107 Linecrest Court, Cary, NC 27518
919-363-4068
919-606-9714 (mobile)
dmf@davefellman.com
(Keynote/Dinner Speech)
A lot has changed in business over the years, but Dave Fellman believes that the fundamentals of selling have not changed. "I think a lot of salespeople are looking for a new way to sell," he says, "because their perception is that the old way isn’t working anymore. Times change, products and services change, technology changes — so the fundamentals of selling must change too, right? I think wrong. I also think that the more people look for a new way to sell, the farther they get from the fundamentals. And that’s why their method of selling isn’t working."
Listen To The Dinosaur is all about those fundamentals, from prospecting to qualifying to needs analysis and negotiation. The title is drawn from a comment by a past seminar attendee, who called Dave a dinosaur. “I came here looking to find some new ideas,” he said. “You didn’t teach me anything about selling comprehensive solutions at the C-Level in the digital age and arena, just the same old ‘prospect-and-follow-up-and-ask-good-questions’ crap I’ve been hearing from my boss. Dinosaurs are extinct, man, and you’re not helping me any by telling me to sell like one.”
This fast-moving keynote presentation is built around numerous examples of "Dinosaur Wisdom" -- for example:
- The better your understanding of what makes a buyer tick, the better your chances of turning that buyer into a customer.
- It is not the buyer's responsibility to communicate with the seller, it's the other way around.
- In selling, it's entirely possible to lose a battle but win a war -- or the other way around!
(Keynote/Dinner Speech)
Dave Fellman is unique among your many choices for a keynote speaker. He was a highly successful sales & marketing speaker/trainer/consultant with hundreds of speeches and seminars to his credit, long before surviving the airplane crash which provides the core of this dynamic keynote address. He has a proven ability to connect with an audience, and over the past 20 years, he has helped tens of thousands of small business owners and employees to maximize their potential.
In 1999, while piloting his own his own single-engine airplane, Dave was confronted with an in-flight engine failure. He immediately implemented the aviator’s emergency mantra...Aviate, Navigate, Communicate: maintain control of the airplane, pick an emergency landing site and fly toward it, and communicate with any internal and/or external resources who might be able to help. The story of his glide toward safety—and of the actions he took when a construction vehicle pulled out from nowhere onto his intended touchdown site—will hold your audience riveted to their seats. The story of how he recovered from his injuries will teach them something about the value of hard work.
But that’s not the only “moral” of this story. The real lesson is in the way Dave ties Aviate, Navigate, Communicate to the challenges of modern business and modern life. No matter how bad your situation may seem, he’ll explain, the best strategy is to Aviate (maintain control of the things you can control), Navigate (determine the direction toward a better situation and make and follow a plan to get there), and Communicate (with family, friends, employees, co-workers, customers, or any other any internal and/or external resources who might be able to help.) This is an important message, delivered by a speaker who has truly “been there!”
How do you get to be a top achiever in printing sales? It obviously takes skill, but it also takes the right attitudes. In this dynamic, full-day seminar, Dave Fellman will teach both the attitudes and the underlying skills that will make your salespeople more productive. The “attitude adjustment” starts with How To Think Like A Winning Salesperson and finishes with Goalsetting and Achievement. The skills component starts with Prospecting in the 21st Century and continues through Negotiation Skills & Strategy. Here are the 9 segments which make up 21st Century Printing Sales Skills and Attitudes:
- How To Think Like A Winning Salesperson — The first step toward being a winner in sales is to think like a winner, but there’s a lot more to this than motivational books and tapes. In this segment, Dave Fellman explains the kinds of things winners think about, not just the power of positive thinking, but the foundations of effective selling strategy.
- Prospecting In The 21st Century — Prospecting is both an art and a science. It’s an art because prospecting in the 21st Century requires some creativity. It’s a science because prospecting effectiveness can—and should!—be measured. This segment will define a step-by-step, process approach to prospecting, facing each of the many prospecting challenges in turn.
- Time Management and Organization — TM/O is the subject of a lot of talk, but sometimes not a lot of action. No one questions the need for better time management and organization, but it’s the “how to” that causes problems. This segment will introduce 5 proven ways to improve time management and organizational skills and increase productive selling time.
