Business of Print

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.

 

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!

Determine Their Status

Each sales call should be an attempt to further position you and your company as the go-to provider for that client. An important area to uncover during these calls is whether the client considers themselves in a cost containment (we’re not spending anything unless we absolutely have to) or in a revenue enhancing (we’re growing, taking market share from our competitors or we have new products/services that we’re trying to sell) mode. These are two extremes and it’s important to know where they would fall on the scale before you get too involved. 

Those in cost containment may be more driven to only price and may be the least likely to change or add a supplier unless you’re giving it away. How often have you heard “your price is competitive or slightly better than what I’m getting but not enough to change.” You'll then have to decide if that's a customer you can be successful with. Those in a revenue enhancing mode may be more open to new ideas or strategies that could help them attain their goals. Do your homework, be competitive and show up ready to contribute to their success. Like most firms, you’ve probably got clients and prospects in both ends of the spectrum and that probably won’t change anytime soon.

The advice here is to determine their status as early as you can so that your approach is relevant to their thinking and you can increase your potential to land some new business. Continued success.

When They Go Silent

The worst feeling is when decent, active accounts go silent. Did we mess up a job? Was that late proof the other day a deal breaker? What should we make of this??

All too often I hear about these situations and the first question I ask the rep is "when was the last time you met with them?" After a long pause I'll get some type of response but I usually don't buy it. Sometimes worse is when I ask the president or sales manager the same question. We have a tendency to be business as usual with our better, active accounts. Sometimes they will actually tell you that they don't need to see you. I don't think that you can take anything for granted these days and however you can stay in touch with or in front of your clients is a good thing.

Don't wait for the silence to appear at your doorstep, be proactive and stay in front of your customers.

Why Be Ordinary?

Face it, selling printing and leading a printing organization is not easy during good times and it's certainly not any easier during difficult times. I propose that if you're going to do either, do it with the enthusiasm and passion that can break you out of the ordinary.

This doesn't mean that you have to become a cheerleader for your company or for print. It means that in your very own way take on each day, each project and each conversation on purpose and strive to really make something happen. Step out of your rut and break some of those old habits.

Sell Once, Print Often

Actually it's not even sell as much as it's give them a good reason to buy from you. My point is that getting people to say yes can be hard work. It's not any harder to persuade someone who buys print every week to buy from you than it is to persuade someone who buys print once a quarter. Why not focus your efforts on the more frequent user of print? While you may not be in a position to walk away from the casual buyers at least make sure that you've got some of the more frequent ones in your sales pipeline.

Other added benefits of this effort include:

• Added frequency gives the plant more opportunities to learn the clients individual needs and preferences and ultimately improve their performance,
• Increased exposure to the client will give you the opportunity to get a deeper understanding of how they use print to drive their business and if you're paying attention, will allow you to make recommendations that could increase the relative ROI on their print spend, 
• Clients with ongoing, frequent activity are more easily serviced by the CSR team which allows the sales rep to find more of the same-what a concept. 

Take a good look at your current accounts and prospects. Are you in a good position to sell once and print often?

Great Opportunities

...begin at the street level. Sales reps are the eyes and ears of a printing company. Great reps can sense emotion and read body language better than any email or web site can. As they speak with clients and prospects alike they can get a sense for how the business is doing and through research and questions can determine what their next big opportunity might be. If this is all true than why isn't your plant running on full??

One observation I have is that not enough reps put themselves at risk. That's right, risk. I'm not suggesting that they begin walking through traffic but rather break out of their comfort zone. Too many reps I meet have created a milk run with their existing clients and the same old prospect list that they've had for months. They speak with the same people every day in hopes that they'll begin hearing new things. I understand servicing existing business. I also understand new business development and it's not happening nearly as much as it should be.

Great opportunities may be right in front of you but you'll have to challenge and stretch yourself to uncover them. As I say, it's all about choices...you're up.

Focus Your Efforts

Some sales people claim to be able to sell anything to anyone. Just like some printing companies that say they can handle anything a client may need. While there may be some truth to those comments I would also point out that there are some things that you can do better than others. Knowing what those are can be the difference between being good and being exceptional.

During a recent call I heard a sales rep discussing her best clients and how she has been able to nurture and build on those relationships. She knew what clients she worked best with and which she should turn over to her colleagues. She is comfortable know where she'll be successful and is one of the top reps in her office. Another example is a business referral I tried to make to a friend of mine. While the work that needed to be done was right up their alley he stated that the assignment really needed to generate at least $x dollars in revenue otherwise he would not be able to devote the resources necessary to make it successful. He is focused on the type and size of business that will help them to achieve their business goals. It wouldn't and I looked elsewhere.

It's hard to say no to an opportunity, particularly during these economic times. Sometimes walking away from deals that "just don't make sense" for you or your business might in fact be the right thing to do and can allow you to focus your efforts on deals that you can be successful with.