AI-powered tools can revolutionize B2B sales processes to boost conversion rates, personalize customer interactions and drive revenue growth.

In today’s competitive and ever-changing sales environment, the pressure is always on to move faster, respond smarter, and deliver more value to customers. Customers expect tailored solutions from suppliers that are easy to work with. Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just hype; it’s becoming a vital tool that B2B sales professionals can use to sharpen their strategy, focus their efforts, and accelerate results. Forward-thinking sales teams are using AI to work smarter and faster and deliver better results. 

The National Postal Forum attendees learned the valuable impact of leveraging AI for smarter targeting with propensity and predictive modeling, how hyper personalization at scale is boosting ROI. AI use cases included examples of enhanced attribution, omni-channel engagement, and improved shipping and logistics.

Results beat cool technology. The National Postal Forum (NPF) was filled with exhibitors and speakers demonstrating many new technologies and AI use cases. The big difference—it wasn’t just cool technology. Speakers and exhibitors alike presented real world results across many vertical markets. Marketers spoke about the key performance indicators (KPIs) of response, conversion rates (CVR), average order value (AOV), and Return on Investment (ROI).

There was a shared excitement about the future of mail and shipping at The National Postal Forum. Attendees, speakers and exhibitors shared direct mail success stories and ROI results. Case studies demonstrated engagement with mail, tactile experiences, and leveraging AI to improve logistics and ROI.

In an increasingly digital world, is there still a seat at the table for print and direct mail?

According to the people I met at the recent National Postal Forum (NPF), the answer is yes! And I heard plenty of success stories to prove it.

This year’s NPF in Nashville had the highest attendance in 15 years, with more than 5,000 attendees. The biggest themes were improved engagement with mail, tactile experiences and leveraging artificial intelligence to improve logistics and ROI. People came to learn and find new solutions, services, and products for mail and shipping.

The most successful salespeople are those who ask and understand their customer’s goals and objectives. Why do your customers need to produce labels, packaging and signage? Why do they choose your firm for their production projects? These are basic questions. The most effective salespeople regularly ask and have clarity about what is most important to key customers. Great salespeople can articulate the customers’ ‘why’. 

Salespeople who ask and understand why customers need print and know how the projects in your shop are related to larger business goals.

AI won’t replace humans, but humans who use AI will replace humans that don’t, by Karim Lakhani, Harvard Business School

AI is the topic of the day. AI technologies are expanding into many areas of business and daily life. AI functions can be broadly categorized into various types, each designed to handle specific tasks or solve different problems. As a manager here are the twelve acronyms and AI functions you need to know.

There are many great business books about creating a positive culture. The consistent standard of success includes a culture based on trust, respect and recognition. As a manager and leader, you are responsible for your team and their results. You can impact the culture of your team and your department. Culture lives in conversation. Culture happens in the daily moments among colleagues, in oral and written communications. You can observe your culture in daily and weekly interactions between your staff, customers, partners and others in your organization.

Every operation has them. Those difficult clients with messy jobs, bad files and unrealistic expectations. The customers that your team tries to avoid. Their jobs result in chaos. And the refrain is: “Why can’t they be like department X (insert name of your best customer)?”

Advancements in inkjet technologies have transformed how direct mail is produced. We’ve come a long way from generic direct mail addressed to “current resident.” In the 1970s and 1980s inkjet addressing systems were limited to text address blocks. They ran slowly and the resolution was very low.

Next-generation inkjet heads improved high-speed addressing and barcoding for matching, delivery and mail tracking. Further advances in inkjet heads and ink formulations enabled hybrid direct mail solutions with inkjet heads mounted over offset presses. This type of configuration still facilitates high speed variable data and versioning of direct mail content.

Operational excellence starts with a singular vision and a commitment to an extraordinary culture. Recently, I spoke with the director of logistics for a midwestern BlueCross BlueShield healthcare provider. The organization serves 2.1 million members. The manager leads a team of 21, providing printing, mailing and logistics services. His print team is comprised of five people who produce 2.9 million pieces of mail annually.

The director embraces the qualities of a servant leader. He demonstrates empathy, listening, stewardship to the organization and a commitment to the growth of people.

Sales enablement means getting the entire company to support the sales process, and celebrate wins by the entire company, not just the sales team.

Building trust is the foundational step to creating a plan for sales team motivation to maximize revenue. In my last article I shared ideas on changes in B2B selling and how sales leaders must understand individual motivations to successfully coach salespeople. With rapport and trust, sales leaders can motivate salespeople and improve sales results.

In this episode of the podcast "Postal Biz-Buzz," Lois speaks with podcast host Jon Reynolds from the Connecticut PCC, about direct mail and other strategies for executing a successful multi-channel campaigns.

Technology innovations are impacting every facet of the healthcare industry. That means in-plant operations must evolve to continue to provide value to their organizations. Recently, I spoke with Delvecchio Shankle, Director of Operations at Christus Health about their recent transformation and continuing inkjet journey.

Over a period of seven months, Shankle’s team has successfully consolidated from five in-plant operations down to two sites and moved one operation to a new facility. His print-mail operation serves the communication needs of 29,000 Christus employees providing healthcare across 600 patient care facilities in the US, as well as patient care facilities in Mexico, Columbia, and Chile.

I recently spoke with two respected in-plant managers running sizable operations in their respective states. Kristen Hampton is the Division Director, Department of Technology Management & Budget, for the State of Michigan, and Tim Hendrix is the State Printer, state of Oregon Publishing & Distribution.

Hampton and Hendrix are both running fully digital shops, with a mix of inkjet and toner devices on continuous feed (CF) and cutsheet platforms. Hampton’s inkjet journey led to the elimination of offset printing. Hendrix’s recent inkjet installation is driving operational efficiency. They shared their perspective on staffing, operational cost, inkjet as an enabler and considerations for future investments.

Owners of companies often ask me, ‘We have the best equipment and workflow, why can’t my sales team sell more?’

There are no easy answers to this question. Investing in an effective approach to motivate your sales team and create a company culture to support sales enablement can drive revenue growth.

Inkjet has changed how printers define themselves. For the last 40 years five categories described the print industry. Companies would say their primary purpose was transactional, direct mail, financial, commercial or specialty print. Print buyers, procurement teams, lines of business staff, and original equipment manufacturers (OEM) sought services based on the category the company fit in.

In-plants have experienced the shift to shorter runs, increased personalization, versioning and suppression of print. Your marketing and customer service teams may have explained what is driving change for print and the need to manage communications across digital channels. Data from more sources is driving marketing and customer engagement strategies across organizations in every industry.

Many for-profit and in-plant print mail operations have made significant investments in production inkjet. Each organization arrived at their decision after prioritizing the most relevant impact to their operation. The primary factors cited in the decision to move to inkjet include:

Do all your customers know everything your operation can do? I rarely get a ‘Yes’ when I ask this question. In-plant operations typically serve many customers and internal departments producing a wide range of products and services. Yet many of those same customers may have little comprehension of the full breath of services your operation can produce.

Many print operations are considering new inkjet investments to realize their strategic goals. There are many cutsheet and continuous feed production inkjet options to choose from, with more product announcements expected before the drupa trade show.

According to Peter Drucker, “Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership.” Leaders in printing, mailing and fulfillment have a worthy goal of striving for operational excellence. In the last few years, the mix of applications and volume of print work has changed dramatically at many in-plants. Managers are focused on strategies to improve their operations, increase efficiency, and enhance value to their organizations.