Print is Dead ... For Some

Watch this week's Short Attention Span Sales Tip here.

Good morning!

I was on the phone with a Sales Vault client earlier today. He was telling me how he was making seemingly endless amounts of phone calls, sending emails, mailing samples, and dropping off brochures describing his business and his equipment. In addition, he was making some of the same complaints I hear frequently:

• No one returns my calls
• People aren't buying print anymore
• Young buyers don't want relationships

When he was done, he asked me an important question: “Bill, do you think print is dead?” My answer surprised him and might surprise you, too:

“Yes. I do…”

Wait, what?

Did Bill Farquharson, sales trainer to the graphic arts, just declare print dead?

I did, but you didn't let me finish my answer: “Yes. I do... For you.”

Salespeople, if you are doing what you have always done... what we who have been in graphic arts sales for a long time have always done, then, yes, print is dead for you. Print itself has not and will not die. The market, the margins, and the opportunities for growth remain. However, you simply cannot keep doing what you have always done.

It doesn't work like it did way back when.

Success today requires a different recipe, one that is heavily dependent on marketing. One reason why no one is responding to your voicemail message is they are checking you out online and they don't like what they see. You take that as, “no one returns my call” but I'm here to tell you they won't if you don't have a compelling story to tell when they Google you or look up your website.

The sales approach, too, can’t be the same-old same old. Be anecdotal. Send testimonials. Share pictures. Become an expert in their business.

Print is dead for those who don’t change their approach. If this is you, please get out so the rest of us can get some work done.

But if you stay, you need to make some changes.