Sales & Marketing Tool Kit

Sales & MarketingTool Kit

Version 1.1Owners Manual

DF/A

Dave Fellman’s

Sales & MarketingTool Kit

Version 1.1

37 Profit Building Sales & Marketing ToolsFor The Quick/Digital/Small Commercial Printer

Introduction

Sales & Marketing Tool Kit

DF/A

Dave Fellman’s

Sales & MarketingTool KitVersion 1.1

37 Profit Building Sales & Marketing ToolsFor The Quick/Digital/Small Commercial Printer

Thank you for purchasing Dave Fellman’s Sales & Marketing Tool Kit! We’re confident that yourinvestment in this professionally developed collection of sales & marketing tools will help you to increase both sales volume and profitability.

The key, though, is to get the tools out of the tool kit and put them to work for you! How do you do that? As many quick/digital/small commercial printers have learned over the years, it’s not always enough just to have tools at your disposal… it makes a big difference if someone clearly explains how to use them! That’s what this Owner Manual is all about. In it, you’ll find comprehensive directions on how to best use each tool.

You’ll find three document formats on this CD: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files, native Quark Xpress files, and Microsoft Word files. The PDF files can be opened and modified in either Adobe Acrobat Exchange or Adobe Illustrator. In most cases, we’ve given you a choice of working either in Quark or with PDF files. The Microsoft Word files (which represent a total of 23 sales-building letters) can be opened and modified in anyof the common full-featured word processing software packages.

Most of these sales & marketing tools are intended to be personalized with your companyname, and logo and other contact and capabilities information. These tools are intended to be printed in your shop, on yourequipment, serving a dual purpose as “convincing tools” and as live samples of your capabilities and superior printingquality. Look over each file carefully to make sure that you fully personalize each tool. (You’ll note that some of the Sales/Organizational tools which are part of your tool kit are intended for “internal” use, and therefore do not requirepersonalization.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once you open and personalize any file, you will not be able to save it back to the CD. We suggestthat you copy the entire CD to your hard drive—or to a re-writable CD if you have that capability—which will allow you toopen, personalize, and then save files to a single location. Don’t forget to back up all of your critical computer files!

Dave Fellman’s Sales & Marketing Tool Kit CD contains four categories of tools for your use:Sales/Presentation Tools which are intended to be customized with your name, logo and contact information tocommunicate the features, advantages and benefits of doing business with your company, and to serve as printed samplesfor use in face-to-face sales presentations.Sales/Promotional Tools which are also intended to be customized with your name, logo and contact and capabilitiesinformation. These tools will help you to generate interest, leading to face-to-face-appointments, leading to orders. Severalof these tools have the capability of generating orders on their own!Sales/Organizational Tools which will help you and your sales team achieve maximum effectiveness in sales organization,contact management and new business development.Sales/Sales Management Educational Tools, one of which will help you and your sales team to become moreknowledgeable sellers of digital printing, and another which will help you to become a more effective sales manager.

We suggest that you print this document to provide yourself with convenient access to your Sales & Marketing Tool KitOwners Manual at any time.Sales&MarketingTool KitVersion 1.0

CustomizableSales/Organizational Tools

1 Customer/Prospect Organizational Charting Form

2 Product Opportunity Identification Form

3 A 35 Day Plan to (Re)Build Momentum

4 Cold Call Data Input Form

5 Sales Call Planning and Report Form

6 First Appointment Prospect Interview Form

7 Fact-Finding Interview Guide

8 Niche Markets Identification Process

9 Digital Applications Qualifying Questionnaire

10 Customer Data & Usage Profile

11 Printing Planning Calendar

Sales & Sales ManagementEducational Tools

1 On-Demand Printing Primer

2 Starting Smart Into Outside Sales


TABLE OF CONTENTS

CustomizableSales/Presentation Tools

1 Presentation Prop: New Solutions To Your Printing Needs

2 Presentation Prop: Offset Printing & Digital Imaging All

in One Shop

3 Halftone Quality Demo

4 Fine Detail Demo

5 Newsletter Demo

6 Label Stock Demo

7 Connected Color Demo

8 Variable Imaging Demo

9 300 dpi vs. 600 dpi Comparison Demo

CustomizableSales/Promotional Tools

1 Prospecting Letters: Series A

2 Prospecting Letters: Series B

3 Account Penetration/Revitalization Letters

4 Situational Sales Letters

5 Credit/Collection Letters

6 “Mini Catalog” Order Generating Mailer

7 Sales Lead Generating Mailer

8 Direct Mail Postcard Series A

9 Direct Mail Postcard Series B

10 Direct Mail Postcard Series C

11 Coupon Booklet

12 Free Upgrade Card (premium paper)

13 Free Upgrade Card (recycled paper)

14 Customer Satisfaction Survey

15 The “Magic” Envelope

Owners manual.qxd 7/19/00 11:05 AM


DigiMaster 9110

Your Logo Here

DIGITAL PRINTING

New Solutions ToYour Printing Needs

DIGITAL PRINTING

PRESENTATION PROP:NEW SOLUTIONS TO YOURPRINTING NEEDS

There are two kinds of customers and prospects for aprinting salesperson…those who already know what digitalprinting is all about, and those who don’t. If you haveequipped yourself to supply digital, on-demand printing, thissales/presentation tool will help you to explain thecapabilities and benefits of digital printing clearly andconcisely to that second category.

The best way to use this tool is to print 30-50 copies at atime on your digital printer, on heavyweight card stock (ifyour system will handle that, which then allows you todemonstrate an important capability) and wire-bind each setalong the top edge (again, demonstrating one of your digitalprinting/finishing capabilities.) The result will be a “flip-book” presentation prop, all ready to go—and to leave withyour customer or prospect after your presentation iscomplete.

As you should with all of the Sales/Presentation Tools we’reproviding you with, read this document carefully before youbegin using it as a sales tool. Your presentation will be muchmore effective if you can “paraphrase” the key points whileyour customer or prospect looks at the visuals. In makingyour presentation, put special emphasis on the MajorBenefits (Page 3); How It Works (Page 5); How To IdentifyDigital Printing Applications (Page 7); and What AboutColor (Page 8). Then, close by asking Do You Want To SeeA Sample (Page 9) and hopefully leaving with a test file. Thatstrategy—getting a test file and showing the customer orprospect exactly what his/her job will look like when printedon your digital output device—has been proven to be veryeffective, and that should be your ultimate goal in anypresentation.

Don’t forget to personalize this sales/presentation tool withyour company name, logo, and contact information!



&

Your Logo Here

OFFSETPRINTING

DIGITALIMAGING

All in One Shop

Contact Info

PRESENTATION PROP:OFFSET PRINTING ANDDIGITAL IMAGING ALL INONE SHOPBy combining the capabilities of a black & white digitalprinter with any color digital—or offset—printingcapabilities you have, you can position yourself as a totalprinting source for many of your customers and prospects.This unique sales/presentation tool will help you to sellyour full range of capabilities. It’s a 12-page mini-flipchartwhich is meant to anchor your face-to-face presentation ofthese capabilities, and then to sit on the customer orprospect’s desktop and function as a reference guide to allof the things you can do.

This sales/presentation tool is designed to be printed infull color on 100# cover or a similar stock, and it’s meantto be comb or wire bound along the top and then affixedto a table-tent base that allows it to stand vertically on thecustomers’ desktop (something that should be availablefrom your regular paper suppliers or from a localrestaurant or office supplier.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: Examine this file carefully andadapt the suggested content to match your printshop’sunique capabilities. This tool will almost certainly requirea great deal of customization. In designing it, we knewthat we could give you ideas, but we couldn’t possiblycover all of your specific capabilities and/or preferences interms of the way you want your customers to do businesswith you. Give this one a lot of thought, and we predictthat the time you invest on it will turn out to be time verywell spent!



It’s been said that every picture tells a story, and in today’sworld, a picture can make all the difference betweencommunicating with your audience or losing theirinterest. Pictures add life to your printed materials, theyhelp you tell your story!

In printing industry terminology, the process ofpreparing a photograph for “black & white” printing iscalled half-toning. In the simplest terms, yourphotograph has to be translated into a pattern of dotsthat our printing presses can apply to the paper you’vechosen. Depending on what you bring us—and what youare trying to accomplish—we might do that using a“daylight camera” system, or a digital scanner. With ourscanner and imaging software, we can also edit yourphotos to make them perfect for the job at hand!

The results for you? Great looking printing that tells yourwhole story…produced quickly and cost-effectively on awide variety of paper choices to fit your specific needs!

And by the way, we can handle your color pictures andprinting too!

HALFTONES

Your Logo Here

HALFTONES

HALFTONE QUALITYDEMOThere’s no avoiding it…many of your customers andprospects have a limited understanding of how theprinting process really works. But let’s take that a stepfarther and turn this “problem” into an opportunity. Theirlack of knowledge provides you with an opportunity toadd value to a relationship by educating the customer!

The theme of this presentation tool is that “Every PictureTells A Story,” and the text encourages your prospects andcustomers to add photographs to their printed materials.It combines education and demonstration with anexplanation of several of your most important capabilities.

Here’s another application for this sales/presentation tool:One question many customers and prospects are askingwhen they consider digital printing solutions is “Howgood will the halftones/photographs look?” This tool canbe modified to address this specific concern. You mightsay something to this effect: “If you’re anything like my(other/current) customers, you’re going to be concernedwith how well digital printing can handle thereproduction of photographs or other complex graphics.Here, take a look at this!”




World-Class DETAIL

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States ofAmerica,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary forone people to dissolve the political bands which have connectedthem with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth,the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and ofNature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions ofmankind requires that they should declare the causes which impelthem to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are createdequal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certainunalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and thepursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governmentsare instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from theconsent of the governed, —That whenever any Form ofGovernment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right ofthe People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute newGovernment, laying its foundation on such principles andorganizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem mostlikely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, willdictate that Governments long established should not be changedfor light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hathshewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils aresufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms towhich they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses andusurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a designto reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it istheir duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide newGuards for their future security.—Such has been the patientsufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity whichconstrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. Thehistory of the present King of Great Britain is a history ofrepeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object theestablishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To provethis, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome andnecessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate andpressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till hisAssent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterlyneglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of largedistricts of people, unless those people would relinquish the rightof Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to themand formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their publicRecords, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliancewith his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposingwith manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to causeothers to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable ofAnnihilation, have returned to the People at large for theirexercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all thedangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; forthat purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization ofForeigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrationshither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing hisAssent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenureof their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hitherswarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out theirsubstance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armieswithout the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superiorto the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreignto our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving hisAssent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for anyMurders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of theseStates:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouringProvince, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, andenlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example andfit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into theseColonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws,and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselvesinvested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of hisProtection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns,and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreignMercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation andtyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidyscarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totallyunworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the highSeas to bear Arms against their Country, to become theexecutioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselvesby their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and hasendeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, themerciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is anundistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned forRedress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions havebeen answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose characteris thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit tobe the ruler of a free people.Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren.We have warned them from time to time of attempts by theirlegislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. Wehave reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration andsettlement here. We have appealed to their native justice andmagnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of ourcommon kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, wouldinevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. Theytoo have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denouncesour Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind,Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States ofAmerica, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to theSupreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do,in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of theseColonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these UnitedColonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and IndependentStates; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the BritishCrown, and that all political connection between them and theState of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; andthat as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levyWar, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce,and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States mayof right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firmreliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutuallypledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacredHonor.

Your Logo Here

Readthe fine

print!

Our customers often tell us that they appreciate ourattention to detail. Interestingly, when they say that,they’re usually talking about the customer service weprovide. And that makes us feel good, because weconsider it our mission to take care of even the smallestof service details! But customer service isn’t the only areain which detail is important to us…or to you! Isn’t it alsoimportant for your printer to be able to capture every bitof fine detail in your text and graphics? We can handlethat! Our state-of-the art prepress and printingequipment reproduces an incredible level of detail. Theresult? Your printed materials will have razor-sharp text,high-resolution halftones and crisp-looking graphics tomake a BIG impact on your audience.How’s that for taking care of all the detail?

FINE DETAIL DEMOSince the earliest days of quick printing, there has been aperception in the marketplace that quick printers aresimply not capable of producing fine detail quality. Thatmay have been true in the “old days,” but it’s not trueanymore! This sales/presentation tool is meant todemonstrate your fine detail capability.

