Please share your thoughts on the future of sales. Do you forsee a change in the approach to sales? Will it get easier? Please also feel free to comment on Mark’s comments about the changing in sales.
I’ve heard other people comment recently that sales in the past were kind of easy. I never found it that way or perhaps I never perceived it as such. If my sales seemed to be coasting in the past, I tried hard to do more to challenge myself. I do agree though that print salespeople need to evolve more into strategic consultants who offer marketing solutions as opposed to merely print. Our world continues to change and it’s up to the astute salesperson to adapt with the way business is conducted.
Much has been said about fulfilling the needs of our customers and being in a position to offer solutions based on those needs. Sometimes our customers do not have a clue what to do to grow their business and that is why it is imperative that we all are better equipped to handle those situations. A friend of mine who is very successful at providing marketing solutions married with data management stated that his customers are expecting him to provide the answers to their needs. We may not be in a position or have the expertise to meet those needs, so what do we do? At PODI this year it was stressed that we need to network with other companies who do different things and applications we may not be exposed to but if we avail ourselves to these opportunities we stand a better chance of meeting our customers needs,. Solutions in my opinion is the key for the future. If we are offering up the same ideas we will end up with the same results.For example , do your customers have needs regarding wide format applications. Is there a company you could partner up with to offer this to your existing customers? If we are to have any chance of growing and building a better future we need to expand our thinking and move out of our comfort zone. Your customers will flock to you if you present them new ideas and solutions. We need to seperate ourselves from our competition. Are we educating ourselves to all the possibilities that our industry exposes us to? In closing may we all really examine where we are and not be afraid to ask for help. Network at any time. The help and advice you get cannot be measured. Geo
George: Good call on the need to ask for help. I’d certainly like to ask for some help on many fronts. The sales process ain’t easy and in this climate, people return e-mails & calls even less than before. It seems to me that the relationships we have must truly run deep. With all the social networks and the amount of e-mails out there, how do we connect? No doubt that we will have to have more elaborate solutions, but I worry that people don’t connect very well anymore. It is too easy to brush aside an e-mail or a call. Too easy for marketers to say, “I have no budget, so I’ll use the internet for free”. I am really concerned that we are commoditizing some things, including salesmanship. I want to collaborate and brainstorm, but if everyone is ducking under the desk, how do we break through?
It will be different depending on the specific situation.
If you are selling to fortune 500’s and maybe 1000’s it will be a service level agreement, based on clear standards and continuous improvement.
If you are selling to SMB, it will be about staying top of mind when the printing event is about to happen and responding very quickly.
If you are selling to mass market, Staples, VistaPrint, it will be about a have a go to location, either physical in the case of Staples, Office Depot, Fedex, Alpha Graphics. Or on the web in the case of Vista Print.
The most promising route in my humble opinion is to network and partner with newspaper ad salespeople. 1+1 is much more than 2. They sell they Print and web ad to SMB. Print sells the collateral. Together you may be able to grow this into a full range marketing program for local business. Figure out the comp split. Forget about owning the customer. And have a good designer you can call upon to get it right.
As for the sales process: Consider there are six bins.
Suspect – Anyone you can get in front of.
Warm suspect – Anyone who gets in touch with you.
Prospect – Anyone who asks for an estimate
Customer – Anyone who gives you money in exchange for a service
Client – Anyone who has done a number of customer transactions
Fan – Anyone who willing recommends you to their friends
The sales process is moving people from one bin to the next.
February 16th, 2009 at 10:15 AM
I’ve heard other people comment recently that sales in the past were kind of easy. I never found it that way or perhaps I never perceived it as such. If my sales seemed to be coasting in the past, I tried hard to do more to challenge myself. I do agree though that print salespeople need to evolve more into strategic consultants who offer marketing solutions as opposed to merely print. Our world continues to change and it’s up to the astute salesperson to adapt with the way business is conducted.
February 16th, 2009 at 11:22 AM
Much has been said about fulfilling the needs of our customers and being in a position to offer solutions based on those needs. Sometimes our customers do not have a clue what to do to grow their business and that is why it is imperative that we all are better equipped to handle those situations. A friend of mine who is very successful at providing marketing solutions married with data management stated that his customers are expecting him to provide the answers to their needs. We may not be in a position or have the expertise to meet those needs, so what do we do? At PODI this year it was stressed that we need to network with other companies who do different things and applications we may not be exposed to but if we avail ourselves to these opportunities we stand a better chance of meeting our customers needs,. Solutions in my opinion is the key for the future. If we are offering up the same ideas we will end up with the same results.For example , do your customers have needs regarding wide format applications. Is there a company you could partner up with to offer this to your existing customers? If we are to have any chance of growing and building a better future we need to expand our thinking and move out of our comfort zone. Your customers will flock to you if you present them new ideas and solutions. We need to seperate ourselves from our competition. Are we educating ourselves to all the possibilities that our industry exposes us to? In closing may we all really examine where we are and not be afraid to ask for help. Network at any time. The help and advice you get cannot be measured. Geo
February 16th, 2009 at 1:41 PM
George: Good call on the need to ask for help. I’d certainly like to ask for some help on many fronts. The sales process ain’t easy and in this climate, people return e-mails & calls even less than before. It seems to me that the relationships we have must truly run deep. With all the social networks and the amount of e-mails out there, how do we connect? No doubt that we will have to have more elaborate solutions, but I worry that people don’t connect very well anymore. It is too easy to brush aside an e-mail or a call. Too easy for marketers to say, “I have no budget, so I’ll use the internet for free”. I am really concerned that we are commoditizing some things, including salesmanship. I want to collaborate and brainstorm, but if everyone is ducking under the desk, how do we break through?
February 20th, 2009 at 6:20 AM
It will be different depending on the specific situation.
If you are selling to fortune 500’s and maybe 1000’s it will be a service level agreement, based on clear standards and continuous improvement.
If you are selling to SMB, it will be about staying top of mind when the printing event is about to happen and responding very quickly.
If you are selling to mass market, Staples, VistaPrint, it will be about a have a go to location, either physical in the case of Staples, Office Depot, Fedex, Alpha Graphics. Or on the web in the case of Vista Print.
The most promising route in my humble opinion is to network and partner with newspaper ad salespeople. 1+1 is much more than 2. They sell they Print and web ad to SMB. Print sells the collateral. Together you may be able to grow this into a full range marketing program for local business. Figure out the comp split. Forget about owning the customer. And have a good designer you can call upon to get it right.
As for the sales process: Consider there are six bins.
Suspect – Anyone you can get in front of.
Warm suspect – Anyone who gets in touch with you.
Prospect – Anyone who asks for an estimate
Customer – Anyone who gives you money in exchange for a service
Client – Anyone who has done a number of customer transactions
Fan – Anyone who willing recommends you to their friends
The sales process is moving people from one bin to the next.