- 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 | Everything You’ve Been Meaning to Do But Haven’t
CRM cleanup, dormant customers, marketing, prospect lists, testimonials — the important work is easy to postpone. Learn how to prioritize, simplify, delegate, and finally get those high-value sales tasks off your list.
Recap & Replay | Becoming the Trusted Advisor
Move beyond simply quoting jobs. Learn how better questions, honest recommendations, expertise, and customer-first thinking can help you become the trusted advisor clients turn to before making important buying decisions.
Recap & Replay | Selling to Marketing, Purchasing, and Everyone in Between
Learn how to identify influencers, gatekeepers, champions, users, and decision-makers—and adapt your sales message to what each stakeholder values most.
Recap & Replay | The Follow-Up Formula: Sales Follow-Up Without Being Annoying
Learn how to follow up consistently, add value with every interaction, and stay top-of-mind without overwhelming or annoying your prospects.
Recap & Replay | Reading the Room in Sales
Sales conversations are not just about what buyers say. They are also about what they reveal through questions, body language, tone, hesitation, and engagement. In this Sales Vault replay, Bill Farquharson and the Vault community discuss how to read the room, recognize buying signals, uncover hidden concerns, and use emotional intelligence to guide stronger, more productive sales conversations.
Recap & Replay | The Art of Asking for Referrals
Referrals do not have to be random. In this Sales Vault replay, Bill Farquharson and the Vault community discuss how to earn referrals, when to ask for them, and how to create more opportunities for introductions without making customers feel pressured. The conversation covers internal referrals, customer appreciation, reviews, relationship timing, referral-worthy service, and practical ways to become the person customers naturally recommend.
Recap & Replay | How to Sell Without Feeling Like a Salesperson
Selling does not have to feel pushy, scripted, or uncomfortable. In this Sales Vault replay, Bill Farquharson and the Vault community discuss how to sell in a more natural, authentic way by listening closely, asking better questions, telling useful stories, and becoming a trusted advisor instead of “just another salesperson.” The conversation also covers how to handle hesitant buyers, avoid sounding salesy, and still confidently ask for the business.
Recap & Replay | What to Do During Slow Sales Periods
When the phone stops ringing, don’t freeze. This Sales Vault replay shows how to turn slow sales periods into productive time for prospecting, follow-up, marketing, and long-term pipeline growth.
Recap & Replay | Selling to Buyers Who Don’t Want to Be Sold To
Today’s buyers are more informed, more independent, and less patient with traditional sales tactics. This Sales Vault replay explores how to build trust, reduce friction, communicate effectively, and sell to buyers who do not want to be sold to.
Recap & Replay | Landing Larger Sales Accounts
Big accounts can transform your sales year, but they require patience, trust-building, and a smarter approach than everyday prospecting. In this Sales Vault replay, Bill Farquharson and the Vault community discuss how to identify larger opportunities, understand buyer risk, navigate long decision cycles, protect your cash flow, and stay relevant with major prospects without making the dreaded “just checking in” call.
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
What New Reps Get Wrong
It’s 5pm and you accomplished very little. No sales, just busy work. What’s missing? The answer is in Bill Farquharson’s blog this week.
Phone Phobia
If you sell print or promotional products and still struggle with cold calling, you’re not afraid of the phone. You’re afraid of what might happen when someone answers. If you want to know how to overcome call reluctance and start booking more qualified sales appointments, read Bill Farquharson’s blog.
How to Sell Print Without Competing on Price
Most print and promotional product reps are still trying to figure out how to overcome price objections — when price isn’t the real problem. The real problem is…what Bill Farquharson writes about in this week’s blog.
Ditch Selling. Cue Curiosity.
On a recent call with a selling owner, the man lamented over a lack of formal sales trainer. Bill Farquharson, a formally trained sales professional told him not to worry, that there was something far more useful. Read about in this week’s blog (1 min read).
