One of my heroes in life is Bill Levine, the founder of PIP Printing. It was almost 40 years ago that he found himself at the front of the line in an industry. That industry has changed significantly since he opened his first instant printing operation. It began with an idea that joined technology together which eliminated several steps in the printing process. At that time, the printing plate making process required 8 time consuming steps that took days to accomplish. The newly developed Itek plate making unit was a self contained system which had the ability to create printing plates in about a minute.

Although this new invention was shown at tradeshows around the country in 1966, only a handful of individuals saw the vision of an industry and the revolutionary concept of this technology. Those who caught the vision were blessed with skyrocketing growth as the instant printing industry grew. I know, because I was there with Bill Levine as a member of his team from 1980 to 1988. Some instant printers refer to this as the golden 80’s.

Today, most of those Itek plate making units are retired and have been replaced with high speed copiers that perform the role of the printing press in many applications. With today’s technology it is hard to tell the difference between a copier image and one that was printed.

The FAX Revolution that Sputtered
In the mid 1980’s there was a large machine that cost about $6,000.00 which had the ability to send a document across the country in minutes using a telephone line. The only challenge was that another machine had to be on the other end to receive the document. This seemed revolutionary at the time and today we call these old Fax machines. The challenge at PIP Printing Headquarters was convincing business owners to invest in the expensive technology.

It was only a few years later that Fax technology caught on and customers were lining up and paying several dollars to get their faxes sent around the country to another location as the Fax explosion took hold. The profits generated from those early investments paid off handsomely.

Today, the lines have all but disappeared and Fax technology is being replaced with email and instant messaging. In my case, I don’t have a fax machine; I use efax for sending and receiving faxes.

Selling Technology Isn’t Easy
The facts demonstrate is that most people don’t want to be first in line. Being first in line has some risks. However, the people at the front of the line always get the best seats and the greatest rewards.

Our sales role is to create the vision of success in the hearts of our customers so they see the advantage of being first in their market with our system or solution.