My Core Sales Beliefs

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As a sales trainer in the graphic arts, I come across all kinds of sales types (reps and owners) at all levels of sales experience. My conversations range from coaching someone to the next level to talking someone off the ledge. It’s a fun human experiment to be a part of. One of the earliest pieces of advice I was given was to become a student of sales. I took that to mean study human nature and observe others so that you can become the best version of your sales self.

While there is no one-size-fits-all manual for success, there is a set of core sales truths we can use as a guide. You might have yours.

Here are mine:

• Eternal Sales Basics — With the advent of the digital age came new ways to deflect direct contact from a sales rep. Caller ID and voicemail have built a moat around decision-makers. We must recognize and engage new tactics in order to make contact and develop deep, long-lasting relationships. But even as AI expands our abilities and new applications within the job of sales, none of it matters if you aren’t in line with certain sales fundamentals. You still need to identify great prospects. You still need to have a sales process with a solid reason for someone to see you. And you still need to be persistent as the day is long. None of that is negotiable. The alpha and omega of sales lie in these fundamentals.

• What Was Once Optional is Now Mandatory — Once upon a different decade, customers came to us and stayed with us. There was loyalty. If you owned the negatives or plates, you owned the customer. Today, printers must move up the customer food chain, moving from the quote stage of the job to the idea stage. Our job is no longer to provide quality, service, and price. We must understand the clients’ business and be subject matter experts in the world of our top accounts. Understanding their challenges and direction, and then selling solutions that meet a need, allows us to sell at our price and go from service provider to valued partner.

• We Live in an Amazon World — Good communication is critical. We need to make information available to the point where a client never has to call with a question about an order. They know either because they can find it instantly online or we’ve already told them via email. Also, social proof in the form of testimonials and reviews is as important when buying a refrigerator as it is when clients are buying printing. Similar to our personal Amazon experience, customers want to see you’ve got a good reputation before they choose you to be their vendor of choice.

• Marketing is the New Sales — Another “once optional, now mandatory” truth is the need for marketing. This starts with a solid, well-curated LinkedIn page and continues with intentional, consistent messaging that screams, “WE GET YOU” to the world, resulting in incoming calls that sound like this: “I saw your video. We have the same issue. Can you come in and talk to us?” Wait, did you hear that? That was the sound of the “Price” and “We already have a vendor” objections disappearing!

• Sales Fails — Fifty percent of salespeople do not last one year. Eighty percent are gone after two. Why? The popular practice is to blame the rep. I put more blame on the shoulders of management. Back in the day, you hired a sales rep to find the leads, qualify, get the appointment, do the design, make the sale, enter the order, follow up to ensure all goes well, and even collect overdue receivables. Today, the job pool is a lot smaller. “I am hoping to go into print sales” doesn’t typically make the list of responses to the question, “So, Timmy, what are you doing after graduation?” at family events. I believe it’s incumbent upon management to generate qualified leads and handle all activity once the order has been placed. Everything in between those two actions belongs to the salesperson.

• You Are as Good as the Last Job You Shipped In — Customer loyalty simply isn’t what it used to be. Perhaps because we don’t have or take the time to properly develop customer/vendor relationships like we once did (lunches, golf outings, etc.), clients don’t stay clients as long as they used to. This isn’t a new phenomenon, but it is critically important you continue to earn the business of every account you have. Remind them why they buy from you. Send them information regarding their own industry. And most of all, bring your existing customer base a steady flow of new ideas. What have you done for them lately?

• A Good Vendor Is as Important as a Good Customer — That statement goes into the sales hall of fame. It should be your goal. A good vendor understands the clients’ needs and tries to stay one step ahead. They not only deliver a quality product at a good price and on time, but they follow up after a trade show and find out how things went. A good vendor doesn’t ask, “Do you have anything we can quote on?” They ask, “I saw on your website you have a new product release. What is your launch plan and how can we help?” They think of themselves as a valuable part of the success plan. Look for clients who share this belief. They are a rare find.

• If Everyone Goes Left, Go Right — Ninety percent of first-time sales calls go without a follow up. So, call twice. Your competition thinks, “No one wants to hear from a sales rep on a Friday. It’s the worst selling day of the week.” So, call on Fridays. Emails are a great way to economically and easily introduce yourself to a prospect, but everyone does that and most emails are ignored or end up in a junk filter. So, mail a letter. The easy sales call is to focus on the purchase price. So, learn the story behind the job and come up with a better solution.

AI is an incredible tool (no part of this column was AI-generated, btw). It creates quality content, both marketing pieces and emails. But it is still important to be authentic and genuine. There are shortcuts to lead-gen but insert your personality. Technology advances shorten, improve, tighten, and, well, advance the sales process. But always, always, always be rooted in this final core belief: Your job is to help your customers find their customers. That’s a winning fundamental of success, both for you and for them.