I was thrilled to see all the feedback to the recent blog Is Selling VDP Too Hard? Many people responded with comments and 3 out of 4 of them focused on the need for training.
For example, Roy Waterhouse said: “Another large reason is the lack of education within the typical printing company. The average printing company is a shop of about 50 people with 5 or 6 reps out in the field. At that size there is no formal training budget. If a sales rep does not have hours of training on the benefits, obstacles and systems of VDP, it is almost always a safer route to just sell print.” And Kevin Trye said: “It is hard, but proper training helps, not just on the sales side, but the technical so that when a VDP job arrives, it can be turned around quickly and without errors.”
Lee Weiner wrote: “I agree that VDP is a harder sell but the money does become secondary when VDP is implemented correctly. Educating your sales team is the most important piece to having success selling VDP. Educating the customer is just as important and with this education based sales model you will convert more customers into the VDP world.”
Ironically as I write this I am updating a training seminar on VDP for a company in New York. I have been going back and forth between the comments from this story and PowerPoint to create content that fulfills all of the different needs. I am still wrestling with what should be included in this first day and what should be discussed in subsequent webinars but right now these are the subjects that are making the cut:
- The Importance of Value-Added Services
- Different Levels of VDP and Response Rates
- The Image Quality Issue and Relation to Response Rates
- Technologies that enhance success: web-to-print, Purls, SMS, social media, QR Codes
- Verticals: banks, insurance, auto, healthcare, real estate, franchises, marketing companies
- Consultative Sales Training Exercise
- Creating a Successful Sales Plan Exercise
Anything missing?
Howard Fenton is a Senior Consultant at NAPL. Howie advises commercial printers, in-plants, and manufacturers on workflow management, operations, digital services, and customer research.
Discussion
By Linda Bishop on Jun 08, 2010
Today I'm speaking at the Printing Industy of AZ on The Coming Crisis in Compensation, and I've been giving this topic a lot of thought. Even though I'm a big advocate of training, it's not the only piece you need to solve this puzzle. You have to consider money issues and compensating the sales team for the behavior that gets results.
By Michael Josefowicz on Jun 08, 2010
Howie,
You might try a somewhat different approach that has worked for me in college classrooms. In a company setting, ask the salespeople to make a list of their present or wanna be clients.
Then combine the list into types that cover most of the cases. For example SMB, Non profits, Global marketing or pruchasing. designers and their clients.
Put it up on the board.
Then get the production people to describe some of the sutff they can do today on VDP. Not the hard going to do tomorrow, but what it is easy and proven today.
Spend the rest of the time brainstorming solutions against the client list. With any luck after an hour or so you'll have sort of a laundry list of solutions.
The under appreciated reality about education is that it's not "learning new concepts." It's about figuring out how to sell new profitable services to present customers.
Another thing to keep in mind is that biggest block to VDP is that the customer doesn't have the database in a useful form. The usual problem is they won't admit it. My 2¢ is take as a given the state of the customer's database. That is another part of the puzzle.
So . . type of customer + state of database + production capabilities should pretty easily get to new profitable services for existing clients.
By Joseph Manos on Jun 08, 2010
Howie,
Great blog and the follow-up comments have all been excellent as well.
As you know, MindFireInc has been training our customers how to sell Cross Media Marketing for over four years. We do this because we knew that our customers wouldn't make the time or the transition without a well designed Go-to-Market program, great training, business development tools and support.
One of the keys for success starts at the top. Without managements complete commitment to success in this area it will never happen. It's not enough to say we are going to do this. You have to build new behaviors and activities (different from what you do today)on the right developmental areas.
You have to make the time, an investment in training and resources necessary for success which include compensation, selling tools, business development tools and ongoing support of the right selling activities.
You also have to have a plan for how you are going to Go to Market - strategic approaches focused on the right accounts at the correct decision making level (depending on the solution you are offering).
It isn't an easy journey BUT there are many companies that have made it successfully.
These companies are generating new high-value revenues in an industry that is seeing increasing pressure on printed pages from new media on a daily basis.
If anyone would like to speak to some of our customers that have made the journey give me a call - 916-284-8112.
By Jack on Jun 08, 2010
Before focusing on training, there should be a talent assessment done. Frankly, the real issue is solution selling (which is the approach VDP requires) vs. transactional selling (which has been the traditional approach of print reps). Many transactional sales reps lack the capacity to be solution sellers. If you try to train these people, you won't be successful.
By Thomas Bougher on Jun 08, 2010
I have always encouraged print service providers to make themselves their first customer for VDP.
Using VDP for their own self promotion develops in house hands on skills from the production side. It is also a great way to engage sales reps in a VDP campaign. It is also a very obvious means to showcase the PSP's new capability to clients and prospects.
By Thomas Bougher on Jun 08, 2010
Howie:
In reading back through your article and you subject list you might want to also include,
Database Management, 101
It is a subject that always comes up. Sales people and campaign managers need to know how and where to grab data that either exists in house or where to source lists.
By Michael Josefowicz on Jun 08, 2010
Jack,
I have to disagree with "If you try to train these people, you won’t be successful." It's really not that hard. But it needs a clear process, and most important incentives of consultative sales.
The under appreciated reality is that the incentives are the cruz of the matter. Once those are set correctly, salesman- just like high school kids= usually do amazing things.
- Discussion is closed -