- Fact Finding, Opinion Finding and Opportunity Finding Questioning Skills — Most salespeople seem intent on making “sales presentations” on their first meetings with potential clients. Dave Fellman says that the first meeting should be more about learning about them, not just telling them about you. In this segment, he’ll explain what questions to ask in order to identify not just printing needs, but real opportunities to displace the current supplier.
- Preparing and Presenting Your Proposal — How do you stand out from the crowd in a quote or bid situation? Part of the answer is to think in terms of a proposal rather than simply a quote. What’s the difference? A quote simply tells the buyer what you’re willing to sell a print job for. A proposal tells that buyer why he/she should buy from you!
- Uncommon Solutions For Common Obstacles and Objections — Customers and prospects are really pretty predictable in terms of the objections and obstacles they raise. This segment will introduce strategies for handling the four most common initial objections printing salespeople run into, and several more “later stages” objections.
- Negotiation Skills & Strategy — When a customer raises a price objection, it’s an invitation to negotiate, but that doesn’t mean automatically lowering your price! In this segment, Dave Fellman will teach how to negotiate more effectively, explaining the three fundamentals of this advanced selling skill.
- Get All The Value From Every Customer — According to Fellman, each and every current customer provides three distinct levels of value. First is the value of what they’re buying from you now. Second is the value of what they could be buying from you. Third is the value of influence, and the ways in which current customers can help a salesperson to develop new customer relationships. This segment will explain how to protect the first level of value and capture more of the second and third levels.
- Goalsetting and Achievement — The pathway to success starts with an understanding of what success looks like, in other words, with goals that define the level of success you’re looking for. Once the goals have been set, the next step is a real plan to achieve them. It’s probably fair to say that many salespeople have the goal but not the plan, and as a result, many of those goals aren’t met. This segment will show how to set reasonable and measurable goals, and build a plan to achieve them.
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Printing Sales Management: Getting The Most Out Of Your Salespeople
Dave Fellman teaches that effective sales management is a combination of four inter-related activities: hiring, training, monitoring and motivating. This comprehensive program will cover the issues of where and how to look for high-quality sales candidates; how to provide the knowledge that is critical for success; how to keep track of a salesperson’s efforts and keep that salesperson on track; and how to motivate salespeople effectively, including a discussion on compensation issues, specifically how to use commission rates and bonus plans to lead salespeople to high performance, and directly toward the kind of work you want at the pricing levels you want. You will learn about:
- Managing the “search” process
- Profiling and testing candidate
- The printing sales knowledge base
- Structuring a “multi-stage” training process
- Expectations and “action standards”
- Managing the process of selling your company
- Call reports and other forms of sales/management communication
- Tying “marketing” into “selling”
- A three-part approach to an effective sales compensation plan
- Solutions to many common sales management problems
The Big Money Question:
What’s The Best Way For Me To Grow This Business?
Dave Fellman is well known throughout the quick/digital/small commercial segment of the printing industry as an expert in sales and marketing. In this seminar, he’s going to answer “The Big Money Question: What’s The Best Way For Me To Grow This Business?” He’ll take you through a discussion of the most common business-building strategies, including direct mail and other forms of advertising, more effective selling at the front counter, and outside sales (where he’ll lay out “how-to” programs for an owner selling part-time, and for hiring, training, managing and motivating a full-time outside salesperson.) He’ll explain the fundamentals of marketing planning, and how to determine which strategy—or combination of strategies—is exactly right for your business situation.
Attendees Will Learn:
- The difference between direct selling activities and support/influence activities
- How to maximize the three capabilities of advertising
- How to design a direct mail program that will meet specific business needs
- How to turn front counter staff into real salespeople
- The four keys to effective sales management
- Solutions to many common sales management problems
Uncommon Solutions For Common Obstacles and Objections
Customers and prospects are really pretty predictable in terms of the objections and obstacles they raise. This seminar will introduce strategies for handling the most common initial objections sign salespeople run into, and several more “later stages” objections—including the price objection. In that segment of the program, Dave Fellman will teach you how to negotiate more effectively, explaining the three fundamentals of this advanced selling skill.
