Bob Saunders

Bob Saunders

Bob Saunders is vice president of Wise, a manufacturer of traditional forms, tags and labels, and digital printing solutions to the reseller market.

How Digital Label Presses Take the Sting out of Ingredient Changes

If you sell labels into the consumer product markets, you know how frequently those labels change. When this occurs, it leaves your customers hanging with obsolete inventory as they race to reprint those labels while wondering how much those changes are going to cost them. Those changes not only cost them in obsolete labels, but…

Digital Label Presses Help Keep Pace with Exploding SKU Counts

If you’ve paid attention to the retail shelves lately, you’ll know that the number of SKUs is exploding. According to 2023 Grocery Industry Report, many producers have doubled their SKU counts over the past few years. Health and beauty markets have also seen SKUs increases to account for different shades, sizes, and finishes. Nearly every…

Ready to Fall in Love with Personalized Labels?

As the market for shorter-run, more personalized, and serialized labels continues to grow, we are only beginning to fully understand the opportunities that arise for distributors. Small brands can look like big brands, and big brands can have the flexibility and agility of small ones. It’s not exactly like having a magic genie at your…

How a Digital Label Press Changes Everything

Labeling has become a marketing and branding tool every bit as critical as any other tool in a marketer’s toolbox. Distributors who understand the label market put themselves in a position to expand their books of business and add more value to their customer relationships than ever before. They can do this by helping their…

What’s Sexy About Outdoor Power Equipment Labels? Profit!

What’s sexy about an outdoor power equipment label? Profit. While industrial labels like those that go on outdoor power equipment may not be sexy, profit always is. What makes industrial labels so profitable? They are custom products that your customers can’t buy “just anywhere.” They require a precise match between the label material and the…

Easy Profits for 2024: Start with the Low-Hanging Fruit

Looking to boost your sales in 2024? Ask yourself if there is any low-hanging fruit you might have missed. "Low-hanging fruit" refers to those easy sales that are no-brainers. Once identified, they are common-sense opportunities that are easily recognized by distributor and customer alike—and there might be more of them than you might think. One…

Do You See Gratitude as a Business Strategy?

As we ease back into the rhythm of work after the Thanksgiving holiday, it's important to remember that an “attitude of gratitude” isn’t something that should end when the turkey runs out. Being grateful and saying “thank you” is something that we can keep up all year long. In fact, picking up the phone or…

Lessons from PRINTING United Expo: Cross-Selling Is King!

For those who attended Printing United Expo in Atlanta, GA, you likely came away with your head spinning. The show covered over 1 million square feet of floor space and showcased 811 exhibitors (including Wise) in categories ranging from commercial and industrial printing to large-format, labels and packaging, and promotional products. Attendees were treated to…

Warehouse Third-Rack Solution

As a distributor, you are looking to be a problem-solver for your clients. If you can come up with a solution, you become the hero and deepen your relationship with the account. Since we know that a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to 25% to 95% increase in profitability (Bain & Co.), these…

Industrial Labels: The Profitable Product Category You Might Not Know

In our previous post, we looked at reasons for distributors to sell industrial labels. Unlike many other products, industrial labels are highly repeatable. They offer recurring revenue (“print annuities”), they are sticky, and more. But what exactly are industrial labels? How do they differ from prime labels that most distributors are familiar with? Industrial labels…

Selling Industrial Labels for Recurring Revenue

Print distributors are always on the lookout for profit-building opportunities. Notice we said “profit” and not “sales.” There are plenty of products that bring in sales, but do they make money? If you have products with low profit margins, you can sell a lot of them and still not make very much. This is where…