A Print Buyers Perspective

Whatever your political views, there is no doubting that the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats not an obvious alliance. David Cameron and Nick Clegg sometimes appear to be uncomfortable partners.

However, they got together for a common cause. If they had not joined forces, they would not have been able to form a government. Sometimes, unlikely alliances like this do manage to achieve major goals.

So I am about to propose another unlikely alliance.

It’s time for printers and print buyers to join forces

This may seem like another strange coalition. However, both buyers and sellers of print face a common threat.

Many people don’t see the danger of what is approaching them. Others just accept it as a fact of life. But there is a growing threat that we should be aware of.

We are facing a sea of greenwash

Many companies are now trying to persuade us all to switch from print to electronic communications. They claim that this is more environmentally friendly.

You and I know that this is not the reason behind their drive for change. You and I know they are simply trying to cover up the fact that they want to lower their costs. However, many members of the public are taking in by the false message that these companies are promoting.

Now it’s getting worse.

The Paperless 2013 campaign is gathering momentum

They are putting out more and more propaganda that print is not environmentally friendly. There is no mention of sustainable forestry. There is certainly no mention of the environmental impact of all the server farms that make e- communication possible.

If you want to find out more about the environmental impact of electronic communication have a look at this article.

How many of us actually do something to try and stop this propaganda?

There is no doubt that the message of the Paperless 2013 campaign could be very damaging to our industry. We should all be doing something about it. After all, no one else is going to take action on our behalf.

It is up to the print industry to demonstrate the power of print. It is up to the print industry to make sure that people understand both sides of the argument.

Of course electronic communication has an important role. But replacing print on environmental grounds is not one of them.

It’s time to take action!

Here are three things you should carry out to do your bit:

1. Talk to as many people as possible and tell them about sustainable forestry and the cost of server farms.
2. Write a letter of complaint next time you see a message claiming that using paper is destroying forests or similar.
3. Tweet some positive facts about print under #paperless2013.

If you need some more good news stories about paper and print visit http://www.twosides.info/

Whether you are a printer or a print buyer, it’s time to do your bit.

Call.

Next call.

Next call.

We all know the life of many buyers.  It’s one cold call after another.  It’s a constant slog to get any work done with the phone ringing all day.

But print sales people persist in cold calling me

I am always telling them, politely and not so politely, to go away and leave me in peace. But they continue to think that cold calling is the best way to engage print buyers.

Anyone would think that they actually enjoy cold calling!  Surely it would be far better to have buyers calling them?  Strange as it may seem, this is what can sometimes happen.

I have been known to call printers to see if we can work together

Sometimes I need a printer with special capabilities for a job.  Sometimes my connections in the print industry have suggested I speak to a company.  But sometimes I just like the way in which they have been communicating with me.

In these instances, it is not because they have been cold calling me.  Far from it.  However, some suppliers engage me by sending me interesting information.  Some suppliers are spending time educating me.

Content marketing can be a very effective way to attract buyers

I am always attracted to useful information that helps me do my job better.  I subscribe to many print newsletters and always make a point of reading the best.  However these newsletters do more than just keep me informed.

They also make sure that the printer who sends them in constantly in my mind.  So if I am looking for a new supplier, printers who contact me in this way are top of the list.

However, some print newsletters and blogs actually put me off the people who send them.

Content should not just be about print

The quickest way to ensure a customer does not engage with your content is to tell them lots of technical information.  Most prospects are not interested in your presses or your processes.

You need to make sure that your content focusses on my business and how using print will help me.

Here’s how to find out more about content marketing

Here are three articles you will find useful:

Do you hate cold calling?  How content marketing can get you sales more effectively  

How to create killer content:  three ways to make sure your customers stay engaged with you (without cold calling) 

The bedtime story principle – how to create marketing content that your audience wants to read

Remember – cold calls can be just as much as a struggle for buyers as for sales people

It’s time for the print industry to change its ways.
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P.S.  Do you know of a print newsletter you think people should subscribe to?  Please put it down in the comments below.

Do you keep in contact with your friends regularly?

I always try and make time for mine. Even if it’s just for a quick coffee or a beer. I always try and make sure that we keep in touch regularly. I also make sure that we get to meet face-to-face. It is so much better for the friendship if we get to see each other.

