So, here's the situation:

You are trying to work with a company and you start at the top. The President is a great guy and you really hit it off. Your services are PERFECT for his needs and it is a match made in heaven. Over a few weeks and then months you come to an agreement in kind and things are looking fantastic. The executive team there is made up of similarly-minded people: bright, energetic, optimistic, and earnest. There is one team member, however, who does not fit the mold. He is a problem because he is the one you are passed off to in order to complete the order and from the get-go things have deteriorated. He is a control freak, independent, unemotional (sales people HATE that) and cold. He is also your new key contact.

Fittingly, the guy's name is Dick (Oh, don't get on me for my subtle ineuendos. I don't feel well today!) and he is in your wa...Read More

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I've written about bad customer service in the past. Extensively, in fact. The problem with GOOD customer service is it ruins me. That is, I get treated so well that it makes the ordinary look bad. Let me explain.

My cell phone is dying. I return it to Sprint. They tell a new one will be arrive in three buisness days. That was five business days ago. I call them this morning to check in. They tell me it hasn't shipped yet. It will be a few more days.

Okey dokey.

My GPS failed. I send it in to the third party provider (Square Trade) from whom I bought the warranty. They send me emails detailing every step in the process and give me daily updates as if it were in the hospital. Awesome! What a difference!

The lesson: You cannot over communicate with a client. You can, however, make the assumption that they are not interested in ...Read More

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I just put a wrap on my next GAM column. Soon, it will be lining the cages of parrots everywhere. I'm so proud. The title of the piece is "The $10/gallon sales rep" although I am not sure what my editor will do to it. Seriously, it's like passing in a paper and having it come back all marked up with red pen: "Wrong!" "No!" "Too verbose!" "See me after class!"

Just kidding.

This is a fascinating subject to me, and while I cannot share the article until it is published, I wanted to add something to it so I thought I'd do it here in this forum....

The premise that you have to think differently at $10/gallon than you did when gas was a more reasonable $1.50/gal. You need to focus on sales efficiency. As I think about how best to accomplish this, I came up with an ideal goal for the printing sales ...Read More

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My daughters are all about social networking. I have a Linkedin account but clearly do not understand the full capabilities of the site/service. Is anyone out there using it, how so, and what are the rest of us missing out on?

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It seems that every time I write an anti-VDP column or Blog entry I get heat from the readership. This past GAM article (June or July, I'm too hot to look it up), I actually received an unusual amount of support. Even Dr. Doom himself Joe Webb chimed in to say that I'd hit the exact reasons why printers do not partake in VDP solutions. Late last week I received a phone call from a long-ago client. She is actively selling VDP and wanted to know if I was serious when I wrote that VDP will never work. I was, if the hurdles I listed were not overcome.

During the course of that conversation, that sales rep said something interesting: "I have held 30-35 webinars with clients trying to show them the value of VDP and to date, nothing has come of it. It got me thinking, is the problem the message, the messenger, the medium, or the solution itself? I mean, did they not do th...Read More

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I am on everyone's email list, thanks to my association with GAM as a columnist. This morning, I received an invitation to "check out our PURL capabilities." The email went to say, "We challenge you to find a system more complete and a group of people more willing to work toward your success." So, I click through to my PURL just to see what they had. What I read confirmed my belief that VDP and Web to Print gives a company the opportunity to demonstrate it's stupidity and ineptitude on a one-to-one basis. The first line of Bill Farquharson's PURL link reads,

<<Thank you for vist out PURL.>>

Now, I am not the most grammatically correct person in the world (and as many of you have pointed out, not the best Blogger, either) and if it weren't for the 200 points the SAT gives you just for filling in your name would likely have bar...Read More

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As you sit back and worry about the economy and gas prices and the fact that the Yankees are no more than a .500 ball club this year, here’s some food for thought:

The questions you are asking yourself, such as “Where is my business going to come from in this difficult economy?” are also being asked by your customers. Answer the question for them and you will answer the question for yourself. Get it?

