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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
Recap & Replay: Run the Room, Run the Deal
The first sales call can make or break your deal. In this Sales Vault workshop, learn how to enter the room prepared, lead the conversation, ask smart questions, and walk away with a clear next step. If you’ve ever been ghosted after a great meeting, this one’s for you.
Recap & Replay: Your Website, Email Signature, and LinkedIn Profile Walk into a Bar…
What does your website, LinkedIn, and email say about you? Learn how to boost trust, professionalism, and impact in this Sales Vault replay focused on your digital first impression.
Recap & Replay: Selling the Value, Not the Product
Buyers see print and promo as a commodity—how do you stand out? Watch this powerful session on shifting the sales conversation to value, results, and creative solutions.
Recap & Replay: Sales and Marketing for Customer Retention (Not Just Acquisition)
Retaining customers is more profitable than finding new ones. In this Sales Vault session, we explore how to use print, promo, and personalized outreach to keep current clients loyal—and buying.
Recap & Replay: From Cold to Warm, How to Open More Doors
Cold calls don’t work like they used to—this session breaks down what does. Hear how Vault members are using LinkedIn, ChatGPT, handwritten notes, and custom GPTs to prospect smarter, connect faster, and win better business.
Recap & Replay: Bill Says Marketing is the New Sales. So, Why Aren’t You Doing It?
What’s stopping you from marketing consistently? In this replay, Bill Farquharson leads a no-fluff discussion on the fears, excuses, and roadblocks salespeople face—and how to build marketing momentum, even with limited time or budget.
Recap & Replay: How to Build a Repeatable 12-Week Marketing Campaign That Actually Works
Random acts of marketing don’t drive results. This workshop walks you through how to create and sustain a 12-week campaign rhythm that generates leads, builds trust, and grows your brand.
May 2025: Sign Language for Sales Reps
In this tactical session, Bill Farquharson shares how to sell signage as a marketing solution, not just a product. From packaging your offers to researching buyer needs, this workshop will boost your signage sales skills instantly.
Recap and Replay: “How to Keep Your Marketing Personal in an Automated World”
AI can make your marketing faster—but can it make it better? Learn how to use automation without losing your voice, and discover where the human touch really counts.
Recap and Replay: “Selling Without Selling: Using Education as Your Secret Marketing Weapon”
Nobody wants to be sold to—but everyone likes to learn. Watch this replay to see how educational content can help you build trust, generate leads, and grow your business without sounding like a sales pitch.
Short Attention Span Sales Tips
LinkedIn Anomalies: Why Some Posts Go Viral
Bill’s LinkedIn post about overlooked top sales reps struck a nerve—and hit 250,000+ views. This tip dives into why it resonated, and what it means for you as a leader.
5 AI Lessons From the 6 Months of 2025
Halfway through 2025, are you where you should be—with sales and AI? Bill Farquharson shares 5 fast lessons that will get you caught up and ahead before the year ends.
Get Better, Sell More
In the front row of one Bill Farquharson’s very first presentations ever sat a man who was already the top rep in the building. He could easily have skipped the presentation and sailed along as a multi-million dollar salesman, but there he was, trying to get better. Ideas to help YOU get better are in Bill’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip this week.
Trust, Sales, and Time
Bill Farquharson’s granddaughter appears to have the stranger-danger gene. Unfortunately, she demonstrates it any time he is around. His best tactic for winning her trust is akin to yours when it comes to a new account, and that is this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
Your Sales Swing Thought
Just as a golfer needs to clear his head of all bad thoughts before hitting the ball, you can come up with your own “sales swing thought” or you can use the example Bill Farquharson gives in this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
The Non-Sales Sales Factor
“I’m no sales person” said the selling owner. But Bill Farquharson showed how 38 five-star Google Reviews reveal a different story. Learn an important part of sales you haven’t thought twice about until now. See Bill’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
Why Your Great Idea Didn’t Sell
What just happened? You are walking out of a meeting where you presented the perfect solution to the client’s need…but no sales was made. Don’t you wish you’d seen Bill Farquharson’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip ahead of time.
The Positive of Negative Feedback
Haters gonna hate. The good news, you can use the anger to your advantage. And Bill Farquharson hopes you like this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
A Sales Calendar Tip
Don’t blink. Before you know it, summer will be here. Before time gets away from you even more, pull out your calendar and think beyond this week. Here, let Bill Farquharson spell it out for you in this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
Sales Quiz
Ever asked yourself, “What am I doing wrong?” Of course you have. In this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, Bill Farquharson gives sales people a way to find an answer.
Short Attention Span Sales Blog
Prospect Small, Sell Big
Bill Farquharson bristles at the common belief, sales is a numbers game. In this week’s blog, he presents an alternate approach.
Differentiate Your Next Email Appointment Request
You are emailing a prospect looking for an appointment. If your efforts aren’t working, perhaps you could use the advice in Bill Farquharson’s blog.
Marchand-Like Anticipation
With the Stanley Cup Finals now over, Bill Farquharson examines the play of Brad Marchand and writes in this week’s blog how you can score your next selling opportunity.
Solution Now, Anger Later
An order has gone wrong and the client is furious. They say it’s your fault but you know it’s not. Before you solve that mystery, there is something even more important to get to and Bill Farquharson writes about it in his blog this week.
Making a Good Post Great
When you bake a cake and want to make sure it is fully cooked, you are taught to stick a knife or toothpick in it. A clean instrument means done. When you are creating content to post, Bill Farquharson has a tip for you to know when it is not just good, but great.
