NOVEMBER 2012

10

INSIDE >>

management

4

association

Business trends for marketing service Providers

Post ScriptsM a i l i n g & F u l F i l l M e n t S e r v i c e a S S o c i a t i o n

Face Forward and Lean into it

(Continued to page 12)19

mFsa mid-Winter conference-change: a Business transformation

(Continued to page 20)

Business oPerations

FUTURE TRENDS ISSUE

By Ken garner, President/ceoMFSa

another graph expo has come and gone and, yet again, the MFSa team was able to gain valuable industry insights, meet new people, and collect fresh ideas for the future. although these benefits will stand out to most attendees, we will remember graph expo 2012 for a few different reasons. We had a new name to pre-miere, three educational sessions to lead, a regional chapter meeting to manage, and two new association offerings to announce.

it wasn’t too long ago when our membership approved and supported the rebranding commitment of MFSa, which took place during our an-nual conference in June. Since then, our board and team have made great strides forward with this initiative, in order to bring the new name, association of Marketing Service Providers, to life. one of our goals for this rebranding effort is to bring awareness of our new iden-tity to the public as soon as possible.

With this goal in mind, our board and staff were able to agree on and select the official association of Market-ing Service Providers logo—just in time to showcase it at this year’s graph expo. as a result, staff members attending the show were able to wear shirts displaying the new logo and we were able to display a new ban-ner at our booth illustrating our new name and logo. this was important because graph expo is one of our largest industry events of the year.

MFSA ANNOUNcES TwO NEw OFFERINgS TO MEMBERShIp

By Jonathan Margulies, Managing DirectorWinterberry group

if you feel like you’ve been riding a roller coaster for the past decade—constantly bracing yourself for the rapid ups and downs that now define the direct mail business—you can rest assured: you’re not alone.

For many companies offering printing, mailing and fulfillment services, the only constant across the last few years has been volatility. the explosive growth that paced the DM services industry in the 1990s and early 2000s (up!) was followed by a sudden and dev-astating economic recession, stripping many mailers of the critical budget needed to support their vast DM programs (down!). after a brief bounce back that accompanied the nation’s modest economic recov-ery (up!), fierce competition from digital media—and the precarious condition of the u.S. Postal Service—conspired to drive even more budgets to competi-tive outlets (down!).

it’s enough to make any seasoned DM executive, like any roller coaster passenger, question the decision to hop on for a ride in the first place.

now, amidst wholesale changes across the media landscape, the practice of direct mail marketing ap-pears poised to radically change once again. But this time, the ride is likely to veer off in two entirely different directions: up, for those who embrace change (as well as their own core competencies) as foundations for busi-ness transformation. and down—potentially far down—for those who shake off such dynamics as fleeting, unrealistic or simply insurmountable.

at its core, one fundamental driver: the role of direct mail is evolving. What was once the central lever for direct-to-consumer acquisition, retention and com-munications is increasingly fulfilling an important, but specialized role as one tool in a broader mix of channels. Mapping a response plan for your busi-ness, then, demands a thorough understanding of the challenges and opportunities that shift is surfac-ing.

UpS, DOwNS AND OppORTUNITIES: pURSUINg BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION IN A TIME OF VOlATIlITy

2 MFSA PostScripts

Mark your calendar >>

MiD-Winter conFerenceloews Don ceSar HotelSt. Petes Beach, FlFebruary 5-8, 2013

Postscripts is published monthly for MFSa members. For advertising information, please contact: Bill Stevenson at bstevenson@MFSanet.org or 800-333-6272.

NOVEMBER 2012 ISSUE 653Chairman’s Column

Post Scripts

Board of Directors

Chairman of the Board

Mike Kellogg; Century Direct, LLC, Long Island City, NY

first ViCe Chairman

Ted Kulpinski; UniversalWilde, Holliston, MA

seCond ViCe Chairman

Tim Johnson; Impact Proven Solutions, Minneapolis, MN

treasurer

Tom Duchene; TDMS, Huntington Beach, CA

immediate Past Chairman

Ken Gossett; AMI, Alexandria, VA

direCtors

Charles Buchanan; World Marketing-Dallas, Dallas, TXTammy Caserta; Think Patented, Dayton, OHJoy Franckowiak; Valpak, St. Petersburg, FLTom Glassman; NPI, Fort Worth, TXDave Lewis; Prolist, Gaithersburg, MDWayne Marshall; Edwards Graphics Arts, Des Moines, IAKen Orr; ICS Marketing Support Services, Lansing, MIJohn Palazzolo; Adphos North America, Cincinati, OHWes Powell; TMR Direct, Colorado Springs, COAnita Pursley; RR Donnelley, Johns Creek, GACorey Smith; Satori Software, Seattle, WAMike Stewart; Great Lakes Integrated, Avon Lake, OHJoy Zehrbach; Seebridge Media, Houston, TX

Mailing & Fulfillment Service association1421 Prince Street, Ste. 410alexandria, va 22314tel: 703-836-9200; 800-333-6272Fax: 703-548-8204email: MFSa-mail@MFSanet.orgwww.MFSanet.org

michael Kelloggchairman of the Board

whAT DOES OUR FUTURE lOOk lIkE?a handsome young man dressed in a nice blue suit and red tie arrives early for his appointment with a major retailer. He makes a fine presentation, employing the latest technology to augment his well rehearsed monologue. He is attentive to questions and answers them cogently. “of course we will front the postage,” he offers without prompting. He presents his quotation and walks out the door with a purchase order to print and mail 600,000 cata-logs going to the luxury market.

His colleague down the street also just hit a similar home run, this time with a major utility. She arrived right on time for her appointment, wearing a well tailored blue skirt and red blazer, knowing that it was a foregone conclusion that all of the invoices and statements gen-erated and mailed to the utility’s customers would be given to her firm to produce. Her intelligence work before her appointment had already told her what the magnitude of the monthly project would be. “of course we will front the postage” was her irresistible offer. She knew how much that would be, almost to the penny.

Hundreds of other blue suited, well-informed sales men and women returned to Post-al Headquarters to report on their progress. Since 2010, when they had come upon the idea that utilizing information garnered from postal documentation supplied by their previous and now quiet competition would give them a significant leg up as they broadened the array of services they could perform, it was easy to pick off the few re-maining very large holdouts. the few commercial operations that continued to exist were running on fumes and would soon succumb to the same buyout offers from the Postal Service as had all of the rest. First the small printer/mailers in mid-sized cities. then larger ones servicing regional clients. then the national players who knew when to say when. the only ones left now were a couple of mega firms who could still buy paper from the only paper company left in existence. the owner of the paper company and the ceos of the holdout MSP companies were cousins after all. Family trumps all.

is this the future? not even close, in my humble opinion. the supply chain that makes up our industry includes too many invested players who are willing to fight for their piece of the pie. the entrepreneurial spirit that differentiates a private sector sales staff from a quasi governmental one is too powerful for a frontal assault from a monolithic entity. a technological world makes it more difficult for a bureaucracy to compete where constant adaptation is a hallmark of success. the range of disciplines engen-dered in our marketing service provider industry is far too vast for one entity to “corner the market.” that doesn’t even include the prohibitory legal aspect of it all.

the bigger and more insidious threat to our industry is clothed in the technology that we employ and the citizenry that is impacted by it. Privacy issues, in my opinion, will cause our production lines to produce less over time. a google car drove by my house last week. it actually gave me goose bumps, like i had just been transported into some bad sci-fi movie. Facebook has a billion people, including me, exposing themselves to it. they know who my “friends” are, even what they look like. in an earlier column i wrote about the Safety act. the interface between government and private intel-ligence gathering, that’s the real danger lurking in our commercial future. the biggest threat won’t be our delivery link in the supply chain. it will be a citizenry who will insist that data collected by anyone in any fashion cannot be used except as protected by HiPPa, gramm-leach-Bliley or some other future legislation prohibiting the prom-ulgation of personal information for any reason. the obtundation of our population to data gathering, including things like facial recognition techniques, and its use will certainly be replaced by a vis-ceral outcry when it rises to the perceived level of an issue of personal freedom. the only question is when.

