Developing a Sales Team

  This article appears in  Sign Builder Illustrated.

By Jim Hingst

Whether you operate a new shop or one that is long established, if you expect to drive growth in your business, you need to bolster your sales effort. This involves recruiting, training and supporting a sales team.

Building a team, whether it consists of one salesperson or many, requires the right talent, the right plan and the right leadership. Most of all, the success of your team requires what legendary basketball coach Pat Riley calls a “core covenant” among everyone in your business to support your sales effort. As the leader of your team, you should remind your employees that everyone is involved in sales, or should be.

By embracing your core covenant, your organization should unify with a common purpose or mission in mind.  Only when your entire shop meshes together and recognizes that everyone has a responsibility to contribute to your sales efforts, will your team realize its greatest professional accomplishments.

To reach your potential, your employees must put the goals and interests of the team ahead of their individual interests. That’s easier said than done, of course. In most organizations, people succumb to the frailties of human nature, such as greed, envy, anger and resentment, all of which jeopardize team unity.

As someone, who has participated in many different sales capacities, from direct salesperson and independent rep to a manager, who hired, trained and fired many salespeople, I offer my perspective on what works and what doesn’t work as you build your sales team.

Recruiting and Hiring Salespeople

One of the most important responsibilities of a manager is to recruit and hire the members of his team. While you might get lucky in finding a sales candidate through a job search, a better way is to ask other businesspeople in your community to recommend people who may be a good fit. You should also ask salespeople, who call on you for recommendations.

Some of the best sales candidates that you can recruit are salespeople currently employed by your competitors. In his book, Made in America, Sam Walton explains that he never felt any shame in going into another store to uncover and lure talented candidates for his business. 

Obviously, experienced and successful salesmen, working for a competitor or in a related industry, have strong business relationships and can convert these relationships into sales.  Before you hire a salesperson from a competitor, make sure that they are not bound by a non-compete agreement.

When hiring a salesperson who a competitor has let go, try to discover why he was fired. If a salesman didn’t work out for the competitor, what makes you think that he will perform better for you?

If you don’t hire someone with previous experience in selling graphics, you might recruit someone who, at the very least, has industry experience. Some of the people, who have become the best salesmen, have been truck leasing salespeople and experienced graphics installers.

Recruiting Sales Candidates Online

Posting a sales position opening on a job site, such as Monster or Indeed, is one of the quickest, easiest and most effective ways to recruit qualified candidates. You may also consider posting opportunities on LinkedIn, even though it is not a conventional job site.

The advantage of these sites is that they cast a wide net for candidates looking for a sales position. What’s more, for a small shop, a job site, such as Indeed, is cost effective, because its standard services are free. In the opinion of many, Indeed is also one of the most popular and most effective job sites. By using these sites in searching for sales candidates, you also save time, which is generally in limited supply for a small business owner, who often wears many hats.

To see if the Indeed job site will produce results for your business, create a free employee account and post a job listing. To attract the most qualified candidates, choose a descriptive job title. In selecting a title, you should use a service, such as Google’s Adwords, to test which description is most effective.

Your job description should concisely explain the responsibilities and work experience required. A well-written description should attract the most qualified prospects and, at the same time, weed out the unqualified. To make your posting easier for applicants to read, consider using bulleted copy.

In promoting job opportunities in your shop, you will also need to develop a business profile, explaining what your company does and what distinguishes your business in the graphics industry. Your company profile should also provide links to your website and your social media platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Links to these sites should attract interest in your business and project the personality and appeal of your organization. Be sure to list your company name, physical address, phone number, email and website address.

To generate more views of an Indeed job post, you can advertise or “sponsor” your posting. As a shop owner, you only pay when a respondent clicks on your posting to open the details in the job description. In addition to posting openings in your shop on job sites, also post the job on your website and on your social media platforms. After you hire someone for an opening, remember to close the job.

