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Sales Resources
Learn by Sales Challenge
“How do I stay in touch with a prospect but not overdo it?”
How do you stay top of mind with a prospect without crossing the line into being a nuisance? After multiple outreach attempts with no response, it can be tough to know when to keep pushing and when to step back. The key is delivering valuable, relevant messages that show you’re persistent, not annoying. But how much follow-up is too much? And how do you strike the perfect balance?
“I want new business”
File this one under, “No kidding. Who doesn’t?” Okay, so you want to open some new accounts but you don’t know where to start. You likely fall into one of two categories: “New Reps” or “Legacy Reps”. The Sales Vault has options for both.
“I want to improve my time management”
There is a big difference between busy and productive. Most likely, if you have clicked on this category, you find yourself busy all the time. Equally likely is the fact that the only way you believe you can grow is by working even harder. So, let’s talk ideas for improving your productivity, starting with some lessons on time management.
No one is returning my calls!
Yep, this is definitely an issue. Over the years, various forms of, “No one is returning my calls” has become a top sales challenge. So, first, understand this: You are not alone. Feel better? Probably not. So, let’s dive deeper…
My sales suck. What should I do?
A bad week of sales becomes a bad month. Not only is no one on your new business list responding to your connection attempts, but no reorders are coming in either. Before the pattern repeats and becomes a full-on epidemic of terrible numbers, misery, and depression, let’s talk about actions you can take to reverse the trend and get back to solid sales growth.
Selling to Different Personalities
Overall, understanding different personality types as a salesperson allows you to adapt your communication style, build rapport, identify buying triggers, address objections, and strengthen customer relationships. These skills can significantly enhance your effectiveness in sales and contribute to your overall success in the field.
I’m New to Sales
Looking back to the start of my sales career, I was fortunate to work for a company that invested in training. The fundamentals of sales haven’t changed in the 40+ years since I started. If you’re new to sales, this is where to start.
Selling Digital Printing
Select from this collection of white papers available for download. Each written by Bill Farquharson and Kelly Mallozzi, focused on the nuances of selling digital printing vs. traditional print with actionable strategies.
I feel like I need to follow the job all the way through production…
Are you battling “CSR Disease?” Definition: CSR Disease is the name given to sales people who spend an inordinate amount of time mothering their jobs through the plant. They either can’t or won’t pass the baton to production. Is this you?
Sales Apps You Should Know About
Search “Sales Apps” on Google and the number of responses will rival that of the Gross National Product. There are thousands of apps and many do similar things. Here are just a few that are worth your time, listed by their intended benefit.
Workshop Replays
New to Sales Replay: The Key to Sales Success? Master the Ultimate Skill
Watch the video Replay
Kick Off 2025 Strong: Build Your Q1 Sales Plan – Workshop Replay
Learn how to kick off 2025 with a winning sales plan! In this workshop replay, Bill Farquharson shares essential strategies, tips, and action steps to create a Q1 sales plan that positions you for a strong start to the year. Don’t miss out on this valuable session!
The Marketing Workshop: Boost Customer Loyalty and Embrace AI
Discover practical marketing strategies to build customer loyalty and streamline your workflow with AI. Learn proven follow-up techniques, onboarding tips, and how to create AI avatars for your business. Watch now and take your marketing to the next level!
Insider Replay: Mastering Sales: The Elite Edge Strategies for Success
Discover practical insights and innovative sales strategies from industry leaders. Learn about building authentic client relationships, overcoming sales challenges, motivating teams, and planning for a successful sales year.
The Marketing Workshop: Practice What You Preach
Is your marketing a reflection of your expertise? Watch the replay of “Practice What You Preach” to learn how to turn your print and signage products into compelling marketing tools that inspire and engage customers. Exclusive to Sales Vault members.
The Marketing Workshop: Boosting Sales through LinkedIn
Discover how to leverage LinkedIn and AI tools to transform your marketing strategies! In “The Marketing Workshop,” Bill Farquharson and AI expert Emma Farquharson share actionable tips on creating impactful LinkedIn content, reconnecting with clients, and using AI tools like ChatGPT for competitor analysis and customer insights. Gain practical knowledge to stay ahead of trends, improve customer engagement, and drive business growth. Watch this replay to unlock the potential of modern marketing techniques and make 2025 your most successful year yet!
Insider Replay: Overcoming Objections & Beating Voicemail
Struggling with sales objections or wondering how to get prospects to respond to voicemail? This workshop replay dives into proven methods and real-world strategies to boost your success in overcoming obstacles and connecting with clients.
Insider Replay: New to Sales Workshop
Are you a new sales rep eager to make your mark in the print and signage world? This interactive workshop dives into the keys to early success—overcoming challenges, refining your sales process, and using cutting-edge AI tools to unlock new opportunities. Click to watch the replay and supercharge your sales skills!
