Boring Bart

Presentation skills are vital for today's sales consultants. We recently had Boring Bart teach our consultants how NOT to present to customers.

5 minutes of efficiency

At one time we utilized the sink or swim method. We'd toss a new hire into a department, give them a list of questions and hope the current operator did a good job training. Then we moved on to our "Thomas University" textbook strategy. (Read post "Mentorship?" from a few years ago.)

Today, with TRtv.tv we've taken learning to a new levels. One of the first channels we added was The E-Network with programming helping our employees learn departments. Below is an example of our E-Network film on bindery. As much as we liked our "Thomas University" textbook strategy, utilizing current film and web technology we can teach a person all the essentials of a department in about 5 minutes. Before, it might take many hours, or even days to get all the information we wanted them to know about the department. Then we weren't exactly sure they absorbed the information and what the mentor actually taught.

The key is synthesizing all the relevant information in the form of a script and then capturing the content on film. Then we test to make sure they know the information. They can also refer back to the information 24.7/365 from any PC based computer in the world.

TRtv.tv

Last year at Thomas Reprographics, we began implementing a web-based online communication tool we call TRtv.tv. Initially, we thought it would simply be an extension of our training programs, but soon realized that TRtv.tv became our intranet portal for all employees to connect company wide.

Every month we release "The TRtv News Magazine," a newscast that informs the entire company about the latest happenings, featured employees, new initiatives, new programming and a chance to constantly re-calibrate our vision. Check out a recent newscast.

[Featuring ReproMax's Tanner Bechtel]

Blue Ocean Strategy

Inspired by the work of Kim and Mauborgne’s “Blue Ocean Strategy®” bestseller, our vision is to help our partners create their own blue ocean opportunities.

The metaphor of red and blue oceans describes the market universe. Red oceans are all the industries in existence today—the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of product or service demand. Products become commodities or niche, and cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody. [1]

Blue oceans, in contrast, denote the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. [2]

Because we’re a business like you— and use the product ourselves— we’re confident that we can show you ways to intertwine technology with your unique story. The result is creative ways to save you time and money internally, while innovatively reaching the marketplace to drive additional revenues.

1 “A conversation with W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne”. INSEAD. 2005.

2 “Towards the Blue Oceans.” CEEMAN Interview with Professor Kim