MFP Copier Blog

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Ninety Days of Selling Copiers, Managed IT & Content

Just now I realized that it's been seven business days since I last blogged with this blog series.  I believe that's the longest stint I've logged without blogging since the pandemic started.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in previous blogs but I've been able to survive the entire pandemic without the use of home office printer/scanner.  At first it was rather cumbersome since my entire order workflow in the past was based printing and scanning order entry docs and forms.  The first couple of months was an absolute pain in my ass with not having a printer/scanner.  However I persevered and found ways to develop a digital workflow for unsigned order docs, signed order docs and all of those pain the butt forms we all use.  In addition I found shortcuts with my pdf software that would allow me to add and redact text on forms quicker than before the pandemic.

Today was the day that I had to print a document and my first document of the pandemic.  Thus today was the first day in months that I made a plan to work from the office in Edison, NJ.  Traffic was somewhat heavier than what I've grown accustom to in the past few months.  Arriving at our industrial park I also noticed that there's definitely an increase in amount of parked cars.

I believe I may be getting to the end of the road with this blog series.

NJ

Over the past three weeks infections are way down. Amount of New Jerseyans that are fully vaccinated is over three million now.  Our Governor has relaxed a little and has opened bars (with six feet of distancing still) and if you're not eating or drinking you still need to wear a mask (wtf). In addition outdoor gathering time lines have moved up and he is allowing larger groups.  I heard from someone that he will not relax the mask mandates, the social distancing and Health Emergency Order until the seventy percent of the NJ population is vaccinated.  May 17th is the timeline for the next extension.

You can now get a walk up vaccinated however the fever of peeps getting vaccinated has slowed.  Slowed so much that our Governor instituted a beer & shot spiff for everyone that shows a full vaccination card at participating establishments. Has the entire world gone mad?

Last Seven Days

It's no secret that I'm in somewhat of a sales slump for the past six weeks.  However this week seems to be a breakout since I'll have 13 or so appointments with most of them being on-site.  I think it was Tuesday when I added three opportunities in the span of a couple hours.  Two were for A3 color devices and one was for a wide format toner based color MFP.  Having that happen in the span of a couple of hours can really give you some pop for the rest of the day.

Up until yesterday I had lost more opportunities than sales. I lost two and one was with a net new (I think they just went cheap and I wasn't giving anything away), the other was an existing client that stated it was not me nor my company but just thought they had an offer they could not refuse.  Thus I posed the question (via email because that's how I was informed), "understood so if everything was so perfect why not give us a chance to come close or match?".  They say silence is golden, however in this case the silence told me that maybe there was a falsehood?  In any event that thought of a price they couldn't refuse usually blows up on them somewhere down the road.

As of today I made those two losses go away with two signed orders. Yesterday I had a verbal for a $25K deal, however I'm still waiting to see if we get the approval. You just can't count deals as sold unless you have the docs and sometimes until the deal is delivered.

I've also got a handful of accounts that are at the end of their leases and I can't seem to make them move.  Sometimes it's more about their timeline than mine. In addition I still have the $64K opportunity with an existing client that's gone in the weeds for a few weeks now.

With 12 selling days left in the month there is some light peeking threw the tunnel but it's going to take it's time.

Tomorrow

Get this an appointment with an account that I lost to five years ago!  Keeping in touch with accounts that you did not sell is just as important as all of the other accounts.  What comes around goes around. Later in the day I have an appointment with an existing client to upgrade an A3 MFP which I hope I can at least get the verbal tomorrow.  That would be an $11K pop.

The struggle still remains for many us in states that are not fully open. I can only hope that all of this ends soon and the economy goes on the rebound for a Roaring Twenties.  What goes around comes around.

-=Good Selling=-

I had a lot of wind shield time today and it got me thinking about the recent thread that Kyocera was moving with speed licensing for some of their MFP models.

I've always been a huge proponent of reducing the amount of MFP models that we offer to our clients.  I believe there is no need to have 5 color and 5 black A3 models for clients and or sales people to choose from.

We as an industry need to simply MFP offerings to dealers and clients alike.

I would like to see one A3 model to replace all ten that I mentioned before.  I'm not in favor of changing the 65-90ppm devices yet but the thought has crossed my mind.  At lease moving from ten A3 MFP's to one MFP could benefit both manufacturers, dealers and clients.

• Less inventory for dealers and would eliminate stale inventory when a new MFP is launched.  This is true for manufacturers also, just the strategy of how many different models to produce every year must be a tall task along with the engineering
• Clients can now buy a subscription for the speed of the device, I would tend to make the subscription an annual cost this way the client could increase the speed down the road if desired. This also gives our industry an on going revenue stream
• Clients can choose a subscription to add color either during the sale or after the sale. This too should be an annual subscription that can be turned on or off
• Clients can also choose a subscription for a variable speed copier, which means I can run the MFP at any speed I want. This could be a critical feature for companies that have busier times of the year with printing.  If you remember digital duplicators they all had a variable speed control.  It also might come in handy for printing and coping onto different substrates.
• Features, solutions and accessories are identical from the slowest speed MFP to the fasted MFP.  As of today many of the manufacturers play games with these accessories and don't make them available for every model
• Moving to one A3 MFP will make sales people more proficient with the devices at a faster pace.  Less support may also be needed on the manufacturers side of the business support and tech services
• Overall parts inventory for both manufacturers and dealers this will increase overall profits for both parties

As our industry moves to a post pandemic world I believe we need to simplify our offerings to our clients and present them with options and not box them into one device because of volume.  Every MFP should be capable of producing as little or as much volume as they want to print.  In essence we need to make printing fun again for our clients and give them options.

Here's a question for you.  Let's say a client has a 60 page a minute A3 MFP, what would you say to your client if they asked "can I reduce the speed of prints if I want to?"

-=Good Selling=-

When January 2022 rolls around we'll be one year shy of having 20 years of conversations, press releases, chats, leads and quotes for the copier industry.  Can't wait for January of 2023!

Enjoy thee copier threads from 15 years ago this week!

The Week in Copiers Ten Years Ago

First Week of May 2011

Funny thing happened while building a new walk way at my house.  There were a couple of spirea plants that I wanted to remove.  Over the years got crappy looking since I there are in my front yard where there is full sun.  There were three of them and today I dug out the last one.  I had to get on my hands and knees to get some of the shooter roots.  While I was prying the spirea out... there it was my wedding ring that I lost so many years ago.  I was elated and out the ring on my finger and thought how really this awesome this was.  After finishing for the day I marched into the house to tell my wife, I looked at my finger and the ring had slipped off while working!  OMG, now I need a metal detector.

Enjoy these awesome copier threads from ten years ago this week!

The Week in Copiers Five Years Ago

First week of May 2016

May is off to a slow start couple that with a so so April and it has me a little bit concerned moving into a post pandemic world.  The first two months of the year was a record breaker but at least here in NJ have been interesting to say the least.

Enjoy These Awesome Copier Threads from 5 Years Ago This Week