By Lisa Cross and Kate Dunn

A key challenge facing today’s print and marketing service providers is finding and applying the right mix of best practices to increase sales staff performance. While many firms are experts at improving profitability through manufacturing efficiencies, establishing the right processes to increase sales growth are often elusive. InfoTrends conducted a research study entitled Best Practices of High-Performance Print Sales Organizations to identify the sales practices of printing companies that were experiencing strong growth. This article highlights five of the ten best practices reported by the high-performance sales organizations that participated in the study. Next week’s article will explore the remaining five practices.

High-growth firms are more likely to use face-to-face methods to attract and recruit new customers. Respondents report that customer-facing activities such as direct sales, attending the same events as customers, sponsoring events, and exhibiting at trade shows are key methods used to capture new customers. In addition, respondents indicate that digital and print communications play an important role in attracting customers—well over half of high-growth companies were using company websites, social media, e-mail marketing, direct mail, and signage to create awareness and generate leads. While engaging potential customers in person is essential, it is also important to support those efforts with printed and digital communications to create a productive sales force.