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I can make a room full of business owners change their minds about their pricing power with a simple game that takes two minutes. First, I ask, “What’s the current price for a gallon of gas?”  Every time, they all come within a few pennies of the right answer. Everyone knows the price of gasoline. Then, I ask a second question: “What’s the current price for a bottle of hot sauce?”  This time, no one answers. Their silence begs another question: “Who cares?” And that’s the point. The price of hot sauce doesn’t make any difference. It’s beneath our notice. When pressed, the average guess is three times the actual price of hot sauce. Why do we know so much about the price of gas and so little about the price of hot sauce? Because we buy gas all the time. We drive past a dozen gas stations per day advertising the price. Gas prices impact personal budgets, daily commutes, and even the news cycle. When gas prices move, we all notice. But hot sauce? If the price of hot sauce goes up, no one …

When a customer tells you, “We went with another print provider because your price was too high,” what do you do?  Too many sellers drop their chin, kick the dirt, and lose even more pricing confidence. But here’s the truth: that moment is a goldmine of insight. Most sellers miss the chance to mine it. Recently, a client in the inkjet printing space shared with me that they’re facing a lot more competitive pressure in the past couple of months. They’ve been hearing “no” more, and they’ve been hearing that their “price is too high” more.  When I asked him if they’ve seen a drop in their win rate, he didn’t know.  (Are they paying more attention to the “no” more or are they truly hearing “no” more?  Is this the negativity bias at work?) If they really are hearing “no” more, we need to ask: Is price really the issue or is it just the easiest excuse? Customers indicate price as the reason for choosing a competitor as the easy way out.  It’s more expedient and more polite than telling you …

Let's be honest… print isn't what it used to be. It's better! In the past decade, we've seen inkjet technology evolve from a novelty to a powerhouse, now rivaling offset in quality, speed, and application diversity. But just as we’ve hit our stride with inkjet, another transformative force is knocking at the door: artificial intelligence (AI). When you combine the two, the real magic happens. Whether you're running a print shop or managing client campaigns, it's time to ask: Are we ready for the next leap forward? AI: The Brainpower Behind the Ink First, let's give Inkjet the recognition it deserves. Today's production inkjet presses are designed to meet modern market demands, including shorter runs, tighter turnarounds, personalization, and consistent quality across jobs. These presses are faster to set up, require less maintenance, and can handle a variety of substrates without sacrificing image fidelity. What used to be a conversation about "cost per piece" has shifted to a …

In December 2024, the US Government Publishing Office (GPO) announced that it had awarded $469.2 million in print procurement program contracts with private-sector printing companies in its fiscal year 2024, which runs (as do those of other Federal agencies) from October 1st of the previous year to September 30th. The stated goal of these contracts is to meet the “printing and publishing needs of Federal agencies.” The Top Ten In that press release, the GPO published a list of the top ten contractors. These ten firms accounted for nearly 50% of total contracts. Figure 1: GPO’s Top Contractors for FY2024   The GPO noted that the work represented by these contracts stemmed from more than 73,000 orders and that nearly 75% of all printing ordered by Federal agencies from GPO is performed by private sector firms working under contract with the GPO, which typically awards contracts to approximately 1,000 printing contractors a year in competitive bids. According to the GPO, nearly 10,000 …

In the production inkjet world, it’s easy to get caught selling specs instead of solutions. Sellers often rattle off impressive features like press speeds, resolution stats, automation capabilities, believing that technical excellence will close the deal. But features aren’t value. Customers don’t buy specs; they buy outcomes. They’re not investing in print technology; they’re investing in achieving their business goals faster, easier, and with fewer headaches.  They care about what your capabilities can do for them , not just what your press can do in theory. If you want to win more business at higher prices, make the critical shift from feature selling to value selling.  It’s not about how fast your press runs or how detailed your resolution is; it’s about how reliably you can hit their in-home dates, how flexibly you can manage last-minute data changes, and how much you can boost their ROI. The fastest, sharpest, most technically capable press in the world is meaningless if the …