You’ll learn to answer these objections, and others:
- We’re happy with our current supplier
- I’m busy right now
- I don’t need anything right now
- Just send me some literature
- Your price is too high!
How To Avoid The Two Most Common Sales Management Mistakes: Hiring Underachievers and Paying Too Much (or Too Little!)
There’s a lot more to hiring a salesperson than running an ad in the newspaper or on monster.com. And, there’s a lot more to effective motivation than a fat compensation plan. In this fast moving seminar, Dave Fellman will explain:
- How to profile the ideal candidate for your sales position
- How to “network” for candidates who aren’t even looking for a job right now
- The right questions to ask in the interview stage
- How to test for the most important “success factors”
- How to build a compensation plan that will reward the right behaviors, not the wrong ones
- How to add other-than-cash compensation to the motivational mix
Sales Management: Finding and Keeping Good Salespeople
“As I look at the industry,” the printer said, “I see great things being done on the production end. We have fantastic capabilities. We’re just not very good on the selling end, or at sales management. I think most of us struggle with finding and keeping good salespeople.” It’s an age-old problem. Where do you find good salespeople and how do you keep them? Obviously there's more to finding good salespeople than running an ad in the paper or on monster.com, and just as obviously, there's more to keeping them than fair compensation. In this fast-moving seminar, Dave Fellman will explain:
- How to profile the ideal candidate for your sales position
- How to “network” for candidates who aren’t even looking for a job right now
- The right questions to ask in the interview stage
- How to test for the most important “success factors”
- How to build loyalty that goes beyond compensation
Sales Management by Metrics
How do you know if your salespeople are doing a good job? Obviously you can look at their sales volume at the end of each month, but that only tells you a small part of what you need to know. The true measure of sales success isn't last month, it's what will happen next month and the months after that. From a management standpoint, the future is far more important than the past — especially when your salespeople aren't reaching the goals you've set for them right now! In this fast-moving seminar, Dave Fellman will explain
- How to translate sales volume goals into "action standards"
- How to measure and manage behavior and activity (using tools which he will provide)
- How manage the front side of selling instead of the back side
Time Management & Organization: Less Talk, More Action!
Time Management and Organization are subjects that typically represent a lot of talk but not a lot of action among printing salespeople. In this program, Dave Fellman will present real-world time management and organizational strategies, and explain how to improve sales performance by prioritizing and putting everything in its proper place.
Learning Objectives:
- How to maximize selling time and minimize distractions
- How to prioritize between customers, prospects, and administrative tasks
- How to use old and/or new technology to get organized for effective selling
Networking in the 21st Century
Most of the “buzz” in the sales community these days is about Social Media Networking. There’s no question that these networking opportunities have potential, but how do you make them work for you, and are they really any better than “traditional” networking techniques? In this program, Dave Fellman will explain that the most important part of networking has always been the working part, and he will teach you how to make the most of all of your networking opportunities — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, BNI, Chamber meetings and mixers and others you may never have even thought of.
Learning Objectives:
- How to master the fundamentals of networking: meeting, greeting, growing your network and building relationships
- How to leverage your network through referrals and testimonials
- How to plan and structure a comprehensive networking program
- How to measure each component of your program to know whether it’s working or not
MSP: What It Really Means To Be A Marketing Services Provider
It’s no secret that print volume is declining, and some would tell you that you have to get beyond printing or else your whole business is at risk. Dave Fellman looks at this differently, though, and he’s been writing about opportunities beyond print for more than 20 years. “Don’t let anyone scare you into changing your business model,” he says. “You’re already a Marketing Services Provider because printing is one of those marketing services. And you have time to grow into a more comprehensive MSP — but it’ll be better if you start sooner rather than later!”
In this program, Fellman will help you to define a reasonable array of marketing services, and he’ll help you to build your own evolution plan, starting with your ultimate goals, and working backward through the resources and competencies you’ll need to develop in order to reach those goals. This is not a sales seminar, but you will learn a lot about what you’re going to be selling in the not-too-distant-future, and how you’re going to be selling it.
Everything Is Negotiable!
