Associate Memberships Provide a Wealth of Opportunity
By: Dave Clossey / T.J. Tedesco
For: High Volume Printing
Published: June, 2002

Are you looking for new ways to place your company at the top of customer’s minds? Of course you are! There are literally hundreds of ways to enhance your company’s visibility in the marketplace and build your profits. Regardless of the how you choose to invest your promotional budget, don’t forget to reserve a portion of it for your local and national trade associations. Good times and bad, they’re the folks working behind the scenes for you and your business.

An industry association can be many things to your company: a sounding board for crucial decisions; a technical educator for yourself and your employees; a tremendous networking environment, and even a “middle man” that offers group purchasing discounts to members for equipment or insurance.

Of course, your association membership is only as valuable as you make it. Active participation in association events will only enhance the value it has for you and your company. In addition to the obvious networking benefits, here are some additional ways association memberships can help you boost your company’s profits.

Before you buy that new press…
…Sure, trade shows are a great place to see the heavy iron you have your eye on. However, it isn’t the ideal venue to make a purchasing decision. That should be taken care of before or after the show, and your association peers can come in handy in both instances.

The Printing Industries of America (PIA) and regional affiliates are a good place to start. Most likely a nearby fellow PIA affiliate member has implemented a similar piece of hardware to the one that you’re looking to bring onto your shop floor.

Similarly, one of the most important benefits to membership in your local industry association is the ability to use fellow members as a “sounding board” for potential investments. These can be in either equipment or people, and industry peers can offer feedback that you wouldn’t receive anywhere else. Make sure you’re on the mailing list to receive your local PIA affiliate’s newsletter and calendar of events, and attend as many as possible.

Many association members take this a step further. Industry “peer groups” are often formed from contacts made at association functions. These informal sessions give participants an additional no-pressure forum for discussing all matters of industry topics. Jim Tepper, a member of the Printing Industries of New England (PINE), echoed the popularity of these groups:

“Many of our members have made invaluable connections at these group meetings,” said Tepper. “They’re gaining in popularity because you simply can’t put a price on the value you gain from getting real solutions to your problems from industry peers. I’ve heard several people tell me that participating in these groups is like having access to a board of directors at just the cost of an association membership.”

So how do you get the ball rolling? Regional or national association functions help you meet industry peers from around the country. One of the most rewarding aspects of these conferences is the ability to bounce ideas off of fellow graphic arts professionals in a low-pressure setting. At the recently concluded PIA President’s Conference in March, Art Stowe, president of the Printing Industries of Maryland, relayed this story about the value of peer networking:

“I just spoke with a gentleman from California who is looking to add a CTP system to his 40-person company,” said Stowe. “He was very excited about the wealth of information he collected just from speaking with people here. He had already done research on a few systems and visited other companies local to him that have installed systems that he’s looking at. But he said the ability to gather honest opinions from other attendees here more than made up for the cost to attend the conference.”

Simply getting a handle on what other printers and binders across the country are experiencing can be of great value to your company. At no time is this more important than now, when a difficult economy makes crucial industry knowledge even more valuable.

Back to school
Trade associations offer numerous educational opportunities for their membership. Aside from being a great place to chat with industry peers, conferences offer heavy doses of educational forums. For example, PIA and BIA (Binding Industries Association International) conferences feature panels of expert speakers that offer valuable information on anything from spot gluing technology to employee relations. At the BIA International Conference, held in Las Vegas in April, former BIA president Brent Eckhart echoed this valuable aspect of association membership.

“This conference gives me the opportunity to hear presentations on technical and educational topics, and think about them as strategic planning issues I can implement,” said Eckhart.

Conferences aren’t the only way to get a good industry education. Local and regional graphic arts associations provide instructional classes on a regular basis. These classes are offered in a variety of formats and frequencies, and are geared toward everyone in your company. My local PIA affiliate alone offers some form of instruction on topics ranging from sales seminars and equipment operation to a basic printing and binding industries introduction.

A unified industry voice
In addition to being a forum for gathering information, industry associations are equally valuable when it comes time to find potential customers. Aside from courses on sales training that provide your company with valuable sales tools, associations work hard to unify the needs and desires of an entire industry to make sure potential customer are aware of what you firm can do.

One of the emerging trends in the graphic arts industry is the creation of strategic partnerships between companies that will mutually benefit from each other’s services. At the PIA President’s Conference, PIA Chief Economist Ron Davis commented on the advantages of these partnerships:

“I believe a lot of printers are looking for partnering arrangements with prepress and postpress companies,” said Davis . “These working arrangements can be beneficial for all involved, as each company sticks with what it does best. The ultimate goal is to provide the most value for the customer, and I think that’s what these arrangements do.”

Trade associations are getting in on the strategic partnership boat as well. The unification of the PIA and the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) give members of both organizations greatly increased visibility in their respective marketplaces. The BIA and PIA/GATF are also joining forces to enhance the presence of the members of each.

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Trade associations provide a wealth of opportunity for their members. The value of membership is increased greatly as participation increases! Whether it’s attending an educational seminar, hosting a plant tour or organizing a peer group, association memberships help you increase your company’s visibility in the marketplace. And, while you’re at it, you just may learn a thing or two that can save you thousands of dollars.

T.J. Tedesco is a “hands-on” marketing, sales, coaching and training consultant to the post press industry. He is the author of Binding, Finishing & Mailing: The Final Word, and Win Top-of-Mind Positioning, both published by GATFPress and available at Amazon.com. T.J. can be reached at (301) 294-9900 or tj@growsales.com.