Print Brokering & Management Services.
So, if you need printing services, just let us know…we’ll be happy to work with you on your next project. We provide professional Print Broker services for all of our clients who need it. Let us get you the best deal, best turn-around time, and the best product available. Whether it is large format, or business cards…we know the best in the industry.Print Brokers provide a managed service to their customers. In fact, print brokers are often known as print managers as this better defines their role. A print manager acts as a liaison between a company and a wholesale printer. Print managers are responsible for assisting their customers with producing high quality jobs as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. They act as manufacturing reps, representing the capabilities of their partner print and bindery facilities.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just buy from a retail printer?
Sometimes yes, but often times no. It’s not uncommon for people to make the incorrect assumption that buying direct is always the best way to purchase goods and services. And most generally, most people don’t have the time or energy to price out a printing job themselves. Buying from a broker or agent often results in a better overall buying experience, better results, as well as better pricing. And we’ve found that our pricing is generally lower than most retail printers.
How is this possible?
Print brokers and print managers use what are referred to as “trade printers”. Trade printers operate in a wholesale capacity providing the manufacturing functions of the commercial printing and bindery industries. Rather than hiring sales people internally, these businesses outsource their sales functions to brokers and print managers. By doing this, they cut a significant amount of overhead. These cost savings help create the margin that allows for profit.
Retail printers have all of the same expenses as a trade printer and more. Not only do they have the same equipment and operational costs associated with the production of printed materials, they also have the high cost of sales reps. Good sales reps are generally well paid individuals who receive a base salary as well as commissions on their sales. Sales reps in general however, have a high turnover rate and because of this a lot of money is spent trying to find train, and retain quality people. Add in the cost of a sales manager, increased office space, laptop, phones, etc. and you can quickly see how a retail printer may struggle to keep their costs competitive.
So, if I use a broker, is my work just sent out to the lowest bidder?
Some print brokers will seek out the lowest cost product every time. However, BAM! does not operate in this way. We use five primary vendors with 90% of our work being done at two select local facilities. By doing this we are able to maintain control of the production process, deliver consistent quality, and work with a higher level of efficiency. We would be doing our customers a disservice if we were to trade quality and efficiency just to save a couple of dollars.
Having access to a wide range of production equipment allows brokers to produce jobs with greater efficiency.
A retail printer has significant costs tied up in their equipment and because of this, they need to be using it whenever possible. When a job is done according to the needs of the retail printer rather than the needs of the job or the customer that is a conflict of interest. As print managers we have a tremendous amount of flexibility and can make the correct decisions for our customers without the overhead costs of equipment ownership influencing our actions.
The fact is many “retail” printers may actually be brokering your work and you simply don’t know it.
No printer has every piece of equipment. If they did, the down time on lightly used machines would create a huge cash strain on the business. Because of this, they sometimes turn into brokers themselves, seeking out a trade partner to produce the job for them. Even the biggest print shops outsource some of their print and/or bindery functions to other businesses. It’s simply the way the industry works. Some retail printers have even begun to significantly downsize the amount of in house equipment and have begun to outsource increasing amounts of their business to trade printers.
What types of businesses do you work with?
BAM! provides a valuable service, managing projects for over 400 businesses both in the Midwest, as well as across the United States. Our customers range from start up companies to global businesses in software, entertainment, and hospitality. Not only do we keep our prices extremely competitive, we operate with maximum efficiency providing our customers with some of the fastest turn times in the industry.