Interviewing Sales Candidates

Before conducting an interview, come prepared.  Carefully read through the prospective employee’s resume and construct several questions to better assess the personality and character of the candidate. When you are hiring salespeople, you should clearly define the specifics of the job. Explain in detail what you expect in terms job responsibilities and outcomes.

Both you and anyone you hire need to understand that selling is not a part time activity. If you expect that your new hire will devote part of his time selling and part of his time marketing or part of his time doing office activities, he will likely spend his time doing what is easiest. That will not be selling.

It is very easy for a salesperson to become sidetracked. I have seen salesmen getting involved in all types of activities that have nothing to do with selling. In some cases, when a salesperson gets distracted, it is not entirely his fault. Others in your organization can impose on his time. For this reason, in defining sales responsibilities, you need to write down what you expect them to do and what you do not want them to do. You should quantify sales activities and the sales budget that he or she must achieve. Make sure that the parameters of the job are cast in stone, so there is no misunderstanding in the future.

Below are some areas that you might explore in an interview:

Sales Experience. Ideally, the person that you hire, will have some experience in sales. Better yet, is a salesperson with experience in selling signage and graphics. In interviewing, your candidates probe to discover what types of products and services that they have sold in the past. How did the candidate rank in comparison to other salespeople? What did they like about their previous sales jobs? What did they dislike? You may also ask your candidate to describe their most significant sale.  

Personal Objectives. What lifetime and short-term goals has the sales candidate set for themselves? People who are successful, especially in sales, have established very specific goals and have written them down.

As a follow up question, ask the candidate what plans they have made in order to achieve their goals. Salespeople, who have taken the time to write very specific goals for themselves, who have devised plans for achieving those goals and who act every day on those plans, have the motivation and the discipline to be successful. Finding someone who is goal-oriented, however, is a rarity.

Ask your candidate to imagine that if everything goes right in his career, what type of life will he be living in the next ten years. How much will he be earning annually? What type of house will he own? What assets will he have accumulated? If a salesperson is not motivated by money, there is not much that you can do with them.

Preparation. You may also want to ask the candidate what they know about your business. If they are worth their salt as a salesperson, they should have researched your company in preparation for the interview. If he has not researched your company, he is probably not the type of person who will do any pre-call planning if you hire him. Selling other businesses is a thinking man’s game and requires planning and professionalism.

Self-Improvement. In conducting an interview, you need to evaluate whether the candidate has acquired the basic skills necessary to thrive in a business environment. For a salesperson, he or she must communicate effectively both in speaking and in writing. The person that you are considering also needs a good understanding of basic math. Finally, you need to determine if he or she has the reasoning skills to recognize a prospect’s problems and unmet needs and, in the role of a sales consultant, can develop solutions.

A college degree in business or an MBA may be impressive on paper. What’s more important, is someone who can think on his feet and who can effectively communicate with business professionals.  

What is more important than a degree is the candidate’s commitment to learn and continually improve their knowledge and skills. The seventh habit in Dr. Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Successful People is to sharpen the saw.  As technology rapidly evolves, everyone needs to sharpen their skills. In your interview, you may ask what your prospective salesperson is doing to improve or sharpen their sales skills. What courses in sales have they taken in the past? What plans do they have to improve their sales skills?

We all know that readers are leaders. Motivational sales speaker Brian Tracy recommends that if a person devotes one to two hours a day reading about their industry and listening to educational sales tapes, you will lead your field within a couple of years. Ask your prospective employee what type of reading they have done to improve their sales knowledge or understanding of the industry.

Their Value-Added. Your prospective employee should be able to tell you what value they can provide. Ask the candidate what they can do to help you grow your business.  In selling themselves to you, they should be able to explain to you why you should hire them.