NOVEMBER 2012 3

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4 MFSA PostScripts

Business OperationsBUSINESS TRENDS FOR MARkETINg SERVIcE pROVIDERS

Tony Aveni is the founder of Aveni & Associates LLC, a consulting services firm to the direct marketing industry. He has over 30 years within the industry. Aveni led W. A. Wilde Inc. through a major rebuilding effort including creating Wilde Direct. Most re-cently, he re-branded and re-energized G. A Wright Marketing of Denver into Wright Casino Marketing, a significant agency special-izing in casino marketing.

tony aveniaveni & associates LLc

Predicting the future is not quite a science, but rather a blend of reviewing history and analyzing the po-tential for change and new discoveries. While the past or even the current reality will give us a poten-tial preview, what is absolutely unknown is what dramatic alteration of reality is being imagined and developed even as i write this article.

an article in the New York Sunday Times by adam Frank, cracking the Quantum Safe, reported on the theory of Quantum information. “ at the same time new and even more exciting possibilities opened up as scientists began thinking in quantum physics in terms of information rather than just matter- asking if physics fundamentally tells us more about our in-teraction with the world (i.e., our information) than the nature of the world by itself…”

at this time, we “trend” at unbelievably quick speeds. twitter folks are able to report “trending” by the min-ute. take the recent political debates for example. Within minutes, the talking heads were speaking of trending about Big Bird because of the activity of tweets in real time during the debate.

But for our purposes of looking at the impact of trends on what we do and how we will be doing it, i am going to talk a little bit about immediate trends (one to five years) rather than minute-by-minute trending or even decades of trends.

So my first thoughts about short-term trends are:

Trends Themselves will be Even More of a Motiva-tor in Marketing Then They are Today Social media will drive the direction and thirst for the accumulation and analysis of more and more data. We have all heard and/or seen discussions about the effect twitter, blogs, and Facebook have on what is currently important to consumers. i firmly believe that the concept, the act of “liking” a product or ser-vice, will become the major determinant in success-ful marketing.

all content in whatever medium will be aimed at driving the personal experience of consumers so that Push or Pull marketing will not be the issue, but “lik-ing” will be the motivator of both copy and creative.

the reports of what our family of friends and associ-ates are experiencing will be the most important in-fluence on our choices. While this kind of behavior may be implicit in some of our present content copy, it will be the most influential mode in the near fu-ture. it may already be. We the consumers will seek out the thoughts of others we trust rather than those supplied by service provider’s advertising.

therefore, our creative approach will be to influence communities of people directly through the com-

munity itself. We will be in effect using the ability of a social community to broadcast our message faster and more widely than ever.

Technology will Drive the Future of Marketing More than it has in the past the speed and process of developing, storing, and retrieving information will be exponentially faster, al-lowing for more complex analysis of data.

the NY Times article to which i referred in the open-ing paragraphs discussed Quantum computing in a manner that is beyond my ability to discuss or un-derstand fully. But the take away for me is that speed and volume of processing data will be exponentially faster by thousands of multiples!

and there are now discussions about, and may in our life times even be, the emergence of dual realities. Wow! What this could mean to marketing may be more useful in ways we cannot even imagine.

For the purpose of this discussion the message is that we ought to be in a position to react and adjust to new technologies as early adopters. our clients will expect this of us.

As Far as we can See, Mobile will be the Exclusive communication platform of the Futurethis does not mean the current technical platforms we use such as the tablet, the PDa, and the phone will become obsolete, but it means that will see an emergence of new devices and displays that we may very well see that will actually surround us with con-stant information. literally! imagine 3D, think pro-jected Holograms, think Star WarS!

the evolution of the mobile receiver will continue to evolve. in fact i have heard serious discussions from developers who are now moving towards first de-signing and programing for mobile devices, not de-veloping for computers and then creating a mobile application to replicate the computer software. this switch in priorities could eventually make the per-sonal computer, as we know it now, obsolete in its current configuration.

therefore our content and creative will have to adjust to the “small” screen. or will it? there are advances in technology that could use “projection” of content such as a hologram image into the space around us. or even onto walls or other receptors like interactive outdoor signs.

What this means to marketing service as a provider is that we must think bigger, think more quickly and adapt even faster. We must also get used to creating content with potentially fewer words and images. in-novation is moving faster than ever in our lives. So expect change, embrace technology and adopt early.

NOVEMBER 2012 5

6 MFSA PostScripts

Ben Cooper has been ac-tively involved in major postal issues for more than ten years.  He founded and chaired the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Serv-ice, which helped organ-ize the mailing industry to pass Postal Reform in 2006. He also serves as Executive Director of Mail Moves America, the or-ganization formed by DMA to fight Do Not Mail leg-islation in the states.   He is currently a partner at Williams and Jensen. Prior to coming to Williams and Jensen, he was with the Printing Industries of America.

Ben cooperWilliams and Jensen

Management

With the elections still looming and decisions on the lame Duck session of congress yet unmade, we are no closer to a prognostication about the passage of postal reform than when congress left town in Sep-tember. We do know one thing new – the Postal Ser-vice has officially reached its borrowing limit at $15 billion and has very little room to operate in the new year.

on october 1, 2012 the uSPS began the first quarter of its new fiscal year. this quarter, which includes the christmas season, is always the best revenue quarter for the year. also, part of the quarter should benefit from the enormous amount of election mail that has been sent in 2012, much of it coming in September and october. While it is too early to tell if this will be a good quarter for the uSPS, it really needs to be.

the folks on capitol Hill have been very critical of the Postmaster general for predicting a postal “fis-cal cliff” and seemingly walking back from that date when pressed. in fairness to the PMg, he cannot ac-curately predict when that cliff will be reached. Fur-thermore, each prediction of the cliff brings protests from industry which cautions him against scaring away business. congress has reacted by suggesting that the crisis is not going to occur at a specific date so they can delay legislation.

reality is somewhere else. assuming a normal first quarter, the Postal Service will be on very thin ice managing a modest amount of cash ahead of a large daily cash requirement. one sneeze, hiccup or cough in the economy, postal world or more significant world affairs could cause that fiscal cliff to rear its ugly head. it could be anytime.

one thing we know about congress, it can act when it has to but it does not always act wisely when pressed. if we do not pass a reform bill in lame Duck and wait until the crisis, we will be in crisis response. in congress that generally means throwing money at a problem to make it go away at least temporarily. throwing money at the problem will not be reform. While we may argue that trying to pass a postal bill in lame Duck may not produce reform either, it is more than we would get in a crisis.

one prediction seems safe. that is, if congress fails to act in lame Duck, the uSPS will face a crisis be-fore congress acts. We can only hope that the crisis it faces does not do irreparable harm to the industry it serves.

We continue to believe a relatively easy agreement can be reached in lame Duck that will get the uSPS

over the immediacy of the current crisis. additional-ly, the planets seem to be aligned in 2012 to achieve a better agreement than might be possible in 2013. if our election predictions from last month and be-low are accurate, the changes that will occur from the elections could make passing a bill like S. 1789 very tough in the Senate thus making final legisla-tion more difficult. criticisms about the Senate bill overlook the very nature of the Senate. Majority doesn’t rule in the Senate -- super majority does.

Election predictionHaving given broad predictions on the election out-come in the last article, it can only be said that this election is about as close as one can get – and not just at the presidential level. it is hard to recall a time when as many Senate seats were in the “toss-up” cat-egory. currently more than one third of all Senate races are considered toss-ups and two others are trending that way. generally, a toss-up race is clas-sified as such when the various polls show a race within the margin of error or when traditional voting patterns would suggest a close race.

additionally, the toss-up situations tend to favor neither republicans nor Democrats. States such as Montana and north Dakota which are expected to vote heavily for Mitt romney may elect Democrats to the Senate. likewise, virginia is currently trending in favor of governor romney but may elect Democrat tim Kaine to the Senate.

overall, we continue to stick to the prediction of a very close Senate with neither side having more than 51 votes when the dust settles. one curious anomaly in this race is Maine. this year, Maine has the distinc-tion of a three-way Senate race. the leader in the polls right now is former governor and independent angus King who has said he will not say with which party he will align.

the Democrat in the race cynthia Dill is running third with republican charlie Summers running in sec-ond. With the expectation that King will align with Democrats if he wins, the national republican Sen-atorial committee has begun running ads against King. they have sensed an opening in the race which has not been there before. if republicans can turn out their vote and King and Dill split the others, the republican could win a race that was considered un-winnable a few weeks ago. Possible but not likely.

races such as Maine, Montana, north Dakota and virginia have more significance this year because the final numbers are expected to be so close.

