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One of my clients said something interesting the other day. "Ninety-five percent of all printers want to make more money, and probably 50 percent of all printers really need to make more money. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I'm a member of both groups."
"It's just so hard," he continued, "to find the time. I spend most of mine putting out fires. Most days I go home exhausted and I can't point to anything I've really done to improve my business."
If that sounds familiar, you might benefit from the first piece of advice I gave this client. "Take that word 'find' and kick it out of your vocabulary," I said, "and replace it with the word 'make.' If you really want—or need!—to make more money, you simply have to make the time to make it happen."
Selling Time
For this particular client, some of the "need" is to increase sales volume. He's had some experience in sales, and he tells me that he's pretty good once he gets himself in front of a prospect or customer. The problem, of course, has been "finding" the time.
The solution is a combination of time management and a systematic approach to selling. I prescribed a variation on the 7-Hour Selling Plan program I've been writing about over the last couple of months, and if he'll follow the program, I'm pretty sure he'll be happy with the results. As I told him, selling doesn't have to be a full-time activity, but it has to be a consistent activity.
If you don't think you can manage a 7-hour selling plan, how about a 5-hour plan? I have no problem at all with you starting small. The first major accomplishment for many of the printers I've worked with is the realization that "I can do this!"—both making the time and actually convincing people to buy from them.
Management Time
Do you spend most of your time "putting out fires?" If so, have you noticed that many of those fires are variations on the same theme? If you have recurring problems, you can probably reclaim a lot of time by finding "once-and-for-all" solutions to those problems.
Here's my recommendation. Schedule an hour every day to look back at yesterday, and start out the hour with a short conversation with each employee. "What problems did you have yesterday?" Then take the list of problems back to your office and close the door. First, separate the minor problems from the major ones, and then look for relationships between the problems.
It may turn out that minor problems in one area create major problems in another. It may also turn out that the problem was solved effectively by you and/or your employees. If not, take advantage of "20-20 hindsight" to think about what you or your employees could have done/should have done to resolve—or avoid!—the problem.
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. www.wide-formatimaging.com
author: BY DAVID FELLMAN