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If you don't like the answer, ask a different question
February 16, 2008

“Who buys your printing?” is the worst prospecting introductory line ever. It is the “Do you come here often?” of pick up lines. It is the “Do you want Fries with that?” of the restaurant business. On the other end of that rainbow is a battle over price that you eventually will lose to Leo the Printer and his wacky pricing structure that has more to do with an Ouija Board than it does cost plus profit. If you can get an answer, my guess is that you won’t like it, so can I suggest that you ask a different question?

We are a self-centered society. Ours is a narcissistic industry. Printers love printing (and if you don’t believe me, check out the Pizzazz  Printing video on YouTube). Printers love printing presses. All of that beige and grey equipment sucking up electricity and giving off smells and noise is enough to make any ink and toner man swoon. We falsely believe that our customers love printing, too. Why else would we ask such an inane question? It’s as if our expectations are that people are waiting for a printer to call and that they sit around all day staring at the phone, murmuring, “Come on, baby, ring!”

This next part might shock you, so I’d suggest you sit down: Your customers care more about their business than yours. Are you still with me? Grab some smelling salt from the First Aid kit and keep reading. The good stuff is coming up next.

So, if our prospecting customers are just as selfish as we are and their business issues are what they care about more than ours, does it not make sense that if we learn what those issues are, we can get an appointment to help them to meet those needs far more readily than we can to talk about ink and paper? Here, then, is the secret sauce:

Take the time to look a client’s website prior to picking up the phone. Look at what they do. Read about their challenges. Peruse any Press Releases. Click through to any Associations they belong to and read up on the industry. While you are doing this, hold your chin with your left hand and put a look of pondering on your face. Say things like, “Hmmmm” and “That’s interesting!” so that people near you will think you are deep and pensive.

Next, picture yourself speaking to a decision maker at that company and make a list of the questions you might ask that person regarding their business (NOT their printing!).

• Here are a few to consider:
• What do you know about your customers?
• Who is your target market?
• Where is your company going in 2008?
• What is your company’s Selling Philosophy?
• Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?*

The point of asking a question to a prospective customer is to engage him or her in conversation, right? So, why paint yourself into a corner right off the bat? Why not look at their business needs first and put thought into the kinds of challenges they have? Armed with this information, you have a far better chance of striking appointment gold than tossing out the “Who buys your printing?” nightmare.

Armed with a thought process that goes down this road, you will find it far easier to be on the business side of the customer’s front door. Suddenly, words like “I’d like to speak to the person in charge of the customer data” or “I see that you are participating in a trade show in Chicago in June. Who wrote the check for that?”

Class dismissed.

*Oops. Sorry. I still get misty every time a Carpenter’s song comes on.

Posted by Bill Farquharson on February 16, 2008 | Comments (1)