Every single time I ask professional print buyers how a printer can get their attention, one answer pops up again and again: SAMPLES.

Printers, you can't buy or manufacture a more effective sales tool than the simple Sample packet. Most buyers have neither the time nor the interest in taking cold calls from printers they're not familiar with.

They're busy, and let's get real: they're already working with a core group of their preferred vendors. If you have any hope of yanking them away from one of those vendors, you have to show them the following: 1) that you have something special (and different) to offer them, 2) that you produce the types of materials they need and that can help grow their business, and 3) that you do so masterfully.

So before you pick up that phone, think about sending a neat little packet filled with beautiful samples that will be relevant to that particular decision maker. Don't just dump a fistful of your company's generic samples into an envelope. You need to do your research first. Find out what a particular company produces, and then handpick samples to match. Make sure you label each sample so that prospects can tell at a glance who produced it and how to reach you when they're ready to give you a call.

Always include a one-page, well-written letter with your sample packet. Proof it at least three times to eliminate typos and bad grammar. A little canned content is fine for this letter, but you need to make it clear that you're writing to an individual in a particular industry and that your firm serves this industry in X, Y and Z ways. If you can't (or won't) accomplish this in your sales letter, don't bother sending it at all. Think about how many generic letters and packages these buyers are getting day after day. If yours doesn't reveal that you have insights into the recipient's particular field, you're wasting time.

Recently I was speaking with a professional buyer in the insurance industry. She shared with me that even after telling a new printer not to call her for business, but to send her samples instead, he rang her up - at 9 am on a Monday morning. "Are you kidding me?" she said to him. It's not uncommon, she told me. She repeatedly asks for samples from printers cold-calling her. They must assume it's a brush off, because they're not sending her samples.

Here's the bottom line: send samples that are relevant. Look at it this way - you'll never meet a print buyer who says, "Stop with the samples - call me instead!"