figure that if it works, then go for it.

My goals are pretty simple on paper, but fairly difficult in real life. I want to be a better version of myself every day. I want to be a better husband, father, businessman— you name it. Sounds nice, but man, it is not easy when life starts pushing back. When material wants to tug at you or people let you down, it is not easy to take the high road.

When that last holiday cookie is staring you down and some funny YouTube video is at your fingertips, it is not easy to go out and exercise or stay a little later at the office.

Stuff pulls at us and bad things happen that distract us.

We have all had stuff happen to us. We have been rejected, lost clients, been let go or had someone who simply treated us poorly.

It is easy to go through life carrying those things with us, trapped in self pity, blaming ourselves and others. Because we are always looking back, reliving the stuff, we end up carrying around negative vibes that weigh us down. One of the best things you can learn to do is to let go of the stuff. Whether it happened 10 years ago or 10 minutes ago, do not carry the negative feelings from yesterday into today. Now do your part and let it go.

We cannot dwell on the past because we will miss the opportunities of the present and future. While any new year brings about a freshness that can be liberating, you can also will yourself to a new habit of letting go and moving forward every day from here on out. Let’s focus on making 2020 and beyond filled with hope and joy. And let’s collectively will our way to bright new horizons.

Speaking of focus, we encourage you to take a peek at our cover article, “A New Recipe for B2B Selling,” which includes an amazing interview with Thales Teixeira, author of “Unlocking the Customer Value Chain.” His ideas about decoupling in order to reinvent are wonderful for us all to dwell upon. It is time to let go of the stuff and embrace a new day.

We have all had stuff happen to us.

We cannot dwell on the past because we will miss the opportunities of the present and future.

I wish you all the best for the new year and the new decade.

Warmest regards,

Mark Potter, Publisher @MarkRicePotter

Rich Horwath @RichHorwath Cindy McGovern @1stladyofsales Leo Raymond @MailersHub Jason O. Harris @jasonoharris Carlos Gil @carlosgil83

GET IN TOUCH WITH US @THECANVASMAG

2009 Mackenzie Way, Suite 100 Cranberry Township, PA 16066 WWW.THECANVASMAG.COM

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

EDITORIAL BOARD tom moe Daily Printing gina danner NextPage david bennett Bennett Graphics scott hudson Worth Higgins

PUBLISHED BY CANVAS, Volume 14, Issue 1 copyright 2020 CANVAS, All rights reserved. CANVAS is published bi-monthly for $39.00 per year by Conduit, Inc., 2009 Machenzie Way, Suite 100, Cranberry Township, PA 16066. Periodicals postage pending at Duluth, GA and additional mailings offices. Periodical Publication 25493. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CANVAS, 2009 Machenzie Way, Suite 100, Cranberry Township, PA 16066. 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% recycled fiber and SFI and FSC chain of custody certification.

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CANVAS FEBRUARY 2020

CREATING COMMUNITY

FOR YOUR COMPANY THROUGH CUSTOM CONTENT

channeling content & connections conduit-inc.com

STAT PACK

Where has all the automation gone?

Only 2% of B2B marketers are fully realizing the potential of marketing automation, according to the “Customer Data Platform (CDP) Buyers' Guide” by Communigator and Smart Insights.

The study, which highlights some of the biggest barriers to integrating data, reveals just 29% are using automation technology to target emails based on user activity.

72%

use email optimization tactics like personalization

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CANVAS FEBRUARY 2020

74%

say communicating with customers is key, 64% say it is building brand awareness and 63% cite communicating with prospects

With email remaining one of the most important marketing channels, brands continue to seek the best ways to get their information in front of customers. According to “The State of Email Marketing” from Validity and Demand Metric, 57% of marketers say bulk email campaigns have an average open rate of 15% or lower. Here's a look at some other email nuggets to know before you send out your next round:

45%

say competition in the inbox is their biggest challenge

37%

report that email marketing effectiveness is increasing

Insights

Eye on customer journeys According to research by Forrester, today's brands will be shifting toward audience-based structures this year. The report, “Predictions 2020: On the Precipice of Far-Reaching Change,” indicates that the number of B2B marketing leaders who say that their companies are organized to support customer journeys will jump from 18% to 48%. If this happens, Forrester predicts it could be one of the most fundamental structural changes in B2B organizations since the Digital Age began. While most B2B marketers have developed customer decision journeys, only a third base their plans around these key audience insights, instead clinging to product-focused programs driven through communications channels specialists that contribute to buyers’ opinions about vendors being self serving.

BY THE NUMBERS

82 80

The percent of marketers who say that content creation is the most effective SEO tactic, with 55% stating that the optimization of old content is helpful, too. (“The State of SEO 2019” report by Zazzle Media)

The percent of marketers who have invested in personalization and will drop the strategy by 2025 due to a lack of ROI and/or the perils of customer data management. Today, 27% of marketers list data collection, integration and protection as the chief barriers to personalization. (“Predicts 2020: Marketers, They’re Just Not That

43

Into You” report by Ganter Inc.)

The percent of content that B2C content marketers say they create for audiences in the top of the funnel of the customer’s journey, compared with 30% who create it for the late-stage and post-sale stage content.

(The “2020 B2C Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends” study from MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute)

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CORNER OFFICE

Perspective | Leadership | Insights

BY RICH HORWATH

5 business strategy myths you need to stop believing now

T

he myths never end. Lightning never strikes the same place twice (it does). There is no gravity in space (there is, just less). Humans only use 10% of their brains (we use more). So which strategic myths or half-truths is your brand following? Let’s face it—running a business on myths is a flawed strategy.

A study of 10,000 senior executives showed that the most important leadership behavior critical to company success is strategic thinking at 97%. It is important to understand the strategy myths that may be keeping your team from reaching greater levels of success.

greater potential. Strategy is the primary vehicle for making these vital resource reallocation decisions, but as the survey showed, most leaders are not putting themselves or their teams in a position to succeed. If strategy in your organization is an annual event, you will not achieve sustained success.

It is important to understand the strategy myths that may be keeping your team from reaching greater levels of success.

Myth Buster: Conduct a monthly strategy tune-up where groups at all levels meet for one to two hours to review and calibrate their strategies.

Attempting to be better than the competition leads to a race of “best practices,” which results in competitive convergence. Doing the same things in the same ways as competitors, only trying to do them a little faster or better, blurs the line of value between your company and competitors. Remember that competitive advantage is defined as “providing superior value to customers”—it is not “beating the competition by being better.”

Myth Buster: Identify your differentiated value to specific customer groups by writing out your value proposition in one sentence.

Let's break down some of the more popular business myths: Strategy Myth #1: Strategy comes from somebody else “We get our strategy from the brand team/ upper management.” This is a common refrain when managers in other functional areas are asked who develops strategy. It is also wrong. The strategy you execute should be your own. Why? Because each group’s resources are different.

For example, the sales team has different resources—time, talent and budget— than the marketing, IT or HR team. How they allocate those resources determines their real-world strategy. It is important to understand company, product and other functional group strategies to ensure your strategies are in alignment. But their strategies are not a replacement for yours.

Myth Buster: Identify the corporate strategies, product strategies, functional group strategies and your strategies, and seek alignment.

Strategy Myth #3: Execution of strategy is more important than the strategy itself A landmark 25-year study of 750 bankruptcies showed that the No. 1 cause of bankruptcy was flawed strategy, not poor execution. You can have the most skilled driver and highest performance Ferrari in the world, but if you are driving that Ferrari on a road headed over a cliff, you are finished. A sure sign of a needlessly myopic view is that everything is an “either or,” rather than allowing for “and.” Strategy and execution are both important, but all great businesses begin with an insightful strategy.

Myth Buster: Take time to create differentiated strategy built on insights that lead to unique customer value and then shape an execution plan that includes roles, responsibilities, communication vehicles, time frames and metrics.

Strategy Myth #5: Strategy is the same as mission, vision or goals Since strategy is an abstract concept, it is often interchanged with the terms vision, mission and goals. How many times have you seen or heard a strategy that is “to be No. 1” or “to become the premier provider of …”? Mission is your current purpose and vision is your future purpose, or aspirational endgame. Goals are what you are trying to achieve. And strategy is how you will get there.

Starting with an inexact statement of strategy will derail all of the other aspects of your planning and turn your business into the equivalent of the grammar school volcano science project with red-dyed vinegar and too much baking soda.

Myth Buster: Clearly distinguish your goals, strategies, mission and vision from one another.

Strategy Myth #2: Strategy is a once-a-year process In a recent webinar presented to more than 300 CEOs—”Is Your Organization Strategic?”—the question was posed, “How often do you and your team meet to update your strategies?” The percentage of CEOs who meet with their teams to assess and calibrate strategies more frequently than four times a year is only 16.9%, with nearly 50% saying once a year or, “we don’t meet at all to discuss strategy.”

A study of more than 200 large companies showed that the No. 1 driver of revenue growth is the reallocation of resources throughout the year from underperforming areas to areas with

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CANVAS FEBRUARY 2020

Strategy Myth #4: Strategy is about being better than the competition Your products and services are not better than your competitors. Why? Because “better” is subjective. “Is our product better than the competition?” is the wrong question. The real one is, “How is our product different from the competitor’s product in ways that customers value?”

If left unchecked, strategy myths can cause you and your business to fail. A 10-year study of 103 companies showed that the No. 1 one cause of business failure is bad strategy.

Arm your team with the strategy myth busters and your business will soar higher than a pigeon with a belly full of uncooked rice.

