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Print
Solutions May 2006
433
East Monroe
Bogey,
Par, Birdie!
This
issue is all about the art of
sales. We wanted to highlight
some of the best practices in
sales and customer service with
a theme that we hoped would resonate
with many of our readers: golf.
But the avenues for comparison
were endless. Sports have all-stars,
great teamwork, inspired coaching
and more. A successful sale requires
just as much training, concentration
and teamwork as any winning play
by a group of guys (or girls)
in basketball, football or soccer
jerseys.
But
no matter what analogy we might
use, the advice is perfectly clear
from these “masters
of the game” who have
sold and serviced millions of
dollars in printing. It all stems
from the basics.
If
you want to sell, you must listen
more than you talk. It sounds
like a simple concept –
research, question and learn –
but in a maturing, commoditized
market, sometimes salespeople
panic. These pros say that for
all those pressured moments when
the right sales strategy just
flies out the window, it helps
to go back to the basics and review.
They emphasize tactics such as
writing an elevator speech, examining
the client’s work processes
and keeping detailed notes about
client needs and the stress points
of their business. They were willing
to share their stories of temporary
setbacks (and triumphs) and even
a moment where one rep walked
away from a million dollars of
health care business (p.
24).
Speaking
of health care, we also dedicated
several sales-related stories
to that ever-evolving vertical
market. We profile
a distributor who parlayed
supplying a few products for a
local HMO into handling the distribution
of a complex open enrollment insurance
program for all Florida state
employees (p.
72.) We also provide an update
on the Novation
contract (p.
65), and examine the potential
negative impact on traditional
health care product sales now
that hospitals throughout the
country are shifting to electronic
medical records. Veterans of the
health care market explain how
they might change
sales strategies to handle
these possible losses (p.
58.)
Finally,
we report on this year’s
Small
Distributor Summit, where
a record number of participants
networked, shared management tips
and discussed industry trends
(p.
78.)
LaShell
Stratton
Assistant
Editor
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