Influence The Influencers
By: Dave Clossey / T.J. Tedesco
For: High Volume Printing
Published: February, 2002

You wouldn’t dream of embarking on a cross-country trip without a roadmap, would you? Then, why do so many graphic arts sales people persist on selling without one?

Pursuing a new client or a niche market is a lot like taking a cross-country trip. You have a good idea of where you want to end up, and there are several routes that will take you there. You should expect, however, that the route you decide to take may only be loosely followed. If you do some sightseeing or run into unexpected problems, the route you travel and the time allotted for the trip could change dramatically.

Isn’t this a lot like developing a new client, especially if it’s a large organization? The goal presumably is to create a mutually profitable win-win business relationship that offers the right amount of incremental revenue for your organization while making the client’s business life easier in exchange for reasonable compensation. But the plan that you establish for the relationship is only a rough outline, and many factors can alter your route.

This is where our roadmap analogy runs a bit thin. You plan your cross-country trip using any number of US maps, and if you stray from your route, you can simply consult any US map available and plot a new course. Unfortunately, there is usually no existing roadmap of how to sell within a company, or how to effectively manage every client relationship. This is one map that you’ll have to create yourself!

Action steps
The first step is to identify the key business influencers within a company. In some organizations, regardless of size, all print purchasing decisions are run through one individual. This person can be referred to as the KBI, or key business influencer, and it’s their trust you have to earn in order to be successful.

It isn’t always that easy to identify the KBI, however. Many large corporations have a print buying department, or at least some type of purchasing department. It’s not likely that this is where you’ll find a KBI. A print-buying department does exactly that, and usually not much more. The level of responsibility for any one individual in that department is not likely to involve critical decision-making.

In order for a mutually beneficial relationship to flourish, you need to do business with someone who has a larger responsibility for the overall direction of the company. Though you may deal often with the print buying department, it’s vital to your sales effort that you position yourself to influence the influencers!

Qualify the KBI
In a perfect world, every sales lead would have you sitting in front of the company president – the ideal situation to be in to prove that you offer solutions that make their life easier. In reality, your initial point of contact with a company may not place you with someone qualified to make the decision to do business with you. You need to determine the level of responsibility of the person you’re dealing with.

An appropriate qualifying question should be among the first things out of a sales executive’s mouth, regardless of the job title of the person you’re speaking with. By failing to get in contact with the person who has proper decision-making responsibility, you’re liable to begin a business relationship that’s destined to end sooner rather than later.

Many times, a sales executive is eager to start talking business when they make a prospecting call. They develop a rapport with the person on the other end of the line, and quickly get down to detailing how they can help the prospective client. Everything is going smoothly, yet one simple question has not been asked: “Are you responsible for making business decisions at your company?”

Don’t confuse legitimate qualifying questions as the lines you hear from telemarketers hawking credit card offers. Yes, they may sound the same, but the goal is completely different. Printing is not a quick commodity transaction, and shouldn’t be treated as such by either you or your prospective client. Instead, success depends on the quality of the relationships you develop. You need to make sure that you invest your time wisely. By making sure you’re offering solutions to someone with the responsibility to act on them, you ensure that a long term, mutually beneficial business relationship has the ability to develop.

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Once you have the ear of the KBI, let the selling begin. Be sure to ask questions regarding the direction and growth of the firm. The information they provide will allow you to develop solutions to their problems both immediate and long-term, positioning you and your company as a valued – and irreplaceable – business partner!

T.J. Tedesco is a “hands-on” marketing, sales, coaching and training consultant to the post press industry. He is the author of Binding, Finishing & Mailing: The Final Word, and Win Top-of-Mind Positioning, both published by GATFPress and available at Amazon.com. T.J. can be reached at (301) 294-9900 or tj@growsales.com.