Welcome to my blogging duel with TEAM UK’s Matthew Parker. If you have been following along you can skip right to the post… and if you are just joining us, here is some background…
Matthew and I haven’t always seen eye to eye when it comes to Print Buying. He comes from the UK procurement world, and I come from the USA agency world. We used to argue about process, but over the years it has turned into a mutual respect. However, that doesn’t mean we now agree, or see things the same way! As a matter of fact, most of the time we don’t. So we decided to turn that into Print Buying: #UKvUSA and share information about our experiences from both sides of the pond!
At the end of my post is a link to Matthew’s post on the same subject. We don’t know each other’s response before writing our own. Maybe we will agree, maybe we wont, maybe we don’t even see the question in the same way – who knows… that’s the fun part! We have also set a 500 words or less format to keep things moving along.
Please do leave comments and if you happen to support one side over the other let us know on either blog! I am proudly representing TEAM USA, and we are using #UKvUSA on Twitter. LET THE DUEL COMMENCE!
#UKvUSA: Three Critical Buying Tasks To Kick-Off 2015
There is something to the New Year that is like getting flowers; it’s exciting when they arrive, they look and smell great, and there is lots of attention around them. Then a little time goes by and suddenly there is baby’s breath all over the place and the water in the vase starts to smell a bit funky. Everything that once brought you a smile now delivers nothing but annoyance, and you can’t throw the botanical carcasses out fast enough.
Before your fresh New Year perspective and motivation ends up in the trash, here are three things buyers should consider tackling immediately in 2015:
Reassess: In between the egg nog and ugly sweater parties make time to think about what worked, and WHO worked for you in 2014. If you had vendor issues and they are worth salvaging, use the New Year as the platform to discuss them, learn from them, and make a plan on how to avoid them in 2015. If the vendor/s are not worth saving, go through your sample drawer and make contact with the service providers you want to work with. DREAM BIG!
Reignite: Speaking of samples, clean out that drawer and only keep what inspires you. Print out/call in samples from your “this is cool print” category of bookmarks saved in your browser, and check in with the Creatives to see if they have a stash of samples to add to your list. Call your local paper merchant and invite them over to update and upgrade your swatch books. If you don’t have a merchant to call, ask your printers whom they use, and if that doesn’t help, contact the mills directly and ask for guidance. Once you have your new samples and rejuvenated paper cabinet, bring everything into the conference room and provide some Printspiration for your team! This is the best time to get fresh ideas in front of the clients as well – everyone has a little New Year’s fever so take advantage of it!
Reaffirm: Are you where you want to be? What can you do, right now, to get on a new path if you aren’t? Don’t let another year go by with the “happy you have a job” fear vs. a career that you control. See if your company helps with continuing education and take advantage of it. Start lobbying now to attend events during the year. Create monthly educational opportunities for your team by inviting your service providers to share their expertise and help elevate production knowledge and understanding of printing processes and new opportunities.
This may seem a bit ambitious, but it’s doable and a great opportunity to bring some new enthusiasm to the New Year, reestablish yourself as a valuable team player, and remind everyone that print rocks!
See Matthew’s response: http://profitableprintrelationships.com/ukvusa-3-critical-buying-tasks-to-kick-off-2015/
Next Month’s Duel Topic: Why Print Buyers aren’t reading your blogs.
PRODUCE LONG AND PROSPER!
