You are receiving this email from Profectus, Inc. because you or someone from your organization subscribed or inquired on our website. To continue to receive emails from us, add advisors@profectus.com to your address book. You may unsubscribe at the bottom of this page if you no longer wish to receive our Ideas and Insights articles.

Profectus Ideas and insights e-Newsletter for Printing Organizations

Free advice for improving your printing organization.

Dear [fname] [lname],

This Ideas and Insights article contains expert advice to help you improve your organization and welfare. We hope you find this information helpful and choose to continue receiving our newsletter.

Sincerely,

Craig L. Press
President

Printing Industry Best Practices:
Win More Quotes!

Calculating the ratio of estimates that turn into live orders is frequently used by printers to measure their competitiveness. But it’s even more important to track WHY you win or lose jobs. Doing this will identify the performance of your salespeople, pricing strategies, competitive position, and the cost effectiveness of your organization.

How can you track the success of your quotes? Start by creating a list of reasons why your organization wins or looses quotes. It is not necessary to start out with a complete list. More reasons can be added later as needed. Example win and loss reasons may include: 
  • Unable to meet the customer’s schedule
  • Our equipment configuration is not suitable for the job
  • Project canceled by customer
  • Price to high by 1-10%
  • Price to high by 10-20%
  • Price to high by > 20-
  • Best price by < 10%
  • Great quality
  • Great service
  • Liked our Christmas Party

You can also incorporate your competitor’s name in the reason codes so you can track who you are loosing work to and who you are beating out. Us this information to support pricing decisions when competing against these other companies: 

  • Loss to Ace Printing
  • Loss to Ace Printing by <10%
  • Loss to Ace Printing by >=10%
  • Loss to El Cheapo Graphics
  • Loss to El Cheapo Graphics by <10%
  • Loss to El Cheapo Graphics by  >=10%
  • Beat El Cheapo Graphics by <10%
  • Beat El Cheapo Graphics by >=10%

Next, produce weekly reports listing your live estimates or quotes sorted by salesperson and customer. Ask each salesperson to write on the report the status of their estimates using the win and loss reasons and then track it with  forms, spreadsheets, or in your management software. The list of report of quotes also makes an excellent customer call-back list for your salespersons.

Tracking winning and loosing sales opportunities will help identify the products or market segments you should be promoting or eliminating, and where you need to make adjustments to be more competitive.


By Craig L. Press
President, Profectus, Inc.
craig.press@profectus.com
Phone: 888-868-8662 or 941-379-8700

Craig L. Press is president of Profectus, Inc, a national consultancy that helps printing organizations implement best business practices and maximize the value of their information technology investments. www.profectus.com