Hi Chris,
Congratulations on your venture! If you are about negotiating the `lowest` prices I am sure you want to keep your advertising costs low also. So my suggestions are as follows:
(1) Article writing (let people know what print brokering is all about through short articles. I never heard of it until today)! You can write something like How To Choose a Print Broker; Benefits of a Print Broker vs. Using a Traditional Printer, Cost Savings for Small Business Owners or even larger ones for that matter. Then submit your articles on a free article directory such as www.ezinearticles.com
(2) Write a monthly ezine, electronic newsletter, and make sure you mention it to everyone you meet so that they will sign up to get your info every month. It is a low cost, proactive and non-intrusive way to keep in contact with prospective and existing customers. Make sure you have a standardized format and include something like `Monthly Special` or 10% off first job or FREE Print Services Consultation; inc a relevant article from a major media source that talks about printing or something closely related to what you do or how your services could have benefitted a customer; then include a case study or testimonial about how you saved a business gazillion of dollars which is equivalent to one persons salary for the year. Provide info of value and your list will grow quickly!!!
(3) I see someone above mentioned cold calling. I think it is good when it works, but I have not found it to be the best use of my time. You also have to be pretty hard core with a bit of resiliency for some of the people who are extremely rude or for people you constantly get voice mail from. I don`t think anyone really likes being in that position, whether you are an owner or an employee. Instead of cold calling, I built a self-marketing program from a book called "Get Clients Now, By CJ Hayden" highly recommend it!! and used it in conjunction with the book `Never Cold Call Again` by Frank Rumbauskas, Jr.
(4) Providing special reports and how to tips from my website homepage have also worked pretty well for me as far as `capturing` prospective customers and visitors info. For an example you can visit one of my sites here: smartphoneinstitute dot com Just look on the home page and you will see what I am talking and how I tie in the FREE report to what I am doing. NOTE: I know alot of these things entail writing and creating and if you are not into writing you can get people to develop this content for you for very aggressive pricing on guru.com
(5) For finding salespeople, that is a bit challenging dependent on expertise. You might want to look at a Kinkos or in a related field for someone that is looking for a different move. also dependent on the type of salesperson you hire they may want to take a `higher payout` via commission only and no salary (so what they earn is directly reflective of what they sale) so you should consider that as an option as well.
(6) Another thing to consider if you want to expand and get really outside the box, you can use an online virtual employee service such as guru dot come or elance dot come if you want to find employees all over the place. It really depends on if they physically need to be in the place where you are located or not. I suppose this depends on your business model.
At any rate, I hope that you will find at least one of these suggestions of value.
Good Luck.
Shonika
girlwiredin2006-9-5 12:14:23
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