Super-Charge Your Sales Force With Highly Effective Print Sales Collateral

Converting prospects into clients is often a difficult and expensive process.  Sales reps can spend weeks, months, even years trying to get a prospective client converted into a buyer.  A large part of that process involves face time between the sales rep and the prospect in an attempt to forge a relationship built on trust.  Seldom does that face-to-face meeting end in a solid sale.

Sales reps hate leaving a prospect without a signed contract, and the days of hardline sales techniques are long gone. So, how do your reps keep the conversation going and the interest building when they're away? The answer is simple: put high-quality, effective print sales collateral in their hot, little hands.

Armed with the right mix of marketing materials, your sales reps can leave their prospects with some subliminal messaging that subtly invades the prospects' subconscious after the sales rep leaves.  Think of it as a little beacon whispering "buy me...buy me."

Highly effective print sales collateral doesn't just mean you leave a brochure and a business card and hope for the best. To super-charge your sales force, you need well thought-out, quality-designed materials that will continue to grab the prospect's attention and not end up as a coaster or at the bottom of a hamster cage. Top sales experts have weighed in with the following best practices.

Case Studies

The single, most effective piece of sales collateral that you can leave with your prospects is the case study. Including one or two case studies targeted to the prospect's needs can do more for your sales than a holiday gift basket. Your case studies should concisely discuss:

What the client's greatest challenge was prior to purchasing your product or service
How the client implemented your product or service
How the client's challenge went away or was reduced by implementing your product or service

These three things will communicate more to the prospect about how your product or service works and the value that it can provide to them, than merely listing the things your company does. Be sure to include solid numbers about money and time-savings, as these are the top two complaints companies have.

Testimonials

Finding three or four clients to rave about you is also a fantastic way to show your prospects that (1) you have clients, (2) your product/service is LOVED and (3) why your clients love it. Just like the case studies, if you can guide your clients in crafting a testimonial that discusses how your company changed their life for the better, the more effective the testimonial will be.  Including their name, business name, and even a picture can go a long way in building credibility. Nothing says, "Trust us" like someone else saying, "Trust them!"

The Sales Page

Sales and Marketing Strategist Walter Wise notes that successful marketing messages use the "Marketing Equation of Interrupt, Engage, Educate, and Offer." Let's break down that equation (don't worry, it's even less to remember than the FOIL method from back in middle school):

Interrupt: your main headline, designed to interrupt your prospect's attention
Engage: your sub-headline, crafted to keep the prospect's interest and get them to keep reading
Educate: this is where you add some valuable information on solving your clients' problems
Offer: this should be a low-risk, free report, checklist, white paper, or e-book that will position your company as a thought leader in the field.

Take the time to provide your "offer" in your sales package. The longer you can keep that prospect engaging in your company's materials, the more likely they will be to buy.

Putting It All Together

It goes without saying that all of your materials should be printed on high-quality paper stock and designed by a professional graphic artist so that the materials are aesthetically pleasing. Too much text and low-quality graphics can be an instant turn-off regardless of the quality of your product.

Have your sales reps present the documents to the prospect in a snazzy, branded folder that will catch your prospect's attention when the rep leaves, and one that will beg them to open it up and read what's inside.

To contact Chuck Gherman for more information about how Printing Arts Press helps organizations with their Marketing needs through print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.


#print #directmailmarketing #printmarketing

Outsourcing Employee Training - When does it make Sense?

 

The big question is this: What makes more sense for your business - doing your training in-house or outsourcing your employee training?
 

Market Placement and Reach

Your decision on whether to insource or outsource your employee training is typically impacted by how many people you need to have trained. Is it a set number of people at exact intervals?  Many businesses can take advantage of on-demand training to reduce costs and ensure your employees are trained quickly and properly by having an external provider handle the training function. 

Additionally, if you have trainees located in geographically diverse locations, a vendor can easily take a classroom-learning module and create web-based training.  This can be hosted in-house or remotely, depending upon your business needs.

Outsourcing Training May Cost Less

If you have full-time employees that are specifically dedicated to training your staff, it can be a costly endeavor.  Many small and mid-sized companies just don't have the monetary resources to dedicate man-hours to development, design, implementation, and evaluation of training for their employees.  There's also the management and tracking of these functions to think about. 

Instead of hiring one or two employees dedicated solely to training, it may make more economic sense to use an outside organization to send your employees to before you let them loose with customers.
 

Risk Reduction

Training your employees is not just about creating that distinctive customer experience.  You also want to ensure that your employees have the proper tools to do the job efficiently and safely. Think of training as a way to safeguard your business and reduce the risk of injury, loss, and (gasp!) lawsuits.

