Business of Print

Lead Generation-Professional Services

Let me tell you about my dentist. He’s a sole practitioner with a few dental hygienists and a couple of folks handling the front office. He’s been my dentist for over 10 years now.

Here’s what he does to generate leads. Three years ago he began doing a saturation post card mailing to area zip codes to try to drum up business. Since then they have also added personalized appointment reminder emails that go out one week before the appointment. Last week when I went in for a cleaning the office manager asked me to look at four different ads that they had run in local papers and asked me a series of 4-5 questions on each to gauge how effective I thought they would be as a potential new patient [they were asking all their patients these questions over a 30 day period]. Finally, when they finish the cleaning the hygienist hands you two referral cards (printed 4/4) with my name on them. If I refer a client I get a $50 gift card. Then something new, a day after my visit I got an email with a brief survey asking how satisfied I was with the visit and would I refer someone to their practice.

The office manager told me they get 10-15 calls a week from new potential patients and they’ve calculated the ROI on this and are very pleased with the results. Let’s recap their effort: locals 4/C ads, 4/C post card mailings, personalized email appointment reminders, a referral program, satisfaction surveys asking for a referral: not bad for a small professional services firm.

Now there’s two things you can do with this, actually three things:

1. Do you have any clients that should be applying this type of effort in their business and how can you help them pull it off.

2. Take a look at you own lead generation program and compare it to that of my sole practitioner dentist.

3. Keep doing what you’ve been doing because your plan generates the leads you need to grow and sustain your business.

Continued success.

Lead the Sales Process

Sales reps get paid based on their individual results in developing and managing profitable client accounts that utilize the many services that you offer. The question in this post is are you managing the process used to earn this business as well as evaluating the results? This is not meant to be a trick question. I know many managers that have charts and graphs and all types of reports that show the results of the sales effort. You certainly need this if you are to do a good job in managing the sales team. But what about the process, the important details that happen before the first quote or job comes in the door…what do you know about those activities? To be effective, these activities need to be evaluated and managed.

Let’s begin with a hypothetical sales process. This could begin with obtaining leads with new prospects or within existing customer groups, research the company, qualify and compare them to your ideal clients. Then the fun begins with earning an appointment, fact-finding meetings and account strategy. Then there may be additional meetings and discussions to identify how your company’s solution will best solve their needs. Now you’re in a position to look at individual projects and provide your pricing. Eliminating many of the earlier steps or poor performance here certainly will not help you get past the pricing issues seen in many markets. 

I encourage you either as a rep or as a manager to identify what your sales process looks like and monitor the progress of the activities that make up your sales pipeline so that you don’t get stuck or end up chasing accounts that don’t really fit you anyway. Continued success.

What Else?

No doubt that ink or toner on paper remains the main source of revenue for printers and commission dollars for reps. But with more companies offering a wide range of additional services it’s important to ask what else. These services can range from mailing and fulfillment to creative services, campaign management, quick response codes and data analytics.

What else is happening with the product or campaign? What is the client trying to achieve and what other services can you provide. By providing a wider range of integrated services you can play a greater role in your clients success and work to further differentiate yourself from the competition.

Sounds easy but the challenge is to be comfortable and confident when presenting these services to your clients. Some firms have someone on staff who is the “big-picture” thinker who can ask the right questions and drill down into the real client issues. Other shops have a go-to person to help present and answer client questions and finally we’re also seeing some sales reps actually take on the challenge of learning how to present and integrate these services. 

Get ready and take the plunge! Don't wait for the RFQ or RFP to come out because it probably won't. Understand what your client is really trying to achieve and make it easier for them to reach their goal. Continued success!