Summer Is the Time for Generating Hot Sales -- DeWese

In case you haven't been outside lately, it's August; the temperature is 97° and the humidity is 97 percent. These are the Dog Days of summer.

These days are about lethargy, lemonade and lots of air conditioning. Lots of your brother and sister print salespeople just stop working in August. Why not? The boss is at the shore. Some salespeople rationalize that the print buyers seem to have crawled underground. These salespeople say, "Why should I work?" Most of the buyers are backpacking in the mountains or scuba diving in the cool waters of the Caribbean.

Well, I aim to do something about all this inactivity. I want the printing industry headed in the right direction. I'm tired of hearing CEOs moan and whine about poor sales.

A few years ago I sponsored the First Great American Print Sales Prospecting Contest. That contest had hundreds of company entrants and sparked a period of unprecedented growth in the printing industry.

I am announcing the Second Great American Print Sales Prospecting Contest. When you read the rules and the prizes, I know you will want your company to participate.

First, I will tantalize you with the prizes.

I will fly, at my expense, to the winning company cities where I will wash the cars of the winning salespeople in the company parking lot. The CEO and the sales manager at each winning company must help me.

I will then take the winning salespeople to dinner where I will present individual engraved trophies and championship t-shirts.

The winning team will receive a Mañana Man sombrero to display in the sales department.

The winning teams will be featured, with group pictures, in this magazine. This automatically makes the winners famous and eligible for guest spots on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Okay, here are the rules.

Winners will be determined based on the number of new accounts obtained over a one-year period beginning September 1, 2001, and ending August 31, 2002. To qualify, a new account must order at least three jobs during the contest period.

There are four categories of contestants. Category I will be companies with calendar 2001 revenues less than $5 million. Category II will be companies with revenues between $5 million and $10 million. Category III will be companies with revenues between $10 and $20 million. Finally, Category IV will be companies with revenues in excess of $20 million. These categories are limited to one plant location.

In other words, Quebecor World can't enter the contest and win with all of its new accounts from all of its plants. Each Quebecor plant, however, can enter as one sales location. In fact, I hope all the consolidators' individual plants will enter the contest and pit themselves against the independent companies.

Winners will be determined by the total number of "new accounts" as defined above, opened during the 12-month contest period. A "new account" is a customer that has not previously done business with your printing company. You get one point for each new account.

You will receive two points for every "resurrected new account," which is an account that has not purchased printing within two years of the contest start date. Finally, you will receive three points for every "lost account" that you resurrect as a new account. A lost account is one that fired your company because of poor quality or service. Obviously, I am relying on the integrity of your sales manager, owner or CEO to tabulate correctly by qualifying "new accounts" and the appropriate number of points for each account.

Your company "reporter" (sales manager, CEO or CFO) will fax your monthly results to me at (610) 293-0211 so I can report on the contest results in this column from time to time.

Your CEO or sales manager should write me and say, "Mañana Man, we are in." Give me your company name, address, city, state, phone number and an estimate of your 2001 sales. When I receive your entry I will send you the official Mañana Man Contest Poster to hang in your sales department. The poster has a section where you can publicly post your monthly results. Mail your entry letters to me at Compass Capital Partners, 259 Radnor-Chester Rd., Radnor, PA 19087, or send an e-mail to deweseh@comcapltd.com, or fax to (610) 293-0211.

Call, e-mail or write me if you have any contest questions. Now, here are some prospecting tips.

Use the Dog Days of August to get your team organized. You should bring your prospect database up-to-date and make sure that all prospects are assigned to a salesperson. Salespeople should begin to develop information on their prospects. This information should include printing needs (what does the prospect print, run lengths, formats, etc.). Who are the buyers and what personal information do you have or need to develop?

August will also be a great time to create a plan to reach each of your prospects. Smart contestant companies will develop a year-long strategy to facilitate new account development for the salespeople.

Some company contestants may want to start internal prospecting contests among the salespeople. This is a great way to stimulate competition among the troops and create some fun in your company.

Finally, I am seeking some supplier sponsors to beef up the prizes. After all, new accounts help sell presses, more paper and consumables, so maybe Komori, Heidelberg or Mitsubishi will call me and offer to send the winners to Hawaii or somewhere good. This will be a great way for suppliers to get some positive PR.

Okay, get those entries in early and get started prospecting for new business now. You can make the next 12 months record-breaking months for your company and you can delight in watching the old Mañana Man wash your car, your Harley or your moped in your company parking lot.

By the way, after you've decided to enter, then it's time to Get Out There and Sell Something!

—Harris DeWese

About the Author
Harris DeWese is the author of Now Get Out There and Sell Something!, published by Nonpareil Books. He is a principal 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 specializes in investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, sales, marketing, planning and management services to printing companies.