In a fast-consolidating industry of declining print volumes and thinner margins, sales skills are more important than ever for the biggest to the smallest Australian printers.
Sales staff, managers and owners of print businesses are set to get a booster to their selling skills, with print sales expert Dave Fellman heading down under next month for day long seminars in Melbourne and Sydney.
Fellman will help printers learn how to win whatever selling game they are in – offset, digital or any of the new printing technologies that are opening up.
Hosted by ProPrint owner Printer Magazines Group, endorsed by the PIAA and sponsored by Canon, the seminars will be held in Melbourne on May 22 and Sydney on May 23.
Click here for more information, and here to register as the events are selling out fast. ProPrint readers can quote the code PSE15PP on the booking form to get a $20 discount on the tickets if they book before April 30.
The seminars will cover the six critical skills for print sales success:
1. Prospecting skills. How to get face-to-face with the people who buy what you sell.
2. Questioning skills. How to probe for wants and needs, and pain points and problems.
3. Convincing skills. How to build real credibility as the relief for their pain, or the solution to their problems
4. Negotiating skills. How to put price in its place – and keep it there.
5. Time management/organisational skills. How to make time and get organised to get to the next level.
6. Customer maximisation skills. How to get all of the value from each customer relationship.
The seminar will also feature be bonus segments on effective sales management for owners and sales managers, and how to talk marketing with your customers and prospects.
According to Fellman, selling is a game printers must play to win – and winning that game will give them a big advantage in a competitive market.
“Selling is a game. That’s one of the, things I stress to all of the salespeople I coach and teach in seminars,” he says in one of his articles.
“It’s a game with rules, a game which requires certain skills, and just as importantly, it’s a game with an incredible amount of history.
“Sure, there are new wrinkles being added all the time to the way the selling game is played, especially as technology has changed the way people who sell things and people who buy things communicate with each other.
“But the essential skills required haven’t changed much, and there are also tried-and-true strategies and techniques that work just as well today as they did in the ‘old days’.”
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