CASE STUDY
Case of Owners Who
Won't Sell
Business owners must engage in the sales process,
even if they have salespeople. By Tom Crouser
Isn't selling based on personality traits,
as in, "I don't have the personality to
sell"? No. The need to perform far outweighs any Ouija board profile. The profile will tell how a person will approach
the job and is very helpful in training,
but it doesn't tell whether they will act.
Now, does an owner need to sell?
Depends on what you mean by sell.
It's not going door-to-door begging for
business. It's the simple act of assertively
asking someone to buy and maintaining
contact with the accounts.
Many employ the "hint-hope" method: make it known that you are a printer
and then wait for customers to walk in
asking to buy. Unfortunately, sometimes
the hint-hope method works because
luck is involved and some folks are
lucky. One owner told me his marketing
strategy was search engine optimization
and content marketing. Yet 50 percent of
his business came from the person who
stopped by the week before he opened
and asked him if he did certain types
of work. He did, they bought, and it
expanded into a big account.
What's needed is a simple selling plan
to reach out to prospects in a systematic method. I've described such plans
in previous articles, so let's just say any
business owner can devise such a plan. If
you give me that, then the issue is what
happens to business owners who refuse
to participate in selling to customers.
Here are two common scenarios with
poor salespeople.
1. We usually can't afford a real salesperson. Great salespeople are expensive.
20
In a $500,000 shop, we don't have the
budget for a great one, so we settle for a
beginner or a mediocre producer—and
that's even more expensive. It takes time
to train and answer questions. Usually,
they gather quotes. Unfortunately, this
is one of the basic ways a prospect has of
getting rid of untrained salespeople, for
they know most never come back with
a quote. If they do, the reply is, "Oh,
that's too high." The salesperson walks
away convinced their prices are too high,
when that's usually not the case. They
haven't uncovered any pain. Although
quoting is necessary, it is not a way to get
on the buyers' speed dial.
2. If we, the owners, don't know the
basics, we will not know how to supervise a salesperson. This ends with owners
being talked into letting the salesperson
do busy work and not selling.
The Other Side of the Coin
Most dramatically, should an owner get
a good salesman, that person often ends
up controlling the business.
In California, a good salesman was
hired. Twenty years later, the owners
want to sell the business, but the only
person they can sell it to is the salesman
because he says he'll walk away with the
customers unless it is sold to him.
In Florida, an owner hired a mediocre
salesman. A call came in and the salesman went to see the customer. That
customer grew up to be a New York Stock
Exchange listed company. Oh yes, the
salesperson had all the contacts because
the owner refused to get involved in the
QUICK PRINTING / January 2014
© iStockphoto/Thinkstock
e's obviously not going to sell, for he hasn't in fve years.
What he needs to do is just hire a salesperson." Showing
once again that technology hasn't changed basic business
owner behavior, let me address why owners should be involved in the selling process regardless of whether sales is
their primary task.
H
"
process. Today, the salesman works a
few hours each week tending to the one
account.
The owners want to sell the business in
order to retire, but they can't because no
one wants it with the salesman controlling the big account.
Anytime owners refuse to act and hire
someone to do what they won't do for
themselves, it ends up in a quagmire.
This doesn't mean the owner has to do
cold calls. It does mean the owner has to
be involved in the selling process and be
in command of the accounts. Otherwise,
the owner ends up working for the salesperson in some form or fashion.
Selling is a process that involves getting in front of new customers and asking for new business, or getting in front
of old customers asking for new business. In all cases, it's about new business.
It's not about reprints, delivering, press
checks, or any other thing salespeople
can stay busy doing.
And that's why owners have to accept
their role in selling, whether they are
printers, bakers, plumbers, or lawyers. ◗◗
Tom Crouser is chairman of CPrint International, teacher of business courses at
CPrint University, and principal of Crouser & Associates, Inc., 235 Dutch Road,
Charleston, WV 25302, (MyPRINTResource.com/10004688), 304-965-7100.
Contact him at 304-541-3714 or tom@
crouser.com. Connect on Facebook and
LinkedIn and follow his tweets at www.
twitter.com/tomcrouser.
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