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Insider Replay: Post-Purchase Prospecting
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Insider Replay: Marketing Workshop: The Challenges of Customer Engagement
Bill Farquharson’s marketing workshop tackled essential challenges in modern sales and marketing, from AI-driven solutions to better client engagement and workload management. Get insights on handling unresponsive clients, promoting sustainable products, and planning for seasonal sales success.
Short Attention Span Sales Tips
Three Time Management Lessons
At age 38, Bill Farquharson learned about ADD and how his thinking was not, well, normal. Since then, he’s come up with a LOT of work-arounds. In this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, he shares his three top time management lessons.
Three Words for December
Will you thrive or merely survive in ’25? The answer to that question starts in December of 2024. That’s Bill Farquharson’s message for you in this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
Prospecting Bias
Email, voicemail, phone calls, texts, visits, LinkedIn connections…we all have our personal preference when it comes to how we like to be contacted. But with preference comes a dangerous component. In this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, Bill Farquharson issues a warning on what to watch out for.
Three Sales Mistakes
Do bad things happen in threes? Sometimes, yes. So, wouldn’t you think people would make a hard stop after the second mistake and double check? In this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, Bill Farquharson wonders that, too.
Selling by Example
There is a big difference in motivation between an army whose general is in the front line and one who is sitting comfortably on a hill, watching the battle. Think about that and the advice from Bill Farquharson’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip the next time you bark out a new sales push.
The 8-second Sale
In the time it takes to read this Short Attention Span teaser, the average attention span has been eclipsed. That makes it incumbent on Bill Farquharson to write something interesting. How’d he do? Find out more by taking in the full tip.
Your Sales Environment
When someone commented on Bill Farquharson’s constant negativity, he was shocked. But then, he got thinking about his upbringing and it started to make sense. Your sales environment plays a role in your success. Learn how the two are corrected in this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
Scary Sales
Happy Halloween! Every now and then, sales can be downright scary, but in this week’s Short Attention Sales Tip, Bill Farquharson talks about what to do when things get bone-dry.
How to Sell to the Younger Buyer
Over a series of text messages with his daughter, Bill Farquharson received the key to selling to someone many decades younger than you. He shares that secret in this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
Extreme Productivity
After a weekend where he got an amazing amount of personal and business tasks accomplished, Bill Farquharson offers you a list of actions to take to achieve extreme productivity. Find it in this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
Short Attention Span Sales Blog
Do You See What I See?
A website is a window to the soul of the company. But what exactly does your website say, and is it even accurate? Bill Farquharson found a clever and entertaining way to find out and shares the intel in this week’s blog.
How to Sell Trust
You tell a prospect you can be trusted but they won’t believe you because they have no evidence. Trust is at the center of every sale and every relationship. In this week’s blog, Bill Farquharson, the man you know and trust writes about how to prove yourself to be trustworthy.
Genuine Sales
Most sales people never reach the deeper level of success achievable when you understand the simple point in Bill Farquharson’s blog this week.
Your Biggest Sales Mistake
The start-to-finish sales process has one key flaw and Buyers notice when you skip it. Learn more in Bill Farquharson’s blog this week.
The Sales Challenge You Won’t Admit to Having
No one answers your calls. You are not sure who to call on. Your prices are too high. All of these are common answers to the question, “Why aren’t you selling more?” But there is one core issue no one is talking about but it permeates every aspect of sales. Read more in Bill Farquharson’s blog this week.
What I Wrote vs. What I Said
An email comes in from angry client. You respond in kind. Your phone rings and the customer says, “Yikes, I was joking!” If you read into a message incorrectly, your response can cause a lot of damage. And before you misinterpret this teaser, you’d should probably read Bill’s blog.
Get it write.
Bill Farquharson is used to seeing his name butchered on mailing pieces and name badges. It’s to the point where getting it right is the anomaly. In this week’s blog, he talks about one instance where a mistake led to a crazy-high response rate of a direct mail piece.
I need my help.
You are probably an expert in the customer service experience of a half dozen companies you buy from. But what about your own? After battling for 90 minutes just to update a credit card, a snarky Bill Farquharson gives you an earful on what might be the speck in your own eye.
Two New, Struggling Sales Reps. Two Different Outcomes.
In one day, two of Bill Farquharson’s young sales clients saw their fate go in different directions. One is looking for a job while the other is basking in the glow of a great sales day. While there are many possible reasons for this outcome, Bill’s blog features the biggest one.
How to Get Production to Love Salespeople
It’s no secret that salespeople are not universally loved inside the walls of their own company. They can be demanding and don’t always speak to their fellow workers respectfully. In this week’s blog, Bill Farquharson offers up 8 words that can change how Production thinks about the sales reps who get the process started.
