Advice Worthy of T-Shirts –DeWese
Eighty percent of success is showing up. So said Woody Allen.
Damn, I wish I had said that. I think I'll embellish it, and then it will be mine and I can make up some t-shirts.
My version would be, "Ninety percent of success is showing up with a little talent." See? I changed it a lot. Look for the bold changes I made below.
"Ninety percent of success is showing up with a little talent." So sayeth Harris DeWese, 2011. Take that Woody!
Or, how 'bout, "Ninety-five percent of success is showing up with lotsa talent and a great sense of humor?" Attributable, of course, to the Mañana Man, aka Harris De- Wese, 2011.
Now, I've got Woody Allen on his knees begging for mercy. And, I've got two t-shirts printed on a fine Pima cotton. I'm selling $30 t-shirts except, of course, for my larger followers who require more Pima to accommodate their extensive tummies. I can get $40 for x-large and even larger ones.
Pima cotton is also known as Egyptian cotton or Sea Island cotton. It is recognized for its luxuriant comfort and exquisite appearance.
Carramba! I've just raised the price to $40 and $50 for the big boys and girls.
And that sap, Woody, hasn't even raised his landing gear.
If I was gonna list the top sales principles, I would put Woody's right up around maybe number five or six. A great printer, the late Mr. Bernie Grossman, taught me his version of this rule when he recounted how he sold the Maxwell House coffee account way back when the brand was owned by General Foods—and way back when they only had two flavors, regular and decaf.
Right Place, Right Time
Bernie owned Laurel Printing, he was the lead pressman and was the only salesman for the company. He needed jobs to make the payments on the press, and to feed his wife and hungry sons. So, every Tuesday he would call on the General Foods print buyer, who also bought the staples, paper clips and sodas for the lunch room.
Finally, one Tuesday, the buyer had an emergency job involving wedding invitations for his only daughter's nuptials. Bernie was there in his lobby chair when the buyer came rushing out with the copy for the "forgotten invitation" and his wife's multiple handwritten threats. Bernie got the job, stayed up all night and delivered it in one day.
Oh, Bernie's wife had mastered the Palmer Method of calligraphy and Bernie, always the salesman, using his best suggestive selling, suggested that Laurel Printing address, stuff and mail the 300 invitations.
A few years passed, the favor was remembered and Laurel Printing was billing General Foods about $9 million annually.
So, there you have a third sales principle: sell add-ons. Don't limit your offerings. Laura Laaman, writing in the Dayton (OH) Business Journal, offered, "Selling add-ons are a win-win. The win for the customer even though she/he is paying for additional products or services, there is often an increase in satisfaction with the purchase, as well as increased convenience of one-stop shopping."
Then why don't most salespeople use suggestive selling regularly? Many sales reps intuitively and correctly sense that pushing or even nudging a customer to make a larger purchase sometimes pushes the customer too far out of her or his comfort zone, and they could end up losing the entire sale—either temporarily or permanently.
Suggestive selling, by the way, is fun selling. It requires creativity and spontaneity, which by the way, is not unlike some of your memories from the backseat of your '56 Chevy Bel Air.
A failure to close the sale or to close properly is another major vulnerability that must be included in the top weaknesses. This is an easy t-shirt. It would read, "Ask for the Order!" and then, "Shut up!" Perhaps the shirt front would read, "Ask for the Order!" in 72-pt. type with "and then" in 24-pt. type beneath. On the reverse, in 72-pt. type, it reads, "Shut Up!"
So far, there are four great sales principles. If you master those rules, you are headed for fame, glory and some happy wealth.
Here's another principle that may surprise you. If you attain the wealth—whatever you do—don't buy the company. Instead buy a 60-ft. Chris-Craft and a 2011 Lamborghini, or two Ferraris or six Escalades. Ask for daily commission checks and allow enough time to run to the bank for check cashing purposes.
Whatever you do, don't appear to be self-absorbed, pretentious, officious, pompous and/or arrogant. Practice telling print buyers what they need. They don't know what they need. You know their needs.
Print buyers don't know squat. Straighten them out right away. If they try to say something, stomp on their tongues. Or, better yet, grab their wrists and give them an Indian burn. That always shuts them up, and shows them who has the power.
You do the talking. Establish yourself at the Base of Graphic Arts Expertise. That's you, the BGAE. It gives you an aura of omnipotence and destroys the perception that "your prices are too high."
Learn how to overcome print buyers' objections and how to answer their stupid questions, especially the most complex, technical ones.
Work on your bragging. While you are perfecting your story, get out there and sell something! PI
—Harris DeWese
About the Author
Harris DeWese is the author of "Now Get Out There and Sell Something" and "The Mañana Man, Books II and III," available at
www.piworld.com/bookstore. He is chairman of Compass Capital Partners and also authors the annual "Compass Report."
DeWese has completed more than 150 printing company transactions and is viewed as the industry's preeminent deal maker.
He can be reached via e-mail at hmdewese@aol.com.
