Dscoop Member Spotlight: Cece Smith Leverages Marketing Expertise with Toolbox Studios

Dscoop, the largest digital printing user group in the graphics industry, today shares an outstanding member story as an inspiration for other printing operations around the globe. This month’s spotlight story features Cece Smith of San Antonio, TX. Cece spent 10 years in marketing with Procter & Gamble and explains how she has been able to leverage that expertise into a new business that also drives volume to SmithPrint, a printing operation she co-owns with her husband, Barney.

“We actually founded SmithPrint as print brokers,” Cece explains. “We saw the opportunity to offer more services by bringing print in-house and bought a small commercial printing company in 2007. We are now the fifth largest commercial printer in San Antonio! My philosophy is, if you are going to work hard, you might as well work for yourself.”

Cece reports that she was often requested to help with a variety of marketing activities for customers. “At first, I was not charging for these services,” she says. “But I attended Dscoop, and when I learned what I could do in terms of cross-media marketing with our HP Indigo, it was mind-blowing. We started with clients asking for help, and then we put the right tools in place to launch us to the next level. We found that many clients were not even aware of cross-media marketing. Once we started talking to them about it, a whole range of other opportunities opened up, and Toolbox Studios was born. It became a conduit for us to get in there and help them with all of their marketing and that really differentiates us.”

In addition to its HP Indigo press, SmithPrint has a Heidelberg press, an HP hybrid roll/flatbed large format printer and is in the process of adding another Heidelberg press. Toolbox Studios, located on San Antonio’s famed Riverwalk, was an existing web and branding business that Cece acquired from a friend. “We expanded the range of services for Toolbox Studios,” Cece says. “It didn’t do any marketing before. Now it is one-and-done – I work with clients to help them develop their business and marketing strategy. That builds trust and helps grow client revenue streams. And of course, it positions SmithPrint as the logical choice when printing or other services are required. We have an incredibly talented crew that makes it all happen for our customers.”

Listening, not selling

One secret to the couple’s success is their sales approach. Cece explains, “Once we get in the door at a prospective client, we are not selling a product. We are learning and listening to what is making it hard for them to get their jobs done, and we think about how we can help them meet their goals and objectives and overcome limitations. When there are budget constraints, we help them prioritize what we can do quickly to get a success under our belts, and then help them move forward faster to get to the next priority.” Cece spends 65 percent of her time each week meeting people, networking, making calls – generally reaching out to people and making appointments. “I am very involved,” she says, “because people feel good about having the leadership of the company on the call. They feel like they are important to us – and they are! What we are offering to clients, though, is not a quick sale. It might take six to twelve months to get in there and really understand them. It is a big budget item, and you need clients who are thinking strategically about the business, not just procuring.”

Cece takes a market-based approach to pricing as well. “Before we even start talking about pricing,” she says, “we look to see what the possible ROI might be. Our pricing strategy includes the baseline of my costs, but also makes sure that the investment is worthy of what they will get as a return.” She cites a specific example of a homebuilder that had no way of remarketing to people who had toured their model homes. “Now they send us their database weekly and we do a complete personalized campaign. As a result, they have sold at least three homes for $1.5 million and that demonstrated the value of the campaigns. They know it is going to work, and the cost of the campaign is a minor concern.”

But the campaign doesn’t stand alone. Cece says, “The worst thing you can do is have a beautiful campaign, but when someone calls in response, whoever answers the phone says they don’t know anything about it. We go in and train our clients’ staff – anyone who in any way will connect with potential clients – on what they should do at each step. We outline the process and train them on how to close sales. We even record incoming calls so we can coach people. The service is wrapped into our retainer. Clients always take ownership of issues because I can prove that we did what we promised, and perhaps they didn’t do a good job of following up on the leads. When we measure things, we are able to prove that we were successful.”

What’s the biggest sales challenge Cece sees? “People still think of marketing in silos – print magazine advertising, etc. These are tactics rather than a plan. We are constantly having to educate clients and technology is changing so fast. Helping them understand how Google indexes websites, how today’s consumers want to be communicated with, and how print or banners or tweets can engage their prospective customers is an important part of what we do. For us, going to the Dscoop conference is one important way we learn and keep up on things.”