The print world is changing rapidly. Here’s what salespeople need to know to ensure they’ll be alive and thriving five years from now.

By Ryan McNally

There was a time when print sales were all about price, quality and service. Salespeople would talk about ink on paper and what type of paper they were using, approaching the discussion as a commodity battle. From start to finish, it was all about the print.

That time is over. Print is increasingly becoming part of a bigger picture as salespeople take on more of a consultative role. The sales process has also become increasingly complex, with a myriad of factors that demand the print salesperson be an expert on more than just the technical side of printing (though that’s still an essential skill). In the next five years, powerful forces will change communications as we know it, and new products, services and solutions will emerge. Thoughtful printers and print salespeople will need an edge moving forward.

Today’s new world
The fundamental model of print sales has changed in recent years. Selling print today is not about selling print, it’s about being a solutions provider. “Customers are interested now in solving bigger problems than where to get the job printed,” says Daniel Hanson, vice president and general manager of Branch-Smith Printing. “There are all kinds of needs the customers have on the content side where printing organizations have the opportunity to create value-added services.”

According to Howie Fenton, senior consultant for NAPL, the most successful companies today are the ones adding more value-added services. “It’s getting increasingly more difficult to make money just selling the printed page, because the printed page is perceived as being a commodity,” says Fenton.

Printers today are part of the communication food chain, and print is one of several options available. That’s why it’s important to talk solutions with customers rather than just taking an order. Customers may be able to find multiple printers to print a project, but print salespeople can distinguish themselves from competitors by designing the right customized solutions to solve customers’ problems. And this process requires more know-how. “The successful printer of the future will serve multiple functions for its clients,” says Kevin Joyce, chief marketing officer for Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group and vice president of Eastman Kodak Co. “To do that, printers must be much more knowledgeable in a variety of marketing, business, and technical issues.”

With many successful print companies focusing on strategic acquisitions, product specialization, and differentiated value-added services, it’s essential for print salespeople to evolve their sales strategies to focus on consultative selling. “This means researching and truly understanding clients’ business objectives,” says John Laabs, vice president of sales and marketing for Independent Printing. “It also involves asking the right questions, listening carefully and providing effective solutions.”

Communication skills
Given the massive changes in communications during the last five years — from the omnipresence of cellular phones to widespread high-speed Internet availability to the emergence of the iPhone — you can count on powerful new forces shaping communications in the five years to come. At the forefront of this charge will be the Internet, which will continue to shape the industry as printers and print salespeople consider how to best use it to their advantage. “We’ll be looking for ways to integrate print with electronic forms of communications to provide highly effective and measurable ‘layered’ advertising campaigns,” says Laabs. “Rather than competing with the electronic world for precious marketing dollars, we’re integrating the Internet into our digital print solutions and other value-added services.”

As more options are given to people regarding how they choose to spend their time and gather information, mobile communication will continue to be a focal point of technological innovations. Consumers today want information when they want it, where they want, and in the format they want it … no matter what time it is. “I think there’s this huge movement going on, and companies are developing technologies that allow us to location shift and time shift our communication consumption, and that’s hugely powerful,” says Rick Littrell, president/CMO of Magicomm. “You just start looking at the technologies and how it’s starting to play out — it’s society-level, it’s cultural-level, it’s way beyond our industry. And there’s no way to turn it back.”

As customers take more control of the information they receive through Web sites, instant messaging, cell phones and PDAs, 
savvy businesses will look to harness these preferences to target marketing communications content. “By far, the most powerful force that will impact print over the next five years is mass customization, which is essentially the personalization of mass marketing print media,” says Joyce. “Printers have an opportunity to drive revenue growth by tapping into the power and preferences of the increasingly media savvy individual.”

New services, new solutions
As new technologies develop, print companies will look for different ways to best use these innovations to solve customer problems. Digital services will increase. “Digital transformation is a reality,” says Michael Ring, chief marketing officer and vice president of business development, Xeikon. “The question is what aspect of print will not be touched.”

Highly technical types of products and more complex packaging will abound. “It’s more than just putting ink on paper now,” says Hanson. “There will be more integration of print and publication markets. You’re going to see more integration of print tied to IT solutions when it comes to distribution and logistics.”

The print industry can also expect much more on-demand and high-level automation during the next five years. “I think the goal will be that all the products you’ll see for printers will have a strong connection to automation,” says Littrell. “They’ll recognize it’s bigger than print and start integrating more of the best business practices and systems.”

According to Joyce, online portals will change the way customers order print by enabling them to customize the control, and control how and when they receive print. And Laabs foresees the development of processes and tools to help marketers measure ROI of their advertising dollars by more effectively integrating market research and database management into advertising campaigns, lead-generation initiatives and CRM programs.

Gaining an edge
As printing, communications and technology changes during the next five years, how can heady printers and print salespeople get a leg up on the competition? Keeping an open mind and educating oneself to new trends, developing a marketing mentality, and staying attuned to customers’ changing needs will all be critical factors for industry personnel who want to say ahead of the curve.

“Print salespeople are going to have to embark on an educational mission — reading, seminars, hanging out with business people and trying to determine what drives them,” says Hanson. “They should be thinking about how they’re going to affiliate themselves and learn how to become a business partner with customers where they’re helping them make better decisions, and they’re selling at a high level.”

