- Searchable Archives
- Resources for Print, Signage, Promotional, Labels, and Packaging
Sales Resources
On-Demand Courses
Selling to Hospitals: Big Fish Sales in a High-Rules Environment
Hospitals buy a ton of print, signage, and promo—yet they can be notoriously hard to break into because decisions run through committees, compliance, vendor approval, and long budget cycles. This course teaches you how to research healthcare trends, identify revenue-driving opportunities, find the right stakeholders, and frame your offering in the language hospitals care about: safety, outcomes, efficiency, and patient experience.
Selling to Banks: Cracking the Code of Financial Institution Sales
Banks and credit unions buy plenty of print, signage, and promo—but profitable work comes from understanding how they make money, what’s changing in the industry, and what priorities your target institution is pushing right now. This course shows you how to build value-driven pitches, research like a pro, and walk into the conversation sounding like a partner—not another vendor begging to be put on the bid list.
Selling to Colleges: Win the Big Fish Without Becoming Bait
Colleges and universities are a massive, price-sensitive market with scattered buying circles—which means real opportunity… and real complexity. In this 6-lesson course, Bill breaks down what colleges buy, why they buy it, and who’s doing the buying, then shows you how to sell beyond “submit a bid” by tying print, signage, and promo to what schools are trying to accomplish right now.
Sustainable Productivity
Busy isn’t the same as productive. This course gives experienced reps a simple, repeatable system to plan their week, protect their best sales activities, and end every day with tomorrow ready to go. Learn how to stack appointments, manage opportunities, and sell more in less time—without burning out.
Landing the Big Fish
Big accounts don’t get “won.” They get pursued, mapped, and earned—over time, with patience, creativity, and a strategy that goes way beyond “just checking in.” This course gives you the mindset, structure, and contact tactics to break into large organizations, stay relevant during long sales cycles, and build a repeatable Big Fish pipeline.
Taming the Nuisance Customer
Learn how to identify, manage, and—when necessary—fire time-sucking, profit-draining clients. Learn practical strategies for dealing with bullies, slow payers, price-checkers, and chronic complainers so you can protect your time, your team, and your best customers.
Getting to YOUR Next Level
Explore this practical, no-drama framework to figure out where you are, where you want to go, and exactly what has to change in your mindset, skills, and activity to get there. This isn’t motivational fluff. It’s a working blueprint you’ll use to evaluate, review, plan, and execute your way to real growth.
A Sustainable Productivity Plan for New Sales Reps
Build consistency and focus with a repeatable productivity system for sales reps. Learn how to plan smarter, execute better, and stay on track — every day, every week.
Objection Mastery: Turning Resistance into Revenue
Master the art of handling objections. Learn to recognize, reframe, and respond to resistance with strategies that convert hesitation into opportunity.
Effective Sales Presentations
Turn your next meeting into a masterclass in preparation, presentation, and persuasion. In this course, Bill Farquharson walks you through every step of an effective sales presentation — from preparation to delivery to securing the next meeting. You’ll learn how to research your client, structure your message, and communicate with clarity and confidence.
Making Contact with Decision Makers
This course is about mastering one of the hardest parts of selling: gaining access to the person with the power to say “yes.” You’ll learn why diligence beats talent, how to craft powerful conversations, and how to reset your mindset so you stop feeling like a pest and start acting like a trusted advisor.
Marketing is the New Sales
Marketing is the New Sales helps you stand out in a crowded market, generate steady leads, and strengthen client relationships. By the end, you’ll have practical strategies to drive growth and keep your pipeline full—without relying on old-school sales tactics.
Lead Generation for Legacy Sales Reps: Sharpening Your Edge
Sharpen your edge and win better business. This advanced course helps seasoned sales reps refine their Ideal Customer Criteria, apply smarter prospecting strategies, and leverage AI to save time and uncover high-value opportunities. Stop chasing volume and start focusing on the clients who deliver the most profit and loyalty.
Lead Generation for New Sales Reps: Build Your Funnel, Build Your Future
Build your funnel, build your future. This course gives new sales reps the confidence and tools to find their first great customers. Learn how to combine traditional prospecting methods with modern AI strategies so you can keep your pipeline full and your sales career growing strong.