Characteristics of Highly Effective Salespeople

In conducting an interview, you need to make judgements about the personality of your prospective employee. To a large extent, you will need to trust your gut instinct in evaluating a candidate. While this type of assessment is anything but objective, if your head and heart are not in alignment when judging someone, you should keep looking for the right sales candidate. Some characteristics to look for include:

Charisma.  Some people have a naturally charming, likeable and charismatic personality. These qualities are difficult to define and certainly cannot be quantified. They are, however, easy to recognize when you encounter someone with these characteristics.

Confidence. Sales is not for snowflakes. Great salespeople believe in themselves, their company and their abilities to provide prospective customers with unique business solutions and value. I can instruct salespeople about the technical aspects of vinyl graphics design, manufacturing and installation. I can teach them how to conduct a fleet graphics survey or needs appraisal. I can’t teach confidence. It is an inherent personality characteristic. The best that you can do as a manager or mentor is to provide your employees with encouragement. In interviewing sales candidates, the type of personality that you should look for in a salesperson is one that is self-assured without being arrogant, pushy or obnoxious.

Perseverance. Salespeople usually experience a great deal of rejection. Successful salespeople don’t take rejection personally and can get up off the ground after losing a sale to a competitor and move on to the next opportunity. Great salespeople also discipline themselves to follow up on opportunities.  If a candidate has not developed a good follow up procedure for himself, he will likely let several opportunities slip between the cracks.

Competitiveness. Successful sales people generally have type-A personalities, versus the laid-back type Bs. They usually have a very competitive nature.  Generally, assertive people have participated in team sports rather than being the type of person that sits in the stands, observing. What activities does your sales candidate participate in? What awards has he or she achieved? Successful salespeople are goal-oriented and motivated by commissions, and winning sales contests.

Commitment.  Effective salespeople feel that sales is their calling. Too many apply for a sales job because they desperately need a job or view it as a steppingstone in their climb to a management position. These people ultimately want to be someone’s boss, rather than being on the streets in the thick of the fray. In their heart of hearts, they are just going through the motions until something better comes along.  

Independent Sales Representatives

One of the fastest ways to break into a new market or jumpstart stagnant sales is to hire independent sales reps. With the right training and compensation package, these reps can bring in significant amount of business. The value that they bring to your party is their relationships that they have developed over their years in business.

An independent rep initially can cost you significantly less than a company salesperson, because you pay them straight commission. You don’t pay them a salary, nor do you cover their expenses. Plus, you are not on the hook for health care or retirement. Unlike a direct employee, there is little risk associated with hiring someone who is non-productive.

Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive author, Harvey Mackay, recommends that you should always keep your eyes open for a good potential employee and hire him, even if you don’t presently have an opening for them. If you can afford it, that’s good advice. This also applies to contracting with an independent sales rep.

An independent sales rep is not a direct employee, even though he or she may perform the same work as a direct employee. Manufacturer’s reps operate their own businesses. Using a manufacturer’s rep especially makes sense for a small shop, that cannot afford to hire a direct salesperson.  

Unlike a direct employee, your company does not withhold income tax, Social Security or Medicare from their commissions. Another advantage of using independent reps is that you are under no obligation to provide any benefits, such as health care, vacation time or a retirement program. You also are not responsible to cover their travel and entertainment expenses, nor do you need to supply their tools needed to do their jobs, such as laptop and computer programs.

When you form an agreement with an experienced rep, you benefit from their long-term relationships that they have cultivated for years. Independent reps may also cover geographic territory where you have no presence. Capitalizing on their extensive coverage may dovetail with a strategy for growing your business.  

When you interview an independent rep, you should investigate the other product lines that they represent. Ideally, the rep’s existing lines will complement your offerings.

Manufacturer’s reps are professional salespeople, who, in many cases, are more effective than direct employees, because if they don’t sell, they don’t eat. That’s powerful motivation.

