I will be 59 this month and I'm getting crotchety. Lots of things annoy me.
Our era of excess communications annoys me. Everyone, including many adolescents whose voices haven't changed, have cell phones. Cell phones really annoy me in airports and on airplanes. I was on a flight recently where the guy next to me, the people in front of me and behind me were all speaking on cell phones just before takeoff. The flight attendant had to insist that all five hang up for takeoff. Here is some news. All five of those self-important louts were having trivial personal conversations—in loud voices I might add.
Of course, as soon as we were in the air, all five opened their laptops, you guessed it, to play games. Furthermore, all five boarded the plane with three bags, all hooked together on wheels. These wheeled bags, of course, enable them to depart the airport quickly so they can call some other friend to announce, "I'm on my cell, leaving the airport and I just scored 25,000 playing Tetris." My personal reaction to this airport behavior is to board planes carrying nothing. Yep, I've got nada—no cell phone, no bags, no newspaper, nothing.
Long-winded voice mail also irritates me. Long-winded e-mails anger me. Excess communication abounds, and I'm mad as hell and can't take it anymore.
Here is something else that goes with my crotchetiness. I don't believe everything I read or hear.
Here's an example. Both the Printing Industries of America (PIA) and the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) reported that commercial print sales were up seven and a fraction percent for the year 2000. That means that if commercial print sales were $1.00 for the year 1999, then sales were $1.07 for 2000. Now PIA and NAPL are reporting that print sales are up only five and a fraction percent for 2001. If this growth holds for the entire year, it means that the 1999 $1.00 will be $1.1235 for 2001. Make sure you understand now that our two trade associations report that sales are up a modest percent. They did not say that sales are down 20 percent.
Okay, store that information for a minute. Several big printing company CEOs lately have blamed their company's poor results on the "soft print demand associated with the weak economy."
Wanna know what this crotchety old Mañana Man suspects?
I suspect that some of the big company plant presidents, seeing that they'd had a few bad months, told the big boss, "The economy is weak out here in Mayberry; our competitors are cutting prices and we didn't make our budget. So, big boss, it's not my fault."
Then I further suspect that the plant printing salespeople, realizing they were having a few bad months, are the ones who told the plant presidents, "Boss, we're out here working our tails off, but the economy is bad, our competitors are cutting prices and we can't sell any printing." The salespeople got their economic news from CNN.
Excuses make me even more crotchety. Just once I'd like to read a big company press release that says:
"Humongous Printing Corporation President and CEO Warren R. Wallstreit announced that the poor results for the fourth quarter were his fault. He said, "I have totally ignored our sales and marketing effort, and have done nothing to motivate the plant presidents or the salespeople." Mr. Wallstreit continued, "I have recently, however, visited all the plants and conducted an investigation and we are taking the following actions.
"First, I discovered that 20 of our 100 salespeople are making 80 percent of our sales. Fifty of the under-performing 80 salespeople can improve. The other 30 should be involved in some other vocation and we are helping them find new employment.
"Next, I interviewed all 100 salespeople and only 20 could name, from memory, their top 10 new account prospects. The other 80 could only name an average of 2.5 prospects and these salespeople knew little or nothing about the 2.5 prospects they could remember. We are inaugurating a program that will require in-depth prospect information development and we are training our salespeople to prospect for new business.
"Then I observed that 80 of our 100 salespeople make a few phone calls each week and then make a handful of sales calls each week. When they make these phone calls and personal visits they ask the print buyer if they have any jobs we can quote. You know what? Every so often one of these buyers will decide to give the salesperson a chance and will fax or e-mail him some job specs. When this happens, I learned that our salespeople are happy and they dutifully deliver the specs to our estimating department. Two to three days later, our salesperson e-mails our job quote back to the customer.
"Then our salespeople wait, hopefully, for the customer to send us a purchase order. I discovered that every once in a while our bid is lowest and we actually get the job. Our new sales program will require that our salespeople call to acknowledge receipt of the job specs and ask the customer when he will be making a decision. We are inaugurating a training program to teach our salespeople how to sell and ask for the order during the window of time between quotation and purchase decision. I think this will dramatically improve our hit rate.
"Finally, we are implementing a training program to teach our salespeople to talk about our company's benefits. This program will also teach them how to question customers and prospects and then, more importantly, how to truly listen to their answers. The training will also teach our salespeople how to ask for the order on every opportunity.
"I will be taking more of a personal interest in our sales effort in the future. I plan to make team calls with salespeople when I visit our plants. I think this will help me, as company president, better understand our customers and our markets. Now that I think about it and now that I have actually conducted my investigation, it occurs to me that our sales department is just as important as our pressroom and our accounting department. So, in the future, I'm going to devote as much attention to sales as I do to the other departments in our company."
I know, I know! I'll never read a press release like the fiction I just wrote. At least I got the frustration out of my system and I feel far less crotchety.
I believe that the key to printing prosperity is good management, not the economy. That's good company management, good sales management and good personal selling management. I see well-managed companies soaring in these weak economic times. I also see skilled, highly motivated salespeople breaking all their previous records. These companies and these salespeople always get a little better in hard times. The poorly managed companies and under-performing salespeople always get a lot worse.
My fictional company president concluded his press release by saying, "We're all going to get out there and sell something!"
—Harris DeWese
About the Author
Harris DeWese is the author of Now Get Out There and Sell Something!, published by Nonpareil Books. He is a principal at Compass Capital Partners and is an author of the annual "Compass Report," the definitive source of information regarding printing industry merger and acquisition activity. DeWese specializes in investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, sales, marketing, planning and management services to printing companies.