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MFSa’s Board of Directors took advantage of one of the industry’s largest trade shows to meet on october 8 in chicago, illinois. this represents the third “face-to-face” meeting the Board has held in 2012 as part of a com-mitment to keeping the association’s volunteer leadership well-informed during a period of unprecedented activity. the following represents a sampling of the many topics discussed during the five hour meeting –

• the work of all standing committees was reviewed.• Funding alternatives related to the newly developed government

affairs committee were reviewed.• a third representative was selected to represent the association at

Mtac meetings.• a status report was reviewed related to the association’s rebrand-

ing.• a status report was reviewed related to the relocation of the asso-

ciation’s headquarters.• Status reports were delivered related to two

new significant service offerings scheduled to be rolled out in 2013 including – o the development of a service provider

database and web portal designed to connect mailing service providers with potential mailing customers.

o the development of the association’s first mailing service provider accredita-tion program.

• new strategies to grow membership and improve member retention were discussed.

• Potential new strategies to increase the lev-el of membership, and Board, diversity were discussed.

in november, the association’s Finance committee will review the proposed 2013 budget so that the full Board can review and approve before the end of December.

AssociationMFSA BOARD MEETS AT gRAph ExpO

mFsa’s chairman of the board mike Kellogg, left, talks with board mem-bers Ken orr, center, and tim Johnson before the meeting.

mFsa’s Board of Directors met in chicago to discuss the activity taking place within the association.

NOVEMBER 2012 9

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Wayne Petersonthe Black canyon consulting

group inc.

Wayne Peterson is a Prin-cipal of the Black Canyon Consulting Group Inc. The Group helps its cli-ents compete, win, grow and thrive. They focus on three areas: competitive strategy, effective business development and cus-tomer retention. Wayne has created and built five strong brands, and served as president of three fast growing firms. You can reach him at www.black-canyonconsulting.com or directly at 540 751-0852.

there is no single and golden path for your enter-prise that can be charted in advance as a straight line projection. no futurist or expert of any stripe can de-scribe the future of your industry and enterprise with any degree of reliability. comparing past prognosti-cations with the actual events that played out rarely shows concurrence between the two. So where is the value in looking forward if specific forecasts are rarely accurate? i think there are two ways that peer-ing into the future becomes valuable.

First, we can get a great deal of value from looking forward if we focus on events rather than trend lines. the five-year plans created by most firms fail to cre-ate much value because they take the present and simply project it forward in a straight line. We expect the future to look much like the present, and so we draft plans that reflect that expectation. When we do that, we miss the opportunity to go farther, and iden-tify those events that would deflect us (up or down) off that trajectory even when we can identify those events and watch for them. let me illustrate with a handful of examples:

• What would be the effect on your business if rates for standard mail were to increase by 20% as part of a restructuring / rescue plan for the uSPS? to ar-gue about the likelihood of that event misses the point. Because we don’t know what form postal reform might ultimately take, a spike in rates for standard (and periodical) mail is a real possibility. So, what effect would you expect on your busi-ness from a rate spike? What would you need to do in response to capitalize on that event?

• What would be the effect on your business of a substantial drop in energy pricing? it is certainly possible that the regulatory throttle on domestic oil and natural gas production will be opened up considerably. that could, realistically, turn the uS into a net energy exporter, in short order, which would drive down domestic energy prices. again, arguing about the likelihood misses the point. instead, what effect would lower energy and fuel costs have on your business? What would you need to do in response to capitalize on that event?

• What would be the effect on your business of na-tional “do not mail” regulation? given the unpre-dictability of the legislative and regulatory envi-ronment, that event is certainly possible too. it is much more valuable to ask what effect, positive and negative, that would have on your business. What would you need to do in response to capi-talize on that event, should it come to pass?

those three scenarios illustrate the value of identify-ing the events that could have a substantial effect on your enterprise. and if you develop a list of those with some likelihood of coming to pass, you’re now equipped to do much better than creating a straight-line five-year-plan. instead, you can begin to craft an “early warning system” to tell you when one of those events is approaching.

in each one of those illustrations, the event is both a cause and an effect. it’s a single event in a chain of events. and that means we can identify what would lead up to it just as we can describe what would fol-low it and how we would need to respond. and that’s huge. that means that if you can identify the possible events that would have the largest effect on your en-terprise, you can both plan your response and you can watch for the events leading up to that game-changing one. and that’s a much more valuable way to plan for the future.

For most MFSa members, there are fewer than ten external events that would have game-changing ef-fects on them. So developing a comprehensive list isn’t the same as creating an exhausting one. From that short list of events you can work forward and backward from each one, describing what would alert you that one of them is coming and how you would respond even as the event approached.

Second, peering into the future can create value if we learn to lean into it. it’s a sailing term describing the best way to keep your footing in a strong headwind. leaning into it is showing up, fully engaged even when the challenges and uncertainties look fear-some. i believe in both vicious and virtuous cycles. But we hear about vicious cycles much more often. one of the most destructive is the “fear - tension - pain” cycle.

and it applies much more widely than simply to child-birth, where it was first identified. i once watched a ceo who had risen through the ranks of his company

Management

FAcE FORwARD AND lEAN INTO IT

(continued to page 11)

NOVEMBER 2012 11

Lean continued from page 10

from his start in a minor accounting role. He’d wanted to lead the company for years, perhaps from his earliest days with it. But once he was in the lead chair, he became ever more fearful that the company would fail on his watch. the fear created growing tension until he was brittle, at risk of breaking when faced with a substantial challenge. He began to do less and less, to approve and endorse less and less in the vain attempt to preserve the status quo. Mentally, he did the equivalent of putting two coats of quick-drying cement and eleven coats of varnish on the sta-tus quo, and then tried to keep anything from changing it. in the end, that effort was completely unsuccessful.

leading into an uncertain future requires the ability to lean into it. to interrupt a “fear -tension - pain” cycle we need to lean into it. and that means looking steadily at the uncertainty although it makes us uneasy or fearful. it calls for a constant effort to un-derstand the scale and scope of the uncertainty, and to iden-

tify those events that could substantially affect the health and growth of the enterprises we lead without knowing which of them we will actually face. it calls for a bias toward action with-out being rash, without presumption.

When i’m asked for the characteristics of the most effective pres-idents and business owners i know, it’s an easy question to an-swer. there are two elements i see consistently, regardless of the presence or absence of other strengths or characteristics. those two elements are a forward focus and the habit of leaning into it. that’s the best way to face an uncertain and unsettling future. Face forward. lean into it.

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12 MFSA PostScripts

another highlight from this year’s graph expo was the location of our booth and our educational sessions. For the first time ever, MFSa exhibited in the Marketing Pavilion. this gave us the opportunity to position the association as a resource for market-ing service providers and to introduce the changes our associa-tion has in store for the future. as a reminder, our new name will not become official until January 1, 2013.

Finally, i had the pleasure of announcing two offerings MFSa is in the process of developing for its evolving membership. i know there have been many questions as to how the new name, association of Marketing Service Providers, will reflect what the association actually provides. the following value-added offer-ings will correlate with the association’s new name. the first of-fering we are developing is an accreditation program for mailing service providers. the goal of this program is to help mailing ser-vice providers benchmark their current processes and practices

against an industry standard of excellence. the accreditation criteria are currently being developed by industry leaders and educators with additional input coming from the Postal Service.

the process will include accreditation materials and instruction designed to educate service providers regarding best practices. this will also include a site visit audit to determine the level of compliance. audit evaluations will yield a determination related to the level of compliance with the established criteria. those that satisfy the required level of compliance will be awarded a

certificate of accreditation. Benefits include increased produc-tion efficiencies resulting in improved service quality at lower costs, increased competitive advantage, improved customer satisfaction, and potential marketing advantages.

the second offering addresses the struggle that mailing cus-tomers experience trying to locate a service provider that is convenient and can provide customized services that are often required to satisfy communication needs. to that end, we have developed a concept that is designed to easily and efficiently connect service providers with potential customers. this con-cept includes:

• an industry database of mailing service providers.• a related portal designed to provide additional visibility of

service providers to existing and potential mailing custom-ers.

