Stephen Covey, most known for his popular book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” says it best: “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”
The day-to-day operations of running a successful print company could easily fall into that “urgent” category. After all, every print job is a rush job, right?
The problem is, when you’re immersed all day IN the business, you are not effectively working ON the business.
And when we’re focused IN the business, rather than ON the business, we fail to stay relevant to customers and prospects because of a lack of innovation.
THE MAIN OBJECTIVES
To simplify things, let’s break business down into three main objectives.
1) To increase sales and revenue.
2) To reduce the costs of running the business.
3) To alleviate risk, both for the company and the customer.
If you point your compass to triangulate on those three things, you can be sure you’re headed in the right direction.
It’s when you don’t focus on these three attributes that you begin to lose customers, lose market share, and lose the battle of generating online sales.
FREE YOUR TIME AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW
We’re all guaranteed the same twenty-four hours in a day. Implementing an online ordering solution will help you make the most of your time and free you up to focus on growth.
How does that work? Take a look at how an online ordering solution can help:
A better marketing ROI (return on investment).
Today, over 70% of buying decisions are made before a conversation with a real live human even occurs. Think of the last time you were at Walmart. Did you wait in line or head straight to the self-checkout line? Online ordering helps you save time by allowing your customers (and you) to skip the browsing and head instantly to your virtual “order counter.”
The ability to expand your business without additional investment.
We talked earlier how online ordering allows you to connect with the local bakery down the street or the corporate headquarters across the country. This means you can expand your reach without breaking the bank or hiring additional resources. Online ordering allows you to save time (and money) by working on your behalf ALL THE TIME and FROM ANYWHERE. It alleviates the pressure of feeling the need to be all things to all people all the time.
A faster, more efficient production cycle.
Remember Dick Olenych from Spectrum Printing and what he loved about online ordering?
In any given print process (in a typical shop), you have four to six activities: the initial order takes place, then there’s the proofing back and forth several times with the customer, the actual print production, bindery, delivery, and then, finally, invoicing the customer. Online ordering takes care of more than 60% of that process for me.
With online ordering’s faster production cycle, you don’t have to wait until the final step to invoice an order and get paid. Save time, increase efficiency, and get paid faster. Hmmm….seems like a good idea, doesn’t it?
Less work.
Picture this: fewer phone calls to make, and fewer email threads to follow, just a bold little button labeled “Order Online” that shoots your customers’ orders directly into production. What’s more, when you use an online ordering solution with an enhanced WYSIWYG* editor, you can eliminate all that back and forth of proofing. [Insert scream for joy here!] *WYSIWYG is a fancy way of saying “What You See Is What You Get.”
Selling online with no salesperson required, fewer misunderstandings between you and your customers, and a customer-driven, paid-up-front solution: online ordering just makes sense! With high-quality design at their fingertips, your customers have the convenience of ordering from you anytime, while you have the convenience of time spent on more important things.
THE BIG REVEAL
Ready to take the next step? Next week, we’ll dive into the online ordering solution offered by Marketing Ideas For Printers called DesignEdit. Can’t wait? Contact us below!
