Drop everything and read

Jul 1, 2006 12:00 AM, By Katerine O'Brien

InRegister™ InPrint

It's time to answer some questions submitted to our e-mail newsletter, InRegister. We love getting e-mail—we look forward to more inquiries in the months to come.

Just the facts, please
Help! My customer is looking for a brief overview of the major printing processes (offset, flexo, etc.). Do you have any suggestions?
—Stumped in Seattle

Dear Stumped,
“Pocket Pal” offers an excellent explanation of almost everything anyone would ever want to know about printing. The handy little book of graphic arts production is now in its 19th edition. “It’s mandatory reading for our CSRs and sales reps,” says Jeanie Riemer, Printcraft Press (Idaho Falls, ID).

(See “Pocket Pals enduring legacy,” AMERICAN PRINTER, January 2005.) “Pocket Pal” is available at www.internationalpaper.com and www.amazon.com.

Another good one
Frank Cost’s recent book, “The New Medium of Print,” also is an excellent choice. Cost, associate dean of RIT’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, offers concise descriptions of gravure, offset, screen, digital and other print processes. He also explains how print is used today and where it fits with other media.

“I often wished for a small, fun-to-read book to give to people who were thinking about the world of print for the first time,” says the author. “Most introductory books ... say little about how people actually use print. ‘The New Medium of Print’ is a new kind of book: It provides an introduction to the underlying systems for the creation and distribution of print, as well as an exploration of its many and varied contemporary uses.” See http://print.rit.ed/cost. Speaking of new media, here are two Web sites to investigate: www.wikipedia.com and www.howstuffworks.com. Two caveats: Wikipedia is “the free encyclopedia anyone can edit,” so you’ll want to verify any material prior to sharing it with your customer. Howstuffworks.com’s offset printing entry is out of date in certain respects (you’ll learn how film is assembled, for example), but it provides a lucid description of the printing process. Plus, you can browse other interesting entries, such as, “How firewalking works.”

Looking for a good book on sales
We have just hired two new salespeople. Can you recommend some good books on sales techniques?
—Coaching in Cleveland

Dear Coach,
= We asked Linda Bishop, an Atlanta-based sales trainer, to comment. “For 17 years, I sold printing. One of the few classes I ever took on sales training was sponsored by the Printing Industry Assn. of Georgia and taught by Dick Gorelick,” she recalls. (That must have been some excellent advice, because she sold over $9 million annually at a company that had $45 million in total sales.) Here are Bishop’s five favorite sales books:

“Little Red Book of Selling,” by Jeffrey Gitomer: This book touches on all the basics.
“The New Strategic Selling,” by Miller, Heiman, Taleja and Marriot: Every printing sales rep needs to understand the difference between the simple and the complex sale. This book explains that and more.
“Spin Selling,” by Neil Rackham: The Bible for relationship selling.
“How to connect in business in 90 seconds or less,” by Nicholas Boothman: An easy read and some great advice on building rapport.
“Price Doesn’t Count,” by Gary Cone: Good advice on creating a value equation for the print buyer.

Bishop also offers a free e-newsletter for print salespeople, called, “Self-Taught Sales.”

For more information, see www.thoughttransformation.com.

Wednesday is InRegister™ day
AMERICAN PRINTER’s InRegister™ newsletter is published on alternating Wednesdays. For a free subscription, click here. Want to comment on something in this issue? Drop us a line at kobrien@primediabusiness.com. We look forward to hearing from you!