What kind of printing do you sell?

I asked that question during a recent seminar, and a young salesperson in the second row called out: "Any kind of printing you need!"

"Bad answer," I said, and pointed at the person sitting next to him.

"Well," she said, "we do both offset and digital, and really more short-run than long-run."

"Another bad answer," I said, and pointed at a veteran looking salesperson in the first row.

"I don't sell printing," he said. "I sell business building solutions."

"Really bad answer," I said, and pointed at another veteran looking person toward the back of the room.

"I'm not playing your silly game," she said. "Obviously this is some sort of trick question. Tell us what the trick is!"

"It's no trick," I said. "In fact, it's one of the most basic issues you can imagine. Let's say that we got a bunch of printing buyers together and asked them what kind of printing they buy. How many do you think would answer 'digital,' or 'offset,' or 'short-run,' or 'long-run?' I think it's a lot more likely that they'd say 'brochures,' or 'business cards,' or 'mailers,' or 'manuals.' It's one thing to define yourself in terms of production capabilities in a room full of printing salespeople, but you want to speak a whole different language when you're in front of printing buyers—you want to speak their language."

Everything Answers & Attitudes

"I still don't see what was wrong with my answer," said the young salesperson from the second row. "It covers everything you just said and more!"