How a Low-key Strategy Stops Prospects from Refusing to Meet You

I recently agreed to have a meeting with a printing company
You may think that there is nothing unusual in that. The truth is, so many printers ask me for meetings these days that I try and avoid them as much as possible.

Many print sales people talk at me about their presses and then expect me to be delighted at the prospect of a meeting.

And that’s the opposite of what this salesperson did
This printing company adopted what I call the low-key strategy. I never heard a single word about their presses. I wasn't treated to a blow-by-blow account of the company history.

Best of all, they didn't keep asking me to give them jobs to quote for.

Here's why printing companies need to adopt a low-key strategy
Printing companies that adopt this strategy will end up building relationships with their prospects. The conversation will be about more than just the commodity sale. That means they will be in control of a healthier sales pipeline. They will have a better chance of achieving the sales targets they need.

Printing companies that carry on with the same traditional sales approaches will struggle to achieve their targets. They will find prospects harder to convert to customers. They will be treated as commodity suppliers. The conversation will be all about price.

So what should you do to avoid this situation? Here are three ways that the printing company made a successful low-key pitch to me.

They talked about my business
This company made the conversation all about me. It was refreshing to be talking about my business challenges and what I needed. It was refreshing not to be hearing about yet another printing company.

Because the salesperson talked about me, they learned a lot about how they could help me. And they came over as a supplier who might well be able to help my business.

But it wasn’t just this that attracted me to them.

They didn't ask for quotes
I didn't feel like I was being constantly pushed to see if they could produce a cheaper price than the competition. The company kept in touch with me regularly. However, this wasn't just to fulfill the salesperson’s price enquiry quota.

It was clear that, if we progressed to business, the relationship would be about more than ink on paper. It wouldn’t just focus on commodity jobs.

Here is another way in which they proved this.

They followed my company activity
During our conversations, they occasionally mentioned things that they had seen about my company. The salesperson was following my LinkedIn and Twitter feeds. So it was easy to know what I was up to.

Again, this made me feel that they cared about me as a prospect and were interested in my business. In fact, they told me so little about themselves that I became quite curious about them.

In fact, it was me who suggested the meeting
The salesperson turned me into a prospect who was keen to learn about their company. I will be going to the meeting with a genuine interest to find out more about this company and how we might work together. I won’t just be attending because the salesperson battered me into submission.

Would you like a prospect to ask you to meet?

Here's a challenge for you
See if you can manage a call to prospect this week without mentioning any details about your company. See if you can make the conversation all about them. Only give details about your company if the prospect actually asks you for them.

Soon you may have a prospect who is looking forward to meeting you as much as I am looking forward to meeting my printing company.

Will the meeting lead to business?
I can’t say yet. But that printer has gotten so much further along the sales process than most of their competitors.



All because they had a different outlook on the sales process.

P.S. Download Matthew’s free e-book “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them” at http://profitableprintrelationships.com/e-book/.