Over the years I’ve supported sales teams ranging from 2 guys to over 1,500. I can tell you it’s not much different supporting either of the two groups.
It seems that besides the typical personality/stereotypes that exist in all teams (i.e. “the shouter”, “the paranoid one”, “the CEO favorite”, etc.) there is one thing they all have in common … they want personalized, individual sales tools that match their exact selling style, territory/customers, and that are ALWAY’S current.
The web with electronic publishing has taken us a long way since the days of 1000 brochures organized in the trunk of the car and literature rooms that took three people to manage. Today (and really since Web 1.0) we have electronic product briefs, web based document management systems, and just a few paper brochures that you hand to customers which really serve as a way to remind them of your web address.
One thing I found, however, is that printing these materials really sucks! Sometimes you really want a hard copy to send or show. It is still more professional and like a snail mail thank you card has a lasting impact. The problem with printing today is cost vs. quantity and of course the wide range of quality options not to mention shelf life of the piece as everyone is spolied by “electronic updates”.
I recently had a client that wanted to distribute a white paper and a series of product shots with high quality graphics and illustrations. We toyed with creating the typical web page and .pdf white paper … but decided to go the old fashioned way. Custom, Printed … BOOKS for each individual sales team member (about 25) AND targeted to the prospect.
After talking to Kinko’s (and about dying at cost for fairly low quality) I went on to discover MyPublisher.com after reading a Wall Street Journal Story about them. We were able to very quickly create 25 custom books (11×15 full color bleed) with mat cover and send them to the sales force in less than 24 hours !! I expect that now that we have a system in place we will deliver these types of materials on a regular basis. Oh and by the way … no professional graphics person, agency, or admin personnel involved here. Only the marketing and sales team members!
The team couldn’t believe it (actually neither could I …) and most importantly the customer reaction was fantastic. I actually got a call from a fellow VP of marketing from one of our customers who was shown the book and wanted to know how we did it and the budget (less than $200).
Pretty cool example of how marketing in the Web 2.0 world has gotten to be pretty personal.
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