Print
Solutions December 2005
Mailbag
Sales
Calls Have Changed
I
enjoyed Dick Gorelick’s
Strategic Sales column on rethinking
the sales call’s purpose
(Aug., p. 8). When I started 50
years ago, you called on customers
and prospects regularly. Back
then, it averaged about five calls
or fewer to get a prospect’s
order.
That
was then. Now, you can’t
make calls like that. You have
voice mail (the worst invention
ever), buyers who won’t
see you or are afraid to buy from
you and receptionists who aren’t
allowed to give buyers’
names. They say, “Mail your
information to purchasing.”
You know where that goes.
So
how do you handle the new-age
buyer? You can’t do it the
same way as in the past. Small
distributors like R-E Business
Solutions don’t have the
means for glossy mailings or slick
advertising. I’m sure we’re
not alone.
I
look forward to upcoming issues
to see how you might address the
problem.
Walter
Hill
Sales
Representative
R-E
Business Solutions
Indianapolis
Editor’s
note: The letters below are responses
to our Question of the Month,
“What are your main business
goals for 2006, and what has to
occur for you to achieve them?”
Planning
for a Successful 2006
Our
fiscal year isn’t over until
March 31, 2006, so my first priority
is to hit our budgeted numbers.
We’re behind more than I
would like to be, but we’ll
strive to meet those numbers.
We have added 24 new clients this
year, and our goal was three per
month, so we’re close to
hitting that goal by the end of
March.
Our
big challenge next year is installing
a new software system and having
our clients do releases and orders
online, saving us payroll cost.
We hope to complete installation
by Jan. 1, but figure it will
take a few months to have it work
to our advantage. Also, we’re
planning to develop a
marketing presentation about our
new software capabilities
and how they benefit clients.
We’re hoping this system
will distinguish us from run-of-the-mill
competitors and make us appear
much bigger than we are. “Perception
is greater than reality.”
We’d
like to focus all marketing material
on the medium-sized market. Ninety-eight
percent of our customers are family
owned or privately held. We also
would like to add at least one
new salesperson and a customer
service employee in 2006.
E.H.
“Skip” Campbell
President/CEO
EHC
Inc.
Columbus,
Ohio
We
will continue to improve our WK
OnSite program and plan to increase
locations by 25 percent. We will
be working hard to increase local
distributor attendance and repeat
attendees. (Currently, about half
of the attendees are first-timers.)
Also, we will be bringing back
a focus on our WK Live webinars.
We
will continue new product development
with our Target 14 program, which
involves two new products for
each of seven divisions. The goal
is to get each product to $2 million
in sales within two to three years. We’ll
launch a second set of T14 products
in June 2006 and again each June,
so that by 2007 we’ll have
42 new products. Also, we’ll
continue to design other new applications
for distributors based on unique
opportunities. Several of these
have turned into patents.
We
have started a very large push
for WK Pressure Seal Days to focus
on the variations of that product. In
2006, this will be a very heavy
part of our marketing and product
push. We’ll focus on
traditional and value-added pressure
seal products, as well as a new
segment of the market we feel
is coming by late 2006 in direct
mail and advertising pressure
seal options.
We’ll
expand our entry into the commercial
and digital color print world.
The $2 million we spent last November
on the Indigo 3050 and Karat has
been very worthwhile, and we’ll
continue to offer more color and
promotional print products.
Roger
Buck, CDC
National
Sales Manager
Ward/Kraft
Inc.
Fort
Scott, Kan.
Clarifications
The
following information wasn’t
included in the Print Solutions
Conference & Expo Show Guide,
published in August: SEMCO Inc.,
Milwaukee, has a toll-free phone
number, (800) 558-8930, and a
web site, www.semcoproducts.com.
Its email address is sales@semcoproducts.com.
Also, The Ampersand Group, Akron,
Ohio, is a DMIA member.
Talk
to Us
We
encourage feedback about stories
published in Print Solutions,
as well as in DMIA’s E-Weekly
and Independent Management Report
e-newsletters.
Question
of the month: If you enable customers
to use the internet to customize
and order printed products, what
advantages or challenges have
you experienced? If you don’t
offer web-to-print, what are your
perceptions of the technology?
