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Last month I wrote that a wide-format printing salesperson's top priority should be taking good care of current important customers, followed at a close second should be developing new important customers. A distant third, I wrote, should be anything else if there's any time left after taking care of the really important parts of the job.
Balancing Point
Okay, what does that mean in terms of specific time allocation? Should it be 50/50 between customer care and customer development, or 70/30, or 30/70? The answer is that it simply depends on how much a salesperson wants/needs to increase sales volume. I think the 50/50 point probably sits at around $500,000 in sales volume for a salesperson working for a "typically equipped" wide-format printing company. Anyone at a lower volume level should be spending more than half of his/her time prospecting for new business. Anyone at a higher volume level probably can't spend that much time on new customer development without jeopardizing current important customer relationships.
I can hear some of the skeptics saying that $500,000 is a pretty high number, and one that the majority of wide-format printing salespeople never manage to reach. Exactly! The don't reach it because they spend too much time providing customer care overkill and not enough time on new customer development!
I wrote earlier in this series that the important category should be reserved for major customers, or those with major potential. Here are a few more things the owner should think about in determining who's important and who's not.
Do I really make money on the work we do for this customer?
Remember, high volume is not the same as high profit, and profit is the reason you're in business.
Do they energize us or drain energy from us?
Some customers look to be reasonably profitable in terms of the prices you charge them, but they take a toll on your business in other ways. I'm not recommending that you immediately fire these high-maintenance customers, but I hope you'll recognize the need to try to change their behavior.
Could my business survive the loss of this customer?
This is the ultimate test of important. If the answer is "no," I hope you aren't leaving the entire relationship in the hands of your salesperson. The owner absolutely needs to be involved in any critically important customer relationship!
Bottom Line
That leads to the bottom line on this series. The owner needs to be involved in major accounts, and also in how his/her salespeople are spending their time. If left on their own, most salespeople will spend too much time taking good care of not-very-important customers, and not enough growing the business. You want them doing both, right?
David M. Fellman is the president of David Fellman & Associates, Cary, NC, a sales and marketing consulting firm serving numerous segments of the graphic arts industry. Contact him at 919/363-4068 or visit his website at www.davefellman.com.
author: BY DAVID FELLMAN