• the capability for these existing and potential mailing cus-tomers to connect with service providers.

MFSa is proud to share the news that interlinkone will be partnering with us in developing this new database. i had the honor of sharing the stage with Kar-en DeWolfe, vice President of Sales for interlinkone, during our press briefing at graph expo to announce these new endeavors. She was gracious enough to share with the audience an in-depth overview and demonstration of how the database and portals would work. i invite you to view a record-ing of our press briefing as well as DeWolfe’s detailed demon-stration at your own convenience by visiting www.MFSanet.org/WebPortal or by scanning this Qr code to watch the video from your phone.

as you can see, there were many steps taken forward during this year’s graph expo, and i am eager to see where we will be for Print 2013. as these changes continue to occur within our association, our team will strive to continuously observe what our membership’s needs are today and what they will be in the future. We look forward to keeping you updated with all of our efforts in strengthening the value of our association.

Offerings continued from page 1

INDUSTRy STATISTIcS

In an independently conducted survey of 485 members of Xerox’s Premier Part-ners Global Network, more than 70% of printers said they are optimistic about the future, believing that print will always be part of the communications mix, but that volumes will still decline.

The latest Marketing-GAP survey by UK’s fast.MAP asked consumers, “Which of the following forms of advertising would you miss most if it disappeared tomorrow?” Approximately half of consumers said they would miss printed ads for all products and services if they disappeared. In compari-son, around a third said they would miss online advertisements and only be-tween one and two in 10 would miss telemarketing calls and door-to-door sales.

online marketing resource chief Marketer surveyed 1,050 B2B and B2c marketing pro-fessionals, representing a range of industries, to find the pulse on their view of their so-cial media marketing efforts. Three-quarters (76%) of respondents overall said their brands are engaged in social media marketing. a further 16% plan to begin to do so by the end of this year. By contrast, only 6% of those polled said they were not doing anything to market within social and did not plan to do so this year. not surprisingly, B2c brands are more heavily invested in social marketing than B2B.

NOVEMBER 2012 13

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Employment

Reprinted from Jackson Lewis

Key provisions of the controversial Wisconsin collective Bargain-ing law (act 10) were found to violate the united States and Wis-consin constitutions by Dane county circuit Judge Juan colás on September 14, 2012, in Madison teachers, inc. et al. v. Walker, no. 11cv3774. this ruling voided several key provisions of the law.

if the state judge’s ruling is upheld by the Wisconsin court of ap-peals and the Wisconsin Supreme court, public-sector employ-ers must negotiate with unions as they did prior to the enact-ment of act 10. However, the September 14th ruling likely will be stayed pending appeal. Many believe it is unlikely that the ruling ultimately will be upheld.

what Should Employers Do?the ruling will likely be stayed (held in abeyance) until the Wisconsin Supreme court rules on the issue. this will take some time. if the ruling is stayed, public employers would not need to alter their operations or address with a union the terms and conditions of employment for employees on account of the ruling, pend-ing the outcome of appeals. indeed, acting too soon may require further changes if the ruling is overturned by the Wisconsin Su-preme court, causing unnecessary confu-sion and complications. Further, reversing concessions provided now will likely result in employee distress that can be avoided by a wait-and-see approach.

Public employers should consider refrain-ing from opening negotiations with unions representing their employees over non-wage issues. if the ruling is stayed, it will continue to be illegal for public-sector employers to bargain with unions over non-wage issues. During the stay period, the employer will continue to have unilat-

eral authority to enact and enforce non-wage terms and conditions of employ-ment.

in addition, employers should resist union pressure to com-mence bargaining or revoke implemented policies. unions will likely use the court ruling to pressure public-sector employees to abandon changes made by the employer and demand a say in the terms and conditions of employment. unless they are le-gally obligated to do so, employers should be wary of acceding before the legal setting becomes clearer.

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14 MFSA PostScripts

pROOF ThAT MANAgER kNEw OF wORkERS’ cOMpENSATION INJURy REQUIRED FOR RETAlIATORy DISchARgE clAIM

Christopher C. Antone is the managing partner of the Dallas office of Jackson Lewis LLP, our Association’s Labor Counsel. Celebrat-ing 31 years with Jackson Lewis, for the past four years Chris was named one of the top 100 labor law-yers in the country by the Labor Relations Institute. If you have any questions regarding this article, or for more information or assist-ance, please contact Chris Antone at (972) 728-3295 or antonec@jacksonlewis.com. For a description of Jackson Lewis’ services and more information on work-place law issues, please visit their web site at www.jacksonlewis.com.

chris antoneJackson Lewis

Employment

although this recent case arose in illinois, it provides relevant guidelines to all employers. the Federal Seventh circuit court of appeals has affirmed the dismissal of an employee’s workers’ compensation retaliatory discharge claim. the court found that without evidence the manager who made the deci-sion to discharge the employee had known about his injury (even though employees in different depart-ments had known), an employee’s termination was not causally related to his filing a claim under the illi-nois Workers’ compensation act, Beatty v. olin corp., no. 11-2853 (7th cir. Sept. 6, 2012).

BackgroundJared Beatty worked as an adjustor in a manufac-turing plant. He was injured at work and received a “no-work” note from his doctor. over the next two months, he only showed up for work for two days, and then only for light duty. all communications during this time were with his employer’s medical department.

the employer’s manager of labor relations was ad-vised by a clerical employee that Beatty had not called in “for a couple of weeks.” company rules re-quired employees to report their absences daily un-less they had prior written approval for an absence. Failure to report for three consecutive working days was grounds for termination. therefore, in response to the information provided by the clerk, the manag-er of labor relations terminated Beatty employment based on his unexcused absences.

Beatty subsequently sought and received a work-ers’ compensation settlement from the employer for his injury. He then sued the employer for retaliatory discharge under illinois law. the employer moved to dismiss the case based on a lack of evidence con-necting Beatty’s discharge and his exercise of work-ers’ compensation rights. the district court granted the motion and entered judgment for the employer. Beatty appealed.

Applicable lawlike most states, illinois has recognized a common-law cause of action for retaliatory discharge where an employee is terminated because of his actual or anticipated exercise of workers’ compensation rights. the illinois Supreme court has emphasized that the retaliatory-discharge cause of action is a “narrow” and “limited” exception to the at-will employment doctrine.

to prevail on a claim of retaliatory discharge, the employee has the burden of proving: (1) he was an employee before the injury; (2) he exercised a right

granted by the Workers’ compensation act; and (3) he was discharged and the discharge was causally re-lated to his filing a claim under the Workers’ compen-sation act. With respect to the causation element, the ultimate issue to be decided is the employer’s motive in discharging the employee.

Analysisthe court of appeals agreed with the district court that no evidence supported Beatty’s claim he was fired for asserting workers’ compensation rights. the termination decision was made by the Manager of labor relations, who was responsible for making those types of determinations. Since there was no evidence the Manager had discussed Beatty’s status with the medical department or anyone else who knew of his injury, Beatty failed to prove that his dis-charge was causally related to his filing a claim under the Workers’ compensation act.

even if Beatty’s termination was based on incorrect or incomplete information, the court explained, the retaliatory-discharge cause of action is narrow and requires evidence of retaliatory motive, not just sloppy personnel practices. the court said the criti-cal fact was that the Manager did not know about Be-atty’s injury or medical condition when he issued the termination order. that the employer’s right hand did not know what its left hand was doing is not ac-tionable as a retaliatory discharge. Beatty claimed the Manager knew or should have known about his medical status and possible workers’ compensation claim, and that a reasonable jury could reject the Manager’s claim of ignorance as dishonest. Because Beatty offered no evidence to support his contention that the Manager knew or should have known of his injury or medical status, the court rejected that ar-gument. While Beatty was permitted to miss work based on his doctor’s notes, he was not excused from the employer’s policy requiring employees to call in their absences, the court said.

Implicationsthis decision demonstrates that if the manager who makes a discharge decision is completely unaware of an employee’s injury or any anticipated or pending workers’ compensation claim, the employee will not be able to prove that retaliatory motive tainted the discharge decision. So long as the decision to ter-minate employment complied with company policy, and no communications or other evidence link the decision maker with knowledge of the injury, the em-ployee will not be able to prove the requisite causal link between his filing a claim under the workers’ compensation statute and the termination decision.

