Matthew Parker featured on Podcasts From The Printerverse
Hear Deborah Corn from PrintMediaCentr and myself in conversation. Here are some of the things we cover: – why printing companies should not sell print – why the price, service, quality triangle is no longer relevant – how to communicate effectively with today’s buyers who are scared of traditional sales channels – interesting statistics on how prospects behave – how printing companies create social proof – key mistakes that printing companies make with their websites and on social media – the difference between the UK and US print markets – how much knowledge do buyers really have? – why…
11 ways to sell more print to your customers
“If only I’d known you provided that” This is a sentence that many customers have probably uttered over the years. No matter how hard we try, most of our customers don’t know anything about at least some of the many products and services that we offer. I’ve certainly come up against this issue myself. How many opportunities are we losing as a result of this? How much money is this costing us?
Warning: most printing companies are on track to lose 15-20% of their customers in the next 12 months
Do you plan for decline? No matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to keep all your current customers. Some will stop using print, some will choose another supplier and some will simply go out of business. If you stay being reactive to your customers needs, your business will almost certainly start declining. This will happen sooner rather than later. That’s why it’s essential that you create a plan to create new business
Why growth may be the wrong path for printing companies
Why do we concentrate on growth? Many sales targets consistently focus on increasing turnover. Naturally, if you have a lot of press capacity to fill then this is important. However, for some companies it may be a better strategy to focus on bringing in more profitable clients or even customers that are nicer to deal with! I want to challenge the idea that sales always has to be about growth. For many, the path of standing still may not be right. For others, it is certainly something worth considering.
How failing to plan for decline leads to missed print sales targets
There are some great success stories in print at the moment I constantly use social media to share great stories about why people should use print. Companies are waking up to the fact that print is still a highly effective communication channel. Companies such as Google, LinkedIn, Amazon and Apple are all using print as part of their marketing strategies. (If you are not already receiving this information from me, please connect with me on LinkedIn, follow me on Twitter or hook up with me on Facebook.) Many people say that print is having a renaissance. It is certainly true…
How traditional selling encourages customers to buy on price
Can you imagine how it feels to be sold to by 1,400 different printing companies? That is what happened to me as a buyer. In fact, that’s a pretty conservative estimate of the number of printing companies that I spoke to during my print buying career. In theory, I should be able to tell you about all the creative sales approaches that I received. Unfortunately, the reality was rather less positive. 98% of the sales approaches that I received followed a broadly similar pattern. Here’s what usually happened. The sales person would tell me a bit about their company. Then…
How to create a message that sells more print
98% of sales messages from printing companies sound pretty much the same That’s what I discovered during my time as a buyer. During my buying career I had over 1,400 printing companies sell to me. But few had an effective sales message. That’s why printing companies need a different way to sell. So here’s the TPD Principle
Nine simple ways to increase your print sales
The TPD Principle drives print sales In my last blog we discovered the power of a TPD sales message – a sales message based on target audience, pain and difference. You also learned the three simple steps you should take if you want to create an effective TPD sales message. A message like this sets you apart from the competition. They are still talking about print. They are still focusing on themselves. That means they will usually end up in a commodity discussion and the buyer will make decisions based purely on price.
How to increase print sales – in just four hours a week
For many of us there aren’t just enough hours in the day There’s a mountain of jobs that are always awaiting our attention. There are quotes to raise, jobs to chase, artwork to check, production queries, delivery queries, invoice problems and outstanding reports. The list just goes on and on and on. The worst thing is, often these issues don’t really have much to do with us. It is always someone else who has a question for us, or a demand on our time. Sometimes our days just seem to slip away. We started off with the best of intentions…
Here’s an alternative to finding new printing clients
If you’re selling, there can be a huge focus on new clients The truth is new clients are hard work to win. Some people have a proven system for attracting new business. But many people are likely to be spending a lot of time trying to contact lots and lots of new prospects, just to win one new client. The trouble is that many buyers these days don’t want to move to a new supplier. Even if they are prepared to move, there are plenty of competitors who are also trying to win that customer. But while so many people…