What Your Boss Wants You to Know

No matter what the size of the business, success in the printing industry is inextricably tied to the performance of individual sales representatives. They are in the trenches, on the front lines, performing every day.  If you’re a sales rep making a good living – maybe you’re even the sales leader for your company – is knowing how to close a sale all you need to know?

Most sales reps understand the significance of the role they play from the perspective of making sales.  What they may not be aware of, or perhaps may not consider, is that they are also the public face of the company whose products and services they sell.  And, as that public face, they are the ones who determine whether the customer sees the entire company as just another “ink-on-paper” printer, or as a unique partner that provides innovative solutions for their constantly evolving needs.

Eric Roberts is vice president of sales and marketing for Think Patented in Dayton, Ohio (www.thinkpatented.com).  Think Patented received a gold award from the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) in its inaugural 2006 eKG Customer Focus Awards, which are based on customer surveys.  Think Patented has also been recognized with gold and silver awards in the NAPL Management Plus program, receiving Management Plus Awards for the past five years.  Additionally, they won 13 Print Excellence Awards in 2006 from the Printing Industries Association, Inc., serving Northern Kentucky and Ohio (PIANKO).  It is currently ranked as the largest printing company in the region in the 2007 Book of Lists published by the Dayton Business Journal.

According to Roberts, “The most significant contribution sales reps make is bringing in the sales, but I would also suggest that they are ambassadors with our respective customers.  When they go to represent themselves, they also represent me and all 100 associates, and that can be daunting, but it’s also very important that they look at it that way.”

There’s little doubt that solid management practices are in play when a company performs as well as Think Patented has on a consistent level.  What’s important to take away from all of this? It takes great management to build a strong company, but it also requires the consistent, passionate, intelligent perseverance of a masterful sales team. Says Roberts, “The average tenure of a sales professional here is about 15 years.  We give a high level of autonomy to our sales professionals.  And there’s a reason for that – not all, but a majority of our sales people do there own estimating.  It encourages a level of sales intimacy that is a differentiator.  I want to encourage and support that.”

Says Roberts, “Some of the most important stakeholders in any graphic arts company are the sales people.  It starts and stops with them.  As a demographic, they are the most important people to take care of.  The obvious is clear, without sales, there’s no reason for any of us to come in.  We can build the most impressive facility with the most efficient technology and the most relevant solutions, but unless someone is selling it, it’s all an academic exercise.”

Linda Bishop of Thought Transformation (www.thoughttransformation.com) sees this elusive skill, this talent for the hunt, as a gift that often results in closing the sale, but shouldn’t end there. With a background in the print industry that spans more than 20 years, Bishop has worked both sides of the printing equation; as management, where she was vice president of marketing for IPD printing in Atlanta, GA, and also as a high-performance sales professional whose annual sales repeatedly topped $9 million.  A few years ago, Bishop founded Thought Transformation, an organization that trains print sales reps and helps businesses in the printing industry develop successful marketing strategies.  Says Bishop, “Sometimes, what people don’t get is that if you can sell, you’ve got a skill that very few people on this planet have.  But you’ve got to have the total package as a sales person. You’ve got to be able to spot them; catch them; kill them; and cook them.  If you can’t do all those things – if you don’t know who fits your company – you’re missing out on something. If, once they’re in that building, you can’t keep them happy, you’re missing out on something.”

Bishop underscores the critical importance of the sales role to the overall business, “Philosophically – if they don’t do their job – people in back either get laid off or don’t get a raise.  You can be doing fine, but you’re responsible for other people.  They can’t leave the plant to find new customers.  You’re hurting fellow employees.”

One of the skills that Bishop teaches in her training sessions is how to build a value proposition, which is particularly critical in a highly competitive sales environment.  Says Bishop, “When sales people complain to me that they can’t sell anything based on their pricing structure, but five, 10, 20 other people are, it mean’s they are not worth the difference to the print buyer. Some people are always going to buy on price, and that’s just the way it goes. Fortunately, the vast majority of print buyers have a selection process that is far more sophisticated than that.”