NOVEMBER 2012 15

Alfred L. Williams, CWCASenior Vice President

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While you’re there, you can also learn more about the exclusive insurance program offered by BancorpSouth Insurance Services to MFSA members. This program has been developed with the unique needs of the MFSA industry and association members in mind. The MFSA Insurance Program offers exclusive insurance rates for members and coverage options that can be tailored to your business’ unique needs.

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16 MFSA PostScripts

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Why data matters…(an open letter to industry mavens)

Friends, Mailers and MFSA Members,

Lend me your tongues, for licking stamps of course.

That’s what a lot of us have been doing to personalize our customers’ mailings: affixing

stamps, handwriting addresses and using digital presses to personalize mail pieces. Dare

I even mention PURLs? While all of these methods to get your clients’ mail noticed have not

gone unnoticed, they still only account for a small percentage of a mailing’s overall response.

I am sure most of you know the numbers: 60% of a mailing’s response is determined by the

mailing list, 30% by the offer, and the final 10% by everything else.

So while all the rage has been on making a slightly better impression in the mail box, by

the wayside has gone the much more important aspects of improving the data one mails.

In fact, the advancements in data which has allowed for better and lower cost analysis, as

well as much higher deliverability rates has been met with little fanfare.

If you would be so kind to pause from your personalized paper-mache creations of each

and every prospect letter and read for a moment about what you can do better with data, I

would be much obliged.

Finding the right data for the job – In recent years, so much effort has gone into

finding the right data source for every situation. Forget the days when you would use

the same consumer or business compilers for every job. By selecting the right data for

the right situation, results could improve greatly. For example, we use Excelsior data

when selecting consumer age criteria, since unlike its competitors, Excelsior uses an

exact age based on birth information.

Off-the-shelf data analysis – No more does a complex analysis mean tens

of thousands of dollars. Now if you want to find prospects of similar makeup to a

customer database, you could have the file put through automated data mining tools

and analyzed on the fly. Book-like reports can be generated, bar graphs can be

produced, all for pricing under $500.

Thank you for your time. And remember, data matters. While it may

not be as trendsetting as carving individual postcards out of soap,

it has come a long way since the days of the Romans.

Cordially, Will Spero, CEOMailers Haven

NOVEMBER 2012 17

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When to use Excelsior – If you need the highest quality selects and the most deliverable data available on the market, we suggest using the Excelsior Consumer file. The list is cleansed twice as often as its competitors & it has the highest quality data selects, such as exact age based on birth records, and narrow income ranges which go up to $2MM+.

When to use Acxiom – If breadth of targeting options is what’s most important to you, we suggest using the Acxiom Consumer file. With over 700 data points, ranging from life stages to buying activities and vehicle info, there’s no wider range of data available. Check out their new Social Media selects to find active users of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

When to use D&B – To reach the largest number of businesses, with the widest range of contacts, D&B is your source. Their new “Professional Contacts” compilation includes recently verified names with emails and direct phone lines. D&B also shines when it comes to detailed SICs with over 16,000 unique codes.

When to use InfoUSA (InfoGroup) – If small businesses are your target market, InfoUSA does the best job of compiling accurate and updated information. By sending out direct mail to millions of small businesses a year, InfoUSA keeps this section of their database clean and deliverable.

Specialty Data – While basic compiled data is great for many situations, there are times when it is like sticking a square peg into a round hole. In fact, many specialty lists grew out of the fact that basic compiled data was not getting the job done. From doctors & nurses to ailment files, professionals, organizations & agencies, as well as aircraft owners, political donors, bankruptcies and more, we’ve got what you are looking for.

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18 MFSA PostScripts

Business Operations

the world of social media is certainly an exciting one to be involved in. each month, there is seemingly a new tool or network on the scene that has potential to help businesses grow. also, social networks have helped to create some dramatic shifts in the way that people share and consume content. recently, tools such as Pinterest and instagram have dramatically in-creased the number of images and photos that com-panies must share to get their message across.

But no matter how many social networks arise, and no matter what type of content we share, the key is this—we must find ways to drive people from social media to our website. once that happens, we have a tremendous chance to generate leads and sales.

let’s take a moment to discuss how this can be ac-complished successfully.

The key: your websiteYour website is an integral part of your inbound mar-keting strategy. if you want people to come to you, you need to have a place for them to visit, right? and it shouldn’t just be some web page slapped together for the purpose of providing some contact informa-tion.

Your website should be a resource that anticipates your audience’s needs and then fills them. need a visual? think of a funnel. at the wide end of that fun-nel is your website. as you get those visitors to your website, you want to send them down that funnel, converting them into leads. and these leads are typi-cally warm, as your visitors should already be made aware of your extreme awesomeness by all the cool content on your website. and, as you continue to address the needs of your leads, they will transform from leads into customers.

getting people to your websiteof course, to get those visitors, your website needs to be optimized for the keywords and phrases that your audience will search for. this means that the informa-tion on your site should have these keywords and be found by search engines.

Search engine optimization (Seo) should certainly be given proper attention by your marketing team, but it shouldn’t be about trying to outwit the search engines and their crazy ever-changing algorithms. if you provide the content and make sure you use the correct keywords and phrases, and add fresh content

on a consistent basis, you will be able to rank high in those keyword searches.

Using content to generate leadsa regularly updated blog is a great way to work your inbound marketing plan. Blog posts don’t have to be long or arduous. they can be short and to the point.they can be fun or witty. they can display personality as well as expertise. and they can provide valuable links to other information that you provide on your website. if your website doesn’t currently include a blog, ask yourself “why?”

a blog is really a great (and low cost) way to show off and also invite interaction via comments. an impor-tant part of converting those visitors into leads is by providing them something they want. Your audience has questions and problems.

What can you provide for free that they would easily “trade” their contact information for? a white paper? Some worksheets? the idea is to offer something of value for free. all you ask in return is perhaps a name and an email address.

Integrate Social Networks into your websiteone great way to make your website engaging and interactive today is by integrating it with your social networking profiles.

You should have clearly marked buttons on your web pages that link to your profiles on everything from Facebook, twitter, Youtube and so on. also, make it easy for your visitors to share the wealth. Make it a one-click proposition for a visitor to share that really cool blog post on their Facebook page, or to share that funny office video via twitter.

Final Thoughtsremember, inbound marketing is a lot like hanging out, being your ultra-helpful (and smart) self and having people come to you.

thus, it certainly is very important to pay attention to social media trends. We need to see where people are going, and make sure that our company is repre-sented and ready to take action.

But, if we always keep in mind marketing fundamen-tals, and if we take the approach that our website is home base, we will find that our inbound marketing efforts will reap success.

pREpARINg FOR SOcIAl MEDIA TRENDS: MAkE yOUR wEBSITE hOME BASE

John P. Foley, Jr. grow socially

John Foley is the founder of Grow Socially, an on-line marketing company including Social Media. They provide marketing consulting and delivery services. Created in 2010, Grow Socially, Inc (www.GrowSocially.com) helps companies with their online marketing efforts, with a focus on social me-dia. These services include discussing and creating marketing plans, strate-gies, tactics, and goals that align with your company’s needs. In addition to his role at Grow Socially, Mr. Foley serves a CEO for in-terlinkONE, an integrated multi-channel marketing web solutions company serving the print and ful-fillment industries and marketing departments.

NOVEMBER 2012 19

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For more than three years, MFSa conferences have clearly made the case of the importance of change and the need of reinvent-ing companies to stay relevant in today’s business environment. companies that have embraced the transition still need guid-ance along the way to make sure they stay on the right course. Businesses that are just getting started need a roadmap to guide the way.

Business reinvention is not a destination but an ongoing jour-ney and you have to continuously evaluate your plan to make certain that it is working. So whether you have just started out changing your business model, or if you have already changed your brand and model, this conference provides the roadmap and course corrections for your company to stay on track.

this conference is for businesses with a core of print, mailing, and fulfillment that are launching new products and services as they navigate into the world of being Marketing Service Provid-ers. Sessions will include:

• Planning and executing a business strategy for reinven-tion.

• How to sell new services to existing customers.• Sales Workshops: if you build it, will they come?• growth through M&a• Panel: reinvented companies – the good, the bad and the

successful• Postal & legislative updates• introducing the new Mailing Service Provider accredita-

tion Program• Hiring the right people to sell your new services

all of this targeted relevant content, plus networking and an exclusive vendor showcase. Brought to you by MFSa (Mailing & Fulfillment Service association), soon to become the associa-tion of Marketing Service Providers.