Rich Horwath, CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute, is also a New York Times bestselling author. His latest book, “StrategyMan vs. The Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan,” is designed to give you and your team the knowledge, skills and tools necessary to think strategically. To sign up for his free monthly newsletter, “Strategic Thinker,” visit StrategySkills.com.

Perspective | Leadership | Insights

CORNER OFFICE

BY JASON O. HARRIS

7 skill sets guaranteed to bolster your brand’s culture

W

hat is your company’s culture like? Do you know that each day you walk into the office you are cultivating the environment? Every decision, every action you take plays into the mix. And here is the thing— your organization’s culture ultimately will determine what kind of experience your customers will have.

You most likely already have a great team. But are they ready to handle their job along with all of the other stresses that hit daily? This is where it is critical to have the right skill sets in place. Your team must be able to Trust the Training, Trust the Process and Trust the People.

In order to cultivate cohesiveness, connection and commitment in these fast-paced, ever-changing times, there are critical skill sets that are always present and encouraged. If your organization is ready to take it to the next level, here are the seven skill sets it needs:

No. 1 — Professional knowledge

Having professional knowledge is critical. You could even call it the foundation to any high-performance team.

When your people are equipped with the professional knowledge essential to their jobs, it is easier to empower them and trust them to make decisions when things get challenging.

No. 2 — Situational awareness

Situational Awareness (SA) is the ability to understand and comprehend environmental elements, events and possible scenarios as they apply to time, space and the collective comprehension of their possible interpretation. There are multiple SA types to include individual, team and organizational SA. To make the right decisions at the right time, it is critical that SA be present.

No. 3 — Assertiveness

Assertiveness is defined as confident, self-assured behavior. It means being self-assured and confident without being aggressive. When it is time to make business decisions and the fate of your organization is on the line, it is imperative that your team is trained, ready, and willing to speak up and assert their voice to avert a crisis.

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No. 4 — Decision-making

Decision-making is the process and action of making choices, especially important ones, by identifying a decision, gathering information and assessing alternative possibilities. When you look at decision-making and its application to your environment and how it relates to high-performance teams, you must be ready and able to make important and significant decisions. Sometimes these decisions will have to be made in very short order, without supervision. In order to make these time-sensitive decisions, your people will need to be empowered, knowing that they are prepared and trusted to make decisions that can be critical to the operation and success of the organization.

No. 5 — Communication

Communication is defined at the exchange of information or news. When it is crunch time and critical decisions must be made, being able to communicate is absolutely essential. When it is time to make decisions, given the timecritical scenario, you want, need and expect your people to have this skill set.

No. 6 — Leadership

Leadership is defined as the act of leading a group of people or an organization. Every organization, especially

high performing ones, need true and authentic leadership. They need leadership that is effective at all levels of execution. Leadership in your teams and organization has to be further defined as the people that influence others to accomplish the team and organizational objectives in a manner that makes the team more cohesive and more committed to each other, the mission at hand, and the organization.

No. 7 — Adaptability

Adaptability means being able to adjust to new conditions. When your team is moving at the speed of success, it is imperative that members are adaptable. The organization has to empower its people to be ready and prepared to adapt to many different scenarios.

Being adaptable can only happen when the people have been empowered.

The next time you walk into your office, you should be clear on the culture you are cultivating. The seven skill sets laid out will support the cultivation of a culture of connection, commitment and community. When you start to implement these principles, your team will begin to soar to new heights.

Together, you will be ready to Trust the Training, Trust the Process and Trust the People!

Jason O. Harris is a leadership and trust speaker, consultant and certified character coach.

As a decorated combat veteran, he brings unique perspectives gained from his battlefield experience to your organization. Harris’ No Fail Trust™ methodology was crafted from his own harrowing, life-altering experiences, and conveys the importance of cross-generational communication and mutual trust. For more information, visit: www.JasonOHarris.com.

7 things to add to your 2020 playbook

Speaking to the masses Personalized content tops wish list for B2B marketers

It is never too late to plan. With a new decade afoot, the challenge ahead is to take all of those goals you wrote down (you wrote some down, right?) and hit go. To help you get started, Outfield Leadership offers this eight-point strategic blueprint: 1. Review the past year What worked and what didn't last year? They are important questions to ask. Review your hits and misses, and then formulate a plan for what lies ahead.

2. Dust off your vision It is okay to think about the long run, so review your company's vision.

If it feels outdated, dust it off. Ask yourself if it is simple to understand, does it still excite everyone and does it have the right pieces in place to make it work.

3. Set your annual goal Define one to three overarching goals for the new year. Reaching for (and achieving) these goals means you're on target for your vision.

4. Prioritize your initiatives Assign a level of prioritization on your strategic initiatives. Set up categories like “must do” and “nice to do.” Finalize your list and go for it.

5. Agree on accountability For each initiative, agree on who will be accountable for implementation.

Set up milestone markers and check throughout the year.

6. Build a communications plan Agree on what needs to be communicated to the broader organization, who will deliver it, and when that is to happen.

Set up town hall-type meetings. Conduct follow ups. The key to a successful communication plan is consistency and repeatability.

7. Be ready for adjustments Create. Review. Adjust.

Repeat. The best laid plans leave room for adjustments. Make sure to change things when they need to be amended.

Ask B2B marketers to name their biggest need in 2020 and personalized content tops the list. According to Episerver’s “B2B Digital Experience Report 2019,” 36% plan to invest more in 2020 in personalized content, with additional emphasis placed on automated marketing and ordering. The survey queried 700 B2B decision-makers from the U.S. and around the world. Here’s a look at the items topping their 2020 wish lists:

> Personalized content 36% > Improve mobile experience of our website 33% > Live chat 31% > Product recommendations 26% > Launch a native mobile app for our customers or partners 24% > Site search 21% > Localization features 21% > Shopping cart 19%

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING... “ I tell those who are starting out to spend as much time looking for inspiration within them as they do around them. It wasn't until I found my own voice that I found my own strengths.”

— DELOITTE DIGITAL CMO ALICIA HATCH ON WHERE TO FIND LEADERSHIP INSPIRATION

“ Marketers will need to be focused on communicating the purpose and authentic value their brands stand for, to bring comfort and hope to consumers.”

“People aren't in the mood to be pitched. It's better if we let customers in a more unvarnished, authentic way, tell the story.”

— SAP CMO ALICIA TILLMAN ON WHAT IT WILL TAKE FOR BRANDS TO SUCCEED IN THE NEW YEAR

— SALESFORCE CMO STEPHANIE BUSCEMI ON DATA, PRIVACY AND CUSTOMER STORYTELLING

CANVAS P11

CORNER OFFICE

Perspective | Leadership | Insights

BY CINDY MCGOVERN

5 steps for selling to Gen Z customers (and a reminder for everyone else)

A

ny sales professional who is still taking a high-pressure approach to selling probably has a nice book of first-time customers and a dire lack of repeat business. And it is highly unlikely that sales pros like that turn any of those one-time buyers into customers for life.

Nobody really likes to be sold, even though pretty much everybody likes to buy. But absolutely nobody likes to be goaded into buying something unwanted or that could become a financial burden just because a pushy salesperson turned the pressure up too high.

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No matter what the customer’s age, that “you-need-to-buy-it-because-it’s-whatI’m-selling” approach does not work. But especially for young consumers, pressurecooker, on-the-spot sales that involve ultimatums and guilt trips can trigger anxiety and panic, and kill any chance of a sale today or ever.

Older consumers do not like dealing with overly aggressive salespeople, either, but they might be more willing or able to tolerate them. On the other hand, research has shown that Generation Z buyers—those in their early 20s and late teens who in just a few years will make up the bulk of the money demographic—are less tolerant, less resilient, easily offended and more anxious.

The best way to sell to those touchy young consumers is the best way to sell to anyone: Sell them what they need and want—not what you need or want to sell.

Here are five steps that will result in sales that will lead to repeat customers of any age:

Step 1. Plan

It is always a good idea to know a little bit about the person you hope to sell and a lot about the product, service or idea you are selling before you begin a conversation with a prospect or client. Do a quick Google search and a social media sweep to collect some intel about the person’s age, location, family, hobbies and interests. Knowing that will enhance your conversations and help you build trust.

In addition, educate yourself about your clients’ age group: Gen Z, millennial, Gen X or boomer. While not everyone is typical, you can still get a feel for what’s generally important to, quirky about or ignites passion in that generation.

For example, did you know that many Gen Zers prefer to watch videos rather than read brochures (or anything else), or that they want to not only consume entertainment and culture, they want to create it?

It is also important to determine what you want out of the deal: a one-time sale; an ongoing relationship; referrals to other clients and online; an introduction to someone the prospect knows? If you don’t know what you want, you won’t be able to create a strategy for getting it.

Once you know what your client wants and what you want, you can go about giving and getting in equal measure.

Step 2. Look for opportunities

Finding Gen Z customers and reaching them are activities best conducted online. Visual mediums (YouTube, Instagram, etc.) are their channels of choice, so watch what is trending.

And do not neglect the all-important face-to-face interactions that are critical to building relationships and creating customers for life. Look for opportunities to speak to groups of Gen Zers and to individuals when you run into them at the office, the store, the mall—Gen Z prefers brick-and-mortar shopping to online because of their lack of credit cards and their desire to hang out with friends in person—and elsewhere.

Create opportunities to interact with them where they live—on social media.

Finding Gen Z customers and reaching them are activities best conducted online.

Visual mediums (YouTube, Instagram, etc.) are their channels of choice, so watch what is trending.