To escape the pitfalls of priced-based selling, Bishop explains that sales professionals must be able to identify points of differentiation and build a value proposition.  Says Bishop, “The sales person has to answer these questions, ‘What does your company do better than average? Why do they do it better than average”?”  Bishop adds, “Don’t tell me that they meet deliveries better than average — tell me why.  Tell me who would be willing to pay a premium price for that and tell me why they would.  Answer those four questions, and you have begun to structure a value proposition.”

But Bishop is quick to point out that all the responsibility for maximizing sales does not land on the heads of the sales team, “Here’s the thing about a lot of people who are running printing companies.  Lots of times they are truly excellent sales people — above average – brilliant, many times.  But if you want someone to get better results, you can’t wait until the sales person figures it out for themselves.  You need to be able to help them identify it and help them do it.”  Bishop continues, “Take the profitability issue – getting more profitable customers.  You can’t tell somebody ‘we need more profitable customers – go out and get them.’  If they knew how to do it, they’d be doing it now. The manager has to take more responsibility in this area if you want more profitable customers. You have to be able to teach people these skills.  You must teach people how to structure a value proposition that fits your company.”

The Fineline Printing Group philosophy is built on niche marketing and credits differentiation built on value propositions for a long history of success. Paul Doerfler is vice president of Fineline, a family-owned business located in Indianapolis, IN, that opened its doors in 1981 (www.finelink.com).  According to Doerfler, it’s important for sales representatives to understand the top-to-bottom economics of the business, “It’s a high capital-intensive business. That’s why it’s important that sales people understand the cost of capital. It’s extremely hard to make money if you’re not differentiating yourself and finding a niche where you can get a premium on your price.  If you can’t, you won’t be around long.  Unless a piece of business fits our plant perfectly – if it’s a price situation – you walk away.  We don’t sell on price. It’s about understanding the niche and being one up on your competitor. It’s about uniqueness and creating value and solving problems.  Our mission statement is that we will not ask for your business until we can help to improve it.”  Doerfler adds, “We’re not there to quote a price.  We preach that to our sales reps.  If you can’t help create value for your customers, you’re wasting your time and doing an injustice for your clients.”

“This might sound corny,” says Doerfler, “but sales reps need to sell ‘on purpose.’ You can’t look at yourself as a sales person; you have to look at yourself as an entrepreneur that has a passion to build business and create value for your client. The successful ones are very good at it.”  Doerfler adds, “One of the things I really stress is that you need to go in there and get your hands dirty and get involved in the process and solve the problem for the customer.  Anyone can go in and quote business.” 

Doerfler, who says he really enjoys building a relationship with customers, is eager to jump in when needed to find a solution or close a sale.  “We give sales the resources – myself included,” says Doerfler.  “If you need to pull me, pull me in; or the owner, or our tech person.  If you need an expert to come in and help close the deal, we’re here,” adds Doerfler, “but you’ve got to be out there on purpose, finding opportunities, creating solutions, creating value, or eventually, you will be out of business.”

With a stable of sales reps topping the million dollar mark annually, Doerfler points out, “Ninety percent of our sales reps are adding value to both the customer and the company. If you’re not contributing at least a million in sales it’s hard to justify your position.  We’ve got to pay their benefits, do the estimating, and give them a CSR.  Pretty much, we tell them it’s a million-dollar goal each year.”

Stuart Slater is vice president and a part owner of Pomco Graphic Arts located in Philadelphia, PA (www.pomco.com).  Slater began his career in the printing industry in 1978 and joined the Pomco team in 1989, where his first job was in sales as an account executive.  A company that dates back to 1885, Pomco has long been known for it’s lithography, engraving and embossing expertise. Originally a family-owned business, the graphics arts division of the company was sold by the original owners in 1978.  In 1999, it was purchased by an employee management team and now operates as Pomco Graphic Arts.

Slater attributes much of their success to the culture of Pomco, “We’re a mid-sized company and are very close to our account executives. So many different things are needed today to satisfy our customers.  In this market with the competition that’s out there, everyone has to work together as a team. We try to create more of a team effort than we used to and the sales staff is an integral part of how we do things.”  Slater adds, “The fact that we present costing to them gives them a sense of what their position is in the company.  And sometimes, as a liaison to our customer base, they need to know about the cost of a particular project.  Understanding estimating and costing is part of their job function.”

