Business Management - Marketing/Sales

For salespeople, the holidays can mean leaving an endless string of voice-mail messages for prospects. Your request for a call back—especially during the holidays—is likely to be ignored. Instead, promise a specific action on your part.

The second response to my recent writer’s block blog produced this question: “How do you do your job and balance being PERSISTANT without being a PEST?” That is such a great question! Here are a few of my thoughts.

Today, sadly, it’s sell or die for the Selling Owner. Yet, too many sit frozen staring at the quiet phone, wondering when Opie is going to come in and order some copies of Aunt Bea’s new book: “Things I Found in My Hairdo One Day.”

It is in your best interest as a printer to make sure your customers are secure in their jobs. They are responsible for giving your firm business. They are your biggest advocates inside their companies—often, they’re your only advocate.

The commonly accepted formula for determining a brand’s value is (Product Benefit + Brand Equity)/Cost. However, you arrive at a brand’s truest value by adding in the Marketing Benefit. Today’s customers and consumers want to form a relationship with their brands of choice.

Your company can use on-hold messages as another opportunity to educate customers and prospects about your company and the services you provide. Repetition through top-of-mind positioning is key to ensuring print buyers think of you whenever they need a solution.

You have a fantastic meeting and fill the prospect’s head with some new printing innovations. The prospect thanks you and promises to call you “soon,” but you later discover that s/he took your ideas, shopped them around, and sold you down the river for a lower price.

To recap: I’ve got one sampling of sales people telling me they make 12 sales calls a day and another of equal size reporting to me that they make six. We all know that sales reps don’t lie, so that leaves only one explanation: Performance-enhancing drugs are involved.

With these five easy questions, you’ll get at the heart of current customer satisfaction without spending a bundle. It is absolutely vital that you know what to do with the results and have a process in place to get it done.

I just received an online order delivery that reminded me of the lost art of using customer-shipped jobs as a way to build relationships and market for additional orders. Packed inside with my order was a small pocket folder.