John Lipari from Plan & Print Systems and Andy Heling from Blue Print Services discuss sales techniques at the 2022 APDSP Regional Workshop in Chicago on April 8.
The APDSP Regional Workshop in Chicago last week – the second of three such workshops – kicked off with a dinner on Thursday night and featured a day full of learning about sales techniques and new markets on Friday. Here are five brief take-aways from the meeting:
1) Don’t chase minnows when you should be chasing whales. Sales trainer Dave Fellman discussed the fact that too many salespeople fail to qualify a lead before pursuing them. Qualifying a lead includes determining if a prospect buys what you’re selling and in enough quantity to make it worth your time pursuing. The less time you have for sales, the more important it is to pursue larger prospects.
2) There are three general types of non-profit customers, and their value to a printing business varies. The first type is a fundraising organization – they typically seek the lowest price (i.e., they are “price monsters”). The second type is a membership organization – these groups can be solid print customers because they do a lot of membership and event marketing and are less price sensitive than fundraising organizations. The third type is an artistic/cultural non-profit – these are most lucrative customers because they cater to a wealthy, well-educated market and they need their printed materials to be top quality.
3) Schools can be good customers for scanning/archiving. Attendee TJ Hurckes from BHFX in Chicago explained during one of the panel discussions that he has created a profitable niche scanning and archiving the vast collections of engineering drawings schools have. He created a database system that tracks the history of the building and has an easy-to-use interface. It’s designed so that future additions/renovations are added to the database so that it’s always current. Monthly fees create a regular revenue stream.
4) “Soften the beaches” before you make a sales call. Attendee and panelist John Lipari from Plan & Print Systems in Syracuse, NY said that he notes who opens his Constant Contact emails and follows up with a postcard about the same promotion. That way when a salesperson calls on that prospect, he or she has already received two passive “touches” and is more receptive to the pitch.
5) Attend a bid meeting. If you really want to see how the bidding process works – and potentially meet the winning bidders in person – consider attending a bid meeting, suggested Joseph Szobody of ReproConnect, who sponsored the workshop. Szobody said a client of ReproConnect’s attends bid meetings and afterwards congratulates the winners while handing out his business card. Since the client already has the documents on his server, it’s logical that the winners turn to his business for more prints.
We’d love to see you at the final 2022 APDSP Regional Workshop! It will be held in Boston on May 5-6. Click here for details.