There are a host of web-based training programs out there addressing topics like proper money handling, OSHA safety, and dealing with difficult clients.
 

Access to Expertise

Training takes a specialized skill set.  Vendors that specialize in training have the ability to create customizable training systems at a fraction of the cost of having them built in-house.  The individuals that design, develop, and implement training are professionals that know how to transfer knowledge to a wide variety of learners. 
 
The bottom line here is that these outside vendors are in the business of training.  In-house training is hard to beat if you have the financial means and the ability to keep a steady stream of projects in the pipeline. However, if this is not the case, it may make sense to look to outside options for excellent employee training. However you choose to train your employees, taking the time to ensure your employees know their jobs well will mean your customers will thank you!

To contact Chuck Gherman for more information about how Printing Arts Press helps organizations with their Human Resources needs through print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.

#print #directmailmarketing #printmarketing

Not All Mailing Lists Are Created Equal - Maximizing Your Return With Mailing List Savvy

It's ironic, really. The lists that we struggle to be removed from are also the same lists our companies strive to obtain. The truth is, for many businesses, targeted mailing lists are the bread and butter of their marketing efforts.  Being able to create niche-marketing materials and then putting those materials into the right hands is essential to a company's survival.

Not all mailing lists are created equal, though.  Understanding the different types of mailing lists is critical in maximizing the return on your investment of content and quality marketing materials.

Consumer Mailing List

Consumer mailing lists are comprehensive lists of people associated with their demographic, economic, and psychographic information.  The consumer mailing list helps your business target individuals with very specific profiles for maximum return on investment.  Typically, you can choose to filter these types of lists by the following data:

- Gender
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Marital Status
- Estimated Household Income
- Children Present
- Home Value
- Single or multiple family homes
- Hobbies and Interests

Consumer mailing lists are more expensive than say, a neighborhood mailing list, but your ability to filter out non-ideal recipients can make your investment worthwhile, especially for high-quality mailings such as multi-page letters, brochures, or large, high-quality postcards.

Neighborhood Mailing List

Neighborhood mailing lists are by far the most cost-effective list you can get. Many local businesses will target specific neighborhoods within a particular zip code or geographic location that falls within a specific radius of their business location.

This type of list is effective for obtaining new clients, particularly if your business wants a broad reach without regard to specific demographic or psychographic categories.  Deliverables commonly associated with this type of mailing list include coupons, smaller postcards, and trifold 20# paper-stock brochures.

Business Mailing List

Business mailing lists are the "Holy Grail" for B2B companies, enabling them to maximize new targeted opportunities.  This list type includes data pertaining to:

- Business Type
- Number of Employees
- Annual Sales
- Credit Rating
- Geographic Location
- Executive Names
- Phone Numbers
- Years in Business
- Owner Gender
- Public vs. Private

By targeting specific business data points, your company can identify and market directly to your ideal clients. You can also use the data points to differentiate the type or content of your marketing materials. For example, if you are a woman-owned business wanting to connect with other women-owned businesses, this type of list can help you do that, while still allowing you to send similar content to non-women-owned businesses with a different slant.

Specialty Mailing List

Specialty mailing lists are, just like they sound, lists of people filtered by special categories that you determine. Common types of specialty mailing lists include:

- New Parents
- New Movers
- New Homeowners
- Homeowners
- High-income Homeowners
- Renters
- Investors
- Health Conscious
- Green Consumers
- Sports Enthusiasts
- Voters (by political party)
- Seniors
- Consumers by Hobby

The list goes on. Essentially, if you can think of a niche that you want to market to, you've got yourself a specialty mailing list.

Truly understanding the individuals and businesses that your product or service is ideal for is the key to success.  Combining a highly targeted mailing list with marketing materials that speak directly to the people or businesses on your list will boost your chances of making that next sale.

To contact Chuck Gherman for more information about how Printing Arts Press helps organizations with their Marketing needs through print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.

#print #directmailmarketing #printmarketing

Why Continuing Education is the Key to Career Advancement in More Ways Than One

When many people reach a career milestone - be it getting a job with that great new company or even starting their own business - they often leave the concept of education behind. After all, they've already had a huge amount of schooling up to this point and they've succeeded in accomplishing what they set out to, so it probably isn't even necessary anymore, right?

Wrong.

Career advancement is a journey that never ends and continuing education is one of the single, best ways to make this road the easiest one of you've ever traveled.

