Ebiz Products, LLC   •   1855 Air Lane Dr.   •   Nashville, TN   •   888-496-8180

HOW YOU SELL MATTERS AS MUCH AS WHAT YOU SELL

 

The greatest challenge facing graphic communications companies is the need to achieve and sustain a reasonable rate of revenue and profit growth. While there is no “magic bullet” for increasing sales, there are several ways to improve the performance of your sales team.  The 2011 Sales Performance Optimization study by CSO Insights reveals that sales success depends on how you sell as much as what you sell.

How you sell has two components.  The first is how customers perceive the value of their relationship with your company. CSO Insights identifies five levels of relationship value that a company can achieve with customers.  At the lowest level, customers see the company as nothing more than an approved vendor that provides acceptable products or services.  At the highest level, customers see the company as a trusted partner whose products, services, and other contributions are key to their long-term success.

 

The second component of how you sell is your selling process.  CSO Insights contends that companies will fall into one of four levels when it comes to selling process.  Those at the lowest level have no formal selling process—every salesperson does his/her own thing.  At the highest level, a company has a well-defined selling process, and continuously monitors its use by the sales team.

 

The research by CSO Insights shows that the higher you are along these two dimensions, the more sales success you will achieve.  For example, higher-ranking companies have more salespeople who achieve their sales quotas, higher closing ratios, and a lower turnover of salespeople.

 

In the graphic communications industry, we’ve recognized that it’s important for printing companies to elevate their relationships with customers, to move from being just an approved vendor to a trusted advisor. 

 

Far less attention has been given to the importance of the marketing and sales process.  A business process can be defined as: a group of activities that takes inputs and transforms them into outputs.  By this definition, marketing and sales is as much of a process as what happens on the shop floor.  Your print manufacturing process takes raw materials (paper, ink, etc.) and transforms those raw materials into printed documents.  The objective of your marketing and sales process is to take raw materials (people or organizations in the marketplace who have the kinds of problems your company can solve) and transform them into customers.

 

Because marketing and sales is a process, it can be measured, analyzed, and improved using tested and proven process improvement tools such as lean or Six Sigma.  The traditional way to deal with sales problems is to provide sales training that focuses on individual selling skills, or to adjust sales compensation programs, or to simply demand more marketing and selling activity – more prospecting, more sales calls, or more quotes.  At times, these actions may be appropriate, but if the underlying process is flawed, they won’t solve the problems.

 

Having a sound marketing and sales process is critical to achieving sustained growth.  A flawed process will diminish the results produced by even the most talented salesperson.  A first-rate marketing and sales process, on the other hand, will elevate the performance of your entire sales team.

 

G. David Dodd is a business and marketing strategist and B2B marketing content developer.  He has worked with small and mid-sized B2B companies – primarily printing and publishing companies – for over twenty years.  You can read more of David’s thoughts on B2B marketing and sales at the B2B Marketing Directions blog.