Home | Subscribe | Contact Us | Advertise Home | Subscribe | Contact Us | Advertise
Our consulting firm will do virtually anything legal, within its area of competence, to help a client. But we won’t go near employment search or placement. It would be foolhardy, if not unethical, to interact with a client’s staff members and have them suspect that the consultant has a vested interest in replacing them.
Having said that, we are witness to many CEOs’ belief that somewhere in the great unknown, there’s a salesperson who could deliver millions of dollars of volume overnight and who would be intensely loyal to a new employer after “jumping ship” from a previous employer. In many cases, this is an idle wish. Search firms are engaged to find this sales savior, ads are placed and suppliers are asked about candidates. It’s the graphic arts industry version of the search for the Holy Grail, and it’s been going on almost as long as that medieval search.
Our reaction to the CEO hunting for this super-salesperson is to simply ask: “What is the role or job description of a sales rep in your company?” I mentally head for the hills if the response is, “Sell $1 million (or $2 million or $5 million).” That’s an outcome, not a job description.
My question is realistic. No two companies have quite the same job description for a salesperson. In fact, no two salespeople within most medium-size and large print companies have the same operative job description and responsibilities. It calls into question the fairness and effectiveness of a common compensation plan for all salespeople in the same company.
The daily responsibilities of a sales rep are increasingly determined by an employer’s differentiated strategy and the realization by the graphic arts industry that perceived customer value is elevated by a supplier’s ability to provide custom products and services. Price elasticity usually increases in direct relationship to the difficulty and complexity of the product or service being sold.
For an increasing number of print salespeople, daily life has progressed beyond simply finding a buyer looking for “what we do best” work that fits the finite dimensions of the equipment being represented. Certainly, much of that continues to exist, but this type of transaction usually occurs in an environment of intense price competition.
Increasingly, successful print salespeople sell a process—or even a relationship—rather than a job. Process involves a different type of sale. It requires examining the account to determine needs, not merely wants expressed in terms of job specifications. That, in turn, takes time—sometimes months or years. Unlike the process of traditional selling, patience is a virtue.
A custom solution to a buyer’s unique needs involves more than time. It typically requires selling at the top of the organization. It is insufficient for a sales rep to be a symphony of graphic arts technical information. The focus is on the customer’s business needs. Print is a tool, not a solution or objective.
Granted, not every distributorship or manufacturer has adopted the mindset, let alone the process, of offering tailored customer solutions. Many companies are sales-centric or production-centric rather than customer-centric. I make no value judgment of that decision, as long as the company is profitable, has a viable business model and serves its customers well.
Our industry is rapidly becoming less homogeneous. All-purpose truths are evaporating, to the extent they ever existed. The landscape is littered with examples of successful salespeople who find it difficult or impossible to duplicate their performance upon changing employers. The conventional wisdom is that changes in the marketplace are to blame, especially lack of loyalty by buyers. There’s a great deal of truth to that idea, but it’s also the case that different companies have different strategies, capabilities, reputations, cultures and expectations of sales reps’ behavior and performance.
One of the most successful print salespeople I know failed in three companies before becoming a star at his fourth employer. All the companies are located in the same city and have the same equipment.
The moral of the story: Clearly define expectations and be as clinical as possible about your organization’s culture and support before bringing aboard a sales rep. No two companies are alike, nor should they be. Expectations of performance may range from selling jobs and gathering impeccable, complete and accurate specifications to identifying and reporting sales opportunities, and everything in-between.
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.