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?