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I recently came across sales training materials that went back 40 years. Reviewing them reaffirmed my belief that buyer-seller relationships have changed at least as rapidly and significantly as technology.
“I know salespeople who sell millions of dollars of print each year by processing job specifications provided by customers. These reps are typically well-liked, but they’re also besieged by ongoing price competition and a barrage of jobs to estimate.”
Lessons in the old training materials concentrated in three areas:
• Preparing and rehearsing a presentation
• Planning the territory route
• Rebutting objections
Similar programs developed during the same time period addressed “power dressing,” manners and protocol. According to these manuals, success is easy: Just follow the multi-step formulas, dress well, be persistent and know everything there is to know about the product you’re selling.
The manuals led me to reflect on the 2007 definition of “great salesmanship.” It’s no longer a matter simply of receiving an order, however large and profitable. It isn’t about being liked by buyers or being the resident expert about the products you sell or organizing a route to make as many calls as possible in the shortest period of time.
There is merit in all of those aspects, but successful selling today is about the customer as well as getting the order. It’s about first establishing conditions that make people want to buy—the pre-condition of the order. If no two buyers have the same needs, experiences, objectives and perceptions, then the ability to gather information, as well as the imagination and versatility to use that information to support customers’ objectives, are key elements of great salesmanship.
In tangible terms, what does this mean? Mediocre salesmanship involves meeting customers’ demand for print. When asked, “What does this buyer do?” the mediocre salesperson will respond, “Two-color sell sheets,” or something similar, rather than, “It manufactures widgets.”
I know salespeople who sell millions of dollars of print each year by processing job specifications provided by customers. These reps are typically well-liked, but they’re also besieged by ongoing price competition and a barrage of jobs to estimate.
A great salesperson is sufficiently familiar with a customer’s business to anticipate demand. That rep frequently gets involved in planning a project, providing ideas and suggestions that provide unique value outside of the manufactured product.
A great rep also is knowledgeable about graphic arts. He or she creates print that otherwise wouldn’t exist and helps the customer achieve its objectives. To succeed, the great salesperson has the discipline to rise above the objection, “Your price is too high.” They see those words as a challenge to create something of value to the customer. Sometimes it’s not possible—but sometimes it can be done.
Even if you now sell to a mega-account (or two or three), learn more about its business. A 15 percent increase in sales to this customer probably will exceed the sales from any new account. Create a product, procedure or plan to help the customer improve its plant productivity. Price can be lowered only so far and so often to elevate perceived customer value, but there’s no limit to the perceived benefits that a great salesperson can offer a customer.
Contributing Editor Dick Gorelick is an award-winning authority on sales, marketing and business strategies for the printing industry. As president of the Graphic Arts Sales Foundation in West Chester, Pa., he travels extensively, consulting, writing and speaking on sales training.
Contributing Editor Dick Gorelick is an award-winning authority on sales, marketing and business strategies for the printing industry. As president of the Graphic Arts Sales Foundation in West Chester, Pa., he travels extensively, consulting, writing and speaking on sales training.