Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Bishop
However I totally disagree with your comment, "The sales process and the sales and CSR's who manage that process are the only people who bring in money. Everyone else is spending money. Sorry, but that lazy sales schleps are paying everyone's salary." Our customers are paying for a product, and that product is created by the production staff of the company. No one is paying to have lunch with the sales staff, no one is paying to go golfing with the sales staff, they are paying for printed material, which sales and the CSRs do not create. The product of a printing company is printed material, not manufactured friendships with the sales department.
|
Actually I agree with you on this one. "No one is paying to have lunch or go golfing". The thing is that customers no longer want any of those things. Who has the time? My experience tells me the less time the sales person takes from a customer. The better, the customer service. It may have been how printing was sold in the day when the world of pre-press was thriving. But no more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Bishop
There are plenty of printing companies that do not use traditional sales reps, but have instead turned desktop operators into a mix of CSR/desktop/sales. The worker takes a call generated from web advertising, takes the order and files, and produces the finished product. Voila! No sales rep needed. And this model can work for some companies. How does this company make money? According to your statements this company should only be spending and losing money since there are no SALESMEN to pay everyone's salary. Instead these types of production models are becoming more common, and they make money in the absence of a dedicated sales staff.
|
Yep. My favorite example is PrintingForLess.com. They have three person CSR people, who are better than any sales person I ever met. But, the sales function doesn't change. It's just done more efficiently. It's like making PDF's. The situation today is completely different from what it was just 4 or 5 years ago. Designers got a little smarter, but mostly every time there is a new software rev it gets more and more stable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Bishop
As you stated we need to all do our jobs. This includes sales people learning something about the process that creates the work that they sell. I am a Pre-press manager and I take calls from customers, I help them through technical problems and I prepare training material for them and their employees. This is done in addition to producing consistently high quality print work.
|
Makes very good sense to me. In fact, when I was a print broker, my first aim was to get to the production people and build trust with them. Now, I have the advantage of having got into the business running a 1250 mulitlith for about 3 years. And my dad was a pressman.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Bishop
In short, I develop a relationship with them that is a value added feature of doing business with us.
|
Actually after the customer is brought in, my opinion is that IS the value added feature of doing business with your company. So.... how come you and other people doing CSR don't get a piece of the job in exchange for the invaluable customer service you do?
But CSR is not hunting and gathering (that's sales. CSR is farming and nurturing)
CSR is not deeply understanding what the customer needs, even if the customer herself doesn't know she needs it. That should be the sales persons job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Bishop
Sales more often seems to feel that their only responsibilities are to have lunch with the customers, hand out tickets for the local sports team to prospects, golf, attend business expos, etc.; when in fact they are a also a part of the production team. Sales need to not only bring in the orders but also facilitate it's proper completion in house. Learn what files need to be supplied to pre-press, what your presses are capable of, how to easily transfer digital proofs, etc. You are not selling in a vacuum. Printing is not just about talking it is about doing.
|
Actually printing is all about doing it. In the sense of delivering stuff. All the rest is blah, blah. But this is a legacy way of understanding selling. If the sales staff is still doing that, no wonder there isn't enough work in the shop. But if it's sales jobs to really understand their market and where the contacts they have live in that market and what the real pain points are of there contacts. It's a high skill, high pressure job. If that's not what they are doing. Then they are just spending money.
As for creating revenue, as opposed to spending revenue, I'm just saying from a standard input/output model. Sales job is to bring in work and therefore money. Production's job is to spend as little time and money as possible in getting the work out the door. As for creating the value that keeps coming back for more. That's a different question. CSR's are critical. How come most printing companies, either get it for nothing as you described or hire newbies and underpay them?
