Caught in the net

摘要

With the long-threatened web-to-print revolution constantly gathering momentum, Karen Charlesworth asks if 'virtual salesmen' can ever really replace the personal touch. For the average print sales rep, the first decade of the new millennium has been a tough one. As the industry moves gradually but inexorably away from simple ink-on-paper as its core sales proposition, reps are having to get up to speed with a combination of new technologies, different types of customer and extended selling skills a whole world away from their previous professional lives. Unsurprisingly, in the last three years there has been a wave of early redundancies and abrupt job changes for salespeople, the remainder of whom now face perhaps their toughest challenge yet: the worrying possibility of being replaced altogether by web-to-print front-ends and online 'virtual storefronts'.