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How the seven myths of print sales are destroying our industry

Do you believe in the tooth fairy?

My daughter recently lost her first tooth.  She carefully wrapped it up and placed it beneath her pillow.  It was great to see her excitement the following morning as she unwrapped the paper and found a shiny coin.  I love being able to give her pleasure through the story of the tooth fairy.

But the time will come when she no longer believe in tooth fairy.  You and I know that the tooth fairy is no more than a myth.

But in the print industry there are plenty of myths that are still believed

Many of these myths revolve around sales.  These myths are bad for our industry.  They lead to people and companies doing things that ultimately reduce their profit margins. In some cases they are even putting print companies out of business.

Printers who ignore these myths will create better relationships with their customers.  They will stay in control of the sales process and pipeline.  They will achieve the results that their company needs.  This is because they are taking a realistic view of the market.  They know how things really are.

But print companies who continue to believe in the myths of print selling will find themselves in a different place.  Customers won’t treat them as partners.  They will treat them as commodity suppliers.  So it will be hard for these print companies to stay in control of their sales pipeline.  They will find it a hard struggle to achieve the results that they need.

So what are the seven myths of print sales?

Here we go:

• The more sales activity, the better your profits
• Relationships grow sales
• Features and benefits is a great way to sell print
• Buyers make the sales conversation all about price
• All buyers choose on price and nothing else
• Selling service and quality is a great way to get new customers
• Social media is bad news for print

Surely you are just being controversial for the sake of it

Actually, no.  Many of these statements have been disproved by recent research.  I know that others are wrong because of direct observation during my time as a print buyer.  During that time I received over 1,400 sales pitches from printers.  So I have plenty of case studies to review.

I have found that what I have been frequently told by traditional thinking print sales people simply isn’t true.  In fact, I suspect that some sales people hide behind these myths.  They use them to try and hide the fact that they are not very effective at their job.

It’s always good to challenge what you hear in the print industry

Some people have believed in out-dated ideas and practices for too long.  The way to get over some of the problems that we see facing our industry is to challenge accepted thinking.

So here’s one thing I want you to do

I am going to be writing a piece on each of these myths.  If you want to be sure of seeing them you need to sign up to my newsletter list.  You can do this at the bottom of this article.  You’ll also receive a free copy of “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them”.

I’ll be really sad when my daughter stops believing in the tooth fairy

But I’ll be delighted when print sales people stop believing in these print sales myths.
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P.S. Make sure you don’t miss the other articles in this series. Sign up right now to find out more about the seven myths of print sales and receive a free copy of  “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them”.

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