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If you have a web-to-print solution, then you surely have a sales team that will sell this to your customers. By now, they must have already pitched to a number of your clients. Just hope that they have not told them “This solution will be what you want it to be” or “You can do anything with this solution” or “This is the solution to all your printing needs”. However, that is just not true. Please, ask your sales team not to pitch these sentences. They are only welcoming problems for your business.
Some providers might think there is no harm in saying these things, but this will only create havoc on the entire idea of web2print. This only makes the customers focus on what is not possible. If your sales team is not trained well, and are not clear with the results of the solution, then you can expect major troubles coming your way. The sales team plays a major role in the company. The success of any business without sales is not possible. However, if the sales team has half the knowledge and is in the market then that could be very dangerous.
As print providers, you have to understand this, whatever you tell the customers while pitching them for web printing software they are going to remember them. If you think that they would forget and you can mislead them, then you are wrong. By making statements that are not true, you are bringing their focus on things that are not possible or not true. They will take literally every sentence that you say and will throw back to you when you have certain discussions. When you are discussing amendments they will suddenly come up with some weird demands that your solution will not be able to fulfill. Moreover, the moment they come to know that their demands or requirements will not be met, you lose a customer.
Reasons why sales create disasters
There are several reasons why the sales team creates disaster for the web2print businesses.
1. The sales team does not have any knowledge of the product. They have not been given any training hence; they do not know what the software can do for the customers.
2. They are new to print and they have not understood the concept of web-to-print e-commerce software. It is important that you have an experienced sales team to avoid any kind of hassles.
3. You have not made your sales team part of the discussion when you were planning to buy software. They know your customers more than you do. They can tell you better what a customer has been looking for in a web2print solution. In addition, if you go by them successes are bigger than you can expect.
4. The sales team also makes disasters because they have a different vision compared to that of the company. You need to make sure your sales team and every employee of the company knows the vision of the company with this software.
5. You have done the right and complete research before buying the software. You think it is time to get rid of the paper and folders and you buy a software, but did you define your reasons for buying the software. Have you noted problems for which you want the solution? Have you discussed with your staff to get a better overview and come to a decision?
6. You have negotiated excessively on the price and got only half the training for the software. You negotiated on features to cut the price and ended up having those you do not even need.
7. Your team is not well equipped to run a software like this and they are too slow to match up with the requirements.
8. You are lost after six months because you do not know what do and neither does your team. You are in the crisis and then you blame the sales team for not doing the job right.
9. You have actually not understood the software in detail and hurried to start it without any training. Half knowledge is dangerous than no knowledge and you will end up shutting it down.
10. You spent a lot of time and money; still, have no clue to what to do and then your sales team rush to the market with false promises. This is where your failure begins. Instead of finding the right solution, you push your sales team to get customers and then you know what happens.
What needs to done to avoid these disasters?
Below are a few mistakes you make and plans of how you can prevent them:
1. You went for software hunting knowing what your customers want and without discussing with your core team members. Buying software is not the strategy, a strategy is to plan, discuss, document, research and then finalize the software.
2. You did not inform your staff about the changes to happen. This will create havoc and things start going wrong from here. When you plan to buy w2p e-commerce, the software then talks to your staff and tell them the challenges you are facing and how this software will be of help. Prepare them in advance. Make sure they are all trained.
3. You assigned the project to the technical person, this may be a technical project, but it cannot be run by them. You need a sales and marketing person to run this successfully because they know what their customers are looking for.
4. You hand over the project and move out. You need to be equally involved to make sure things are running smoothly and there are no hurdles in the way. A leader plays a very important role in the success of any business.
What should be the sales team focus?
Your sales team’s focus should be on letting the customers know what results will be driven by this software. This will interest the customers more.
Make a realistic plan
Make an actual plan of how to roll out the news of the software and its benefits for the business. The sales & marketing plan should be ready to target the right group of people.
Launch Fast
Launch with what you have in hand first and that is running, rather than waiting for something that still; needs to be upgraded and installed. Keep in mind, your web-to-print solution will be an ongoing process with additions based on the customers’ demands, so to wait for it to complete will benefit your competitors, as they will pull your customers with immediate solutions.
Closing Note
There is a lot of effort and money that you invest when launching your web2print solution. Your sales team is among the core teams to bring this solution to the market and get greater success. One small error can bring your failures. Hence, you must not hurry to launch the software, without training your staff and especially the sales team. Make sure they know the why’s and how’s of everything.
