Here's this week's "Hotline" with information you can use or share!
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Each year PIA MidAmerica hosts two major golf events with hundreds in attendance. In both locations (Kansas City and Dallas/Fort Worth) the industry is highly supportive and the outings are a great opportunity to see old and new friends.
The Kansas City golf outing will be held on September 23rd at Paradise Point in Smithville, MO. Contact Teresa Campbell at [email protected] for additional information.
Stevens Park Golf Course will be the location for the Dallas/Fort Worth golf outing and it will be held on October 8th. Contact Joe Polanco for more information at [email protected]
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USPS Gets Serious
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) assessed Southern California Edison (SCE) $7.6 Million in penalties for not keeping its address lists up to date and Sears $1.2 million for allegedly violating the rules governing how folded self-mailers should be sealed. The two companies filed appeals of the USPS decisions last June with the U.S. District Court in Washington. These incidents illustrate the importance of knowledgeable compliance with the complex postal regulations which is an important selling point for firms offering mailing services .
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Hacking Passwords: Simple As 123456
This sequential number string -- easy to type and easy to remember -- is the top log-in password used by Americans, according to password management firm SplashData. The second most popular password? "Password," followed by 12345678, qwerty, and abc123. Individuals using these passwords are offering an open door to hackers. Advice: Require log-ins to be at least eight characters, at least one capital letter and one number. Test the quality of passwords at www.passwordmeter.com.
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Rethink Sales Comp
Over the past 10 years, as margins have become challenged, we have seen sliding scale sales commission systems become the norm. The systems are designed to pay a "full" commission on work that meets the company's targeted margins, but if the margins have to be reduced to meet market demands, the commission rate is reduced as well. It's not un-common to see rates below 2% of sales on certain types of work (when a normal rate would attract a compensation much higher).
Yet, there's another side to this story. Consider the fact that the average commercial printer spends about 60% of sales dollars to produce a job (paper, buy-outs, factory wages, and sales commission) which leaves 40% to pay for the overhead. Assume that the best price that can be gotten for a job that estimates at $1,000 is $900 and at that level the rep gets a greatly reduced commission, what happens when she or he decide the job is not worth it and walks away? The result is the company losing $300 of contribution to overhead ($900 less costs of $600), and we're that much further away from covering our overhead.
A better solution would be to compensate on value added (sales less direct costs of paper, direct materials, and buyouts). The commission level would be the same regardless of "mark-up," but in the cases of jobs with reduced margins everyone would share in the same "pain," rather than creating a situation where there's a disincentive to take on additional work.
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Equipment For Sale!
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