The theme of this sales/presentation tool is that you cantake care of all of the detail(s)—both printing qualitydetail and customer service details!

The best way to use this sales/demonstration tool mightbe to ask your customer or prospect if he/she is aware ofany “quality limitations” associated with quick/smallcommercial printers. If the answer is no, you can explainthat there used to be such limitations, but that your state-of-the-art equipment provides a whole new level of finedetail capability. Then show this sales/presentation tooland demonstrate your fine detail quality.

If the answer is yes, you might say “Well, take a look atthis and tell me if you think those limitations still apply.”

In either case, your next question should be “Would thislevel of fine detail add something to your printing?” If theanswer to that question is yes, you have identified asituation where your fine detail capability provides youwith a real competitive advantage!




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Sales Reinforcement Tactics toEmpower Any Sales Force

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

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TRENDSTRENDSN E W S L E T T E R

Your Logo Here

Your Logo Here

Twelve Great Tips Help Your Company to Expandinto New Markets

Joe McDonald Appointed CEO ofInterTech Industies Corporation

NEWSLETTER DEMONewsletters are among the most desirable orders/projectsfor most quick/digital/small commercial printers. Theyrepresent consistent and recurring sales volume, andexperience has shown that handling a client’s newslettercan go a long way toward “locking in” that customer’sbusiness.

This sales/presentation tool is simply a mock newsletter,designed as a double-sided 11” x 17” document whichfolds down to a 4-page 8?” x 11”—the most commonformat for “small-to-medium-sized” company ororganization newsletters. It features “plain English”headlines and “lorem ipsum” text to provide yourcustomers and prospects with an idea of how theirnewsletter might look when produced on yourequipment.

The best way to use this tool might be to ask yourcustomer if his/her company or organization currentlyproduces a newsletter. If so, ask to see a copy of a recentissue. If not, ask if a newsletter is something they haveproduced in the past, or would like to produce in thefuture. In either case, use this tool to demonstrate yourinterest in their newsletter project, and your productioncapabilities.

When printing this sales/presentation tool, you shouldconsider using a variety of premium grade papers—gloss,colored or high fiber-content stock, for example—whichwill make this mock newsletter stand out. You should alsoconsider producing it in black & white and spot colorversions, which will help you to address certain customers’budgetary concerns. The message is: “Color or black &white, we can handle it!”



This label was printed by (Company Name).

WE’RE THEEXPERTSAT FAST-TURN,

CUSTOM PRINTED

LABELS IN ANY QUANITY.



CUSTOM PRINTED




CUSTOM PRINTED




CUSTOM PRINTED




CUSTOM PRINTED




CUSTOM PRINTED


LABEL STOCK DEMOThe profit potential of short-run, custom label productionhas come as a bit of a surprise to many quick/digital/smallcommercial printshops. Don’t you be surprised! Thissimple sales/presentation tool is meant to demonstrateyour label-printing capabilities. It’s designed to print onstandard, 8?” x 11” six-up laser-compatible label stock andto show your customers and prospects just how easy it isto produce custom labels in small—or large—quantities.

The best way to use this tool is to ask your customer orprospect about label usage: “What type of labels are youusing for mailing or shipping purposes, or to go on theproducts you sell?” Whenever you encounter a labelapplication in the right quality range for your smallformat press(es) or copier(s)—typically anything that’s toolarge a quantity to conveniently run on their laser orinkjet printer—show this sales/presentation tool and “askfor the order.”




CONNECTED COLOR DEMOThis sales/presentation tool is directly related to your“connected” color copier. It comes in two versions: lettersize (8?” x 11”) and tabloid size (11” x 17”). It’s an“Important Contacts List,” which your customer orprospect can use to jot down important phone and faxnumbers. When customized with your company name,logo, and other contact information, it becomes aninexpensive yet useful ad specialty which also doubles as asample of your digital color quality/capability.

The best way to use this tool is to ask your customers andprospects a pretty straightforward question: “Do you everneed to print relatively small quantities of full colordocuments or marketing materials?” If they do, use thisconnected color demo tool to describe your digital colorequipment and capabilities. If they don’t, introduce themto the possibility of cost-effective VSR (very short run)color printing/copying.



VARIABLE IMAGING

Your Logo Here

John Doe100 Main StreetMayberry, NC 80005

WIN A VACATION TO

M E X I C OCancunCancun

Jane Ulmer20394 Redwood PlaceAstoria, OR 51120

WIN A VACATION TO

JamaicaJamaica

Ed Rosenthal5154 Park AvenueNew York, NY 20031

WIN A VACATION TO

HawaiiHawaii

We live in the age of personalizationand customization. And nowhere isthat more important than in theprinted communications you use toreach your audience. But up untilnow, this sort of personalization andcustomization has been little morethan a rumor at most area printshops.

Not any more! One-to-one marketinghas become a reality at (CompanyName)! We can provide you withvariable image printing, which meansthat you can link information in yourdatabase to the printedcommunications you produce. Nowyou can market your products andservices through customized printingfor an audience of one!

Post Cards. Brochures. Proposals.Personalized letters. Very special offers.The possibilities are endless. Talk to usabout putting variable image printingto work for you!

VARIABLE IMAGING

VARIABLE PRINTINGDEMOVariable printing represents an important trend in bothconsumer and business-to-business marketing. It’s verylikely that some of your customers and prospects areinvolved in “1-to-1 Marketing” right now, or else they willhave interest in adding this strategy to their currentmarketing mix. The ability to combine variable imagesand text gives your customers and prospects the ability tocustomize their marketing communications in order tobetter reach their own customers and prospects.

Obviously, you won’t be using this sales/presentation toolif you don’t operate a digital printer of some sort.Consider, though, that some variable printing projects areso finely targeted (read that, so small in terms of quantity)that a basic laser printer or connected color copier is asuitable output device!

The best way to use this sales/presentation tool might beto present it to your customer or prospect, and then ask:“Are you involved in this sort of targeted marketing rightnow?” If the answer is yes, ask to see the sort of marketingmaterials this customer or prospect is currently using. Ifthe answer is no, ask: “Would it be valuable to you to beable to do things like this?”

Please note that taking advantage of the variable imagingopportunity will require you to become familiar withdatabase software. Ask your customers or prospects whatsoftware they currently use to manage their database. Wewon’t kid you, there’s a lot involved in becomingsuccessful at variable printing, but the effort to learn aboutvariable printing and add it to your product line can berewarded with orders that are hard to lose to thecompetition and that command premium pricing.

Don’t forget to personalize this sales/presentation tool withyour company name, logo, and contact information, anddon’t forget that this 8?” x 14” sales/presentation tool alsofunctions as an example of your ability to produce legal-sized documents!



WHAT’S THEDIFFERENCE?

20% Screen 40% Screen 60% Screen

Notice the ability to print even as small as 4 pt.Notice the ability to print even as small as 4 pt.




Halftones

.25 pt.

.5 pt.

1 pt.

2 pt.

THIS IS

DPI300300

300 DPI VS. 600 DPICOMPARISON DEMOThis is a sales/presentation tool which is based on the ideathat a picture is worth a thousand words. By showing“side-by-side” examples of 300 dpi printing and 600 (orhigher) dpi printing, you can show your customer orprospect that there’s a clearly visible difference betweenone “level” of quality and another. This may not be animportant difference when dealing with text-onlydocuments, but it becomes a very important selling pointwhen documents contain halftones and/or complexgraphics.

In order to get a true comparison, you should run Pages 1,3 and 4 of this four-page document on your 600 (orhigher) dpi output device, and run Page 2 on a high-quality 300 dpi laser printer. (If you don’t have a suitable300 dpi laser printer at your printshop, you might be ableto “borrow” one from a friend, neighbor or customer.

From that point, the best was to use this tool might be tosay: “I know you’re probably familiar with the term dpi, ordots per inch. That’s how laser printer resolution ismeasured, and the higher the resolution, the better thequality you’re going to get. You may never have seen anactual side-by-side comparison of dpi resolution, though,so I brought one to show you. Here’s 300 dpi, which isthe level of quality you’ll see from many—maybe evenmost—printshops. And here’s 600 dpi, which is what weget from our equipment. Given the choice, which wouldyou rather see on your documentation?” If he/she says 600dpi (which you might reasonably expect!) you should say“I can give you that choice!

This sales/presentation tool has applications for bothdigital and “traditional” printing operations. Onepossibility is the “traditional” customer who generates“camera-ready” artwork on a 300 dpi laser printer. Thechoice you are offering is to provide you with a digital fileinstead, and you will generate the artwork (or go direct-to-plate!) at 600 dpi or higher.

For a purely digital printing situation—manuals, forexample—after completing the 300 dpi vs. 600 dpicomparison, go back to Page 1 of this sales/presentationtool and ask your customer or prospect to consider the“old questions” and “new answers” listed there. Then go toPage 4, which lists some of the common digital printingapplications and the benefits of digital printing to theuser, and then poses the question: “Do you want to see asample?” Use this as your lead-in to asking for a test file toprint.




PROSPECTING LETTERS: SERIES AThis series of five direct sales letters provides you with acomplete prospecting/customer development tool,combining direct mail and telephone contact to secureface-to-face appointments with qualified prospects. Theletters are meant to be sent out one each week until“suspects” show themselves to be qualified prospects, oruntil they are dropped from your contact list after failingto respond to five letters and a minimum of four phonecalls.

Here’s some terminology that will help you to understandhow this tool should be used. Dave Fellman, the author ofthese letters, teaches that there are three types of people onthe buying side of the printing salesperson’s universe:suspects, prospects and customers. They are suspects, Fellmansays, when you think they might be prospects. They aren’tprospects until you know that they are fully qualifiedprospects. And they are not customers until they actuallystart buying from you.

What determines a fully qualified prospect? Fellman saysthat a company—or more correctly, the individual(s) whodo the purchasing—must meet three criteria in order tobe considered fully qualified. First, they must buy exactlythe kind of printing you want to sell. Second, they mustbuy enough of it to make them worth your effort inpursuing them. And third, they must show some interestin buying from you.

These letters are designed be sent to suspects, and used asthe first and second stages of the qualifying process. Thebest way to use this tool is to put some number ofsuspects into your mailing/phoning process each week.Using 10 “starts” per week as an example, at the beginningof Week 1, you would send Letter A-1 to 10 suspects. Atthe beginning of Week 2, you would send Letter A-2 tothose 10 suspects, and send Letter A-1 to 10 new suspects.At the beginning of Week 3, you would send Letter A-3to your first group of 10, Letter A-2 to your second group

of 10, and Letter A-1 to a third group of 10 new suspects.As you “ramp up” this program, you will ultimately get tothe point where you are mailing 50 letters each week(minus whatever number respond to your letters andphone calls) and making telephone calls to approximately20 of those suspects.

Your suspects can come from any number of sources:commercial mailing lists, service organization membershiplists (Rotary, Kiwanis, Chamber of Commerce, etc.),networking or referrals, or even cold calling. Remember,at this point in the process we’re only dealing withsuspects, and you should expect that most of these letterswill fall on “blind eyes” and “deaf ears.” Like any otherdirect mail program aimed at suspects, you should expect arelatively low “hit rate.” That’s OK, though, because ittakes relatively few fully qualified prospects to developenough customers to have a substantial impact on yoursales volume. The mistake that most printers andsalespeople make is having too few real prospects. Theystart out with suspects—as you will—but they never



“disqualify” the people and organizations who don’t meetall three qualifying criteria and move on to more suspects.They don’t have a plan to make new business happen, butnow you do!

Please take a look at all five letters before going anyfurther. You’ll see that Letter A-1 contains a call to action:call me to set up an appointment! Don’t expect anyone torespond to this first letter, though. Understand that itcomes completely out of the blue, and many people won’teven read it. But that’s OK, because Letter A-2 repeatsand even amplifies the message, and repeats your call toaction. Experience has shown that you’ll get an occasionalcall in response to letter A-2, but the majority of peoplewill not yet be convinced. But that’s OK too, because younow have Letter A-3, which signals a change in theprocess as you commit to calling the suspect, rather thanwaiting for him/her to call you.

At this point in the process, you start making phone calls.Let’s say that you send you letters out on Monday of eachweek. (It’s a very good idea to develop that sort ofdiscipline in implementing a program like this!) Aftersending Letter A-3 on Monday of Week 3, make your firstphone call to that suspect on Wednesday—leaving amessage if you don’t connect—and then call again onFriday. If you still haven’t received a return phone call,send Letter A-4 on the following Monday, and continueyour efforts to connect on the telephone with calls onWednesday and Friday of that week.