But what would happen if we didn’t keep meeting? The friendship would suffer. My friends and I would see drift apart. What was once a strong relationship would become no more than a casual acquaintance.

Print relationships will also suffer if people don’t meet regularly

Whether you are a buyer or a seller it is worth setting up reviews with your best suppliers or clients. This will allow you to get the best out of a relationship.

Print professionals who carry out reviews will create stronger relationships. They will also have better control over the production of jobs. This is because they will understand the other party better. So everyone will achieve what they need to.

People who do not have a review system may find it harder to achieve what they want. There will be less understanding between client and supplier. So control over jobs is more difficult. Naturally, this leads to more difficult relationships.

Here are three reasons why people should consider a regular review with their clients for supplier. The first reason is all about people.

Reviews build relationships

The chance to sit down and talk always builds relationships between people. You’ll get a better understanding of how the other person thinks and works. As they get to know you, the chances are they will like you more. That means they are more likely to go that extra mile to help you out.

But reviews are about more than just relationships.

Reviews create business opportunities

Although I have been involved with reviews for many years, I am still always amazed at the good ideas that can come out of them. I have seen many occasions when both printers and clients have seen good ways to improve their businesses and profits.

Sometimes, if two companies sit down together, the combination of ideas can produce highly profitable results.

However, sometimes it’s not always good news.

Reviews give the opportunity to adapt to new situations

Inevitably, not all business relationships last forever. Sometimes companies begin to grow apart. Maybe there’s a change of culture. Or it may be that one company is not able to offer the other what it needs in this relationship.

Reviews offer both sides an opportunity to see these changes coming at an early stage. Then it is easier to adapt to them. If changes are addressed at two late a stage, it can lead to big business problems.

However, not everyone is convinced of the value of business reviews.

Don’t reviews just waste time?

In my experience, the time spent on reviews is time well spent. Often potential problems have been avoided. These problems would have taken far more time to resolve than the time taken on the reviews.

Sometimes the most difficult thing is to get the review system started.

Here are three action points to get your reviews going

1. Pick your largest client or supplier
2. Contact them and set a date for a meeting
3. Decide one thing that you would like to achieve as a result of the review

Don’t underestimate the importance of reviews

You will be surprised at how much more smoothly things wrong. You may even discover that you have more time. And then you will be able to catch up with your friends!
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P.S.  If you are interested in building relationships, make sure you read this article.

Have you seen someone experience a light bulb moment?

You see their face light up.  A smile comes to their face.  It’s like a fog has been cleared out of their brain.  Suddenly they get it.

They have just had a complete change of understanding on something that is close to them.

I’ve seen some light bulb moment in the print industry over the last few weeks

I’ve been running a lot of sales training for printers recently.  One of the things I encourage printers to do is to stop talking about print.  Most customers don’t want to hear about their presses.  They aren’t interested in the print company’s colour profiles.  Or the speed of the stitching line.

Then we have a chat about what they could talk about instead.  About how they could start talking about helping a client’s business.  And how they could solve a customer’s challenges.  That’s when the light bulb moment occurs.

It’s not about them, it’s about the customer!

Unfortunately, there are still far too many printers who just talk about print.  I call them “me, me, me” printers:  they talk about themselves and not their clients.  There are too many customers who find this acceptable.

It’s actually a bad practice that prospects and customers should refuse to allow.

Letting printers talk about print can be bad for your business

This is because they are focussing on commodity printing.  They don’t care about your business.  They just want to put ink on paper.

Here’s why this matters.

You may not get the right product

When I help clients with their print purchasing, a big area of saving can be in the specification of products.  “Me, me, me” printers aren’t interested in finding out what’s right for the client.  They just want to quote what the client asks for.

That’s fine if they are talking to a knowledgeable print buyer.  But the average customer may be missing out on an opportunity to save money.

They may also be missing out on opportunities to make money.

You may miss out on business opportunities

“Me, me, me” printers often don’t explain how they may be able to make print jobs more effective.  When they do try and do this, they often spend most of the time talking about all the features and benefits.  So the customer doesn’t understand how a solution may benefit them.