The best sale is the one that fills your need to sell and the customer’s need for the product or service. The worst is the one that fills your need to sell but sticks the customer with something he or she does not want or cannot afford.

Those are one-time transactions with people who will never refer you to family and friends or return to buy something else in the future.

Get to know your prospects, no matter how old they are. Ask about problems and check your inventory of products and services to find out if you have something that can help. Be curious about what they like.

Sure, sales is about earning a living, but it is also about helping others. Listen, learn, pay attention, show genuine interest. Once you know exactly what you can sell that your client truly needs or wants, only then should you ask for a sale.

Step 4. Ask for the sale

It is never a good idea to wait for the customer to ask you to make the sale.

Instead, come right out and ask for it.

A good proportion of young consumers are timid and shy, especially at work. Some are socially awkward. Even if you are offering to sell something your client wants or needs, you might face some reluctance during a face-toface “ask.” Not every Gen Zer fits that mold. Many are confident about what they want and will ask. Still, do not make them. Asking is the sales pro’s job.

Step 5. Follow up

Gen Zers are just coming of age. Graduation. First jobs and apartments.

Marriage and children. Once you make a good enough impression to make a sale, keep in touch. Turn them into customers for life.

The best way to do that is to sell only what you stand behind and what your clients truly want or need. In addition, following up with customers—with gratitude, additional offers and a desire to make sure everything you’ve sold is working properly and filling your customer’s needs—will keep them coming back.

Step 3. Establish trust

This is, perhaps, the key step in sales.

Assuming you are not one to shove a product, service or idea down someone’s throat who wants or needs something entirely different, you will need to get close enough to your prospect to learn what he or she will respond to.

Dr. Cindy McGovern is known as the “First Lady of Sales.” She speaks and consults internationally on sales, interpersonal communication and leadership, and is the author of the Wall Street Journal best seller “Every Job Is a Sales Job: How to Use the Art of Selling to Win at Work.” Dr. McGovern also is the CEO of Orange Leaf Consulting, a sales management and consulting firm in San Francisco.

CANVAS P13

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

Personnel Moves Electronics For Imaging Inc. (EFS) has named long-time print industry service executive Geoff Loftus as its VP of Global Inkjet Service. He will help drive the customer satisfaction initiative by spearheading customer advocacy and service with a large portion of the company’s client base.

Loftus will be based in EFI’s Manchester, New Hampshire, display graphics facility.

Graphic Arts Advisors (GAA) named Cecil R. (Rod) Bristol, CFE, as a director at the firm. Based in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, Bristol will help strengthen GAA’s ability to guide owners of printing, packaging and related companies to achieve their strategic and financial goals. Bristol is the former owner of Sudden Printing Inc., which, at the time, was the largest independent quick printing company in Washington, with 19 locations and a centralized commercial printing division. He served as president from 1984 to 2007, when the firm was sold.

Printing Industries of America (PIA) has named its 2020 directors and board of directors. New board members included: Teresa Campbell, Printing & Imaging Association of

MidAmerica; Skip Novakovich, Esprit Graphic Communications; Brad Eslick, Record Printing Company; Gary Matchinsky, BCT; and Doug Climie, Hemlock Printers. New board officers were: Chairman of the Board, Paul Cousineau, Dow Jones; First Vice Chairman, Michael M. Marcian, Corporate Communications Group; Second Vice Chairman/Secretary, Roger Chamberlain, The Cincinnati Insurance Company; Treasurer, John E. LeCloux, WS Packaging Group; and Immediate Past Chairman, Bryan T. Hall, Graphic Visual Solutions.

The Ben Franklin Honor Society (BFHS) inducted its 2019 class, including Daneise Archer, president of Arco Ideas & Design, named BFHS Chair. Also inducted were Stuart I. Boyar, Cooley Group Inc.; Bryan T. Hall, Graphic Visual Solutions; Brad Johnson, Church of Latter-day Saints; Tony Mancuso, TUI & Artcraft; Dennis C. Martino, Martino-White Printing Inc.; Tressa Ann McLaughlin, SOLV; William “Kip” Smythe (Posthumous); Anthony P. Stanton, Carnegie Mellon University; Janet Steiner, formerly of Thoro Packaging; Michael Stevenson, B&B Print Source; and Robert Whitman, American Solutions for Business.

Awards & Recognition Printing Industries of America (PIA) named Laura Lawton as its “2019 Lewis Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award” recipient. Lawton is president of Lawton Printing and File-EZ Folders, both in Spokane, Washington. She was the fourth generation to join the family business, working full-time beginning in January 1991 and becoming president in October 2001. Established in 1950, the award pays homage to business leaders who have made major, long-term contributions to the graphic arts industry and

have been a significant force in shaping the business of printed communications.

In addition, PIA named June Crespo, director of Board & Affiliate Relations of Printing Industries of America, as its “2019 Naomi Berber Memorial Award” winner. The award honors outstanding women in the graphic communications industry for their exceptional record of accomplishments, extraordinary contributions toward the development of the graphic communications industry, and for having advanced the interests of the industry.

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) presented its “2019 Better Practices, Better Planet 2020 Sustainability Awards” to five member companies. The annual awards are designed to recognize exemplary sustainability programs and initiatives in the paper and wood products manufacturing industry and are given based on the merit of entries received across multiple categories. Winners included: Leadership in Sustainability — Energy Efficiency/Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Large Company) Resolute Forest Products: Concrete Actions to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions Leadership in Sustainability — Energy Efficiency/Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Small Company) Seaman Paper Company of Massachusetts, Inc.: Let There Be (LED) Light Leadership in Sustainability — Safety WestRock: Hopewell Recovery Boiler Life Changing Event Elimination Project

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Leadership in Sustainability — Sustainable Forest Management Domtar: Promoting Sustainable Forest Management for Landowners Leadership in Sustainability — Water Green Bay Packaging: Water Reduction Achievements at Green Bay Mill Innovation in Sustainability WestRock: EnShield® Natural Kraft

Industry news & more

Mergers & Acquisitons Offset printing and mailing company Dual Print & Mail, Cheektowaga, New York, has merged with Pittsburgh-based Knepper Press, a full-service firm offering offset and digital printing, mailing, and warehousing and fulfillment. With the merger, Knepper Press gains entry into a contiguous

geographic area in western New York. In addition, Knepper Press recently acquired the book of business of the commercial printing division of The Buffalo News. Having a facility in the greater Buffalo area strengthens the firm’s ability to service that customer base.

Around the industry Idealliance has awarded G7® System Certification to the AGFA Graphics Asanti version 4 production hub and workflow as it has demonstrated the system’s leading capabilities to implement and maintain G7 based print workflows. G7 System Certification is the global verification of a system that it is able to implement G7 and nearneutral based print production for any print technology.

The Asanti system, a core piece of wide-format based print workflows, gives wide-format users the capability to implement and drive G7 throughout their workflows to meet the demand for G7 across all output technology.

With its capabilities to implement and manage G7 based workflows, it has established itself as a leader for the wide-format print industry.

The Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP), the leading authority in sustainable printing certification, has created a new certification for suppliers to the printing industry. The “SGP Supplier” certification is the next step in the organization's mission to further sustainability throughout printing supply chain. The criteria is similar to the criteria for SGP Printers in that they specify the requirements for management and production operations that define sustainable practices encompassing people, planet and profit—the three Ps of sustainability. The draft criteria document, based on SGP's successful printer certification efforts, defines the core elements of the SGP certification program including development and adoption of a sustainability management system (SMS) and best practices.

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

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 P15

SPONSORED BY ASSOCIATION OF PRINT TECHNOLOGIES

STRATEGY

BY LEO RAYMOND

PRC issues revised proposal for rate setting process

O

n Dec. 5, the Postal Regulatory Commission issued a long-awaited revised proposal for changes to the rate setting process implemented under the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. The recent issuance comes almost two years after the commission published its initial proposal on Dec. 11, 2017.

The PAEA requirement

As everyone in the postal and mailing world knows, the cost-of-service rate setting mechanism established by the 1970 Postal Reorganization Act was replaced in 2006 by the current process, under which prices for “market-dominant” classes are capped at a level tied to the cost of living index.

Theoretically, the system would afford the Postal Service adequate pricing authority that, coupled with effective cost control and responsible management practices, would allow it to generate sufficient revenues to cover its costs.

The 2006 statute listed nine objectives for the rate setting process to achieve and 14 factors for the PRC to consider in implementing or revising the process. The 2006 act further required that, 10 years after PAEA was enacted, the commission would review the rate setting system to evaluate whether it was achieving the stated objectives.

If the PRC determined it was not, the statute empowered the PRC, “by regulation, [to] make such modification or adopt such alternative system for regulating rates and classes for market-dominant products as necessary to achieve the objectives.”

On Dec. 20, 2016, the commission initiated its review, stating that it intended to “examine all aspects of the rate-making system.” In seeking public comment, the commission asked a series of questions, notably that if the system wasn’t achieving the objectives, what modifications to the system should be made?

After reviewing the performance of the rate setting process over the preceding decade and the comments it received, the PRC produced a report on Dec. 1, 2017, that concluded the rate setting process had not met its statutory objectives. Perhaps the most obvious failure was regarding the statute’s

Objective 5 (“To assure adequate revenues, including retained earnings, to maintain financial stability”), given the agency’s significant debt and defaulted prefunding payments by the time of the 2016-2017 review.

The first proposed rule

In general, the PRC used the only tool available to it—amending the rate setting process—to enable achievement of the statutory objective of USPS financial stability. In turn, the commission proposed three different measures to allow added revenue in addition to what would be available under the CPI-based cap on rate increases.

