Panelists Kevin O'Hea from Academy Reprographics and Carter Crisp from Crisp Imaging discuss sales techniques at the APDSP Regional Workshop in Denver, March 25, 2022.
The APDSP Regional Workshop in Denver last week – the first of three such workshops – kicked off with a dinner on Thursday night and featured a day full of learning about sales techniques and new markets on Friday. Here are five brief take-aways from the meeting:
1) Don’t annoy people. Sales trainer Dave Fellman, who led the Friday morning session, talked about the importance of persistence in sales…but also the value of recognizing when back off a prospect. For example, he said he recently bought a gift from a clothing company and has been bombarded with emails ever since, which has completely turned him off to that company. Knowing when to cool your jets requires practice, but if you’ve sent three emails and have received no reply, it’s probably time to put that prospect on the back burner.
2) Sell one product at a time. It may be tempting to show off your whole product line to a customer, but that may not be productive. Instead, Fellman suggested, focus on one product or category per sales call or promotion. This gives the prospect a chance to fully consider that option. Furthermore, it gives the salesperson multiple opportunities to reach out.
3) Reconsider your commission strategy. Carter Crisp, vp of marketing for Crisp Imaging, who participated in a panel discussion about sales strategies, said his company energized sales staff during COVID by by bumping up sales commissions for COVID-related products. The higher commissions were coupled with in-house “horse race” competitions among sales staff. Combined, these efforts resulted in booming profits in that category and many of the new clients they landed during COVID have remained clients. They are using the strategy on another product category now.
4) Focus on “branding” when you’re selling graphics to construction companies. Elmer Rhodes, owner of CrossRhodes Reprographics, said that when he sells signage, mesh wraps, and other printed products for construction job sites, he tells clients that his company will ensure that the client’s branding specifications are closely followed on each item. This gives his company a leg up over Home Depot and other lower-quality suppliers who don’t bother following branding specs and compels the owner to mandate that all job site graphics be handled by CrossRhodes.
5) When you manage bid documents, persuade the municipality to require bidders to use your service. Joseph Szobody, president of ReproConnect, explained that bidders often can download bid documents from multiple sources, but if the sources aren’t getting the latest versions, bids may be inaccurate. So if you’re managing the bid documents through ReproConnect, it’s in everyone’s best interest if bidders are required to source documents from you, because you’ll have the latest versions available and you will alert bidders to any changes. That results in more accurate bids…and more download revenue for you.
Want to join the conversation? There are two more workshops: Chicago on April 7-8 and Boston on May 5-6. Click here for details on both.