As a result these printers often fail to sell new solutions.  This leads to another problem.

These printers are more likely to go bust

I talked recently about how selling on price often leads to unsustainable margins.  “Me, me, me” printers are often forced into this position.  This is because they fail to create the right partnerships.  They exist on a job by job basis.  Clients don’t value them and force prices down.  Find out more about this here. 

However, some buyers don’t see this as an issue.

Aren’t “me, me, me” printers cheaper?

These print companies may have lower prices.  However, there are often better opportunities for customers to buy more profitably.  If they talk to companies that engage with them better they may find new opportunities that they had not thought of before.

Some buyers need to have a light bulb moment about the type of supplier that they use.

I recently made a prediction to my newsletter list. I said that 20% of print companies would no longer exist by the end of 2013. I said that one in five print companies would go bust this year.

This is a horrible prediction for me to make. I love the print industry. I hate seeing so many good companies go under. Nevertheless, I see 2013 as the final year for many traditional print companies.

Does that seem harsh?

Print volumes are declining. In most countries there is already too much capacity. Many print companies are busy investing in equipment and processes that will make them even more efficient.

Something’s got to give.

So which print companies will go bust?

The print companies that go bust will be the ones that:

• Sell on price
• Play the commodity game
• Sell on service and quality and nothing else
• Don’t actually come up with service and quality
• Don’t have a message that engages buyers and makes them stand out

Naturally, that raises some challenges for the purchasing community. So here’s a question for print buyers

How many of your suppliers are going to go bust this year?

• Are you using commodity suppliers?
• Are your suppliers only winning work from you because they quote the lowest price?
• Are your suppliers actually adding any value to your business?

If you are buying on price and price alone, you may suffer problems this year. You may end up losing suppliers. This means you may end up paying more for your print. So I hope you’ve built in some flexibility to your budgets…

When I wrote the original article I was called a prophet of doom

People questioned what right I had to make this prediction. But what was really pleasing was that so many printers saw this as a challenge. They wanted to make sure that they improved their services and did not become one of the 20%.

Those are the sort of suppliers that buyers should be seeking out. If they don’t, they better get good at disaster planning.

Price is always going to be important. But having the right type of supplier is also going to be vital this year.

Have you ever had a supplier go bust on you?

Trust me; it’s not something you’d ever want to go through. Especially if you have jobs in production at the printer when it happens…

Hi Michael

I hope you are well.

How are you finding the trade at the moment?

For us it has been very up and down, at the moment we are very busy. But, as always, we want more work, so if you have anything that is suitable to my presses, both B1 and B2, then please contact us for a quotation. If we have already quoted and you know that something is in the pipeline then please let me know so I can arrange the schedule.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards

I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of similar e-mails in the trade.  Maybe you’ve even received one like this yourself.

There appears to be nothing wrong with a message like this.  It is simply a reminder to the buyer about the printer.  And a reminder that they should ask the printer for a quote.

But this message encourages the buyer to choose on price

Messages like this will reduce a printer’s chance of receiving worthwhile work.  There are three reasons why this message makes a print buyer choose on price.  And here’s the first one:

This message focusses solely on quotes

So the only reason that I would send this printer a quote is to see if I could get a cheaper price.  E-mails like this actually encourage buyers to practice price-based buying.

This message makes the printer look desperate

As a keen buyer, I always look at messages and try and find the real reason behind them.  And in this e-mail the message is clear.  The printer needs more work.

This message doesn’t value me as a customer

For a start, I am called Matthew, not Michael.  So if you want me to engage with you as a printer, it helps if you get my name right.  Otherwise I am made to feel like a faceless prospect.

But beyond this error, the whole tone of the message is transactional.  This e-mail works on a purely one-deal basis.  The buyer sends a quote.  The printer sends a price.  It will be chosen if it is the cheapest.

I featured this this e-mail in my book “How To Stop Print Buyers Choosing On Price”.  I felt there was a lot that print companies could learn from it.

And it shows that it’s not just buyers who are forcing down print prices.
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P.S.  Find out more about how about how to engage with buyers so they focus less on price:  download the free e-book “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them” today.