Make your hotel reservation now. a block of rooms is being held for con-ference attendees at the great rate of $219 for a standard single or double room. upgrade to a junior suite for only an additional $75 per night. there will be a resort fee of $5 per day for conference attendees (reduced from $22), which includes:

• Wireless internet in guest rooms• Daily housekeeping gratuity• Free self-parking• 24 hour fitness facility access• 24 hour shoeshine service• unlimited local calls

to reserve your room, call (800) 282-1116 and request a room for the Mid-Winter conference. online reservations will be avail-able soon. the deadline to make room reservations at the dis-counted rate is January 7, 2013. it may seem like a long way off, but the hotel is expected to sell out, so don’t wait!

More information available at www.MFSanet.org/midwinter.

MID-wINTER cONFERENcE lEADS ThE wAy TO “chANgE: A BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION”

Just announced! A one-day Fulfillment workshop on February 5. Whether you are adding fulfillment, or are making the move to product fulfillment, this workshop is a must. come learn from industry experts about the aspects of managing a suc-cessful fulfillment operation, from process management and pricing, to technology options.

20 MFSA PostScripts

First, the challenges:

Spending on direct mail is in secular—and likely irre-versible—decline. though total u.S. marketer invest-ment in DM has remained effectively steady for the last two years (at approximately $45.2 billion annual-ly), volumes have fallen for six consecutive quarters, representing a total likely decline of 1 to 2 percent for full-year 2012. With postage and material costs on the rise—and total advertising and marketing bud-gets growing modestly—this represents a continued loss-of-share for DM in the broader media mix.

the u.S. Postal Service’s operational challenges con-tinue to threaten customer confidence and inhibit needed postal product innovation. Marketers from virtually all quarters of the “mail ecosystem” report growing anxiety when it comes to the Post office and its own ability to transform in the face of eco-nomic and bureaucratic headwinds. in particular, the likelihood of future step-level postage hikes—and the challenges the uSPS has encountered in evolving its own product set—are dissuading some marketers from investing in the mail channel at all.

Marketers are “following the customers” online, and migrating an increasing share of resources to digital channels. What began as a slow, gradual shift is ac-celerating rapidly as digital substitute media—those that may be leveraged to cost-effectively replace the role once played by DM—continue to evolve in sup-port of various customer communication functions. the shift in spend will grow even more pronounced as search, online display advertising and mobile grow more capable of driving customer acquisition at scale—effectively delivering upon a mission that was once suited almost exclusively for the mail. and finally:

Diminished demand (and widespread production overcapacity) is punishing the industry of DM service providers, compounding years of price compression and leaving weaker players unable to compete in a market where even complex, high-quality and data-intensive work can easily be reduced to commodity pricing levels. the result: More business closures and consolidations, across more sectors of the market-place. and more talented professionals—skilled in applying data and process management expertise to solve complex marketing problems—fleeing to seek opportunities in other sectors of the media world.

Bad news? unquestionably. But just as they present substantial obstacles to growth, so too have these trends revealed a series of new opportunities wait-ing to be exploited. they include:

the rise of “Big Data” positions DMers as potential digital mentors. as online marketers learn the ropes of data collection, customer segmentation and tar-

geted messaging, they may take a lesson from the DM trailblazers who have been applying such prac-tices for decades. though distinct in several impor-tant ways, the baseline infrastructure (and expertise) used to support direct mail programs—including data and technology tools that facilitate complex versioning and triggered deployment—may also support a range of digital applications, presenting product adjacency opportunities for companies looking to expand their core offerings.

the limitations of digital media reopen the door for mail to deliver true one-to-one messaging. Wide-spread concerns over online data security, consumer privacy and the practice of “behavioral targeting” have thrown up a substantial challenge to digital ad-vertisers: absent a consumer’s affirmative consent, the targeting of messages, offers and creative treat-ments must be done on a fully anonymous basis. For marketers looking to roll out large-scale, direct-to-consumer acquisition programs, this presents a common quandary—either accept the low response rates still associated with anonymous online target-ing, or turn to direct mail to deliver a personalized message.

advances in production technology and process—and competitive pressures, in some verticals, to de-liver a rich brand experience—drive some to engage DM’s unique “tactile” value proposition. ironically, the opportunity may be greatest among the heav-ily brand-focused marketers in luxury products sec-tors who may have once eschewed mail in favor of flashier broadcast and print media options. now, the ability to carve out differentiation by delivering rich, high-quality experiences (right to the customer’s front door) represents a new frontier to be tackled.

an empty mailbox presents an invitation: “Fill me!” as some marketers divert spending to competitive channels, others (including those from vertical mar-kets not typically associated with heavy DM utiliza-tion) are likely to see an opportunity to ramp up their mail utilization as they vie for those scarce moments of daily consumer attention.

ups or downs? if we’ve learned anything over the last few years, it’s that nobody knows exactly what the future will hold. the economy, marketing budgets, postage rates, regulatory threats and consumer at-tention are in constant flux. For many in the industry, the changes associated with “new normal” business conditions represent an insurmountable array of obstacles. But substantial challenges likewise pres-ent substantial opportunities, and for those looking to initiate true business transformation—to exploit disruptive conditions and achieve the oft-celebrated status of a true “marketing service provider”—it ap-pears the time has never been more right for asser-tive action. go for the ride!

Jonathan Margulies is a managing director at Winterberry Group, a New York-based strategic con-sulting firm serving adver-tising, marketing, media and information organiza-tions. He may be reached at jmargulies@winterber-rygroup.com.

Future continued from page 1

Jonathan marguliesWinterberry group

NOVEMBER 2012 21

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MFSA Wage & Benefits Study...

New MFSA Study Reveals CompensationPractices for 33 Key Positions in Mailing Industry

• Would you like to know the average, median and salary ranges for 33 key positions in the mailing industry - positions such as “General Managers,” “Senior Customer Service Representatives,” “Mailing Department Managers” and “Data Entry Specialists?”

• Would you like to know how other companies of various sizes and in different size markets handle healthcare benefits and vacation pay?

• Are you considering adjusting or modifying modify your compensa-tion program for your outside sales representative?

• Would you like to learn more about setting reasonable goals in terms of sales generated by your outside sales representatives?

You can find the answers to these questions and dozens of other questions pertaining to the mailing industry in the just released 2012-2013 MFSA Wage & Benefits Study.this brand new, 127 page report brings you the very latest wage and ben-efits information on 33 key positions in our industry - information you need in order to retain key employees as well as in hiring new employees.this new study also includes a detailed section that outlines how mailing

companies such as your own are handling rising healthcare costs, dependent coverage, life insurance and how these costs are shared between employers and employees.Whatever else you do, don’t give another raise, hire another employee or accept a two-week notice from an employee until you’ve had a chance to review this new study - a study that will quickly help you determine what it takes in the way of wage and benefits to attract and keep the best employees in your market area.

22 MFSA PostScripts

Business Operations

Engaged in the communi-cation industry for over 35 years, Jerry Scher’s primary goal - make those around him more successful. Peak Focus assists in identifying, attracting and assessing talent, developing people and strengthening teams. If you would like more in-formation about assessing eligibility and suitability please contact Jerry Scher at jerry@peakfocuscoach.com or 404-931-9291. You can also get information about the Harrison Assess-ment at http://peakfocus.harrisonassessments.com/index.html.

anyone involved in the graphic communications in-dustry is experiencing challenges to their revenue streams and margins as innovative technologies gain market acceptance. While MFSa members have been engaged in mailing services, and product and litera-ture fulfillment, there continues to be a convergence of marketing technologies that require a serious as-sessment of one’s current business model.

Do you have a plan?as this industry-wide transition accelerates, compa-nies in this space need to engage in a very thought-ful planning process (assess, design, align and ex-ecute). this process should include looking at their business from multiple perspectives, including the current and future vertical markets they will focus on, their value propositions, future revenue streams, cur-rent client relationships and their current and future resources (i.e. physical, intellectual, financial and hu-man capital) and of course their competitive environ-ment. they will certainly require an aligned vision for the future to survive the current challenges. Without a well thought out and developed plan this transfor-mation won’t be possible.

and once this plan is in place, then what? How will you actually execute your plan? assuming you al-ready have the physical and financial resources in place, how about the intellectual and human re-sources (core competencies) to actually implement a new and innovative business strategy?

