Business of Print

Will 2012 be better?

Good question isn’t it. I won’t focus in the economy, jobs or housing. Let’s focus on the things that you can control. If you indeed want 2012 to be better, what are you willing to do to make it so?

What will you change, what irrelevant habits will you let go of as we move forward into a new year? If you are in sales how will you improve your skills so that you can help more people, bring more business into your company and make more money? If you own the business or are in a senior leadership role, what steps will you take both personally and professionally to improve the performance of the business and make it an even better company to be part of?

Stop waiting for “things to get better.” I hear that every day and guess what…things probably will improve but they won’t look like or behave like things used to be. Get over it, step up and take a proactive approach to dealing with the cards that you’ve been dealt.

It all boils down to your willingness to change, clearly identifying your game plan and then execution. Sounds simple but it’s hard and takes a lot of discipline to pull it off. Doing nothing though is not an option. As retired US Army four-star General Eric Shinseki said, “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” Fairly direct and to the point, this West Point grad didn't mince words.

The business has changed, from how you interact with prospects and clients through to the products and services you deliver to them. Don’t fall into a position of irrelevance, make the decision to stay in the game and be a leader in your market by providing the services and expertise that your clients need to successfully grow their business.

 

Do You Know Your Customers Business?

Another self-inflicted wound is not having a thorough understanding of your customers business. Why they buy what they buy and what affect your product has on their overall business is a key ingredient if you’re trying to develop a repeatable sales process. Over the years one of the strengths of a good sales rep was to know all about the products their company could produce and the ins and outs of getting a project through the plant. An area that had little emphasis was how well they knew their clients business. Back then the focus was mainly on the product you were producing. Today you need to know more.

Who does your client compete with, what market differentiation do they enjoy in the markets they serve and what are they doing with the print or related services that they buy from you. The more that you know these issues the more you begin to speak your customers’ language and become better aligned with helping them reach their goals. Taking that to a higher level means that within a vertical market, you can become a market specialist in how those companies use print and related services to run their business and make money. Having this position can change the conversation you would have with a prospective client and more importantly, who you could have that conversation with.

 

Utilize Your Team

Another sales self inflicted wound happens when you don't utilize your team to maximize your market effectiveness. Most companies have built a support system of customer service, estimating, sometimes a job planning team, operations, finance and marketing support. In addition, there is a sales manager, someone to help with technology and of course, the owner or president of the company. If you are not utilizing these resources to their maximum you may well be limiting how much you can do, what depths you can penetrate within a client and expand networking opportunities within your existing clients and new business prospects.

These are resources that you should be utilizing to the fullest. Not taking advantage of these skills is really a missed opportunity. But how can you use them? There are a number of different ways based on your objectives but the easiest way is to ask for help. Explain what you are trying to accomplish to your direct supervisor and ask them to recommend who else should be brought in to help. The degree of assistance can and will vary based on the situation. It could range from a full blown strategy session and team presentation to a prospect to simply validating your game plan. You’ve got a built-in team of experts who are on your side, no need to always go it alone.  

 

Self Inflicted Wounds

The selling environment continues to change and it’s not getting any easier to grow your business from existing clients. It can be even more daunting trying to get through to new prospects. In managing these daily sales challenges there are several common denominators that CEO’s, sales managers and sales reps have shared with me that I would classify as self inflicted wounds. There are enough external and internal challenges out there that you cannot control, the goal is minimize, or eliminate the actions that you can control. Beginning with this post and over the next few posts I’ll comment on the more popular wounds that I have observed.

One of the most common is that there is too much focus placed on the current project(s) vs. keeping the sales pipeline full. The usual sequence of events includes the rep working very hard to get this customer or to win a project. Once the project has been entered and a hand off with the internal customer service team takes place, the sales rep tends to micro-manage the project throughout the production process. Often times their actions can be categorized as performing the role of the assistant CSR.

This is where disagreement with the process usually comes into play. Without a clear delineation of duties between sales and the inside support team along with strong leadership to direct these teams, the selling process can become cloudy and grind to a halt and additional distractions created within the internal production process. Reps don’t want to lose the client so they work to make sure the job goes through as smoothly as possible-oftentimes working around the team that is in place to support them. In the meantime, they are not out filling their sales pipeline with new opportunities. A lose-lose situation.

This dilemma is not new but comes up more often as clients have become scarce and new business development has gotten more involved. If you are responsible for the sales growth in your company you should address this immediately. 

 

Sales Planning

So in the next few weeks you will be embarking on the annual sales forecasting project. I can see the excitement in your eyes already. Will the process be the same as last year…add a growth percentage to the previous years sales? Will you break down the existing business and determine where you can go deeper and wider with those accounts by offering new services and then attack the new business side of the equation to fill in the gaps? I know, so many questions.

Oh, and yes please don’t forget attrition. Not that you did anything to lose that business but it happens just the same. Need to plan for it.

Do you plan differently for your legacy business as compared to your new integrated services business? Is one growing faster than the other…uhm?

How have the meetings with your top 15-20 clients been going where you ask them about their view into next year and where they plan to spend their marketing dollars? More questions, I know!!

