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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: Knowing What to Say
Learn how to research prospects before the first call so your outreach feels relevant, confident, and valuable. In this Sales Vault replay, Bill Farquharson shares practical ways to use websites, LinkedIn, trigger events, and AI tools to uncover insights that lead to better conversations and stronger sales results.
Recap & Replay: Finding the Right Prospect
Not all prospects deserve your energy. This session shows how to define “worth it,” uncover better-fit targets through your current customers, and build a repeatable lead-gen system that keeps you out of dead ends.
Recap & Replay: Overcoming Sales Call Fear
Sales call fear is real—and it’s expensive. In this replay, Bill and Sales Vault members name the fears that stall outreach, normalize what’s happening in your head, and share practical ways to start the conversation (even when your stomach says “nope”).
Recap & Replay: The Big Fish Blueprint
Big accounts aren’t scary—they’re risk-averse. Watch this replay to learn the Big Fish Blueprint: what enterprise prospects care about, how to research and target the right accounts, and how to win bigger business without getting intimidated.
Recap & Replay: The Weekly Sales Plan: Think Ahead, Win Ahead
A calmer week starts before the week starts. Build a simple plan, set priorities, block selling time, and use quick daily check-ins to stay on track—even when interruptions hit.
Recap & Replay: What the Groundhog Can Teach Us About Time Management
Stop “catching up” (spoiler: you won’t). Learn Bill’s repeatable time-management routine: plan tomorrow before you end today, set weekly priorities, keep your pipeline healthy, and build real accountability into your week.
Recap & Replay: The Persistence Advantage: Smart Follow-Up That Wins More Deals
Persistence isn’t pestering—it’s proving you’re the pro. This replay shows how to build a repeatable follow-up routine that earns trust, reduces price sensitivity, and helps you win deals others abandon.
Recap & Replay: How to Sell Without Selling: Education-Based Marketing for Warmer Leads
People hate being sold to—but they love learning. In this Sales Vault replay, discover how to shift from pitching to educating, position yourself as the expert, and turn simple teaching content into warmer leads.
Recap & Replay: Selling Value When the Customer Just Wants Price
Customers who only want price will treat you like a quote machine. This replay shows you how to shift the conversation to value with better questions, smarter options, and stronger positioning—so you can win the work at your price.
Recap & Replay: Stop Quoting & Start Selling
Stop sending quotes into the void. In this workshop, Bill shares how to qualify the job and the customer, ask smarter questions, and use speed, communication, and better options to turn quotes into conversations (and revenue).
Short Attention Span Sales Tips
Your August Sales Plan
August is a wonky sales month. Sales opportunities seem to start and stop, due in part to the popularity of vacations. What else is August good for? That is what Bill Farquharson will be talking about in this month’s sales tips.
A Process For Selling Promo
Selling promo is easy…if you follow the in advice in this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip by Bill Farquharson.
How to Avoid the Price Objection From Existing Clients
Want that repeat order without being subjected to low ball pricing from a rogue competitor? Follow the advice in this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip by Bill Farquharson
Prospecting for Promo
In this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, Bill Farquharson gives a quick and easy way to start selling promotional products and branded apparel by avoiding this subject at Networking events.
Selling Promotional Products
It’s a simple idea: Sell more to existing accounts. In this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, Bill Farquharson offers up a no-brainer idea.
Just Do It…Any of It
Do you take an “All or nothing” approach to prospecting? Learn the value of what’s in between those two extremes in Bill Farquharson’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
The Secret to a Productive Day
A productive sales day is not a fluke. It is also not hard to create. Productivity is the result of a simple discipline. It is also the subject of Bill Farquharson’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
Already Have a Vendor? Great News!
“We already have a vendor” cannot be unexpected, but it can be overcome. Check out Bill Farquharson’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip.
How to Sell Without Knowledge
Don’t know anything about print? New to sales? After this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, you will not see these as barriers to sales success…if you listen to Bill Farquharson’s advice.
Proper Sales Expectations
Does a rush hour traffic jam take you by surprise? How about crazy-high service fees while buying concert tickets? If you have proper expectations for those life-certainties, what Bill Farquharson has to say in this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip will come as no surprise either.
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…
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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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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 […]
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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
Surfing for Steady Sales Success
Society in general is set up to believe that the end goal of work is retirement. Put in your 30 to 40 years and you, too, can be on a beach somewhere clad in unattractive shorts, a torn T-shirt, and a metal detector. Pre-COVID, we salespeople, too, had a similar track to follow: Build up […]
Optimism & Opportunities for Selling More Print This Year
In a thoroughly forgettable movie, called “The Gumball Rally,” a cross-country car race is held amongst an international cast of characters. It’s a strange place to look for inspiration, but Franco, the Italian driver played by Raul Julia, delivers a line we can use to think about all that happened in 2020, put it in […]
Sales Challenges: How to Get an Appointment
It was never easy to get an appointment with a decision-maker and any veteran sales rep who says otherwise has blocked out the memories of phones ringing in perpetuity (pre-voice mail, mind you) and no electronic options (email, cell phones, texting). Fresh on everyone’s mind are the sales challenges of 2020. Between the difficulty in […]
COVID Client Hide-and-Seek
At some point this past spring, the game began. The Centers 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 customers left their offices. It didn’t matter if you had your eyes closed or […]
Life Lessons Learned at 60
On Oct. 20, 2020, at 10:10 p.m. EST, I [turned] 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 to read it. Moving on … In 10 years of writing columns for Printing Impressions, […]
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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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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That Time a Vacation Column Was Submitted
This column first appeared in Printing Impressions August 2020 © Bill Farquharson va-ca-shun (n): To not work. No, really. Submit a column, back away from the computer, and get lost. Go on… It was clear to everyone but him that he needed a vacation. COVID-19 quarantining had made him a little, well, more crazy than […]
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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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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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