Dozens of comments were submitted on the proposal. As would be expected, several themes were echoed consistently.

Foremost among those from industry and mailers was opposition to (and postal unions’ support for) higher prices. Another consistent theme among all commenters was attribution of the Postal Service’s fiscal stress to the $55.8 billion prefunding requirement imposed by the PAEA—clearly (to anyone outside Congress) more than the rate setting process (or the commercial mail marketplace) was capable of accommodating.

Given such wholesale opposition, there was no further action on the rulemaking for 20 months, though the PRC likely continued to deliberate about its options.

The new proposal

Since the PRC began its review in 2016, it has not been afforded new authority to amend or relieve the overly aggressive prefunding requirement imposed

by PAEA, so the available options for its new proposals again were limited to altering the rate setting process. In its Dec. 5 Revised Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the PRC stated:

“The majority of the modifications focus on the mechanism for the supplemental rate authority, with additional modifications to the performance-based rate authority and other proposals... . The proposed changes are intended to create a solution, which reflects the reality of the ever-changing postal environment and economic conditions that impact the Postal Service and its users.”

The commission’s revised proposal again included “supplemental rate authority” to allow over-CPI rate increases to “allow the Postal Service to meet its retirement amortization payments.”

The new proposal also still contained “performance-based rate authority in order to better reflect the Commission’s continued determination that the ‘lack of financial stability, insufficient levels of efficiency gains and cost reductions, and inability to adequately encourage the maintenance of service standard quality were interrelated causes and effects of the deficiencies experienced under the existing rate making system.’”

The PRC also repeated the proposal to allow additional rate authority for “underwater” types of mail (such as Marketing Mail flats and Periodicals).

Comments on this second proposed rule are due in February, and may repeat the comments made to the first proposal, given the similarity of the proposals’ content.

Quick thoughts

The commission deserves credit for making another run at solving an alleged deficiency in the rate setting process, even though that deficiency actually derives from congressional action—the remedy for which therefore lies beyond the PRC’s authority.

Given its statutory mandate and limited options, the commission was limited in what it could do, and had to propose ways not only to provide the USPS with added revenue generation capability, but also to make those measures sufficient to pay for an unreasonable congressionally-imposed obligation.

Of course, as the commission knows, if the USPS were to exercise the added rate authority the PRC would give it, the exodus of mailers would accelerate and only exacerbate the financial woes that the proposal is trying to ameliorate.

Leo Raymond is managing director of Mailers Hub, an information resource for mailing service providers and other companies in the mailing community. Raymond has five decades’ experience in postal affairs and related mailing issues.

P16 CANVAS FEBRUARY 2020

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SOCIALLY SPEAKING

BY MATTHEW PARKER

How not to fail this year

I

have predicted that 20% of printing companies will go bust over the next 12 months. The prediction caused quite a debate on social media. I received all sorts of responses. Some suggested there would be virtually no casualties at all. On the other side, one person suggested that the percentage of printing companies going out of business could be as high as 60%.

Whether you believe in my prediction or not, there can be little doubt that trading conditions in the printing industry are becoming ever tougher.

There is a very real danger that many

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printing companies will cease trading this year unless they change how they do business.

Printing companies that carry on doing the same old things are going

to decline. Today’s buyers are no longer interested in the traditional quality, service and price triangle.

They assume that they will receive all three—and generally they will. Nor do they want to be courted by the oldfashioned relationship building sales rep using the traditional methods of phone, email and meetings.

If this is the approach that a printing company takes, it is going to struggle.

They will not build the right trading

by doing more of the same. Nor will it happen by focusing solely on becoming more efficient, although this is certainly an important strategy.

To create the best opportunities for growth, printing companies should review whom they want as customers and how they approach them. The shift needs to be cultural above all else.

Here are three action points that can help with this cultural shift:

1. Choose your ideal customer

To achieve good results this year, many printing companies will have to change the way that they think and act.

For too long, many printing companies have tried to deal with a very wide customer base. This has meant that the sales message has focused on print. Inevitably, this leads to commodity pricing because one printing company sounds pretty much the same as another.

It is far better to choose one ideal client as the focus for your customer base. Which of your current clients is the best fit for your company? Use them as your target market. Look for more clients like this one. Build a sales message purely for them.

If you work well with your ideal client, chances are that you will work well with other similar organizations. And if your ideal client values you and your services, it is likely that other companies like them will do the same.

Once you have chosen your ideal target market, you are well placed to carry out the second action point.

2. Talk to customers

Have a conversation with your ideal customers. Do not talk about you or your company. Find out about them.

Here are five important questions you should be looking for answers to: > What are the main challenges that they are facing in their role or in the business? > What results are your products and services achieving for their business? > Why are they using you and not the competition? > What could you do better? > What other services or products would they like you to provide? partnerships. They will not be in control of their sales pipeline. And they will struggle to achieve the results that they need.

If printing companies want to survive and thrive, they need to take the right action. To achieve good results this year, many printing companies will have to change the way that they think and act. Survival will not happen

If you can find out the answers to these five questions, you are well on the way to creating all the sales and marketing messages that you need to sell to other similar companies. Even better, if you can record the conversation, you will find that your customer has created some pretty powerful copy for you.

You will also find out how you can develop your business. What should

you address to prevent customer dissatisfaction? And what can you do to grow the business. Enter the third strategy.

3. Launch a new product or services

Make it a priority to do something different this year. If you talk to your current customers, you will often be given ideas on what new products or services you can create. This doesn’t mean having to invest in expensive new equipment. You may well be able to develop a new product from your existing equipment. Or you may be able to outsource a product or service.

The main result from this strategy should be that you can grow new business with your existing clients. In addition, you will have a broader offering when you are trying to win new customers. You won’t be sticking to doing the same old thing.

Launching a new product or service should also result in a focus on sales activity. Your team will have something new that allows them to make contact with existing customers and new prospects.

You can get going with these new strategies straight away

Make a note in your diary right now to have a meeting very soon to decide the right type of customer for you to focus on over the next few months. Once you have had this meeting, it is time to get together with two or three of your ideal customers and have a chat with them.

That should also give you the right direction for launching the new product or service.

The important point is to start taking action quickly. This will set you ahead of the competition. You want to be making sure that you do not fall into the 20% of printing companies that are likely to cease trading over the next twelve months.

PS: Find out more ideas on how to increase sales with today’s buyers.

Download my free e-book “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them” right now at http:// profitableprintrelationships.com/ebook/ You’ll also receive my regular “Views from the print buyer” bulletin, full of ideas on how to sell print effectively. Also, if you want to find out more about carrying out the right sales activities, check out my recently launched book, “How To Succeed At Print Sales: Setting Targets, Planning the Right Activities and Making Sure Goals are Met.”

Matthew Parker is the Champion of Print at Profitable Print Relationships. He speaks globally at print events and is the author of “How To Stop Print Buyers Choosing On Price.” Parker also trains and mentors printing companies as well as produces content for them. As a buyer of print, he was sold to by more than 1,400 different printing companies, so he knows what works for customers and what doesn’t. Download his free e-guide to using social media to sell printing and similar services at http://profitableprintrelationships.com/social-media-printing-marketing/

CANVAS P19

CANVAS BUYER’S GUIDE

ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS PRODUCTS

Environmentally sound

Why Convertible Solutions is all in on sustainability

The worldwide trends say it all—Everyone, in all industries, is moving away from synthetics and plastics. The printing industry can take the lead by introducing products that make single use plastic, i.e., for mailers, un-needed.

Convertible Solutions is doing its part. The specialty paper supplier is actively striving to take the lead and develop new products that reflect an environmentally conscious direction

P20 CANVAS FEBRUARY 2020

through sourcing of high-end specialty substrates promoting recyclability as well as championing sustainable forestry through FSC certification.

With several countries examining ways to eliminate single use plastic, Convertible Solutions offers a full range of substrates that can be used for mailers that would eliminate the need for one that would typically include PET laminations.

To find out you can be part of the environmental solution, contact Convertible Solutions today at 866-832-0217 or email info@convertiblesolutions.

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

Small paper gift cards make a big environmental difference

PAPER-BASED ALTERNATIVES

Consumers are searching for greener alternatives for plastic usage in their daily life, so the ability for brand owners to provide these solutions holds enormous appeal. With McCoy Gift Card, brand owners can now provide paperbased alternatives to several common plastic and PVC materials like retail gift cards, hotel key cards, loyalty cards, and promotional cards.

While gift cards are small in size, their environmental impact is huge.

The gift card market is projected to reach $510 billion US by 2025, according to Statista. So not only does McCoy Gift Card provide a much-needed sustainable solution, but it offers more flexibility in printing and finishing to create something that’s truly one-of-a-kind from renewable, fully recyclable resources.

McCoy Gift Card is available in 28-point caliper and allows for a variety of outstanding printing techniques, including heavy color-saturated imagery, embossing, foil printing, and spot gloss. McCoy Gift Card has also been engineered for high bond strength to satisfy tape, hot glue and authorization mechanisms—including scratchoffs, barcodes and magnetic strips.

With the entire McCoy paper line, brand owners can ensure beautiful consistency throughout all printed marketing needs including gift cards, card carriers, direct mailings, marketing collateral, and much more. Brand owners know their customers expect nothing less than the best, so when it comes to paper, McCoy delivers an unparalleled experience.