If you still haven’t heard back from any suspect after fourletters and four phone calls, it’s a fair assumption thathe/she is not interested. Remember, that’s the third levelof qualification; that they show some interest in buyingfrom you. With suspects like this, send Letter A-5—whichbasically says “call me if anything changes in your interestlevel”—and take this suspect off of you follow-up list.

The only exception to this policy of “five and out” wouldbe a company which you know meets the first twoqualifying criteria; they buy exactly what you want to sell,

and they buy enough of it to make them worth yourwhile. With this sort of “borderline prospect,” the beststrategy would be to put them “on hold” for 3-4 monthsand then call again. By that point, something might havechanged to make them more receptive to the idea ofmeeting with you.

The most successful salespeople and marketers understandthat selling ultimately turns into a numbers game. Theydon’t fixate on a small number of suspects and hope theyall turn into customers. It’s a far better strategy to reachout to a large number of suspects and give them theopportunity to show interest, then put your follow-upefforts into building relationships with these qualifiedprospects! That’s what this letter series can help you to do!



PROSPECTING LETTERS:SERIES BThis series of five direct sales letters provides you withanother complete prospecting/customer development tool,combining direct mail and telephone contact to establishrelationships with qualified prospects. As with LetterSeries A, these letters are meant to be sent out one eachweek until “suspects” show themselves to be qualifiedprospects, or until they are dropped from your contact listafter failing to respond to five letters and a minimum ofthree phone calls.

This series of letters is considerably less aggressive thatLetter Series A. Instead of a program that focuses on areturn phone call, Letter Series B is structured as a seriesof benefits letters, each stressing one of the benefits ofdoing business with you. As you look through the letters,you’ll see that each letter starts with a question: “If I couldsave you money, would you be interested in buying fromme? If I could save you time...? If I could save youaggravation...? If I could improve your printing…? If Icould pull you out of a jam…?”

As with Letter Series A, the best way to use this tool is toput some number of suspects into your mailing/phoningprocess each week. Using 10 “starts” per week as anexample, at the beginning of Week 1, you would sendLetter B-1 to 10 suspects. At the beginning of Week 2,you would send Letter B-2 to those 10 suspects, and sendLetter B-1 to 10 new suspects. At the beginning of Week3, you would send Letter B-3 to your first group of 10,Letter B-2 to your second group of 10, and Letter B-1 toa third group of 10 new suspects. As you “ramp up” thisprogram, you will ultimately get to the point where youare mailing 50 letters each week (minus whatever numberrespond to letters B1-B4) and making telephone calls toapproximately 10 of those suspects.

With this letter series, the telephone calls begin the weekafter Letter B-5 has been sent. You might start those

telephone conversations by saying “I’m the person who’sbeen sending you all of those letters about our printingcompany. First of all, I want to make sure that youreceived them, and that I’ve been writing to the rightperson. Next (assuming that the answer are “yes” and“yes”) I’m wondering which of the benefits I mentionedseemed to represent the greatest value to you?” If you getconnected to voice mail, these questions are stillappropriate. Ask them and then ask your suspect to callyou back!

As with Letter Series A, your suspects can come from anynumber of sources: commercial mailing lists, serviceorganization membership lists (Rotary, Kiwanis, Chamberof Commerce, etc.), networking or referrals, or even coldcalling. And as with Letter Series A, your best strategy toreach out to a large number of suspects and give them theopportunity to show interest, then put your follow-upefforts into building relationships with those qualifiedprospects!


ACCOUNT PENETRATION/REVITALIZATION LETTERSThis series of direct sales letters provides you with foursolid sales/promotional tools you can use to develop newbusiness with current customers, or to revitalize dormantaccounts. They are meant to be used as stand-aloneletters—not as parts of a multi-letter program like LetterSeries A & B.

Letter C-1 is a “what’s new” letter, meant to simply keepyour name in front of occasional customers. This letterwill probably require substantial customization, but theprovided text will show you what sort of things to writeabout. Letter C-2 is intended for “traditional” printingcustomers who have never bought much in the way ofdigital printing and/or copying from you. (Please notethat it also promises a follow-up call!)

Letter C-3 starts out by saying that you’re writing“because we haven’t heard from you in a while.” It asks ifthat’s because there hasn’t been any need, or because therehas been some sort of a problem. Letter C-4 takes aslightly different approach and asks if the reason youhaven’t heard from the customer for a while might havebeen lack of attention on your part. Both of these letterspromise a follow-up telephone call, and that call is anintegral part of revitalizing a dormant account. You mightstart those conversations out by saying “I wrote to lastweek because we haven’t heard from you for a while. Iwant to make sure that it’s not something that we did—ordidn’t do—that has kept you away. How are things goingwith you, and what can you tell me about theprinting/copying situation?”

As just about every quick/digital/small commercial printerhas experienced, customers have a tendency to disappearwithout much notice or even much noise. If you wanttheir business back, you have to reach out to them, andsooner is much better than later! Keep track of theordering patterns of your customers, and when youhaven’t heard from them within a normal timeframe,reach out to them and show your concern!



SITUATIONAL SALESLETTERSThis series of direct sales letters provides you with fivemore sales/promotional tools you can use to initiatecontact with potential new customers. As you look overthese letters, you’ll see that they are situational in nature.There’s one for the situation where you learn the name ofa new printing buyer. Another covers the situation whereyou learn that a local company is expanding. A thirdaddresses the situation where you learn that a localbusiness-person has been promoted. The fourth letter inthis series welcomes a new transfer to your area, and thefifth letter congratulates its recipient on opening his/hernew business.

Your source list for these situational prospecting letters canbe the business section of your local newspaper, or anyother local/regional business publication. It can also be thestate or local agency that issues licenses to new businesses.In addition, it’s always a good idea to keep your “ear tothe ground” in your community! By staying on top of“changes” in the business community, you have theopportunity to connect with new people before they formrelationships with your competitors. Most printers willagree that it’s easier to develop a customer relationshipbefore everyone else knows they’re there!




CREDIT/COLLECTIONLETTERSThis series of letters addresses one of the most “ticklish” andfrustrating situations you’re likely to find in a printingbusiness…collecting all of the money that’s owed to you on atimely basis without “turning off” an otherwise good customerin the process. This series of credit/collection letters is writtenwith that specific goal in mind.

The foundation of an effective credit/collection strategy is toestablish your terms and expectations early in the relationship.The first letter in this series is meant to accompany your creditapplication. It expresses your appreciation for the decision todo business with you, and clearly notes that the definition of agood customer—for both you and your customer!—includespaying the bills on time. The letter closes by saying “if youhave any problem with our terms and conditions, please letme know now!”

For customers who still don’t adhere to your terms, a three-part series of “collection” letters starts with a gentle reminder,followed by a stronger reminder in the second letter, and ifnecessary, followed by the threat of legal action in Letter 3. Asyou’ll see when you look at these letters, though, they’re allwritten in non-confrontational language, with an eye towardresolving the problem rather than exacerbating it. As the oldsaying goes, there’s a right way and a wrong way to doeverything. This series of credit/collection letters represents theright way to approach this troublesome situation. It doesn’tburn any bridges, and in every case, it gives the customer anopportunity to resolve the situation and stay in your goodgraces.


“MINI-CATALOG” ORDERGENERATING MAILERDirect mail (or any other type or form of advertising) cando three things for a printing company: it can project animage or specific information; it can generate sales leads;and if properly designed, it can actually generate orders.Unfortunately, most direct mail used byquick/digital/small commercial printers over the years hasbeen purely image/information-oriented. As a result, mostprinters have had less-than-satisfactory experience withdirect mail.

This sales/promotional tool is intended to provide you amuch better experience! It’s an order-generating mailer,designed as a “mini-catalog” of common business printingproducts/services. And it meets what marketing expertsrefer to as the two fundamental criteria for a successfulorder-generating direct marketing campaign, tellingpotential customers everything they need to know inorder to make a buying decision: in other words, what’sfor sale and how much it will cost. (This is the corephilosophy behind catalog—and more recently Internet—marketing, both of which have demonstrated that you cansell just about anything using “direct marketing”techniques.)

It’s pretty easy for a printing company to describe “what’sfor sale” in general terms: letterhead, envelopes, businessforms, business cards, promotional printing, etc. Thingsget more complex when you start to consider how to tellpeople what their printing will cost via a direct mailer, butthis is not an insurmountable challenge. Yes, it’s true thatyou’ll never be able to publish a “pricelist” that covers100% of all potential printing/copying orders, butexperience has shown that it is possible to establish“standard pricing” which will safely and profitably cover asmuch as 80% of what you’re likely to sell.

The pricing equation for any print job has five keyvariables: ink, paper, quantity, finishing and what sort of

artwork is provided. The strategy employed by this order-generating mailer is to cover some of those variablesthrough text explanation, and the others using a simplepricing matrix. Using two-color promotional printing—one of the featured products/services on this mailer—as anexample, ink, artwork, paper size and finishing are coveredby text explanation, and quantity and paper stock arecovered by a pricing matrix.

How can this be done so that it’s simple enough for acustomer or prospect to understand, and still specificenough to ensure your profitability? The key is tocategorize whenever possible, and to calculate the pricesbased on the “worst-case” (in other words: mostexpensive) cost scenario. Using ink as an example, thatwould be two custom-mixed PMS colors. By calculatingyour prices based this “worst case” scenario, you can thensafely and profitably state in the text that the prices youare advertising cover any two ink colors.

Using artwork as another example, the mailer states thatthe advertised prices are based on camera-ready artwork ora ready-to-print digital file from a full-featured graphicsprogram such as Quark Xpress or Adobe Pagemaker. Pleaseremember that this text reflects our suggestion for generalstrategy. It may not represent your specific desires! You mightwant to limit the artwork requirement to camera-ready copy,

BROCHURES • CATALOGS • DESIGN •TYPESETTING • BUSINESS FORMS •PRICE LISTS • MENUS • LETTERHEADENVELOPES • BUSINESS CARDS •LABELS • NEWSLETTERS • COLORCOPIES • HIGH-SPEED B/W COPIES •1/2/3/4-COLOR PRINTING IN ANYQUANTITY • COMPETITIVE PRICING

LEADER

Your Logo Here

Your Logo Here

BROCHURES • CATALOGS • DESIGN •TYPESETTING • BUSINESS FORMS •PRICE LISTS • MENUS • LETTERHEADENVELOPES • BUSINESS CARDS •LABELS • NEWSLETTERS • COLORCOPIES • HIGH-SPEED B/W COPIES •1/2/3/4-COLOR PRINTING IN ANYQUANTITY • COMPETITIVE PRICING

PLACEPOSTAGE

HERE

Your Regional

Company Address Here

Company Address Here

ENVELOPES FOR ALL YOUR MAILING NEEDS

TWO COLORLETTERHEAD

AS LOW AS

$4995Per 500 Letterhead$6995 When you

order 1000

PRINTINGLEADER

Your Regional PRINTINGLEADER

Meeting YourBusiness

Printing Needs

Meeting YourBusiness

Printing Needs

Sales & Marketing Tool KitSales & Marketing Tool Kit


willing to pay, but well within the pricing tolerances of others.The best overall sales and marketing strategy is to offer yourproducts/services at prices that will be profitable for you, andseek to attract people who are willing to pay those prices.

Advertising your normal prices also allows you to send thismailer to both customers and prospects, without having toworry about revenue loss occurring when regular customerswho are used to your normal prices place orders in response tothis mailer. Our recommendation is to send this mailer out ona regular basis, perhaps every month to your completecustomer/prospect list. You might also want to use this mailerin combination with some of the other tools in this Sales &Marketing Tool Kit. For example, you might send Direct MailPostcard Series A to all of your prospects over a five-monthperiod, and send this order generating mailer to all of yourcustomers during the same timeframe. Over the next fivemonths, you might send Direct Mail Postcard Series B to allof your customers, and this order-generating mailer to all ofyour prospects.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Examine this file carefully. This toolwill require a great deal of customization. We have suggestedthe theme of “Your Regional Printing Leader” (i.e. YourSouthside Chicago Printing Leader, Your Mid-State PrintingLeader, Your Tri-City Printing Leader, etc.) but you areencouraged to adapt any “tag line” that you’ve alreadyestablished for your business. We have also prepared this toolin both spot-color and 4-color formats. In either format,please note that the top half of the back panel is a place to listall of your shop’s capabilities.

