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The value of time and the $2000 cup of joe.

March 20, 2012 by Bob Scherer

We’ve been working with Intelligent Conversations (IC) to help develop our sales team. You can read IC’s full blog, but they have an exercise that includes a worksheet that illustrates the true value of time.  It takes each sales manager’s income from last year divided by 2,080 (40 hours x 52 weeks) and shows his or her earning rate per hour. For example, a manager making $150,000 has an earning rate of about $72 each hour.

CL&D decided to use the exercise to look forward—we asked, what do we need to quote per hour to hit each of our individual sales plans? Since we did this exercise, IC has shared this new worksheet with other teams and for example purposes, say one sales person need to quote on average $2,000 per hour to reach her sales goal. That’s quite a bit more than the $72 per hour from last year’s calculations!

Think about what kind of time management decisions you can make when you understand the true value of your time. Remember that not all sales calls have the same ROI and time is money (and time is limited and cannot be replaced).

If that coffee meeting is really worth $2,000—go for it. By the way, the same formula can help you with business trip decisions, also.

Posted in General, Hot Topics, Partnerships/Associations | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

DO NOT DO lists from business leaders: Part 2.

March 5, 2012 by Bob Scherer

Here are some more great examples of things that should not be on your to-do list from INC. Magazine. (Read Part 1.)

  • 4 don’ts to consider on that power lunch:
  1. Don’t make online reservations (talking with a person so you can go over your preferences and give the restaurant your client’s name).
  2. Don’t wait to the end of the meal to think about how to handle the check. Typically the person who makes the reservation picks up the tab. You can even give your credit card information ahead of time to the restaurant to avoid any awkward moments.
  3. Don’t be late.
  4. Don’t be a stranger—being a regular at the same restaurant gets you better service.
  • 5 presentation tips
  1. Don’t use PowerPoint. The INC. article authors suggest using software like Keynote from Mac that combines video and images and offers great transitions (so the presentation flows better).
  2. Don’t use bullet points—avoid text on a slide so the focus is on you.
  3. Don’t forget that you’re the expert. Be engaging: friendly, energetic, fun.
  4. Do not leave out the emotion.
  5. Do not stick to just the facts, show the audience how the facts make their lives better.
  • 4 ideas to motivate employees
  1. Don’t ban “non-work” talk. It stifles creativity.
  2. Don’t discount community service as “just for PR.” Employees who are aware and involved can benefit, too.
  3. Don’t forget to give kudos to people for trying even if something failed. It encourages everyone to try something new without fear.
  4. Don’t leave it up to HR to create your company culture. It starts with you.

Posted in Digital Printing, Employee Benefits and Rewards, General, Hiring, Hot Topics | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

DO NOT DO lists from business leaders: Part 1.

February 23, 2012 by Bob Scherer

In this age of social media and new rules of online etiquette, I thought it would be interesting to blog about the things you shouldn’t do (online or otherwise). For example, Ace of Sales tells you that cold calling is a waste of time—that social media engagement is “the new cold call.” They also say you should get creative with your title and business cards—don’t use stale titles like sales manager and realtor.

In an INC. Magazine article, authors Alsever and Bluestein compiled an entire feature article out of don’t do lists. Here are a few that stood out.

Don’t underestimate your employees.

Don’t underestimate the power of your logo (or the professional process of designing it).

Don’t avoid Twitter or Facebook because you don’t “get” it.

Don’t hide from unhappy customers.

In social media posts, don’t keep patting yourself on the back. You are missing the point (have a conversation, not a “kudos to us” session.

To close a sale, don’t do these three things: Don’t walk into a room and start with “here’s what I am selling.” Don’t drop a lead if at first you don’t succeed (there are real reasons why people don’t buy, including timing and budget). And finally, if your company cannot help, recommend one that can.

Delegating a project? Avoid these five pitfalls: Don’t think people can read your mind. Don’t do a delegation dump (hand off tasks at a pace you can oversee). Don’t give into hesitation (the real benefit of delegation is having a focus on the parts of your job only you can do). Don’t tell people how they should get the job done. Don’t dismiss the learning curve (delegation is harder for some than others…hang in there!).

Posted in General, Hot Topics, Social Media, Systems/Processes | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

2012: Taking a cue from the little red engine that could.

February 16, 2012 by Bob Scherer

Attitude is everything, at work, in life—anywhere you set goals or need to overcome an obstacle. Over the holidays, I committed an hour every day for a week to a webinar from the Ace of Sales experts. The first day talked about taking personal responsibility for success in 2012—using the reference to renting or owning something. (Obviously if you own it, you are taking more responsibility and making more of a commitment.) Related to personal responsibility is the focus on the deepening of your belief system.