According to Slater, sales people generally aren’t that focused on overall corporate goals.  When it comes to planning a marketing strategy for the company, he has a process that helps to ensure buy-in.  “First off,” says Slater, “I think that printers, in general, tend to be the worst marketers of all. Very few have a marketing strategy that stays the course.  We’re like the shoemaker’s children that have no shoes.  We produce everybody’s marketing materials, but, as a whole, we’re not very good at marketing what we do. Marketing provides a vehicle to get your brand name out there.  It’s how you get an opportunity to present – how to get your name in front of somebody and get that presentation.”

When planning a marketing strategy or a particular marketing thrust, Slater sets up a committee that includes sales people, which helps build interest and ownership. Says Slater, “I’ll assign a point person for a particular plan. Others on that team research the plan. I often ask sales people to go out and ask customers probing questions. All that goes in the mix, and then we talk about what’s best-suited for the whole company. If we all do our part, we obtain our goals corporately.

While the average sales person might not be focused on overall corporate goals, Slater notes, “When they see that the success of the company means success for them, it creates enthusiasm and affects how they present themselves to our customer base. In many cases, they are the only people that our customers see. It’s important for the sales staff to see and feel the growth of a company. I think that if they’re aware of what’s going on within the company, it affects overall performance.  Then they’re encouraged and optimistic about the company they work for.”

John Laabs, vice president of sales and marketing for Independent Printing Company in DePere, WI (www.independentinc.com), has a goal to get sales reps to focus on achieving sales goals without sacrificing the bottom line. “What we hope to instill in our sales reps,” says Laabs, “is a sense of how the top line drives the bottom line.  If we don’t make sales plan in a month, quarter, or year, it’s going to hurt the bottom line for that timeframe.  In terms of running the business day-to-day, sales people need to understand how being down on their numbers adversely affects the business.”

Laabs also emphasizes that it is not just sales figures that can chip away at profitability.  Other functions affect margin, and, therefore, the bottom line.  Says Laabs, “Sales reps need to fully understand and communicate the customer’s needs for a project.  If we have to do re-work, the sales person needs to understand how negatively that affects the bottom line for that month.  They need to understand how it affects our profitability.”

“Margin is an area that we continue to help our sales people understand,” says Laabs.  He adds, “Some work has a very low margin and that’s expected for a certain percentage of our portfolio.  However, over time, you cannot fill your portfolio with predominantly low-margin work.  Managing overall margin at an account level is a key driver for any printing company.  We try to make the account have favorable profitability, not necessarily each individual job.”

In that vein, Laabs describes why just closing new business is not always enough.  He believes that the most significant contribution a sales person makes to the overall success of a business is identifying profitable new business. “Because there’s always attrition,” says Laabs, “there’s always something going out the back door.  It’s what you replace it with that makes the change year over year.  You’ve got to replace it with higher margin business. If you fall into the trap of replacing lost business with new lower margin dollars, you’re destined for some profitability issues.”

Is management always pushing for the next sale, the bigger margin, higher volume? Surprisingly, that’s not necessarily the case.  Says Laabs, “It can be challenging to motivate a sales rep to prospect aggressively if they are meeting their goals.  Depending on the individual, if they are already selling well above the industry level and have a balance in their lives with interests and hobbies outside the office, they may not be willing to go to the next level.  It could mean less balance – less family time.  For reps making plan, I say things like, ‘what can I do to make your life easier – to make you happier?’ I want them content to perform at a high level.”

Linda Bishop offers sound advice for management and sales professionals, “Management needs to understand that telling people to do a better job is not performance management.  People want to do a good job. You don’t meet too many people who wake up in the morning thinking ‘how can I do a crappy job and take the company’s money?’  Then, from the perspective of management, what does management need to share with, do for, or teach the sales person to make sure that they perform at peak levels and understand where they fit in the big picture?  So again, if they want people to do better, they need to find a way to help people do better.”  Bishop adds, “What all people need to do, if they want to be successful, is assess their strengths and weaknesses realistically and be able to figure out where they are strong and where they are weak, and decide how the two things impact their careers.”