PrintWorthy Advice

Close The Sale with Your Personality Not Your Price

At the end of the day why does a customer choose to do business with you? Was it because you had the best price? The product with the best features? The delivery? Because you were in the right place at the right time? Let's face it, at the end of the day in a competitive sales situation (particularly a large enterprise one) all the factors come pretty close in the final analysis: price generally meets price within a narrow bandwidth, the schedules are close and the feature set has pluses and minuses on each side...it isn't any one thing that puts you over the top and makes the sale. It isn't some magical closing line you have practiced in the mirror or a single compelling presentation. Or is it?

I think it is simply this: It is the sales person's  personality and demeanor that makes the difference. In my experience I have seen buyers choose the lesser product, sometimes at a higher price and I can only see one common thread among all the sales reps that I have managed, coached or fired. The customer wants to be around you when the problems come - they have decided that you are person that they want to solve problems with. You have that chemistry, that flexibility, that quick mind, empathy, that understanding of their business and their own personal plight that they believe will be there throughout the sale and delivery. They somehow know that you will not only be their advocate but their bodyguard and friend. An overstatement? Not really, since deep down we are all driven by similar needs and desires. And buyers are analytical and emotional at the same time - and when the side-by-side analysis is complete with full knowledge and all the numbers spread out there, emotion comes into play and trumps it all. 

Put another way, a customer often buys from the person who they want to see hanging round their office helping them, somebody who when they call it is a relief not a dread to here from them - whether it is a glitch or it is great news.

Call it a fancy name like 'Partnering', or whatever you like. Just look in the mirror and ask what you can do to be more like that person that every customer is looking for. Sure maybe you have to bone up on your product knowledge, presentation skills or writing - or maybe you just have to figure out how to be a better person: and your career will take care of itself. 

Yeah, I know: Who wants a self-help sermon when readers are looking for some quick sales tips? But stay with me here....I ran across an item posted in a non-profit website at www.becauseitmatters.net They outline the "10 Ways to Increase Civility". And when reading that list and the explanations - it occurred to me that isn't that the profile of the perfect salesperson - one who you would want to be solving your problems, partnering with you and propelling your own career forward? This whole topic was also echoed recently in a USA Today article  (12/31/07) about "The Return to Civility" as a reaction to a web-based world where we are connected yet personally detached from one another at the same time. Here is another encouraging  and related development: Research indicates that the largest segment of new buyers of high-quality stationary (at Crane/Papyrus Stores etc) are the Millennium generation. Imagine that, young people are buying Thank-you cards and letter-writing materials in huge numbers.   

So taken all together, it seems to me that if you took steps to embrace the 10 Steps to Civility you might just see your customers embrace you, and that sales career of yours take off.

Quebecor World - Just Say 'Why?'

It’s really disheartening to see a $6 billion organization on the penny stock blogs.

I never understand why, when a company knows this type of financial intersection is coming, they don’t act earlier – they end up doing immense long term damage to the brand. One analyst I was reading observed it had been a revolving door for leadership – I have to echo that. Quebecor has not been setup culturally or structurally to either attract, retain or reward the right people for the long term. There have been several  missed opportunities as the corporate culture failed to embrace the teams that built the operations Quebecor acquired. (I am thinking specifically of people like Marc Reisch post-World Color).

Quebecor’s main misstep in my view was to continue to view the US operation as if it were a collection of regional printers rather than a national brand and an interconnected service network that had to compete on its own in a no-holds barred marketplace. (Remember, in large contract printing this is the NFL) - and then ham-string their managers on the front lines and force them to run everything through the head office in Montreal.

A company with that large a footprint has to be an innovator not an imitator. One might argue that even their attempts at imitating how other companies are reinventing themselves with outsourcing models, and new digital strategies have fallen woefully short.

Admittedly it is hard to transform a large print operation overnight, ask Dennis Rediker at Standard Register how hard it is: It takes vision, tenacity, shareholder patience and money. In Quebecor’s case it could be done – but it would be long fought effort with the level of debt and cash.

More likely is that Donnelley, alone or in partnership with private capital would be interested in picking up the gravure operations that are the jewel in the crown. The gravure operations have a stable of major contract accounts and a production network that cannot be found outside Donnelley or for that matter duplicated. Any buyer of Quebecor would have to look beyond the somewhat antagonistic relationship that Quebecor has with some of its union groups – but then again, a fresh start might unlock new partnership opportunities on that front.  Quad Graphics would be a heaven-sent refuge for any Quebecor gravure plant. On the web-offset side Donnelly would find the offset contract relationships very attractive for the major magazines and short run-magazines and that would undoubtably engender a long process of re-locations and plant closures to rationalize that network.

KKR or Cerberus could assemble a dream-team’ to perform an operational recovery and part the company out over time. They did it with Bob Burton and World Color. Cenveo is a household name now in this type of deal but it is hard to see how if fits with their current strategies (but then again something with that big a footprint has a deal inside it to be made somewhere).

In my view Quebecor would find its highest value if the product groups were re-formed and sold as smaller stand-alone units. New brand identities and operational focus could be found and then the list of potential buyers expands. Those smaller units, better staffed, better positioned and marketed (or at least understood) would generate higher collective interest – Someone like Jim Conway at Courier Inc. has the vision and management team to buy and recover the book operations. The Sheridan Group TSG might also be interested in the short-run magazine/journal locations – that sort of scenario could play out across each product segment but it would be a longer process and involve some operational ‘heavy lifting’. Few have the stomach for that.