Part of developing an effective new selling mindset involves a shift in thinking from traditional print sales strategies toward marketing, a focus that many print salespeople lacked in the past. “The print salespeople who will be successful think like marketers,” says Littrell. “You’ve got to be thinking about the best way to market and promote this thing. It’s marketing savvy. Most salespeople are short-term focused, they don’t [care].” But they should, because the most forward-thinking printers and salespeople see themselves as marketing service providers and understand the marketing needs of their clients.

Analyzing client needs and defining a value proposition beyond, “We provide general commercial printing” will be key to growing print business in the years to come. “Those organizations and print salespeople that anticipate the changing needs of their customers and make the necessary investments in their business can both gain and maintain an edge,” says Laabs. In some cases, that may even mean turning a print job down if it’s not in the client’s best business interest — a counterintuitive move that can create long-term trust and build more business in the future.

As it becomes increasingly difficult to compete on price alone, salespeople will need to find new ways to differentiate themselves. “The leaders in our industry are looking much more at customized 
solutions and consultative sales,” says Fenton. “They’re not just asking, ‘Hey, do you need some print?’ but instead are saying, “Explain to me what you’re trying to accomplish here, and let me see if I can put together a group of services that will help you achieve your goal.”

Is selling dead?
With all the changes in the industry, is print selling on its way out? The short answer is “no,” but it is changing dramatically. Basic, low-cost commoditized products such as business cards are moving to online, automated systems that eliminate the salesperson. But high-level, increasingly complex sales opportunities will continue to develop during the next five years, and it’s critical that printers and print salespeople understand this aspect of the business. “When you move past the discussion of print as a commodity and start talking about selling solutions and applications that will meet customers’ marketing service needs, you see the customer start to understand and embrace the opportunity,” says Joyce. “It’s the role of the salesperson to take the time to really understand the customers’ needs and develop a multifaceted marketing and printing plan to meet those needs.”

The good news is that for print salespeople willing to do more than just go out and sell printing, opportunities are there. “Selling has risen to a whole other level,” says Hanson. “It’s a much more involved sale. It requires an entirely different level of expertise, professionalism and maturity. We need our salespeople working on the selling and really qualifying with the customer, understanding their needs and designing the solution for them.”

With the advent of new print technologies, sales reps will be better apt to serve the customer, but only if they truly understand the needs of the customer. “Selling has always been about listening,” says Ring. “Just because you have the bigger or newer press doesn’t mean you get the sale. Appreciate the predicament of your customer.”

At the end of the day, businesses still have to close sales and still have to define what success is, and that’s true even as selling morphs to a more solution-based model. “For most business-to-business marketing and communication initiatives, the need for highly capable and effective salespeople has never been greater,” says Laabs. “The only difference moving forward is that people don’t want to be ‘sold’ something, they want to be consulted, and then provided with the best solution for their needs.” Whether print salespeople take the time to understand and educate themselves regarding these needs will be critical to whether they remain relevant five years from now.

Sidebar: The Last Salesperson Standing
By Linda Bishop, Thought Transformation

Bob sold pagers. He took the job in 1985. Back then, signal range was limited and all of his clients were hospitals. During the next five years, Bob made a comfortable living while scientists made improvements. By 1990, wide-area paging had been invented. Bob was in the right place at the right time when pager sales exploded, and he made big bucks.

No one knew more about pagers than Bob. His customers loved him. They appreciated his expertise.

As the 1990s progressed, mobile phone technology improved. Bob’s company embraced the potential new market, but Bob didn’t. He still made plenty of money selling pagers so why change?

Bob’s clients embraced the new technology, too, because it made their lives easier. Bob’s commission checks began to shrink. Finally, he struggled to make his draw.

After a string of bad months, the boss called Bob in and said, “I’m sorry, but we’re closing the pager division. I have to let you go.”

Bob was fired because he was no longer relevant. He ignored innovation. He refused to learn new skills. He didn’t open his eyes to the changing needs of his clients.

There are plenty of Bobs in the printing industry. If you’re reading CANVAS, you’re probably not one of them.

Learn and apply
When the client is ready to buy, you want to be the last salesperson they talk to. You’ll get that opportunity because your client looks to you as a trusted advisor instead of their vendor. You can earn that role by taking the following steps.

Be the bearer of news and information about current industry concerns. Be prepared to talk about PURLs, green issues, and variable data. Most of us don’t have to be experts — yet — but all of us should be familiar enough with the subjects to sound intelligent in a conversation. And yes, one day we will have to be experts. With that in mind, why not start down the path today?

Learn about marketing. Would the chief marketing officer enjoy a conversation with you? If you want the answer to that question to be an enthusiastic yes, then you need to understand their concerns and point of view.

Invite all department heads in your plant to lunch and discuss changing technology and green issues. You’ll sell more if you know more about these areas and how your plant is adapting.

Embrace the technology your clients embrace. If you’re still using a cell phone, replace it with a BlackBerry, an iPhone, or another PDA device. If your boss won’t pay the cost of the upgrade, spend your own money. Invest in a better way to respond to your client. Invest in yourself. You’re worth it.

Know how advertising works on the Web. Understand the meaning of basic terminology. Look at the Google Analytics site and know how it works. Like it or not, the Internet is now one of your competitors. Ignore it at your peril.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking all this green stuff is just another pet-rock fad. Get educated or get left behind.