4 Top Questions Guaranteed to Keep You Moving Forward

The Boy Scouts motto “Be Prepared” should apply to everything in business as well as life. The more prepared you are, the more opportunity presents itself. That’s just one of the ways we have been able to maintain a sound business base during the economic upheaval of the past two years. We have also focused on increasing the value of the services and products that we offer to our existing customers.

To put in place a viable business plan that enabled us to weather the economic changes within the industry, we asked both ourselves and our customers some tough questions. So, the next time you’re working on a customer briefing or developing a marketing plan, you might want to ask and answer some of the same questions we asked. The answers might just help you make the changes you need to make or help you deliver a superior product to your customer.

1. What are the top 3 questions that are consistently asked by the customer?
Understanding why certain types of questions are being asked of suppliers and others, and exploring all the potential answers can provide an edge over the competition and demonstrate to the customer that you have a clear understanding of their industry. This knowledge provides the opportunity to develop multiple solutions for their unique requirements.

2. What are the top 3 challenges that they regularly face in their business?
While businesses within industries are similar; each operates within a unique set of circumstances. Researching the business to expose this information can widen the divide between you and your competition. When you couple this knowledge with industry challenges and then provide viable solutions, you begin to establish credibility and develop a “value-based” relationship with the customer.

3. What are the top 3 mistakes that folks in similar businesses make on a regular basis?
This is information that you keep in your back pocket. Understanding the top three mistakes made most frequently by businesses is important, so that you don’t go there and you don’t lead your customer there. However, the best use of this information – when discussed with the customer – is through testimonials or case studies; examples that are “safe” for the customer to process.

4. What are the top 3 issues that are consistently faced in this industry/market.
Within industries there are issues that go beyond individual businesses. Once you know what the issues are and are comfortable discussing them, you will have one more marketing tool in your toolbox. As you continue to build credibility, you build trust. Earn their trust and you will earn their business.

Waleed Ashoo
CEO/President
LithExcel Communication Services Provider

Understanding Customer Value Can Help Your Increase Your Profitability

Businesses want partners and technologies that make their lives easier and more effective, from improving productivity to penetrating new markets. They are exploring ways to broaden existing customer relationships to enhance customer loyalty and milk every dollar out of the relationship to do more than just survive in today’s economy.

Variable direct mail is one of the tools in the marketing basket that companies are using to establish a one-to-one relationship with their customers. Digital print is the obvious driver, but not without some misunderstanding and confusion on its value and use. “Digital is about creating value, not adding value; it’s not about adding services, it’s about integrating services.”1

Integrated marketing moves one-to-one communications to a higher level. Results are trackable; you can test campaigns before fully investing in major campaigns; and it is more interactive. No doubt about it, digital has whet the appetite of the customer. They want customization. They want versioning. They want personalization. They want you to coordinate the print with electronic media to provide an integrated customer experience. And, they want it now.

Understanding how to use it, when to use it and understanding the value derived from digital integration is the first step. Customer Lifetime Value, for example, which measures the potential profits realized from a customer over a lifetime, can help you direct personalized marketing campaigns in the third year, which traditionally shows an increase in spending. You can also extract ROI (return on investment) over a lifetime for the same customer or a group of customers.

We must also factor into the equation the reality that customer needs are dynamic – they change over time. We need to maintain contact with them and regularly solicit input. To retain them, we must follow-up on their feedback to strengthen their loyalty and, ultimately, the relationship.

Few businesses really understand the total value of a single customer. When you take the profit from sales, factor in the profits from follow-on sales over the life time of the customer, plus additional profits from referrals and word of mouth, overall ROI can reach more than 1,000 percent.

When you consider the impact that a customer can have on a business – positive or negative – it would behoove you to look at all customer relationships in these tough economic times.

At LithExcel, we work with our customers to integrate all levels of customer management into their variable direct mail or cross media marketing programs. We apply formulas to help them calculate Customer Lifetime Value and project ROI for individual projects, as well as major campaigns.

