UKvUSA: Selling Yourself to Print Buyers

In this episode of UKvUSA, Deborah Corn and Matthew Parker discuss the most effective ways for print sellers to promote themselves to their customers.

Listen to hear:

👉  The importance of consistency

👉  What is a CTA and why it is vital to have one if you are selling yourself

👉  Why burnt popcorn and tuxedo cats make excellent sales aids

👉  How Matthew manages to talk about chocolate yet again

Matthew

(Scroll down for all the show links and also a transcript)

PS If you liked what I had to say, make sure you sign up below for regular updates from me

Mentioned in This Episode:

Five Steps to Creating a Social Media Profile that Generates Business: https://www.profitableprintrelationships.com/pages/five-steps-to-creating-a-social-media-profile-that-generates-business

Matthew Parker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/profitableprintrelationships/

Profitable Print Relationships: https://profitableprintrelationships.com

Deborah Corn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahcorn/

Print Media Centr: https://printmediacentr.com

Subscribe to News From The Printerverse: https://printmediacentr.com/subscribe-2

Girls Who Print: https://girlswhoprint.org

PrintFM Radio: https://printfmradio.com

Project Peacock: https://ProjectPeacock.TV

Transcript:

[INTRODUCTION]

[0:00:02] DC: Print Buying UKvUSA is a series dedicated to helping printers create stronger, more meaningful, and more profitable relationships with print customers on both sides of the pond. I’m Deborah Corn, Founder of Project Peacock and Principal at Print Media Centr.

[0:00:21] MP: And I’m Matthew Parker, the Champion of Print at profitableprintrelationships.com.

[0:00:26] DC: We may not always agree, but that’s when it gets interesting. Turn up the volume, get out your notepad, and welcome to the program.

[EPISODE]

[0:00:40] DC: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Podcasts From the Printerverse. This is Deborah Corn, your Intergalactic Ambassador. Today, we are here with the UKvUSA Podcast, which means that Matthew Parker, from the United Kingdom, is on the other side of this microphone and the pond. Hello, Matthew Parker.

[0:01:02] MP: Hello, Deborah Corn. How’s the pond on your side?

[0:01:06] DC: It’s very nice today. It’s about a 74-degree pond. I don’t know.

[0:01:10] MP: No, we had our first snow here, and then we are –

[0:01:12] DC: Oh, lovely.

[0:01:14] MP: – first snow, so it’s bitter out here today. Yeah, first frost yesterday. First snow today. There I was, going to the gym in my shorts. Really wishing I’d worn something a little bit warmer on my legs at that point.

[0:01:25] DC: Well, I see you have your jumper on, which is what the Brits call a sweater, everybody out there. I’m wearing shorts. I’m in Florida. It’s a lovely day today. Yeah, there’s that. Okay. Today, our topic is selling yourself. We often have conversations about helping printers with our perspectives as being print your customers on how to create more effective, efficient, and, as you would say, profitable print relationships with everybody there. What we want to focus on today is how to sell yourself. Because in many ways, you can’t do the rest of it, unless you have a seat at the table in some way. Each of us will present three ideas, as we usually do. Since this was my topic, Matthew, do you want me to start first, or would you like to start first?

[0:02:23] MP: Why don’t I jump in first?

[0:02:25] DC: Okay, go ahead.

[0:02:27] MP: I’m always keen to put my pearls of wisdom, question mark, on the table. My first suggestion is if you want to sell yourself, be different. Because your prospects see so many people every day and they have to be able to remember you. I got bored of seeing the same old print salespeople when I was buying, coming in in the same old slightly sober business suits with a carefully matching tie and probably some jazzy socks, because that’s what I’m supposed to do. These days, we’re now into smart, casual, which, to be fair, most print salespeople don’t do very well. I’m not claiming I do it well, but yeah, most print salespeople could improve, I think, would be fair.

People would just see the same people doing the same old pitch. Every single person that you say, yeah, if I say to people, what’s your difference? It’s either the quality, or the service, or “It’s me. I’m your difference.” Sorry, but I hear from so many people that it doesn’t make you memorable these days. Have a story, have something that you wear, have just some prop with you, something that people are going to remember you by.

Once, I’d met up with someone, and I can’t remember where I met them, but it’s some big event. We were having a chat, and we’ve got to talk about chocolates, because as you know, I’m a big fan of chocolate. It’s one of my favorite subjects. I got in touch with the guy afterwards, rang him up and said, “Oh, hi. It’s Matthew Parker. We met up right around bla bla bla.” He went, “Who?” “It’s the chocolate guy.” “Oh, yeah. I remember you.” If you’ve got that little hook that makes you stand out, it doesn’t have to be something weird or wacky, but just something that people will remember you by, you’re in with a much better chance than 90% of the competition. What do you reckon of that?