McCoy Gift Card attributes: > Superior quality and breadth of product offering > Robust product design for the toughest printing and post-production applications > Fully recyclable > Superior ink hold-out for full-color intensity > Uniform color reproduction > Tight variability tolerances > Manufactured in the USA > FSC® Chain of Custody certified > 10% recycled content

Request a sample of McCoy Gift Card by emailing publications@sappi.com

CANVAS P21

CANVAS BUYER’S GUIDE

PAINTED EDGE CARDS

Embrace your edge

4over’s Painted Edge Cards are undeniably premium and impressively affordable

When it comes to upgrading standard print products like business cards and postcards, a little paint goes a long way. Painted Edge Cards from 4over make it easy—and profitable—to give your clients premium branding at bang-for-your-buck value.

With 17 unique colors (including metallics) to choose from, and 7 available sizes, Painted Edge Cards earn their stripes by being a versatile, impactful option suited for any range of projects.

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The ultra-thick 32pt. stock is sleek and sturdy, so business cards, postcards and even announcement cards give a solid impression that lasts. Pair Painted Edge Business Cards with 4over’s Clear Cases to showcase their

vibrant color and achieve the ultimate in edge packaging.

Order today and see how premium stocks at low-cost prices can make a difference in your business.

Find more premium print at affordable prices at 4over.com

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

The printer’s edge

INKJET

Why Canon Solutions America’s VarioPrint i-series continues to revolutionize the inkjet color production press game

Direct mail. Transactional communications. Marketing collateral. Books, magazines and manuals. If you are looking for cutting edge solutions in printing large volume, high quality jobs like this, the VarioPrint i-series continues to be the go-to source for today’s inkjet color production press.

With more than 250 worldwide installations already in the books, Canon Solutions America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc., continues to improve on the capabilities of the VarioPrint i-series. The new model — the VarioPrint i-series+ — is designed to help printers increase the productivity of their short-run operations, while bolstering their application diversity, production efficiency and cost effectiveness.

The multifaceted press offers established B3 sheetfed inkjet solutions that

help bridge the speed and capacity gap between high-end, toner-based cutsheet printers and entry-level continuous feed inkjet presses. Among the benefits the VarioPrint i-series offers is an increase in productivity, including the capability of printing more than 400,000 A4 images a day. The VarioPrint i-series+ also adds exceptional uptime of more than 90 percent at twice the speed of similar devices.

Leveraging printhead technology from the proven ColorStream inkjet web presses, the VarioPrint i-series+ color inkjet printer provides 600 x 600 dpi output with drop size modulation to deliver 1,200 dpi perceived image quality. Automated inline quality control detects nozzle failure and automatically applies compensation to help maintain quality.

In addition, the implementation of iQuarius technologies helps production teams handle new and more diverse applications, ensuring the reliability of the VarioPrint i-series for fast, uninterrupted production. The VarioPrint i-series also links with complex information systems and finishing solutions from third party providers to provide a more robust offering to customers.

For more information, visit www.csa.canon.com.

CANVAS P23

CREATIVE CORNER

Cody Robertson Branding Creative Cirector, Polyient Labs

Branding Creative Director Cody Robertson on what clients want today

A

s the creative director for Polyient Labs, Cody Robertson oversees design and brand strategy for Polyient and its portfolio of clients. Before he joined the Polyient team, Robertson spent more than a decade serving in senior creative roles at agencies and firms in New York City, Los Angeles and Phoenix working with a number of world-class brands. On an interesting note, he recently earned a certificate in Blockchain Business Innovation and Application from MIT. His work has appeared in CEOWORLD magazine, Modus and Starternoise. We sat down with him to get his take on today’s creative world.

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

I think today’s graphic design market is divided between a state of division and a state of consolidation.

Look at Dribble’s “2019 Annual Global Design Survey,” which paints a pretty clear picture of what’s hot in design.

Not surprisingly, UX/UI/Product/Web design all are poised to reign supreme.

Designers in these areas make up the biggest demographic globally followed by graphic designers, brand and logo designers, and then illustrators.

With everything going online, there is an obvious need for interface, app, and web designers in the workforce.

Most graphic designers I encounter are incorporating UI/UX, motion design, or illustration into their repertoires.

What this means is traditional graphic design appears to be dying, but, in fact, it’s evolving to fit the landscape of today’s digital world. There is still a need for traditional “graphic” graphic designers, but I see—thanks to the rise of blockchain-powered apps and the decentralized web—designers are finding a second wind by selling digital artworks, gifs or illustrations colloquially known as “crypto art.” In fact, crypto art is ushering in a whole new art wave being born from graphic designers.

What are your clients looking for today?

With the globalization/democratization of design via the web, every designer’s portfolio of pixel-perfect work is online for everyone to see. So, it is not hard for clients to find good designers, but

P24 CANVAS FEBRUARY 2020

it is surprisingly hard for them to find great ones.

As a result, clients these days look less at the quality of the art, and instead take into consideration the quality of the entire design experience. Clients still care about the quality of the art, but they also look for well-rounded, communicative and diverse designers and teams that will not only deliver the cleanest, slickest, best-executed approach to a client’s idea, but can also make the client-designer process enjoyable, transparent and productive.

What really wins clients over is a well-rounded team that can firmly guide the client through the process— while being open, empathetic and pragmatic throughout.

What are some of the most critical things important to today’s brand owners?

With regards to today’s most successful brand owners, the biggest change I’ve seen is this: For better and for worse, brand owners genuinely care about what you and I think of their brands.

This isn’t the same as your general affinity toward the brand. (Chances are you will buy the product no matter what.) What has changed is brands now care how often you think of them and when and where you think about them. We saw this en masse in 2019, which marked the age of “The Branded Experience.” Brands begin to care about creating immersive ecosystems of products, services, and experiences alike all around a single brand. Then brand owners invite consumers into that world.

Look at what Apple and Supreme have accomplished. Small brands can capitalize on this phenomenon and achieve impactful brand experiences by creating a seamless experience for their customers. This means adopting a design language, unifying your digital

interfaces, creating brand guidelines and even small things like making sure you shoot all your photos the same way or use the same filters.

Brands used to be about a few colors and a logo. These days, brands have evolved into everything from virtual assistants, artificial intelligence, wearables, logo-stamped bricks, smartphone-branded credit cards and even to branded flamethrowers.

in drastic ways—seemingly on a weekly basis—it’s hard for someone to get by on only one skill set.

The opposite is the generalist crowd or the fabled “unicorns” (or in the tech world, “full-stack” developers.) They can do everything well enough, but, rarely, anything excellently.

It’s important to strike a balance: Being really spectacular at one or two things and being decent at a variety of related disciplines may be the best goal. For example, a UI designer who has a firm understanding of UX, but also understands some code and how the business operates.

What’s the one quality every art director must have today?

Throughout my career I’ve worked with many great and a few not-so-great art directors. What really separates the average from the admirable is empathy.

Art directors know how to communicate abstract ideas and are masters of their trade. However, there are those lacking empathy. I’ve seen too many brooding Don Draper-type art directors and too few who can really take a step back and put themselves in the position of the client, the user, or the consumer.

Design is just as much about emotional intelligence as it is analytical thinking. What makes a great art director is one who can put themselves in someone else’s shoes and think about problems and solutions from a holistic point of view, taking into account the actual humans who—in the end—consume the work.

What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?

Charles Darwin said: “It is not the strongest or most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”

This has been a significant influence in my career. I am a firm believer that soft skills are of the utmost importance for designers. With the world changing

CANVAS P25

PERSPECTIVE

THE

DECOUPLING EFFECT DOWNLOADING THE LATEST RECIPE FOR B2B SELLING

P26 CANVAS FEBRUARY 2020

Cover Story: By Michael J. Pallerino

No matter how many times you see the numbers, they are still mind bending. In today's digitally paced landscape, 80% of the B2B buying process occurs without any human interaction. There is a lot to unpack in that statement.

What are buyers doing if they are not interacting with your sales team (or anyone else for that matter)? Why is this happening? And what can you do about it?

Thales Teixeira has spent a considerable amount time dissecting the ins and outs of this equation. As a former Lumry Family Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, he has consulted, advised or educated top executives of more than 15 of the Fortune 100 companies, oftentimes digging deeply into what makes today's buyers and brands tick. Today, as co-founder of the digital disruption consultancy Decoupling.co., he continues to take his research further into the enthralling market dynamic.

The easy answer is that buyers go online and research potential solutions to specific problems. They pore over reviews of what company is selling what and why. They pore over the backgrounds of the people selling the products or services.

But there is more to it than that.

What Teixeira's research has uncovered about today's ever-evolving, oft disrupted business landscape and sales process is as interesting as it is groundbreaking. The process is known as decoupling, by which a disruptor breaks the links between the customer’s value chain—the sequence of activities that customers go through in order to procure and use goods and services. “Decouplers steal one or a few activities to execute themselves, as opposed to stealing the customer,” he says.

Take subscription-based beauty startup, Birchbox, which did not technically go head-to-head with the brand leader, Sephora. Instead of going to the store and trying a beauty product and buying it, customers are conducting a trial run of their selections with Birchbox. The bottom line: Birchbox is in essence pilfering

customer activity from Sephora, not the entire customer.

Teixeira is quick to point out that what Birchbox (and others like it) is doing comes from a place of a customer’s need for convenience. Birchbox is not disrupting Sephora, the consumer is. It is the same with insurance.

Instead of going to Liberty Mutual, choosing an insurance plan, signing up, paying the premium, and then canceling it later, consumers are going for on-demand insurance like Trov.