From a sales perspective, that translates into five key “beliefs:”

  • I work for the greatest company in the world
  • I offer the greatest products/services in the world
  • I am the greatest person in the world
  • I can differentiate myself and my company/products from the competition
  • I know the customer is better off having purchased from me

When you take personal responsibility, you are saying effectively that win or lose, it’s up to me. It’s not about price, the competition having more advertising dollars, or your boss and his archaic ways of selling. It’s about what you can do each and every day to have more “wins” in 2012.

I’ve always been a morning person, but  great advice from Ace of Sales is to get up 30 minutes earlier every day and invest it in yourself. Coming full circle, in that 30 minutes do something that promotes your “can do” attitude and gives you a jump-start on your day.

Posted in General, Hot Topics | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Price matters, but it’s not a differentiator.

February 9, 2012 by Bob Scherer

It’s no secret that if you want something fast, you will likely pay more upfront for it. Fast package digital printing is what we do every day, and we offer our customers options based on how quickly they need samples (example, 3-4 business days, 5-7, or 8-10). Of course, if they need it even faster, we can do it—and we’ve turned projects out in the same day.

Customers are willing to pay a bit more because getting to market fast can be the difference between life and death for a brand. How? Look at the cost of a digital label that can be a penny or two more, but then getting to market weeks ahead of the competition can mean a substantial amount of dollars. If you absolutely need it there tomorrow morning, the up-charge is a huge value.

Value, then, is all about perception—not yours, but the customer’s. That’s a very important distinction.

Yes, being competitively priced is a give-in, but here’s another distinction: this doesn’t mean you need to position your company as having the cheapest price. At the end of the day, if you base your sales message on price, you are driving your customers to make their buying decision on it.

The question then becomes, how do you create the perception of value? The experts at Ace of Sales say that it starts with engaging and provocative questions. Instead of walking in with a pitch, have an idea, and deliver it by first asking questions to find out what matters to that specific customer. (Yes, this means you cannot have a “canned pitch,” there’s no one-size-fits-all.)

A great question? Again from Ace of Sales, why not start with something like, “What one word comes to mind when you hear the word X (insert your industry, what you are selling)?” If I say “digital package printing” and the customer says “expensive,” then I know exactly how to answer that obstacle upfront—by explaining the true value of digital printing.

Once a customer works with CL&D Digital? That one word (or two) becomes fast, easy, quality samples, or exceptional service.

Posted in Digital Printing, Hot Topics, Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

To sell, think like the buyer.

February 3, 2012 by Bob Scherer

It seems like an easy enough principle. I’m reminded of my marketing director’s view on the problem with a company writing its own website (or any marketing material): It’s written like a page out of the employee handbook. In other words, it takes on the view of the seller, not the buyer. And what do buyers do? They say, “so what?” and move on.

Look at your sales pitch. How can you re-write it, providing value first to your customer? There’s a great example given in an Ace of Sales webinar:  if you’re selling copiers, your point of differentiation cannot be that “this button is square on their machine, ours is round.” But if you can show the decision-maker a stack of copies with the original mixed in, ask which is the original, and they cannot find it, now you’ve shown value. Sold.

Understanding the buyer is the key to being a strong seller.

Jason Fried’s article of this name from the March 2011 INC. magazine explained it another way with his experience selling shoes. He says that once he stopped “slinging technical terms” he sold a boatload of shoes. You see, customers didn’t care about the technology, the features, the special test labs. 1. They consider the look and style. 2. They try on to see if comfortable, and 3. What’s the price?

As easy as 1-2-3.

Translated to digital package printing (and we’re the experts), this means we have to be fast, we have to have full-production run quality, and we have to make CPGs lives easier (can we do this? yes we can, or let us do some research and we’ll come up with a solution).

Posted in Digital Printing, General, Hot Topics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Fellow printers, how SOCIAL are you?

January 26, 2012 by Bob Scherer

Tim Greene wrote an article in the November/December 2011 Industrial + Specialty Printing magazine on The Power of Social Media for Printers. Here are the highlights.

First, if you still believe social media was a passing trend, take these stats in:

  • More than 2/3 of Americans have a Facebook account
  • 200+ million tweets are sent every day
  • LinkedIn has passed the 100 million users mark

But those are personal users, right? Nothing that influences purchase decisions. Wrong.

A survey cited says 50% of users actively seek purchase decision advice and 50% give advice on social media. You can read all of the other numbers, but basically the message is this: businesses and consumers are engaging in social media—and discussing companies, brands, services, products.

So if you’re not, you don’t have an active voice, which means “silence” sums up your strategy. You have no offense, no defense, no game.

More than half of people using social media expect regular communication from companies they engage. And other than the time used by yourself and/or someone in marketing to engage, social media is free.

Next you’ll say, “I don’t know what I would write about.” I’ll leave you with a few great ideas from the article:

  • Answer FAQ (frequently asked questions)
  • Announce an interesting project
  • Write about new technologies
  • Welcome new employees
  • Celebrate milestones

Oh and for the record, CL&D Digital is actively engaging in social media—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn—and of course, blogging.

Posted in Digital Printing, Hot Topics, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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