“Social media is like word of mouth on steroids.” The growth rate on Twitter from February to March, 2009 was 1,382 percent; there’s an average of three million per day and more than five trillion minutes are spent on Facebook each day.2

Increasing customer retention by five percent can boost profits by 85 percent. A satisfied customer tells an average of three people about a product or service he or she likes and 11 people about one they do not like. Add human behavior to the viral characteristics of the internet and within seconds a dissatisfied customer can reach thousands within seconds. 3


1 Source unknown
2 Marta Kagan, Social Media Has Grown Up: One Year On
3 Chartered Institute of Marketing, September 2009

Waleed Ashoo
CEO/President
LithExcel Communication Services Provider

Collaborative Marketing

Shifting the Balance of Power

This is Part II in a series of articles and interviews with Waleed Ashoo, CEO of LithExcel, Communication Services Provider addressing industry changes and how to successfully manage your business in today’s information-rich environment.


The internet and the web are virtual tools so powerful they have leveled the playing field for companies, vendors, and consumers alike. Using the information gleaned from web tools to build market profiles, business executives are driving return on investment (ROI) and other business metrics higher by focusing resources on targeted markets.

We posed the following question to Ashoo: Marketing integrated services is much different than “selling print.” Those in the industry agree that digital has changed the roles of traditional PR firms and agencies, as well as printers. Reports show that more than 28% (source: Ad Age) of clients do not have the confidence that their agencies can fulfill their multi-touch/cross media needs. Do you believe the playing filed has been leveled?



“This wellspring of information (the internet and web) has empowered consumers. They are more connected than ever before, forcing companies to refocus their marketing strategies and implement multi-touch options to communicate with their customers.” said Waleed Ashoo, CEO of LithExcel Communication Services Provider. “The companies that understand how to apply and package the information into a value-added service are the ones that will grow in this information-rich environment; it doesn’t matter whether you’re a printer, advertising agency, PR or media firm or a graphics design house.”

Communications with consumers has lead to what is referred to as “collaborative marketing.” According to Shive Singh of Razorfish, “Collaborative marketing describes what modern technology offers businesses in today’s consumer-informed media environment.” Establishing and nurturing customer relationships has always been the foundation of good marketing. Collaborative marketing builds upon the foundation by inviting the community to help shape and evolve your market/brand. With thousands of people weekly “friending” each other on social media, “it is now possible to reach a large, global audience, through a tightly targeted niche, with very low-cost tools,” according to Singh.

Connectivity and the innate characteristics social media make it possible for a company to build authority and establish trust; and do it in a relatively short period of time. According to Sandeep Krishnamurthy, “Email technology has reduced the cost and increased the speed with which a company can receive customer feedback.”

Employing social media, companies are able to attract and create incentives for people to seek them out. Blogs are both engaging and providing useful information; with Twitter driving customers to websites or personalized landing pages to further relationships.

Feedback – positive or negative, is what is putting the consumer in the power seat. They are not only active participants in the relationship now, they are the driving force. The internet has allowed them to source vendors, glean as much information about them as possible, negotiate with them, track their performance and switch to another vendor if they are not satisfied.

Collaborative marketing is not limited to the relationship between vendor and customer, it also is redefining the relationship between vendors. The silos that existed in marketing disciplines are breaking down; and lines between traditional disciplines are blurring. Advertising campaigns are created and managed by non-traditional agencies such as graphic design firms; printers are designing multi-touch marketing programs, and PR firms are offering all the above.

Customers are demanding that their agencies and agents work collaboratively with selected vendors to produce end-products that cannot produce in-house. It would not be unusual for one vendor to develop the concept, another develop the processes and or produce individual components, and a third vendor actually assemble the final product in a collaborative marketing environment.

In a collaborate marketing environment, any business culture that encourages creatively; works in effective partnerships with members of its value stream; and establishes internal and external cost-effective synergies with agencies, vendors and business partners will succeed. According to John Hagel III, cochairman, Center for the Edge, Deloitte LLP, “It (collaborative marketing) can only succeed and take root within a company if it is deeply grounded in customer economics.”

“Customers are also taking a more active role in the creative process and they are demanding more value-added performance from their vendors. They expect them to bring more industry knowledge, more product knowledge, more insight into their customer base and more information about customer spending habits to the table. They want the analytics and tracking mechanisms to evaluate every decision that is made,” said Ashoo. “On the side of the equation, companies that can take the concept (of collaborative marketing) and apply it to all areas of their business; establish strategic partnerships with vendors to purchase, outsource and bundle supplies and services, as well as partnering with their customers, stand to gain all the way around. Not only will they build a loyal customer base, they will also control expenses and be positioned to weather economic downturns.”

Marketing in a Changing Industry

Waleed Ashoo


There has been a significant increase in the number of print providers calling on marketing representatives according to an InfoTrends study. The study just confirms what we all in the industry have observed over the past three years. The world of print has changed and there is no going back.

