Business owners generally want more revenue, but not every shop has the budget, team size, or structure to hire a full outbound sales department. 

Thankfully, you can still work towards more sales growth without making those hires. 

In this Print Hustlers Podcast episode, we sit down with Kevin Baumgart to discuss a powerful sales strategy for print shops: turning account managers, customer service reps, and front-office team members into proactive revenue drivers. It’s a simple strategy that shops of all sizes can implement. 

The main point is that most of your team talks to customers every day, whether they answer phones, manage reorders, respond to quotes, help with approvals, or solve order questions. 

Give that role more structure, and you already have a built-in outbound sales engine.

Read on for more insights based on the episode. We’ll discuss how you can use proactive outreach, customer history, simple key performance indicators (KPIs), and repeatable follow-up to grow revenue from your existing customers. 

Your account manager is already part of your sales team

In a larger sales organization, an account manager usually owns the customer relationship after the first sale. That person nurtures customers, uncovers new opportunities, and encourages repeat orders.

In many print shops, that role is less formal.

Your front-office employee might be answering calls, entering orders, helping with walk-ins, sending quotes, collecting approvals, and fielding production updates. That work can feel reactive because customers, deadlines, and job questions are constantly coming in.

But that employee is still selling.

By answering questions that affect whether someone reorders, they’re helping shape the buying experience. They are seeing which customers need a check-in, and are often close enough to spot the next opportunity before anyone else does.

Kevin suggests defining the account manager role around three responsibilities:

• Retention: keeping customers engaged and satisfied.
• Expansion: helping customers reorder, buy more often, or discover new products.
• Experience: making the process feel organized, responsive, and easy.

Once the role is defined that way, the next step is separating reactive work from proactive work.

Separate reactive work from proactive sales activity

Reactive work is usually the daily work of account managers: 

• Answering customer questions.
• Responding to inbound quote requests.
• Handling walk-ins.
• Updating customers on order status. 
• Solving issues when a deadline, approval, or delivery changes.

That work matters and can be even more useful when paired with proactive tasks. 

That could include:

• Calling a customer who orders every spring but skipped this year.
• Suggesting a product category that fits their business.
• Following up after an event to ask how the merch performed.
• Asking a happy customer for a specific referral.

 

Adding these types of responsibilities helps create a more standardized outreach machine that gets your employees all engaged. 

Use the 5 Touch Rule

One of the strongest ideas from the episode is Kevin’s “5 Touch Rule.”

The rule is simple: have each account manager make five proactive outbound touches to current customers every day. That outreach needs to be via phone call, not email. 

The activity may take 5 minutes or 30, and there’s no guarantee they’ll reach everyone. But it creates a habit and a level of customer outreach that the competition might not be practicing.

Plus, five calls a day turns into: 

• 25 proactive touches per week.
• 100 proactive touches per month.
• 1,200 proactive touches per year.

Add that task list to three employees, and you can see how the number multiplies. 

The key to each call is ensuring employees reach out with a valid question or purpose. 

For example:

• “I noticed you ordered staff shirts every May for the last few years, but we did not see that order come through this year. Do you need help getting that started?”
• “I noticed your brewery merch lineup does not include koozies. A lot of the breweries we work with keep those stocked because they are easy add-ons. Want me to send over a few ideas?”
• “I noticed you have not reordered in six months. Are you still stocked up, or should we look at a refresh before your next event?”

This targeted type of outreach shows that your team is paying attention.

Train employees with real customer records

In the episode, Kevin recommends training team members by opening real customer records and asking:

“If you were calling this customer, what specific point of value could you bring up?”

That is a useful exercise because it teaches account managers to look for clues:

• What did the customer order last time?
• Do they order around the same season every year?
• Are they missing an obvious product category?
• Did they recently complete a big event?
• Is there a reason to ask about a reorder, restock, or new campaign?

Shop owners can do this in short sessions. Open a record, talk through the opportunity, then repeat with another record. After 10 or 20 examples, the team starts to think differently.

That is where shop management software can support the habit. When customer details, past orders, quotes, approvals, and communication are easier to find, your team can make better calls without digging through scattered notes or old email threads.

Follow up after the order

Post-order follow-up is another simple way to create repeat business.

Many shops already send automated emails after an order is delivered, especially for reviews. That can still be helpful, but personalized outreach feels different.

For example:

“Hey, I wanted to check in and see how the event went. Did everyone like the shirts?”

That kind of message closes the loop after the job. It gives the customer a chance to share feedback, request a reorder, or discuss what they might need next.

The challenge is consistency. Most account managers will not remember every order that needs a follow-up. That is where a simple task system, CRM, or automation can help.

For example, when an order is completed or delivered, create a follow-up task for seven days later. Then the account manager is not relying on memory. The task is visible, trackable, and part of the workflow.

Ask for referrals when the customer is happiest

Reviews are useful, but referrals can create more direct revenue.

Kevin points out that one of the best times to ask for a referral is right after the customer receives their order. They have opened the box, seen the merch, and are hopefully excited about the result, so being specific is important.

Instead of asking:

“Do you know anyone who needs shirts?”

Ask something more focused:

“Are there any other school groups, teams, or local businesses you work with that may need help with merch this season?”

Or:

“Do you know another brewery owner who might want to refresh their retail merch?”

