Reklamni Lefleti za vseki

Bulgarian; plenty of print for everyone, apparently

Quick Tally on Feb Figures

Hi, all, looking good for Feb, though taking some bits back for the weekend to check out. Well done people and a big thanks. Record turnover, greatest traffic levels and best month since Feb 2007. £86,000 of good sales and no bad debt to report on. Next month should be easlier as Hawthorn Software will have new MIS system up and running. Lets give it a good name. I reckon ELM!! Any thoughts. Big thanks to Simon for the updates on the site today by the way.
Frank
printhuteer

New Strategy

Frank Golden, Printhuteer #1, will be unveiling to Blaze members the new sales strategy specifically designed for BNI. His 10 minute presentation on the 27th February at the Sun Hotel, Hitchin will run through in detail his vision for sales development and growth for Print Hut and how he hopes the BNI process will play a key role in this. The strategy has already been launched at BNI Granta in Cambridge last month by printhuteer #2, Richard Gilbert.
‘We are all very excited about the opportunities this will open up for us as a business and how the commitment Print Hut management will give to the BNI in return will strengthen the chapters’ positions over the next 12 months.’ Says Frank Golden
He adds; ‘Key to the strategy will be our ‘specific attitude’ based on the culmination of recent research and intelligence Print Hut have commissioned into the business landscapes within a 15 mile radii of the 2 chapters.

In conjunction with the strategy Print Hut have launched a new promotion for micro business. The ‘Yay or Nay’ promotion encourages any company who is poised to spend money on printing, to submit their current print supplier quotation. Within one hour the St. Neots based print company will return a red traffic light or green traffic light via email, representing (in their eyes) value for money if green or excessive charging if red. ‘The promotion is asking a very simple question’ continues Frank Golden. ‘Is your current print supply chain worth it? If you aren’t sure, let Print Hut tell you!’
To measure and encourage traffic to the promotion a new free phone number is now available; 08009 545 014.

Print Hut will reduce the cost of a company’s business, marketing or promotional printing, by offering free impartial advice and a unique supply chain of both UK and overseas Ultra Wholesale Printing Companies.

Punching above your weight!

I have read many articles like most of you about the current climate and what we as business owners can expect in the next 12 months or so. However what I am not hearing is how to punch above your weight. I always punch above my weight because this is aspirational behaviour. In my eyes anything else is self sabotage for a business or business owner.
In Print Hut’s first year I worked from the youngest son’s nursery bedroom, surrounded by animated nursery rhymes and hanging mobiles. Immediately prior to this decision he was evicted to a larger room and a real bed probably a few months too early!
I knew then that this would never have been perceived as a real business to customers and prospects alike so I learnt early some techniques that I would like to pass on to anyone in that position today.
First up change (temporarily) your address. I prefixed my home address with ‘Carlisle House’ then introduced the word ‘unit’ immediately before the house number and dropped off the word ‘Road’.
Admittedly, it confused the pants off the postie for a week or so, but mail arrived and crucially it looked conceivably authentic.
Next I downloaded some cracking sound effects onto the company’s only legitimate asset; a budget dell laptop. For a dollar or two a time I created a wonderful working environment by introducing air conditioning unit effects, general office conversations and light manufacturing noises. Whenever the phone rang I would ensure that the conversation started by saying I would just close the office door, whilst simultaneously turn the volume control down on the dell!
Now a few years on I am still finding ways to punch above my weight and aspiring to where I want to be in 5 years time. Now Print Hut has 5 employees and we now have an office with its own authentic hum of activities and that’s simply down to the fact that, that was what I originally had aspired to, right at the very start of this journey and where I had wanted to be by year 3. Bring on the next 5 please!!

Sales generators

Been looking around for a while now for another 'right person' to come on board at Print Hut! Plenty of print for Everyone! However, we seem as a nation / industry to have forgotton what a sales role is. Too many are not predatory sales generators, but wishy washy account management people and none have been professionally trained as a salesman or woman. Where has the skill set of 'human engineering' gone. It was once said that the ability to effect someones decision at the piont of purchase was as great a valuable comodity as coffee, sugar or petrol. Is there actually a course in the UK for print sales training. Judging by the general rhetoric I see amongst fellow operators in this industry I would say not, but will stand corrected.