Brian and Leslie Rogers started Spectra Imaging in their 500-square-foot garage about seven years ago with a Mac mini and a Canon iPF8000. Since that time, Spectra Imaging has grown exponentially, eventually occupying 6,000 square feet of space in a Louisville, Ky., office building, adding additional employees and ramping up its production capabilities.
While Spectra Imaging’s success is based on the usual ingredients – high-quality output, customer service and finding the right products for production – it’s the intangibles that have helped set the company apart.
First, Spectra Imaging is debt-free. All of its equipment purchases are paid for, alleviating the additional burden that debt payments can have on a company. Second, Spectra Imaging emphasizes a show-and-tell approach to sales.
“The growth of our company is attributed to our drive and determination and just getting out in front of people,” explains Brian Rogers. “You can’t just walk in there, hand them a brochure and tell them that this is what you can do. When our salespeople meet with customers they have a sample case and an iPad. There’s an image on our site of a very large sign on the front of a building for a hardware company, for example, and our salespeople have a smaller version of that exact sign, printed on the same material and applied to the same substrate. That way, they can see how the material works and what it looks like when it’s done. A brochure is not good enough.”
Rogers says this is especially effective with Photo Tex PSA Repositionable Fabric from LexJet. Customers can see first-hand how easy it is to work with and how versatile it is in a variety of applications.
Whatever the material used, Spectra Imaging is armed with physical samples and various options for a collaborative, consultative and ultimately productive meeting.
“Customers are looking for something different and unique; they don’t want the same stuff they’ve been getting. LexJet has been instrumental in keeping us updated about new products we can add to our sample case so we can show customers what’s available and what they can do with them,” adds Rogers.
Spectra Imaging can provide just about any imaging product and service to its customers, including graphic design, scanning original artwork, printing and stretching canvas, custom framing and practically any large-format application.
Now armed with two HP 9000 solvent printers, two HP Designjet 5000 aqueous inkjet printers and two Canon iPF8000s, as well as fabrication and finishing capabilities with a CNC router and a laminator, Spectra Imaging is well positioned to make its next move: hiring an additional salesperson and production specialist as well as adding more printer fire power.
Rogers says his favorite materials are the aforementioned Photo Tex PSA Fabric (both Aqueous and Solvent), LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl (Semi-Matte and Gloss), LexJet 10 Mil Opaque Display Film, LexJet Production Satin Photo Paper PSA and LexJet Sunset Fine Art, Photo and Canvas media.
“The great thing about Sammi [Spectra Imaging’s LexJet customer specialist Samantha Calabrese] is that she’s familiar with the products we’ve used and is quite helpful about making recommendations and letting us know about new products,” says Rogers. “Even if we’re not buying a product from LexJet, like our HP 9000, Sammi did some research and helped us find other LexJet customers who had one so we could get some feedback from them about the printer before we bought it.”
