PrintingNews.com

We have been hearing a steady drumbeat of economic problems from analysts and pundits over the past few months. This has created fear and uncertainty for all of us—from printing salespeople to buyers of print solutions.

During this recession while customers will continue buy billions of dollars of printing, aggressive salespeople will be looking to increase their share of the business at the expense of less confident and effective salespeople. Having lived, managed, and sold in at least three recessionary cycles since the early 1980s, I have observed top salespeople successfully adjust and adapt their sales activities during tough times.

Even in a bad economy, customers continue to buy billions of printing products and services.

In addition to my own experiences, I recently researched in Printing News how top salespeople and companies approached shrinking sales in the Great Depression during the 1930s. Though this downturn and the Great Depression may be very different, there are some similarities worth noting.

For instance, printing executive Albert Vela in a speech reflecting on the Great Depression to the Young Printing Executive Club of New York in 1945 remarked, "It is during times of depression when business people are seeking means of moving their products off shelves or out of warehouses, or are looking for markets for their services, that the printing salesperson has his opportunity to help them and at the same time to create more business for themselves."

In 1938, printer Richard Messner declared that printers should take a tip from the movies and create situations that really market printing. He went on to explain that salespeople should understand competing media (e.g., the new media of television), understand competing printing processes, generate new ideas and interest-generating applications, reduce inventory waste and obsolescence, and improve their lead generation and marketing programs.

In another edition of Printing News in 1939, Agnes Mengel, printing buyer for Paramount Pictures, declared that too many printing salespeople call on accounts unequipped to "speak our language." Too often she said they do not know the capacities of their own plants and do not know the problems of the account and thus waste their time and that of the prospect. In the same issue, printer Daniel Moscow stated, "I have no respect for a salesperson that sells only on price. Look around you for undiscovered markets, and in these you will find opportunities for expansion. Prepare to outsell by ability, initiative, and not by imitation.

Be prepared for layoffs, downsizing, and cost cutting on your accounts. Most importantly, have a backup plan if your key customer contact loses his or her job.

The bottom line of my findings are that though the technology continues to change, the basic sales skills required to sell have not changed and that top salespeople continue to sell and prosper even during tough times.