Over the years I have been on more printing plant tours then I can count. Here is how they come about. A printing company that is looking for new clients starts calling all the design firms or advertising agencies in the yellow pages. They make a call, introduce themselves and their company and then if they make the cut they take you to lunch or something and invite you back to their office to take a tour of their printing plant.
Early on in your career, you enjoy these tours since it gives you a look at the back-end of how your print job is completed. Then over the years as you start going on press checks (when you make sure your job is printing correctly, checking colors, registration, etc. for those of you unfamiliar with printing). So you become pretty familiar with the printing plant and roughly how things work.
The funny thing though is we still have printers call and offer plant tours. I never really thought about why this was so funny until now. I am currently reading a book on sales called Baseline Selling by Dave Kurlan. At the end of this book, Dave brings up a great point that really made me think about my own experiences. This is when the whole printer tours came to mind. In the book Dave recommends not offering a plant tour unless it helps show the prospect how your company solves their problem or justifies why you are the best company to go with (in case you are going up against competitors).
So if this was done well, all the printing plant tours I have been on should be showing me:
- How I can better serve my customers
- How using them as a vendor can help us become more appealing to our customers or prospects
- How we can do our jobs better, faster, more flexible or with higher quality
- Lastly, how using them will help us close more deals
Really though most printing plant tours show me:
- The new and improved equipment they have
- Lots of printer specs (we just got the Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 52 that has a great coating system and inline die cutter)
- Their pride and joy
The truth is I personally do not care about the equipment. I know that these printers have spent tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars on all these printing presses, but I can not keep up on all the specs of each press. I just need to know you can get my job done and make my client happy with the results.
So here is a question for you printers out there and anyone else giving plant tours as part of a sales process. What does your plant do for me? How does your plant make my life easier and get me more clients or satisfy my clients better?
What problems does your plant solve for my business problems?
Answer these questions and start thinking like this before you give your next plant tour and focus on winning over a prospect not wowing them with your big purchases.
What are your thoughts on plant tours and using them to help convert prospects into clients?
I agree with the premise of the article and find it hard to believe that a salesperson wouldn’t fine-tune a tour for the customer’s needs! In our case, the real wow-factor is in the software we have developed to provide our customers with a fully-automated, order-to-shipping, per order, one-off, POD/BOD system. There is really nothing to show except product management screens.
I usually will place an order for the prospect before the tour begins and then “find” it during the tour. You then see the light bulb go on!
I agree with the premise of the article and find it hard to believe that a salesperson wouldn’t fine-tune a tour for the customer’s needs! In our case, the real wow-factor is in the software we have developed to provide our customers with a fully-automated, order-to-shipping, per order, one-off, POD/BOD system. There is really nothing to show except product management screens.
I usually will place an order for the prospect before the tour begins and then “find” it during the tour. You then see the light bulb go on!
John,
Thanks for your thoughts on this. The software approach sounds great, if it is more focused on my needs instead of how great the software is. I like the process you take them through on the tour (before and after). Sounds like this would really drive things home. Good for you and even better for clients from the sounds of things.
John,
Thanks for your thoughts on this. The software approach sounds great, if it is more focused on my needs instead of how great the software is. I like the process you take them through on the tour (before and after). Sounds like this would really drive things home. Good for you and even better for clients from the sounds of things.
Dale, Good thought provoking article and if all you get out of a plant tour is what you shared above, than the person doing the tour didn’t think it through enough to have you come away with more. This would be like a Design Firm showing a prospect old deigns or ad campaigns to win them over. How does that do anything for them ? Plant tours have helped me and my customers and my customer’s customers tremendously over the years. If you ever have a client who just could not understand why they can’t have their printed piece the day after they approved it, then walking them through the process is just one way to bring some realization into their expectations. But don’t start at the front door, start in back at shipping and work your way backwards, but keep track of the time it takes to get up to prepress and then into the administrative personnel, who oversee the job. It will make you wonder, How did they do it that fast ? Also printers will always try to push an equipment list into a buyer’s hands. They do this for them, but also to try to make it easier for the buyer to determine the best place to place a job. The problem is, not very many buyers ever take the time to really look or read them. I’d be willing to bet that you know a lot about the equipment on your plant tours and what equipment is where and I could be terribly mistaken, but could it be that you saw it and now you remember, who has what ? Could your clients get a good understanding of your design capabilities if you described it for them or just told them about it and how it was going to help them ? To see it, is to recall it for most. Truth is, we are very proud of the equipment and the people we take the time to introduce, we want you to see how clean we keep your shop, even though it would be easier and faster if we didn’t keep it as clean and most of all, we want our owners and employees to see you walk through and acknowledge their home away from home, because it’s something they are very proud of also. In this day when a lot of people think of printing as a commodity, with your help, we built and produced it from scratch and it still means something to us.
