As an Account Manager at University Graphic Systems, I am responsible for overseeing sales initiatives, working closely with Marketing Managers to implement monthly campaigns, seeking new opportunities within the Cal Poly campus, and utilizing effective sales strategies to increase profit.
My goals going into this position included:
- Encouraging foot traffic through the office by showcasing collateral for sale
- Experiment with new machinery through personal projects to eventually lead to new products for sale
- Expand customer outreach into new areas on campus, specifically greek life
- Sell products on campus to students outside of the office, such as outdoor booth sales and campus market
Showcasing Collateral
Our office sometimes blends in with the classrooms in the Graphic Communication building. While our open door has a wrap that advertises our services, I wanted to make the office feel more like a storefront, and less like an office. The first thing we added was a room decor campaign. The Marketing Managers curated 5 unique sets of posters to be sold at events, and on the front desk. By posting these on social media and selling them at the club showcase, we were able to attract new customers into the office.
In addition, we also bought a turn stand for cards. This stand was a great way to display holiday cards, and will be updated every quarter with various birthday and seasonal cards. We also sold leftover holiday mugs from our dye sub event. One thing that we are working on is figuring out how many seasonal items to make, as they can only be sold for a short period of time.
Experimenting with New Collateral
Notepads
With the holidays coming up, I decided to use gift giving as a time to experiment with new machinery. A client I recently connected with approached me with the idea of making custom notepads for the Engineering department. I knew we were bind using the perfect binder, the saddle stitcher, and spiral binding. However, none of these options quite made sense for the notepads I was hoping to make. After discussing the possibilities with my advisor, I discovered that we had a Paddy Wagon, which is a machine that allows for binding with stretch adhesive glue.
Given that the client has an open ended deadline, I decided to create some notepads for gifts as a way to test out the production process. Through this process, I realized two key things:
#1 The adhesive glue does not stick well to the coated paper that I was using
#2 In order for the notepad to look precise, there needs to be larger gutters on both sides, allowing for trimming after binding. My design ended up being off center due to trimming errors.
I am excited to learn from these key realizations, and create a new product for a new client, hopefully prompting a close relationship in the future.
The Roland
One of our main avenues for income is selling custom stickers. While we typically sell the flat stickers, I was inspired by my coworkers who pushed the boundaries of what to use stickers for. The Roland can cut out custom shapes after it prints designs out. Using some transfer paper, and a simple typography design, I was able to design custom lighters as a gift. Seeing how simple this process was inspired me to think of other gifts that people could sell. Some ideas include candles, match boxes, water bottles, keychains, phone cases, and many others.
New Substrates
We typically print on coated sheets of plain white paper. However, for my family holiday card, I ordered a sparkly white paper to print on. With this substrate on hand, we were able to pitch this idea for clients who were ordered thank you cards. They fell in love with the substrate, and ordered a commercial amount to have on hand going forward.
Expand Client Outreach
Being on the executive board for my sorority made me understand the amount of unexplored customer potential that the greek life community has. Greek organizations are constantly looking for printed collateral, and they have budgets that allow for large commercial orders.
I used my position as the Vice President of Recruitment for my own sorority as a mutually beneficial marketing opportunity for UGS and Sigma Kappa. Recruitment is one of the most active times for social media. I chose to use my budget for Sigma Kappa, and purchase stickers for the recruiters. These stickers were then posted to the Sigma Kappa instagram, tagging the UGS account. This exposure brought other sororities to UGS to use our services, and the members as well.
I also went to chapter meetings to promote our services to the greek community. We secured many commercial orders through these sales pitches, including a commercial order of 300 pins for Delta Gamma's philanthropy event.
Every year, some of the fraternities produce saddle stitched calendars to sell in order to donate proceeds to philanthropies. After a 2 month calendar project for an off campus client that caused one of our project managers a lot of frustration, I was determined to streamline the calendar project process. Before the new year, I set up a sales pitch meeting with Delta Chi to pitch our calendar services.
Luckily for us, they were very easy-going, and trusted our judgement. We decided on a set price per calendar, which allowed them flexibility to add more orders as they sell them. The original quote had a 2 week window for production, and 150 calendars to start. In comparison, our last calendar project was 300 calendars, and we finished them in just under 2 months.
Client Relations
One element of this job that I have fallen in love with is developing client relationships. Oftentimes, we are working with clients that understanding very little about print production. This requires patience, as we need to be able to explain exactly what we need from them. I can understand how it is easy to be greedy, and want to sell clients products that ultimately would make us the most profit. I have found that our most loyal clients are the ones that we help get the best product for their needs.
Sell Outside the Office
Another way for us to attract clients is through boothing and events. Many of our new customers are students and staff who happen to walk past our booth. This is a great way for us to sell enticing collateral that is eye catching. People stop by to check out what we are all about, and end up coming back to the office to print with us! We also host screenprinting and dye sub events, which allows others to join the UGS fun!