In his recent book, “Unlocking the Customer Value Chain,” Teixeira shows that across a variety of seemingly unrelated industries like retail, fashion, transportation, media, telecom and financial services, to name a few, the decoupling process is causing disruption. The list of decouplers is a who’s who of brands, including Twitch, PillPack, Uber, Airbnb, Dollar Shave Club, Klarna, Pandora, Mint.com, Rebag and Turo.

“The process does not necessarily involve very innovative technologies, counter to what many are saying is the reason for disruption,” Teixeira says. “It involves breaking traditional business models. Think of it as using LEGO building blocks to reconfigure the pieces. To be precise, it is the changing needs and wants of customers, and consequent changes of behavior in everyday life that is bringing down 100-year-old behemoths like GE, GM, Coca-Cola, Hilton, Sears, and many others.”

Decoupling and you

Decoupling is the third major wave of business model disruption, after unbundling, which happened in the late 1990s, and disintermediation, which happened in the early 2000s.

To be sustainable, brands today need to evolve their business models.

Doing so enables them to coexist in a world where customer behavior is forever changing.

CANVAS P27

The Decoupling Effect

6 ways today’s buyers approach a purchase To understand how to best help customers advance through a complex purchase, Gartner's “The New B2B Buying Journey” identified six B2B buying “jobs” that customers must complete to their satisfaction in order to successfully finalize a purchase: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Problem identification Solution exploration Requirements building Supplier selection Validation Consensus creation

In the second part of Teixeira’s book, he shows how companies should respond to this new wave of disruption. The defense is not about fighting new competitors and/or adopting new technologies. He says it lies in better understanding and catering to your customers with associated changes to business models. As it turns out, this, in practice, is hard to do for a variety of reasons.

Take Best Buy. Customer centricity is what helped the brand successfully respond to Amazon’s attack. Today, the retailer is doing quite well, even partnering with its one-time disruptor. But Best Buy is an anomaly of sorts. As Teixeira admits, there are not many examples of incumbents successfully responding to disruption in their industries.

“The reason is that traditional organizations are too focused on competitors and technology to see what is really disrupting their businesses,” Teixeira says.

“As an incumbent business, you can’t innovate yourself out of a digital disruption threat. Product or technology innovation by itself is not the answer. Customer-centric innovation is the answer.”

At its core, decoupling is a form of specialization. With the rise in specialization in products in both consumer segments and countries, decoupling has become a specialization in the customer value chain (CVC). Essentially, this means that customers no longer want all activities they engage in to be done by the same large company. Teixeira says that they prefer to “hire” different companies for different activities in the process.

For example, in travel, people visit Trip Advisor to learn about hotel and leisure options because the site is viewed as unbiased. Upon selection, people book activities and flights with Expedia because it is judged to be comprehensive and low cost. Then, they fly with Delta, stay at an Airbnb and get around town in an Uber.

“Decoupling allows customers to get the best product or service in each

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— — — — — —

“We need to do something.”

“What’s out there to solve our problem?”

“What exactly do we need the purchase to do?”

“Does this do what we want it to do?”

“We think we know the right answer, but we need to be sure.”

“We need to get everyone on board.”

activity, whatever ‘best’ might mean for each one,” Teixeira says. “Today, my research shows that people are interested in reducing the monetary, time, and effort costs involved in procuring goods and services. Decoupling allows for these cost reductions to be achieved by consumers at each stage of their purchase and consumption process.”

Recoupling and you

Faced with a disruptive startup peeling away pieces of the consumer purchasing process, most brands end up trying to prevent this by gluing back what the startup is breaking apart. Teixeira calls this “recoupling.” When Tivo invented the DVR to enable TV viewers to decouple watching ads from watching shows, TV networks initially tried lawsuits to ban the device. When mobile communication applications like Skype and WhatApp allowed users to decouple cell phone connectivity from communication exclusively through cellular connections, Telefonica and other European telecoms tried to lobby their governments to block them.

“Decoupling allows customers to get the best product or service in each activity, whatever ‘best’ might mean for each one.”

— THALES TEIXEIRA, DECOUPLING.CO.

Across a variety of industries, incumbent companies that have been decoupled by tech startups more often than not initially respond by attempting to block the attacker. What they do not realize is that, by doing so, they are also inadvertently going against the wishes of their own customers.

“Consumers are the ones who want to skip ads, consolidate financial statements across accounts of different banks and communicate with social apps,” Teixeira says. “In the long term, no strategy that goes against the natural desires of its own customers (monopolies notwithstanding) can be sustainable.”

So, the question becomes if attempting to recouple what has been decoupled is not the right path to take, then what is? Teixeira says the answer is simple: If your customers what to decouple you, let them. If a large company is offering to fulfill multiple activities in the customer’s value chain and a large portion of them want to let another company, a disruptive startup, fulfill one or more of these activities, let the scenario play out.

“This is the only truly customer-centric way to deal with disruption,” Teixeira says. “Second, the incumbents should only offer to their customers the activities they wish to be delivered. This I have termed 'preemptive decoupling.'”

Finally, and what Teixeira says is the most challenging part, some companies may not be viable businesses if they preemptively decouple and allow consumers to do what they want. “If people want to come to your store and shop around, but buy elsewhere online, let them. The solution is to rebalance the business model.

Rebalancing requires capturing some value at each activity or CVC stage in which the company also creates value for its customers.”

To be sustainable, brands today need to evolve their business models.

Doing so enables them to coexist in a world where customer behavior is forever changing.

PAPER REVOLUTION 68% of paper and paper packaging is recycled into new products; one of the highest recycling rates of any material in North America!

Discover the story of paper www.twosidesna.org Sources: American Forest and Paper Association, 2019; Forest Products Association of Canada, 2015.

BUSINESS

P30 CANVAS FEBRUARY 2020

Feature Story: By Carlos Gil

5 STRATEGIES FOR ENGAGING WITH DIGITALLY CONNECTED CUSTOMERS Editor’s note: This extract from “The End of Marketing” by Carlos Gil is ©2019 and reproduced with permission from Kogan Page Ltd. The book is available now everywhere books are sold.

I believe wholeheartedly that as baby boomers and Generation X become supplanted by millennials and Generation Z as the primary economic drivers of global consumerism, that if brands want to survive—and thrive—through the next industrial revolution, then they need to find a way to personify who they are and step from behind the digital curtain.

Going forward, Coca-Cola will need to be a person that I can relate to. A real face that personifies the brand and convinces me to buy Coke instead of Pepsi.

Nike will need to be a team of athletes that I and others should aspire to be like.

Whole Foods will need to be a series of people who teach me how to make better choices in how I eat. Delta will need to be people who show me the world through the lens of their camera. My local gym will need to be a person who teaches me how to work out.

The fact is, for every fitness influencer, for every beauty blogger, for every travel influencer who exists, that is one more person who is taking market share away from your company. You are competing for digital reach with the same influencers that you are temporarily hiring to endorse your brand.

And this model doesn’t work.

This is a New World Order of business. You only have to look as far as AOL and MySpace to see what happens

when your audience grows up and you don’t grow up with it.

Thanks to technology, consumers are the media. Today, with an iPhone and an Instagram account, every person is an influencer. This is part of the reason why brands, and the marketers behind them, do not buy into social media: because brand is no longer superior to the consumer in the eyes of the consumer. It is about control—but it should not be. Of course, you cannot control what people say about you—but you can steer the conversation in the direction that you desire, should you choose to engage and be a part of it.

That is the key—brands should be aiming to be a part of the movement and avoid falling into the trap of trying to be the movement itself. To a certain extent, control has been relinquished, not to the entity that has the most marketing budget to spend, but rather to the people whose message goes the furthest.

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Reeling ‘em in digitally? Going forward, start keeping track of your customers digitally to see who they are connected to and form a dialogue with them in an attempt to leverage their influence within their circles. If someone buys from you and has a good experience, they are immediately a reference.

Brands should not view these platforms as their biggest enemy.

They are also your biggest ally, and today, one that you cannot live without. Facebook is one of the most—if not the most—powerful corporations on the planet. Mark Zuckerberg and company have transformed the way that we communicate, consume news and enjoy entertainment. The online social world is becoming more a part of our day-to-day lives and allows us to keep up with how individuals are living their lives, rather than only relying on mass communication media like TV and radio to get a glimpse of what is going on in the world.

That leads us to the good news—what is old is new again. Since the beginning of time, relationships have been at the forefront of everything we do. Building relationships is not done through Facebook ads or brand campaigns exclusively; they are formed individually one by one. Social media gives you the power to identify consumers who are speaking about your brand and

Who has perceived influence among your target consumer and how can you align with them?

For example, when younger consumers think of “Yeezys” they are not proudly representing Adidas, but rather Kanye West. Who are the influencers who exist right now within your industry?

Brands should not view these platforms as their biggest enemy. They are also your biggest ally, and today, one that you cannot live without. your competition, as well as the ability to engage them directly.

But these relationships need to be carefully fostered. Importantly, the relationship that you form with your customer needs to be a two-way dialogue, otherwise you’re pushing out content for the sake of creating noise.

There are a few things to keep in mind for engaging digitally connected customers: Know your audience — Who are they and what channels are they on?

If you are trying to engage younger consumers, you are more likely to find them on Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch and TikTok. Whereas if you are trying to sell to a working-class millennial or older, it is most likely going to be on Facebook where you can reach them.

You should spend your time on the platforms where your customers live.

What value do you bring to your intended audience?

