shopping around for a commercial printer can be exhausting
In today’s economy it is more important than ever to be meticulous with every dollar in your printing and advertising budget. To help stretch their budgets, rather than selecting one commercial printer to handle all their print needs, many companies have made it common practice to shop around for the best price or deal. What many companies fail to realize is they might (in the long run) be losing valuable time, sacrificing on quality and ultimately costing themselves money when implementing a “shop around” strategy.
You might be asking yourself, “if it the best deal how can it cost me more than if I stayed with a single printer?”
Shopping around requires time. Time to find different print companies capable of handling your print need, time sending out quote requests to those companies, time explaining you needs/expectations, time waiting on quotes and after the quotes are received it takes time to decide on which printer to use. The time spent shopping around is time lost. It is time you could have used to move onto another project, time spent modifying, perfecting and finalizing a current project or even time which could be spent away from work.
When you shop around you are forfeiting consistency of products from one to another. While most printers do their best to match to any pre-existing printed pieces it is virtually impossible for one printer to replicate another printer. Imagine having business cards, letterhead, envelopes and other marketing assets which don’t match. What does this say about your company and how does it effect your brand? Beyond consistency it is important to remember that not all printers are created equal. Copy Craft runs high definition 300 line screen waterless printing. Our quality is the highest you can achieve in the industry. Selecting another ( because they have a better price) printer which doesn’t print to this standard could leave your pieces not meeting your exceptions. Beyond consistency of product quality, it is important to consider consistency in service quality. In establishing a relationship with a printer, that printer is more apt to meet your demands and exceptions.
It should be apparent that losing time and sacrificing quality are two risks you take when shopping around but how can it cost you money?
Simple!
1. Time = Money
2. Subpar quality leads to reprints or even worse, lost sales.
Before shopping around speak with your printer and find out if they have any discounts available or are running any promotions. If they aren’t able to provide you with a discount or promotion, if you simply let them know you are wanting to keep the business with them but have a budget to work with they will do what it takes to work within your budget.
If your printer can’t meet your budget and your are forced to shop around, it is important to provide as much detail and clearly explain your needs and expectations to potential printers. Doing so should help alleviate any potential issues which could arise when working with a new printer.
Nice!