Opportunities – major opportunities – are all around us but it’s sad to see that most salespeople are primarily reactive and their selling focus is solely on product, therefore missing those great opportunities.
The opportunities I’m speaking about are more creative sales – different types of sales all with significantly greater profit potential. I can only imagine that’s what most of you want. The biggest disconnect as I see it is in the process. We are all busy; our clients and prospects are busy, so when we do get that opportunity we become so focused on the close that we often leave massive opportunities behind. Those opportunities, for that particular project, once gone, are gone for good.
The veterans reading this would probably attest that the way we were taught years ago (at least the way I was) that there are a certain top questions that you need to ask: “When you need a quote? How many do you need? When do you need them, and what your budget?”
These shallow questions often pigeonhole us into the realm of being product driven only and when that's the case, there’s no true differentiator between you and everyone else. Case in point: if the client or prospect is looking for a white “C” handled coffee mug and five distributors are all bidding on the same job, the low bidder generally gets the deal. Make no mistake, there was a study some year’s back that found when you can make a 20 percent difference in price, loyalty goes out the window. Unfortunately we know there are a lot of folks in this industry who are willing to sell at cost +3 percent or cost +5 percent just to get the deal. That erosion of profitability affects everyone down the line.
The question is: how do you elevate your game so that you’re not put in that position?
Listening for Opportunities
What does listening for opportunities mean? It means being intuitive and focused on who you are listening to and what he or she is really saying.
Along with intentional listening comes truly deep questions. I’m not talking about philosophical questions like where did the universe begin but deeper level questions that will really peel back the layers of the onion to see if there are opportunities.
If you meet with the client and the client says to you, “I need to order 1,000 T-shirts, get me a price,” most of us would run off, get the quote, send it off, cross your fingers and pray that you get the deal. But what if you were to stop for a moment and asked that client a few deeper questions like:
• What made you decide on that particular product?
• What is the product being used for?
• Who’s the target audience?
• How will this product be distributed?
• How would you like that packaged?
Let’s break down these questions for a moment.
What made you decide on that particular product? Our clients don’t know the magnitude, the width and depth of what we can provide. They don’t know the amount of decorating techniques that we have or the way things can be printed. It’s not their job to know. That’s the whole point – it’s your job to know and your job to consult with them and give them the right solution! Now, a T-shirt may very well be the right product, but unless we ask, we really don’t know. Through your questioning you may find out that there may be a better solution for the client and therefore you could give them a few suggestions. What’s the worst they could say – no?
What is the product being used for? Perhaps the product is just being randomly handed out, or it’s to identify a new product launch, but once again it’s important to have this information.
Who is the target audience? We need to understand the demographics of the audience to ensure that the solution that’s being provided is the correct one. I often joke in some of my presentations that if your client is going to an Avon convention, Buck knives may not be the right choice in terms of product selection for that audience. Understanding age, gender and various other demographics play greatly determine the right selection or solution for your customer.
How will the product be distributed? Once again, our clients don’t know the depth of what we can do. The client may be handing these out of the trade show or mailing them out. There could be any number of ways that it’s being distributed but determining how you be a part of that process can provide added to the client and, at the same time, create additional sales and profits. You see, it’s all about taking away the pain making easier for the clients to do business with you by making it easier for them.
How would you like that packaged? I actually love this question most of all because it really gets your clients thinking. You should be asking your clients this open-ended question every opportunity that you have. Yes, packaging is one of the most missed opportunities in our industry as it is done easily and we have multiple suppliers that can assist us with this. It’s highly profitable yet it’s often overlooked.
To bring this full circle I use this scenario because this happened to me several years ago during one of my sales calls. My client called me and asked me if I could get him a quote for 3,500 T-shirts, printed two color on the front and four-color on the back. I asked him why he selected a T-shirt and he explained it was for a new product launch. “Who is the recipient?” He said, “Young techie people, both male and female between 20 and 25 years old that were their clients.” I then asked him ‘how do you plan on distributing the product”, and he stated they were going to mail them. I then asked, “So, how do you want them packaged? “Put those in a Tyvek envelope and mail them out on our own.”