Do you have a product or service that solves a problem? If so, find people who are openly speaking about that problem and hook them directly. As a consumer, if I complain about a company and their competitor immediately swoops in to help me, I am more likely to take my business to that company or brand. Every company and product or service has a target customer who has needs; your job is to connect those needs by listening and engaging directly.

Who are your references?

If you own an apparel brand and are selling t-shirts on Shopify, who is buying them? Seriously ask yourself: Who are these people and do they have any influence whatsoever

These do not have to be international celebrities, but can instead be thought leaders in your industry or local figures who have important influence within their communities. Whoever they are, you should be finding ways every day to form relationships with them; social media provides you with the opportunity to directly connect with and catch the attention of these individuals, rather than having to connect via a third party such as an agent.

Create your own influence

The power of influencers extends into all sorts of businesses, and brands have a prime opportunity not only to connect with the largest influencers, but also harness the power of smaller influencers, such as employees and customers. Everyone has influence within their own circles and tapping into these networks can help grow your reach exponentially.

Yet consider the travel industry, where a quick YouTube search for “Best places to vacation” does not reveal a single video from Marriott, Hilton, Expedia or even an airline, but rather videos with millions of views from creators—who are hired by brands—to show consumers how a trip to a place like Bora Bora will change their lives, improve their marriage or make them happier.

This kind of escape from reality is the dream that influencers are selling to the masses. Every brand can do this, and they should. In fact, having an employee or customer share their best vacation stories could be even more relatable and therefore, powerful.

It is no secret that social media offers a competitive advantage to corporate brands who are willing to invest time, money and people in building a community. However, if companies want to thrive in this new era, they must change their approach and be less a brand and more human.

Carlos Gil is the author of “The End of Marketing: Humanizing Your Brand in the Age of Social Media and AI.” He also is an international keynote speaker and award-winning digital storyteller with more than a decade of experience leading social media strategy for global brands, including LinkedIn, Winn-Dixie, Save-A-Lot and BMC Software. Gil’s work has been featured by CNNMoney, Harvard Business Review, Mashable and Social Media Examiner in addition to dozens of trade publications. Presently, Gil is the CEO and founder of Gil Media Co., a full-service digital marketing firm based in Los Angeles, which works with Fortune 500 clients.

P32 CANVAS FEBRUARY 2020

A PODCAST FOR THE PRINTING & MARKETING SERVICE INDUSTRIES

LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE THECANVASMAG.COM iTunes & GooglePlay

BRANDING

The print industry is continuing to change, and the turn of both the year and decade brings new obstacles. We sat

Printers dish on what lies ahead

down with some of the best leaders to get their take on the ever-changing industry. Our panel includes Tom Moe, President/CEO, Daily Printing; R.J. Hines, Head of Sales & Marketing, Vision Graphics; Joseph Wessner, Assistant GM/Sales Manager, Coughlin Printing Group; Dean Petrulakis, Senior VP of Sales, Lake County Press; Gina Danner, CEO, NextPage; Mike Philie, Founder, The

What will be the biggest challenges for printers going forward?

Tom Moe: Staying focused on the goal and not getting sidetracked by the latest new fad or technology. There is so much going on in our industry, both good and not so good, and it is so easy to lose sight of the overall goal of the company, and get swept up into the wave of all shiny new stuff. Just because there is something new or different doesn’t mean it is a good fit.

Everyone loves the new shiny stuff, but if it doesn’t pertain to your core business or create a competitive advantage, don’t get pulled in and waste time and worse, resources and cash on it. If it is something of interest, put a plan together and investigate it based on the plan. If the evidence supports it, continue, but if it doesn’t, get out fast.

R.J. Hines: Relevance in the marketplace, focus on growth areas, direct mail, packaging, and a continued migration to be marketing automation experts.

Sales and Marketing,

Joseph Wessner: The biggest challenge that we see is the aging out of the workforce. As the industry declined, so did the number of entry-level pressmen. There are very few young people coming up behind to take over when the current generation retires.

ThinkPatented.

Dean Petrulakis: Aging workforce and lack of young talent coming in.

Philie Group, LLC; and David McNerney, VP of

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Feature Story

Gina Danner: There is so much opportunity right now. The landscape facing brand owners is enormous and the value of “print” is strong. While the perceived value of traditional ink on paper/commercial printing remains flat and declining renewed efforts and focus on evolutionary moves is critical for survival.

Manufacturers have positioned great new equipment in the areas of packaging and production inkjet. The challenge I see for PSPs is selecting the next level of investment. Just because an OEM puts a pretty bow on a new technology doesn’t mean your organization has the ability to deliver on the value.

Working with our teams, we have to collectively determine how we use those investments to drive our companies and our customers forward.

Mike Philie: Becoming more clientcentric throughout the organization and increased automation for the order entry process for customer jobs. Speeds, feeds and full color variable will need to increase to meet the changing customer needs.

David McNerney: Labor has to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest. We have an aging workforce, increased competition for labor, and a low unemployment rate, which makes this an issue for all of us.

What’s holding us back in the industry?

Moe: Hmm nothing really; there is a ton of opportunity out there, if you know how to uncover it and win it. However, I do see some companies getting held up by a few things, but I wonder if they are held up or using something as an excuse to not make a change or to not evolve. The world of print has forever changed, and yet many companies are slow to make the adjustment. You can’t sell print any longer; you need to sell how to increase membership, move more product, acquire more new clients, etc. You need to understand your customers and what their goal is and help them meet or exceed it.

Hines: The industry needs to attract a new generation who see the viability of tactile solutions. The experience and longevity within the industry provides value and sometimes colloquial thinking.

Wessner: The need for speed in the industry. The increasing demand for instant fulfillment is causing quality control

issues for printers of all sizes. As speed increases, quality control decreases.

companies to invest for the future. Many are just hanging on for today.

Petrulakis: Ourselves. We don’t spend enough time engaging with clients through content and community, and we think the best way to win business is still banging on doors. Printers need to think like media companies.

What’s creating the pressure?

Is it a lack of marketing?

The buyer dynamic?

Danner: “Inertia is the resistance of the object to any change in its motion, including a change in direction (thanks Wikipedia).” If we keep doing what we are doing, we will keep getting what we got.

It has become “old news” that the printing industry is stagnate. We have to get out of our own way and, as an industry, change the paradigm. Unfortunately, I still see PSPs, manufacturers, industry associations, financial institutions, and

Moe: I see a lot of misunderstanding of the buyer dynamic now. Gone are the days of “needing a print rep to provide technical advice or information,” and so the need to interact with a salesperson has changed. In fact, if you look at growth, many of the online sellers and gang-run printers continue to grow with the use of an outside sales team, or a very limited one. So the dynamic with the buyer is certainly different. Many do not want to deal with or meet with a sales rep. I think the way to win is to expand marketing and market to the end user how they want to be marketed to. Meet them on their

The world of print has forever changed and yet many companies are slow to make the adjustment. You can’t sell print any longer; you need to sell how to increase membership, move more product, acquire more new clients, etc.

MAA partners continue to act as they always have. Alas, to actually change, we need to do more than talk about it—we need to do something different.

First of all, when someone says, “Isn’t print dead?” I don’t roll my eyes, nor do I defend print. I educate. The general public doesn’t even realize what all is involved in print. We have to point out all the places where print lives—on the paper coffee cup, to the window graphics, and packaging items they interact with every single day. Education will evolve the position of print in the minds of consumers.

Philie: The cost and discipline to unwind from the past and change how we do things. We need to become better marketers—build a sales and marketing organization that is on par with the manufacturing side of the business.

McNerney: This really varies by company.

For some, it’s old school thinking, for others it might be labor, and for others it’s having a plan and knowing where you want to go. Low margins make it hard for

terms, be an on-demand resource, not a route doughnut sales rep who shows up every Tuesday with doughnuts and nothing of any business value.

Hines: Pricing compression as consolidation and acquisition continue in the industry. Need to groom a new version of a sales executive—more consultative specialized hunters and farmers and a penchant to discuss solutions, programs, not just jobs.

Wessner: It is the successful marketing of businesses like VistaPrint that is causing pressure on the rest of the industry. Like the Domino’s 30-minute guarantee set the industry expectation for pizza delivery times, the VistaPrints are causing similar issues within the print industry. The difference is that the print industry takes much longer to retool and catch up, especially the smaller print shops.

Petrulakis: All of it. Lack of marketing for sure—clients are craving micro

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Roundtable events, too. Also, print gets a bad rep and people just don’t know what’s possible today unless we educate them.

Danner: History creates pressure because so many of us have been in the industry for so long that we remember the good ’ole days of the last century—25 plus years ago. Those days aren’t coming back. Added to that is the constant change of marketing today, the constant messages for new and different tools, add to that the speed of today is accelerated to a pace that can’t be compared.

As plants have specialized their processes and offerings, the problems faced by the general commercial printer are exacerbated. We have equipment that is underutilized, sales staff that pushes our shops to do work we aren’t able to do under the same costing structure as specialized providers, and they have clients pushing for more, faster, better, cheaper. Owners without a broad strategic plan select the path of least resistance, less profit.

Marketing helps—if it is good marketing. Too much of marketing in our industry just isn’t good. Consumers are more educated than ever before and they can smell a dead fish a mile away.

To be effective, we have to integrate better for those clients who we are best suited to serve.

Philie: The ability, or inability to learn, unlearn, relearn quickly. The world around us continues to change, expectations have changed, people want things faster and easier to buy from.

McNerney: All of the above. The combination of digital marketing, higher costs to print/mail/postage and lack of traditional marketing knowledge.

