“This dude is killing it, and I don’t know how he is making this all work!” —Interview with an OOH Printer

Interview with Rodney Drew, General Manager, Lindmark Ink 

Rodney Drew is General Manager for Lindmark Ink and ‘runs the place’. Drew is currently stationed in Africa with the military and running the Lindmark Ink division. According to his owner, Trent Lindmark, “This dude is killing it, and I don’t know how he is making this all work with our 24-hour turnaround time”. Drew comes from Lindmark’s billboard side of the business. Drew started working in the billboard industry at Fairway Outdoor Media in Texarkana Texas. Starting as an Operations Hand, he quickly earned a Lead position.  Drew moved to the Oklahoma City market to help build things up. Starting as an Operations Lead at Lindmark, Drew quickly worked his way up to Operations Manager. This year, Trent Lindmark promoted Drew to General Manager of his printing company Lindmark Ink.

BB: Welcome Rodney and let’s get right to the elephant in the room question at the start. How do you run a printing plant in Africa?
Drew: Here in Africa, we have been 8 hours ahead of time back home. With the shift I have been working for the past 3 months, I have been lucky enough not to have to sacrifice much sleep to get work done. Every day here is like Groundhog Day. Same thing over and over. Every day, the first thing I do after waking up is go to the gym. After a few hours of “Me Time” everyone back home starts showing up to work, so I then move into my tent to start working for the day. In the tent we have individual rooms, mine I reconstructed as an office area, to allow myself that “business atmosphere”. I work with my managers back home to keep things flowing. Phone calls on FaceTime with those who have iPhones, and Teams calls with those who don’t. Coordinating with our distributors and some customers is done via Teams calls. Once I come on shift here, I then continue taking calls as needed. I take notes down throughout my shift and transfer them to my computer when I return to my room.

Why Customers Change OOH Printers

BB: We have found that OOH print buyers as a general rule, are a very loyal group to their print suppliers. So much so that they are nearly life-to-death users of the same printing company. That said, OOH Today believes it is more than loyalty that keeps this bond.  What are your thoughts?
Drew: I think that good customer service is the number one key that keeps customers. In our industry, customers want good quality, quick turnaround time, and lower prices. Some suppliers will say only one or two of those things are possible at the same time. I believe that it is all determined by the willingness of the supplier to fulfill all three. Once a customer gets tired of poor customer service, then they will start looking elsewhere.

BB: We believe people change printers when and only when they have finally had enough issues with their current printer and will make a leap to a new print provider. Do you agree?
Drew: Nowadays a lot of people don’t like change, even if the new way is easier. I think it is the inconvenience of making the initial move that holds people back until they’ve had enough.

BB:  How can you assist your company with that idea in mind?
Drew: The primary factor is to keep your house in order. Have what customers want and advertise that. The power of curiosity is strong. When someone constantly is offered what they’ve always wanted, they will eventually test it. My goal is to stay ready, so that way when they do come, we are ready to welcome them with open arms.

BB: What are other reasons for Lindmark’s success and how do you rank them in order of importance and value of Lindmark Ink’s success?
Drew: Lindmark’s success has been achieved through transparency, quality, fair prices, and turnaround time. It is hard to rank the importance and value of these. They all have the same level of importance to Lindmark. If we give a bad product extremely fast, then why even have the product at all? If we upcharge a product to extreme levels but distribute it quickly, that doesn’t help our customers. I like to think of it as the game Jenga. You can’t pull too many blocks from a single side of the tower. If you are too careless or mindless over a certain thing, you can cause destruction.

OOH Print Customers

BB: How closely or to what extent do you work with customers? What do you enjoy most about working with them? Which is easier to work with?  Agency or client direct?
Drew: I have a great sales rep who assists customers throughout the ordering process to ensure their needs are met. As well as a customer service rep who has years of experience in both Operations and Production. Both of these reps work together to assist our customers in every way possible. Sometimes I get the opportunity to sit on a call with these customers and interpret their wants and needs personally. I enjoy getting to meet with the customers and learn about their side of business. This allows me to look into our production in someone else’s eyes to find new ways to improve and assist them. Working with clients directly allows us to know the exact needs of the specific customers.