On-Demand Courses
Applying Pareto: Work Less, Sell More
In this four-part video series, I give you a completely different way to think about how to spend your selling time. Some of my discussion points will challenge your long-held beliefs about time management as it relates to sales efficiency.
Why Your Sales Reps Won’t Sell Inkjet (and what to do about it)
Overview OVERVIEW Why Your Sales Reps Won’t Sell Inkjet (and what to do about it) Congratulations on the purchase of that new inkjet press. Bad news: Your reps won’t sell to it? This 20 minute video explains why and then, more importantly, what owners and managers need to do in order to change that. Click […]
Verticals: Selling to Banks Opportunity #2 – Follow the money.
This second-in-a-series video discusses a clever idea for uncovering a sale to a bank. Banks spend 10 times more on this than on anything else. Follow the money.
Verticals: Selling to Banks Opportunity #1 – The Basics
Before you sell to banks, you need to understand their world. This first-in-a-series video goes over the basics and gives 2 ideas for where you should start.
Nail that First Prospecting Call
That first prospecting call can be terrifying for a lot of reasons. This Sales Vault course gives you ideas and strategies to take you from fear to fierce.
Finding the Elusive Customer in COVID Times
Overview OVERVIEW Creative ideas to help you connect with prospects In a recent Sales Vault poll, members overwhelmingly reported “Finding and connecting with customers/prospects” as their #1 sales challenge. This course speaks to that issue directly with several ideas designed to help with a long time obstacle made more difficult with so many now working […]
How to Overcome the ‘Price’ Objection
Ask a sales rep to name their top sales challenges and, “Responding to a customer telling me my bid was not the lowest” is certainly in the top three. This course teaches you options for not only beating this objection, but avoiding entirely.
Sell like Geico
Overview OVERVIEW Sell Like Geico Quick: Think of a Geico ad campaign. Bet you thought of several. The result of their approach: $41.6 Billion in profits to Berkshire Hathaway. What’s the lesson? How can you “Sell Like Geico” and what might it do for your sales? Take the course and find out. Click image below […]
Selling to Vertical Markets
On-Demand Course View All Courses Overview Watch the Video Additional Resources Related Courses OVERVIEW Selling to Verticals is all about creating a repeatable success. You remember being in grade school (sixth grade, Max) and the teacher asked a question to which you are 100% certain he knew the answer? You’d thrust your hand into the […]
Basic Time Management: Strategies
This course is a “strongly recommended” prerequisite to the Advanced Time Management Course: Applying Pareto Overview Strategies Key Concepts Homework Related Courses Resources OVERVIEW Basic Time Management Strategies This is the second of two video-based modules setting the stage for you to improve your time management skills. Learn the not so secret secrets to good […]
Downloadable Tools & Templates
Sales and AI Download
Download notes and instructions generated during the January 2024 Sales Vault Workshop entitled “Sales and AI”. Join in on the follow up discussion in February.
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The Right Way to Nag
It is frustrating to continually make attempts to connect with a prospect and get nothing back. Yet, we can all understand that it isn’t easy getting bombarded with unsolicited emails. Let this email be an example of how to follow up on an initial attempt and learn to nag the right way.
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Sales Call Checklist: Download
You finally got that appointment after endless attempts. Congratulations!
But, now what?
This could be your one and only opportunity with this prospect. That means you need to make the most of your face time.
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What to Say When Calling a “Dead” Account
Someone at your company had a bright idea: Let’s call on accounts we haven’t heard from in a while. Maybe they need something. Maybe they’ve forgotten about us. You agree… That is a great idea…
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Sales Emails That Get Responses
For better or worse, email is a primary form of communication. While it is a time saver for the sender and the recipient, the sheer volume means your email is just another face in the crowd; that is unless you do something to make it stand out.
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The LinkedIn Invite: What to Write Download
You want to connect with someone on LinkedIn but they do not know you and, quite honestly, have no reason to accept your invitation.
Before the connection request is sent, LinkedIn suggests you include a message.
What do you write?
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Questions to Ask: Download
This Sales Vault Insider exclusive download outlines specific questions you might want to use to engage in a solution based conversation with the client.
This content is available exclusively to Vault Insiders.