Surely, You Can’t Be Serious, Tim
At the ASI show in Orlando, Bill Farquharson sat down with Tim Andrews, ASI President and CEO, for a quick conversation. The chat almost didn’t get past Tim’s first comment, as outlined here in this week’s blog.
The One Sentence Email Challenge
Want to get a client to respond to your email? Try the innovative approach outlined in Bill Farquharson’s blog.
You Screwed Up an Order!
The premise of Bill Farquharson’s blog is bizarre: The goal of the screwed up order is to come away better off than if everything went smoothly.
Sales Lessons From the Mouse That Ate My Car
When a mouse did thousands of dollars of damage to Bill Farquharson’s car, one benefit was a sales lesson. Read more in his blog this week.
The Learning Hour
What if you took an hour a week to get better? By the time you read this week’s blog by Bill Farquharson, he will have done just that for half of January. Find out what he is up to and then come back next month to hear the results.
Stop Lobbing My Groceries
Two recent interactions with entry-level workers serve as the source for Bill Farquharson’s blog this week. Do you remember your first/worst job? You will after this quick read.
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
Managers: Don’t Expect Your Sales Reps to Try to Make 25 Sales Calls Per Day
I received an email from a reader and, by the time I got done with my response, a column had written itself … Dear Bill: In your October Printing Impressions article, “How to Improve Your Productivity,” you mention making 10 or more calls per day and that very few people have the time or patience […]
Persistence: How Long Should I Keep Calling on a Sales Prospect Before Giving Up?
Consider this scenario: You bang on the door of a prospect. The door opens and, before you can say anything, the prospect throws a glass of water in your face. The next day, you bang on the door of the same prospect. Again, the door opens and, again, the prospect drenches you. Would you go […]
Sales Challenges: Preparation Powers Persuasion
In his book, What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School, Mark McCormack wrote about how everyone is in sales. Kids, for example, try to sell their parents on the idea that ice cream at 4 o’clock won’t ruin their dinner. Those who grow up to become sales people are the ones who don’t […]
How to Improve Your Productivity When Selling Printing
“I did it! I finally caught up on all my work!” Said no one. Ever. The concept of time management fills books, seminar venues, and Printing Impressions columns every now and then. Time is finite and a big part of success in sales comes down to selling more in less time. You can be busy but not productive. You […]
Sales Challenges: How to Differentiate Yourself
When we were younger, no one wanted to stand out. Grade school, junior high (as it was once called), and high school was survivable so long as you weren’t different in any way. Once you become an adult, of course, being different becomes the goal. We strive to set ourselves apart with the same gusto […]
Sell Away Your Problems
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 change. Thanks to COVID-19, your sales life is in crisis. You are […]
Sales Challenges: Are You Like a Gallon of Milk?
Heading down aisle after aisle of your local supermarket, you fill your cart with the items from the shopping list while trying not to faint at the sharp uptick in prices across the board. Arriving in the dairy section, you examine the choices for milk. $4.39 for one brand and $4.99 for another. Thanks to […]
Sales Challenges: It’s Time for Your Midyear Checkup
Are you feeling sad at all?” When my primary physician asked me that question during a recent med-check appointment, I shot back an inquisitive look. She continued, “The pandemic has changed much of our daily lives and we like to check in with our patients regarding their mental health and overall well-being.” Having worked from […]
Keys for Printing Industry Salespeople to Develop Good Time Management Skills
How is it that the people who sell the most work the least? That sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? You would think someone selling millions of dollars of print or signage would have no family, few friends, a 25 handicap, an un-mowed lawn, and bags under their eyes from lining up back-to-back-to-back 14-hour workdays. But the […]
Sales Challenges: ‘Inventing Anna,’ a Jedi Print Sales Rep
Have you seen the Netflix sensation, “Inventing Anna”? It’s a fascinating true story (except for the parts that were made up) about a young woman who weaved her way into the highest levels of New York City’s high society armed with a believable story, 1,000cc of chutzpah, and a dream of creating something big. By […]
Become an Insider to view this content.
Already a member? Please login for immediate access.