Pre-Call Research
Learn how to uncover what matters most to your prospects before you ever pick up the phone. This course teaches you to research smarter, find the right decision-makers, and transform generic sales calls into meaningful, solution-focused conversations.
The Prospecting Playbook
Turn cold calls into opportunities with a proven prospecting system. This course shows you how to build a pipeline, stay organized, and consistently generate new business.
Diligence
Build consistency, stay motivated, and outwork your competition with Bill Farquharson’s 6-part video course on the sales skill that beats talent every time. Perfect for print, promo, packaging, labels, and signage professionals who want lasting success.
New to Sales in the Graphic Arts?
Build confidence, avoid costly mistakes, and hit the ground running with Bill Farquharson’s 8-part video course for sales newcomers in print, promo, packaging, labels, and signage.
Time Management for Salespeople in the Graphic Arts: Do More, Stress Less, Sell Smarter
Master your day, reduce stress, and sell smarter: This course teaches salespeople in the graphic arts how to prioritize, plan, and build time habits that actually stick.
Workshop Replays
Recap & Replay: What Would Primo Do?
Primo Duran takes the mic for a lively hour on practical selling: planning 4–5 months ahead, running annual reviews, using FOMO/VIP positioning, grading clients (A/B/C), setting boundaries on rush jobs, and selling value instead of price. Plus specific ideas for trade shows, promo, and cold-outreach touch patterns.
Recap & Replay: Sales Activities That Actually Move the Needle
This workshop zeroes in on behaviors that truly drive revenue: consistent new-business activity, a simple activities→opportunities tracking system, purposeful touch patterns (calls + email + LinkedIn), and short-term goals with real accountability. You’ll learn how to avoid “busywork drift,” persist through five+ touches, and plan weekly so nothing slips through the cracks.
Recap & Replay: Turning One Order into Many
Don’t stop at one sale — build momentum. Learn how to turn a one-time order into a steady stream of repeat business and referrals with proven follow-up strategies from Bill Farquharson’s workshop, Turning One Order Into Many.
Recap & Replay: Selling When You’re Crazy Busy
When business is booming, sales often get pushed aside. In this replay, Bill Farquharson and Sales Vault members share how to prospect, prioritize, and protect your pipeline—even when you’re stretched thin.
Recap & Replay: Selling to Banks
Banks are big, complex, and full of opportunity. Watch this Sales Vault replay to discover how to break into the financial sector, from spotting industry trends to finding the right contacts and creating a process that works.
Recap & Replay: How to Get More Referrals
Your best source of new business may already be in your client list. Watch this replay of How to Get More Referrals to discover practical, non-pushy ways to ask for—and earn—referrals that bring in high-quality leads.
Recap & Replay: Marketing Without a Marketing Department
No marketing department? No problem. Watch this replay to discover smart, simple tools and habits you can use to promote your business, attract customers, and stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Recap & Replay: Prospecting Without Cold Calling
Tired of cold calls that lead nowhere? Replay this Sales Vault workshop to discover proven alternatives—AI research, warm introductions, white papers, LinkedIn, referrals, and more—to generate real opportunities without dialing strangers.
Recap & Replay: Marketing to a Niche Without Getting Stuck in a Rut
Niche markets can open doors—but they can also box you in. In this replay, learn how to gain credibility, land high-value accounts, and avoid the dangers of over-specialization.
Recap & Replay: Selling to Colleges
Colleges are a unique and lucrative vertical—but breaking in requires insight. In this replay, Bill Farquharson and higher ed veteran Eric Nystrom reveal the buying cycles, key decision-makers, and practical sales strategies you need to grow your presence on campus.
Short Attention Span Sales Tips
New Rep Sales Guarantee
There are few guarantees in life (other than death and taxes), but in this first Short Attention Span Sales Tip of 2026, Bill Farquharson offers new sales people an iron clad guarantee for success.
Useful Marketing
The computer cursor blinks on and off as you struggle to find something to post on LinkedIn. But after this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, the words will flow!
