Enroll in Mañana University —DeWese

There is no sales role more demanding than selling graphic communications. Many years ago, I identified 24 competencies required of successful print sales professionals. Mañana University will provide education in all 24 competencies and, probably, some more that I overlooked.

Lately, I have noticed some seminars being offered that are designed to train "hybrid salespeople" or the "salesperson of the future." Many of these seminars are one to two hours long, and are aimed at owners and CEOs attending conferences in exotic resort locations. You can make book that the big shots won't return to their plants to teach their sales staffs what they learned at the Ritz Carlton in San Luca de Pleasure. Most owners and CEOs sit in their offices and rarely see customers. You can't teach much of anything in one to two hours. The future may be here, but I'm not sure we have mastered the selling skills necessary for the present.