It's always been interesting to see how different companies manage sales. Not just the processes (or lack thereof), but the people they employ. Specifically, the numbers of people. 

Many accountants believe that print business operations should avoid hiring a dedicated salesperson until they reach $1m/yr in sales. Even them, it's only marginally cost-effective, due to the huge overhead costs. So, if you're not a multi-million dollar operation, who sells?

Most often, it's the business owners themselves. Our Winston Marsh podcast (pink button, right) provides 4 steps easy steps to sales. It's simple and affordable. It's about getting customers coming to YOU.  Fortunately, there are lots of ways to entice customers today, for little cost.

As Winston also reminds us, a small business operation can do a huge amount with the $70,000 pa saved by NOT hiring a salesperson. Achieve more sales for less cost. i.e By building a smart website, use email, targeted direct mail flyers, referral schemes, business networks, plus local radio, newspapers and yellow pages. (Inspirational background reading on market trends is shown left.) Telemarketing campaigns can also be very cost effective too. It's about having a good cross-media marketing strategy.

Keeping sales costs down is critical if you're in the short-run market, with lower value, lower margin goods. Field salespeople here are an expensive luxury since every sales call adds $200+ to the print item cost. Whether you're doing $1m or $5m in print sales, you're often better off relying upon a few lower paid 'inside' customer service people armed with computers, phones and internet tools.

How much should they be Selling?

To join the ranks of the industry profit leaders, one salesperson should generate and maintain NZ$1.6m in sales.  Larger $5-10m turnover operations have the luxury of segmenting their customer base, ideally allocating two field salespeople to look after their top 30% 'high value' clients, with several (3-4) staff in-house on the phones and PCs tending to the rest, as well as doing customer support enquiries and driving company cross-media marketing strategies. 

A smart IT infrastructure can now take care of a sizable chunk of client sales needs too, automatically. Easily 50-60% of customers in some markets. (Vistaprint, Expresscopy and others already boast 90-98%). These customers will be serviced by private online Digital Storefronts with auto-quoting and web-to-press toolsets, linked to backend MIS and auto-prepress systems. Some 'humans' are on hand, but only introduced if clients have problems. It's all very simple, convenient and super-efficient - Payback time for a good system package can be under 6 months.

This more automated, error-free, customer-focused selling workflow allows companies to easily grow, without the inevitable sales, management, prepress and admin cost blowouts. The system  works 24-hours a day too, and doesn't take any sick days or holidays like us mere 'humans'. 

Sales vs Business Development

As Dr Joe Webb also noted many times, the way we pay salespeople needs a big overhaul as well, moving away from commission-based selling. More focus on marketing and working on customers cross-media 'projects'. More 'business development' staff and fewer 'salespeople'. So far progress on the restructuring industry sales processes has been disappointing

Not healthy, in a rapidly changing marketplace. Check out our video library for more ideas and feedback from print companies that have taken the plunge. 

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