[0:04:22] DC: I’ve had that experience, actually, in two cases. One is the cannoli guy. This gentleman from a print shop sent the agency cannoli-making kits. I mean, everybody was in my office making cannolis. Something would come up, and somebody would say, “What about the cannoli guy? Can he help us?” He was just referred to as the cannoli guy. It was very smart, sending something completely different to as a holiday situation. Along the same lines, I worked with a retouching vendor who never sent gifts during the winter holidays. Never. Stayed out of that traffic. Stayed out of that, everybody’s giving gifts, nothing special if you’re getting something from everybody, except the cannoli guy. What they would do is they would send gifts on Valentine’s Day. When I say gifts, I mean, food. That’s what you send to the advertising agencies. You sent food. You don’t –

[0:05:29] MP: And those little bites as well.

[0:05:30] DC: Yeah, I’m just saying. A crystal chandelier is not coming over, is what I’m saying. Something that just everybody can gather around and –

[0:05:37] MP: Cake. Chocolate. Yeah. If you’ve got that, you’ve probably got a meeting with me. Yeah, I’m shallow.

[0:05:42] DC: This was an established vendor, but they were just saying, “We appreciate you on Valentine’s Day.” I always looked at that as a really smart strategy, because they’re the only ones doing it on Valentine’s Day, where I know, like, when you’re in a big advertising agency, trust me, you’re getting shipments of, I’m calling them gifts, but I want everybody to understand, I understand what Sarbanes actually is. These were not gifts. They were holiday food, whatever you want to call it. You get busy. There’s too many, and you forget to thank people. All of a sudden, somebody opens the basket. You don’t even know who it’s from. I like that one.

Okay. My first one is something that I’ve spoken about before, from a position as an advertising agency, print production, director, manager, all the roles that I’ve had in those departments. People buy peace of mind. If you sell yourself as the person who’s going to protect my job from going wrong and talk to me about all of that, talk to me about your quality control processes. Talk to me about the proofreader you have, who’s making sure that everything that we have submitted and approved is still correct, because just because we’ve signed off on it doesn’t mean there’s not a typo in there, that 900 people have let go 20 times.

Being able to be preventive, preventive maintenance, even files, if you happen to be a printer that charges for fixing files, and I hope that you are, but if you’re not, it becomes a way to open up a collaborative relationship by saying, “Look, we understand that sometimes this can get complicated. You send files over, and then we can talk you through how to do better next time and mitigate disasters.”

Also, things I’ve heard from printers is that, especially in the packaging space, Matthew, the buyers there, not all of them understand what a production schedule for packaging might be, especially if you need components, like injected molding. What is it called? Is it an injection –

[0:08:04] MP: Injection molding.

[0:08:06] DC: Injection molding. If you need stuff like that. I only know, because I worked at L’Oreal and I was like, “What? Inject? Whatever it’s called.” I’m like, oh, that needs to go in the shampoo gift box to hold the shampoos. But guess what? You can’t do anything else until you have those. Helping with scheduling, so things don’t get wrong. Helping with color correction tips, so things don’t get wrong. That, to me, is an amazing way for someone to sell themselves. I’ve said it many times on this podcast. When I see testimonials from printers, I can assume that all of them I’m going to see is what a fantastic partner they are and all of that. Wonderful. I’m glad you have customers that love you. Whenever I was ever asked for a referral from a printer, I would always talk about a job that went wrong and how they fixed it.

Sometimes they would be upset about it, but I’m like, “You’re wrong.” I’m basically telling everybody who might be looking at your site, or whatever you’re sending this information out. Mistakes happen. When they do, you can still have peace of mind. They will rectify it, and you’ll work it out. That’s my first one. Sell yourself as a preventative entity.

[0:09:29] MP: I’m going to add one thing to that, which is deliver on it. I’ve had a lot of people who are sure in the past, but they will look after my jobs personally, that nothing can possibly go wrong, and done that sales a bit very, very well. Then, whenever I’ve tried to get hold of them afterwards, either they’ve been out seeing other clients, or they haven’t got a clue what’s going on with my job. At that point, I’ve lost all confidence in them. It’s a great way to sell, but you have to deliver on it.

[0:09:58] DC: What’s your next one?

