The Gospel According to Mark: We Are All Responsible
We all have a lot in common with Johannes Gutenberg – other than the fact we’re all awesome print dudes says Mark Stephenson
Colin Sinclair McDermott, The Online Print Coach, gives his advice on managing an effective sales team, and looks at the reasons that orders may not be turning into profits because of simple behaviours and approaches
If your sales team is still acting like human brochures, you aren’t just losing orders – you’re losing the chance to be the expert your customers actually need.
I had a conversation recently with a printer who’s tearing his hair out. He’s got a sales team hitting every activity target in the book – calls made, emails sent, LinkedIn messages fired off – but their conversion rate is through the floor. When I looked under the hood, I saw why. They were essentially acting as order-takers. When a prospect asked for a price on 5,000 brochures, they gave a price for 5,000 brochures. They didn’t ask why the brochures were needed, what the distribution plan was, or if a different stock might better reflect the brand’s premium positioning. They were selling ink on paper, but they weren’t solving problems. If you’re just another name on a screen or a voice on the phone reading a script, you’re in trouble.
You cannot compete on price alone and expect to build a sustainable, profitable business. I see it all the time in this industry – owners get stuck in the commodity trap because their sales process is entirely reactive. If your team is only responding to the specifications the customer provides, you are a commodity. A consultant, however, looks at the desired outcome rather than just the print specification.
I remember working with a wide-format printer who stopped asking “what size do you want?” and started asking “what is the footfall in the area where this signage will sit?” That one shift in mindset allowed them to recommend higher-durability materials and better placement strategies. They weren’t just selling PVC banners anymore; they were selling visibility and longevity. This change moved them away from the race to the bottom on price and allowed them to charge for their expertise. It is about getting comfortable and challenging the customer’s initial assumptions to provide a better result.
Your customers already have access to the technical specs of your presses or the speed of your kit through your website. If your sales team spends the first twenty minutes of a meeting explaining things the customer has already read online, they are wasting everyone’s time. You’ve got to be the expert who helps them make sense of it all. You aren’t just there to hand out brochures anymore; you’re there to help them avoid the mistakes that cost them money.
I once saw a commercial printer save a client £4,000 by suggesting a slight size adjustment that allowed the job to run more efficiently on a B2 press. The client didn’t care about the press size; they cared about the saving and the efficiency. That salesperson earned a client for life because they acted as a consultant, not a salesperson
I’ve always said you need to diagnose before you prescribe. It’s about mindset. If a client wants a direct mail campaign, a consultant-led salesperson will dig into the data quality and the call to action before they even mention stock or finish. I once saw a commercial printer save a client £4,000 by suggesting a slight size adjustment that allowed the job to run more efficiently on a B2 press. The client didn’t care about the press size; they cared about the saving and the efficiency. That salesperson earned a client for life because they acted as a consultant, not a salesperson.
Trust is the currency of the print industry, and you build it by being the person who isn’t afraid to say “no” when a job isn’t right for your equipment. I have always believed that authenticity is your biggest competitive advantage. It’s about that H2H (human to human) connection that shows you actually care about the relationship, not just your own bottom line. If your sales team understands the limitations of your finishing department or the specific drying times required for certain jobs, they can manage expectations effectively from the start.
One of my clients in the garment space transformed their reputation by being honest about lead times during the peak season. Instead of over-promising to get the order, they consulted with the customer on how to split the delivery to meet the immediate deadline. It required a deeper level of communication and a solid understanding of their own Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). That’s how you start building a real relationship.
You can fall into the trap of high-activity, low-value work in sales just as easily as you can in production. If your team is chasing every low-margin quote that comes through the door, they are burning through your most valuable resource: time. A consultant’s mindset involves qualifying leads based on whether you can actually add value.
I often talk about marginal gains in the print shop, but the same applies to the sales office. If your team spends ten minutes more on the discovery phase of a project, they might uncover an opportunity for a larger, more complex, and more profitable job that the customer hadn’t even considered. I knew a shop manager who incentivised his team not on the number of quotes sent, but on the average order value and the diversity of services sold to each client. This forced the team to stop skimming the surface and start digging into the actual needs of the businesses they were serving. They stopped prioritising volume over value and started being strategic assets to their clients.
Mindset shift doesn’t happen during a single Monday morning meeting; it requires a commitment to continuous improvement. Every day’s a school day, as I always say. You need to provide your team with the tools and the permission to act as consultants. This means giving them access to the production floor so they understand the technical challenges, and it means encouraging them to stay curious about the industries they are selling into.
If you are selling to the retail sector, your team should know the current trends in sustainable packaging. If they are selling to the education sector, they should understand the budget cycles and the importance of durable materials. This industry knowledge is what allows them to lead the conversation rather than just following a brief. I have seen printers who invest in this kind of cross-departmental training see a massive uplift in staff confidence. When a salesperson knows exactly how a job will flow through prepress and finishing, they speak with an authority that a purely commission-driven closer simply cannot match.
The goal is to move your team to a position where they are seen as an extension of the customer’s own marketing or procurement department. When a customer calls you not just for a price, but for your opinion on how to execute a project, you have won. You have moved past the commodity trap and into a space where your value is tied to your expertise, not just your hourly rate on a press.
Stop pitching and start probing. The most successful businesses in the UK print market today are those who have realised that their kit is just a tool, but their knowledge is the product. Challenge your sales team to find one problem the customer didn’t know they had in every conversation this week. That is how you build a business that is resilient, profitable, and respected. Focus on the outcome for the client, and the rest will take care of itself.