Recommendations

You can enjoy several advantages when you use independent reps. Without incurring the additional costs of a direct employee, you can generate new sales and expand your coverage to new territories.  To reap the benefits of outsourcing a field sales force, you must provide the support that they will need to be successful. Expect to invest additional time preparing quotations, answering questions, and making joint sales calls. In dealing with independent sales reps, here are some additional recommendations:

● When you use an independent rep to promote your business, you have a right to expect agreed-upon sales performance. You do not have the right, however, to control their activities, which is one guideline that the IRS uses to distinguish a direct salesperson from an independent sales rep. Another factor in the IRS determination is whether the employer or sales rep provides the equipment needed in the performance of the job. Whether you report the rep’s income on a 1099 form versus a W-2 has no bearing on the IRS classification.

Even requiring sales call reports, risks that the IRS will reclassify an independent rep as a direct employee. If the IRS reclassifies an outside salesperson, you could face serious legal consequences, such as fines and seizure of assets, because you must withhold income taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes and unemployment taxes for employees.  Be careful that you do not classify a direct salesperson as an independent rep employee to avoid paying payroll taxes or Workers’ Compensation Insurance.

● If you want to motivate an independent rep, provide them with ability to make a good living, pay them promptly and support them with an effective marketing support program, that provides them with training, sales leads and marketing literature.

● Generating new accounts often takes considerable time. To support their efforts in a specified geographic territory, you should allow them to manage any existing accounts in that area. The commissions from these accounts will help defray the rep’s expenses as they plough new ground.  Claiming existing business as “house accounts” often creates resentment.

● Always remember that the independent rep owns his long-term customer relationships, not you. You make a big mistake, if you think that you can terminate a rep, who has brought you new business, and appropriate his accounts. The rep will usually shift those accounts to one of your competitors.  You not only lose that business, but you potentially jeopardize your reputation and create an enemy.

Independent Rep Agreements

In forming a business relationship with an independent rep, verbal agreements are worthless. Some famous last words are “my word is my bond.” Whether you are dealing with someone honorable or not, handshake deals often result in disputes. To avoid potential legal conflicts, you and your independent rep should put your agreement in writing. That contract should cover the following topics:

 ● The agreement should explain the nature of your relationship to the independent rep. The rep is an independent businessperson and is not an employee nor is he a partner in your business. Making this distinction is important, because not doing so, can have tax withholding and other legal consequences for your business.

● Your rep agreement should specify the geographic territory that the rep will cover. You may also want to list the products and services that the salesperson is responsible to sell.

● Your document should include an exclusivity agreement. In other words, the independent rep should agree to only represent your shop for the agreed upon products and not concurrently represent a competing shop.

● The contract should outline your commission scale.

● The agreement should include a provision regarding nondisclosure of confidential information.

● Finally, you should address how both parties can terminate the agreement. In the case that your shop wishes to terminate an independent rep, your contract should also provide for a specified period of notice.

Before signing the contract, you and the independent rep should sit down and review every single provision of the agreement. It is much better that both parties fully understand the contract and resolve any issues upfront. Ideally, you should have an attorney draw up the rep agreement so that it complies with the laws in your state.

Compensation

Let’s face it, finding a topnotch salesman is difficult. Because they are in short supply, the demand is high. If you are running a smaller business, you must compete with larger companies that can offer a generous benefit package, paid expenses and a comfortable salary. If you want to keep a good salesman, you will need to treat them right and give them the opportunity to make a great living.

One way to compensate salespeople is straight commission. Some companies have compensation plans based on the profitability of the job. Selling jobs with greater the profit margins earn higher commissions.

Salespeople, who are compensated by commissions only, deserve everything they get. In many regards, they work as if they are independent salespeople. They must pay all of their expenses and if they don’t sell, they don’t eat. Because these salesmen assume a significant amount of risk, never begrudge them the commissions that they rightfully earn. If they land some lucrative accounts, pay them what you agreed, when you hired them.

I know of a few employers who adjust sales commissions after a salesman starts to earn a comfortable living. This just creates bitterness. As a result, many of these high performers leave one shop and go to work for another, taking many of their accounts with them. Can you blame them?

