Marchand--Focus In, Listen Up!

The often painful sessions that take place when a printing company has made a grievous mistake can be instructive, to say the least, but seldom offer much insight about a customer's organization.

Sales managers intermittently accompany sales reps on visits to their companies' major accounts—but not many. A smaller number of printing companies expect senior executives to meet occasionally with customers. Important as it is to expose senior executives and customers to one another, these meetings do not enable printing companies to discover where customers are headed in their use of printing services.