Pack a punch with Competition Annihilation Method: Nick Devine

Sales expert, Nick Devine, has some tips on how to sell at higher margins with the ‘Competition Annihilation Method’.

“Your quote is too high!”

Oh, the horror that those dreaded five words can instill in even the most stout-hearted printer.  They can send your entire world crumbling.  It’s even worse when they are being uttered on a continual basis. 

Most printers have had the same experience.  Sometimes it is from supposedly loyal and long-term clients.  After the years of producing high quality print for them, solving emergencies and providing outstanding service, these can be the most frustrating ones you have to deal with.

Sometimes it’s your sales people coming back to tell you that if you want to win the business you need a lower price.  You may feel like telling them to grow a spine and stick with the price, but deep in your heart you understand it’s getting tougher out there.   

And it’s not that they want a lower price that’s so frustrating. It’s the fact that you can’t figure out how to get a higher price for the great work you produce. 

You look around and see the presses are busy.  Your staff feels overworked.  Competition is more intense.  You’re not selling enough.  You don’t know what to do: you feel dead in the water. 

It seems you are working harder and making less money.   It can be profoundly frustrating and disheartening!

But don’t despair:  there’s a different profit reality out there.  It’s a new game with new rules and it produces real, sustainable profits.  It’s reserved for a small percentage of the print sector.  Statistics tell us that only 20 – 25 per cent of printers play in the new game.   So, let’s look at how it works.
 
Get on the profit bus
Imagine you are at a bus station in your local town or city and you need to go west.  Let’s say that in the west you can discover the keys to differentiated print, increased sales and improved profit margins.  As you look around, you see buses going in two different directions – some east and some west.  Which bus do you get on?

You get on the bus that’s going in the direction you want to travel.

And you want to do the same in your printing company.  You want to travel on the bus that’s going in the direction you want to travel.  So, you may be wondering how this bus metaphor relates to print?

The printing sector is constantly changing.  As you reflect on the changes you see about you, you begin to realize that the pace of change is accelerating because of advances in technology.  And the speed of these changes means you need to adapt how you do business.  Strategies and business models that worked five and 10 years ago, do not work today. 

The world of Print 1.0 is fading into the dim and distant past. 

If you are still trying to make money the old ways, you are riding the bus in the wrong direction.  It’s a lot easier to make money if you are moving in the direction of the changes. 
To discover if you are riding the profit bus in the right direction, take this simple three-point test.

Take This Simple Profit Test
# 1:  Differentiated Printer OR Commodity Printer?
Imagine you are sitting in a room with 10 of your ideal prospects sitting in front of you.  They each have a mouth watering print job ready to award to you.  Unfortunately, 4 competitors have also been invited to the party!   You have one of your letterheads sitting on your lap and you begin to jot down your core difference.  Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) if you will. 

Test:  If you removed your logo, could you place the logo of your 4 competitors on your USP and could they make the same claim?  Be honest!  If you are making claims that include great service, fast delivery and quality product, of course your competitors will be making similar claims. 

# 2:  Print For Quality OR Print For Performance? 
When you own – or run – what is essentially a manufacturing company, it’s very easy to lose sight of the real purpose of your product.  When you sit down to think about it, each printed product is produced to perform some task. 
It’s far too easy to forget this fundamental principle.  A brochure is produced not to look really fantastic or impress the marketing folks, it’s produced to help sell products and services.  That is the only measure of success. 

Test:  Look closely at the last 10 print jobs you produced and ask yourself, how well did you understand the performance criteria for these jobs?  How hard did you try to improve the performance instead of improving the quality? 

# 3:  Competing On Cost OR Increasing Return On Investment (ROI)? 
The more that customers and prospects put pressure on you to reduce your prices the more low prices seem to be the most important buying criteria.  It feels that way, but in most cases it’s not true.  If you were buying stocks and shares are you interested in the price or the ROI you will get?  If you are buying a printer are you more interested in the price or the productivity gains and new sales opportunities it might open up?

Sure, price is important, yet it’s the only criteria unless you change how prospects make their decisions. 

Let’s look at a simple example.  It’s common knowledge that (a) direct mail is one of the biggest trends in print and (b) that 40 per cent of printed products end up in the mail stream. 

Imagine a prospect asks you to quote for a print job that is worth $1,000.  Let’s assume that it’s going to end up in the mail stream.  On average, the actual print for a job like this will be 10 per cent of the total project cost.  That includes the costs for: list purchase, creative, copywriting, postage / fulfillment and response management.  Let’s say the total project cost is $10,000 for your prospect and she expects to get a total $15,000 return. 

Scenario A:  The prospect puts pressure on you to reduce your price.  You agree because you need the work and cut the price to $900.  If you were making $350 gross profit initially, your profit is now down to $250 – a 28 per cent hit to your GP and the client saved $100. 

Scenario B:  You change the focus of the conversation and work with the prospect to improve the ROI on the project.  By testing some lists, offers, guarantees, testimonials and headlines, you improve the ROI by 10 per cent.  The prospect makes an additional $1,500. 

RESULT:  In scenario ‘A’ you lost 28 per cent of your profits and the client saved $100.  In scenario ‘B’ you kept all your margins and the client made an additional $1,500.  That’s a big difference for you and your client.  Now you are both happy. 

Test:  Look back through the last 10 projects you’ve quoted on.  Now mark which ones you competed for on cost, and which ones you moved the conversation to ROI.
 
Introducing the Competition Annihilation Method
If you want a systematic approach to make your competition irrelevant… and explode your profits, go check out this video.  It explains step-by-step how the Competition Annihilation Method works. 

This is the only system our salespeople are allowed to use when sitting in front of a customer or prospective customer.  All our salespeople are over target, and as a company, we are on track to double sales this year. 

This system is key to our growing success.

It's taken me 24 years to get to the stage where I can explain this system in a way where anybody can get it.  If you need to boost your profit margins, or close more sales, this could well be the most important video you watch this year. 

In it, I'll reveal five different, easy-to-use frameworks that you can instantly apply to explode your sales and profits.  Your competition will be confused, your prospects will be delighted… and you'll be richer. 

My webmaster is itching to lock this video away in our member's vault.  He’s nagging me already!  Go watch the video before he takes matters into his own hands.