By Margie Dana

I was chatting with an industry educator about the qualities I seek when selecting presenters for our annual conference. Subject matter expertise is a given. But strength as a public speaker is right up there. If you want to wow your audience, you must be engaging and animated. You need stage presence. Some are born with it; most of us are not, and if we do public speaking, we try hard to develop this talent over time.

This particular guy is a terrific presenter – the best in class, IMHO. I presumed he was literally born with the “speaking gene,” so I was surprised to hear that when he started out, he was a lackluster presenter.

It reminded me of an important lesson: things change. People change. Businesses change. Those of us who work with printing companies need to remember this.

Print production professionals and graphic designers get better with experience. Writers get better (hopefully). Work hard at whatever your skill is, and chances are good you’ll efforts will pay off.

That new print rep who may have no clue about print manufacturing or how to treat customers will also improve over time.

A printing company you took a pass on – because maybe they offered offset and not digital printing – may also have evolved since you last looked. If a company had weaknesses in an area like customer service or QC or fulfillment, for all you know they could have turned things around 360 degrees.

The thing is, you never know. Just as I would never have guessed that this amazing presenter was once awkward on stage, we forget that we pretty much all start out as novices and are (hopefully) moving closer to expertise.

This is just a gentle reminder to take a second look at people or companies we’ve figuratively written off. Yesterday’s old-fashioned printer might be today’s progressive printer. A former so-so speaker might be ready for primetime.

It's not your job to seek out firms or experts you passed over. Those who have improved their services, righted wrongs, and instituted qualitative changes in whatever it is they’re selling, are responsible for letting you know.

It’s their job to send you updates on what’s changed.

It’s their job to share news about process and product improvements.

It’s their job to keep in touch with us – especially to communicate changes for the better.

Today, with all the new media at our fingertips, there’s no excuse for them not to feed us this info. Here’s a short list: email, phone, letter, postcard, brochure, blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, news release, video, webinar, open house, customer testimonial, newsletter.

If they want to move the needle from bête noire to white knight, it’s their job to reach us with a powerful “since you’ve been gone” message. It's our job to be open-minded and take a second look.

©2011 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. Your comments are encouraged. You’re free to forward this email to friends and colleagues. However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author. Comments?