Assumptions Have No Place in Printing Sales
I’m sure many people have quoted the famous phrase, “You know what happens when you assume, it makes an ass of you and me.” My favorite version of this phrase comes from Samuel L. Jackson in the movie "The Long Kiss Goodnight." You can look it up on IMDB.com or see the film your self, if you like.
The lesson that I continually learn from a phrase like this is that no matter what I THINK I know, I’d better take action and operate on only those facts that I know to be absolutely true.
Here’s how this can apply to your print shop. You provide an estimate for a project, and after you get the project and start working on it, the client changes the deadline and makes significant changes to the parameters, requiring a lot of computer system time and even some overtime. In your head you say, “Well, the customer obviously knows that the price will go up now, so I’ll just wait until we invoice it and try to get more money then. I’m sure he’ll understand and pay us, no problem.” Assumption made.
That is certainly one way to go. I can tell you, though, that many times when I was a sales manager and a salesperson would come to me and tell me we had to credit an invoice because the customer was refusing to pay for alterations, I would ask one question—Did the customer KNOW there would be additional charges at the time we did the work? And if the salesperson said no, I would launch into my lesson about being up front about charges. I always said it was far better, in fact it was my POLICY, for a customer never to be surprised by an invoice. Get ahead of it. Assume nothing.
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- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
Blogger, author, consultant, coach and all around evangelist for the graphic arts industry, Kelly sold digital printing for 15 years so she understands the challenges, frustrations and pitfalls of building a successful sales practice. Her mission is to help printers of all sizes sell more stuff. Kelly's areas of focus include sales and marketing coaching, enabling clients to find engagement strategies that work for them and mentoring the next generation of sales superstars.
Kelly graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Political Science and, among other notable accomplishments, co-founded the Windy City Rollers, a professional women's roller derby league. She is also the mother of two sets of twins under the age of ten, so she fears nothing.
