Good Advice Never Gets Old

By Bob Neubauer

Bill Farquharson

Good advice stands the test of time. Back in 2010, when the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association met in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the opening keynote speaker was Bill Farquharson, a sales coach, author and presenter for the graphic arts. He inspired attendees with his ideas on how to how to better serve customers and generate more business.

There's less print work to go around these days, he noted, and most commercial printers are competing on price alone.

"Relationships are dead," he declared.

To stay in business, in-plants must study their customers' challenges and solve their problems.

"Solve the problem, earn the order," he proclaimed.

You must become technologically superior to your competition, he said. If you master the software the customer uses, they will stick with you. Lock them in by providing design templates, a Web-to-print option and educating them on how to make print-ready files.

Farquharson listed three reasons customers buy from you:

Your raw sales ability, including customer service and trust.
Your knowledge of your own products and services.
Your knowledge of your customers' challenges.

"All three of these are within your ability to change," he noted.

On the other hand, a sure way to lose customers is to let them feel you don't care about them. To avoid this, he advised, make no assumptions, constantly challenge the status quo, anticipate the customer's next move and act as if you are only as good as the last job you delivered. Show appreciation for each and every order.

He encouraged managers to expand within their base; make sure existing customers know about all of your services, he said. The six words you don't want to hear are "I didn't know you did that," he said—and if you do hear them, he added, ask yourself whose fault that is.

Also make sure you know all of their services. Go to their Web site. Are they launching new products or services? Present them with ideas of ways you can help. In-plants should differentiate themselves not by price or service, but by their resourcefulness and creativity. Remember, Farquharson said, your competition sells print; you should sell ideas.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.