Sauter & Associates: Features & Benefits

Features
&
Benefits

An Investment You Can Afford: Typically $60-$70 per page

We have created an unprecedented combination of quality, customization, flexibility, speed and low cost. Our service costs just a fraction of manually laying out and maintaining a catalog.

Do a Web search for "catalog layout cost per page" and check out other company's prices. You will see how much experienced catalog designers charge per page. Their catalog page layout runs from $130 to $1,500 per page. And that is only for doing the layout! You are responsible for contacting every manufacturer, gathering and providing all the high resolution images (website images are low res and cannot be used for print purposes) and complete product information. At the lower end of that range you are even required to supply all of your catalog's text in an Excel spreadsheet! When you use our service you do not have to contact the manufacturers. We already have the information in our database, and when we don't we contact them for you.

A quality catalog is an investment that projects a professional image, generates customer goodwill, increases sales and reduces returns. With all confidence we say we give you more quality for your catalog investment.

A First Draft in 24 Hours

Within 24 hours of receiving your computer list of catalog items, we will produce a rough draft of your catalog layout. Our process is able to generate a rough draft layout that is 90% to 95% formatted which allows us to pass the savings onto you. Our proprietary software does in a few hours what previously took a team of designers well over a year to do.

A Final Layout in 24 Days

Depending upon scheduling, your final layout will be ready for proofing and printing within 24 working days (five weeks) of us receiving your final list of items you want in your catalog. The speed of our process means you are able to go to press with the latest products and the latest price changes.

As a comparison to traditional methods of creating a layout page-by-page, an average 350 page catalog would require multiple people working well over a year to gather, write, spell check and edit the product descriptions and kit contents; collect and prepare product images; create product charts; create a product index; do the cover design; and lay out the pages.

Speed Does Not Mean Less Quality

Our proprietary software was designed to create and in many ways surpass the accuracy, quality, usability and professional image of a catalog produced manually. Great attention is given to every detail.

Unparalleled Accuracy

Because our software merges the prices and order numbers from your list, transposition errors that are inherent in manually formatted pages are eliminated. Product indexing is completely controlled by our software so there are no incorrect page numbers. While no one can claim to create a 100% error free catalog, we are confident that our accuracy is far superior to a catalog produced by any other means.

Make Your Catalog Unique

Choose only the products you want in your catalog, nothing more and nothing less. You get to choose your own cover design. You can pick your catalog's dimensions; decide on each section's custom color; select the fonts to use; choose whether you want a two, three, or four column style layout. Create your own inside border design and more. We give you dozens of layout options to choose from, each one designed to give your catalog a unique look-and-feel.

We understand that some dental dealers want to offer their customers product descriptions that are very complete and other dealers want to conserve printing space. That is why we designed our software to allow the dealer to select standard length descriptions or more complete descriptions that give your catalog a reference guide feel.

Because our process makes every catalog unique, your customers will not think you have borrowed your catalog from another dental dealer.

No Compromising

You may be able to buy another dealer's existing layout for less, but not without making compromises that cost you more in the long run. Our process saves you money without costing you lost sales as the result of a layout that is missing items you want to sell or shows items you don't want to sell. All this does is make it frustrating for your customers to use. It may contain numerous errors, lack complete product information or have an incomplete index. Imagine the impression you would make by making a sales call in a poorly fitted suit. It has the same end result. Your customer is not impressed.

Of course, with another dealer's existing layout you can remove products you don't sell and add new products you do sell. But if you make major changes then you lose the formatting for all the pages throughout the entire catalog. If this happens the index needs to be regenerated because all the products have shifted to another page. If the index cannot be regenerated automatically, then updating the index is extremely time consuming and error prone. The time taken to reformat the pages and revise the index quickly eliminates any potential savings.

Our process has customization built into it automatically. Every layout starts out as a blank page and is created with your design, your products, your order numbers, your prices and no excuses.

Easy To Use Design

All pages are in full color. Sections are broken down by color and within sections the product names are in a matching color for easier identification. Color coordinated product names do not get lost in all the other black text on a page making it easier for your customers to find the product names they are looking for. However, if you prefer product names in black then you have that option, too.

If a product shot is available from the manufacturer, we include it for shopping ease. Your customers will know what they are buying. Every manufacturer image in our database has been screened for color correctness, tonal range, resolution and has been corrected when required.

Every product receives superior indexing. We strive to include every possible word a dental office might think of when looking up products in your catalog. A great index allows your customers to find items in your catalog with ease.

All products have packaging quantities, complete descriptions and kit contents so your customers are assured of ordering the correct products. This means fewer returns and less frustration.

Make Your Company Stand Out

A professional catalog becomes the face of your company and creates a positive image of your company in the customer's mind. A well designed catalog that is friendly, informative, uncluttered and easy to use is appreciated by your customers and in turn, becomes an invaluable asset to you. Our goal is to exceed all other catalogs by creating a clean design, editing the images so they look their best, providing complete product information and offering the best product index there is.

Custom Reports

Our custom reports save you time by helping you become more organized. They are provided to you upon request and at no additional charge!

A 'Pricing Inconsistencies' Report: A report that shows the line items in your catalog list that have a different price than other like items (same items but a different color, etc.). Our clients find this report to be extremely helpful when identifying pricing discrepancies. Without this report your prices are confusing, which reflects poorly upon your company. Your customers feel like you don't know what to charge.
A 'Line Items with Page Numbers' Report: A report showing all the line items in your catalog along with the page number(s) on which they appear. This report is required when bidding on some government contracts.
A 'Master Data List' Report: A list of all the items in our database. Some of our clients use this report to build their master catalog list. Once built and imported into their own software, it becomes the basis of their sales/purchasing system.
A 'What's Missing' Report: A list of all items in our database that are not in your list. A quick scan of this report helps you identify items you meant to include in your catalog, but were overlooked.
A 'Not Found' Report: A list of all items in your list that are not currently in our database. This report helps you determine the line items for which you want us to request the images and information, and which ones are not worth delaying the production of your catalog.
A 'Requested Information' Report: A report of all emails we will be sending to manufacturers that identifies which images and/or information we are requesting. Before sending the emails, we run this report by you so you can advise us regarding which manufacturers we should contact.

Provide Your Catalog In Adobe Acrobat PDF Format

We can turn your catalog into the universally accepted Adobe Acrobat® format for you to make as many copies as you want or make it available on your web site. Maybe you do not cover a large enough market to justify the expense of printing a catalog but you still want to have a catalog for new and current customers. Send your catalog on a CD as an economical alternative to a printed catalog. Whatever your need, S&A has a solution.