Do you have the Talent? industry experts encouraging companies to trans-form their business models all agree on one critical notion; you will require diverse talent and core com-petencies that you most likely don’t have in place. if you are focused on marketing services it is essential that you have marketing and it expertise on your staff. Just a name change won’t assure clients and prospects that you are a credible resource for mar-keting services. this core competence is a must.

another crucial talent requirement resides within your sales department. if your current sales team is essentially selling a transactional based commod-ity (product or service) the transition to becoming a consultative/solutions resource may be extremely difficult, if at all possible. not all sales people are cre-ated equal and there is a huge performance differ-ential between average performers and top perform-ers. therefore the balance of this article will focus on the sales talent challenge

The New Sales Roleas a result of expanding technologies including the internet, social media, mobile communications and easy access to information, buyers today have so

much more information that they don’t require sales people to present traditional offerings. Procurement teams have the ability to compare multiple competi-tors’ offerings, frequently eliminating the sales per-son from the process.

Business developers, selling marketing services, must be genuinely client-focused and not just fixated on their products. they may be great project managers (that is still required) but if they are going to work col-laboratively with clients to develop innovative mar-keting approaches, they must engage strategic deci-sion makers at multiple levels with an understanding of how their clients generate revenue and profits. clients are typically searching for creative resources that can engage them, uncover challenges that are inhibiting growth, help them prioritize and enable them through appropriate solutions that solve their problems. the business developer has to challenge senior executives, offer stimulating insights and at the same time provide a level of expertise (cross me-dia marketing services) to assist in implementing the appropriate solution. this is a much more complex process and requires professionals with more sophis-ticated skills.

Build a great Team through Talent Assessment and AcquisitionFrequently we hire candidates based on their past experience, education, and certifications; in other words based on what we believe to be the qualifica-tions (eligibility) for the position. too frequently we are disappointed in how they behave relative to their colleagues and/or clients. they just don’t fit for one reason or another.

the lack of interpersonal communication skills, per-sonal organization, self- motivation, attention to de-tail, work tempo, lack of initiative, poor teamwork, analytical ability, ability to negotiate, lack of creative and/or critical thinking are all among the behavioral or suitability criteria that show up after they’ve been employed. and that costs everyone dearly. imagine if you knew they lacked these traits prior to hiring them.

So how do we minimize these hiring mistakes?

You begin by carefully defining the job and prepar-ing an accurate job description; one that clearly de-fines the role, activities, skills, behavioral competen-cies and performance expectations. recruiting must include marketing your company to prospective candidates the same way you market to prospec-tive clients; by strategically positioning your unique brand. the ultimate goal is for you to have potential applicants regularly contacting you because your company is a highly desired place to work.

Jerry scherPeak Focus

SUccESSFUlly IDENTIFy TAlENT FOR yOUR cOMpANy

(continued to page 23)

NOVEMBER 2012 23

networking within the industry as well as in the vertical markets in which you plan to sell, is a great way to further your recruiting strategy. While seeking people with sales experience in your in-dustry is logical, it is not always an effective approach to finding the most desirable sales people.

Action plan When adding to your staff is the right decision, the process of actually selecting the right person for the job involves three, well-defined activities:

Eligibility – determine if the individual “can do the job”. consid-er past experience, skills and knowledge; previous training re-ceived and the level of education achieved. resumes, quite fre-quently prepared by a third party, serve as a great marketing or branding piece but really don’t help us determine if a candidate is actually eligible for the job.

Suitability – determine if the individual “Will do the job”. this is best accomplished by utilizing a validated behavioral assess-ment system, based on the work environment, that can be cus-tomized for a specific job and can predict how an individual will behave under typical conditions, as well as under stress. the as-sessment should be designed to include the essential, Desirable and traits to avoid that the job requires.

Interview – the third component of the selection process is the most interactive and requires a significant amount of skill and

preparation on the part of the interviewer. With the informa-tion gathered from the eligibil-ity and suitability processes, the interviewer must carefully plan the interview and determine who else should be involved in the process; team interviewing is by far the most effective. ev-eryone involved must know the job requirements, review the available information, carefully consider the assessment pro-file, dig into the resume, and prepare a wide range of questions they plan to ask. the questions should be open ended (behav-ioral and situational) providing the candidate the opportunity to speak at length, while the interviewer peels back the onion one layer at a time.

as you continue your journey toward reinventing your business you will likely conclude that recruiting a more sophisticated sales professional will be necessary. Don’t take shortcuts; put in the effort to clearly define the new role and prepare properly before beginning your recruiting efforts. the future of your busi-ness depends on it.

Stay tuned to this continual series, as we describe a more sys-tematic approach to successfully identify the talent you need as you re-engineer your business model.

Talent continued from page 22

24 MFSA PostScripts

gET cONNEcTEDWith MFSa’s new community site, members have access to resource libraries containing archived documents, a glossary of popular terms, blogs, a member directory, an event calendar and discus-sion Forums. Discussion Forums provide a way to post questions and thoughts to the MFSa community. the posts are archived online and emailed to community members.

MODIFy yOUR SUBScRIpTION SETTINgS AT hTTp://cOMMUNITy.MFSANET.ORg ThE Op-TIONS ARE:

• REAl TIME• DAIly DIgEST (ONE EMAIl DAIly wITh ThE pAST 24 hOURS OF cOMMUNITy AcTIV-

ITy)• pDA (TExT VERSION OF EMAIlS IN A SIMplER FORMAT wIThOUT IMAgES)• NO EMAIlS (REQUIRES lOggINg INTO SITE TO MONITOR DIScUSSIONS)

QUESTIONS? cONTAcT MEMBER SERVIcES AT 800-333-6272 ExT. 206 OR VIA EMAIl AT MFSA-MAIl@MFSANET.ORg

NOVEMBER 2012 25

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©2012 Satori Software Inc. All rights reserved. Satori, Satori Software, MailRoom ToolKit and Bulk Mailer are registered trademarks of Satori Software Inc. SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. Business Objects, BusinessObjects and the Business Objects logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects in the United States and/or other countries. Business Objects is an SAP company.

26 MFSA PostScripts

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Reprinted with permission from InfoTrendsDespite continued weakness in the u.S. economy, american print service providers are investing in transformative technology such as web-to-print, cross-media marketing and workflow automation solutions to future-proof their business. infotrends’ Global & North American Print Production Workflow Market Forecast: 2011-2016 shows a 9.3% growth in software vendors’ revenues in 2011 and projects a 7.8% cagr until 2016.

the high investment appetite is the result of dramatic and rapid changes in the way people communicate, which forces enterprises, service providers, and software suppliers to respond to new market realities. interactive, customized, multi-channel communications are quickly becoming the norm, and the rise of cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service business models accelerates this tran-sition. For service providers, not only do they need to operate at razor-sharp margins, they also need to diversify their business with value-added services. Print production workflow software is essen-tial for achieving both objectives.

“Despite the economic situation, we’re seeing good levels of in-terest in print production software solutions”, commented Kaspar roos, associate Director of infotrends’ Production Workflow & cus-tomized communications Solutions Services. “We expect the mar-ket to show healthy growth in the years to come, driven primarily by services expansion and business model innovation, e.g. through Software-as-a-Service and cloud computing.”

InfoTrends’ Global & North American Print Production Workflow Mar-ket Forecast: 2011-2016 sizes the market for software and its related services revenue by product category, and calculates the growth of the global market over the next five years with further details on the north american market.

the production workflow reports size the following market seg-ments:

• creative layout• variable Data Printing• cross-Media Marketing• Print e-commerce (Web-to-print)• Production Workflow• Print-specific Management information Systems (MiS)• output Management, including data transform solutions• Digital Front-end / controllers• Mail Preparation Software• Prepress Point Solutions

these forecasts include splits by license types (new licenses, hosted, maintenance and professional services), category and geography. the market size section contains splits by establishment, including packaging.

For more information, please contact Stephanie Tose at stephanie_tose@infotrends.com. InfoTrends is the leading worldwide market re-search and strategic consulting firm for the imaging, document solu-tions, production print, and digital media industries.

