GETTING A JUMP ON THE NEW YEAR!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It has been a most rewarding and interesting first year ... marketing System100 to the business world. I have learned so much from you, and have used many of your great suggestions to make further improvements in my own companies.  You will find many updates in the System100 software and the System100.com web site as we plan new improvements for all of us in the New Year.  

     We look forward to 2007, as we believe this is going to be a special year for System100 and the second printing of our book System Buster. Thanks for all your help in our mission to continually improve!

Blessings on you and your family!  -  Philip Beyer

SYSTEM100: VALUE-ADDED SALES

     In the sales arena these days, we hear the buzz words "value added" a lot!  This is what the marketing person or sales rep brings to the table, or adds to the purchasing experience, that separates him or her from all others. 

     I hear other marketers boast about their lower prices, quicker turn times, personal attention, and so on.  It seems I am the only one who is able to claim that our shop has "systems implemented throughout the entire printing process, ensuring 99.55% error-free production, and 99.9% on-time delivery"...systems, by the way, that allow me to give more personal attention to my customers.

     The person I generally meet with, who makes the decisions about their company's printing purchases, inevitably has had a bad experience with a printer in the not-so-distant past, and is suddenly interested in hearing more about my services.  This is where I begin to tell them about "System100" and how it allows me to confidently stand behind the shop I represent.  And there are samples, data and testimonies to back up what I say!  Once the customer begins to see that what I have to offer will make their job less stressful, they are not so focused on price as they were when I walked in.

     Customers also operate in different stages of chaos.  Some are simply waiting for someone to help them manage it!  If you have a "system" for marketing, and a "system" for selling...and the shop you represent has the "systems" to back it all up...then you have the most "value" possible to add to the buyer's choice regarding with whom they will do business.

     A prime example of how System100 helped secure a large account for me is, the day I got a referral from a current customer who called me and said that they were unhappy with their current printer.  They wanted to know if I could come by and meet with them.  Upon arrival, I was led into a large building; one of two buildings occupied by the same company.  I later realized this was the Human Resource Division and the other building was the Central Mailing Division.  They also have three other divisions in major cities around the United States.

     I was handed a packet from the two divisions containing all of their printing requirements and asked to go back to my office and put together a proposal and call when I was done.  Before leaving, I asked the purchaser in Human Resources what was the biggest problem they had with their current printer.  She said that their orders were consistently being printed on the wrong paper.  I was puzzled that such a simple mistake could not be addressed and fixed to the point where this company was now looking for a new vendor.

     On examining their pieces, I soon saw multiple cases where the same art was used on the same size piece, but in a different weight.  There were also multiple versions where only small sections of type were different.  A recipe for chaos, if you don't have a system in place to handle the confusion as it enters the door of your business.  This account has been with us for over a year now and, with a few meetings to create special systems for this customer, our production and delivery for them has been virtually error-free.  

     Just having "System100" in Data Entry at that company eliminated most of their chaos in the first few months.  This customer is now so pleased with how smoothly things are running...and how much time and money they have saved...it is not unusual, after a meeting over a new idea or system, that I am able to suggest they implement yet another "system" in their company, and they take me out to lunch!  

By C. J. Kowall, VP-Marketing, Beyer Printing, Inc.

ARE YOU CONSTANTLY ON THE RUN?

     I learned a lot about chickens when I was a boy.  After my mother died suddenly, I went to live with my Aunt Ducy in Pearl River, Louisiana. I was nine years old, and the fact that my aunt raised chickens and other small farm animals helped to keep my mind off more serious things then.

     Chickens can be very funny. But when Aunt Ducy's chickens got to a certain age, it was time to get them ready for market. My job was to catch the chicken (that was funny), and hand it to Aunt Ducy. Then I'd stand off a ways while she would calmly lay the chicken's head on the stump, raise her little hatchet, and WHACK! That was not so funny, but so goes farm life!

     I learned that when a chicken loses its head, it will often run around in circles until it runs out of steam and keels over. Reminds me of some businesses I've observed!

     A company without a good 'head' for systems is apt to flail around for awhile, ruffle a lot of feathers, but it will eventually collapse. In the same way, if a leader fails to download the systems he keeps in his head, eventually, if he should leave the company for any reason, the systems go with him and the business is in danger of collapsing. This is why a lot of second generation businesses fail.

     Why download?  Your vision on paper becomes readily available to your staff, so they won't feel the need to corner you every time you do a walk-through of your company or department.  Are you weary of having one staff member after another pull you aside to ask you the same questions for the umpteenth time?  Have you given your staff a manual where they can find the answers for themselves?  No?  Okay, so you have become "Mom!"  And your "children" will continue to pull at your skirt while you have both hands in the sink, the phone ringing, and another "child" crying for attention:  "Hey Bob! You think you could get me a...," "Hey Bob!  Can you have this light fixed?" or "Hey Bob! Would you talk to so and so..?"  Truth is...this gets old!

     The reason so many owners and managers get burned out is because they have no systems to handle all these questions and pressures.  It's not very hard then to understand why some of them hide out, sneak in and out of their building, and close their doors to employees and problems.  No surprise if they have glassy, far away looks in their eyes, and erupt like Old Faithful regularly!

     In Michael Gerber's book E-Myth, he wrote:  YOU are the problem...YOU have always been the problem...YOU will always be the problem...Until YOU change!

     Mark Twain once said, "Denial ain't just a river in Egypt!"  Truth is...GREAT SYSTEMS WORK!

WHAT SOME ARE SAYING

"This is a great book on how to build systems.  I highly recommend it to any manufacturer who is in chaos.  The System Buster system is so simple, yet genius in its concept."  ...Fuseic Music, Nashville TN

"I am grateful that Mr. Beyer has allowed us all into his world...the world of 'hard core' business.  Before reading and applying System Buster into my business, I would have to say that chaos was the word for the day.  As we began to apply the principles inside the System Buster, we immediately saw a difference, the biggest of which was the recognition of how we lived from one 'crisis' to the next.  Everything has to have process...trackable process.  I could write for hours as a grateful business owner...grateful that Mr. Beyer has shared his 'found' insight with those of us who will be forever changed! Thank you Thank you Thank you!" ...Paul LaRue, Reviewer, Brentwood TN.