Please also feel free to adjust quantities and specifications, andto promote products/services other than the ones we havesuggested. Give this one a lot of thought, and we predict thatthe time you invest on it will turn out to be time very wellspent!


or you might prefer to specify PDF files. In any case, be sure tomake the requirements of your offer clear, and be sure to addenough of a prepress component to your pricing to cover the workyou can expect to have to do.

Considering paper stock, as you’ll see when you examine the file,the mailer does not list specific paper stocks. Instead, it list threecategories of paper: Standard Grade, Premium Grade and EconomyGrade. While the specific brands in each category don’t need to belisted in the mailer, you will need to establish a list of whichspecific paper stocks fit into each category.

Now, what if your customer only wants black and a “standard” inkcolor such as Reflex Blue, or a “standard grade” paper stock thatactually costs less that some of the others? If that’s the case, you’llhave the luxury of making a choice. One possibility would be toreduce the price, thereby “sharing” your cost savings with yourcustomer. The other choice would be to write up the order at theadvertised price and make more profit! And while there arearguments in favor of either strategy, our recommendation is tomake the latter choice and make more money. Consider this: Theorder-generating mailer tells your customers and prospects what’sfor sale and what you will charge for it. With that in mind, it’s asafe assumption that your customer or prospect has accepted youradvertised price as a good value. (The only exception to thisstatement would be if your customer or prospect specifically asksyou if he/she can save money by using “standard” ink colors or aparticular paper stock. If that’s the case, you can say: “Yes, webased our advertised pricing on the most costly scenario, sincethat’s what we usually run into. But since what you want willactually cost us less to produce, we’ll be happy to pass on some ofthat cost savings.”

Please note that the time to discuss any more costly deviation fromyour advertised specifications is at the point of first contact—or atleast at the point where you first see the customer’s purchase orderor artwork submission. “This is not quite what we advertised,” youmay have to say, “but we can do it. I will have to prepare a newquote for this project, though. Do you want to see that before wego any farther?)

Here is another question regarding pricing. Should you advertiseyour “normal” prices on a mailer like this, or offerreduced/discounted prices? Our recommendation is to use your“normal” prices. The bottom line here is that no matter whatprices you advertise, they will be higher than what some people are


basic contact data (including the respondent’s name and title, justthe way he/she would like that information to appear on the freeimprinted note pads; (2) checkboxes to identify typical printingneeds; and (3) another checkbox to indicate an immediate needfor printing or copying services.

On receipt of one of these BRC’s, the first thing you (or yoursalesperson) should do is to call the prospect and acknowledgereceipt of the response, and use that conversation to attempt toset up an appointment. “I have the card you sent back to us,”you might say, “and I’m going to place the order for your freeimprinted note pads right away. It will only take us a day or so toprint them, and then I’d like to deliver them personally, andspend a few minutes learning more about your printing/copyingneeds. How does your schedule look for (whatever day/time youwould like to set this appointment for)?”

As with the “Mini-Catalog” Order Generating Mailer, we havesuggested the theme of “Your Regional Printing Leader” (i.e. YourSouthside Chicago Printing Leader, Your Mid-State PrintingLeader, Your Tri-City Printing Leader, etc.) but you areencouraged to adapt any “tag line” that you’ve already establishedfor your business. We have also prepared this tool in both spot-color and 4-color formats. In either format, please note that thereare numerous places in which this mailer must be personalized,including the middle panel on the “outer” face of the mailerwhich contains space intended for a map, showing the location ofyour shop.


SALES LEAD GENERATINGMAILERAs noted earlier, direct mail (or any other type or form ofadvertising) can do three things for a printing company: it canproject an image or specific information; it can generate salesleads; and if properly designed, it can actually generate orders.That last capability might seem to indicate that an order-generating direct mail program is all a printing company needs inorder to increase business, but that would be a mistakeninterpretation. Because while it’s been proven in the marketplacethat you can sell just about anything using direct marketingtechniques, it has also been proven that you can’t sell that way toeveryone. Some people simply require the influence and/orassistance of a salesperson in order to make their printing/copyingpurchasing decisions.

This sales/promotional tool is intended to generate sales leads foran outside salesperson—or for the owner of a quick/digital/smallcommercial printing company—to follow up on. In effect, thepurpose of this mailer is to generate “invitations” for furtherconversation from some of those people who won’t respond toorder-generating direct mail. In terms of strategy, it offers a “freegift” in return for that invitation. The free gift is an “ad specialty”item—imprinted note pads—which combines low cost and ease-of-manufacture for a printing company with a high perceivedvalue at the recipient end.

This is a tool which should only be sent out to prospects, so it’simportant to be able to segregate actual customers from prospectson your mailing list. It’s also a tool that can create problems if itis used indiscriminately. In other words, while the worst-casescenario might be a lead-generating mailing without anyresponse, the next worst-case might be a mailing with too great aresponse!

The best way to use this tool is to limit your mailings to thenumber of prospects which will produce a response that you’ll beable to handle, both in terms of producing the imprinted notepads and more importantly, in terms of following up on a timelybasis with these prospects who have shown some active interest inyou! We recommend an initial mailing level of 50 per week.Then, as you gain more experience with this tool, you canincrease or decrease the number based on the level of responseyou get.

The mailer design includes a BRC, or Business Response Card.This response device solicits three elements of information: (1)

Name (just as you’d like your memo pads to read) Title

Company Name

Address

City State ZIP

Phone E-mail

A “getting to know you” gift fromthe area’s top printer!

• Complete printing capabilities…basic & complex projects

• Typesetting & design

• Color & high-speed copying

• Top Quality & FAST Service

OUR PRINTING NEEDS REGULARLY INCLUDE:

Typesetting Brochures Pricelists

Business Cards Stationery Labels

Copy/Collating Manuals Business Forms

Full-color Printing Fast Turnaround

Please call me right away.We have an immediate need fortop quality, fast-service printing.

Company Name Here

Please deliver my free personalized memo pads to:

A Free Gift from COMPANY NAME HERE

your region’s

THANK YOU!

FREE PERSONALIZED MEMO PADS

COMPANY NAME HERE

PRINTINGLEADER


Quality

Quality

Quality

Quality

ality

Quality

Qual

Quality

Quality

Quality

Quality

Quality

Are You Looking for Are You Looking for

QualityQualityFrom Your

Printer?

lity ality

DIRECT MAIL POSTCARDSERIES ADirect mail has proven to be a highly effective marketingstrategy for many quick/digital/small commercial printers,and postcards are rapidly becoming the “media of choice”for many direct mail programs. The benefits of post cardmailings include high impact and relatively low cost.

This postcard series is designed as a four-card series—tobe sent out to prospects rather than current customers—with a fifth card as an optional extension of the program.(You’ll find a postcard series for your current customersfollowing this one.)

As you’ll see, each of the first four cards stresses aparticular buyer concern in the headline: Are you lookingfor quality from your printer? (Postcard #1) Are youlooking for service from your printer? (Postcard #2) Areyou looking for competitive pricing from your printer?(Postcard #3) Are you looking for added value from yourprinter? (Postcard #4) Each card goes on to explain howyou can address each particular concern, and encouragesyour prospect not to settle for second best!

Postcard #5 is meant to be an optional extension of thisprogram. As you’ll see, it’s headline asks “Which part ofquality, service and competitive pricing did you notunderstand?” We recognize that this headline may be a bittoo aggressive for your taste, and if that’s the case, don’tuse it!

Before you make that decision, though, please considerthe strategic thinking behind Postcard #5. At the pointwhere you would send it, you would have already sent thefirst four postcards and not received a response! In theory,you have little to lose and everything to gain by applyingsome “shock value” to get the prospect’s attention.Remember, the first challenge any direct mailer faces is toget the attention of the reader! Please also note that the


text of this post card explains your strategy. “Please forgivethe headline,” it says. “We’re only trying to get youattention!”

Your next key decision in employing thissales/promotional tool is the frequency of your mailings.At a maximum, the four (or five) postcards should be sentout at one-month intervals. You should also consider ashorter interval, though, perhaps two weeks. The benefitof a shorter interval is an increase in impact. If you’reunsure which strategy will work best for you, why not testboth intervals? Select 200 contacts from your mailing listand mail to them at one-month intervals and selectanother 200 and mail to them at two-week intervals.Track the results you get, and if one interval gives youbetter results, use that interval for the balance of yourmailing list.

Don’t forget to personalize this sales/presentation tool withyour company name, logo, and contact information.(You’ll note that we have prepared the artwork as a “1-up”file. You may want to set it up as a 2-up or 4-up for mostefficient printing.) Please also consider that these postcardmailings serve as samples of the quality of your work—and can also demonstrate your variable printingcapabilities!


Business

Business

Business

Business

Business

Busi

Business

Business

Business

Business

Business

We want more ofyour business!

We want more ofyour business!

Forgive Us For Seeming Greedy, But...

Forgive Us For Seeming Greedy, But...

DIRECT MAIL POSTCARDSERIES BAs promised, here is a direct mail postcard series designedto be mailed to your current customers. It’s purpose is togain more business from those customers, and as you’llsee, it integrates two more tools from your Sales &Marketing Tool Kit in a coordinated marketing plan.

The first two cards in this series introduce the theme of a“greedy” printer—making it clear to your customer thatyou want more of his/her business! The third card poses aquestion—Can We Put You On Our Calendar?—and offersyour customer a free Printing Planning Calendar (asales/organizational tool which you will also find in thisTook Kit.) The fourth card encourages your customers tocall you about any printing/copying project, even if they’renot sure you’re the right kind of printer for the job. Thefifth card asks another question—Can We Send You A“Magic” Envelope?—and offers your customer a freeevaluation of his/her printing needs. (The “Magic”Envelope is another sales/promotional tool you will findin this Tool Kit.)

As with Direct Mail Postcard Series A, you must considerthe frequency of your mailings. At a maximum, the fivepostcards should be sent out at one-month intervals, butyou should also consider a shorter interval, perhaps twoweeks. As noted earlier, the benefit of a shorter interval isan increase in impact, and if you’re unsure which strategywill work best for you, you can test both by selecting, say,50 contacts from your customer list and mailing to themat one-month intervals and selecting another 50 andmailing to them at two-week intervals. Track the resultsyou get, and if one interval gives you better results, usethat interval for the balance of your customer list.

Don’t forget to personalize this sales/presentation tool withyour company name, logo, and contact information. (Aswith Direct Mail Postcard Series A, you’ll note that wehave prepared the artwork as a “1-up” file. You may wantto set it up as a 2-up or 4-up for most efficient printing.)And again, please remember that these postcard mailingsserve as samples of the quality of your work—and can alsodemonstrate your variable printing capabilities!



123 Barnard Street St.Nessen, NC 00000 • 555-235-1235

FIRST Inc.

123 Barnard St.

Nessen, NC 00000FIRST Inc.

123 Allen St.

Bulla, NC 00000 • 555-235-1235

Forward Inc.

123 Allen St.Bulla, NC 00000

Forward Inc.

123 Ogelthorpe St. • Arken, NC 00000

Red One

123 Ogelthorpe St.Arken, NC 00000

Red One 1

1

We specialize inStationery

We specialize inStationery

DIRECT MAIL POSTCARDSERIES CThis is a series of six direct mail postcards built on thetheme of “We Specialize In…” It’s meant to be mailed toboth customers and prospects, and it’s intended to meetthe ongoing need to “keep your name in front of”customers and prospects with general information.

The best way to use this sales/promotional tool might beas a follow-up to either Direct Mail Postcard Series A (sentonly to prospects) or Series B (sent only to customers).After completing those four or five-card mailingprograms—each of which carries out a more aggressivebusiness-building theme—you can maintain “front-of-mind awareness” with your customers and/or prospectsusing Series C. We recommend mailing one card eachmonth on a rotating basis, and while we would notrecommend repeating Series A or B until at least one yearhas gone by, the general nature of the cards in Series Cwill allow you to rotate them indefinitely.

Series C can also be used on its own as your primarydirect mail program, of course, as opposed to using it as afollow up to Series A and/or B.

Again, don’t forget to personalize this sales/presentationtool with your company name, logo, and contactinformation. (As with Direct Mail Postcard Series A andB, you’ll note that we have prepared the artwork as a “1-up” file. You may want to set it up as a 2-up or 4-up formost efficient printing.) And again, please remember thatthese postcard mailings serve as samples of the quality ofyour work—and can also demonstrate your variableprinting capabilities!




from a printer who also saves you time & aggravation

There’s a Coupon Inside Worth Up To $1000!

