Healthy Sales in 2006 --DeWese

I was ill from October 1, 2005, until January 31, 2006. It's been difficult because several doctors have not been able to identify what caused the illness.

It was frustrating; when people called to wish me a speedy recovery, I couldn't tell them precisely what was wrong. It wasn't a widely understood malady like the flu. It wasn't something easy like gout. Everybody has an Uncle Herb who had the gout. I'm sure that some people, remembering that I'm 63 years of age and pleasingly plump, said, "Old Mañana Man musta had the big one. All that cheesecake and those hot fudge sundaes led to a heart attack."

Others probably thought I had something cigarette-related. No, no, you dummies. You have forgotten that I quit smoking more than 390 days ago.

The doctors call my disease hypersensitive cutaneous vasculitis.

I call it the creeping crud.

The doctors say the cause wasn't diabetes or cigarettes, but rather some allergic reaction to a mystery villain. I won't describe the manifestation of the disease except to say it was confined to my feet and ankles—and HURT LIKE HELL.

Prescriptions Pay Off

It was so bad that I discovered the pain management pleasures of narcotics like Dilaudid and Oxycodone. These are highly controlled substances and sell for mucho dinero in North Philadelphia if you don't have a prescription. Fortunately, I had the prescriptions and a good prescription plan, and I have weaned myself as the pain abated.

I was in the hospital twice for a total of eight days. When I wasn't in the hospital, I was confined to my home office wearing knee-high bandaging called Unaboots and receiving five intravenous infusions of antibiotics daily.

All of this recovery time had a bright side. It forced me to think. That's dangerous. Sometimes it would hurt my temples so I would take a nap. Other times I would make a few notes.

For instance, I wondered why we don't have more high performance print salespeople. It's easier to define "high performance" by a salesperson's annual compensation. I will peg that at $100,000, so if you make more than $100K, you are high performance in the Mañana Man's book.

I see or have seen the financial statements of hundreds of printing companies in all product categories and I can tell you that if you make $100,000 selling printing, you are in the top 20 percent. On the other hand, I know salespeople who would scoff at $100,000. I know some who couldn't make their home mortgage payment on pre-tax pay of $100K, but they are in the upper 1 percent.

Here are the reasons for so many underperforming salespeople:

We don't train print salespeople. Either we provide no training or it's sporadic and poorly delivered. No one really knows how to train print salespeople because we haven't properly researched the tasks that are required. NAPL and PIA have sales training programs, but they have to work hard to get enough participants and no one has ever really emerged as a great sales trainer. The high performance salespeople either trained themselves or were blessed with owners or sales managers who personally provided training and made it a consistent activity.

Printing company owners tend to hire more salespeople when sales are down. They hire without a plan, employ poor recruiting/interviewing skills and then wind up with 10 salespeople when the company only needs six. The point is that we have too many salespeople. Too many who are untrained, mediocre and are just in the way. During my illness I learned that we are desperately short of nurses and medical technicians. If you are not succeeding in printing, why not consider healthcare? You will get your own white jacket and a lot of satisfaction in helping sick people.

Many of our salespeople also have lousy behavioral skills. They are self-centered, which is generally a sure-fire sign that they possess low self-esteem. These folks are lousy listeners; they're mostly saying the wrong thing when they should be hearing the right thing from a customer. Low self-esteem impairs their "likability" factor. Great salespeople have extra-ordinarily high "likability." They are not phony and are almost immediately liked by everyone they encounter because they inspire trust.

Too few of our salespeople are good prospectors. There is only a limited amount of printing available to sell to markets that industry pundit Dr. Joe Webb tells us is getting smaller in his Print-Forecast.com report called "PrintForecast Contrarian View." Dr. Joe has monitored monthly printing shipments over a long period and, whether you agree or not, you must agree that print demand isn't exactly skyrocketing.

So, if a salesperson wants to grow his/her income and avoid the devastating effects of account attrition, they must prospect for new business. Folks, it ain't rocket science. I have written 236 columns for this magazine over nearly 22 years and about 50 percent of them have been about how to prospect for new print sales. You have to plan to get new accounts and then you have to execute the plan daily.

Failing salespeople frequently have other interests and are using their print sales draw or commission to support some other habit. A good example is Marvelle Stump, America's worst print salesman, who now sells for Hot Coffee Litho down in Hot Coffee, MS. Marvelle dreams of making it big on the bass fishing tour and he races his '78 Chevy under the lights at the Winona Springs dirt track every Friday and Saturday night. He clears $700-$800 per week "selling" printing. It's enough to keep him in fuel, parts, tires and new bass lures, but not enough to pay his child support. Print sales have to be your passion and your first priority.

Taking Ownership

Finally, many salespeople are cursed with lousy, selfish owners who own lousy, poorly managed, poorly staffed and poorly equipped printing companies. This, of course, is demoralizing to salespeople.

I'm thinking of a 40˝ sheetfed company that had top-line sales and, then, of course, bottom-line profits to the tune of about $300,000 annually. It was acquired by some young, energetic, sales-minded folks who purchased a new press that was long needed, laid off about 30 excess employees and created a new can-do spirit in the company. In just one year, the same sales team has increased sales 20 percent and generated a $1 million swing in profits.

The new ownership is available, upbeat and working to help the sales staff succeed. If your owners are in the way, try to buy the company. If there's no hope for better management, start prospecting for better employment.

It's now time for my 10 a.m. intravenous infusion so you better get out there and sell something!

—Harris DeWese

About the Author

Harris DeWese is the author of Now Get Out There and Sell Something, available through NAPL or PIA/GATF. He is chairman and CEO at Compass Capital Partners and is an author of the annual "Compass Report," the definitive source of information regarding printing industry M&A activity. DeWese has completed more than 100 printing company transactions and is viewed as the preeminent deal maker in the printing industry. He specializes in investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, sales, marketing, planning and management services to printing companies. He can be reached via e-mail at DeWeseH@ComCapLtd.com.