Three things print buyers must do this week (they could save you 30% on your print spend)

Would you ever consider driving a car whilst uninsured?

Can you imagine the bills that she might be faced with if you had an accident? Can you imagine having a permanent record of illegal behaviour?

My car insurance is due for renewal next week. You can be sure that I’ll be renewing it in good time.

The trouble is, not everything it seems this urgent. Sometimes we have the best intentions to do things. But somehow they never get done. You should ask my wife about my DIY plans!

That’s why I’m issuing this five-day challenge to print buyers. All the action points are things that would be easy to put off.

A delay could cost you a lot of money

Make time in your diary to do three simple print buying tasks this week

Print buyers who take on this challenge could achieve big savings for their companies quickly. They will have a new control over their jobs. They are likely to find that they will for which better relationships with their internal clients.

Print buyers who delay this challenge will delay opportunities to impress their internal clients. They will fail to achieve the savings that may not yet have been found at their companies.

So here are three things I want you to do this week.

Challenge a process

We are all used to doing things the way we always have. Sometimes it’s good to stay a step back and ask why we are doing things the way we are.

Take five minutes to ask your colleagues and suppliers if they can see a better way of doing things. You may be surprised at the answers.

But that’s not the only thing you should challenge.

Challenge a specification

These days, most buyers are suffering from too much to do with too little time. So we accept the specifications that are given to us by our clients. Or, where it’s down to us, we just look at what was done last time.

However, it is the duty of all print buyers to consider the purpose of the product. Is the specification really the best one? Could it be improved?

There are three ways to challenge specifications. Firstly, we should look to see if we can cost cut through specifying differently. However, we should also look to see if we can improve the return on investment of the item. Specification can be an important way of doing this. Finally, we should look at the non-print elements. There can be some big savings once a printed ultimately is the factory.

This may seem quite a lot to go through.  But there is one final challenge that I want you to do.

Challenge a supplier choice

When was the last time you considered using a different supplier? I am all for having long-term supplier relationships. Supplier loyalty is important. However, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t occasionally challenge our choice.

A supply base that is never challenged can become too comfortable for both sides. Also, if we are changing specifications, it may be that another supplier is more suited to a certain product.

These three simple reviews should not take long. But there is an important reason why they should be carried out.

When I use these three questions, I often save 30% on my clients’ print spends

There is still a huge amount of wasteful print buying. Print buying skills are becoming less and less common. Print buying has often been devolved to people who have specialised in other roles. Despite their best efforts, they may not have the knowledge to get the best results.

However, if they ask these three questions, they will be well on the way to achieving meaningful savings.

So remember the three challenges you must make this week

• Challenge a process
• Challenge a specification
• Challenge a supplier choice

I will be writing articles about each of these areas in the coming weeks. Make sure you sign up to the Print sounds Procurement newsletter list so that you don’t miss any of these. You can sign up underneath this article.

Don’t put this off

The results could be really important for your company and for your career. Is as important as making sure that your car is insured.
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