You want more business, right? Well, instead of pestering clients with the same old “Got anything for me to quote on?” routine, why not ask them “How can I help you grow your business?” The different approach will get you in the door. What company DOESN’T need more work right now? Wouldn’t they love to have a fresh set of eyes on their issues and challenges?

Remember, solve the problem, earn the order.

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Why no Blob entry for a couple of weeks? Because I’ve had nothing to say and no time to say it. No Blob is better than bad Blob.

Anywho, I am writing from somewhere over North Texas on my way to Long Beach, then San Jose and finally bedding down for the night in Sal Luis Obispo. The guy next to me on my Jet Blue (GREAT airline!) flight doesn’t even sit down before he starts complaining (there’s a point to this, Roberto, take a pill). There’s more room on other airlines. The seats are too hard. There’s no in-flight magazine. Blah, blah, blah. What a whiner this guy is! Over the course of the trip (“I didn’t bring my laptop so I have nothing to do”), I find out that he is flying to LB for a job interview and then flying home to Boston tonight. Readers of Eckhardt Toole’s A New Earth would recognize this as a pain-body wa...Read More

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Woke up this morning to beautiful sunshine and a few thoughts about Variable Data Printing...

1. VDP is really, really, really hard to sell and is a bad, bad, bad purchase decision to make without proper preparation. The first thing to do is to focus on the customer and block out what you hear, see, and read. Know the questions to ask.

2. There is no untapped market for VDP as the vendors and consultants would like us to believe. Is it there? Yes. However you need to find it, educate it, and harvest it first.

3. The average printing sales rep has zero interest in selling VDP. It takes too long, pays too little, and requires a skill set that they simply don't have. Therefore, maybe you don't want to use sales people at all. Hmmmmm.

4. Client data is either non-existent or spectaculary insufficient. That is a huge, huge proble...Read More

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I received a phone call from a client recently. He had just fired his new rep—the one that I’d been coaching—and he wanted to thank me for my role in the killing. Don’t get me wrong: he took no pleasure in the dismissal. Far from it. He really wanted the kid work out. It’s just that it wasn’t going in the right direction and he pulled the trigger early, saving him a lot of money and frustration. Calling me was a nice gesture on his part and I appreciated it. Sales trainers don’t usually get such positive feedback. In this case, it was particularly rewarding since I had strongly recommended the rep be canned after my second phone call with him. The manager, however, didn’t feel he’d given the kid enough time and wanted to be sure. Understandable. Thus, it wasn’t until his fourth month that he canned the guy. My client used some...Read More

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Looking for a place to spend $117? Let me help you out: Get a subscription to the Kiplinger Letter (www.kiplingerbiz.com). My Dad, now 84, has gotten it for years. Like the good Jamaican Yankee that he is, he reads it and mails it to me. In fact, leaving my parents' apartment is like pulling away from a Yard Sale, but anywho....

The Kiplinger Letter. This "Forcast for Management Decisionmaking" provides a summary of a lot of good information on a wide variety of topics. Lately, the editors have been trying to cheer us up by listing signs of positive economic news. This week, the entire front page is dedicated to vertical markets that are thriving (and therefore have money and need a solutions-based printing sales rep to call on them!!!).

Here are their thoughts:

• Energy and Agriculture. Duh.
• Exporters

...Read More

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Word for word, the following was uttered by a printing customer.  This is less of a sales tip and more of a two-by-four upside the head:

"Bill, I am waiting for the day that a print salesman will call me the day after a conference or meeting and ask how we did.   They know when the event is; the date is on the piece of printing I bought from them.  Imagine if a sales person made that call.  It has never happened to me."

Interesting, huh? It seems so simple and yet when you read it you likely agree that this is not a call that YOU have made either. Why not make it a point to follow up with just such a client and see what happens as a result.

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