You not only lose a good salesman; you must go through the time and expense of finding a replacement and training him. What’s worse, is when the word gets out that you are a bad employer. 

You can structure your compensation plan in many ways ranging from straight commission to salary as well as a mixture of salary and commission. The value of weighting pay more heavily on commission than salary provides salespeople with greater motivation to work harder.

How you structure your compensation plan should depend on your overall business goals.  In some cases, a shop may want to compensate new business at a higher rate than sales to existing accounts. I have worked for graphics companies which compensated their salespeople based on the profitability of the individual sale. Basing pay in this manner requires more accounting work, but it rewards salespeople when they sell at a higher markup. In my mind, this is win-win because both the shop and the salesperson make more money.

How you devise your compensation plan, not only depends on your business objectives and the type of behavior you want to incentivize, but also on the difficulty of implementing the plan. You certainly do not want to create a plan so complex that it involves an inordinate amount of time for your bookkeeper to calculate. The plan should be easy for your salespeople to understand as well as being fair and sufficiently rewarding to keep them motivated. A generous compensation plan will also help you attract and retain topnotch salespeople.

Many shops pay commissions as a percentage of sales. This might make sense, if your business establishes a firm selling price. On the other hand, this does not allow the salesperson any flexibility in negotiating price.

If commissions are based as a percentage of the markup, it allows the salesperson to adjust the price as needed to close the deal. At the same time, it discourages someone from giving away the store. As an  example, if an independent rep writes $600,000 in business at a 40% profit margin, your plan could be structured to pay 20% in commissions or $120,000. On the other hand, sales at a 30% profit margin, may only pay 15% or $90,000.  

While these commissions may seem like outrageous amounts, you need to keep in mind that salespeople, who are paid in this way, operate an independent business with overhead expenses and they must invest a significant amount of time, money and energy to generate those commissions.  

Sales Training

When a salesperson fails, it is usually as much of your failure as an employer as it is theirs. In some cases, you may have hired someone who is just not cut out for sales. More likely than not, an employer has not provided a salesperson with the right training, the right guidance or the right marketing support for them to be successful.

When I was hired for my first vinyl graphics sales job, the training was extensive. For three weeks I worked in the shop, in each of the departments. During the fourth week, my hands-on training continued at a trailer manufacturer, where I installed vinyl graphics.

The final phase of training involved joint sales calls with several veteran salesmen. Obviously, this initial indoctrination to the business of printed graphics did not make me an expert in the field. It did, however, serve as an invaluable foundation upon which I could build on my industry knowledge.

Most young salespeople do not receive the benefit of this type of education from their employer. Generally, after a few days in the shop, many are set loose on the streets to fend for themselves. Should you be surprised when they fail to make the grade?

Whether you hire experienced salesmen or newbies, you must devote a considerable amount of time, early in their employment, travelling with them until they get up and running.

No matter how experienced your salespeople are, you cannot provide any meaningful training or guidance from behind a desk. It just doesn’t work! This holds true even if you form an agreement with an independent rep, who has years of experience.

The graphics market is a business of details. To get new salespeople up and running, you will need to spend a significant amount of time with them out in the field. If they have never sold graphics before, they will need see how to conduct a vehicle or site survey and listen to you as you interview a prospect. If you have hired well, they will pick up on the questions that you ask and words that you use. Eventually, they will make your sales techniques their sales techniques.  

Creating a Sales Plan

The success that you and your salespeople will enjoy depends on the sales plan that you develop. You may have heard the maxim: plan your work; then work your plan. That’s sound advice! In applying this rule to your sales plan, here is a more elaborate explanation of how to put it into practice:

● Goals. Establish a specific goal for your shop, such as to increase annual sales by 150%. A large goal may appear to be daunting to your salespeople. For this reason, you may also want to set monthly revenue targets, which may seem more attainable.