I also believe the speed of change is so quick today. Marketers need to be able to adapt or change a message so quick today, that by the time it gets to print, it might be old. Marketers think they can change digital marketing on the fly.

What trends are you most excited to see in 2020?

Moe: Further acceptance of inkjet in commercial print. The return to print as a viable marketing vehicle (best return on investment), including specialty content magazines, continued growth in direct mail, and the return of the catalog, although a smarter catalog, i.e., Amazon and Facebook style print.

Hines: Storefront/Portal/API needs to manage assets, fulfillment and continued growth in the direct mail space.

Wessner: Inkjet print quality catching up to offset quality.

Petrulakis: The increased quality and production speeds of inkjet.

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Danner: I dub 2020 as the year of recruiting. The best workers will land at the best companies. Younger workers see the best companies as those that create opportunity for learning, growth and community. They want companies that have a vision for the future. Younger workers want to learn and will go to companies that make it easy for them to learn and engage in new technologies that help develop their careers.

Philie: Marketing and lead generation being built by some companies to complement and support the sales team. And the speed of new technology coming to market ties nicely with changes in market expectations.

McNerney: For us, our continued transformation to a marketing execution partner. Companies are finally seeing us as more than a printer. Hopefully, the market stays strong.

The labor is an issue and has also hit our clients. This has forced clients to look to companies like us to fill the void.

Don’t be afraid to change or try new approaches.

Create a culture of discipline—take on projects and get them done.

What area of your business do you need the most help with?

Moe: Sales, and the new ways to sell and develop customers.

Hines: Recruiting.

Wessner: Right now, we are working on profitability. Labor and paper costs are rising every year, sometimes faster than we can adjust to keep up.

We are working to mitigate those costs through improving profitability without compromising service and quality or pricing ourselves out of competition.

Petrulakis: Marketing, for sure.

Danner: I think the biggest challenge for NextPage in the coming years is associated around staffing to support the growth we have planned. With the demographic shifts ahead and the tightening immigration policies, this will be a limiting factor. A business can only grow as fast as it can deliver for its

clients and in the printing industry that still revolves around people.

Philie: Most companies will say continued sales growth.

McNerney: Automation and creating more internal efficiencies. We have to get beyond order taking. Then figuring out the technologies, workflow and investment to accomplish.

What advice, if any, would you give to brand owners in 2020?

Moe: Plan your work, work your plan.

Don’t flip flop from one strategy to another—test, analyze, adjust and repeat.

Make smart changes based on results and response from your work. Don’t jump around from one media to the next—integrate into a combined plan.

Hines: Differentiate yourself, change defensive selling (waiting for the client to tell you what they need) and become more consultative. Provide education and ideas that can protect and grow the brand of your client.

Wessner: Continue to innovate, not just the printing, but service, sales, revenue streams, everything. Work to make small incremental changes that move the business forward.

Petrulakis: Spend time learning more about print and find ways to use it effectively—even if the immediate ROI isn’t there. Also, spend time investing in content in all channels.

Danner: I believe 2020 is a pivotal year for many organizations. I see it as an opportunity to “start fast” into this next decade. I regularly think about “inertia.”

A new year, a new decade gives renewed thought for everyone in all parts of their lives. This is a huge opportunity to reset thinking in our companies, and in the markets we serve. If we can start the decade off moving fast and can maintain that through the year, we just might be able to overcome the complacency that typically sets in around the middle of February each year.

Time kills opportunity. We have huge opportunities in front of us and now is the time to move forward. It is the time to fix what is broken. It is the time to take bigger steps. It is the time to evolve or die.

Philie: Don’t be afraid to change or try new approaches. Create a culture of discipline—take on projects and get them done. No more starting projects only to see them fall out of favor and die.

McNerney: Partner with a marketing execution company. Don’t just jump on the next shiny ball. Remember, marketing fundamentals still need to be followed.

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THECANVASMAG.COM

LEADERSHIP

THINKING

Dr. Wayne Baker on building a collaboration culture

LEADERSHIP

The deadline is near. You are overwhelmed. You could use the help—you know you could. But where do you turn? Everyone has their own to-do lists staring them in the face. We are all busy. You want to reach out, but you don’t know where to turn. Or maybe you don’t know how. Believe it or not, Wayne Baker, Ph.D., says that is one of the biggest issues facing just about everyone, everywhere, at any time. We have forgotten how to ask for help.

In his latest book, “All You Have to Do Is Ask,” Dr. Baker shares strategies employed by executives at companies like Google and GM—a blueprint for success that shows how to make asking for help a personal and professional habit. It breaks down why asking for help can lead to new opportunities and new talent, unlock new ideas and solutions, and bolster team performance.

The strategies were culled from his work as a sociologist on the senior faculty of the University of Michigan Ross School

P38 CANVAS FEBRUARY 2020

of Business. Dr. Baker also directs the Center for Positive Organizations, and is co-founder of Give and Take Inc., an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based technology firm.

To get an inside perspective on why, how and when you should ask for help, CANVAS sat down with Dr. Baker in between stops on his book tour.

Why is being able to make connections such an important skill today?

No one has all the resources they need to do their work well, achieve their goals

Dr. Wayne Baker

and live their purpose. We get many valuable resources—knowledge, advice, ideas, opportunities, referrals, and so on—from our connections to others.

The information explosion makes this especially true today because it is not possible to know everything we need to know. We tap our network of connections to get the resources we need.

Why is it important for a company to build this mindset into its culture?

When you have a workplace culture of generosity—where people freely ask for what they need and generously help others—everyone is more likely to get the answers and resources they need. Research clearly shows that a workplace culture of generosity is more productive, creative and efficient. And this kind of workplace attracts and retains great talent.

What is the biggest piece of advice you give when it comes to strengthening that skill set?

Two pieces of advice. First, give yourself permission to ask for what you need. Contrary to what we commonly think, most people are willing and able to help you. Second, asking is a habit we develop through practice. Experiment with asking in a safe place, and then build from there.

Does today's growing tech-driven society (where everyone hides behind technology to make connections) make it even harder to embrace that skill set?

Yes and no. It is possible to play it safe by hiding behind technology (and many people do). But technology also enables us to hugely expand our access to resources, as well as our ability to help others. For example, Givitas—a platform based on the principles in “All You Have to Do Is Ask”—builds large, transparent communities where people freely and generously help one another and ask for what they need.

When it comes to setting yourself up for success, you talk a lot about people shying away from asking for help. Why is that a mistake?

It is a mistake to not ask for help if you want to be successful. The reason is that we require input from others—like the resources I listed above—to do our work, be productive and creative, and reach our goals. No one is successful by working alone in isolation. By tapping our networks of connections, we are more productive and efficient and get better solutions to problems.

What advice do you give for people to get started moving down that path (asking for help)?

Be intentional. Pause to think about your goals and what you need to achieve them. For example, what is a current project or challenge? What resources do you need to make progress and complete it successfully? It could be information, a brainstorm session with

What can managers/leaders do to reinforce asking by rewarding those who ask?

Start by setting the tone. Talk about why it is important for everyone to ask for and give help, and be willing to be a role model of those behaviors.

Then, when people step up and ask, reinforce this behavior by praising it

It is a mistake to not ask for help if you want to be successful. The reason is that we require input from others to do our work, be productive and creative, and reach our goals. colleagues, expert advice, or something else. Once you know what resource you need, think about who a good person would be to ask. Perhaps you know who has the resource. Or, you know someone who knows someone who has it.

Or, you could tap a broader network by using technology to broadcast your ask.

to the person and even to the group or team. You can highlight great asks (and what happened as a result) in the company newsletter, a group email or other means of communication. And you can use a formal recognition platform or program to reinforce asking and giving.

Can you describe the technique of framing an ask to get the outcome someone is looking for?

Is this type of atmosphere attainable in today's business landscape?

Be sure your request is specific.

General or vague requests do not get much help. It is important to explain why the request is meaningful and important. Clearly specify that action you wish the person to take.

Your request should be something that is attainable, though it can be a stretch. Finally, state a clear deadline by when you need it. If you frame your request with all of this in mind, you greatly increase the chances of a positive response.

Absolutely. The proof is that it exists already in many small, medium and large companies. We can learn from and use proven tools and practices that others have used (and that I write about in detail). I encourage experimentation. Pick a tool or practice, such as the weekly huddle, daily standup or Givitas, and commit to using it for 45 days. As people participate in the process, their experience becomes the evidence they need to see the value in creating a workplace culture of generosity.

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LAST THOUGHT

Let's get ready to ....

Sales and marketers set sights on building customer bases in 2020

O

ne of the more noteworthy aspects of Sagefrog's “2020 B2B Marketing Mix Report� is the fact that the top two priorities that marketing teams share with sales teams is building customer bases. The report, based on data from a survey of 110 marketers a variety of B2B verticals, shows that 50% of B2B companies are investing at least a tenth of their budget in marketing to make that happen.

Here are the top objectives marketers have put on their radar for 2020:

3

Increasing brand awareness

2

Increasing sales leads

4

Producing thought leadership

5

Increasing website traffic

1

Converting leads to customers

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(Said no successful marketer ever.)

McCoy. The paper for brands that never settle.

Compromising on the quality of your brand’s experience isn’t something you do.

It’s just not in your DNA. We get it, because it’s not in ours either. McCoy is the only premium coated paper on the market because our meticulous quality and superior surface put us in a category all of our own. With its unspoken confidence and unrivaled quality, McCoy is the paper all others try to be—for brands all others want to be.

For more examples of brands that never settle, visit sappi.com/mccoy

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