[0:10:00] MP: My next one is utilize your network. To sell yourself, don’t just rely on you. I think that having the right community of people around you is really, really important. Take time to build relationships with other people in the industry, with other people in the industries that you serve. It doesn’t matter if they’re never going to become customers. They could be key people in trade associations. They could be your competitors sometimes, but you’ll be surprised the number of times those people will come out and sell you for on your behalf.

Only this morning, I got a message on LinkedIn from someone in the US going, “Hey, my connection, meet Matthew. By the way, yeah, my connection is looking to do some work in the UK. Matthew knows every single print there is in the UK.” Slight exaggeration, but I’ll take it. “He can help you.” Immediately, I’ve got a connection there. I’ve got a way in to help someone. I didn’t have to do anything. I didn’t even know this guy existed. He wasn’t on my radar at all. Someone has gone in and done that for me. Other times, I’ve been having conversations at trade shows, and people who are competitors to me have come up and went, “Yeah, you should be talking to Matthew. He’s a great guy.”

Your network is really important. But it only works if you take the time to be involved in your network, to cultivate those relationships, to pay it forward, or to give back what you get as well, and to help other people as much as possible. When you start doing that, the dividends from it can be immense.

[0:11:44] DC: Okay, I’ll leave that there, because that was pretty self-evident.

[0:11:48] MP: Yes. UK gets a point with that.
[0:11:51] DC: I find you get a point for showing up, Matthew. Good job there.

[SPONSOR MESSAGE]

[0:11:58] DC: Girls Who Print provides women in print and graphic communications with information resources, events, and mentorship to help them navigate their careers and the industry. As the largest independent network of women in print and a nonprofit organization, our global mission to provide resources, skill-building, education, and support for women to lead, inspire, and empower has never been stronger or more accessible. Through our member platform and program, as well as regional groups forming around the world, your access to Girls Who Print is just a click away. Gentlemen, you are most welcome to join us as allies. Get involved and get empowered today. Link in the show notes.

[EPISODE CONTINUED]

[0:12:44] DC: My next one is related to that in the sense that consistency is important, that if you show up where the people that you want to attract are consistently, and the things that you talk about are quick wins for your shop, how you help the local business grow. Maybe you did something for the community, also just celebrating great printing that you’ve done, or great projects that you’ve worked on, how you collaborated with people, and show images and videos of really cool things that people can understand that they can make with you.

The reason why consistency matters is because at some point, if you see it often enough, that might be a step to, “Let me follow this person. Let me connect with this person. Let me go to the website and see what else they do. This is really interesting. I’m going to follow them on Instagram, because I really like these images and they’re giving me ideas.” Consistency matters because you don’t want people saying, “I saw this really cool thing, but I don’t remember where it came from, and I haven’t seen that person again in the last three months.” That is where I’m at. A lot of times, repetition, it breeds familiar – Say it for me.

[0:14:13] MP: Familiarity.

[0:14:14] DC: Thank you, sir. You want people to be able to say, “I know exactly who does that. I’ve been following them online for the longest time, and this is exactly what they do.” That is only going to happen if you’re in people’s faces enough, but appropriately sharing the right information that would attract them. Consistency is how you sell yourself.

[0:14:39] MP: Definitely. Remember, it’s, yeah, seven to 12 touches, I think it’s far more than that now, before, yet someone’s actually going to have a conversation with you. Actually, all of those points that Deborah mentioned are touches. They may not feel like part of the sales process, but nonetheless, they are touches. I take it even further. If you’re in a community of people, don’t just go out and say, do all the good things that Deborah’s been talking about, and don’t talk about your work and ideas and examples, and that’s all great. But go out and help people, even if there’s nothing in it for you. Because people will see you do that and go, “Oh, actually, Deborah was able to help so and so, and so and so, and so and so. I’ve got a problem now. Maybe she can help me.” Then you’ve really gotten in at that point.

If the help is something to do with print and marketing, brilliant, or packaging, or whatever it is that you’re selling, brilliant. If it’s not, still brilliant, because actually, you’ve got a one-to-one communication with them. You can come back, and you can follow up on that conversation. You go, “Hey, as I’ve helped you out with this, could we have a quick conversation?”

Some people, not everyone, but some people will feel a sense of duty to come back, or a sense of owing someone, that they need to give them that time back, or even a job as a result of it. All those nice things that you can do, they lead to good things.

[0:16:00] DC: Yeah, as long as you can –

[0:16:01] MP: And you can do it regularly.

