Why Are You In Business?
By: T.J. Tedesco
For: The Binding Edge
Published: Summer, 1999

What are you and your company selling?  Trade bindery services?  Loose-leaf binders? Quality, service and price?  Peace of mind?  A good night’s sleep for anxious clients?  A hard-to-find combination of services?  One-stop shopping?  Niche specialization?  Unfortunately, many post press professionals don’t realize why their customers buy from them.  Every company is in business for a reason – however, the trick is being able to say what it is.

Successful companies have compelling reasons for being in business.  They offer reliable products and services, fill a need, and offer a mix of skills that are wanted in the marketplace.  Unfortunately, many companies are unable to articulate just what this skill set is. 

Luckily, most of our products and services aren’t commodities – just ask any printer that has had an outsourced bindery job go wrong.  Even companies offering true commodities, such as gasoline, sugar and #2 pencils, are still able to develop effective branding strategies.  If not, we’d all be buying generic products and filling up our cars at discount gas stations.  For example, in the service station industry, Texaco sells “speed” (fast fill-ups and high-octane products) while Mobil sells “cleanliness” (purer gas and clean restrooms).  Have I fallen for Mobil’s branding strategy?  You bet.  When on family trips, I choose Mobil because I have two grade-school age children and clean bathrooms are important to me.

Understanding why you’re in business is just the first step.  Articulating it is the next. I firmly believe that bindery and loose-leaf companies would be much stronger if every employee could state what their company does in sixty seconds or less.  I have worked with salespeople, customer service representatives, and even owners, who only have a vague understanding of why their customers buy from them.  Imagine how focused and successful your company would be if your account managers, administrative people and factory workers knew exactly what you do better than your competition.

What Is This Called?

Every binding, finishing and loose-leaf company has a “unique selling proposition” or USP.  USPs aren’t the same as mission statements because not many mission statements can be used during normal business conversation.  Upon hearing your USP, your customers and prospects should know exactly what your reason for being is.  Of course it’s impossible to paint your whole story in less than sixty seconds, but this isn’t the point.  Instead, you should be able to quickly generate a lot of interest among legitimate prospects. 

In the post press industry, here is a sampling of possible USP elements:

• Under-one-roof service provider (convenience)

• Niche specialist (nobody does it better)

• Ability to turn around large jobs fast (raw horsepower)

• 24-hour delivery on short runs (f…f…fast)

• Instant quotes (we mean service)

• Technical expertise (a scientific approach)

• Regional focus (you’re important)

• A key employee (i.e., Fidelity Investments has Peter Lynch)

• Specialist in certain customer segments (i.e., book printers, commercial printers doing agency work, in-plant printers, etc.)

• And more … (think!)

A Story Outside Of Our Industry

A few years ago, a leading piano manufacturing company needed a sales boost.  Management knew that their pianos were special, but so were those of many competitors.  Standard bragging rights ranged from “top quality,” to “the best known brand,” to “we’re in some of the finest concert halls in the world.”  Unfortunately, competitors also could make the same claims.  In short, their message wasn’t unique.  The boss wanted a new marketing campaign and hired an outside marketing specialist. 

Once on the job, the marketer learned about a huge metal piece, called a “capo d’astro bar,” which doesn’t serve much of a purpose until the piano is decades old.  Expensive and very heavy, this bar prevents pianos from warping and improves the sound quality as the instrument ages.  All the elements of the marketing campaign came together when the marketer discovered that a major music organization had recently moved and left everything behind, except for their old piano.  Not surprisingly, the final advertising copy revolved around the following theme: The Met moved and all they took was their Steinway.

What’s Your Capo D’Astro Bar?

Every company has a capo d’astro bar; it’s just a question of finding it.  What is your hidden asset that can help win you more business?  It may be a process that you take for granted, but shouldn’t.  It may be a key technical employee, a unique service, an exceptional ability to listen and empathize.  It may be your pre-flighting system, or instant estimates, or an ability to deal with finicky designers.  Find your capo d’astro bar.  It’s there, somewhere.

I once worked for a printing company that had a prepress guru who traveled with salespeople on technical calls.  “Jonathan” was a rare techie with the ability to communicate effectively with experts and novices alike.  I finally understood just how valuable he was when one of my customers said, “I wish every printer had someone like Jonathan.”  In short, Jonathan quickly became my capo d’astro bar.

One Minute Manager

It’s important that every employee know your unique selling proposition.  Those on the front lines need to understand exactly why customers and prospects should buy your services and products.  Your truck drivers represent you and should be well trained in customer service.  Your plant workers may even bring good job applicants to you, if they know what your company is really good at. 

Being able to say what a company does in sixty seconds or less is the goal.  How do you expect people to buy from you if you can’t clearly and quickly articulate what differentiates you from everyone else.  Try the sixty-second test yourself right now.  How well did you do?  Next, ask your sales and customer service people to do the same.  Ask a simple question like, “Why are we in business?”  You may be a little surprised at the rambling answers you get.  But at least you’ll be starting down the right road.

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Testing a unique selling proposition is easy.  First, it must be compelling.  If you’re not excited by it, neither will anyone else.  Second, it must be unique.  Substitute your competitors’ names instead of your own in it.  If it still rings true, it isn’t unique.  Third, it must be able to be repeated in less than a minute at a normal conversational pace.  If not, it’s too long and most likely … boring.  If you get your USP right, you and your company will be better off.

T.J. Tedesco is a “hands-on” marketing, sales, coaching and training consultant to the post press industry. He is the author of Binding, Finishing & Mailing: The Final Word, and Win Top-of-Mind Positioning, both published by GATFPress and available at Amazon.com. T.J. can be reached at (301) 294-9900 or tj@growsales.com.