YOUR LOGO HERE

$1,000$1,000MONEY SAVING COUPONSMONEY SAVING COUPONSCOUPON BOOKLET

Coupons have proven to be very effective sales & marketingtools for many businesses, but it’s probably most accurate tosay that quick/digital/small commercial printers have hadmixed results with coupon strategy. On one hand, manyprinters report that the coupons they send out are simplynever redeemed. On the other hand, many printers who dosee their coupons redeemed report that all they reallyaccomplish is to bring back the same low-value customers.

The key to an effective coupon strategy is to demonstrate abroad range of value to recipients…your customers andprospects! The best way to accomplish this is to offer them abroad range of money saving opportunities tied directly toyour best interests…increased sales volume and profitability!

The thinking behind this sales/promotional tool starts withgetting their attention! As the front cover notes, there is acoupon inside worth up to $1000, along with other moneysaving opportunities from a printer who will also save themtime and aggravation. That should be a pretty attractiveproposition to most printing buyers!

The $1000 coupon (Coupon #6)is analogous to a “frequentflyer” program. As the coupon states, it can be used toestablish a free “credit balance” worth up to $1000. Withevery order placed during the next 6 months, you will credit10% of the invoice amount to that credit balance, effectivelyproviding your customer with a 10% discount. In order tomaximize his/her savings, the customer must bring you moreorders, providing an incentive to at least talk to you aboutorders that would otherwise have gone to another printer.

The other five coupons in this booklet address otherproduct/service opportunities. Coupon #1 offers $10 towardany printing or copying purchase with no restrictions. This ismeant purely as an incentive to bring people in your door.Coupons #2 and #3 are product-specific; $20 toward thepurchase of letterhead, envelopes or business cards and $50toward the printing of a newsletter. (Coupon #3 specifies aminimum order of $250.) Coupon #4 invites your customersor prospects to add a “standard” color to their printing for

only $1 more. Coupon #5 takes a slightly different approachto bringing people in your door; it’s a coupon which is goodfor a free shop tour. (That may not seem to carry the samevalue as a reduction in cost, but you can also look at thiscoupon as an invitation to come in and look around yourshop!)

This is another file that you should examine very carefully tomake sure that you understand and are happy with both thevalue of each coupon and the restrictions—or lack ofrestrictions—specified. Please also note that there are thingsthat must be customized on each coupon, ranging fromadding your company name, logo, contact information and alisting of your products/service/capabilities (back cover) toadjusting the values and prices specified. (You’ll note that wehave prepared the artwork as a “1-up” file. You may want toset it up as a 3-up for most efficient printing.)

Your final decision in implementing this sales/promotionaltool concerns who will receive it. As a general statement, youprobably don’t want to give or send this coupon book toyour best customers. All you’d be doing in that case isreducing your revenues. Many printers would say that you’dbe thanking them for their business, but remember, you canalso accomplish that purpose by simply remembering to say“Thank You” on a regular basis, and continuing to providethe level of quality and service that has made them satisfiedcustomers in the first place. The real value of thissales/promotional tool is to give prospects an incentive tobecome customers, and to give “undersold” customers anincentive to buy more from you.


FR

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UP

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AD

EYOU’VE BEENUPGRADED!

PREMIUM PAPERPREMIUM PAPERAs a way of saying thanks for your order, wetook the liberty of providing you a free sampleupgrade of your project by printing a few extrasheets on one of our specialty papers.

The look, feel and color of the paper youchoose can make a big difference in how yourdocument appears. That’s why we offerhundreds of paper choices for you to choosefrom. One of them will be just right for yournext project.

Ask any of our sales/customer servicerepresentatives to show you our collectionof swatchbooks where you’ll find inspiration forsome great-looking documents!

FREE UPGRADE CARD(PREMIUM PAPER)Here’s another simple yet effective sales tool which isbased on the idea that a picture is worth a thousandwords. In this case, the “picture” shows what a particularprint job would look like if run on a higher grade ofpaper. Whenever your customer specifies a basic papergrade, you have the opportunity to plant the seeds of afuture “upsell” by running a few copies on one or morepremium grades. Your incremental cost is very low, butthe impact can be very high!

As an example, if a customer orders a job printed on 20#white bond, add few sheets of one or more upgradedpapers (heavier stock, colored stock, or textured paper) tothe print run. Please note that even if your customerdoesn’t choose to upgrade, you have shown an interest inhis/her project, and that’s something will likely beappreciated and remembered. Anything that represents amore consultative relationship between you and yourcustomer is a positive!.

Attach the upgraded samples to a Free Upgrade Card, andit will tell your story. The cards are designed to be printedtwo-up on 8? “ x 11” stock and trimmed to 5?” x 8?”



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EYOU’VE BEENUPGRADED!

As a way of saying thanks for your order, we tookthe liberty of providing you a free sample upgradeof your project by printing a few extra sheets onone of our great looking recycled papers.

In addition to its improved appearance, recycledpapers are an environmentally responsible choicefor many printing projects.

We have dozens of such papers from which youcan choose, so ask to see some of our recycledpaper swatchbooks, and think about using one ofthese fine papers for your next project.

RECYCLED PAPERUPGRADERECYCLED PAPERUPGRADE

FREE UPGRADE CARD(RECYCLED PAPER)This is a variation on the theme of “planting seeds” andshowing options. In this case, the upsell/option concernsthe socially responsible choice of using recycled paper. Inyears past, there has been a certain stigma attached to theuse of recycled grades; they didn’t have the same look andfeel of “virgin fiber” stock.

All that has changed with the introduction of newrecycled products. There are numerous recycled gradesthat are virtually indistinguishable from “virgin fiber”stock. Sometimes all it takes is for your customer to seethem!

This is another sales/marketing opportunity in which yourincremental cost is very low, but the impact can be veryhigh!



CUSTOMER SATISFACTIONSURVEYAs noted in the instructions for the AccountPenetration/Revitalization Letters which are part of yourSales & Marketing Tool Kit, most quick/digital/smallcommercial printers have experienced the loss ofsmall/occasional customers who managed to disappearwithout much notice or even much noise. And while aletter sent out a month or more after your last contactmight help you to revitalize an account, there’s noquestion that you’re better off if you shorten the intervalbetween contacts, and especially if you learn about anyproblems immediately after they occur.

This sales/promotional tool addresses both of thoserequirements, By reaching out to thank yoursmall/occasional customer after each job—and by askingfor their opinion on your performance—you are engagingin a solid program of “preventative maintenance.”

It’s important to note, though, that this is not a tool youshould be using with your regular customers (with“regular” defined as order frequency greater than oneorder each month.) Consider this: you should be talkingto your regular customers, following up on the telephoneor in person after every order! A “comment card” orcustomer satisfaction survey is effective, but it’simpersonal—at least when compared to regular telephoneor face-to-face contact. With your small/occasionalcustomers, you are wise to accept that limitation in theinterest of time. With your regular customers, though,you want to keep things as personal as you can!

This tool is designed as a two-sided, two way “self-mailer.”It’s meant to be sent out a few days after you makedelivery, perhaps including one sample of the job foldedinside. Another option would be to place one surveyinside the #1 Box on any job you’re delivering. Howshould you decide which strategy to use? If the job isbeing delivered directly to the person who ordered it,packing the survey with the delivery might be an

We view our customers as partners in our enterprise. Our goal toprovide the very best in printed products and services means that we

need to hear from you, our valued customers. Please take a few minutes tolet us know how we are doing by filling out the survey below. It will help usto serve you better in the future.

1. How would you rate the quality of the printing you received today?

2. How would you rate the timeliness with which your order was completed?

3. How knowledgeable did our people seem to be in handling your order?

4. How well did we communicate with you regarding the status of your order?

5. What can we do to improve our service?

6. What new services would you like to see us offer in the future?

7. Other comments

PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SURVEY QUESTIONS.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME…AND FOR YOUR BUSINESS!

Great Good Average Fair Poor




Your Logo Here

W

appropriate strategy. If the job is being deliveredsomewhere else, it might be a better idea to mail thesurvey and sample to the person who gave you the order.

Please note that the file as provided has two “place postagehere” areas, one for outgoing postage and one for thereturn. (Don’t forget to print your return addressinformation in the designated space!) It’s generallyaccepted that you have a better chance of getting a reply ifyou eliminate any cost to the customer, either by pre-printing a return mail indicia or by affixing a stamp. Someprinters have also employed the strategy of offering anadditional incentive—a “free gift” or a discount on afuture job—as a means of increasing response. We do notgenerally recommend the discount strategy, but a “freegift” may be appropriate. You might consider using theCoupon Book found in this Sales & Marketing Tool Kitas your incentive!

Don’t forget to personalize this sales/presentation tool withyour company name, logo, and contact information, andplease don’t forget to respond immediately to anyproblems this survey tool identifies, or to any constructivesuggestions your customers might offer!



THE “MAGIC” ENVELOPEThe definition of “quick” printing has changed dramatically overthe years, but it’s an unfortunate fact that many print buyers havenot kept up with the understanding of what a progressivequick/digital/small commercial printshop like yours is capable ofhandling. And while it’s certainly true that many printers andprinting salespeople have been successful at “educating” theircustomers, it’s also true that the best printing salespeople neverassume that their customers and prospects really “get it.”

This sales/promotional tool takes a distinctive approach to thechallenge of “educating” a printing buyer and capturing more ofhis/her work. Rather than telling them what you’re capable ofhandling, this tool helps you to ask them about the breadth oftheir printing/copying needs. The basic idea is to ask them togather up samples of everything they buy from any sort of printingor copying supplier. That, of course, would include letterhead,envelopes, newsletters, business forms, brochures, manuals,business cards, color copies…any sort of printing or copying thatthey use in the operation of their business/organization. Once yousee the breadth of their printing/copying needs, you’ll have amuch better understanding of their overall business potential, andyou’ll know specifically which of their needs are a good match foryour capabilities.

The best way to use this tool is to print the provided set ofinstructions for your customer or prospect, either directly on anenvelope of sufficient size to hold a variety of samples, or on alabel which can then be applied to such an envelope. Werecommend using a large Tyvek envelope, to be sure that your“Magic” Envelopes don’t fall apart under the best-case scenario—when a customer or prospect gives you lots of samples to lookat—and since Tyvek is not especially easy to print on, werecommend using the label approach.

Now, please consider your purpose in getting a look at the breadthof your customer or prospect’s printing/copying needs. As manyprinters who have used this tool have found, the typical “Magic”Envelope comes back containing up to three categories of printedmaterials. The first category will be things you actually printed.(This, of course, only applies when you are using the “Magic”Envelope with a current customer.) When this happens, be sure tothank the customer for giving you that business! The secondcategory will be things you are not capable of—or interested in—producing. (It’s not our intention to tell you what sort of printingand/or copying fits your niche, but it has been pretty wellestablished that it’s bad strategy to try to be “all things to allpeople” in the printing business. When you find things that don’tfit your niche, don’t be ashamed to say: “This is not the sort ofprinting/copying we specialize in.”)

The third category of printed materials you might expect to findin these envelopes will be things that are well-suited to your

capabilities, but were produced by another printshop orcopyshop. These are the real objectives of the “Magic” Envelopestrategy, and whenever you encounter one, your mission is tomake it clear to your customer or prospect that you are capableof—and interested in—producing that product for him/her thenext time around. “Were you aware,” you might ask, “that wehave exactly the right piece of equipment for producing worklike this? Is there anything that would keep you fromconsidering us the next time something like this comesaround?”

Please note that the “Magic” Envelope is not simply a tool tohelp you to find things to quote on. It’s really about findingmore product/service opportunities to talk about! Yes, you’llalmost certainly have to quote each job before you actuallyreceive an order, but please remember that you have a lot moreto sell than simply the lowest price. As the customer/prospectinstructions for the “Magic” Envelope say, you are offering afree evaluation of the customer or prospect’s printing/copyingneeds, and you are looking for projects for which you have “theright tool for the job”—which should translate into acompetitive price if not an outright price advantage. Ultimately,though, you stand to get orders at higher prices than yourcompetitors charge, as long as you have established the addedvalue of a relationship with you and your company.

In terms of your “cooperation expectations,” please understandthat you’re unlikely to find all of your customers and prospectswilling to take the time to deal with the “Magic” Envelope.Experience has shown that 20-30% cooperation is a morereasonable expectation.

