Business Management - Marketing/Sales

Develop a set of customer letters you can have sent in response to common business events. This will help differentiate your business and ensure your name comes to mind the next time a prospect has a need for printing services.

Landing an appointment is just the first step. In this week’s “Short Attention Span Webinar,” Kelly and Bill explore the keys to making an effective sales presentation.

Please, great omniscient Print Being in the Sky, make my dreams come true for 2013 and let my people grow! Make them follow up on their leads—those leads that have been so carefully researched and time spent finding current contacts from LinkedIn.

Welcome to, as Readers Digest has proclaimed it to be, “The Year of Optimism.” Before you leave to make your first sales call of the new year, allow me to give you five things to think about.

The year 2013 need not represent an unlucky number for print. The no-real-growth and rising-inflation (or stagflation) economy will shake out many printers of the past, but provide very substantial opportunities for forward-looking companies crossing over to omni-channel media.

Customer service died at roughly the same time when common courtesy became uncommon. The goal of voice mail was once to get someone to call back. Today, when that actually happens, you'd be wise to purchase a lottery ticket. You're on a roll! The I, me, my world we inhabit has given rise to a new breed of rude. But cynics beware: In every problem there is an opportunity!

Taking the time to show customers they’re appreciated pays off. Making follow-up phone calls, sending handwritten “Thank You!” notes and holding customer-appreciation workshops are options to consider. All will make customers more likely to think of you the next time they have a big print job that fits your capabilities.

It’s a weighty assignment to try and cover all of the internal and external communications required to develop a winning brand. Here are four simple steps to move your brand planning from the starting line to the finish:

Finch Paper has been awarded the 2012 Pulp & Paper International Promotional Campaign of the Year Award for its “Digital Field Guide” campaign. The company took a cutting-edge approach to reach its print-industry audience, utilizing both personalized URLs and print-on-demand technology, allowing recipients to customize the guide with their choice of three covers.

Your company website is the FIRST place prospects go to evaluate you. How does your site compare to those of your competitors? Are you putting your company at a disadvantage right from the start? Here are some things to consider: