By Graphic Whizard USA, Inc.
Chris has been in the printing industry for 38 years, spending the first 15 as a technician then transitioning to sales. He has been with Graphic Whizard USA, Inc. (GW) for just over 16 and a half years.
How do you connect with customers?
I connect with customers through various means; social media like LinkedIn, leads through our website, customer visits either in my territory or while supporting my dealer managers in theirs. My greatest and most impactful connections are opportunities when I can demonstrate our machine capabilities in front of business owners who would benefit from our solutions. For example, meeting up with the GW Roadshow trailer when it is out visiting shops; seeing the customer’s face when a fully equipped showroom rolls up to their door, they realize they can push a few buttons and discover how we can help increase sales and lower costs.
Do you feel it is important to do trade shows?
Absolutely. Trade shows give us the opportunity to do live demonstrations with our solutions as well as learn about our customers’ requirements. I never start talking about machines without learning about the customer’s current business practices. Questions like “how do you do it now?” can lead to a very productive demonstration. Shows also give us the opportunity to introduce new equipment and take in feedback. At Printing United 2024, we took our biggest booth space ever and introduced nine new pieces of equipment. It is the most expedient way to demonstrate new machines to a large audience that includes many of our dealers as well as end users.
GW offers such a broad range of machinery; how do you know where to invest in equipment?
Ask the right questions and listen to the answers, for example asking, “how often do you have a need for a particular task?”, typically guides us as a company to wonder whether others would need an in-house solution and what equipment may be required, or could be developed, to resolve pain points and help increase our customers’ productivity.
All machines GW launched at Printing United this year were sourced or developed in response to customer demand. They included two new guillotine cutters and three new perfect binders as well as a small footprint laminator, which is causing buzz. We have a new inline multi-folder for the 8336SCCM, which can perform multiple jobs at once and function as an outfeed when the job does not require folding. Finally, in partnership with POA—GW’s West Coast dealer—we showcased the PT 8336C SCC Multi inline with a Ricoh C5300 digital press. POA placed the first 8336C SCC in North America earlier this year. All these machines are part of our company’s commitment to continually develop our product line to provide the best possible print finishing solutions for our customers.
Visit graphicwhizard.com to learn more about the company’s newest product releases.
Oct2024, Digital Output