Please also note that this sales/promotional tool has inside sales,outside sales and direct mail applications. It can be handed out“over the counter” to walk-in customers, hand-carried on salescalls by outside salespeople, or “requested” through the mail (seeDirect Mail Postcard Series B.)

Don’t forget to personalize this sales/promotional tool with yourcompany name, logo, and contact information!

The “Magic” Envelope

We call this a magic envelope because it will almost certainly make some of your printing cost—andaggravation—disappear! All you have to do is put samples of your printing inside it, and then we’llmake the magic happen!

Please gather up samples of everything you buy from any sort of printing or copying supplier. Thatincludes letterhead, newsletters, envelopes, business forms, brochures, manuals, business cards, colorcopies…any sort of printing or copying that you use in the operation of your business. Place all ofthose samples in this envelope and then call us at XXX-XXX-XXXX. We’ll make arrangements topick it up, and then we’ll bring it back to our shop for evaluation.

We’ll be looking for projects that match our capabilities, because asmost long-time printing buyers have learned, the secret to reducingprinting cost—and aggravation—is to deal with a printer who hasexactly the right tool for the job!

The “Magic” Envelope involves no cost or obligation. It’s simply achance to make sure that you’re dealing with the right supplier foreach of your print and copy jobs!

Your logoand

contact info here.



CUSTOMER/PROSPECTORGANIZATIONALCHARTING FORMThere are two things to look at in maximizing theopportunity of capturing more business from yourcurrent customers…one is people and the other isproducts. This sales/organizational tool addresses thepeople side of the equation. The basic idea here is thatmore than one person is likely to be involved in buyingprinting/copying at any company or organization,because more than one business function hasprinting/copying needs.

Consider this…every business or organization isinvolved in at least three core business functions:production (creating a product or service), marketing(transferring that product or service into the hands of auser in exchange for money) and administration(keeping track of the entire process.) To these three corefunctions, we can add several more key “sub-functions”—for example, purchasing and operationswithin the production function; sales and productmanagement within the marketing function; andhuman resources and accounting within theadministration function. Each of these functions islikely to have some printing/copying needs, andexperience has shown that in all but the smallestcompanies and organizations, more than one person islikely to be involved in buying this printing and/orcopying.

That’s not to say that each function has it’s ownprinting buyer(s), there may very well be some overlap.But the challenge for a printing salesperson is to makesure that he/she knows all of the players within eachcustomer organization. Think of it this way, if youdon’t know all of the players, you’re bound to bemissing out on opportunities!

The Customer/Prospect Organizational Charting Formis a tool which will help salespeople to develop a “bigpicture” understanding of sales opportunities relating tomultiple printing/copying buyers within existingcustomers. (Hopefully, you will also realize that thistool has value with prospects too!)

Here’s how to use this tool. Start with your Top 10customers, and write the name of each company ororganization on its own copy of the form. Then simply“fill in the blanks”—asking your current contact(s) forassistance in identifying the key players in whateverbusiness functions they are not responsible for.Remember, any individual may wear more than one“hat” in his/her company or organization—Mr./Ms.Big and/or one of the “key assistants” might very wellalso be the decision-maker in one or more businessfunctions—but as a salesperson, you can’t afford toassume that you have all of the bases covered. Put atleast one name in every box, and you’ll have gone along way toward ensuring that you’re not missing anyopportunities!

Once you’ve completed charting your Top 10customers, start on the next ten, and then the next ten,



orders directly from individuals responsible for otherfunctions! Please also consider this…if you’re notgetting anywhere with a purchasing agent, youprobably have nothing to lose by approaching thepeople directly responsible for other business functions.And it has been proven in the marketplace that thecloser you can get to the “originators” of anyprinting/copying, the more likely you are to succeed atbuilding the kind of relationship that’s based on value(as opposed to price!)

and so on. And don’t forget that this tool has valuewith prospects too.The Customer/Prospect Organizational Charting Formalso features a listing of some of the most commonprinting/copying “products” used in each businessfunction. This is to help you home in on specificopportunities. Don’t just ask a decision-maker if he/shehas any printing or copying needs, ask direct questionsabout specific products or services! “Tell me about howyou communicate with your employees,” you might askthe human resources decision-maker. “Do you put outan employee newsletter, or an employee handbook or amanual?” If the answer is yes, the next step is to learnmore about the specifics of those projects and(hopefully) talk about how well they match yourcapabilities.

NOTE: The six business functions listed on theCustomer/Prospect Organizational Charting Form arelargely self-explanatory, with the possible exception of“product management.” It might help you to think ofthis as the “marketing” department, responsible forsuch things as advertising, public relations, thedevelopment of all sales promotional literature, etc. Inlarge companies with sophisticated marketingfunctions, the people who make such decisions areoften called “product managers.” In smaller companies,a single individual might be responsible for the printingneeds of both the sales and product managementfunctions, but don’t assume that! In many companies ororganizations, “sales” and “marketing” are two differentanimals. The most important consideration for you as asalesperson is that both of these “animals” are likely tohave printing/copying needs!

Please also remember that the purchasing function mayor may not be responsible for the purchase of printingand copying. The “gatekeeper” may tell you that youhave to go through purchasing, but the truth may bethat some other printing salesperson is getting a lot of



PRODUCT OPPORTUNITYIDENTIFICATION FORMAs previously noted, there are two things to look at inmaximizing the opportunity of capturing more businessfrom your current customers…one is people and the otheris products. This sales/organizational tool addresses theproduct side of the equation. The basic idea here is thatmost companies and organizations will have at least someneed for each (or at least most) of the basic printedproducts. Therefore, if they’re not buying these productsfrom you, they must be buying them from someone else,and if that’s happening, you are missing out onopportunity!

There is no such thing as a “standard” list of products inthe printing industry. Your company’s specific “productline” is determined by equipment, capabilities andattitude. Face it, there are probably certain things thatyou’re good at, and certain things you’re not so good at;things you make solid profits on, and others that aremarginal; orders you want and orders you just plain don’twant!

The first step in utilizing this tool is to identify your“product line” and list the key product categories at thetop of each column of check boxes. Again, we can’t tellyou what your “product line” looks like, but it willprobably include some of the following categories:

Stationery (letterhead, envelopes and business cards)Specialized EnvelopesFormsPMS Promotional Printing4/C Process Promotional PrintingNewslettersManualsBookletsColor CopiesB/W CopiesDigital B/W Applications

Digital Color ApplicationsDesignMailing Services

After identifying the key product categories of your“product line,” list your Top 12 customers in the spaceson the left side of the form. Then check off the boxesrepresenting the categories that each individual customeris currently buying from you. (You may be able to do thisfrom memory, but it may also be helpful to look throughactual history…say, a year or two of invoices and/orcomputerized records.) Once you have completed theevaluation of your Top 12 customers, go on to the nexttwelve, and then the next twelve, and so on.

Remember, your opportunity here is not what they’rebuying from you now, it’s what they might be buyingfrom someone else. The checked boxes indicateopportunities that you’re already capitalizing on; the blankboxes identify possible growth opportunities!

Now you will be positioned to ask your current customersabout specific opportunities. “In looking through ourhistory together,” you might say, “I came to realize thatyou’ve bought a fair amount of letterhead, envelopes,business cards and business forms from us, but you’venever bought anything in the way of promotional



advantage to order smaller quantities…things thatchange often, for example, where you find yourselfthrowing away printed materials—or else usingmaterials that are out of date—because you bought alarger quantity than you ended up needing because ofthe ‘price breaks?’ Would you be willing to pay a littlemore for each individual item you really needed, ifthat saved you from paying a lot of money for thingsthat you were going to throw away, or that reallydidn’t help you because they were out of date? Do youhave any specific printing or copying needs whereturnaround time is absolutely the most importantthing, and you don’t have the time it takes for aprinter to go through all the production steps intraditional offset printing?”

Copying: “I’m sure you have copiers in youroffice(s)…would you call them convenience copiersor high production machines? Do you have a colorcopier? Do you ever have copying projects that yourmachines can’t handle, either because of color orbecause they’re just too slow? Do you ever go out tosomeone like Kinko’s or Office Depot or Office Maxto get copying done?”

Mailing: “How much of what you print ends upgoing into the mail? Does someone spend a lot oftime stuffing envelopes and running them throughthe postage meter? Do you send all of your mail outfirst class, or are there things you do in which youtake advantage of bulk mail rates? Do you find thebulk mail rules confusing? Did you know that weoffer mailing services, and we know how to make surethat you always pay the least possible postage? Wouldyou like to talk about this in more detail?”

Other: “As I look at our business, we have a few mainproduct lines. We print a lot of stationery—likeletterhead, envelopes and business cards—a lot offorms, marketing materials, we do a lot of copywork

printing. What sort of brochures, flyers, or mailers do youuse to put your products and services in front of yourcustomers?” Here are some other product-specificquestions you might consider:

Stationery: “My experience is that just about everycompany/organization uses letterhead, envelopes,business cards and things like that. You’ve neverordered any of that type of printing from us…wheredo you buy it? Were you aware that that’s anotherkind of printing we specialize in? How many peopleare there in the company/organization who have theirown business cards? How often do you ordersomeone’s card? Do you ever notice differencesbetween the cards from order to order…in color,typestyle, or quality? When do you expect to have toorder business cards again? Do you use more than onestyle of envelope? When do you expect to have toorder letterhead or envelopes again?”

Forms: “How many different business forms do youuse in the business? Are they continuous forms forcomputers or handwritten or typewritten forms? Doyou have forms that you order in pads? Did you knowthat we print a lot of carbonless and single-part formsfor our customers? When do you expect to have toorder any of these forms again?”

Promotional Printing: “What do you have in the wayof marketing materials? Are there pieces that are 8? x11 or 11 x 17, printed in two or three colors? (Or infull color/four color process?) Would you call thesethings flyers or brochures…pricelists…newsletters?What quantity of these pieces do you normally order?Were you aware that this kind of printing is right upour alley? Can I take a look at some of yourmarketing materials?”

Digital Applications: “Do you have any specificprinting or copying needs where it would be an



for our customers, and quite a bit of mailing forthem. There are also things which don’t seem to fitperfectly into any of those categories, so I just thinkof them as “other.” What else do you print that mightfall into that “other” category? Do you use any labelsin your business/organization? Pocket folders?Specialty items of any sort?”

In the printing business—as in most businesses—you onlyhave two ways to grow. One way is to gain newcustomers. The other way is to sell more to the customersyou already have. Most printers would agree that of thosetwo possibilities, it’s probably going to be easier to realizegrowth from current customers.

Your choice is to hope it happens or to make it happen,and the best way to make it happen is to be proactive.Don’t wait for them to ask you if you’re interestedin/capable of handling something other than what they’realready buying from you. Go out and ask them aboutprinting/copying needs that they could be/should betalking to you about. This is a big part of the differencebetween selling and order-taking!



A 35 DAY PLAN TO(RE)BUILD MOMENTUMIt’s an absolute fact that salespeople will find their wayonto plateaus, or into comfort zones. Sales managementexperts will tell you that there is really no way to keep thisfrom happening. It is possible, though, to move asalesperson off of a plateau, or out of a comfort zone. Thekey is a combination of motivation, planning and “actionmanagement”—with a little “sales management wisdom”thrown in.

The “wisdom” part is your starting point…the recognitionthat you can’t simply flip a switch and get your salesperson(back to) operating in high gear. Success in selling is verymuch a matter of momentum, and if your salesperson isstalled on a plateau or in a comfort zone, the salesmanagement solution is to build—or rebuild—somemomentum. You do that by establishing a reasonabletimeframe and implementing a plan!

Here’s how you use this tool. Sit down with yoursalesperson and give him/her a blank copy of the Thirty-Five Day Plan To (Re)Build Momentum form. Explainthat what you’re looking for is at least one solid newbusiness development activity every day for thirty-fivedays (which, you will note, includes Saturdays andSundays which can be used for planning and/ortraining/learning activities.) It is perfectly acceptable forsome of these new business development activities to berepeated. For example, a salesperson might plan to make 5cold calls every Monday during the 35-day period, andsend introductory letters to each “keeper” (see theOwners’ Manual entry for the Cold Call Data Input Formwhich follows this page.) Another possibility might be totelephone or drop in on 3 “inactive” customers everyTuesday, or perhaps better still, to develop a list of specificinactive or “undersold” customers who are felt to have realpotential for additional business, and assign contact withone or two of them to specific days. Work with your

salesperson to develop a reasonable and measurableschedule of activities. (Reasonable means enough togenerate the momentum you are looking for, but not somuch of a load that it can’t be managed by yoursalesperson.)