In addition to streamlining operations, traditional shops are changing strategic direction. No longer focusing on selling “print on paper,” they are modifying their organizations and redefining their markets to sell services that may or may not include print. As they navigate this new endeavor, they are up against a variety of competitors, many who are outside of the print industry.

Now, they have to not only “use as many resources as possible to gather G2 about their competitors...they have to understand where key competitors or potential competitors are in their digital migration strategy,” according to Cary Sherburne, author of Digital Paths to Profit. Sherburne also noted that they should be looking at nontraditional competitors such as prepress and design agencies and mailing houses. Traditional PR firms and advertising agencies adding services or partnering with other vendors should also be included in their competitive analysis. And, as they monitor the competition, “they need to keep a close eye on the client and the ultimate customer–the end user as well.”

Today’s customers are more technology savvy. They are multi-taskers who want business partners that bring fully integrated solutions to the table. They want problem solvers versus print brokers or account executives. Some may want to know how you plan to do it, others just want it done. The common thread: they want it all: A flexible solution that, more often than not, includes customization. They want an open line of communications with their customer. They want the ability to track results. They want to test different scenarios to see which is more effective before making an investment. They want it personalized and interactive. And, they want it now.

Marketing to this group can be a challenge for those individuals used to selling commodity printing. The selling cycle is typically longer and it is build on the foundation of a relationship that is established and then nurtured. Marketing efforts include learning everything possible about the customer’s or potential customer’s business strategy, as well as gathering as much G2 as possible about their customer’s business strategies, competitors and industry issues.

Some marketers are effectively using existing sell/buy relationships as a springboard to get the customer to invest in a customized solution. Since they are building on an existing relationship, they have an established history with the customer and the customer is less likely to switch vendors.

According to Dr. Michael LeBoeuf, professor of management at the University of New Orleans and author of How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life, “The average business spends six times more to attract new customers than it does to keep old ones. Yet, in most cases, customer loyalty is worth ten times the price of a single purchase.”

Those that clearly understand the value of digital and what it brings to the table and can include it in their repertoire of services will be more successful in converting existing customers from “viewing them as a printer vendor to viewing them as a solutions provider,” according to LeBoeuf.

Sometimes–under the best of circumstances– that is even difficult. “There are some customers that view digital as a commodity,” said Danny Vigil, sales representative at LithExcel Communications Services Provider. “We may never be able to change their minds; however, we can educate them by providing information as to the value of digital solutions and by continuing to showcase successful integrated digital solutions.”

“On our personal transition, regular training has helped us to better understand this new role. It requires a well planned and coordinated effort to meet with the CEO, CFO, president or vice president of a company when you’re used to calling on buyers and purchasing agents. Often, you have only one chance to convince them of the value of your service, so you must be totally prepared,” according to Vigil.

Other representatives making the transition, echo Vigil’s observations. “The market has changed, requiring everyone to take another look at their marketing efforts and at how they communicate with their target audience. The value is no longer in the print or the quality of the print, but in what is “printed” on the page,” said Aaron Flure, digital marketing representative at LithExcel. “Fortunately, I did not have an extensive print background to overcome; however, some long-time customers still think of us as a print company. We have a good solid history as a print company and that’s not bad; we have to build on the customer’s experiences and then demonstrate how we’ve made a successful transition and how are positioned to help them with fully integrated marketing solutions. Solutions that may or may not include print.”

According to Eric Sheldon, a business development manager at LithExcel, the biggest challenge with applying digital technologies is assessing and evaluating customer marketing strategies. Traditional print sales representatives do not have a strong marketing or business development background and because of that, they may have a difficult time working with a customer to develop a fully integrated cross media marketing plan.” Sheldon also added, “The time line for selling digital solutions is longer. The process is more involved; it is added to, subtracted from, and modified as it evolves – that’s the beauty of digital. You have the opportunity to change and adjust the components to fit the audience and message before you commit valuable resources.”

Marketing in the changing environment can be a challenge. However, even seasoned marketers are facing challenges are the industry evolves. Everyone, including customers are experiencing a learning curve as they test the digital waters and explore the ins and outs of social media.

How Do You Define Quality?

