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Landiak argued, however, that managers like Kosowski and Patrevito too often confused short-term motivation with serious training, which would be key in making the kind of transformation Booklet Binding needed to accomplish. Landiak was even willing to base part of his fee on results. "We knew deep down in our hearts that it was the right thing," Patrevito says. "We just needed to be pushed off the edge."

Specifically, Landiak and Patrevito decided on a series of topics that Landiak would cover in 20 weekly sessions attended by the 12 inside and outside salespeople. The goal of that program, which began in June 1993, was "to take them out of the price mind-set to one of selling based on what the customer feels is an added value," Landiak says. For each session, Landiak drew up an outline, to which each salesperson added notes and individualized "action steps," all of it stuffed inside what the trainer dubbed a Success Strategies Binder. Topics included precall planning, preparing a presentation, following up, selling value, and coping with objections to price.

There were plenty of objections to the new program -- even before it started.

After Patrevito and Kosowski introduced Landiak to the company's administrative personnel at a dinner at the nearby La Perla restaurant that June, "nobody was looking forward to it at all," says salesperson Phil Moreno. Adds salesperson Tom Ashcraft, one of the program's loudest early opponents, "We felt that we were doing fine without it." Antitraining sentiment only grew when Landiak began to study the existing sales process by having his own employees trail Booklet Binding salesfolk. Pam Prendivoj, an estimator and inside salesperson, was dismayed when one of Landiak's assistants eavesdropped on her phone calls with customers. "I was wondering what they were really evaluating," she says.

Patrevito could feel the negativism at weekly Monday morning sales meetings. Look, he told employees, we're making an investment in you that you could not afford yourself. "I expect -- no, I demand -- your cooperation," he added. He also held individual sessions. "Do you realize what a gold mine this could be for you?" he'd implore.

Nobody did, at first. A couple of months passed before a few of Landiak's techniques began yielding results. "The illustration of what kind of real income you could put into your pocket helped," says Larry Bralich, a salesperson who also serves as vice-president of imaging and mailing. Salesperson Scott McParland used a simple Landiak suggestion -- faxing an agenda to a customer before a meeting -- and "it went far better than it would have otherwise," he contends. "I was in charge." That was exactly the point. "Nothing can teach you how to be motivated or have instincts or go after orders," says Ashcraft, "but training can give you a lot of tools."

First among those tools was an account profile, a document that would enable the company to analyze what "share of customer" it was getting, as Landiak termed it. The goal was not only to get a snapshot of the business the customer did with Booklet Binding but also to learn more about the customers' overall business so that the salesperson could offer more insight. To get answers to their questions -- What are your gross sales? How much did we do for you this year and last year? Which other binderies do you use? -- the salespeople probably would have to talk to someone higher in the company than their usual purchasing-agent contact. But not every customer was receptive to providing information. McParland, who sells to small printing shops, asked one of his $10,000-a-year accounts to help him fill out the profile. "Scott," the printer said dismissively, "you know me. You fill it out." "After that, I learned to ask a little bit at a time," McParland says.

Just collecting such information gave the sales team a new perspective: some customers were so focused on price, they weren't worth the effort. Patrevito invited one longtime customer to lunch to tell him that Booklet Binding wouldn't be bidding on his business. "Are you telling me you're firing me?" the man said, shocked. "I've never had a vendor do that."

The tools the salespeople acquired helped them regain the feeling that they were in control. There was a calendar log, enabling them to preplan with customers. "This is the saddle-stitching job we did last year at this time," the salesperson would say, scanning the document. "Will we be doing it again this year?" "It says, 'I thought about you before I came in the door." Landiak notes. There was the "red-alert" program, designed to attract business during every bindery's seasonally slow period, from May through early July: salespeople would offer printers a discount to commit to a job well in advance. Along the way, as the sales team helped him identify problems, Landiak created other new processes: an estimate-history form to count how many quotes a given customer had asked for; a pending-project log, so that salespeople could alert others in the company to a job, even if it wasn't coming live for months.

To boost accountability, each salesperson also drew up an annual business plan, which included specific goals, such as increasing business with a specific customer by 50%, and personal goals, such as buying a house. Patrevito's own vow was to master Italian. "My attempts have been earnest, but my results rather feeble," he says in fluent English. On a quarterly basis, salespeople were expected to sit down with their customers and fill out a report card on Booklet Binding's performance. It would ask, Are you finding the information I send you -- on building a marketing plan, or customer service -- helpful? What are our plans for next year? "What you're doing is identifying the customers with the most potential, and understanding their businesses extraordinarily well," says Landiak. "Then you're making sure that they understand that you understand."

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