Now most salespeople would say, “…he has it all taken care of” and just do the T-shirt order. But why couldn’t you create the packaging, handle the distribution make some money to do all the services for him?
Now just making that offer is not good enough, you actually do have to sell the value of why that would be important to them.
• We have a clean room facility so that you don’t have to worry about the product getting damaged.
• We have the staff, you don’t have to hire additional staff, temporary help, or pull anyone of your current staff off to do this project.
• We can do it quickly just give us an additional day and we can have a completed.
• You don’t have to worry about theft. We are insured and have the staff that can do this in a timely manner so that you know that everything’s done accurately and you’re not missing any product.
By taking the pain away and showing the value of what we can do, we make it easier for the customer to make that decision. But what if the customer said "no, we just cannot put them in a Tyvek envelope? Can’t you provide the Tyvek envelope?" Can’t you bring more value to the Tyvek envelope I perhaps printing the envelope for them with the same messaging? Of course you can. And at the end of the day was the worst they could say no? You see, most of us are averse to hearing the answer “no”, but if you don’t ask the question, I promise you are never going to see these opportunities.
Now in this situation my customer decided that it made sense. We charged the client $1.60 for each package and the labor to put it all together. Now what’s interesting in this scenario is the mailing tubes and the labor cost totaled around $.43, so if you do the math, which means that the profit on this packaging aspect of this was a $1.17 each. So, $1.17 times 3,500 packages equals $4,095, just for asking a few questions. When we start looking at the average gross profit in our industry as being between 32 and 35 percent this dramatically increases the profit margin the result being higher profits happy customer happy salesperson.
Going Deeper Yet…
This is where your intuition must step in. There are many times when speaking with the client the challenge of the client faces are much deeper. They’re going to a trade show, and they desperately need to get the best buyers into their show to see their new product so they can do a demonstration. What do you suggest? The $.59 pen handed out at the booth is not going to draw in that traffic.
· How do you then help them analyze the entire picture?
· What type of advertising have they done up to this point?
· Do they have the ability to do a preshow mailer?
· Who is their ideal client?
· What type of marketing are they allowed to do at the show, during the show, after the show?
· What would success look like to them at the end of the show?
In this scenario there may be an opportunity to do a creative pre-mailer that will include a promotional product, packaging, a creative theme that ties into their product, a call to action, all of which can be measured. And believe me marketers today are being challenged on how to measure every dollar that their spending. If you can bring this level of sophistication to your customers to your prospects and get them to see that what you bring to the table is more than just product you will build an amazingly loyal client base. Now the reality is not every scenario is going to be a creative piece, I understand, but you can see from the previous example that you could take a normal product sale and turn that into something much bigger.
As you move forward in your career and you're speaking with customers I encourage you not to be so quick to take the order and run, but take the time to ask good questions, “intentionally listen” to your customers, listen for key phrases like “rolling out a new product”, and how can you tie that back into a scene, a creative package, or a unique way of distribution that brings more value to the customer.
I believe we can all be more to our clients, more to our companies, more to our families, and more to ourselves.
Until next month continued good selling!
For more than 30 years, Cliff has been speaking, training and consulting internationally to associations and national business groups on more effective ways to market themselves, their products and services, as well as motivating their personnel. Recognized by PPAI for his creativity, he has won the prestigious PPAI Pyramid award 25 times, and the Printing Industry's PSDA’s Peak Award for creativity five times in three years. He has also received PPAI's Ambassador Speaker of the Year Award six consecutive years and was the inaugural recipient of PPAI's Distinguished Service Award. Named one of top six industry speakers and trainers, he also was recognized by PPAI in the book, "PPAI at 100," as having a significant influence in education. He has also been recognized by Counselor Magazine as one of the Top 50 Most Influential People in the Promotional Products Industry. You can engage with Cliff at http://www.myengagepage2.com/cliffquicksell.