● Planning. Determine which activities you need to engage in to achieve your goal. As best as you can, you should quantify these activities. Here are some specific activities that might be part of your sales plan:

▪ Develop a target account list. For each account, you should identify its sales potential and the probability of successfully closing a sale. This account list could take the form of a sales forecast. One of the simplest ways to capture this information is to create a spreadsheet. If you have several salespeople, you could have a separate worksheet for each person.

▪ Make a specific number of cold calls each week to qualify the prospects, identify opportunities and ultimately to acquire new accounts.

▪ Network with your strategic partners, such as truck leasing salespeople, to pursue new accounts.

▪ Call current customer base to limit account attrition and to uncover new sales opportunities.

● Execute. Work on your plan daily. By continually identifying new prospects, conducting customer research, cold calling and pursuing opportunities that you have uncovered, you will ensure that your sales funnel is always full and generating the number of sales that you will need to attain your goals.

At the end of each week, you should measure your progress against your goals and milestones. Remember the old adage: “what gets measured, gets done”.   If you are not staying on track with your sales plan and generating desired results, identify the shortcomings and problems and decide what corrective actions that you need to take.

Your Competition. As important as it is to identify your prospects, you also should identify your competitors in your sales plan and assess your competitive situation. If your salespeople are doing their jobs, they will provide with detailed input and insight about your prospects, customers and competitors.

As you look back at your sales efforts over the past year, which competitors did you compete with? How successful were you in competing with these companies? If a competitor was effective, what strengths accounted for their success? What were your competitor’s weaknesses?

Marketing Support Plan

 

Your marketing plan should not replace your sales plan. Instead, your marketing program supports your salespeople. The first step in developing your plan is to establish your goals. These goals could include generating sales leads, setting appointments, following up on sales meetings or maintaining contact with your account base to minimize attrition.

After determining your goals, you should develop specific and quantifiable activities designed to achieve your goals.  Your goals may include generating a specific number of sales leads, which result in quotes and ultimately lead to an increase in sales. By recording your results, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your sales people based on quotes generated, closing percentage and revenue. You can also use this information in forecasting sales.

To reach your sales goals, your marketing program may include activities such as entering leads into your database; mailing direct mail packages; or making telemarketing calls to qualify leads. Each of these activities must have specific targets.

Other marketing activities may include monthly follow up calls to your existing customer base to uncover new opportunities and to prevent attrition, publishing a monthly newsletter, updating your website and social media platforms.

Activities in your marketing program could also include telemarketing to uncover prospects, email or direct mail to acquaint your audience with your product offerings, social media platforms to showcase programs that your shop has handled and your website.

Following any sales or marketing campaign, you should analyze your results.

● What was your return on your investment?

● What positive results did you achieve?

● Which strategies and tactics were ineffective?

● When conducting future campaign, what would you do differently?

Termination

Sometimes a person that you hired for sales just doesn’t work out. Either you hired the someone who was not cut out for sales or they did not fit in with others in your shop or failed to meet your sales goals. Whatever the reason, one of the most emotionally difficult aspects of business for an employer as well as the employee is termination of employment.

Dismissing an employee by emphatically declaring “you’re fired” makes for entertaining TV. Termination of employees in the real world requires a little more empathy. In the first place, showing another person respect is the right thing to do. More importantly, parting on good terms avoids creating an enemy, who would go out of their way to pay you back.

I have fired more people than I can remember. Through this experience, I discovered what to do as well as what not to do. Here’s what I learned:

Face to Face. It should go without saying that you should never fire an employee over the phone or in an email or via snail mail. Instead you should meet with the person face to face. If you have a second in command or an office manager, you may want to include that person to sit in as a witness rather than as an active participant.

Have a final paycheck prepared to give to your employee upon his departure. As you are severing ties with the employee, you should remind them of any nondisclosure or noncompete agreements, which are in effect. You should also explain any benefits which will continue and for what period following termination.