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NOVEMBER 2012 27

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28 MFSA PostScripts

Member NewsSAp, rochester, nY, will be retiring SaP Businessobjects Postal-soft mailing software products on 12/31/2013. this allows our valued customers over a year to find and implement a replace-ment solution. the following is a list of products that SaP will discontinue from its SaP Businessobjects portfolio:

• Presort• Postal File Preparation• label Studio• Printform Manager• Desktop Mailer• Business edition

Please note that you will be able to renew your product main-tenance and directory subscriptions for these as partial-year re-newals up through the eol date. Similarly, the directories and options that SaP only utilizes with the above solutions will also be discontinued at the end of 2013. the following directories will be eol:

• Postalsoft Diversified Directories for Desktop Mailer & Business edition

• uS geocoding – tiger Data option for Business edition• ncoalink – limited Service Provider option for Business

edition• ncoalink – end user Mailer option for Business edition

Satori Software, Seattle, Wa, announced that it has acquired the Postalsoft Presort software from SaP america, inc. now the exclusive source for the Postalsoft Presort software, Satori Soft-ware is positioned to deliver innovative mailing technology as

the needs of the industry grow and evolve. Satori Software will continue to provide customers with the full suite of SaP® Busi-nessobjects® Postalsoft solutions, which includes SaP Busines-sobjects Postalsoft ace, Dataright iQ and Match/consolidate modules. Satori Software will provide all support and future de-velopment for the Postalsoft Presort software. customers who have already purchased through Satori Software will experience no change in support and fulfillment of software updates.

Salem Printing company has purchased Advanced Direct Inc., greensboro, nc. the two companies have worked together as business partners for years, with Salem Printing looking to aDi as a vendor for direct mail, tracking and data mining services. “aDi will operate as a division of Salem Printing,” said ceo Jeff Burkett, who founded the company 23 years ago. “We do not anticipate any changes in personnel, and we will continue to op-erate from our greensboro location at 4221 tudor lane, which offers major advantages because of its proximity to the uSPS national Distribution center, one of only 21 in the nation.”

Bell and howell, Durham, nc, announced a new generation of eMessaging services that will enable companies to easily and se-curely expand their abilities to deliver personalized bills, state-ments and marketing messages via a branded mobile mail app without the high costs and complexity of developing internally.BH Mobile Mail is available for a low monthly fee and works with iPhone, android and Blackberry platforms.

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!

The Mailing and Fulfillment Service Association would like to inform our members of our new employee benefit program. Our partnership with BancorpSouth Insurance Services has given MFSA members access to the BXSI PRIVATE EXCHANGE. Information about products offered through this exchange can be found on the exchange website or by calling to speak with an insurance professional.

!

BancorpSouth Insurance Services, Inc. • 8315 Cantrell Road • Suite 300 • Little Rock, AR 72227 • www.bancorpsouthonline.com

!

Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association

Employee Benefits Program

!

!

For Additional Details Please Contact:

Alfred Williams • 501-614-1111 • Alfred.Williams@bxsi.com Ken Estes • 501-614-1572 • Ken.Estes@bxsi.com Nick Myers • 601-750-9510 • Nick.Myers@bxsi.com Heather Hardy • 601-983-4004 • Heather.Hardy@bxsi.com BXSI Exchange • www.bxsiexchange.com • 888-772-8979

Health Insurance ¥ Major Medical ¥ Short Term Medical ¥ Medicare Supplement ¥ Senior Medical Insurance ¥ HAS Health Plans

Life Insurance ¥ Term Life Insurance ¥ Permanent Life Insurance ¥ Senior/Final Expenses Life Insurance ¥ Life Insurance Resources

Home & Auto ¥ Auto Insurance ¥ Homeowners Insurance ¥ Renters Insurance

Supplemental Insurance ¥ Income Protection ¥ Critical Illness Insurance ¥ Accident Insurance ¥ Dental/Vision Insurance

Financial Services ¥ CD Alternative ¥ Long Term Care ¥ Wealth Transfer

!!

!!!

Please visit the BancorpSouth Insurance Services Private Exchange at:

www.bxsiexchange.com OR

To speak with an insurance professional call:

888-772-8979

30 MFSA PostScripts

Chapter News

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Northwest chapterPresident: cindy gulling; Seattle Mailing BureauFor more information, please contact MFSa at 703-836-9200.

pacific chapterPresident: tom Duchene; tDMS For more information, please contact MFSa at 703-836-9200.

New England chapterPresident: Shannon campbell; rezolve group For more information, please contact MFSa at 703-836-9200.

Southwest chapterPresident: ron royall, Business extension Bureauvice President: angie garrison, nDSi Direct Solutionstreasurer: Sandy gaddie, Premier iMSFor more information, please contact MFSa at 703-836-9200 or http://mfsa-sw.org.

chesapeake chapterPresident: Ken gossett; aMiFor more information, please contact MFSa at 703-836-9200.

Rocky Mountain chapterFor more information, please contact MFSa at 703-836-9200 or www.mfsanet.org/rockymountain.

Ohio Valley chapterPresident: tammy caserta; think Patentedthe next meeting is scheduled for nov. 14th at the Dorothy lane Market in Springboro oH. the meeting will start at 2pm and the topic is Folded Self-Mailers. For more information, please contact MFSa at 703-836-9200.

great lakes chapterFor more information, please contact MFSa at 703-836-9200.

Southeast chapterPresident: Scott coggin; DatadirectFor more information, please contact MFSa at 703-836-9200.

philadelphia chapterPresident: John rafner; eFiFor more information, please contact MFSa at 703-836-9200.

great plains chapterBoard Member: Mike colestock; Japs-olson Board Member: connie o’Keefe; the John roberts companyBoard Member: craig Schiller; action Mailing ServicesFor more information, please contact MFSa at 703-836-9200.

New york chapterPresident: Joseph W. gomez, fmidirect,inc For more information on meetings or member information, contact Jim Prendergast at 212-217-6824 or visit www.mfsany.org.

NOVEMBER 2012 31

Innovative Technologies for Complex Drying & Integration Processes

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"With the adphos dryer, I amnow able to image at fully rated inkjet speeds with over twice the throughput on high gloss and aqueous coated papers."

Tammy Caserta Director of Mailing ServicesThink Patented

"With adphos inkjet drying, wecan say "Yes" to our customersand prospects more often."

Ken McNerneyCEO and Managing PartnerThink Patented

"Thanks to adphos, increasesin throughput and additional capabilities have helped balance both the sales and production sides of our business."

Niels WintherChairman and Managing PartnerThink Patented

32 MFSA PostScripts

clASSIFIEDS gOlD pARTNERSthe following supplier members have become gold Partners with MFSa due to their level of support.

Adphos North America, Inc. Bell and howellEFI hewlett packardinterlinkONEkirk-Rudy, Inc.label SourceMailers haven llcMcSThink Inkpitney Bowes RR Donnelley logisticsSatori SoftwareSnailworksxerox

For information about becoming a gold Partner, contact MFSa at 800-333-6272.

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Join your MFSA chapter Todaychapters provide educational and networking opportunities and are a great resource of informa-tion that affect the mailing and fulfillment industry. the 12 regional chapters are governed by local volunteers and function under the umbrella of the national headquarters. they serve their specific regions, each with its own opportunities and challenges. More information can be found online at: http://www.mfsanet.org/chapters or call Michelle raymond at 703-836-9200 x 211.

NEED hElp – call Fulfillment 911... The MFSA Fulfillment hotline recently retired MFSa Director of Fulfillment Services, tom Quinn, now offers all MFSa members the opportunity to get 30 minutes of fulfillment consulting at no charge. Whether your questions be on operations, warehouse layout, software, sales, or marketing, you are only a phone call or email away from getting the answers. to contact tom, please call him at 770-632-9253 or tom@qfulfillmentsolutions.com.

NEED hElp – call postal 911... The MFSA postal hotlineSpeak with postal professor, george Heinrich, for advice on postal regulation, mail acceptance, or operational issues. this is an MFSa membership benefit – the first 30 minutes is complimentary. george can be reached at 303-325-3048, 8 am – 6 pm Mountain time. need help with a postal regu-lation? remember the MFSa listserve or contact leo raymond at 800-333-6272 ext. 203.

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