Peter the Printer's Profitable Portals

Peter Lineal of Plum Grove Printers in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago is a printer that thinks big. Lineal, known to his customers as “Peter the Printer,” empowers his customers to do the selling for him through the use of branded print and marketing portals.

The online portals Lineal creates provide easy access for his customers to view and order their business-critical items. Portals contain brochures, sales collateral, stationery, and items as unique as ear-shaped jar openers for a client that provides hearing aid equipment. Portals allow companies to empower their staff and field sales force while allowing marketing to protect the brand and finance management to control costs.

Lineal's portal strategy is focused on creating private ordering websites for organizations like franchises, wholesalers, government entities, and large companies. The private websites Lineal creates for his customers maintain brand consistency not only on the products within the portal, but also on the portal itself, which is designed to compliment the customer's online identity.

It's this branding that provides Lineal with the opportunity to show the value of the portal to his customer. When setting up a new portal, Lineal will find a friendly supporter within the organization he wishes to approach and set it up for the supporter's use. Once the supporter can express the efficiencies created by using the portal, they become a strong advocate for the portal within their company.

Lineal then asks the supporter-turned-advocate to help set up a meeting with the executive level decision maker. When the executive sees how the portal has created efficiencies for one person, it becomes very easy for the decision-maker to see the value in rolling out the portal to everyone within the organization. The executive quickly sees the portal as a way to empower his or her team, grow the company, and grow the brand.

With portals, Lineal says price objections are removed: “It's so much freaking fun to sell these portals. You stop selling on price. You don't even start the conversation with price. You start the conversation with, 'Here's what the portal will to do to make you more efficient.' When your customer sees first-hand how the portal will save them so much time, they stop buying print on price alone.”

Lineal's strategy shows that being proactive with portals is a great way to help customers succeed, which then leads to increased success and sales opportunities for printers. Lineal says, “The restaurant down the block can sell us as many meals as we're willing to eat, they just need to create the demand. We as printers don't need to sit and and wait for the phone to ring to get a printing order. We need to create demand. We need to get out there and help our clients with ideas to grow their business. Portals do that.”

“Peter the Printer” and Plum Grove Printers can be found on the web at www.PlumGrovePrinters.com. His portals are powered by Websites For Printers (www.WebsitesForPrinters.com), a service of Marketing Ideas for Printers (Booth 457).