Print Buyers on Print Brokers

Earlier this year, I asked a group of senior buyers for their opinions about print brokers. Fret not: I wrote to print brokers, too, to get their own insights. In an upcoming Tip, I will share the brokers' comments with you. (Psst: if you are a broker and haven't sent your 2 cents to me yet, feel free.)

The buyers I polled were selected randomly. I assumed they all work directly with printers but didn't know if they work with brokers. Today's Tip shares their feelings about brokers. Because it is quite long, I've posted the full Tip on our web site rather than here.

For those of you who might not already know, here's some information about print brokers:

Unlike print sales reps, print brokers are not employed by printing companies. Rather, they represent several printers. This gives them the ability to place a wide variety of print projects with the right printer; that is, the printer who has the right equipment.

The broker takes the place of the sales rep, in a sense, as their customers deal with them, not the manufacturer. However, as brokers will remind you, they work for you - not the print manufacturer.

The term "print broker" has had a negative connotation for years. While you'll glean from the buyer comments that, in general, they prefer to work directly with printers, I must caution all buyers, particularly those of you just starting out, not to paint the entire community of print brokers with the same brush - just as you shouldn't paint printers with the same brush (or print buyers, for that matter). Keep your mind open and learn as much as you can from service providers of all kinds.

Newer terms for brokers have been cropping up, such as print consultants, print managers, print distributors, print agents, and print specialists.

By the way, "print broker" is not synonymous with "print manager." I associate print management with a totally different business model. The print management industry - a real force in the UK - comprises large companies that manage entire creative and communications campaigns for clients, from soup to nuts. Business process outsourcing, print outsourcing - these are the phrases used to describe print management firms. I don't associate these phrases with brokers.

Some of the buyers polled work with brokers and love the partnership with them. Most buyers polled feel strongly that since they're professional buyers, they don't need and would not use brokers. The second major objection? The buyers value the relationships they've built with their printer partners, and they don't want to lose them.

To read all of the collected buyer comments, click here to access the full version of the Tip on our web site. Unless noted, all comments are direct quotes.