If your print company is selling above what I call the “job level,” then the sales process probably involves more than one person. As soon as you start selling print programs or print that requires technology or print that requires data-management, your sale gets more complex.

If your sales team is older, this can be a new reality for them. For most of their career as a print sales person, they could basically do all the communication with the customer themselves. They made the initial contact, they collected the requirements, they facilitated the file transfers, and they worked with estimating to provide pricing. They were a one- (usually a) man show. When you’re the only one involved in a sale, you don’t have to document everything. You don’t have to worry about keeping people in alignment.

Now move these same people into a collaborative sale. This sale looks much different, primarily because it involves more than print manufacturing. Any print program of any size today involves technology, data, logistics, or a combination of all three. Now we have an older sales representative that needs to bring others into the sale. This sales representative also needs to understand the other elements of the sale. There are more people involved on the customer side as well. Procurement or the print-buyer isn’t making this decision on their own: they often have a technical person in the room, and they could have a marketing person in the room.