Few companies survive without being able to sell. In the print industry, there are virtually none. The differences between what firms offer have all but disappeared and the industry has become more and more competitive. As a result, it is increasingly the quality of a firm's salespeople that determines whether new clients are won and growth is achieved.
It is remarkable, therefore, that so few print firms are good at selling their services. The industry is dominated by people with strong technical knowledge who tend to be mistrustful of salespeople with their smooth patter and their lack of actual knowledge of print. Those technical experts are missing out. By denigrating sales in this way, they forfeit not only the chance to make more money but also on the opportunity to put their technical expertise to good use.

In his recently published book, How to Grow Your Business: For Entrepreneurs, Alex Blyth, a regular PrintWeek feature writer, outlines 10 straightforward steps that every business should take to ensure that their sales function is performing as well as it should. It is only one chapter in a book that also tackles aspects of business growth such as planning, delegation, people management, digital marketing, promotion, finances, the law and a host of other subjects crucial to running your own business.

To give you a taster, we have summarised seven of the 10 steps Blyth outlines concerning how to ensure a successful sales meeting.

Seven steps to a successful sales meeting

1 Prepare thoroughly
Face-to-face selling is a performance. Like an actor on a stage, you need to look the part, have all your props ready and in the correct places and rehearse until you can play your character almost without thinking.

2 Know your prospects
In sales meetings, while you will need to prepare a standard sales pitch, you should always aim to tailor it to each specific audience. To do this and to appear credible during your meeting, you should thoroughly research your prospects beforehand. Find out about the individuals you're meeting, the company and the sector. Think about the issues they are facing and adapt your presentation accordingly.
 
3  The introduction
Business buyers are busy. You have no more than a few minutes to get your audience actively interested in your
pitch before they switch off and start wondering about their next meeting The single biggest mistake that people make when they are selling is thinking that the way to interest a prospect is to talk at them. They believe that if they fill those crucial first minutes with as much information as possible, some of it will interest the audience and they will be prepared to carry on listening.In fact, to interest someone in your conversation you need to get them talking. You do that by asking them questions that they want to answer, questions that make them think. You do not talk at them. As a rule of thumb, in a successful sales  conversation you should be talking for only around 25 % of the time. However, you do need to let the prospect know who you are and what you represent. So, prepare a concise, engaging opening statement. Talk just enough to set the scene and then get the prospects involved.

4 Questions and building a dialogue
After your introduction, you need to ask a question. It needs to be an open question - one that cannot be answered with a blunt ‘yes' or ‘no' - and it needs to interest the prospect. It also needs to be relevant to that individual or the group. Think about what issues they might be facing that your product or service can help with and frame your questions around that issue. If you can get them talking, you need to listen carefully and you need to demonstrate that you've listened. Repeat their answer back to them, using different phrasing and ask further questions based on their responses. It is through this process that you uncover a need for your services.

5 Overcoming objections
You will always face objections. It may be that they need to discuss it with a colleague, or they feel you are too expensive, or something else. There is nothing more annoying than salespeople who persistently ignore objections and just plough on with their sales spiel. So, when a prospect raises an objection, acknowledge it straight away and address it. Some objections are valid. If they genuinely don't have the budget for your services, then you're wasting your time. Just accept it, thank them for their attention and agree a good time for you to contact them again in the future. Other objections are not valid and you need to overcome them. Perhaps you need to aim higher in the organisation at the person who allocates budgets? Over time you will recognise the common objections you face and you will be able to prepare techniques for dealing with each one.

6 Closing
Many salespeople put too much emphasis on the close. If you've done all the groundwork, it should be fairly straightforward. Once you've identified a need for your product or service, have convinced the prospect that your product or service can indeed meet that need and overcome all objections, it should be a logical next step in the conversation to suggest they sign the contract.

7 Sticking at it
Finally, don't give up. Sales can be incredibly demoralising, and it can take a long time to see results. It is very easy to give up, to let the constant rejections put you off and spend your time on easier tasks instead. However, if you follow all the steps above and you keep at it for a long time, tracking prospects through a sales cycle, it will all pay off.

CASE STUDY: LATERAL GROUP
The Lateral Group is made up of Howitt, a direct mail printer; Dialogue Solutions, a digital printer; Data Lateral, a data bureau; and Shiftclick, a digital agency. Howitt produced a pre-tax profit of £1.02m for 2008 and was shortlisted in the PrintWeek Awards 2009 for Printing Company of the Year, as well as Environmental Company and Direct Mail Printer of the Year.

Since then, the business has continued its success with new contract wins from Boots, Specsavers and Britannia Building Society. Chief executive Nick Dixon attributes this success to understanding the importance of listening to prospects and cross-selling the different divisions of the business.

He explains: "You've got to remember that you have two ears and one mouth, so use them in that proportion. If you go in to meet a potential client and just talk at them, you'll alienate them completely. You're much better off listening carefully to their needs and then showing them how your services can help them. We're also fortunate in that we can sell integrated services to our clients."

The company employs 13 salespeople, and Dixon concludes by outlining what he looks for in a salesperson: "You've got to be able to get on with people, build a rapport and establish relationships. You also have to be tenacious and professional."

CASE STUDY: PUREPRINT
In a recent interview with The Sales Professional, David Shorto, Print Buyer for Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, singled out Anthony Rowell, business development manager at Pureprint, as the most impressive salesperson he has dealt with in his many years of buying print services.

Rowell has been at Pureprint for two years, having previously spent seven years as sales director at Polar Print and having held a variety of print sales jobs throughout his career. In the past year in his new role, he has been instrumental in winning eight new contracts.

He believes that it is very important for a salesperson to use as many ways of reaching prospects as possible. "You need to use every avenue," says Rowell. "I do a lot of networking, going out to pick up business cards at the Boat Show or attending Business Link South East events or Institute of Directors events on subjects like reducing paper use. But I also spend time in the office phoning prospects, e-mailing them and even writing letters to them. All are important."
Rowell also believes salespeople need to do their research.

He explains: "You've got to know who you're selling to. What are their issues? Where do they need help? And you need to know all about your products and services, so you can accurately advise them on what you can do to meet those needs.
"For example, we recently pitched to a local council. I found out that they had a need across five different departments and I knew we have the facilities to deliver across all of them.

The result of this knowledge and research was that we won a major web-to-print job across all five."