COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Forty-Nine of Selling Copiers
Within a week or two at least here in the Northeast we'll hit the one year mark for COVID19. Two hundred and sixty-five days would mark the full year of selling days, but that doesn't include holidays so the real number is probably 21.5 work days a month which brings us to two hundred and fifty-eight days. At this point in time it's really hard for me to process how long this has been going.
Some news in New Jersey, our dear Governor has increased in-door dining to 50% for this weekend from 35%. However our cases of Covid in New Jersey is still about 3K per month, which is half of what is was in January and February. I would tend to think that will all of the people fully vaccinated and the all of the immuned that cases would be much lower. What do I know I just sell copiers!
Our Governor also put out a strong statement that New Jersey will not follow Texas and Mississippi for eliminating the mask requirement any time soon. That tells me that he will be extending the Health Emergency Order for another 30 days sometime in the next week or so. Every extension of the EO means larger businesses will not come back to the office. Thus now we're looking at maybe late April.
The month of March is proving to be elusive in securing orders. I have nine days left in the month and I'm still sitting at zero dollars. With 9 days left I can still claim there is 45% of the month left. However when you get a day like today when five of your prospects tell you that it's not going to happen this month and maybe not next month. You do wonder how the month will shake out.
Thank goodness I have a decent funnel right? The point of the matter is that with four of those accounts I should have done a better job with discovery and asking them what their timeline is. Even an old dog like me can make mistakes. It also serves as a good reminder for the last nine days to ask the right questions.
I have a full day in the field with two existing accounts. One is with my large production account that's now waiting on the fifth MP 8320. They bought 5 of them in the last 10 months and 3 of them were in the last 90 days. That my friends is a quota buster! Alas that gravy train has come to an end because at this time I don't believe there is a need for a 6th 8320. My next stop is with a net new account that just took ownership of an 842DN printer. I'm going to be doing some training and prepping the table for the replacement of the two KonicaMinolta devices in the next 18 months.
Another stop with an existing account later for wide format and then a net new meeting with a client that has multiple offices with multiple needs. Enough said on that account. A full day indeed in the field.
We just keep moving forward, we win some, we lost some but we just keep grinding every day. If we don't grind we lose and this year has been tough enough for most of us. That grind and all of the curve balls that have been thrown at us like COVID, and now inventory issues have made us better. They say that losing builds character, I believe we've all built enough character in the last year to last us a lifetime!
-=Good Selling=-