This covers the “planning” and part of the “salesmanagement wisdom” components. Next, we mustconsider “action management” and motivation. First,though, here’s another example of “sales managementwisdom”—it’s well understood by the most effective andsuccessful sales managers that the best way to createincreased sales volume is to motivate the behavior thatleads to increased sales volume. In other words, if you aresuccessful at motivating enough new businessdevelopment activity, you’ll end up with the new businessyou’re looking for!

Make sure your salesperson understands that he/she willnow be held accountable for the activities you havescheduled. Hopefully, this accountability will provide atleast part of the motivation for your salesperson tofaithfully implement the 35-day plan. (Note: This willrequire some sort or reporting process, but keep thereporting as simple as possible.)



Will accountability be enough of a motivating factor?Perhaps it will be, but you probably gain a better chanceof success by introducing a “positive” motivating force togo along with the “negative” force which accountabilityreally represents (Remember that complete accountabilityreally means either you do this or you don’t work hereanymore!) That “positive” motivation might come from abonus opportunity. (If you do all of this, I will pay you abonus of $100…or give you three days of extra paidvacation…or buy you a cell phone…whatever “reward” willmotivate your salesperson toward the behavior you arelooking for.)

Salespeople stall on plateaus and in comfort zones, that’san absolute fact! The Thirty-Five Day Plan To (Re)BuildMomentum is a tool that will help both you and yoursalesperson to establish an “escape plan”—but don’t forgetthat without action management and motivational support,this plan may not succeed. Consider this: If yoursalesperson knew how to (and really wanted to) get off ofa plateau or out of a comfort zone, he or she would havealready done that without your help. Therefore, yousimply have to get involved...and that’s what salesmanagement is all about!



COLD CALL DATA INPUTFORMIn his PRINTSELLING Seminar, Dave Fellman teaches astrategy by which cold calls are used as the first step in theprospecting/selling process. The purpose of these cold callsis not to attempt to speak with decision-makers, however.That’s simply not a very realistic expectation in today’smarketplace. The real strategic value of cold calls is two-fold: first, to “look at” companies and make a decision asto whether they’re worth following up on, and second, toidentify at least one decision-maker within the companyor organization.

The strategy Fellman teaches is to approach the“gatekeeper” and identify yourself and your company, andthen say: “I’d like to send some information about ourcompany in the mail to your company. Can you tell mewho to send it to? Who is most involved in ordering yourpromotional printing?” (Or your letterhead, envelopes,business cards, business forms, employee manuals, etc.—ask specifically about whatever printed products you’remost interested in selling!) Next ask the gatekeeper ifhe/she can tell you anything about the kind and volumeof printing/copying his/her company orders.

According to Fellman’s strategy, every cold call is to becategorized as either a keeper or a counter. A keeper is acompany or organization which seems to be worthfollowing up on. A counter is not worth following up on,but the call “counts” toward some number of coldcalls/prospecting calls for which the salesperson is to beheld accountable. (You’ll find a copy of “Starting SmartInto Outside Sales”—which explains Dave Fellman’s salesmanagement strategy in detail—on this CD, along with aspecial offer coupon for Fellman’s PRINTSELLINGseminar video.)

The purpose of the Cold Call Data Input Form is toinsure that the salesperson “captures” at least theminimum information required to follow up…company

and contact name(s) and title(s), complete address, phonenumber, and notes on intended follow-up. When usedproperly, it also serves as a daily/weekly call report form.

Here’s how the form should be used. First of all, thesalesperson should carry an adequate number of copies ofthe form—each of which contains five “contact blocks”—out into the field every day, either in a ring-binder orsome sort of pad-folio that can be comfortably be carriedon cold calls. One contact block should be completedimmediately after each cold call. This can and should bedone while in the hallway between cold calls in an officebuilding, or between units in an office/industrial park.Successful salespeople don’t trust important details tomemory!

For each keeper, the form specifies the information whichmust be captured. Many salespeople attempt to secure abusiness card to provide some/all of that information, andif that can be accomplished, it is perfectly acceptable tostaple or clip the business card to a contact block, or towrite just the name of the company in the block, alongwith a shorthand notation (BC, for example) that a



business card for this company is in the possession of thesalesperson. For counters, it is perfectly acceptable to writejust the name of the company in the contact block, alongwith a shorthand notation (a large “C” for example)which indicates that the cold call was made, but thecompany or organization was not felt to be worthfollowing up on.

This form is perfect for “outside” use when a salesperson isusing a contact management software product like ACT(which Fellman also highly recommends) to keep track ofcustomers and prospects. The paper form is used in thefield for data collection, and then serves as the inputdocument when the salesperson returns to the office andhis/her computer. The form can then simply be turnedinto the owner or sales manager, documenting thenumber of cold calls made during a defined timeframe.



SALES CALL PLANNINGAND REPORT FORMIt’s pretty well accepted in the printing industry that youhave to see in order to sell…that salespeople do their bestand most important selling when they get face-to-facewith their prospects and customers. In fact, securing a firstappointment is one of the most significant steps in theprocess of gaining a new customer. Unfortunately, it’s asad fact that most salespeople waste face-to-faceopportunities!

What causes this waste? Two simple factors…insufficientpreparation and inadequate follow-up! The typicalprinting salesperson walks into a sales call and simply“wings it.” The results are predictably disappointing.

The best and most successful printing salespeople veryrarely “wing it,” and they certainly never go on a firstappointment—or to any important meeting with acustomer or prospect—without a definite plan in mind.They establish a specific objective for each sales call, andthink about what questions they should ask as a means toget the conversation flowing in the direction they want itto go. This level of preparation does two things for thesewinning salespeople, first, it frees them to listen to whatthe prospect or customer has to say, and second, itprepares them to react effectively to what they may hear.

Preparation is the key to greater success on the sales callitself, but please understand that each sales call is only anevent which is part of an overall process. The real key toboth gaining new customers and increasing the businessyou do with established customers is effective follow-up.As Dave Fellman says, “you don’t gain customers fromprospecting, you gain them from follow-up. Prospectingonly finds you people to follow up with!”

The Sales Call Planning & Report Form combines bothpre-call planning and the planning of follow-up activitieswith a “what actually happened” call report section. You

might think of this more as a worksheet than a call reportform…a worksheet for the development of an individualmarketing plan for any prospect or customer.

Here’s how to use this tool: first, fill in thecompany/contact information at the top of the form. Thisshould be done shortly after scheduling the sales call.Next, complete the section describing your callpurpose/plan. The first consideration here is to establishyour objective for this particular sales call. Don’t besatisfied with a general objective, like “building arelationship” or “learning about their needs” or “getting anorder.” The most talented and successful printingsalespeople tie their objective to gaining some specificcommitment from the prospect or customer. They establishtheir objective by asking a simple question at the planningstage…what do I want this prospect or customer to say “yes”to today?

The answer might be “yes, I do have a need for the exactkind of printing/copying you sell,” or “yes, my currentprinter has dropped the ball in terms of quality or servicein the past,” or “yes, it would be a benefit to have a



printer who could handle both the printing and themailing,” or “yes, it would be a real benefit to be able toprint just as many manuals as I need for a smaller periodof time, instead of ending up throwing a lot of them awaybecause we made a change in the product.”

Once you’ve established your objective, the next step is toconsider how to achieve it. What questions should youask, and what statements do you want to make? What sortof samples or support materials should you bring along?What objections might the prospect or customer raise,and how do you respond? There’s an old saying that “priorplanning precludes poor performance.” It shouldn’t behard to accept the probability that 5-10 minutes ofplanning before an important sales call will increase yourchances of success!

When should you do this planning? Any time beforewalking in the door to your sales call will be helpful, butthe best strategy is to do it at a point where you reallyhave time to think. That may mean sitting down onFriday afternoon—or maybe better still on Saturdaymorning!—and planning your important sales calls for thefollowing week. You may be all right coming in early onthe morning of a particular call to work at the planning,but remember, if something comes up on that morning tokeep you from your planning, the result may very well bea wasted face-to-face opportunity.

The second section of the form is for your “what actuallyhappened” notes. How did the customer or prospectrespond to your questions? What did you learn about thecustomer or prospect—the company or the individual—which might have a bearing on the future relationship?And perhaps most importantly, what promises did youmake as far as providing information, getting back intouch, or any other follow-up activity?

Here’s an important point! You have a certain amount oflatitude as to when you do your pre-call planning, but the

call report section of this tool should be filled our rightafter the conversation ends. Successful salespeople don’ttrust important details to memory!

The third section of the Sales Call Planning & ReportForm is where you plan your follow-up activities. Thatmight be to send supplementary information or samplesin the mail, or by fax or e-mail. It might be to do someresearch on a particular project or need. It might be to callafter a specific interval to schedule another appointment.Again, don’t be satisfied with a general follow-up objectiveand strategy. Be specific, and plan your follow-up fromthe perspective that “this is what I accomplished today,and this is what I still have to accomplish, and this is howI want to go about it.” Remember that each sales call isonly an event which is part of an overall process.



FIRST APPOINTMENTPROSPECT INTERVIEWFORMA salesperson has two basic choices when he/she secures afirst face-to-face appointment with a prospect. One is tomake a presentation. The other is to have a conversation.Top salespeople agree that the conversation is a muchbetter strategy.

OK, you might ask, how do I start that conversation, andwhere do I want it to go? This sales/organizational toolwill provide you with a list of questions to ask, and here issome guidance on what you’re trying to accomplish witheach question. The best way to use this tool is to take theform with you on your first face-to-face appointments,using it as your guide through the conversation, andtaking notes in the spaces provided.

Question 1. Is this a company that’s especiallydependent on printing—or printing companies—todo it’s own business? You want to know early if you’redealing with a company that recognizes the importanceof printing to it’s own business. Remember, you’re notjust looking for customers, you’re looking for goodcustomers. A question like this can also establish it earlyin the prospect’s mind that you’re a thinker, not just a“give me something to quote on” printing salesperson.

Question 2. Is your part of the business moreconcerned with promotional printing or operationalprinting? One of the principles that should always guideyou in selling is that people like to talk aboutthemselves. Get that started early, and show that you’reconcerned with this individual, not just the size of thecompany’s printing budget. This question can also helpyou establish that there’s a difference betweenpromotional printing and a company’sinternal/operational printing needs.

Question 3. What kind of products/services does (thiscompany) sell/make/provide? You can never know toomuch about a prospect at this stage of the game, and it’sbeen proven in the marketplace that the kind ofcustomers you really want are very likely to be peoplewho want you in turn to understand something abouttheir businesses. They recognize that that’s how you canbe most valuable to them.

If you want to establish yourself as an even morecompetent salesperson, make it a point to have at leastsome idea of what a company sells before you go in ona sales appointment. That might lead you to use analternative form of this question. You might say, “I knowthat you sell/make/provide ABC and XYZ...what elseshould I know about your products/services?”

Question 4. Who are your typical customers? Again, aquestion intended to broaden your overall knowledge ofthe company, and to keep the prospect talking. But it’salso a part of the process of gauging the size of a



company’s printing requirements. You’ll get goodindications of how much they spend on printing in thecombination of products and customers. Lots ofproducts and lots of customers will generally translateinto lots of printing. Smaller product and/or marketniches might mean a much smaller printing need.

Question 5. How many employees in total do youhave? In how many locations? How many of them aresales or marketing people? The number of employeesand locations will help you to gauge a company’sinternal/operational printing needs. The number of salesor marketing people is another indication ofpromotional printing requirements.

Question 6. Is (this company) a market or industryleader? Where would you place yourself in terms of theother players in the markets you serve? Manysalespeople have found success in giving a prospect thechance to brag on his or her company a little bit,especially the smaller businesses who aren’t marketleaders yet, but want to be.

Question 7. What are your own responsibilities...tothe business as a whole? As far as the printingdecision-making process goes? Your ultimate purpose inasking this question is completely selfish. You want toknow if you’re spending your time with the realdecision-maker. But in phrasing it this way, you’resubmerging that critical question within anotheropportunity for the prospect to talk about himself orherself.

Question 8. Are there other people in the organizationthat I should get to know, either now or somewherealong the way? Another important question asked in anon-confrontational way. There may be others involvedin the decision-making process, and/or there may beothers who buy printing. You obviously want to knowwho all the players are. This buyer may be reluctant,though, to put you in contact with any or all of them

this early on in the process. You show that youunderstand that with the second part of the question.

