The Big Picture - July 2012 - (Page 10)

inside output inside output Just Walk Away By Craig Miller A ll of us share a goal: We want to land jobs, lots of jobs. Most of us have expensive printers and we need jobs to feed them. Without ample projects, our staffs can’t earn their keep. Also, without enough jobs, there’s no profit to stuff in our jeans. We dedicate a lot of time and energy to get work in the door and, let’s face it, we all want as many jobs as we can manage. But, no matter how much we want or need jobs, sometimes we have no choice but to walk away from certain work. All jobs are not created equal. Some jobs are less desirable than others. I tend to rate a job’s desirability as great, good, fair, marginal, poor, terrible, or even run for your lives! We’ve had customers propose jobs to us where the phrase “walk away” isn’t emphatic enough to express the importance of escaping its wrath. But it’s a skill to know exactly when, why, and how to refuse a proposed job, reject a job you’ve already accepted, or in some cases, physically show a customer to the door. Strategically leading jobs and customers out the door can be as important to your business’ future as enticing them in. Why walk away? When flirting with the idea of turning down a job, you first need to look at all of the factors of the customer’s proposal: stipulated deadlines, commitments to providing and facilitating essential information about the job, and performance and price expectations. All of these factors should be reasonable, and most importantly, possible. It’s your responsibility to make that determination. Is the concept realistic? Can you complete the project by the requested deadline without incurring additional expenses? Will you need to expedite shipping of media or finished product? If you understand the scope of the job and know how long all of the elements of the job will take, you should be able to answer these questions and then determine if you should indeed proceed with a particular project, or turn it away. When a client comes to you with seemingly unrealistic time constraints, provide the customer with strict deadlines and financial repercussions. Here’s an example: “Mr. Customer, we have to have the print-ready files by June 15 at 8:00 a.m. For every day after the file is late, the price will increase by 20 percent. If all the files are not in our possession by 8:00 a.m. on June 20, our shop will not be responsible for the deadline.” Both parties understanding CRaIG MIllER is a principal shareholder in las Vegas-based Pictographics, (pictographics. net) where he is also director of military and law-enforcement projects, the company’s defensecontracting division. all of the time constraints involved in production will allow you to best guide your client with deadlines throughout the process – and also gauge your client’s ability to adhere to the guidelines necessary to complete the job. Another factor to consider is communication. For a project to be completed, an open flow of communication must occur between your shop and the client. The shop needs to know accurate dimensions, whether the graphics will exist indoors or outdoors, how long the graphics will be displayed, and what the viewing distance is. Without this information, you simply can’t perform. If the client is unable to provide these necessary details, walk away. Additionally, there’s this: Some clients simply have a history of being problematical. If a new client is walking in our front door, they probably just walked out of (or were kicked out of) the door of one of the shops down the street. Customers typically switch print providers because either, a) the shop screwed up and now they want to give us a shot; or, b) our competitor has refused their business. I’ve been lucky enough to have competitors who will share helpful information regarding clients they had experienced problems with – and this helped us to make informed decisions about our future business with that customer. I’ve also shared this sort of information. Obviously we have to be careful not to say things in these conversations that could result in a lawsuit, but we can save each other 10 THE BIG PICTURE july 2012 http://www.pictographics.net http://www.pictographics.net

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Big Picture - July 2012

The Big Picture - July 2012
Contents
InSight
UpFront
Wide Angle
Inside Output
Decision Time: Rollfed Printers
Virtual Walk-Through
Laminators: Protecting Aesthetics
Inkjet Drupa 2012
Job Log

The Big Picture - July 2012