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Solutions September 2005
Mailbag
Editor’s
note: The following letters are
responses to a Question of the
Month about advice for beginners
in the printing industry.
Sage
Advice for the Industry Novice
Remember
that there’s a tomorrow
in this business. If you’re
fair and honest with your customers
and don’t overload them,
they’ll keep buying from
you. You must create a balance
between new and repeat business.
Tell your customers, and show
by example, that you have the
best product and the best service
at a fair price. That winning
combination is hard to beat over
time. Also, make a presentation
manual of samples you’ve
designed and printed. I still
use one today and keep it updated.
I also carry 50 to 75 other samples
in my case and show them often.
Nick
Nesci, CFC, Senior Management
NBF
Group Inc.
Wethersfield,
Conn.
Here’s
the line I close every sales
meeting with: Go out and sell!
Over the years, it has proven
itself again and again, with my
personal sales as well as those
who work with me. The more a representative
is out selling, the more sales
are made. It sounds simple, but
look around the normal sales office
at 10 or 11 in the morning, and
my guess is more reps will be
inside than outside.
Randy
Eubanks, Account Manager
Suncoast
Marketing
Fort
Lauderdale, Fla.
Know
everything you can about your
prospect or customer, including
their strengths and weaknesses.
Understand its business and business
philosophy, and make sure they’re
congruent with yours in terms
of values, integrity and ethics.
Understand the customer’s
need to succeed in business, and
bring ideas that will help it
succeed.
Joe
Webb, Vice President
Formsystems
Inc.
Pensacola,
Fla.
My
advice is to avoid the hand-to-mouth
approach. It’s easier said
than done when starting out, and
it took me a long time to get
past it myself. But one day a
light bulb went off in my head,
and I realized that some accounts
aren’t worth all the extra
work for little or no extra compensation.
It’s hard to give up business
when you’re starting out,
but my advice is to stay focused
on finding people who are willing
to work for mutual benefit. Tell
them upfront that you operate
with the intent of making a profit
and that your decisions will reflect
that. We all know there are circumstances
when we make unprofitable decisions
to keep promises to loyal customers,
but that’s still a profitable
approach in the long run. Basically,
don’t give up your valuable
time for small change.
Robb
Tipton, CEO
Star Business Products
Kemah, Texas
Build
a knowledge base about our industry.
A good starting point is
reading DMIA’s Business
Forms Handbook from cover to cover,
even if some information seems
dated from a newcomer’s
perspective. Get further education
by participating in DMIA’s
Print University program at www.printuniversity.org.
Know what your employer expects
of you, and learn from others
within your company and from outside
veterans. Build relationships
with end users, manufacturing/partner
personnel and third-party referral
sources. Be truthful in your dealings.
People at all levels of business
still respect—as well as
expect—ethical behavior
from people in whom they’ve
placed trust. Don’t get
angry or yell at others if a mistake
is made. By the time you find
out about the mistake, it’s
too late to change it. Work on
correcting the issue and building
on the future; the past is already
history.
Dick
Gray, CDC, CEO
Xtension
Technologies Inc.
Laguna
Hills, Calif.
Two
very important pieces of advice
can help a novice in the industry,
and even “old timers”
should continue to believe them
to succeed in today’s marketplace:
1) As the industry changes so
quickly, each of us should wake
up “like a duck” in
a new world every day. 2) It still
takes at least 10 calls to sell
90 percent of prospects.
Roger
Courson, Senior Management
IBSA
Indianapolis
I’ll
quote a line from a Bob Dylan
song: “You don’t need
a weatherman to know which way
the wind blows.” In other
words, don’t rely on what
the so-called experts and self-appointed
B-school mavens tell you about
business trends: Go out there
and sniff the air yourself. The
Yale professor who told Fred Smith
that his FedEx concept was stupid
is a good example of a weatherman
who didn’t know which way
the wind would blow. (Fred Smith
must be a Dylan fan.)
Peter
Guglietta, Graphics Category Manager
North
American Corp.
Glenview,
Ill.
Most
successful individuals I’ve
work with in our industry had
three things in common that I
would recommend to any newcomer:
1) They worked hard to develop
business relationships with clients
that transcended price. 2) They
added value to those relationships
and went the extra step to research
and make suggestions about how
the client could improve a product
or process. 3) They provided exceptional
service and exceeded the customers’
expectations when possible.
Bill
Reid, Director of Marketing
Printegra
Corporation
Peachtree
City, Ga.
Successful
selling is creating relationships.
Make the person across the table
from you comfortable, and make
sure he or she can trust your
company and manufacturers to solve
problems. Product knowledge, never-ending
education and knowing your customers’
businesses (what to recommend
and whom to contact for appropriate
solutions quickly) are necessary
assets for success. Listen to
your customers; they’ll
tell you everything you need to
know to create a mutually beneficial
and lasting relationship. Also,
create a network of decision-makers
and attend to it throughout your
career. Networks pertain not only
to customers, but also to the
industry itself. DMIA members
are a plethora of knowledge and
information, so use them. Tully-Wihr
is living proof that this works—99
years and still growing.
George
W. Smith, CDC
Vice
President of Sales/Partner
Tully-Wihr
Hayward,
Calif.
Adopt
a target-marketing program. Pick
an industry, research it and join
its associations. Find out what
products it uses and educate yourself
about those products. Don’t
worry about other industries yet;
they’ll come your way. Some
distributors are afraid of target
marketing, assuming they’ll
be ignoring other markets. This
isn’t true. It’s like
shaking monkeys out of one tree,
then having many birds fly out
of another because of the energy
you create.
Kathleen
Brennan, CDC, CEO
Proforma Info Pros
Galveston Island, Texas
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:
What are the best ways to research
a prospect
prior to calling on the company?
Email
your insight to bholt@printsolutionsmag.com,
or send a letter to Print Solutions,
433 E. Monroe Ave., Alexandria,
VA 22301.
Corrections
Len
Mauceli’s name was misspelled
in the July cover story that began
on page 64. Also, Data Flow Media
Systems LP, Plano, Texas, acquired
(rather than merged with) F&E
Business Graphics. The information
appeared incorrectly in the June
issue. Data Flow Media Systems
ranked No. 76 in fiscal 2004 sales
and is now an $8 million distributorship.
