I was starved after flying into Dallas at 11:30AM and then taking another flight to Tyler. The second flight was rather unique since I had never been in a jet that small!
Arriving in Tyler, Texas on Tuesday the 22nd, I was able to hook up with an old friend for dinner at Bodacious Bar-B-Q in Tyler, Texas. The brisket sandwich was awesome, they don't make 'em that tender in NJ!
I was fortunate to hook up with Rick Fedell with a referral from Mr. Paul Story from Ethos Technologies aka Blue Ridge Copiers. One of my best memories from my presentation from Ethos is the story that Mr. Story told me about the "pre" xeroxgraphy days.
One of Mr. Story's account was (I believe) the Texas Road Department, and at one of the departments he had placed 18 or 36 of these "copy cat" (I hope I remembered that name right) copiers. These systems were unique in that they took a picture of the document, the document then had to be hung on a strung line to dry. Thus, in the copy room there was an operator for each device and the lines hanging with documents. Mr. Story told the story so well, that I was able to picture all of those devices, the documents hanging from the line and all of the documents.
It was quite awesome re-telling this story to the sales team at East Texas Copy. In fact, there were some old timers who remembered Mr. Story from his days in Texas.
One of the first points that I try to get across to the team, is that I'm just like them. Even though I'm there giving a presentation, my day job is still selling copiers to SMB accounts. I'm up against the same day to day issues that they have from pricing, cold calling, finding pain, setting appointments, researching and closing the order.
When I arrived at East Texas Copy, I was immediately impressed with the size of the location and the awesome demo room! Everything is bigger and better in Texas right? East Texas Copy Systems is a reseller and service provider for Canon, Kyocera, Lexmark and Samsung. Dang, I only have one brand to sell and was jealous that the reps had so many brands and models to support their clients with the "right" device for the customers needs.
I was also impressed with the amount of tenure of the reps, there was at least 5 plus reps with more than twenty years experience. That's an excellent sign that they work for a great dealership.
The presentation went well, was a little slow at the start, however once we moved into the day to day activities of what I do to reach new clients it was a blast. I did some home work and picked out three accounts in Tyler, Texas that I thought I would like to sell to. We then focused in on how I would research those accounts, garner as much info as possible before making that first call.
All in all, I enjoyed meeting the entire sales team, and sharing what has worked for me over the last thirty six years in the imaging industry.
Special thanx to all who attended and allowed me to take up one of their "selling days"
-=Good Selling=-
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