You can also make the referral easier by writing the intro for them. Send a short blurb they can copy and paste to the person they want to introduce.

Then track the full referral process:

• Referrals asked for.
• Referrals generated.
• Orders or revenue from referrals.

That gives the team a leading indicator, not just a final result.

Follow up on lost orders

Lost quotes and stale opportunities are easy to forget. A customer ghosts, chooses another shop, or delays the project, and the team moves on.

But in decorated apparel, the door is rarely closed forever.

A customer who chose another vendor may need help later. Another shop may miss a deadline. A campaign may come back next year. A buyer may remember who stayed helpful after the first opportunity was lost.

The same rule applies here: avoid generic follow-up.

Instead of:
“Just checking in on that quote.”

Try:
“I know we did not move forward on the last project, but I had a few ideas for your next event that could simplify ordering and help you avoid last-minute changes.”

Or:
“I know timing did not line up last time, but I would still love to earn your business in the future. If another order comes up, I can help you map out the timeline early.”

Even five lost-order follow-ups per month can keep your shop visible when the next opportunity appears.

Build the habit with simple KPIs

To ensure you’re running a successful outbound campaign, you’ll want to make sure you’re measuring Key Performance Metrics, otherwise known as KPIs. It doesn’t have to be a complicated dashboard or a massive set of numbers.

Start with a small group of metrics that show both activity and outcomes.

Useful account manager KPIs could include:

• Proactive customer touches completed.
• Post-order follow-ups completed.
• Referral asks made.
• Referrals generated.
• Inbound lead response time.
• Quotes sent.
• Quotes won.
• Book of business growth.

The book-of-business growth metric is especially useful because it measures whether existing customer accounts are growing over time.

For example, if a group of customers spent $100,000 in Q2 last year and $150,000 in Q2 this year, the $50,000 increase indicates growth within the existing customer base.

That can be a better way to evaluate account managers than paying commission on every reorder that comes through the door. It rewards the team for helping customers buy more often, reorder more consistently, and discover new opportunities.

Keep accountability visible

Technology can make tracking easier, but accountability still needs a human rhythm.

In the episode, Kevin discusses the value of weekly one-on-one meetings, sales meetings, role-play, and manual scorekeeping. Even if a CRM or system stores the data, having team members review and enter their numbers can make the work feel more real.

That rhythm can include:

• A weekly review of outreach activity.
• A short role-play using real customer examples.
• A list of customers who have not ordered recently.
• A look at open quotes and lost opportunities.
• A quick discussion about what worked and what did not.

The point is to keep proactive selling from being overshadowed by the daily pressures of production, approvals, walk-ins, and customer questions.

Use incentives that match the role

Account managers may be handling house accounts, reorders, inbound quotes, and support questions alongside proactive selling.

That is why a quarterly bonus can sometimes make more sense than traditional commission.

For example:

• Bonus on book of business growth compared to the same quarter last year.
• Team bonus for hitting a monthly revenue goal.
• Small contests around referrals, follow-up tasks, or proactive calls.
• Simple rewards tied to clear activity goals.

The incentive should be visible, consistent, and discussed regularly.

If the shop sets a goal at the beginning of the month, brings it up every week, and shows progress toward the target, the team has something to rally around.

Real-world workflow application

Here is what this sales strategy could look like inside a print shop:

1. Customer record review
The account manager opens a customer record and checks past orders, timing, order type, notes, and any previous opportunities.

2. Proactive outreach
The account manager makes five customer calls, each with a specific reason for the touchpoint, such as a reorder pattern, a missed season, an event follow-up, or a product suggestion.

3. Post-order follow-up
Completed orders trigger a follow-up task seven days after delivery or pickup, especially if the order was tied to an event.

4. Referral ask
Happy customers receive a specific referral request while the experience is still fresh.

5. Lost-order review
The team reviews stale quotes and lost opportunities each month, then follows up with a useful idea or next-step offer.

6. KPI tracking
Account managers track activity and outcomes weekly, including calls made, referrals asked for, quotes sent, quotes won, and account growth.

7. Team coaching
The shop owner or sales lead reviews results, role-plays calls, and helps the team identify the best customers to contact next.

8. Bonus structure
The shop uses a simple bonus or team contest to reward account growth, proactive outreach, or monthly revenue goals.

Where Printavo fits in the workflow

Printavo helps shops bring the customer and production details into one place, so account managers have better context when they reach out.

For proactive sales, which can help your team:

• Review customer history before making a call.
• Keep quotes, approvals, and order notes connected.
• Follow job status without chasing production updates.
• Use consistent communication around order details.
• Track completed work and identify follow-up opportunities.
• Build more repeatable handoffs between sales, art, production, and invoicing.

When the front office can see what happened before, what is happening now, and what needs follow-up, it becomes easier to create a better customer experience and uncover the next sale.

Put it all together

The simple sales strategy is about giving customer-facing employees a clearer role, a manageable outreach habit, better customer context, and a few metrics that show whether the work is moving revenue forward.

Five proactive touches a day may turn quiet customer records, missed reorders, lost quotes, and happy buyers into real sales opportunities.

Want a better way to manage production, scheduling, quoting, approvals, and customer communication? Try Printavo for free. 

Watch the full episode, “The Simple Sales Strategy That’s Growing Print Shop Revenue,” on the Print Hustlers Podcast here.