Learn how to be a sale-maker: Print 21 magazine

Some of the industry's largest companies are using Printing Industries training to become more competitive and achieve higher margins without losing sales. Simon Peppercorn, NSW training co-ordinator, explains why sales training is important and outlines some effective strategies for dealing with unhappy customers.

Of course tough economic times are ahead. That's nothing new for the printing industry. So having established that fact, what are you doing to boost your sales and increase margins? A ridiculous notion you say?

Not so. It's regrettable, but all too frequently when the economy slows, the knee jerk reaction is for business managers to rush to cut back on marketing and training, the very things that generate those desperately needed sales to pay their overheads.

But not everyone reacts that way; a new breed of printing company is emerging with better trained staff and whole-of-business practices targeted at increasing profitability through higher margins without losing sales. They are investing more in training as part of a wider strategy to increase their market share and strengthen client relationships. They are thinking 'outside of the box' to develop strategies identifying opportunities to streamline existing systems and reduce production costs.

Printing Industries' NSW Training Department is working with many of these companies to implement some of these strategies through our Print Sales training and Competitive Manufacturing traineeships. Three of our larger member companies are putting their employees through the Competitive Manufacturing traineeships on an enterprise-wide scale.

There are more than 200 employees in Sydney doing this training right now. They are discovering that carefully planned and managed changes to systems and processes throughout the organisation result in waste reduction, faster and more efficient turnaround of jobs and reduced costs. This creates significant improvements in the competitiveness of the manufacturing processes.

Simply put: greater profits without the need to increase prices.

Price isn't everything
The other essential part of the equation is the ability of your sales team to develop new business and maintain established clients without 'price' being the main selling point. Professional sales staff are able to look through the client's eyes and prepare an individualised approach. Price is just one issue in the sales process and should be addressed as a part of the overall package.

Unfortunately, many people try to sell on price alone, usually because of poor training or no training at all. It is always easy to sell something if you drop the price enough. Another problem is not understanding how to identify and handle objections. Price can be one of the most common objections from a potential buyer, yet sales people constantly set themselves up for that fall.

A competent sales person will have already anticipated the objections - even the unspoken ones - and have a strategy to handle them and close the sale. Here are some tips from the Printing Industries Print Sales course that can assist in handling objections.

1. Welcome them without fear (don't take it personally).Take a breath and prepare to dig for more information.
2. Be calm (avoid the drama or temptation to be right or argue) and re-identify the client's key need.
3. Ask questions towards their pain and 'what if' their need isn't satisfied, (you can stay here as long as necessary, getting them to repeat their current pain and why they need a different outcome).
4. Re-present your corresponding benefit (painkiller) as simply and conclusively as possible. Present this from a perspective they can see, by using their words to describe the pain.
5. Test the response by asking them how that benefit would now affect them and, when all clear, move back into your process.

Often objections will be raised as a simple question (the very same technique we use to make a subtle point); in fact you may find that in most conversations, about 80 percent of questions are really statements in disguise. So when this happens ask yourself these questions:

* Why are they asking me that question?
* What could be behind it?
* Where are they coming from?
* What do they mean?
* How would that actually affect them?

Don't get into a debate. Reflect back to some of the times you actually have done that and see how you could have approached it differently, and if you think that you have never had a debate with a customer or prospect, you are either new to sales, a 'church-mouse' rep or just need a little more self-awareness.

Welcome all of the objections and find the real ones, treating them in the same vein they are raised. Remember that the client probably just needs more information. This is their indirect way of letting you know about their unsatisfied needs, which is as big an opportunity that you could ever really have.