[0:16:03] DC: As long as you consistently share those types of stories, so I can associate your business or your name, your personal name to a problem I have that I know that you’ve solved, because you’re respectfully in my feed all the time, sharing information that is completely relevant to me and I can’t get enough of it. What’s your last one, Matthew?

[0:16:27] MP: My last one, actually, follows on from that a little bit, and it’s have a call to action. Because so many people go in there and they start up a good conversation, “Oh, that was nice. Enjoyed talking with that person.” Right. That’s nice. Now, I’ll go on and get on the rest of my day. Either you might remember that person and go, “Oh, they were nice, but not quite sure what I do with that relationship.” Or eventually, you forget about them, because there was no follow-up from that.

Always have a call to action on what you would like to happen next. That doesn’t mean, can you place an order with me? It might occasionally mean, you know what? Could we have a quick call sometime, so I can tell you a little bit more about what we do, or a quick meeting? It could be, I’m getting together with two guys you might be interested in, or two people you might be interested in tomorrow. Why don’t you come along and join us and have a coffee? It could be, “Please follow me on Instagram.” It could be, actually, “Can you help me out here? I need a bit of help with something. You’ve obviously got some institute knowledge. Yeah, could I have five minutes of your time to do something?” But have a way forward to carry on the dialogue, to carry on that relationship that you started building. Because if you don’t, it risks dying out.

I see so many times when people don’t guide the other person on a way forward. I think that’s a real shame. Most people need some guidance on the next step. You have to be ready to provide it.

[0:17:54] DC: That’s pretty good advice.

[0:17:55] MP: Yes. Scoring two.

[0:17:56] DC: Fine. Fine. But just because I happen to agree with you that follow-ups are something that people in general aren’t great at, and I’m pointing the finger at myself, too, so that’s why that one resonated with me. I’m like, “Fine, Matthew.” I felt like you were talking to me, so thank you for the advice.

[SPONSOR MESSAGE]

[0:18:19] MP: Do you need some direction or new ideas for your business? Would sales goals setting and accountability improve your revenues? Or do you have a member of staff who could be performing better? I’m Matthew Parker, the Champion of Print at profitableprintrelationships.com, and I offer a personal mentoring service. Together, we work out exactly what you need. We create a personal mentoring program for you, and then we speak twice a month. You get set goals and action points to make sure you progress.

What makes me different is that I’m the buyer. I’ve been approached by over 1,400 different printing companies, so I know what works, and I know what doesn’t. If you’d like to find out more, go to profitableprintrelationships.com, click the training tab, and then go to mentoring. Or, alternatively, just hit me up on LinkedIn. I look forward to working with you.

[EPISODE CONTINUED]

[0:19:13] DC: Okay, my last one is, of course, out of left field, but it was manifested to life by HP, which is what gave me the idea. A little while ago, just a couple of months ago, the HP employees started posting things like, “I burned popcorn in the microwave. I kill plants.” Just things they were admitting to. The reaction was, I mean, I was commenting on it, because I actually do two of those things. I can’t have plants, and I don’t put popcorn in the microwave, because I tend to burn it. It’s a way of selling your personality. It’s a way of selling the company culture. It’s a way of selling; these people look like they’re a lot of fun, and I want to get me some of that. I want to be around happy people, instead of “Who wants to buy some print from me, or Matthew?” You know what I’m saying?

[0:20:20] MP: You know what? You’re hired. The average printer company will now have you.

[0:20:26] DC: Capital relies on what makes you an individual. You are allowed to have fun. That does attract people. There’s fun, and it’s work fun. You’re not just saying, “Look what I did on the weekend,” which I’m not saying is off limits, but that’s not really selling yourself to a customer necessarily, unless it happens to be that you went to a Formula One race in Las Vegas. That might be very interesting to customers out there. If you happen to have done any vehicle wraps or signage there, you can tie it into your love of car racing and print in some way. Or you could be at a concert and show everybody the signage they have in the parking lot, or the tickets if they’re really cool. You can turn your experiences into a sharing moment with people that helps you sell yourself, because in this case, you’re just selling who you are as a human being out in the world and experiencing print.

[0:21:36] MP: What I love about the HP ones is that they make people look a little bit vulnerable as well. They bring that humanity to it.

[0:21:43] DC: Yes.

[0:21:44] MP: That’s really, because we don’t do enough humanity these days.

[0:21:47] DC: No.

