salesperson
By Dave Fellman
As 2021 comes to a close, it’s time to start thinking about 2022. And the first thing you should be thinking about is whether your sales trend is positive, negative or neutral. In other words, are you heading into the new year with any sales momentum? If you are, your primary sales & marketing challenge is to maintain that momentum. If you’re not — if your sales trend over the last few months is negative or neutral — your challenge is to create some momentum!
How do you do that? The best strategy is a combination of re-connecting with current customers and starting some balls rolling toward new customer development. If you haven’t had any “high level discussions” with your most important current customers recently, it’s likely that this activity will identify some immediate opportunities for growth. And if you couple that with a solid measure of prospecting and follow-up activity, you’ll be laying the foundation for another surge of new business a little further into the year, as some of those prospects move through the consideration process and decide to give you a try.
What do I mean by “high level discussion?” Let’s define that as a conversation that’s not limited to what they’re buying in the present, but expanded to cover what they’ve bought from you in the past, and what they might be willing and/or able to buy from you in the future. This conversation is really about change; what’s changed or changing in their business, and what’s changed or changing in yours.
“I’d like to ask you about your plans for 2022,” you might say, “especially as they concern your needs for printing (or any other service you provide.) Do you expect to purchase the same sort of things from us in the same sort of quantities as you have in the past? Are there new projects or products you anticipate needing printed support materials for? Can we also talk about things you’ve been buying from other printers, things you may not have known that we were capable of handling?” After asking about their needs, you should go on and tell them about any new capabilities you have added or plan to add, and anything else that has changed or will be changing in your business.
You may not have time to have this conversation with every one of your customers over the next 4-6 weeks, but I hope you’ll see the wisdom in making the time to have it with a certain group of customers. That group should include your “20/80’s” — the 20-or-so-percent of your customers who probably represent 80-or-so-percent of your current sales volume — and it should also include all of the customers who you think only buy a small percentage of their printing from you. In all likelihood, these “undersold” customers are the ones who provide you the greatest chance of an immediate boost in sales.
One more thing. Don’t let this wait! Even a little positive momentum, generated early, could be the key to an epic 2022!
Dave Fellman is the president of David Fellman & Associates, Cary, NC, a sales and marketing consulting firm serving numerous segments of the graphic arts industry. Contact Dave by phone at 919-363-4068 or by e-mail at dmf@davefellman.com. Visit his website at www.davefellman.com.