BB: Let’s talk about Agency and OOH providers… Who buys more vinyl from you? What is the ratio? Is one significantly larger than the other? Which is easier, if there is a difference, for you to work with?  Which do you enjoy working with more?
Drew: It is roughly a 1/3 split between the three. I enjoy working with all of them the same. It is about relationships to me, knowing our customers and their knowing us allows us to work together for a mutual goal. 

24 Hour Turnaround

BB: Lindmark Ink and under its former name Blue Sky Digital, have credited much of its success to your ability to the turn around time and speed of printing and delivery. Your current ads pitch a 24-hour turnaround. Is that a major driver for your success?
Drew: Our 24-hour turnaround has had a significant effect on our recent success. It has attracted many customers to try us out.

BB: Can you improve your turnaround time? Less than 24 hours? Have you ever? How?
Drew: There are always ways to improve, no matter how big you have gotten. Here in the military, we refer to this as “constantly improving your fighting position”. You might stop and relax, but the enemy will not, they will constantly be looking for new ways to infiltrate. At Lindmark, I use this same philosophy, our competitors are constantly finding new ways to grow the industry. We in turn have to continue improving our means of production to increase efficiency. That being said, yes, our turnaround time has plenty of room for growth. I keep a weekly average of our turnaround times for every order each week. We usually average around 15 hours out the door. Some orders may take longer, some shorter.

BB: Are you near capacity with machines, labor, and hours? Can you print more?
Drew: We still have plenty of room for growth. As of right now, we run 8 hours a day 5 days a week. We still have 16 more hours a day and 2 more days a week we can tap into as needed. Employees have not been hard to come by in this industry and the floor space we still have will allow for many more machines.

BB: Give us an idea of a reasonable expectation for quantity and turnaround time for a 14×48. In terms of from the time you receive our approved art and when it leaves your facilities?
Drew: I keep a weekly average of our turnaround times for every order each week. We usually average around 15 hours out the door. Some orders may take longer, some shorter.

BB: What is the average print run you provide? For example, one quantity 14×48 per customer. Or say 6 quantity of poster-sized vinyl per customer?
Drew: It’s a combination of all sizes and quantities from small banners to jumbo billboards

BB: Rodney, Trent told us he “doesn’t even know how you can turn around a vinyl as quickly as you do. Let’s let Trent and OOH Today readers in on your secret.  We know there is no such thing as luck or magic. How do you accomplish a 24-hour turnaround as consistently as you do? Is your 24-hour turnaround time a sustainable goal?
Drew: We push our products out as they come in, each phase of production has a tracker that allows the next phase’s manager to know where they are in the 24-hour time hack. We have made 24-hour turnaround the standard, not a goal.

BB: I see from your website, your hours are 8 AM until 5 PM. How do you deal with time zone differences with those limited hours?
Drew: We produce our customers’ products and send them to shipping as fast as we can to ensure they get them in the least amount of time possible. All of our customers have our cell numbers and if they call, we answer. no matter when it is.

Pricing and Costs

BB: How important is pricing to your success? Are you aware of your competitor’s pricing? How do you keep up with the competition’s pricing and policies?
Drew: We are aware of the pricing of competitors and we feel that pricing has a key role in bringing in more business. That is why we like to be transparent about our pricing and advertise it publicly. It’s not really about keeping up with competitors pricing to us. We want to give our customers the best product at the best price possible.

BB: How do you maintain costs? Tell us about Ink, Material, and Labor as they affect your role as GM. Or any other issues or items that impact your productivity and role as GM?
Drew: Maintaining our costs is directly impacted by our level of efficiency. As orders come in, the number one goal is to get them out, this allows us to keep labor costs low per order. We use a single distributor for our materials and ink. Our relationship with these distributors allows us both to help each other out when needed. Another thing that impacts our productivity is strong management, the managers at Lindmark are the drivers of production and quality control. Without a strong leader, efficiency can be a tough thing to tackle.

BB: Final question Drew. What can one do as a print customer to make your life and their life easier?
Drew: Know what you want, but keep an open mind. Our reps have a lot of experience ranging from printing to installation of vinyl on the structures. Be willing to try us out. We offer your first print free.

Lindmark Ink is an advertiser with OOH Today.