57 Days of Selling "Day 33"

Art PostVIP 11/20/167:57 PM

It's Friday!! Even better, it's the Friday before Thanksgiving!

Since I closed a decent order yesterday, my goal for today was to "wait for the ball to come to me". That's a term that I use to sit back and see what develops with the existing opportunities that I have working. It does not mean that I would stop prospecting.

First order of the day was to process the order I received yesterday that had each device going to different locations. The next order was to update all of my opportunities and have a plan for the next step with them. I'm thinking Monday, and Tuesday of this week will be dedicated to filling the appointment book for the first and second week of December. I also penciled in some time in the demo room to print some samples for one of my opportunities. Wednesday is reserved for some on-site visits with three opportunities and a few visits to some of my accounts.

After finishing those tasks, I moved to the CRM and starting moving non closed opportunities to December, January & February. I also took at look at leases that were coming due in the next six months. I was able to pick off a few accounts that I think I might have a chance with an upgrade and one account other account that is ripe for IT services.

I had a couple of calls to follow up on, and my plan for the rest of the day was CCMWH. Don't know what CCMWH is? Cold Call My Way Home.

I picked out a few accounts that I want to cold call that are on my way home. By 4:30 I'm performing my last stop which is maybe a few miles from home.

Nothing much happened with any of those calls, but I did receive a call from one of my opps that stated one of the other DM's got a price for a Canon device and it seems their price is much less than mine. WTF, of course it is, you're an existing account and my paltry commissions on existing accounts means I need to keep my GP high! Go figure, we all have a plan for net new business take downs, however NO plan to keep existing business. You go steal my clients and I'll go steal yours and we're all happy, right?

Thus, with that call, I stalled a bit and stated I was on the road and I would get back to them Monday morning. Oh well, back to pricing spreadsheet and see how much money I don't want to make.

One item that was on my mind today. I had a large account email me about a whopping $43 increase for a maintenance supply agreement. The device is very old and warrants the increase or does it?

I can remember with my dealership that when copiers got to the age of seven years old, we would not increase the cost of the agreement, rather we would only offer a labor only agreement and no parts. This helped our relationship because we were not increasing the cost, made the client think twice about upgrading the system and put the risk on the customer.

Just curious, is anyone doing this anymore? If not, what comes around goes around and maybe it's time to bring this back. Please tell me in the comment section.

Amount Sold Today = $0K

Total Revenue to Date = $103.5K

New Opportunities Created Today= $0K

Total New Opportunities Created = $234K

Revenue Required to hit 200K Goal = $96.5K

Lost Opportunity Today = None

-=Good Selling=-

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Art PostAdmin VIP

TML posted:
Would the customer pay for toner and any other consumables too? How would you base a labor only rate, dollar amount for the year or a click charge? If a set dollar amount, how does one predict the potential labor cost for the year?
Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!
Michael

Year ago we never included consumables with the maintenance agreement. You were offer a labor and parts agreement or labor only agreement.

You're testing my memory , and I'm losing, can't remember how we priced those up. I do remember that the rule of thumb for labor only was to charge 10% of the MSRP. Thus, if the equipment had a $9,000 MSRP, the cost of the agreement (labor) would be $900. Sorry, I can't give you more detail.

11/21/1610:44 AM

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Old GloryMaven VIP

We just cancel them. We give plenty of advanced warning. First, sales reps are tasked with informing them what it means when parts are no longer guaranteed available and they try to get the upgrade. Then, 6 months to a year later they inform that a cancellation letter is forthcoming. We make sure that they know that it does not mean we will not provide service, it will just be on a time and parts basis now. Mr. Customer, "It would actually be disengenous of us to continue to take your money every month when we can't guarantee that we can fix it when we come."

Then after all of that, the company decides not to send the letter and the sales reps reputation goes down the tubes...argh!

11/21/1610:32 AM

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TMLMaven VIP

Art, we've seen some scuttle lately about maintenance agreement increases. As usual, the account is reviewed annually with some kind of increase if the clicks weren't locked in. This customer contacted me because they're clicks went from $.01 to $.011 and with their volume, equated to an $8 a month increase on just one unit. This was the 5th or 6th customer with older gear that has made comment about it in the last few months. Always a fun conversation to have, but most definitely an opportunity to move the account to looking at new gear based on cost savings!

In regard to your old way of billing, that's very intriguing. Would the customer pay for toner and any other consumables too? How would you base a labor only rate, dollar amount for the year or a click charge? If a set dollar amount, how does one predict the potential labor cost for the year?

Also, a quick but much appreciated thanks is in order to you for this blog. It's a great thing you're doing and I'm sure is a great aid to helping those of us in industry think further about our activity and how to "get it done".

Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

Michael

11/21/168:27 AM

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