I’d just picked up the phone to find out that I was on the receiving end of yet another print sales pitch.  It was a quiet morning so I was prepared to spend five minutes with the sales guy.  I was prepared to be educated, entertained or even mildly bored.

But I wasn’t prepared to be totally gobsmacked

I couldn’t believe the opening line.  It was:

“We’ve got a new press so we’re cheaper now”

What made this approach so completely baffling was the fact that I was already placing work with the printer

So in less than 30 seconds they had just cut their profit margins on my account.

But the sales person had just assumed that he would need to cut prices to keep my business.  What he actually did was to end up driving me away.

• He hadn’t researched me or my business
• He assumed I was a commodity, price-led buyer
• He effectively told me that the only reason to choose his company was price

I was going to use this as an example of how printers sell on price in my new book “How To Stop Buyers Choosing on Price”.  But I didn’t think anyone would actually believe that this approach was real (but the book has a great example of an e-mail that I often receive that creates exactly the same results).

What’s the worst print sales pitch you’ve ever had?

Can you imagine creating a great sales message to engage your customer?  It focusses on a small target audience.  It highlights a key pain.  And it shows that you have a fantastic solution to this pain.

Can you imagine seeing the buyer’s eyes light up as you explain this to them.  Can you imagine the buyer exclaiming that this is exactly what they need?

And can you imagine the buyer going to another printer and asking them to provide your solution?

Wouldn’t you feel disappointed, frustrated and robbed of your rightful job?

This situation happens to print companies all the time

In fact, I know several print companies that are frightened to give good ideas to their customers.  And they are frightened because they know the customer is likely to take that idea and put it out to tender.

There’s a reason for this.

Most print companies think it is because the buyer is only interested in price.  But if this was the case then the buyer would negotiate with the printer.  They wouldn’t place the job elsewhere.

The real reason is that the buyer doesn’t really understand why they should use that particular printer.  The printer has given the buyer a great solution.  But the buyer feels that they could use any number of suppliers to provide that solution.  They see no reason why they should use that particular printer.

And that’s why printers need difference

Printers who sell on difference will find it easier to create long term relationships with their customers.  Their customers will have a reason for using that printer, rather than other printers.  So they will be more likely to stay loyal to them.  And, naturally, that means that the printer will get more repeat business.  So they won’t need the same level of new business.  It will be easier for them to achieve their sales targets.

Printers who don’t sell on difference will be commodity suppliers.  Their customers have no reason to stay with them.  They will chop and change between print suppliers according to who is the cheapest at the time.  So these printers will be constantly searching for new customers.  But, in turn, those customers will also choose on price.  And the vicious circle will continue.  Those printers will find achieving their sales targets a constant struggle.

To avoid this struggle you need difference.

So what is difference?

Difference is the way in which a printer makes itself stand out from the competition.  It is the way that it sticks in the buyer’s mind.  Difference is the reason why the customer feels that they have to use that printer.  It is the reason why they won’t go to another supplier.

Difference is your unique selling point.

There are three ways to find your difference.  And you can do the first one with a simple phone call.

Ask a customer

Sometimes your clients can see more clearly than you.  They understand what makes you different.  This book has already encouraged you to sit down and talk more with your best customers.  So, when you do this,  here are some other questions to ask them:

“Why do you use us?”

“What makes us different from the competition?”

“In what ways are we unusual?”

Remember, that the customer might not come up with what you are expecting.  I have often found this when I have interviewed customers for my printing clients.  But it is the customer that is right.  They will understand exactly what they need from you and your business.

Let’s look at an example of this.  When I was helping a printer that did a lot of work from schools I interviewed some clients.  Both the printer and I assumed that it was the project management that made them stand out.

But it turned out that this wasn’t the case at all.  It was actually the samples that made the printer stand out.  It was the fact that, whatever a client was thinking about, the printer could show them a sample.  The competition did not have the same range of finished samples.

But it wasn’t until I interviewed the clients that we found this out.

However, sometimes clients won’t come up with an answer that you can use in a sales message.  Sometimes they will pick on things that are really hard to make different.  And then you need to move on to the next way of finding a point of difference.  You can find out about these methods in “How To Stop Print Buyers Choosing On Price”.

