Speakers:
Oscat Chavarria, COO, MAS ACME USA
David Rosendahl, Founder & CEO, Mindfire, Inc, Co-Founder of She*t for Brains
From Vendor to Market Maker: Selling Value, Not Price
This industry has long treated production as a line-item cost to negotiate down — but that model is breaking. In this session, David Rosendahl moderates a conversation with supply chain and value-engineering expert Oscar Chavarria, who draws on decades of experience across textiles and healthcare to reframe how printers and manufacturers should sell in an era of 40+ simultaneous micro-trends, compressed 15–21 day lead times, and customers reflexively pushing back on price.
Chavarria breaks down value as a function of “function over cost” and shows how to shift conversations away from price by uncovering what customers actually care about — often unstated priorities like markdown reduction, inventory risk, or margin benchmarks. He also demonstrates practical ways to use AI not as a search engine but as an analysis tool: mining LinkedIn profiles, sales call transcripts, and even five-star and one-star product reviews to surface unbiased signal about what customers truly value, then building that insight into a repeatable sales playbook.
Key takeaway: Companies that stop competing on price and start asking better questions to uncover what customers actually value can reposition themselves from commodity vendors into “market makers” — partners who create and capture value rather than just fulfilling orders at the lowest bid.