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One of the key elements in Business Development is the search for new approaches and added value to keep away from the commodity market where margins and delivery terms are the only distinctive factors. Johan Van de Velde: "It is important to engage customers in a strategic partnership. That we only can realize if we start to focus on processes and if possible on the content of the communication. Sometimes we have to take the risk of developing something that may be at the expense of our print volume, but settles a partnership with the customer for the long term. In that case printing itself is not a goal anymore, but a means of communication. The relation with the customer becomes stronger, because a process won't be changed very quickly."
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In Business Development it is important to look further than the printing matter, Johan Van de Velde sais. "Printing is not a monopoly anymore, because many service companies such as event organizers offer printing matter. At the same time the graphical sector can offer more than only paper. A lot of marketing managers don't have a clue what segmentation exactly means, not to mention what the possibilities are of variable data printing. We shouldn't limit our services to offering variable data printing but as a service company we should guide those marketing managers through the whole printing process."
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The condition is that the graphical service supplier is engaged in the process at an early stage, so he can maximize technical possibilities and even point the customer at technical requirements, e.g. for data delivery. This reaffirms the necessity of printers evolving towards service suppliers, away from commodity that simple printing matter has become.
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Furthermore it's essential in Business Development to be able to take a head start, so you can convert your innovating ideas into cash. This is what makes the cooperation between companies so difficult. "It all starts with an investment in time", Johan Van de Velde sais. "If you want to build a strong relationship with a customer, you have to visit him several times to discuss the possibilities and to understand his needs, before you come up with a price offer. Think about the blue ocean strategy: it's better not to fight competitors in the overfished zone, while there is so much space out there for companies in het graphical sector to develop their own strategy that makes them different from others." In that case the service is in the support of the customer. The realisation can be done in cooperation with other graphical companies. But today outsourcing to colleagues is still rare, according to the participants of the round-table.
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