Regular executive appointments with clients are essential for your company if you want to retain your customers and expand the relationships. For print/mail service providers, getting meetings with customers isn’t easy. The influencers and decision-makers are busy. They need a good reason to accept your invitation.
The USPS postal promotions for this year are an ideal way to get your customers’ attention.
I’m assuming you know about the promotional program, or at least know it exists. If you need to brush up on the details, you can find plenty of great information in Mailing Systems Technology or directly from the US Postal Service. I won’t go into the details of each promotion here.
The important part is how the postal promotions can facilitate customer conversations that could be beneficial to your company. Your clients are certainly interested in paying less for postage. Approaching them with a plan that makes it easy for them to do so should get a positive response.
Discussions centered on postal promotions allow you, as the mail service provider, to show off your knowledge and strengthen customer relationships. Besides saving money, you can introduce new approaches to mail that improve the performance of your customer’s mailed communications. The promotion-generated postage savings are most likely to be spent with you as you process more mailings, enhance your customer’s mail pieces, or add multi-channel capabilities that result in a higher campaign ROI for your customers.
Mail Promotion Benefits for Service Providers
1.A chance to demonstrate expertise. Show your customers your company is more than just an entity that sends out the mail. You are mail professionals who are in touch with all the latest developments and are acting as a trusted advisor, rather than an order-taker.
2.Opportunities for innovation. Many of the promotions involve techniques new to you or your customers. Show them how they can experiment with different approaches to mail, track the results, and use the data to guide future mailing projects — with less financial risk.
3.Encourages more mail. At least one of the promotions features discounts based on follow-on mailings. This means more mailing, coordination, design, and integration services you provide.
4.Promotes customer loyalty. Any time you can add value to a relationship, such as volunteering to develop and implement strategies that save customers money, you strengthen your connection. Customers who get more from their print/mail service provider than just printing and mailing are less likely to jump to a competitor.
1.Get familiar with the promotions. Inform yourself about the registration dates, promotional periods, the discount amounts, and the qualification rules for each promotion.
2.Educate customers. Prepare presentation materials to explain the promotions to your customers. Remember that mail isn’t top of the priority list for most companies. Make sure your presentations are easy to understand. Don’t make the process seem complicated.
3.Set meetings with customers. Face-to-face or over Zoom, schedule time with your customers to show them something new that can make them money (with better direct mail results) and lower expenses (through the promotions).
4.Handle the details. Do everything for the customer, including registering for promotions, submitting samples and documentation, monitoring the application process, enrolling CRIDs, etc.
5.Execute the mailing jobs. Make sure the pieces are printed, prepared, and submitted in accordance with the promotion guidelines.
6.Monitor and report. Watch for results from mailing projects. Track everything. Schedule another customer meeting to review the results.
Don't Miss This Opportunity
Mail may not be a thrilling subject for your customers. Simply calling them up to talk about general mail topics may not get them excited. But saving money, or making more money from their investments in mail, is a different matter. The postal promotions offer you a perfect excuse to have some customer conversations that might not otherwise occur.
A customer who has a positive experience with a postal promotion is a strong candidate for a testimonial, case study, or a referral. Keep in touch with them, show them the value of the project, and ask for such endorsements.
If you make the effort, even customers who decide not to participate in postal promotions are exposed to your professional approach to the customer relationship. They are aware that your company is highly capable in areas that could benefit them in the future.
Mike Porter at Print/Mail Consultants creates content that helps attract and retain customers for companies in the mailing and document industry and he assists companies as they integrate new technology. Learn more about his services at www.pmccontentservices.com. Follow @PMCmike on X, or send him a connection request on LinkedIn.
