Date: October 19, 2020
To: CCS Customers
From: Jack Counts, Jr.
Happily, there has been an upturn in business recently and some things have become clear. While “events” are still not common, school pictures & school sports are being photographed. Our customers who are making sales calls are booking business – including new schools and leagues. Sadly, our customers who are not making sales calls are losing business to other photographers.
Our suggestion is that you take advantage of the tumultuous marketplace and get more market share. Devote two days each week to making sales calls – Make a commitment to yourself to get after it. Make new contacts and relationships – Get in the door! Be sure that your current business stays with you – Lock the door!
There has been a lot of “news” flying around about the postal system as the election nears. We have not seen any delays or any increase in damage. However, when damage rarely occurs, we sometimes hear from our customers about changing their packaging methods to provide more protection.
Please keep a few things in mind. We make several packaging options available to you. Frankly, we don’t see much benefit in the costlier packaging. If you are serving a high-priced market – like seniors – you may choose stiffer packaging for appearance sake. Any changes in packaging will affect your profit on an order a great deal.
You can select:
- Simply have the print inserted in envelope
- To add chipboard
As you increase the level of protection, the material cost goes up, but the bigger change is the postage cost. Part of the increase is the weight going up, but the bigger issue is that the stiffer packaging solutions become classified as “parcels” by the USPS. Parcels cost you much more to mail. Check out the examples below.
Our suggestion is to simply have prints mailed in an envelope or add chipboard. The excessive extra cost of stiffer packaging is seldom worth it to you. In the rare occasion of a bent print, happily replace it for customer.
Sincerely,
Jack Counts Jr.
*Example uses Zone 5 rates (medium distance)