Difference can be incredibly powerful.  And this is because it is really focussed on the target market.  This is an important rule when deciding on your difference.

Your difference must be of value to the target market

Whichever method you choose for picking your difference, you must remember your target market.  What value will the difference bring to them?  Let’s look at some common mistakes.

Naturally customers want acceptable quality print.  But the best possible quality is not usually relevant to all markets.

Other printers focus on fantastic service.  But not all customers want to be contacted at frequent intervals.  They just want to place an order and be done with it.

So the difference needs to be something that works for your target market.  And there’s another important issue with difference.

You have to be able to deliver on your difference

It is no good telling your customers about your difference if you don’t actually put it into practice.  Earlier we talked about a printer that used samples as their difference.  But they can only use this as a difference if they can actually show a customer all the samples that they say they can.

What would happen if the printer talked about lots of samples and then could only show one or two?  The customer would soon see that the printer could not live up to the sales message.  And they would be disillusioned with the printer.  They would not see them as a trustworthy supplier.  They’d start looking for someone else.

Difference only works if you deliver on it.  But when you have difference and you deliver on it, it is really powerful.

Start working on your difference this week

It’s the only way to stop that buyer going elsewhere for the solution that you offer.

This is an extract from “How To Stop Print Buyers Choosing On Price”   Invest in your copy this week and join printers who are improving their sales messages right now.  You’ll benefit from the special launch offer price as well.

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P.S.  Do you want more ideas on how to sell print more profitably?  Then you should subscribe to the Profitable Print Relationships newsletter.  You’ll also receive our free e-book “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them”.  So sign up straight away.

This post was originally featured at http://profitableprintrelationships.com/why-your-sales-message-can-help-a-prospect-choose-your-competitors/

I’m on a bit of a rant with this blog.  And that’s because I’m bored.

Bored, bored, bored.

I’m bored of hearing poor sales approaches by printers

I now play a little game when a printer calls me.  I have a checklist of the most common things that I hear when printers call me.  And with 98% of sales approaches I will tick most things off the list.  But I won’t have heard anything that wasn’t already on the list.

Generally I hear three words.

Price, service, quality

And when I hear this from a printer I automatically start a reverse sell for my sales training!  I think most print buyers are bored of hearing this sort of approach from printers.  Print buyers need to start taking the lead in sales conversations.

Print buyers who lead print sales people will create better relationships with their suppliers.  They’ll be in control of the information that they need.  And they’ll achieve quicker more informative sales calls and meetings (and they’ll be more enjoyable too!).

Print buyers who let the sales person take control risk failing to achieve the relationship that they want.  They won’t be in control.  So they will suffer meetings where they don’t get what they want.

They’ll just receive the same old boring sales pitches.  To avoid this, print buyers should do three things.

Tell printers how you want them to communicate

Personally I like printers to contact me by e-mail.  If we need a call then we can set a time.  Nothing annoys me more than a print sales person calling me and launching into a long sales spiel without even asking me if this is a good time.  I also try and avoid too many meetings.

But some people like meetings.  And some like a lot of phone contact.  You need to guide your print sales person as to what you want.  You also need to tell them the right frequency of contact.  I have suffered from sales people calling far too frequently.  But I’m also less than impressed when people whom I am interested in fail to contact me when I’ve requested.

There’s something else you should tell your contacts too.

Tell printers what information you want

The thing I really want to know from printers is what makes them different.  And it is surprising how many fail to answer this basic question. Very few printers even try and tell me this – until I ask them.

What I am not interested in is information about service and quality.  Every printer is desperate to tell me more about this.  But I will normally take these as a given and investigate later if it looks like I will work with the printer.

There’s another piece of information I want from the printer as well.

Ask the printer how they can contribute to projects

Many printers that I talk to can have valuable input into some of the projects that I run.  So I will ask for their advice.  Again, it often takes direction to get the printer to contribute.  But the results can be very worthwhile.

So leading the printer through the sales process can gain the print buyer a lot of useful information.

The printer might be pleased with the results as well

In fact I have had more than one printer who has thanked me for the lead I took in a sales conversation.  One printer went so far as to tell me that they had struggled when they were forced to depart from their normal sales process.  But they realised at the end of the process that they had learned from it.

