Just about everyday, people are trying to up sell their products. You go to a restaurant and you have a choice between a half order or a full order. Your waiter says: “For two more dollars you will get twice as much and can take that home for tomorrow’s lunch.” Your dry cleaners tell you that your 12th garment is free. At the supermarket, you have a “buy two get one free” offer. No matter where you go, people are always trying to up sell you. In these instances, caving in may not be so great. Imagine buying two loaves of bread that are “buy two get one free.” In reality, you only need one loaf of bread, maybe one-and-a-half. Nonetheless, you buy the two to get the third one free. A week later, your two extra loaves are moldy. Not only have you wasted bread you did not need, but you spent the extra money.
Yet, in printing, getting up-sold may be worth it. Let’s say you’re ordering 500 brochures. Your printer says your cost will be $695 but for $750 you can get 1000. While you may only “need” 500 brochures, it’s worth thinking about the offer. Consider the unit price; at 500 brochures, your per-unit-price is $1.39 while your per-unit-price for 1000 is a mere $0.75. So now which offer looks better? We’re not pushing you here though. So let’s continue with your cost-benefit-analysis. You really don’t have the need for an extra 500 brochures and you just don’t have the room to store them. So you decide to order the 500 as originally planned.
Now imagine you had purchased the 1000 brochures for the extra $55. What could you have done with the extra brochures? Well, you could have distributed them to every one of your clients. You could have put them at visible places where people could take them. You could carry a portion with you so that anytime you meet a potential client, you could give them literature about your product or service. You could have distributed them to local businesses or shops that offer complementary services (for example, if you’re selling tooth-whitening products or services, you could have distributed them to your dentist’s office).
While I suggest that you should always be vigilant of people who want to up sell you, sometimes you should evaluate the possibilities. Printing, especially off-set printing, is costly. The machine set-up and running is in-itself time consuming and costly. Printing larger quantities will almost always result in a better price. Sometimes it’s hard to believe the price discrepancies. For a mere fraction of the price you are already paying, you’re getting twice as much. Are you being cheated? No, not necessarily. If your printing job requires special paper and treatment, it will most likely be cheaper for your printing shop to print a larger quantity than a smaller quantity.
So next time you think your print shop is trying to up sell you, think of the possibilities.
OneIMS offers full-service printing capabilities. Whatever your printing needs may be, an expert is there to help you. For more information on our printing capabilities, please visit our website at OneIMS.com