How about looking at the changes to your sales cycle and closing percentages – by sales rep. And what about that new business? What are the three or five or seven things that you’re going to do to help ensure that it actually happens this year? Do you need to modify the sales metrics that you’ve been using to monitor this so that you can effectively manage the process and make any necessary changes along the way?

Just wanted to give you a few things to think about.

 

Selling Time

What percentage of each day are your reps engaged in actual selling activities with a prospect or client? What other activities are they engaged in? While most companies want their reps to spend as much time as possible with direct client activities they should also drill down to learn what else they’ve got going on.

You can break down their time into four major buckets:

1. The estimating process
2. Account management
3. Administrative
4. Sales and business development

Do a quick survey of your sales team to see how they would categorize their time and then overlay that to your expectations. This becomes the first step to objectively diagnose some of the issues [external and internal] that you should address to maximize the time spent getting, winning and growing business.  

 

 

Where’s the Business…Where’s your Team?

There’s no question that the economic recovery, as sporadic and transparent as it can seem is not treating everyone equally. I speak with some companies and learn that their business is up 20% over the prior “pretty good” year and the next company I speak with has not seen much if any improvement to their business. These are sometimes in the same general market, same basic equipment configuration and the same basic talent pool.

What’s different? One observation is that the attitude and vision from top management is very different. Please don’t misunderstand, it’s not as if the struggling company has given up, not in the least. They all want to succeed but a differentiator is in the areas that they focus on. The leaders seem to focus on client acquisition, not just the project acquisition. They place an importance on understanding their markets and play a role in developing a strategy to attract, persuade and win the business. They have a sales force that is generally a mix of legacy reps along with a few outliers – those that don’t focus their conversations on ink and paper. These sales outliers discuss ROI and business strategy with their clients. They are passionate about their clients business and understand how they make money and sometimes may only focus on one or two targeted vertical markets.

When they go after new business or try to expand their presence with existing clients they think it through and deploy their business development team to manage the process. This skill sets that this team brings to the table often includes marketing, strategy, print, mail, database analytics and represents all the disciplines necessary for the applicable situation. Make no bones about it, they are selling and selling hard. But, they are selling by first diagnosing the situation, meeting with the right folks, understanding how the client wins, developing a solution and in the end, making it clear that they are the best ones to implement the plan.

As an owner told me yesterday, “the business is out there, we just got to go get it.” Get your team together and hit the bricks. It’s out there but probably won’t look like what you’re used to seeing.

 

If You Were a Start-Up?

If your business were a start up company instead of an existing organization, would you be doing anything differently? Uhhm…

As I travel around the country and speak with clients I notice this pent up frustration with the sluggishness of the business environment. I also notice than many companies are not taking advantage of the equipment, technology and services that they offer in an integrated manner to solve client business issues. In a sense, under utilizing the assets they currently possess. OK, back to the start-up.

I recently asked a company management team what they would do differently with their business if in fact it were a start-up and had the ability to start over. They quickly suggested enough ideas to fill a couple of easel pad sheets. The ha-ha moment came when I asked them what was preventing them from doing any of these things now? As it turned out, only two of the ideas required cap-ex funds but the balance were ideas that are now on their strategic to-do list.

What would you do different and what’s holding you back? Probably not as much as you think.

 

Your Competition

In the past most printers knew who the competition was and it was usually limited to those in the same geographical area having similar capabilities and service levels. Do you know who your competition is today?

Not only do you have the usual suspects working hard for that business you so desire but also you now face competitors that are unlike those of the past. There is internal client competition for funding as well as strategic direction or channel. Should the client spend their money on the brochure, the e-mail blast, the social networking initiative or perhaps an integrated spend that encompasses a combination of these options. By the way, how well are you positioned to take advantage of that? The segments of competition that may be overlooked though are those firms and management teams that are relatively new to the print game. In a casual conversation with my colleague Andy Paparozzi we discussed those competitors that while they may be newer to the industry, they don’t have the legacy equipment and debt levels associated with that hardware nor do they have the legacy business model of “how we used to make money”.

As the industry faces a redistribution of market share, the competitive nature of the playing field is sure to create both heartache and excitement depending on which end of the spectrum your business is positioned. The good news is that most companies still have a choice of where to deploy their resources, talent and energy.

Take a look at your market competition, your differentiation and how well your efforts align to the interests your clients have and your own tolerance for change and don’t be afraid to make adjustments if you’re not happy with what you see.

 

 

We Know What We Know

Spent time this week with clients and also got to meet a lot of new friends at a supplier educational event where I gave a couple presentations. My takeaway was that we know what we know and that is probably not enough if we really want to reach our potential. I continue to learn new things every time that I’m in these environments and am amazed at the both the creativity and great business ideas that are discussed and shared in these settings.

In these unprecedented times there has never been a more important time to get out and learn. Learn by sharing, learn by listening and learn by asking questions. Whether it’s your business partner, a trusted advisor, your suppliers and even better, your clients…learn something new with each encounter. Don’t take anything for granted, don’t assume and don’t keep your thoughts to yourself.

What a great week. Keeping this same thought process I can’t wait until next week!