[0:21:49] MP: I think that is really nice that people are going out and going, “You know what? I burned my popcorn.” Rather than just going, “Hey, we sat down to watch the Formula One, and I produced perfect popcorn yet again.” It’s like, “I burned my popcorn.” I think that’s really nice. Maybe even little stories that people can follow along with. Right now, we’re trying to integrate a new cat into our household. He’s called Mr. Alexander. He’s a tuxedo –

[0:22:14] DC: Hello, Mr. Alexander.

[0:22:16] MP: He’s a tuxedo cat, and he’s got attitude. Yeah, it’s a thing that I probably should put out on LinkedIn a little bit, partly because cats always go viral. It’s just a nice thing you can follow along. He went on a very long walk the other day, that he wasn’t supposed to. We were a bit worried about it. That’s a human story that I’m sure that people will carry on asking me now about Mr. Alexander, once they’ve listened to the podcast. They’re going, “Tell us about Mr. Alexander. What’s he up to these days? Is he still able to walk?” It starts a conversation.

[0:22:50] DC: Yeah. There was actually a long thread of comments on a post about tuxedo cats being very mischievous. Somebody had a photo of their cat who destroyed the Christmas tree. It was like, in the Christmas tree. This is what I woke up to, and the cat had just destroyed it. I happened to have two of those tuxedo cats. Apparently, a lot of people have them, because there were hundreds of comments of people just sharing their experience under this vendor’s post about their tuxedo cat.

I didn’t need the services of this vendor. But if I did, I already feel like I have something in common with them. I already feel like we’ve breached the “Hi. How are you? What do you do?” Awkwardness of things. Yeah, it was a great example. With the HP, it was definitely somebody very clever came up with that, because there were images of – they were related images. Then, of course, the share was not just that you burnt popcorn, but what do you do about that? Whether it’s preventing it or looking at it as a process and how you can follow the instructions, whatever it might be. It was eventually came around to something that wasn’t just, “Look at me, I burned popcorn.” There was a message there. That was the hook that sold everybody on engaging with these people who shared the post. A lot of them did, and it was really cool.

[SPONSOR MESSAGE]

[0:24:33] DC: Print Media Centr provides printspiration and resources to our vast network of global print and marketing professionals. Whether you are an industry supplier, print service provider, print customer, or consultant, we have you covered, by providing resources and strategies that enable business marketing and creative success, reporting from global events, these podcasts, Project Peacock TV, and an array of community lifting initiatives. We also work with OEMs, suppliers, industry organizations, and event producers, helping you connect and engage with our vast audience, and achieve success with your sales, marketing, and conference endeavors. Visit Print Media Centr and connect with the Printerverse. Links in the show notes. Print long and prosper.

[EPISODE CONTINUED]

[0:25:27] MP: I just wish you’d show me the post about the tuxedo cat before we chose the tuxedo cat. Yeah, it’s a really cool way to do it. I think it’s a great way to finish up those six points.

[0:25:38] DC: Yeah. Okay, Matthew, before we wrap this up, I think you have a little announcement.
[0:25:43] MP: Yes. As ever, I’ve got a product that might help people around this –

[0:25:47] DC: Yay. And you have a product.

[0:25:49] MP: I’ve got something relevant. I have a little guide called Five Steps to Creating a Social Media Profile that Generates Business. Effectively, it’s all about selling yourself. I think I probably put the wrong title on this, because it’s a great way to build a profile, a social media profile, but it’s actually really about personal branding, and it’s about building up that proposition about you to people as well. If you’ve enjoyed this conversation, there’s no burnt popcorn. There’s no tuxedo cats in it. I think you might find it useful. We’ll put a link to it in the show notes. I’ll put a little code in there for anyone who’s listening to this, so that you can get a little special extra from me as a result as well. Yes, thank you for letting me share that, Deborah.

[0:26:37] DC: Of course, Matthew. No problem. I appreciate you sharing all this information with the listeners out there and the people who follow us on social media. I will remind everybody that you should definitely follow Matthew on LinkedIn, because he posts about our podcasts in a conversational way. There’s always lively discussions there, where you can lend your comments, opinions, and even get in touch with either of us if there’s any topics you want us to tackle, or questions you have about anything that we’ve said in the past. Thank you so much for listening. We appreciate your time and attention. Until next time, print long and prosper.

[END OF EPISODE]

[0:27:26] DC: Thanks for listening to Podcasts From the Printerverse. Please subscribe, click some stars, and leave us a review. Connect with us through printmediacentr.com, we’d love to hear your feedback on our shows and topics that are of interest for future broadcasts. Until next time, thanks for joining us. Print long and prosper.

[END]