We caught up with Waleed Ashoo, CEO and President of LithExcel Service Providers, on his return from the PODi Las Vegas conference and posed the following question to him:

Peter Drucker has said, “Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier put in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for.” While there are standards to measure quality on the offset print side, an example being ISO 8254, no standards exist for the digital print side. Should and or could there be a quality standard for digital be developed?




“Standards beyond color matching exist. Because digital equipment varies, individual manufacturers have developed proprietary standards that address material conformance and visual attributes for their specific presses. Unlike an offset printing which has been around for hundreds of years, digital is relatively young industry that continues to evolve,” said Ashoo.

“Quality is more than standards and guidelines. Standardized output and guidelines do not address customer satisfaction, strengthening supplier partnerships, fostering of an atmosphere of continuous improvement or encouraging quality as a way of thinking and a way in which people interact and work together,” said Ashoo.

Wikipedia states that “..the quality of a product or service refers to the perception of the degree to which the product or service meets the customer’s expectations. Furthermore, quality has no specific meaning unless related to a specific function and/or object. Quality is a perceptual, conditional and a somewhat subjective attribute.” Customers define quality based on their entire experience, which is “...the aggregate of all the touch points that they have with the company’s product and services....”

“In business quality is generally defined as the conformity of a product to a specification, code or guideline. In the world of the consumer, however, quality is defined by how one product or service compares to another in the market,” said Ashoo. “I’d add three possible outcomes to this definition of quality: the product either meets the customer’s expectations, the product exceeds expectations, or the product does not meet expectations.

How do you measure quality then? “You can’t measure it by numbers alone,” said Ashoo. “You need to look at everything: market share, customer satisfaction, how you rank in comparison to your competition, employee morale, cost of waste, efficiently use of capital, and levels of productivity. It’s a measure of all the elements that make up a business and getting all the indicators moving in the right direction at the same time, which is not easy.”

How do you measure quality? Should an industry digital output standard be developed beyond manufacturers’ proprietary standards and ISO13660/19751, which limited to B&W digital office equipment. Let us know.

To learn more, go to the Printing Industry Center at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Traditional Printer Creates High-Value Digital Color Applications with Xerox Technology

Wins New Business by Partnering with Creative Agencies

Gina Testa's post on Xerox's blog Presort.com is the perfect example of the transition that many print companies are facing as the industry continues to shift focus from selling print on paper to selling value and integrated marketing solutions. Traditional printers are modifying their organizations and redefining markets to sell services that may or may not include print.

"Today's customers are more technology savvy. They are multi-taskers who want business partners that bring fully integrated solutions to the table. They want problem solvers, not print brokers or account executives. They want flexible solutions that include customization. They want to open lines of communications. They want the ability to track results. They want to test different scenarios to see which is more effective before making an investment. They want it personalized and interactive. And, they want it now," said Waleed Ashoo, LithExcel CEO.

For a case study on how LithExcel built in-house capabilities and established strategic partnerships to develop new business as other printers struggled to keep their doors open, check out Gina's post.

Beat the Commodity Trap, Win with Value Pricing

Beat the Commodity Trap

Waleed Ashoo to Speak
at PODi AppForum in Las Vegas

Waleed Ashoo, CEO of LithExcel Communication Services Provider, will speak at the 8th Annual Print on Demand Initiative (PODi) Application Forum at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV from January 25-27.

Ashoo will demonstrate the value pricing model that he has developed that includes current and future values to win in the ever changing digital marketplace. He will walk attendees through high margin models and specific pricing formula opportunities and provide real-world examples how LithExcel has successfully transitioned from commodity pricing to winning with value pricing.

The AppForum is an educational conference in which industry leaders from across the country gather to discuss business strategy, technology and real world results for the digital print industry.

Ashoo is president of the Digital Imaging Customer Exchange and PODi member. Ashoo is a successful business owner, industry consultant and an international speaker and moderator. His presentations cover topics which have included Pricing for Value, Building a Digital Sales Team for Today’s Market, Making the Transition from a Commodity Print Sales Representative to a Business Development Executive, and Automation with Lean Process Manufacturing. Ashoo is also a member of Xerox Premier Partners, as well as an independent speaker at Thought Leadership Workshops for Xerox Corporation.

For more information, visit www.podi.org

Excellent article on Direct Mail

The link is posted below to an article in the Wall Street Journal by Teri Evans. Firms Hold Fast to Snail Mail Marketing is an excellent perspective on direct mail in the digital marketing environment. While you at it, check out SmartBriefs as a good resource for up-to-date industry information.