Reach Out to Decision Makers

Week after week after week I hear the frustration from sales reps and senior management alike that they struggle to reach the real decision makers in their markets. Years ago this wasn't as big of an issue as most (not all, but most) print buyers had the authority to buy based on criteria that they had a large part in creating. That still exists in some cases but I feel it has diminished. More than not the criteria for buying has been influenced by several people/departments/management and the 'buyer' is charged with executing the orders on the behalf of the committee. To complicate matters further, sales reps seldom know what the criteria is nor do they have interaction with the other influencers and thus price is often left as the default.

This situation came to light recently when a rep complained about having to deal with a 'managed print services provider' that had a contract to procure the print for a major organization. I doubt that the managed print services provider negotiated their deal with the print buyer, in fact that buyer might have been the last to know of the new agreement.

As the business of providing print and print services continues to change the sales reps and the sales leadership of the company have to work harder to reach out to the real decision makers. Those are the folks that might be interested in how you can help them optimize their print spend and would understand the value of increasing their ROI on the next campaign.