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The Expert Sales Week Planning Guide
An efficient sales week is no accident. The biggest mistake sales people make—by far—is the lack of planning ahead. And yet just a little preparation before end-of-day Friday to look at your calendar and think through a plan for next week goes a long way. Ask yourself: What worked this week, what didn’t work? Are […]
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Better than a Sales Script: Download
You: “Hey, Bill. Can you post a sales script for us to use? Me: “Well, yes…and no. I will post something that will help but it won’t be a script.” I often get asked, “Do you have a sales script I can use?” The question makes my skin crawl. There is no one-size-fits-all group of […]
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Download 6 Prospecting Letter Templates
Here are some prospecting Letters to emulate or flat-out steal from, courtesy of The Sales Vault and yours truly. A good business letter has three components: • In the first paragraph, say what you are going to say.• In the second paragraph, say it.• In the third paragraph, say what you said. Oh, and one […]
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Whitepapers
Selling to Verticals
Learn how to look beyond the printed piece, specs and quantities and shine the spotlight on the industry itself. There you will find some fascinating tidbits of information that will help you achieve the goal of solving problems and earning orders, while creating a repeatable industry sales strategy.
Identifying Digital Print Opportunities
Learn how to rapidly recognize the existence of a digital/inkjet print opportunity from circumstances that might include: A problem a client is trying to solve, A delivery requirement, or even… a need to convey multiple messages to multiple markets. Be able to quickly survey the landscape and identify the best places for digital/inkjet print opportunities.
Digital Printing: Success Through Disruption
Selling inkjet is WAY out of the traditional sales rep’s comfort zone. The inkjet print sale can be highly technical. And when you add the prospect of variable data printing, it becomes exponentially more complicated. But, there are pathways to success!
Back to the Future: The New Old Sales Skills Required to Sell Digital Print
The smart, flexible sales rep understands that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Drawing on lessons from the past, a new approach to sales is necessary – one that includes many of the same selling skills and techniques from a different era.
Why Aren’t You Selling More
Download Whitepaper Now, there’s a good question! Learn 4 questions to ask yourself when sales go south…
The Sales Calendar
Download Whitepaper The selling year ebbs and flows. Think of it as 12 hard months and that’s what it will be. Break it up as Bill down in this download and you can make smaller plans which yield bigger results.
How to Make TEN Sales Calls a Day
Download Whitepaper Do you have time to make ten new business calls a day? You might not think so but I’ll change your mind…
Articles
Sales Challenges: How to Become ‘Vendor of the Year’
All print sales reps should strive to be their clients’ Vendor of the Year, and Bill Farquharson has the steps to help you get there.
Ten Terrific Time Truths
This column first appeared in Printing Impressions October 2012 © Bill Farquharson When did life get so busy? Why must we Google “free time” in order to recall what it means? And why am on my email at 10pm feeling like a son of anarchy when I should be in a chair watching Sons of […]
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A Pirate Looks at 60
This column first appeared in Printing Impressions October 2020 © Bill Farquharson On October 20, 2020 at 10:10 PM Eastern time, I will turn 60 years old. The cursor is blinking at me, awaiting my next words but I am taking in the number “60.” Oddly, it’s one thing to say it and another thing […]
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COVID-19 Customer Hide and Seek
This column first appeared in Printing Impressions November 2020 © Bill Farquharson At some point this past spring, the game began. The Center for Disease Control counted to 10 and everyone scattered. Kids came home from school and went to their room. Visitors went back where they belong. City-dwellers became country folk. And clients left […]
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The 90% Rule
This column first appeared in Printing Impressions September 2020 © Bill Farquharson Ah, human nature. There are things in life that are just predictable: The odds of a dropped piece of buttered toast landing face down. The chances of the driver you just screamed at for cutting you off being your next appointment. And the […]
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Same Sales Calls. Different Results?
This column first appeared in Printing Impressions May 2020 © Bill Farquharson There is a scene in the movie, Good Will Hunting, where its stars and co-writers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are in a bar frequented by Harvard students. Affleck takes a run at starting a conversation with a young co-ed but his efforts […]
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Good Rep/Great Rep
This column first appeared in Printing Impressions March 2020 © Bill Farquharson Watching a sporting event such as the Australian Open tennis tournament or a professional golf event or basketball or baseball or football and you will see two kinds of competitors. The first is the group possessing the kind of extraordinary talent and athletic […]
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The New Sales Challenges
This column first appeared in Printing Impressions June 2020 © Bill Farquharson “The New Sales Challenges: What was once optional is now mandatory” Those were the words written on the whiteboard when the sales reps filed in to the conference room for the monthly meeting. As is company policy, no cell phones were allowed, leaving […]
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Sell Away Your Problems
This column first appeared in Printing Impressions July 2020 © Bill Farquharson It’s as if you were in a coma, isn’t it? There you were cruising along and the next thing you know your book of business is a pamphlet. You can rub your eyes and pinch yourself all you want. Nothing is going to […]
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Of Sales Scripts and Voicemail
This column first appeared in Printing Impressions January 2020 © Bill Farquharson Have you ever played the parlor game, “Two truths and a lie?” It’s a great icebreaker for groups and even works if people know each other well. When they’re done, they might wonder if they really ever knew the person at all. Each […]
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