Negotiation. There may not be a more important skill for the owners and managers of printing companies. Think about it, you’re in negotiations every day with customers, prospects, suppliers and employees. The better your skills, the more likely it is that you’ll be successful in the modern printing market. This is a presentation that’s mostly about dealing with price objections from printing buyers, and Dave Fellman will teach you strategy and skills that you can pass along to your own salespeople. He’ll also provide you with hints for more effective negotiation when you’re on the buying side of the equation, and for motivating the behavior you want from your employees.
Learning Objectives:
- How to set the stage for a successful negotiation by asking the right questions in the discovery stages
- The difference between value, cost and price, and how to negotiate all three
- How to use your negotiation skills to alter employee behavior
How To Manage A Sales Manager
Who’s at fault when your sales volume is below expectations? The salespeople usually get the blame, but more often that not, the real problem is a lack of sales management. And that problem may stem from a lack of management of the sales manager! The printing industry has very few trained sales managers; all too often, “sales manager” is a title given to a senior salesperson, or a “hat” worn by an owner who is also trying to keep too many other balls in the air. Granted there are some with natural talent, but far too many sales managers in the printing industry are making it up as they go along! This presentation is all about accountability at the sales manager level. It will show you how to measure and improve the performance of your sales manager, and it will show you what you have to be accountable for if you are the sales manager.
Attendees Will Learn:
- What skills and attitudes a sales manager must possess
- How to establish performance benchmarks for both the sales manager and his/her salesforce
- How to establish effective reporting procedures
- How to compensate and motivate a sales manager
Building A Marketing Plan:
The Key To Success In The Modern Business Environment
Very few printers would argue the wisdom of establishing a comprehensive, full-year marketing plan, yet very few printers seem to actually do it. Why? In many cases, it is simply a matter of not knowing how. This session will consider some of the common marketing techniques at use in the printing industry, and demonstrate how to put a full years worth of marketing activities together into comprehensive, written marketing plan. You will learn about:
- The difference between direct selling activities and support/influence activities
- The specific difference between advertising and sales promotion
- The plusses and minuses of direct mail, telemarketing, and other common strategies
- Affinity marketing and other marketing trends from the “outside world”
- The role of a mission statement in your marketing plan
- The three key questions that provide the foundation of your marketing plan
- Transforming your sales goals into “action plans"
- The secret to accurate sales forecasting
- Building measurability into your marketing plan
- Using your marketing plan as an ongoing marketing and management tool.
The Top 10 Mistakes Printers Make With Customers…
And How To Avoid Them!
(Keynote/Dinner Speech)
It’s been said that if you don’t have customers, you don’t really have a company! For a printing company, customers—especially good ones—are usually hard to get and often hard to keep. It’s bad enough that “outside” forces (read that: competitors) attack your customer relationships every day. Too many printers make their problems even worse, though, by making “internal” mistakes—avoidable mistakes!—which cost them customers…and money! Dave Fellman will identify the 10 most common mistakes that printers make with their customers, and tell you something about how to keep from making them yourself.
Here are The Top 10 Mistakes Printers Make With Customers:
- Losing Touch/Losing Trust
- Unpleasant Surprises
- Unresolved Problems
- Operating On Too Narrow A Bandwidth
- Falling Behind Their Technology
- Mis-handling Money Matters
- Chasing Jobs vs Building Relationships
- Competing On Price
- Too Many Eggs In Too Few Baskets
- Assuming Anything!
Get More Of The Value From Your Current Customers
(Keynote/Dinner Speech)
According to Dave Fellman, each of your current customers provides you with three distinct levels of value. First is the value of what they’re buying from you now. Second is the value of what they could be buying from you. Third is the value of influence, or the ways in which current customers can help you to build new business relationships. In this fast-moving keynote/dinner presentation, he’ll explain how to protect the first level of value with an appropriate level of customer service; how to capture more of the second level of value by educating customers about the breadth of your product line; and how to take full advantage of the third level of value by gaining—and using—testimonials and referrals. This is an important message for everyone from small business owners to large-business salespeople, delivered by a speaker with 30+ years of gaining maximum value from his own customers!
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