“Printers don’t just need the right equipment. They need support for their business after purchasing the equipment,” says Bill. “The alternative is that printers buy equipment that they don’t know how to market and then when the equipment fails, they go back and blame the manufacturers.”
Bill’s role is to fill the information gap. He describes himself as “the person people go to, to figure out what to do with the equipment after it’s installed.”
On Thursday, September 25, Bill will present his seminar for our association, entitled “Who’s Making Money At Digital Printing and How?” OAQP board member Marc Raad of HP, the corporate sponsor for our event, was so impressed with Bill’s recent presentations in the northeastern U.S. that he was eager to help present the seminar for the first time in Canada.
Overcoming the Digital Sales Dilemma
“The biggest problem in digital printing for commercial and quick printers is getting their salespeople to sell it. It’s an epidemic,” says Bill.
“The issue is that selling digital printing is complicated. It takes a longer sales cycle and worst of all, it produces a smaller sale than traditional printing. So you’re paying your salesperson less in commission and asking them to work harder while you wait longer for results. It takes the same amount of time to get a $10,000 traditional print order as it does to get a $1,000 digital order, and the $10,000 order fills their quota more. So you don’t have the mind share of your sales rep. The seminar will discuss how to deal with that.
“Another issue is marketing your digital press; getting the word out there. How do you position yourself to attract a technically-competent customer,” says Bill.
“The core message is that selling digital printing has nothing to do with the device. Telling people, “We’ve got an HP Indigo Press 3000,” is meaningless. You’ve got to teach customers how to make money with this equipment. This brings up a lot of sales and marketing issues that many printers have never explored.” Bill noted. His seminar will explore these issues in detail.
Seven Common Denominators For Success
The seminar will also incorporate Bill’s “Don’t Go Digital” approach – a theory he describes as “my smart-aleck way of saying, If you’re not ready, don’t go digital.” This involves Seven Common Denominators found amongst successful digital print providers. If they’re not in place, don’t go digital, he warns.
The seminar will include all of Bill’s Seven Common Denominators, as well as common sense information people can understand. You will leave this presentation with a road map on how to go digital. And if you have already gone digital, you’ll understand the message they need to get out there. You’ll hear about profitability from a different angle. “It’s not a volume message; it’s a value message,” says Bill.
Bill Farquharson is President of Print Tec Network (Duxbury, MA). Since 1993, he’s been educating the printing industry on a variety of subjects, from sales prospecting (his personal favourite) to digital printing and sales management. In addition, Bill has written course curriculum materials and trained sales staff for Heidelberg, Xerox, IBM, Kodak, Minolta and Danka, amongst others. He also does training for trade associations and international franchise operations and provides individual coaching in person, through the web or by telephone. Visit his web site at: www.printtec.com.