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As a marketing professional you’re always looking for ways to retain and up-sell the customers you have, find prospective new customers, and break into promising new markets. But here’s the problem: You need to know the lay of the land—who’s buying and selling what, where, and why—to construct a marketing program that really kills it! Think about it: What are your potential customers actually buying? Is it what you’re selling? And if it isn’t, what are you doing about it? Here are related questions: What are your competitors selling successfully and why? Where should you devote added resources in your business development efforts? Are there promising demographic or market segments you can pitch for existing or new products? Knowing the answers to these and other questions—that is, increasing your market and competitive intelligence and addressing it appropriately—can give you a big marketing advantage. You could start simply, by visiting competitors’ websites to check out the type and …

"Who buys your digital/inkjet print?" If there was one question that we would eliminate from your sales portfolio of opening lines, it would be this one. Why? Let's follow the scenario through and see where it leads us… You: "Who buys your digital/inkjet print?" Customer: "That would be me." You: "I sell print. I sell digital and inkjet print, too. Do you have anything that I can quote on for you?" Customer: "Sure. Give me a price for 5000 of these." <> You: "Here's my price." Customer: "Sorry, your price is too high."   The problem with this sales approach is that it leads to the same ending every time. This should surprise no one. If your sales pitch is focused on the price of the printed piece, the basis of winning the bid is limited to being the lowest cost provider. By focusing on the clients’ print needs, you have limited your ability to sell profitably, effectively, and develop a loyal customer base. Surely, there must be …

We recently sat down with former Postmaster General and current SG360° board member, Patrick Donahoe, to get his thoughts on the U.S. Department of Treasury’s recently released task force report United States Postal System: A Sustainable Path Forward.   Q. As the former Postmaster General, what are your overall thoughts regarding the Task Force’s report?   A.  The fact that a Task Force was appointed by the President is a very positive move. It potentially signals to Congress that the Executive Branch is interested in pursuing legislation to address many of the problems the Postal Service faces. Most of the issues identified by the Task Force can only be resolved via legislation. There are a few actions that can be addressed through administrative means, but a long-term fix requires legislation. The other positive point that can be derived from the Task Force activity is the recognition of the value of the Postal Service, both as an economic and social force in the United States. Our …

You’ve heard us say this before. NINETY percent of salespeople do not have a regular prospecting process that they follow with any kind of regularity.  So, odds are, if you are reading this, you fall into that ninety percent. You are reading this blog and that’s a good start. In addition, you can commit to participating in the thINK Sales Virtual Workshops where we are going to do some real game-changing work together.   So how do you go about creating and sticking to a prospecting plan, the kind of plan that will take you and your sales practice to a whole ‘nother level? As we always say about the concept of a plan, the order of the steps is not as important as the steps themselves. Same goes for this checklist. You don’t have to do it in order, you just must do it. Commit –  Make a promise to yourself (and ideally someone else to keep you accountable) that you are going to do this EVERY DAY. Choose your channels – The phone alone is not going to cut it today. You’ve got to make the …

Finishing solutions in your shop can be a necessary piece of infrastructure or a differentiator that brings you new business. How you treat finishing in your production often depends on the type of business you operate. For transaction print and mail operations, finishing may revolve around slit/merge, perf/punch, fold and insert operations, while for direct mail print shops there may be a wider range of options for folding, scoring, creasing, and tabbing. Book printers often focus on book block assembly, binding, and cover-based workflows. Then, commercial printers produce everything from posters to point of sale collateral requiring folding, scoring and cutting. No matter where you fall in the print provider world, finishing can add value to the products you have to offer. For every printer there is value in walking the production shop floor to see how the current finishing options are being used. Whether near line or inline, finishing is often sited as a bottleneck. How efficient …