With that being said, could I talk you into coming to Arlington for a Plant Tour ? We’ll even throw in the lunch. Mark
Dale, Good thought provoking article and if all you get out of a plant tour is what you shared above, than the person doing the tour didn’t think it through enough to have you come away with more. This would be like a Design Firm showing a prospect old deigns or ad campaigns to win them over. How does that do anything for them ? Plant tours have helped me and my customers and my customer’s customers tremendously over the years. If you ever have a client who just could not understand why they can’t have their printed piece the day after they approved it, then walking them through the process is just one way to bring some realization into their expectations. But don’t start at the front door, start in back at shipping and work your way backwards, but keep track of the time it takes to get up to prepress and then into the administrative personnel, who oversee the job. It will make you wonder, How did they do it that fast ? Also printers will always try to push an equipment list into a buyer’s hands. They do this for them, but also to try to make it easier for the buyer to determine the best place to place a job. The problem is, not very many buyers ever take the time to really look or read them. I’d be willing to bet that you know a lot about the equipment on your plant tours and what equipment is where and I could be terribly mistaken, but could it be that you saw it and now you remember, who has what ? Could your clients get a good understanding of your design capabilities if you described it for them or just told them about it and how it was going to help them ? To see it, is to recall it for most. Truth is, we are very proud of the equipment and the people we take the time to introduce, we want you to see how clean we keep your shop, even though it would be easier and faster if we didn’t keep it as clean and most of all, we want our owners and employees to see you walk through and acknowledge their home away from home, because it’s something they are very proud of also. In this day when a lot of people think of printing as a commodity, with your help, we built and produced it from scratch and it still means something to us.
With that being said, could I talk you into coming to Arlington for a Plant Tour ? We’ll even throw in the lunch. Mark
Hi Mark,
You are right most of the plant tours I had were more focused on showing off the printer’s new equipment or old equipment.
You bring up an interesting point with designers showing off past client projects. Almost all designers do this. As a matter of fact we did in on Monday. The difference between this and what a printer does though is this. I did not show the prospect my new computer, pantone book, paper swatch library, etc. This would be the equivalent of the plant tour. Instead most designers show work they did for clients and a good designer will explain the process and what they accomplished by going this way to the final project. Then a great designer will also throw in what the outcome was for the client and focus more on what the client got out of hiring them to do the job.
This is a good point calling design firms out on this though, because most do not go through the full process I mentioned above. Most probably do not even specifically pick the samples they show for the customers specific needs. So design firms should be called out as well.
Honestly, these days, it is pretty rare we even show any work. As a matter of fact we have clients all over the place and only a handful that are local. We close most of our deals over the phone by talking to our clients about how we are able to help them and design never even comes into question. When we take this route, we land much larger clients that commit to larger ongoing campaigns. This is the point I was trying to bring up in this article.
I have maybe once had this kind of conversation with a printer. They were in Washington State. Sadly at the time we were not ready to do printing out of state. I bet they would have been a great company to work with though.
Most printers I have dealt with were not really as strategic or looking for a solid partnership. They seemed to be more interested in selling me A print job.
You brought up some great points on how you use the tour to help you and this is great! I am happy this works for you. Honestly though I do not want to hear about your equipment, I don’t really care. I do however want to hear how design firms that work with you are increasing their profits and offering their clients a product that knocks their socks off and helps them close more deals. If printers started here, I would take them up on their free lunches.
On one level, I think plant tours are the lazy salesperson’s version of the ol’ dog and pony show.
A quality sales person shouldn’t need any props or samples. They should be able to win the prospect over by building rapport, offering a quality solution to fix the clients problems, and then creating a way to continue to help make the client more successful than they could be on their own. After all isn’t that what we all want out of a vendor?
Hi Mark,
You are right most of the plant tours I had were more focused on showing off the printer’s new equipment or old equipment.
You bring up an interesting point with designers showing off past client projects. Almost all designers do this. As a matter of fact we did in on Monday. The difference between this and what a printer does though is this. I did not show the prospect my new computer, pantone book, paper swatch library, etc. This would be the equivalent of the plant tour. Instead most designers show work they did for clients and a good designer will explain the process and what they accomplished by going this way to the final project. Then a great designer will also throw in what the outcome was for the client and focus more on what the client got out of hiring them to do the job.
This is a good point calling design firms out on this though, because most do not go through the full process I mentioned above. Most probably do not even specifically pick the samples they show for the customers specific needs. So design firms should be called out as well.
Honestly, these days, it is pretty rare we even show any work. As a matter of fact we have clients all over the place and only a handful that are local. We close most of our deals over the phone by talking to our clients about how we are able to help them and design never even comes into question. When we take this route, we land much larger clients that commit to larger ongoing campaigns. This is the point I was trying to bring up in this article.
I have maybe once had this kind of conversation with a printer. They were in Washington State. Sadly at the time we were not ready to do printing out of state. I bet they would have been a great company to work with though.
Most printers I have dealt with were not really as strategic or looking for a solid partnership. They seemed to be more interested in selling me A print job.
You brought up some great points on how you use the tour to help you and this is great! I am happy this works for you. Honestly though I do not want to hear about your equipment, I don’t really care. I do however want to hear how design firms that work with you are increasing their profits and offering their clients a product that knocks their socks off and helps them close more deals. If printers started here, I would take them up on their free lunches.
On one level, I think plant tours are the lazy salesperson’s version of the ol’ dog and pony show.
A quality sales person shouldn’t need any props or samples. They should be able to win the prospect over by building rapport, offering a quality solution to fix the clients problems, and then creating a way to continue to help make the client more successful than they could be on their own. After all isn’t that what we all want out of a vendor?
The plant tour is only beneficial to the client when trying to evaluate and determine throughput capacity as well as control mechanisms that may be required to satisfy a Service Level Agreement.
The plant tour is only beneficial to the client when trying to evaluate and determine throughput capacity as well as control mechanisms that may be required to satisfy a Service Level Agreement.