Print - The Unsung Touchpoint of Selling

Selling is not a simple process. It takes a complex skill set that includes the ability to:

• Understand and connect with different personalities


• Identify problems and present solutions


• Use persuasion to form opinions and drive decisions


• Uncover and process detailed prospect and client information


• Manage and track actions and time with precision

Sellers must be great researchers, information processors, producers and also great communicators. Yet there seems to be a lot of emphasis on helping sellers on the first three and not so much on being great communicators. For example, there is much discussion about resources that provide access to data for research and tools for customer relationship management (CRM). However, the tool that helps sellers communicate ideas that impact buying decisions is rarely given emphasis. Sellers can be research pros, information processing dynamos and Johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to taking actions. However, without materials to help them connect, solve, persuade and drive decisions – in other words communicate – success can be hard to come by. As a marketing communications professional who has worked closely with sales teams for a good portion of my career, I find myself asking why communication materials are not managed with the same emphasis as other sales tools?

Perhaps it’s because in many organizations there is a division of power? Marketers are the creators – they make the communication aids. Sellers are the executors – they deliver the communication aids that are available to them. Therefore emphasis in the sales process is placed on execution. Maybe it’s that while research, time and progress are fairly universal commodities, communication aids are highly specific and custom-made? Providing access to data and information can be done on a nearly global scale. The same goes for building solutions to help with time, contact and productivity management. But the organization itself has to make communication aids to fit its own needs and purposes.

Regardless of the reason, an organization’s printed collateral material is an important sales tool to persuade and impact the buying decision. Because of the physical nature of graphic communication materials, they’re often the only chance a prospect has to get their hands on the brand. They are the true touchpoint in the sales process. Print is the junction where sales, marketing, branding and the target audience come together physically as one. For this reason printed communications are deserving of the spotlight that they never seem to get.

Organizations readily invest in specialty CRM and research tools for their sales teams. But they manage, source and execute materials that directly impact buying decisions with improvised spreadsheets, notes, email and phone calls. At best, sales collateral purchases are shoehorned into general-purpose procurement and enterprise resource planning solutions. None of these tools are built for the procurement of custom-specified and produced printed materials. Now is the time to start using the right tool for the job of producing printed communication materials that are critical to sales success.

Print - The Unsung Touchpoint of Selling

eLynxx Solutions to Provide Software for U.S. Chamber

eLynxx Solutions, provider of cloud software for sourcing and management of direct mail, point of purchase, marketing, publications and all other print has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. to provide the company’s eLynxx software to help manage and execute projects involving custom printed materials.

Mike Jackson, Chief Executive Officer at eLynxx Solutions said the company looks forward to having the U.S. Chamber as a valued client. “eLynxx software helps print buyers across America work more effectively by facilitating direct relationships with their own trusted vendors” he stated. “It’s a great honor to have our software chosen by an organization that stands up for American enterprise like the U.S. Chamber. We are confident that the U.S. Chamber will benefit from cost savings and gains in efficiency.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.

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View the press release on PRWeb

eLynxx Solutions to Provide Software for U.S. Chamber

The Catalog Comeback

As a kid, back in the 1970s and early 1980s, I would spend almost as many lazy hours engrossed in catalogs – the Christmas toy and wish books especially – as comic books and Mad Magazine. I can even trace my interest in graphic design and marketing communication to a time when I would combine my affinity for catalogs, comic book fantasy and satire to create parody catalogs with ridiculous themes like discount gadgets for aspiring superheroes and evil underworld masterminds. Although I never achieved my goal of hijacking the grade school mimeograph machine to actually produce my early work; my career eventually led to a critical role in the catalogs of a major giftware and collectables wholesaler. To this day, I still enjoy picking up and flipping through a catalog. That’s why I’m excited to see that they seem to be making a comeback of sorts.

According to The Wall Street Journal and the Direct Marketing Association, the peak of catalog distribution didn’t actually occur until 2007 when retailers mailed 19.6 billion in the U.S. By the time 2007 had rolled around, Sears, the granddaddy of all catalog retailers, was long out of the large-scale catalog scene. Other retailers had obviously picked up the slack and then some. Unfortunately, the years following 2007 showed a constant, and often steep, trend of decline. In the very midst of that slump, J.C. Penney, the last remaining big gun of the catalog world, had phased out their so-called Big Book and all of their specialty catalogs.Finally, in 2013 catalog distribution was up, for the first time in six years, to 11.9 billion. Far shy of the 2007 peak but up nonetheless.

Earlier this year Penney’s made several big announcements. One, of course, was that they were planning to close underperforming stores. Another was that they were bringing back the catalog. The two announcements were an interesting juxtaposition since the start of many of the company’s financial woes coincided with the time it decided to dump the printed catalog and make mail order a strictly online operation. Far from the thousand page, soup-to-nuts behemoth of old, the company’s first catalog in five years was to be mailed in March. In the month since it was supposed to be distributed, I have not seen a new J.C. Penney catalog in the wild, although I understand that it was planned to be 120 pages focused on home goods. More akin to their old specialty catalogs than their Big Book.

Penney’s, it seems, is on-board with the realization of many other retailers; printed direct mail catalogs are effective in leading lifestyle-driven consumers to make in-store and online purchases. The key is to also realize that catalog marketing is highly adaptable and, given today’s design, printing and mailing technology, even nimble. When it comes to presenting a massive amount of products and related information as a point of reference, as was the main role of the huge old full-line print catalogs, the web is a worthy successor. In instances where many variations or options exist for products, the web can even be superior. However, when it comes to appealing to the senses, presenting shoppers with ideas, forming opinions and helping them make a buying decision on an emotional level, print can’t be beat.

There is nothing like moving through the thick, glossy full-color pages of a targeted, specialty catalog and turning to a beauty, or hero, page to see the products staged in a way that makes the reader want to replicate that scene in their own life. They see what could be the answer to their needs or desires, they get to understand about each of the products and they may even gain some insight from a designer or an expert in an article, separate from the product detail copy, that relates to the scene that has been set. With a quick look around to superimpose the beauty shot over their own surroundings, the reader is off to the website, catalog and credit card in hand, typing item numbers and filling a cart. In this way, print catalogs are not simply listings of what a retailer has for sale, they are a connection to the audience’s lifestyle.

Sure, you can put beauty shots and inspirational copy on a website. But the audience has to know it is there. Yes, you can let them know the website is there through email, but email is easy to ignore. You can have a web catalog site highly optimized for search, but the audience still has to be searching for what the site is selling to find it. When a person pulls a catalog out of the mailbox and they hold it in their hands, they have connected with it that’s harder to ignore.

In addition, marketers have much more control over graphic communication in print than they have online. No one knows the size, quality or settings of every screen in a given audience. Responsive web design can account for many of the challenges with screen size, but nothing can prevent low-quality hardware or out-of-whack settings from destroying the impact of otherwise stunning photography and design. If you are in full control of correctly managing your specifications, color standards, proofing and production, you can ensure that what the audience sees is what you want it to see in print.

Today’s printed catalogs may not look anything like the ones that inspired me as a kid. They are, however, still doing what those old catalogs were designed to do – sell to contemporary audiences – and do it well. For that reason I still find inspiration, and sense of satisfaction, when I pick up a printed catalog. Let’s keep ‘em coming!

The Catalog Comeback