Changing Transactional Selling into Consultative Selling

SOUTHBOROUGH, MA—July 12, 2007—Sales forces that simply communicate value to customers are doomed to fail. Sales professionals have to create value for their customers in order to survive and thrive in today’s marketplace.

Moving sales forces from transactional-based selling to consultative-based selling is critical to the success of printing and graphic communications companies.

How to create customer value through consultative selling is the focus of “Transitioning a Successful Sales Team” by Jerry Scher at this year’s Northeast Regional Print Management Conference, scheduled for Sept. 23-25th at the Cranwell Resort in Lenox, Mass.

The conference is hosted by Printing Industries of New England and co-hosted by Printing Industries Alliance and the Graphic Arts Association. Together, the three trade associations represent 1,000 printing and graphic communications companies across the northeastern United States.

Architect & implementer of effective sales programs

Jerry Scher, past president of PRISCO, Printer’s Service Company, has more than 40 years of experience in business management, sales and marketing. He has led an array of business development programs to help organizations improve selling techniques. A dynamic educator and seminar leader, Scher will fill the pockets and notepads of attendees with ideas on how to transition their sales forces to be more effective over the next decade. Scher will dissect how transactional selling is commodity-based and focused on price and an outdated and ineffective method for businesses to gain market share. In a properly executed consultative selling model, a customer would pay for the sales representative’s time due to the rep’s expertise in the service they are selling.

In transactional selling, customers know what they want and feel they don’t need to be educated on a topic. In a consultative approach, the customer may not even know there is a problem — such as internal production redundancies or poor workflow — and needs to be educated. This is where a consultative sales rep creates value for clients.

The most critical difference between the two selling models occurs when a sales rep has acquired a deep understanding of the customer’s environment and can explain how their products and services can help the customer be more efficient.

Scher’s workshop “Transitioning a Successful Sales Team,” is one of several workshops scheduled for the three-day conference.

Resort setting

The leading regional conference for owners and executives of printing and graphic communication firms in northeastern United States’ $14 billion print marketplace will take place Sept. 23 – 25 at the Cranwell Resort, Spa and Golf Club in Lenox, Mass, the heart of Berkshire County in western Massachusetts.

Sponsors include Adobe, efi, Heidelberg, Komori, MAN Roland, Prisco, Utica National Insurance Group, United Insurance Company Xerox and xpedx.

The conference affords executives the opportunity to gather in a relaxed setting for a balance mixed of industry updates and reports with leisure activities for industry professionals and their spouses or partners.

The Cranwell offers luxury accommodations on its 380-acre setting. Featured on-site attractions are an 18-hole championship golf course, a new fully furnished spa with a fitness center, and indoor heated pool. The lush greens of the tees, fairways and putting greens will be a gathering spot as a golf tournament is among the opening activities. An evening dinner will be held Monday, Sept. 24 at the Normal Rockwell Museum in nearby Stockbridge.

Companion activities are being devised from numerous cultural attractions in the immediate area ranging from arts centers, dance studios, museums, historic sites, fine dining, shopping and other recreational activities.

Check the PINE home page at www.pine.org for conference information, or call Carole Taylor at 1-800-365-7463 ext. 109. She can also be reached at 508-804-4109.