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Retaining good customers goes far beyond serving their needs well and making them feel appreciated. It’s also about extending the value you provide, to reinforce the concept that you are a partner, not just a vendor. You can do this in a way that benefits both you and your customers by suggesting other jobs and services you offer they might not be aware of, or that would improve the success of their jobs. This is called cross-selling and upselling. First some definitions. Cross-selling involves recommending to your customers that they add more elements to their initial job, ways to enhance and improve the original assignment. Your challenge is convincing the customer that his original job or campaign will be more successful with the added services you offer. Upselling is slightly different; it’s a means of convincing the customer to spend more with you on his job, essentially a task “upgrade.” The two terms are inter-related, don’t have to be strictly defined, can be undertaken singly …

Understanding how to use the sales funnel successfully—the top in building awareness, the middle to create consideration, and the bottom to convert prospects into customers—is critical to business grow. But once you do gain a customer, your job has only just begun. Every customer you currently have must be shown how much you appreciate them and their business, to build their engagement and loyalty, and so they remain your customer. For one thing, existing customers who spread great word of mouth about you provide terrific “free” advertising for your company. And, according to Forbes , if you can increase retention by just 5 percent, you can increase your profitability by 75 percent as you gain additional and more profitable jobs. Let’s examine a few best practices in providing recognition and feedback to your existing customers to increase their loyalty and profitability. Recognize preferred customers . It shouldn’t be hard to know who your most profitable customers are; a simple …

“Situational Selling”* is a term we use to describe opportunities for inkjet printing that come and go every year. This is another in a series of ideas to help you identify applications. The average American gains 11 pounds every year during the holidays. Sorry to depress you right off the bat. There are businesses who are actually counting on that as a way to generate sales and you can help! More people join a gym in January that any other time of year. Registrations for weight loss services also spike right after the new year. This is not a coincidence. It’s just common sense: People are trying to lose the weight they gained between Thanksgiving and January 1. To help them out, businesses who are related to health and fitness spend the bulk of their marketing and advertising budget in December. This creates an opportunity for you to sell inkjet printing. Think about the amount of marketing materials that go into spreading the word. Direct mail. Flyers and posters. Window clings. …

“Situational Selling”* is a term we use to describe opportunities for inkjet printing that come and go every year. This is another in a series of ideas to help you identify sales opportunities. It should not surprise you to hear most retail-based organizations and companies earn the bulk of their income during the holidays. For them, the stakes are high. If they get their marketing message or approach wrong, devastating results could push them over the edge, especially this year. Understanding the retail world is important if you are thinking about taking advantage of this Situational Selling opportunity. You might’ve noticed your own mailbox filling up with catalogs. When the Internet was first a thing, it was popular to eliminate the catalog altogether in the hope that people would simply find you online. Nope. Today, companies understand fully the need to show their wares. This represents a good opportunity for you and your inkjet printing capabilities. What do you have in your …

When a prospect is really engaged with your company and services, and is ready to become a customer, an essential way to get them to convert is to show them what you can do. Call it a demonstration. Its greatest strength is exhibiting your expertise in order to seal the deal. But how, you may ask, can a printing company offer demos? Don’t demos sound like something a software or technology company might offer, where customers can “try out” software and see if it’s right for them? Well, there are various forms of demonstrating your skills, and here are some thoughts. First, what are demonstrations? They’re really just examples of what you as a company or service can do. You can certainly invite your hottest prospects into the shop, give them a tour, and demonstrate how variable inkjet printing can super-charge their direct mail and other needs. Seeing is believing, and in-person demonstrations of current jobs can definitely be compelling to someone on the cusp of becoming a customer. …