Question 9. How many different kinds of printingcompanies are you dealing with now? It’s not at alluncommon for a company to use different printingcompanies for different types of printed products...basicquick-printer type work, long run/high color, complexor overflow copy work, forms or labels. You go inknowing that the prospect is doing business with otherprinters, with a goal of gaining at least part of theirwork for yourself. By establishing that there are differentkinds of printing, you set the stage for the contentionthat you’re the best choice for some particular part oftheir total printing need.

Question 10. Do you use more than one printer forany category of work? It’s not very reasonable to expectthat any prospect is going to throw all of their workyour way immediately, especially a company that has alot of printing to give. It may be easier to displace asecondary supplier than to displace a primary one, andyou should be happy enough with that as your initialaccomplishment with any prospect.

Question 11. Are you willing to tell me who you’rebuying from now? This can be interesting knowledge,but it’s not critical to your success. What’s critical is toask the question in a non-confrontational way. Thereally important information about competitors comesout in the next two questions.

Question 12. What do these printers do well? Whatare the things that you especially value in yourrelationship with them? Please understand that it’s notwho the other printers are that’s important, it’s how wellthey service the prospect. Remember this too...to a certaindegree you are asking the prospect to defend his or herdecision to be buying from these other printers. Youshould expect there to be high levels of satisfactionexpressed. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have achance, as you’ll see in just a second.



Question 13. Is there anything—no matter howsmall—about your relationship with any of theseprinters that you’d change if you could? This is a greatquestion! In fact, since you go in knowing that you’regoing to have to displace another printer in order to getany business from this prospect, it’s fair to say thateverything that has happened so far has been leading upto this question. The answer you get here tells youwhat—if anything—you have to work with inaccomplishing that challenge.

Question 14. Is there any one thing—or more thanone thing—that I’d have to show you to get seriousconsideration for some of your business? This is reallythe “closing” question, coming as a strong follow-up tothe question that identifies any weakness on the part ofthe other printer(s) involved. The most important thingfor you to do is to listen carefully to the answer andmake sure you clearly understand what you’ll have to doto ultimately win this customer.

Question 15. What’s the best way for me to keep whatwe’ve started today moving forward? The last questionrecognizes that you’re still only part way there. Whatyou need is the chance to come back and tell thisprospect exactly how and why you’re a better choicethan the printer(s) he or she is already doing businesswith. Many top salespeople have had success in askingtheir prospects to guide them as to how—and howfast—that should happen.

Now that you have a list of good questions to ask on afirst face-to-face sales call, we’ll give you one more piece ofadvice: Don’t expect it to work perfectly for you everytime! It’s an absolute truth in the business of selling thatyou can’t sell to everybody.

You will run into people who won’t cooperate very well,who won’t answer your questions in as forthright andhonest a manner as you’d like. You’ll also run in to peoplewhose answers won’t give you anything to work with.

That’s all right, though, because while you can’t sell toeverybody, you’ll also never run out of people to sell to.The bottom line is this...if you ask the right questions ofenough prospects, you’ll build all of the business you want!




FACT-FINDING INTERVIEWGUIDEThis tool takes a somewhat different approach to theprocess of getting to know a prospect and identifyingopportunities to do business. It can be used as a “stand-alone” tool during a first face-to-face meeting, or perhapsbetter still, it can be used in conjunction with the FirstAppointment Prospect Interview Form as the primaryinformation gathering tool of a second face-to-facemeeting. (This two-call strategy addresses one of the mostcommon problems experienced by quick/digital/smallcommercial printing salespeople: “After shooting off all ofmy big sales and marketing guns on my first visit, what doI do next?”)

The best way to use this tool is to fill out as much of it asyou can before meeting with your prospect—companyname, contact name, address, phone number, etc.—andthen “fill in the blanks” with questions during your face-to-face meeting. Note that the “contact information”section points you toward gaining knowledge of yourcontact’s title and specific job responsibilities, who he/shereports to, who assists or supports him/her, along withalternate contacts and decision influencers. This mayprove to be highly valuable information!

Your objectives should be to (1) capture all of the contactinformation, (2) learn which specific printed productsyour contact is responsible for ordering and who he/shehas been buying from, and (3) collect basic informationon specific printing/copying projects. The front side ofthis form provides three “item blocks” for that thirdpurpose, and the back side provides eight more. Note thatthe front side of the form also provides an area for you toplan your immediate follow up strategy.



NICHE MARKETSIDENTIFICATION PROCESSMany quick/digital/small commercial printers areintrigued by the idea of niche marketing. The generaldefinition of this strategy is to develop a specialization incertain market segments, with the goal of becoming thedominant supplier in certain niches.

What are the best niches? In considering that question, it’simportant to understand that there are actually fiveseparate types of niches: product niches, service niches,industry niches, geographical niches and personalityniches.

Product niches are pretty straightforward, in fact, quickprinting and digital printing are two pretty specificproduct niches. Quick printing revolves around relativelysimple, relatively short-run printing projects. Digitalprinting also revolves around relatively small quantities,but adds the consideration of printing from digital files todigital output devices.

Service niches are just a little bit more complex to define.For example, fast turnaround is a service niche, but onecustomer’s definition of fast turnaround might be differentfrom another’s. The ability to preflight and handle acustomer’s digital files is another service niche. Free pick-up and delivery—or extended hours—are still otherservice niches which can be exploited by a progressivequick/digital/small commercial printer.

Industry niches refer to certain industries or business typeswith which a printer seems to have developed a specialknowledge and product/service ability. For example, manyprinters have focused on specific industry niches such asfinancial companies, associations, educational entities, andthe legal profession.

Geographical niches are also pretty straightforward. In fact,most quick/digital/small commercial printers serve arelatively small geographical niche: a county, a town, orperhaps a portion of a city.

Personality niches are probably the most common—andleast understood—niches in which quick/digital/smallcommercial printers operate. The basis of a personalityniche is simply that the printer has something in commonwith the customer. That might range from a sharedinterest in local sports or culture to shared membership ina civic/social organization like Rotary, Kiwanis or aChamber of Commerce. It might also include havingmutual friends or acquaintances.

The first step in establishing a niche marketing focus is toidentify the niches you are already operating in. The bestway to use this form is simply to list your Top 40Customers in rank order—company name and salesvolume—and then cut the form down into 40 separate“slips” of paper. Next, start grouping the slips according tothe various niche possibilities.

As an example, let’s say that your Number 1 customer is asmall manufacturing firm which purchases a newsletterand two different product manuals from you. Start a“pile” with that customer’s slip, and then add any otherTop 40 customer who buys those same products to thepile. Let’s say that your Number 2 customer is a legal firmwhich buys it’s stationery items—letterhead, envelopesand business cards—from you, along with a great deal ofcopy work. This customer becomes the start of anotherpile.

Group your Top 40 customers in terms of product nichesfirst, then repeat the process on the basis of service,


industry, geographical and personality similarities. Thisshould give you a clear picture of what niches you havealready established.

From that point, you can follow two strategies. First,having identified certain niches in which you’re alreadysuccessful, go looking for more companies which appearto operate within those niches, with similar needs and/orexpectations. The whole idea behind niche marketing isthat you have developed some specialcapability/connection which will make it easier for you togain new customers within the niche.

Second, this analysis may point you toward desirableniches that you haven’t yet fully established. As anexample, let’s say that only one of your Top 40 customersis an association for whom you’re producing a newsletter.You know that it’s very profitable work, and you knowthat there are other similar associations in your marketarea. To follow this strategy, you may need to learn moreabout associations and expand your newsletter capabilities,but the Niche Markets Identification Process at leastpoints you in that direction!



DIGITAL APPLICATIONSQUALIFYINGQUESTIONNAIREThis sales/organizational tool provides you with a clearmeans of qualifying prospects for digital printing. Itcontains twenty questions, and features a simple scoringsystem which will help you to identify the best prospectsfor digital printing (and help you to realize quickly whenyou’re “barking up the wrong tree!”)

The questions, as you’ll see, are pretty straightforward, andthe answers will fall into only five categories: never, seldom,sometimes, frequently and mostly. The best way to use thistool is simply to schedule a face-to-face meeting with yourprospect and run through the questions, marking theanswer in the appropriate check box. (Please keep in mindthat a current “traditional” printing customer may be yourbest digital prospect!)

The scoring system is also pretty straightforward. At thebottom of the front side of this form, you simply total thenumber of checks in each column, and then carry thesubtotal over to the scoring section on the back side,placing it below the scoring boxes for the back side, andthen adding up both sets of boxes to reflect the overalltotal of checks in each column. Next, you multiply thenumber of checks in the “seldom” column x 2, the“sometimes” column total x 3, the “frequently” columntotal x 4, and the “mostly” column total x 5, then addthose results to determine the overall “qualification score.”

A “qualification score” of 40 or below indicates a marginalprospect for digital printing. A score of 40-60 indicates aprospect worth pursuing. A score of 60 or above indicatesan outstanding prospect!




CUSTOMER DATA & USAGEPROFILEAs noted earlier, many printing sales professionals areusing contact management software programs likeACT™ or Goldmine™ to maintain their prospect andcustomer contact information and history. Thissales/organizational tool is a paper-based “database”program for people who are not yet ready or able to usethese computerized products.

The use of this tool is pretty straightforward. Each “field”on the contact information side of the form identifies apiece of information you need to possess. In order to filleach field, you simply ask a question!

The form is meant to be duplex-printed, which gives youa “contact history” section on the back side. For eachcontact, fill in the date, the name of the person contacted,and the issues discussed and/or results of that contact.Maintaining an accurate history will allow you to “pick upwhere you left off” on successive calls.

You may very well need additional contact history pages,and we recommend printing a number of forms with thecontact history section on both sides of the sheet. Pleasealso note that since personnel and printing/copying needschange, it’s probably a good ideas to fill this form out inpencil rather than pen. We recommend that you three-hole punch these forms for use in a three-ring loose-leafbinder, with each customer or prospect’s sheet filedalphabetically.



PRINTING PLANNINGCALENDARThis sales/organizational tool can perform “double duty”as a tool to help both the salesperson and the customer orprospect to better understand the timing of upcomingprinting/copying needs. It can also serve as an “adspecialty” item to keep your name in front of yourcustomers and prospects. (As we hope you’ll remember,this tool is also part of the marketing program which isbuilt around Direct Mail Postcard Series B.)

The best way to use this tool is to schedule a “planningmeeting” during which you and your customer orprospect can sit together and look forward through the(rest of the) year to identify both definite and potentialprinting requirements. Things to consider include: tradeshows, product releases, changes in benefits programs,annual meetings, sales presentations, newsletters and/orother events which will require printing and/or copying aspart of what it takes to support them. One part of yourgoal is to help your customers and prospects plan ahead inorder to avoid rush projects. Another part of your goal isto give you a “running start” on winning the business. It’spretty well accepted in printing sales that the earlier youget involved, the better off you are!

As your customer fills out his/her Printing PlanningCalendar, be sure to take notes—perhaps on your owncopy of this valuable sales/organizational tool! Don’t forgetto personalize this sales/presentation tool with yourcompany name, logo, and contact information!



ON-DEMAND PRINTINGPRIMERThis Sales & Sales Management Educational Tool hasbeen designed to provide you and your salespeople withan introduction to the key considerations in selling digitalprinting. It lists the characteristics you should look for inany prospect company or organization, along with alisting of the most likely users of digital printing...both thecompany/organization type and the titles of theindividuals you and your salespeople should be talking to.It also provides a listing of document types which reflect agood model for digital printing.

TheOn-Demand

Printing Primer

A Guide To TheKey Considerations

In Selling Digital Printing

DF/A

David Fellman & AssociatesPO Box 445 Cary, NC 27512919-363-4068 fax [email protected]


STARTING SMART INTOOUTSIDE SALESThis Sales & Sales Management Educational Toolprovides you with a comprehensive guide to the key issuesin hiring, training, managing and motivatingquick/digital/small commercial printing salespeople. It’s anindispensable tool for managing your currentsalespeople—and for hiring wisely and getting yoursalesperson off to a good start the next time around!

Starting SmartInto Outside

Sales

Dave Fellman’s Guide To TheKey Issues In Hiring, Training, Managing

and Motivating Quick/Digital/SmallCommercial Printing Salespeople

DF/A

David Fellman & AssociatesPO Box 445 Cary, NC 27512919-363-4068 fax [email protected]

Sales & Marketing Tool Kit

Documents

Transcript of Sales & Marketing Tool Kit