How to Get Your Point Across in Written Form
Are your customers excited to hear from you? When an email pops up in their inbox, do they rush to open it or roll their eyes? You’ll do a better job at getting your point across in writing after reading Bill Farquharson’s blog (which you are hopefully excited to read).
Two Things to Say About Sales Objections
Why use 250 words when 50 will get your point across just fine? In this week’s blog, Bill Farquharson goes with brevity to make two important points about sales objections.
Never Close a Sale
If you have a lot of quotes out there, you need to do two things. The first is to close, close, close. The second is to learn how to sell so you DON’T need to close, close, close. Find out more in Bill Farquharson’s blog.
I Know I Know You, But…
You are at a mall when you see a familiar face. They look at you and smile, then walk towards you to say hello. In the interim, you panic and go through your Rolodex of names but nothing comes to you. There is an awkwardness that can be cured two ways: miraculous recall or…reading Bill Farquharson’s blog.
Things You Can’t Teach a New Rep
The thing about starting up as a new sales person is you can take hours and hours of training classes to learn the do’s and don’t and how’s, but there a few points which are completely untrainable, and that’s what Bill Farquharson has on his mind in this week’s blog.
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. As you complete each section below, click on the course navigation buttons to progress through the course. This course is the second of two video-based modules setting the stage for you to improve your time management skills. Learn the not-so-secret […]
Downloadable Tools & Templates
Weekly & Ongoing Tasks for Sales Growth
Want to grow your print, promo, or signage business? This downloadable guide from Bill Farquharson lays out the must-do weekly tasks and strategic questions that drive real sales growth. Perfect for solo reps or sales teams.
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Growth Strategy Worksheet Download
This downloadable worksheet from Bill Farquharson guides Sales Vault members through 40 essential questions to evaluate their current sales performance, uncover new opportunities, and develop a strategic plan for growth. Whether you’re a sales rep or a selling owner in print, signage, or promotional products, this tool will help clarify your vision, sharpen your competitive edge, and move your business forward.
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Own the Stage: Bill Farquharson’s Pro Tips for Knockout Live Presentations
Want to captivate your audience from the first moment you step on stage? These tried-and-true tips from Bill Farquharson will help you own the spotlight—without breaking a sweat.
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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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Whitepapers
Digital Printing Sales Action Plan
In the following pages we will prepare you with the tools you need to successfully implement your digital print sales action plan. Consider this your do-it-yourself digital printing sales kit.
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.
Want to Sell More Digital Printing?
Take your sales process to a whole new level! Follow Bill’s sales fundamentals tenets and success will follow.
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: The Tsunami of AI
Everything, everywhere, all at once. A strange, hard to follow Academy Award Best Picture winner (we shut off after the hot dog fingers scene) or the description of AI as it infiltrates our lives? Answer: both. You might have heard the phrase, “Drinking from a fire hose.” This occurs when you are taking in a […]
To Get Ahead, Think Ahead
Sales is a job of do, do, do. It is a task-oriented endeavor, full of checklists, prioritizing, interruptions, procrastinations, have-to’s, want-to’s, could-do’s, should-do’s, and ultimately, results. Oftentimes, a sales rep’s daily agenda is self-generating: arrive in the morning, take on the first task that comes, and don’t stop until dark. They live on a treadmill, […]
Tennis, Sales Management, and Winning Twice
It was the Saturday before Labor Day and that meant the club’s tennis championships. In the men’s doubles event, 17-year-old Jack Rubin was serving. His team was down 5-4 in the first set and 30-40 in the game. Jack’s first serve went long. He tossed the ball into the air and hit his second serve […]
Sales Challenges: When You Know You Can Do Better
It was late in the day and late in the month. My wife and I were enjoying a cocktail by the pool, debriefing each other on our day, discussing numerous child-related issues (with seven kids between us, there were plenty), and looking ahead. Toward that end, Allison asked me, “What are you looking forward to […]
Worst Case Scenarios: Sales Edition
Salespeople are, by nature, optimists. If they weren’t, they would never be able to endure the beatings taken along the way to a successful career. Tomorrow will always be better than today. Your business will grow. Your client base is secure and your customers are happy. Regardless of the economy, someone is always buying. Print […]
What to Do When Your Sales Are …
In an attempt to check in on you, your boss walks past your desk and tosses out a lazy, “How’s business?” You answer, then provide just enough information for her to walk away satisfied. The last thing you need is commentary on your sales efforts. She’ll stay out of your hair for a while and […]
6 Printing Industry Sales Tips to Create an Experience
The email read, “Thank you for your proposal and presentation to become the print vendor of choice at Whatsamatta U. We were impressed with your equipment list and capabilities. The samples you showed displayed some excellent quality. There is no doubt you do great work for your clients. However, at this time we have chosen […]
Raise Prices the Right Way and Clients Will Love It!
Price increases are inevitable. Over the course of a career in this (or any other) industry, you will no doubt be faced with the challenge of delivering bad news to a customer: We are going to be charging you more for the same goods and services. The event itself cannot be avoided but the customer […]
10 Reasons Why Sales Are Down
Your email inbox is empty. You have no voicemails. Your phone is quiet. Looking at the sales leaderboard, your name is last on the list. To say business is off is an understatement. Having gone through all the usual “It’s not my fault” excuses to explain your situation — no one is buying right now, […]
Sales Challenges: When You Don’t Feel Like Selling
I hear it more than you’d think: “I can’t sell. I don’t want to sell. I hate sales …” followed by the inevitable kicker. “… but I need to grow my sales. What do I do?” So, just so I understand this: You need to grow your business. You need more sales. However, you don’t […]
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