So I hope more print buyers will help their printers in this way.  I normally end my pieces with three actions points.  But this time I have just one action point for readers.

Tell a printer what to do

You’ll find the time you spend with the printer much more useful.  And you won’t just sit there listening to “price, quality and service” and getting bored.
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P.S.  Are you a printer or print management company reading this?  If you want to hear more about the print buyer’s point of view you should download this free e-book “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them”.

Are you a buyer or a shopper?

There are many people who like to shop.  They look round different shops or surf the internet until they find the cheapest price.  And then they make their purchase.

I prefer to buy.  I like to find the person who will let me purchase something in the right way for me. So I may choose an internet site if it means I don’t have to travel to a shop.  But I’ll certainly choose a shop if I want to try on some clothing.  And often I will want to talk to to someone to discuss a specialist purchase.  I choose on more than price.

And that’s the difference between a buyer and a shopper.

There are buyers and shoppers in the print industry too

Some print buyers are just shoppers.  They ask for three quotes and they choose the lowest.  They choose on price.

But a good print buyer will choose the right supplier.  And then they’ll sit down an negotiate the right deal.

Print buyers who negotiate the right deal will create better partnerships with their suppliers.  They’ll find it easier to control their jobs.  And they’ll achieve what they want when they work with their print suppliers.

Pint buyers who don’t negotiate the right deal won’t find it as easy to achieve what they want.  This is because they’ll have chosen on price.  and may not have the best supplier.  So they may struggle to control their work.  And they may not have a good partnership with their suppliers.

But to get a good partnership, you need to make sure that you negotiate in the best way.  So here are three strategies to help you improve your negotiation results.  And the first one results in more open negotiations.

Ask what the other side wants

If you know what the other side wants, it’s much easier to create a proposal that works for both parties.  The other side is much more likely to agree to your requests if they see that you are trying to make things work for them.

However, to make this strategy work as best as possible for you you also need to adopt the second strategy.

Make sure that you make a proposal first

Many people like to wait for the other party to make a proposal.  They like to see if the other party is going to offer them something better than they had hoped for.  The trouble is that this rarely happens.  And the person who receives the proposal is often faced with far less than they wanted.

It is far better to make another person react to your proposal.  If you make a proposal first you will be in control of your negotiation.

Of course, after you make a proposal the other party will often want you to make some concessions.  So here’s a strategy for this.

Practice WIIFM

WIIFM stands or What’s In It For Me.  And it’s a phrase you should ask every time someone asks you to make a concession.  The purpose of this is to make sure that you never give anything away without receiving something in return.

WIIFM and the other two strategies may seem simple.  But it’s often the simple strategies that work effectively.

Let’s look at how these strategies worked for me in real life

I was setting up a direct mail project for a client.  We had chosen the preferred supplier.  Now we were sitting down to see if we could create a deal that worked for both sides.

The first thing that I asked the supplier was what they would ideally like.  They wanted long term commitment.  This wasn’t necessarily an issue for us.  I therefore made a proposal agreeing to long-term commitment.  But, in return, we wanted access to the supplier’s contract postal rates at no mark-up.

The supplier would never have proposed something like this.  We were definitely at an advantage for having made the first proposal.  But now the supplier pushed back.

They suggested that we should pay within 14 days.  My automatic response was “What’s In It For Me?”.  And the supplier proposed a small discount on the print price in return for this speedy payment.

So we ended up with a deal that worked well for us both.

Here are three action points to get your own great deals

1. Remember to ask the other party what they want from the negotiation
2. Make sure you put a proposal on the table before the other party
3. Don’t give away anything without getting something in return

You’ll find that your negotiation results improve.  And don’t just use these strategies at work.  Use them when you carry out your personal shopping too.
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P.S. If you want to improve your negotiation skills even more, you should invest in a copy of The Print Industry Negotiation Handbook.  It’s a great place to find out more about negotiation skills that are really relevant to the print industry.  Print Buyers should head over to http://bit.ly/Ja0n4n to find out more.  And those who sell print should take a look here http://bit.ly/HHqegj