Wild card possibilities might include Michael Cunningham of CGI (nowDG3), Mike is the dynamic guy that built Cunningham Graphics, CGI Worldwide – somebody like that in partnership with a hedge fund might suddenly appear at the table. Or perhaps the American Color investors might want to buy the Quebecor gravure operations as a strategy to expand out of the cold-set offset and flexographic markets that have very limited growth opportunities. (What can their strategic Board discussions possibly revolve around in today's world?)

So for the moment, Quebecor has arm-wrestled Royal Bank to step in with some small re-financing, reportedly enticed by the future promise of fees associated with a wireless start-up Quebecor has in the works. (There is a reason hockey is the national sport). All this drama for a measly $100 million or so which still leaves the major traunche of debt still out there and no new break-through management strategies for the firm. Perhaps this gives them the room to conduct a more orderly sale if the short list of potential buyers have not already been snubbed or looked under the hood and decided this bungee-jump was not for them.

On the whole it is hard to identify a long list of entities that might have both the balance sheet and the appetite for ‘big-iron’ manufacturing in a world that it accelerating headlong into digital delivery and Web 2.0 communication models.

 

How Not to Use Powerpoint

We have all sat through that Powerpoint presentation that violated all the rules that a professional salesperson should follow. No one has summed it up in a more engaging manner that the comedian in the short video below. I guarantee that after watching this UTube short you will never, ever be able to make the same mistakes again yourself. Have fun.

Kyte TV - Print technology companies should take a cue on Interface Design

You should check out the beta version of Kyte TV. This may not be just for the Facebook crowd alone. There is some unique functionality for you to create videos, surveys, image galleries, etc and broadcast them on Kyte TV or embed them inside your own webpage. This is still in beta but the interface is slick and easy. I built the survey below in about 10 minutes - try it out. (If you don't see it you need the latest Flash player update).Those of us in the Print Technology space should take note of the type of design and production interface that the Millenium generation is going to demand in the years ahead.

Can Your Sales Career Wait for the Trickle Down?

Old ‘Blue-Eyes’ sings ‘My Way’

At an early point in my sales career I sat in a series of small talks by my company’s most successful reps. They talked off-the cuff about how they went about their daily activities, how they talked to customers, and those simple, daily tactics they found that worked for them. At the time I was struck by a common theme: all of their tips, tricks, resources, and learned behaviors were ones of largely their own invention. None, absolutely none, of the top producing reps were relying on the corporate marketing programs, the ads, or the brochures so artfully crafted at the corporate level. Sure that material helped to form a foundation but they didn’t rely on it. It was simply a backdrop to their own success strategies. Each of those people had gone their own way and taken steps to become a marketing force of one.

Timing is everything

Sometimes corporate marketing programs are delayed or just come at the wrong time in the sales cycle to really do you much good in the short term. The marketing people are well-meaning and working hard but the truth is budgets get cut, or another region or product gets the limelight this quarter as opposed to yours. Sometimes you wait interminably as some team at the top is trying to invent the new life-changing system for Marketing that will integrate Everything…and the words “it should come out next fall” are small comfort to the rep who has to make a forecast and who’s earnings relies on consistent sales results.

It was a simpler time

Back then they were simple things: handwritten birthday cards, mailing articles about competitors, logging conversations in steno books, offering to speak at customer events, helping out at a charity event…the list was long. Yet everything on the list was deceptively simple. Why didn’t I think of doing that? It was clear that what put these people ahead of the rest is that early on they instinctively knew they were, and had to be, a marketing force of one. It remains true today. Technology changes how you go about it but not the fact that despite the corporate support you might be given you have to be self-reliant. And you have to find self-reliant ways to communicate and close customers. You have to do it – and do it consistently.

Make them Your Own

So rediscover those simple actions that can help you. Then apply today’s technology to that action – and make that technology tool your own. Make it something that you control, that fits your style and conveys your own sales personality to the prospect. For example, instead of just sending an often inappropriate holiday gift to a customer or prospect this year you might log on to Kiva.org and send them a gift card for a loan to a developing country entrepreneur. Sound daring? I guarantee that the customer will always remember you and can re-loan the gift themselves in an easy ‘pay-it-forward’ web application. The new technology tools are out there in bigger and better ways than ever before – and you can easily make them your own to become that marketing force of one.

A half hour in the WTT Archives = $100K Consulting Bill

Okay, I just spent an hour on a conference call with a couple very well meaning young men from the top consulting company in the country (at least one with the top brand). They started by talking about their 'major client' who was evaluating suppliers for Purl campaigns ya-da-ya-da. After a while of rather awkward Q and A on both sides it became clear that these guys were trying to go to school without having done much preparatory research on their own to start with. Can't really blame them. It must be nice to have that calling card. And then it occurred to me... if you really want an education on all things print, the trends, the pioneers, the buzz, and the new technology ..all you need to do in order to get up to speed quickly is to grab about 10-15 of the PDF articles on WTT written by Gail Nickel Kailing, Cary Sherburne, or Barb Pellow or ones on their own websites. Save yourself a cool $100K and skip a meeting with the  big name consulting groups. What all three of these people have in common is the ability to convey complex issues in a clear manner, they are on top of their industry, on top of their game and willing to share expertise. Perhaps you or your company will hire them someday for their insights and guidance (you should) but in the meantime you can tap into it for simply for the cost of an ink cartridge. And then you'll be able to put together that 'state of the industry' Powerpoint for that prospect (no plagiarizing please) or maybe just talk your way past your sales manager when he wants to know what's new. A round of applause please for these three oracles of print.