If you're a veteran marketer, I'm sure you'll recognize this: the discussion about the value of tradeshows in your marketing mix. Are they truly worth all the effort and your valuable marketing dollars or euros?

This very fundamental question is in today's recession even more gripping than ever. But if you decide not to do tradeshows, how will you engage your customers effectively and how will you compensate for the lost sales opportunities, because let's not forget in the graphic arts industry a lot of sales are still generated by tradeshows...

The answer seems to come from Switzerland, from a company you would not associate with marketing, but rather with finishing machines. That company is named Hunkeler. What started out several years ago as a small open house event of a supplier of finishing machines, has grown of the past few year to a 4 day event in the Lucerne Messe, with over 4000 visitors of all corners of the earth with all the major vendors of digital printing equipment participating.

Now you might be inclined to say: 'so what?' But Hunkeler has found this unique balance between having an industrial look and feel, combined with an operational excellence that you could only expect from the Swiss and still a scale of operation with the warmth of a family type organization. That's the true secret of the Hunkeler Innovation Days and why they attract experts of all over the world to come and visit. All visitors are experts in their fields. No tire kickers nor brochure hunters, but production people, owners, managers, all here to get updates on the latest technological solutions in digital printing and finishing. As such the Hunkeler Innovation Days has become what people call in German language: Experten Messen, tradeshows for the experts.

This Hunkeler Innovation Days from 16-19th of February, will be my 3rd event and I cannot wait to talk to people there.

Grüezi mittenand aus Luzern (hi to everyone from Lucerne)

I don't want to sound like a salesperson here, but in these uncertain economic times there are certain ways that you can weather the storm and come out the better for it.  One way is investing in EMS software.  KODAK EMS Software is for managing the entirety of your business, from quoting and estimating to production, shipping and accounting. It has a single database that collects information throughout your business and gives you real-time information on any aspect of your business: the status of a job; the size of your sales pipeline; who are your best customers or sales people; where you're making money or losing it; the actual vs. estimated cost of any job... and more.

Here are 5 ways EMS software can help:

1. Better Control Costs Your Costs - Analyze the profitability of your jobs and your customers to discover where you are making or losing money. Many business owners simply do not know—or do not realize that "cash cows" or top customers of yesteryear might no longer be profitable. You should also regularly compare job costs against estimates so that you can avoid under-pricing your work.  You should also create daily end-of-month and end-of-quarter projections to stay on track with your financial plan or be able to take corrective action before it's too late.
   
   
2. Optimize Business Performance - Set key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you meet your primary business goals, whether financial, sales-oriented or even service-oriented. There are literally thousands of KPIs. You need to find the right ones that will help you hone your business strengths. Sample KPIs include revenue per quarter, the value of your sales pipeline and the number of rings until a customer call is answered. But it's not enough to set and measure KPIs. When you don't meet an important KPI, you should analyze the cause and take corrective action. You should also post relevant KPIs throughout your business and share the results with employees.
   
   
3. Create New Opportunities - Use customer relationship management (CRM) on a daily basis in order to improve customer service and to ensure that customers know all of your products and services. You should continually analyze your best opportunities and monitor progress. An MIS/ERP system like KODAK EMS Business Software will generate follow-up tasks so that opportunities aren't missed.
   
   
4. Capture More Revenue - Identify the 20% of products that bring you 80% of your profits and focus your sales team on selling your profitable items. You should also use automation to quickly produce accurate quotes which has been statistically proven to improve win-loss ratios. You should also enable online services using KODAK InSite Storefront which can reduce labor costs on relatively simple items. Manage both your offline and online businesses with daily financial analysis and with KPIs.
   
   
5. Better Manage Your Finances - You should consolidate financial data so you can easily get a real-time view of your business and react faster when you need to make a decision. You would be surprised how many printers simply don't have access to real-time data. You should expedite invoicing processes to improve quote-to-cash while improving liquidity. A faster invoicing process will also let you convert "free" last-minute job changes into revenue by being able to add changes to an open invoice or to quickly issue a supplemental invoice. Or you could even issue a no-charge invoice of last minute changes buy your customer's allegiance and demonstrate what great service you can deliver!

No this is not the latest GEICO  commercial, but a Halloween endorsement of Prinergy Connect and Insite at Print Communications a top 400 web printer located in the heart of central Indiana. Print Communications is making a successful migration from Rampage Systems and looks forward to honing their skills with the automation and speed the new Prinergy Connect system provides. Prinergy will complement their Kodak portfolio of  two Trendsetter CTP devices, Kodak Approval,  Di Press, Matchprint Inket and thermal gold plates. Print Communications serves a wide client base in the publication market in a addition to insert work for the newspaper industry.

Special thanks to President Greg Flora and CEO Lowell Morrison for the promotional signage and fun day at work. Pictured caveman are Mark Wicks, Pre Press Manager, and pre press production staff Linda Burchett, John Smith, and Cindy Gould. Thank you PCI for your support!