OK, I am a printer

OK, I admit it: I am a printer. There, I said it. At my company, we like to call ourselves marketers and communications specialists, but at the end of the day, what we do is put ink on paper. We are printers. Printers used to be like used car salesmen, using slide of hand to trick buyers into upgrading their paper and spending more money, and like used car salesmen, there are some pretty bad printers out there. Me, I like being a printer. I am pretty good at it. I don’t sell lemons.

What does this have to do with the sales and marketing nirvana? Well, actually, a lot. Many people today define themselves by how they want people to perceive them, not by who they actually are, and in a society where consumers are constantly bombarded with marketing messages (over 4000 a day) people are tired of being tricked into buying things they had no intention of buying in the first place. The miracle weight loss pill, the magic squeegee, the “limited time offer”. What message do we send when we market ourselves this way? The message is simple. You can’t afford NOT to buy us. I call BS on that.

Be true to your message. Tell people what you do, and why they should buy from you, and they will either respond, or they won’t. Use too much spin, trick them into buying, and they won’t come back. That is a guarantee. The same is true in real life as it is in business. We all know people who talk one way but act another. We tend to faze them out over time. The same thing is true in printing. Be true to who you are, but also be honest with yourself about who you want to be.