 Face To Face with PIA Chairman Jeff Ekstein
On Thursday, September 4, 2014, the Chairman of the Board of Printing Industries of America, Jeff Ekstein, will be in Phoenix to meet with WSPA members. In addition to touring a number of facilities, Jeff will join PIA President and CEO Michael Makin, to present a snap shot of the new Western States Printing Alliance (WSPA), including many membership benefits you may not be aware of. The presentation will also highlight what profit leaders are doing to grow their business in our challenging industry.
Jeff will be traveling all the way from Ontario, Canada for the visit and we hope as many WSPA members as possible will come out to show their support!
This FREE member event will be jointly sponsored by Prudential Overall Supply and Ricoh and held at Ricoh's Phoenix offices at 1910 W. University Drive (Tempe) from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. Light refreshments and snacks will be provided. Learn how you can improve your bottom line and what services you may not be taking advantage of at this event. A similar presentation will be made in Denver in October (date and location to be determined). To register click HERE.
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 Preventing Slumps
Even peak performers can fall into the occasional slump. Help keep your stars on track, and on the payroll, with these burnout-busting tactics. - Meet sooner rather than later. Waiting will only make the discussion more difficult. An early intervention signals concern for the employee's well-being.
- Conduct a self-assessment. Could you be providing more leadership or feedback to shake the person out of a slump? Ask your employee how you can help.
- Focus on coaching rather than discipline. Stay on a supportive course by asking, "what's the problem? Why is this happening? Where do we go from here?" Work through these questions until you agree on some steps toward solution.
- Find a better match. Some performance slumps are the result of boredom due to a mismatch between people and their jobs. Explore whether a different role for the employee will solve the problem.
- Perform an interim evaluation. If a slumping employee refuses to see the problem, consider filling out a review form and saying, "If I had to turn in your review today, this is what it would say. I'd rather not have to put an evaluation like this in your file, so let's talk about strategies for improving your performance."
- Support steady progress. Following up on a regular basis lets employees know that you're serious about expecting change. Just make sure to offer congratulations when the employee's performance comes back up to par.
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Keep Your Marketing Campaigns On Schedule
Newsletters and other on-going marketing programs can be very effective at keeping your company top-of-mind. That is, of course, if you actually send your pieces out regularly. To keep your monthly marketing piece from becoming a quarterly or semi-annual affair, put it in your calendar. And then work backwards to when the project needs to get started, and put that in your calendar, too! Remember that consistency is key, and do what it takes to keep your marketing program running smoothly. You don't want to become victim of "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" with your customers, particularly in this competitive environment.
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 The Power of Price
Print industry guru Bob Lindgren argues it is always critical to pay attention to your pricing practices because the market tells us something every time we get an order and also when we don't.
When we 'get the order, we want to know how much we left on the table. When we don't get the order, we want to know by how much we missed out. In some cases, like bidding on a public contract, this is easy to determine. In others, we need to make an educated guess because "I don't know is not an acceptable answer."
If we find that we are getting most of the orders from a particular client, we might want to upgrade their status and price accordingly. Similarly if we find that we are not getting many orders for a specific piece of equipment - say our large format ink jet device - we may consider lowering its selling rate. In any case, Lindgren asserts, modifications should only be made in small increments (no 10 percent increases) and subject to continuing review.
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 Welcome new member Sign Language XL! WSPA is thrilled to welcome new member company Sign Language XL from Denver, Colorado. To learn more about Sign Language XL, visit www.signlanguagexl.com
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 Are You Taking Advantage of Free Resources?
As a member of WSPA, you are automatically a member of Printing Industries of America, the largest graphics arts trade association in the world. PIA's website has literally hundreds of free resources for you and your employees. Have you checked out www.printing.org/free
If you need any assistance logging in to access the free member content, simply call PIA's Member Central at 1-800-910-4283, ext. 770.
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