Design Distributors President Adam Avrick was featured as a keynote panelist in April at the 2022 Inkjet Summit, an invitation-only industry event designed to promote growth-minded relationships and knowledge regarding the latest inkjet printing and software advancements.
This immersive, three-day experience hosted 127 business owners, senior managers, and executives at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort & Spa in Cedar Creek, Texas and included representatives from nearly 60 printing equipment and software providers—top sponsors HP, SCREEN Americas, Ricoh, and Canon Solutions America, among these.
Now in its tenth year, the annual gathering also featured case study presentations and one-on-one sessions with sponsors, geared toward businesses considering an investment in modern, cutting-edge printing technology. Topics addressed included innovation, business optimization, automation, and labor challenges.
Joining three other top business leaders onstage during the summit’s opening day for a keynote panel discussion titled “Optimizing Business With Production Inkjet,” Avrick emphasized the game-changing impact this technology’s automation and associated efficiencies has had at Design Distributors.
“My job is to harness chaos,” he told the audience. “What digital does, is it allows me to dance.”
Avrick noted how inkjet’s cutting-edge technology gave his team greater flexibility, freedom, and consistently stunning results.
“The ability to bounce around and dance has been incredible,” he shared. “The faster equipment—the ability to jump back and forth—has taken labor out of the equation. It's all about labor.”
The Design Distributors president returned to the stage on day three to discuss the direct mail company’s evolution from a job- to solutions-based, one-stop shop. Among other valuable insights, he outlined necessary shifts in its approach to operations and sales during the panel “The Sales Process: In a Post-Pandemic World.”
Throughout this general session, Avrick and another executive panelist spoke to the marked changes in sales processes during the coronavirus pandemic, from a reliance on in-person sales before 2020, to current dependencies on technology and digital platforms in facilitating customer connections.
The speakers additionally highlighted the untapped opportunities for extended reach, sales effectiveness, and customer delight inherent to the ongoing technological revolution, as the majority of B2B consumers (70% to 80%) prefer remote interactions due to ease of scheduling, savings on travel, and overall safety.
“We had a shift from the B2B work to the B2C work,” Avrick said. “Consumers were home. They were working from home…and they were more apt to enjoy, as the post office calls it, the ‘Mail Moment,’ whereas they took their mail and they actually looked at it, and they were around in their homes, and the B2C response rates increased. So, we saw a big push in that area.”
With a smaller sales force, Design Distributors continues to embrace the latest digital marketing and technology trends to drive growth, Avrick added.
“We have fewer people selling, we have fewer clients, but we’re doing more work with those clients, and there are dedicated teams within each of the client services,” he said.
Upon the coronavirus outbreak, the family-owned business connected with clients via intermittent email, social media, and direct mail updates.
“We got so much positive feedback from our clients,” Avrick said. “We were deemed as ‘essential’ in the beginning in New York, so we want to let our clients know that we’re still working and we never stop. And that communication has continued forward. They started to welcome it and started to expect it.”
Avrick further highlighted the revolutionary impacts of investing in the latest inkjet printing technologies. Design Distributors upgraded its HP PageWide Web Press from a T240 to T250 HD after ample plant tours and time spent with operators. This state-of-the-art printer empowers the company to quickly pivot between different projects while producing consistently high-quality designs, he stressed.
From extraordinary enhancements to HP Brilliant Inks, Color Vision, and new aqueous post-coating capabilities, its revolutionary technology yields stunning and varied color prints for larger quantities than ever possible by a typical toner system.
Maximizing media versatility, design protection, efficiency, and productivity, this cutting-edge printer embodies Design Distributors’ commitment to investing in the latest upgrades in advanced digital printing and marketing.
Avrick’s inclusion and participation at the Inkjet Summit is a testament to his company’s enduring commitment to keeping ahead of industry trends, continuously finding ways to improve its offerings, and empowering customers to leverage unparalleled technology to create direct mail marketing products and campaigns that command results, and stand out from the competition.
Contact Design Distributors today to leverage today’s latest printing innovations and exceed your marketing campaign goals.