As the print industry has evolved over the past decade, printers have had to quickly adapt to a changing landscape. More and more, when businesses are looking to buy from printers, they’re looking for holistic programs, not one-off print jobs. This is the difference between being a vendor versus being a partner. For print salespeople, this shift affects everything. Touting low costs, high speeds, and a high-quality press doesn’t cut it anymore. When the services you’re selling include everything from modern web-to-print technology, data management, and marketing programs, you need a wide array of skills and expertise in your sales team.
Buying Print Isn’t a One Person Job Either
One of the biggest changes in the industry is how print buyers make decisions. With the wealth of information available, and the number of departments supported, buying print is no longer a one-person job. The search for a printer is a part of a larger process. That process will have technical aspects, creative aspects, and business strategy aspects. That means the people involved in the print buying decision will include people in technical, creative and executive roles.
Selling print requires talking to people with different perspectives on the project, different specialties, and different levels of knowledge about print and print technology. That’s a lot to juggle for one person.
Then there’s the practical aspect of this new kind of printer/client relationship. The new print sales cycle involves more contacts, more communication mediums, and a longer timeline. These complications add up and turn what used to be a fairly straightforward process into a substantial project.
Even if the decision-maker on the buying side of the equation is just one person, they’ll likely have other influencers adding layers of complexity to the decision-making process. Each department in the company has its own needs and considerations and many of these are going to come into play during the sales cycle. Putting all of this on one salesperson is a tall order. Having a team in a place that can fill in the gaps in communication and expertise is the best way to untangle any potential knots in the print solution sales cycle.
Now, let’s break down some of the main principles and tactics you’ll need to effectively develop a collaborative printing sales force.
Strengthen the Marketing/Sales Connection
Marketing is becoming increasingly important to the business model of your average commercial printer as the types of services and nature of the customer/client relationship changes. Implementing diverse marketing tactics and tying those tactics into the broader sales process is a tremendous way to modernize and bolster your sales strategy.
For example, many printers these days are using webinars as a powerful marketing tool. Webinars can be used to demonstrate how a printer is staying ahead in the technological arms race of the printing industry. It’s also an effective tool for moving potential customers through the sales funnel.
The only way to successfully weave this sort of marketing tool into your sales process is by facilitating proactive communication between your sales and marketing people. Your marketing and sales efforts need to be locked in step with each other. Making this happen requires effective leadership. Which brings us to the next point…
Establishing Sales Leadership
As with any team, establishing clear leadership is essential. According to a recent report by NAPCO Research, 46% of sales reps in printing companies report directly to the owner.1 This sort of sales structure can work for smaller companies with limited offerings, or printers with a strong specialty. For everyone else, a little more structure can make a big difference.
The most impactful way to start building out your sales team is establishing a sales manager. Simply delegating a role whose primary function is to manage and track the sales efforts of your team can pay big dividends in the long run. That’s because continually measuring and tracking sales activities and adjusting those activities as needed is key to improving sales over time.
In an evolving market where demand for more and more complex services is increasing all the time, sales strategies can’t remain stagnant.
One Last Thought
All of this talk about changing times in the print industry and print selling paradigm shifts is more nuanced than can be fully dissected in a breezy blog article. In truth, there are many markets in which price is still king when it comes to print sales. In other markets, printers are embracing new ideas and reshaping their sales strategies to great effect. For some, the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” still applies.