Business of Print

Clear Expectations

Managers often take for granted that the people they work with all have the same understanding of the company goals and challenges as they do. But in reality, business owners and senior managers are not immune to skipping past the details and quickly looking for overall agreement within the sales group so as to move onto the next crisis or opportunity.

The printing business has changed and with those changes come different opportunities to be successful with clients. Exactly what those look like have a lot to do with the suite of services you can offer, how well your know that client market and whether or not you have convinced the decision makers and influencers that you’re interested, capable and qualified to help. Oh yeah, and whether or not they want to be helped.

The leadership and sales teams need to be aligned and in agreement with the strategy and how they will carry out the plan. If they are not it’s bound to lead to frustration on both sides of the aisle, missed client opportunities and an unfortunate waste of resources.

Lead, measure, reinforce and adjust is not a new concept at all when trying to instill change into an organization. Its application though may be a new way to execute your ideas if you're having issues with expectations not being met. 

 

Which Goals?

Q1 is quickly coming to a close. How did you do on your sales goals for the first quarter? Whether you were responsible for just yourself or for the entire team, reaching your sales goals has never been more important. What goals were you focusing on though? 

The obvious answer is revenue and that should be the top choice. How about the other goals though? How did you do with lead generation, prospect qualification and getting those new appointments? What does your sales pipeline look like? Your level of achievement in these areas may dictate your revenue success next month or next quarter. Stephen Covey said "begin with the end in mind."

We tend to focus on the short term - billing for this month, number of quotes this week, etc. While these are very important I encourage you to broaden your view to include these other upstream activities. As the market for print continues to change and clients spending trends remain fluid successful companies will expect the sales organization to continually work the sales plan. The goal should include adding new clients and opportunities to the mix. As a sales leader you should stay in front of this and expect, monitor and lead your team to fill the pipeline and capture the business you deserve.  

 

Transforming Your Sales Strategy-Focus on Communications

Look at the business of your existing clients and the messages they are trying to send. Financial services, loyalty programs, insurance, healthcare and education all want to get their messages heard in more ways than just print. A recent Fortune magazine (the printed version) article on Nike’s new marketing mojo describes the changes to their marketing direction stating that, “Nike’s spending on TV and print advertising in the US has dropped by 40% in just three years, even as its total marketing budget has steadily climbed upward to hit a record $2.4 billion last year.” It goes on to say, “the reason for this shift is simple: Nike is going where its customer is.”

Where are your clients trying to send their messages? In transforming your sales strategy to take advantage of shifting spend allocations you should ask yourself what impact would it have if the sales team focused on making it easier for your clients to better communicate (through various channels, print being one of them) with their customers vs. chasing the next print order. You could apply this to both new and existing clients with the right strategy and messaging.

Whether you are trying to transform your business through internal and organic changes, through an acquisition or both, the sales strategy needs to be analyzed to confirm its alignment with your company goals, client needs and one that can be effectively executed by your team. 

 

Elevate Your Game

What did you do to get better today, to be a better sales leader, to truly optimize your sales management skills and lead your sales team? I know there are obstacles such as the marketplace, the economy and the changing needs of your clients. And let’s not forget the reps that aren’t following your lead or making enough calls. Whether you are the sales manager, the sales rep, the owner or the CEO (or even all of the above) you need to take a step back and ask yourself, “What did you do to get better today?”

The business has changed. The clients have changed. The opportunities don’t always look like they used to look. The way in which you hire, train and coach needs to be evaluated…how’s it working in your business? You should also take a hard look at the tools you are using to make the decisions on how to lead and direct your sales team.

 

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.