How to Grab a Prospect’s Attention
What do the first ten seconds of this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip have in common with the first 10 seconds of your voicemail? Answer: One word.
100 Sales Calls in a Week
Any idiot who says “You must make 100 sales calls a day” has never made 100 sales calls a day. In this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, Bill Farquharson shows you how to make 100 sales calls a week. Combine this info with his ideas for making quality sales calls and now you really have something!
Sales Productivity
Why does Bill Farquharson dedicate so many Short Attention Span Sales Tips to the subject of productivity? Because selling more in less time is a shared goal…or at least it should be.
Overcome the Price Objection
While researching a new Sales Vault training course, Bill Farquharson came across a new way to overcome the price objection and shares it in this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
Prospecting? Do This, Not That
What’s the key to a good voicemail message? In this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, Bill Farquharson says something relevant about being relevant.
Ruthless Time Management
While most sales reps are busy, the best of the best are productive. In this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, Bill Farquharson shows you how.
New to Sales? Here’s Good News!
The persistent thought of a new sales rep is, “I am not doing my job if I am not landing orders.” In this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, Bill Farquharson disagrees.
Sales Road Kill
While you are delivering your sales pitch, the client is receiving an entirely different message from an unexpected source. Find out more in this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
Short Attention Span Sales Blog
Listen to Yourself
The only upside to Bill Farquharson’s painful half day of golf is this week’s blog.
Get the (Promo) Message
Everyone loves a good story. In this week’s blog, Bill Farquharson writes a story about writing stories…and selling more.
I Can Get It Cheaper Online
What to do when a prospect says, “I can get it cheaper online.” That’s what Bill Farquharson has on his mind in his blog this week.
Finding Promo Prospects Everywhere
Bill Farquharson can bring you 1000 tips to teach you how to sell promotional products and branded apparel. But there are two things you need to learn yourself. Fortunately, opportunities are everywhere. Read more in this week’s blog.
The Value of Selling Promo
Impossible to land a multi million dollar account because you dropped off some promo items? Tell that to the rep who did it. Read the story in Bill Farquharson’s blog.
Go Deep With Your Questions
“Your learn nothing with your mouth open” is advice every sales rep should hear, as is the advice in Bill Farquharson’s blog this week.
Why You’re Not Getting Second Dates
If you knew a customer was going to ghost you, what might you do differently? Bill Farquharson’s blog answers that question.
You’re Doing Too Much That Doesn’t Matter
A busy day feels good. It makes us believe we accomplished things and maybe we did. But did any of it matter? Learn a hard truth in Bill Farquharson’s blog this week.
Your Sales System Is Incomplete
If you asked anyone in any given profession, “What’s your plan to succeed?” and the answer came back, “I’m just going to wing it,” what chance would you give him/her to be in that job 6 months from now?
The Hidden Cost of Being Sales-Reactive
When is it a bad idea to fill your day with quote requests and problem-solving and incoming phone calls? It feels like the right thing to do. After all, you are busy. But not all sales actions are the best use of your time, as Bill Farquharson points out in this week’s blog.
Downloadable Tools & Templates
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…
Already an Insider? Please login for immediate access.
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.
Already an Insider? Please login for immediate access.
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?
Already an Insider? Please login for immediate access.
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.
Already an Insider? Please login for immediate access.
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 […]
This content is available exclusively to Vault Insiders.
Already an Insider? Please login for immediate access.
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 […]
This content is available exclusively to Vault Insiders.
Already an Insider? Please login for immediate access.
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 […]
This content is available exclusively to Vault Insiders.
Already an Insider? Please login for immediate access.
The Best (and funniest) Prospecting Letter Ever!
What would you want out of a good prospecting letter? An appointment, perhaps, but can you really expect to get that from just one single letter? Download Letter [pdf] An Insider Exclusive! Steve Block did it with this letter I’m about to talk about… Steve was one-of-a-kind. A Business Development Manager (think: Inside Sales and […]
This content is available exclusively to Vault Insiders.
Already an Insider? Please login for immediate access.
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.
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: Cross That Line
Want Sales Success? Get in Line!
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, […]
Become an Insider to view this content.
Already a member? Please login for immediate access.