| Kim Armstrong has a successful screen
printing business. She focuses on large national firms that buy screen
printing in big volumes. Her business has slowed considerably
over the last 3 years and her biggest challenge has been getting
targeted new prospects to see her. The company gives countless
calls everyday from hopeful salespeople intent on selling their
firm's screen printing services. While Kim is fun to talk
to, does great work at reasonable prices and is very service-oriented,
these benefits don't open as many doors as they used to.
The problem: everyone is selling, but no one
wants to be sold.
However, by changing her approach from selling to
serving, she has been able to get in to see people that she has
been unable to reach in the past.
Over the last month or two, Kim has been gathering
information on how to get better results from their screen-printing.
She has been looking at ways to save money, finding out how to make
sure that the images she prints are more effective in the market
and uncovering new developments in the field.
Kim’s approach has been to offer this information
to prospects whether they use her services or not. She recently
developed a booklet called "25 Ways To Save Money And Profit
More From Your Screen Printing".
Her approach is now to position herself as a Screen
Printing Consultant and to call prospects to tell them about this
free booklet. She sells them on why it will be useful to them
and suggests she deliver it in person. Her whole focus is on serving
and helping the customer. She acknowledges that her long term goal
is to do business with the firm, but that she is doing this service
for them without obligation.
She has more than doubled her strike rate in getting
appointments, and is now getting business from the firms she has
targeted, instead of waiting for business to come from its traditional
sources.
How could you apply this to your business? What information
could you provide to buyers of your services that would be useful?
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