The Key to the Future Rests in the Present

Even if you're completely satisfied with your current position and can't imagine ever wanting to go someplace else, continuing education is still valuable for a number of different reasons. Think about your long-term career goals. Where do you see yourself in a year? In five years? In ten? Even though you're satisfied today, there will still likely come a day where you begin looking for a change or what a little something "extra" out of your current situation. Continuing education not only makes it easier to ask for a raise within your current position, but it also makes you more attractive if the time comes where a management position opens up within your business that you might want to pursue.

Many experts agree that when hiring managers start to look at internal candidates for a new position, they actually grade on a tougher scale than if they were looking to fill a position from outside the company. At this point, a simple history of "hard work" and "dedication" isn't necessarily going to cut it - their expectations are higher than that. They KNOW you're a hard worker - it's why you still have a job. A history of regular, continuing education says that you've taken your dedication to a new level and that you're not only ready for new responsibilities, but you have the ethic and the skills to back up that claim.

It's All About Perspective 

The late, great comedian Garry Shandling was a firm believer in the idea that the minute you stop working to improve yourself either personally or professionally, it's all over. He was the type of person who believed that his work was never done. There was ALWAYS something he could learn and ALWAYS some way he could improve the quality of the product he was putting out into the world. He deeply stood by these ideals, even though by any objective standard he perfected not only the sitcom but also the comedy television format with his HBO series (and he had the dozens of Emmy nominations to back that up). Yet still, it wasn't enough.

Just like Shandling, the moment you feel you've learned it all and the moment you feel like you've reached the point where you can't get better, you've lost a game that you never really understood in the first place.

This simple idea is perhaps the most important reason why continuing education is the key to career advancement, regardless of the type of industry you're working in. It forces you to think about ways that you could be doing better and about the shortcomings in your daily life that you need to address. It keeps you moving forward, but it keeps you grounded at the same time. Continuing education doesn't just make you a better employee on paper because you get to add a new certification or qualification to your resume - it makes you a better person, period.

To contact Chuck Gherman for more information about how Printing Arts Press helps organizations with their Marketing needs through print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.


#print #directmailmarketing #printmarketing

Understanding What's Really Going on at the Post Office

If you had a tough time during the Great Recession of the last few years, you are in the same boat with many, including the United States Postal Service. With computers, e-mail, and the rise of similar types of technology, total mail volume was already on the decline - and then, the most troubling economic times in decades hit. All types of mail volume dropped dramatically in a short period of time.

According to the official USPS website, total mail volume in 2006 was roughly 213.1 billion pieces of material. The total mail volume in 2015, on the other hand, was 154.2 billion. While that's still a lot of mailers, flyers, and other items being delivered across the country on a daily basis, a drop of that magnitude is still pretty staggering.

What is an Exigent Rate?

Because of this situation, the USPS asked for something called an Exigent Rate Case. That meant that due to demanding circumstances, the Postal Service was allowed to "raise market-dominant prices above the CPI-U (consumer price index) price cap" for a limited time. After an approval process that required a submitted proposal and a hearing conducted on the record with an opportunity for public comment, that increase was granted - leading to the current rates that we're experiencing.

So Why are Rates Dropping?

Exigent Rate Cases are not permanent - they have a limited lifespan as, theoretically, the special circumstances that required them in the first place will resolve themselves eventually. This is exactly what is happening. When the emergency rate expired on April 10, 2016, most of us experienced the first postal rate drop in our lifetime. With the price of a first-class stamp dropping to 47 cents, it represents the first decrease in nearly 100 years.

The good news is that mail volumes have actually recovered pretty significantly. This is especially true in terms of packages, as more people than ever before are choosing to buy their everyday items online at retailers like Amazon.com. The news may be great for consumers and marketers, but it is doing little to actually relieve the problems that the Post Office is still going through.

Megan J. Brennan, the current Postmaster General, said that multi-year revenue declines are still a very real concern and were in excess of $7 billion in 2009 alone. In a statement she would go on to say that "Removing the surcharge and reducing our prices is an irrational outcome considering the Postal Service's precarious financial condition."

Looking Ahead for the Post Office and Marketers

Not to worry, though. The United States Postal Service isn't going anywhere anytime soon - however, exactly what these rate decreases will do to their bottom line remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, as previously stated, there has never been a better opportunity to truly experiment with the benefits that direct mail has in terms of your overall marketing efforts. If you've moved more in a digital direction due to increased mailing and shipping rates over the last few years, this rate drop is the perfect incentive to dip your toe back in these proverbial waters.

To contact Chuck Gherman for more information about how Printing Arts Press helps organizations with their Marketing needs through print communications please visit www.printingartspress.com.


#print #directmailmarketing #printmarketing