Ok I've lost 2 clients in 24 hours

 

They were both small/medium business owners and only ever required my graphic design services (stationery, adverts, flyers etc.) but they have both been poached by a printing company that has offered to do all artwork free of charge.

 

Obviously the quality of the work I provide is greater but like most people, these 2 clients are not too fussy if they get a 100% discount. I've tried reassuring them with the whole 'you get what you pay for' speech but they were really only interested in the cost (though they thought our work was great and generated a lot of leads).

 

I have a couple of questions.

 

i) How can they do the artwork for free? IMO printing costs wouldn't even cover this.

ii) How do you suggest this can be prevented in the future?

I can't imagine any way around other than offering better quality for free, but then whats the point? This company offering this is obviously looking to get money in some other way, possibly hoping once they get the client they will have them do other work that isn't free of charge. Whats the company if you don't mind me asking, I'd like to see what they are all about.

Hi Shaun,

 

Printers usually poach smaller clients like this because they have some college leaver on 9k a year in house who can use Photoshop to a decent(ish) level and then they knock up the artwork for 'free' and add 15% onto the overall print bill to cover the costs anyway.

 

A good thing to do is try to find a local printer and get some sort of affiliation with them. Then you can offer your clients cheaper printing (depending on the deal you get with the printers) and the same high quality of work that you offer too.

 

That is the only advice I have on that... it is tough luck mate. Hopefully you will get some new clients in to replace the two you have lost

@TFM4th chancer are that the printing company is offering them free design work on anything that they get printed at theirs...as in you buy xx leaflets we will do the design work for you for free. This way the client thinks they are getting a good deal as they don't have to pay for a designer and then pay for printers too.

 

 

The company that I work for has a deal with a printers, so what we do is offer them design work but also the chance to get good quality prints and a reduced cost because of this deal.

 

However free is a good word so I have no idea how you would be able to compete with that, other than just quality of service, good customer service and very quick turn around...the whole you get what you pay for, some you will get with that others would rather go for free. Thing is some printing companies have in house designers that can knock things up quite quickly and sometimes quite good things as well.

Thanks for all your thoughts. I'm not going to offer anything for free but I really like the idea of affiliating with a printer. There is a local company I get on well with too.

 

Perhaps if I can get cheaper printing I could at least tell the client the artwork is free and just add the costs to the printing.

 

What are the odds that the printer will be able to do the printing for me at a lower cost and my design costs on top and the total will be competetive with the poachers? I can see how printers with in-house designers could do this but I struggle to see printers giving offsite designers much of a discount? Wouldn't that have to be an extraordinary deal? The only thing I could think of the sway them is the cliche promise of 'more work guaranteed'. Even then, I still don't see them giving me the necessary discount.

 

Any advice on how to approach the printers and perhaps a few more selling points?

Hi Shaun

 

Just a though, your flyers should be "free" as well from an ROI point of view. If you charge £100, the flyers should bring in more than £100 worth of work right?

 

On your other point...

What are the odds that the printer will be able to do the printing for me at a lower cost and my design costs on top and the total will be competetive with the poachers?

I have talk to 2 printers over the past year who were being inundated with work bu couldnt do it because they were 'printers' and were desperately looking for a RELIABLE and TALENTED designer to work with.

I can do free web design for anyone.*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*£INSERT_TRUE_COST to be paid for uploading web site to server.