Documentation. If the employee has not performed up to standards, you should have documented any assessments whether it is in a performance review or in criticism. Ideally, you should put everything in writing and include it in the person’s employment file. This way if it becomes necessary to fire someone, it should come as no surprise. Documentation of any corrective action should help if the employee initiates legal action.

While you are not obliged to offer your employee with an explanation for the termination, you should nevertheless prepare a response if the employee asks for a reason. Be respectful in how you phrase your explanation. Keep your reply and the meeting short as possible.

Former General Electric chairman and CEO, Jack Welch, believes that if you have been candid and fair with an employee in regularly appraising his performance, termination should come as no surprise to someone, who has not delivered on his sales objectives. In fact, Welch felt that failure to terminate an underperformer creates resentment among productive employees, which ultimately undermines team cohesion.

If you have provided your employee with a laptop, or other equipment, ask for them to return it in the meeting. If the employee wants to remove their possessions from their desk or locker, accompany them to their workspace to ensure that they do not remove any documents or company property from your premises or has an opportunity to access and possible sabotage your computer system.  

You have probably heard that you should conduct the termination meeting in a public place, such as a restaurant, to avoid a scene in your place of business. In my experience, this is a terrible idea. It is embarrassing for you and your employee, if he begins to cry in a crowded public setting. Believe me; it happens. A better idea is to terminate someone in your shop at the end of the day or after hours, so you don’t upset your other workers.

After you have fired someone, it is best not to discuss the details of the termination with your other employees. If another company calls in the future inquiring about past employment of a terminated employee, limit your comments to the essentials.

Conclusion.

In hiring salespeople, some will turn out to be plow horses, a few may be racehorses, and some will be nags. There is nothing wrong with plow horses. They may not set the world on fire, but they do their jobs day in and day out and generate a respectable piece of business.

If you are lucky enough to hire a racehorse, they will reward you with the sales numbers that will fulfill your expectations. The racehorses represent that 10% to 20% of professional salespeople that produce 80% of results. You need to reward them with the compensation to keep them happy and productive as well as to ensure that they don’t seek greener pastures.

Sales of graphics is often time-consuming both before and after the sale. Selling fleet graphics and building graphics requires that the salesperson spend time surveying the vehicles or building sites or interviewing the prospect or overseeing the implementation of the installation.

You need to adequately compensate your salespeople for their time and effort, especially if you cannot afford to be out of the shop. Professional salespeople can bring in the new business that you will need to grow and free up your time so you can manage your business. They can also provide you with the information that you need to combat competitors and respond to unmet market needs as well as alert you to the changes and challenges in your business environment.

Related Articles

Precall Planning for More Effective Sales Calls
Constructing More Persuasive Sales Presentations
Defining Your Unique Selling Proposition
Developing Good Time Management Habits
Job Costing for Sign Shops and Printers
Learning Active Listening Skills
Tips on Picking a Domain Name
Where Social Media Fits in Your Marketing Plan
Writing Better To Do Lists
Overcoming Failure
Why Start Your Own Business
Breaking Through the Communication Barrier
How to Make the Most of Your Time
How to Improve Email Marketing and Response Rate
What Motivates a Buyer
Learn the Art of the Graphics Deal
How Cross Selling Can Grow Your Sign Business
QR Codes: Window of Opportunity for Marketers
Sales Survival in an Anemic Economy
Time Management Tips for Sales People
Making Follow Up Part of Your Daily Routine

Do You Have Questions or Comments?

About Jim Hingst: Sign business authority on vehicle wraps, vinyl graphics, screen printing, marketing, sales, gold leaf, woodcarving and painting. 

After fourteen years as Business Development Manager at RTape, Jim Hingst retired. He was involved in many facets of the company’s business, including marketing, sales, product development and technical service.

Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer.  Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.

Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 190 articles for  publications, such as  Signs Canada, SignCraft,  Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and  Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 500 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published.  Vinyl Sign Techniques is available at sign supply distributors and at Amazon. 

Slides of Jim's Artwork

© 2020 Jim Hingst, All Rights Reserved.