MFP Copier Blog
The Week in Copiers Five Years Ago
The Week in Copiers Five Years Ago
Second Week of May 2016
Friday night and no words of wisdom except that if it's a rainy dreary day putting in a couple of calls to net new clients may prove to be good medicine for a Saturday. It's a fact there are no keepers of the calls on Saturday and a fact that it's possible to get the DM for a one on one.
Enjoy These Great Copier Threads from 5 Years Ago this Week!
Comparing Printers and Copiers "The Real Dope for Copier Salespeople"
Debut of Konica Minolta’s KM-1 B2 Plus UV Inkjet Press Among drupa Announcements
Konica Minolta Launches "Shared Values" Brand Campaign in Singapore
Canon Continues to Expand Mobile Print Options with AirPrint® Support for imageRUNNER ADVANCE 8500 and 6500 Series
Fleet of Copiers Needed in New York
3 Ways Getting Involved In Community Service Can Help Copier Sales Reps Enhance Their Sales Success
New EFI Fiery Digital Front End for Xerox WorkCentre MFPs Increases Office Printing Quality
How a Short Conversation about Print Audit Print Rules Landed a $40K Order
Copresco in Carol Stream, Ill., Has Installed a Ricoh Pro C9100 Digital Color Press
Loffler Companies honored by BEI and ENX Magazine with Office Technology Service Excellence Award
Canon Solutions America Joins Industry Experts at the Confirmit VoC Summit
Lead for Multiple Copiers in Mississippi
New BTA Sales Management Workshop
Xerox Premier Partners Will Gather at Global Forum in Düsseldorf, Germany, Prior to drupa 2016
Smark Company Cuts Label Production Time in Half Using Epson ColorWorks Inkjet Label Printers
Looking for suplementary brand, How is Canon for Independent Dealers?
Looking for used Ricoh Seri printer
How I Embarrassed Myself and Botched a Big Sales Opportunity
Re: The Transition of the Copier Industry "Part III"
Lead for Multiple Copiers in Virgina
Lead for Color Copier in Mass
Lead for Color Copier in NorthWest Territories
Lead for Wide Format Digital Label Printer/Laminating System
Canon Road Show
Sharp may cut 3,000 jobs in Japan (1,000 in photocopier division)
Foxconn Founder Warns Layoffs Are Needed to Revive Sharp
Ricoh launching New MPC W2201 to replace MP CW2200
Ricoh launches new color MFPs -MP C3004/C3504/C4504/C6004
Re: Looking for suplementary brand, How is Canon for Independent Dealers?
Re: 3 Ways Getting Involved In Community Service Can Help Copier Sales Reps Enhance Their Sales Success
Re: Looking for suplementary brand, How is Canon for Independent Dealers?
Re: Ricoh launches new color MFPs -MP C3004/C3504/C4504/C6004
Re: Ricoh launches new color MFPs -MP C3004/C3504/C4504/C6004
Re: Ricoh launches new color MFPs -MP C3004/C3504/C4504/C6004
After You Ask This One Question, You Can Ask Your Prospect Anything
Ten plus copiers needed in Pennsylvania
Re: Foxconn Founder Warns Layoffs Are Needed to Revive Sharp
Re: 3 Ways Getting Involved In Community Service Can Help Copier Sales Reps Enhance Their Sales Success
Re: Looking for suplementary brand, How is Canon for Independent Dealers?
Re: Ricoh launches new color MFPs -MP C3004/C3504/C4504/C6004
Re: Ricoh launches new color MFPs -MP C3004/C3504/C4504/C6004
John Orr
Re: Looking for suplementary brand, How is Canon for Independent Dealers?
COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Ninety One Days of Selling
COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Ninety One Days of Selling Copier, Managed IT and Content
Look at me blogging on a Friday night one more time!
What a travel day it was for me. I had a 9:30AM in Princeton (45 miles) from my home office, then a Noon appointment that was another (50 miles) from Princeton and further from my home office. It was then another 65 miles or to our Edison office where I had to print order docs for the wide format approval I received this AM. There was no way I was going to email the docs and WAIT to get them returned. Thus is was another 35 miles to my clients office (closer to my home office) where we spent maybe 20 minutes chatting about his business, what's new with him, looked at the space for the KIP C660 and got my two signatures.
Thus for a week that I thought was going to be another struggle I received three sets of order docs for a total of $33K. Top top it off my Noon appointment gave me a verbal to send them order docs for a new A3 color worth about $11K. Not a bad way to end a week.
Even though I had a lot of windshield time this week and lost productive hours I believe I made that up with my Noon appointment. If I had not paid an on-site visit I would not have know they have a Canon color wide format close to the end of the lease (it was not working), I would have not know they are a huge user of BOX and I guess the icing on the cake I also found out that the account has additional print/copy/scan devices around the US. Thus one opportunity added for the wide format and many possible opportunities to come down the road. Now I'm pretty sure I would not have found out all of that on a video call, I may have, but I'm going with being on-site and in person was a good thing.
Eleven selling days left and things are shaping up.
-=Good Selling=-
COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Ninety Days of Selling
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=-
Speeds and Feeds of Copiers
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=-
The Week in Copiers Fifteen Years Ago
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!
Ricoh and EFI Deepen Partnership
Sales positions in SE Wisconsin & Northern Illinois
Re: Savin SPC210SF
Re: mobile office
Re: TOSHIBA E-STUDIO 282
Sales Material
Xerox 6204 Pricing
Re: mobile office
Re: Sales Material
Boy do I have alot of Gripes!!!!!
Re: Need a dealer in Wisconsin
Re: Yellow Clear Mode Key
Re: mobile office
Re: mobile office
Re: Xerox 6204 Pricing
Re: Boy do I have alot of Gripes!!!!!
Re: Xerox 6204 Pricing
Re: Gas Price Check
Re: Boy do I have alot of Gripes!!!!!
Re: Xerox 6204 Pricing
Re: can anyone help
Re: Boy do I have alot of Gripes!!!!!
Re: CLP22 Fuser Jams
CLP22 Fuser Jams
mobile office
Hundreds of Suppliers; Dozens Exhibiting for the First Time
can anyone help
Attention Sales Leaders... Are Your Salespeople Being Exposed As Empty Suits?
“There's just something obvious about emptiness, even when you try to convince yourself otherwise.”
Sarah Dessen
Sales professionals think before they act. They plan, prepare and practice as they build a foundation to success.
They lead with intention and become the example.
They are precise with their decisions by aligning their vision and values to earn the respect of their clients. With purposeful intent, they engage in heartfelt activities benefitting those around them.
This is what your clients and prospects crave, right? They deserve a sales professional who is heartfelt, sincere and fills out a suit with empathy, emotion and excitement.
ARE YOUR SALESPEOPLE LEADERS?
Sales professionals are effective in opening up business conversations as they speak the language of leadership. This language clearly conveys their ideas to their audience.
They precisely explain their thinking to the hearts and minds of those whom they wish to move to action, their clients and prospects. They keep the conversation simple.
How well is your team communicating the language of leadership?
How well is your team engaging your clients in business conversation?
Sales professionals are not empty suits in the eyes of their clients and prospects.
"Empty pockets never held anyone back, only empty heads and empty hearts can do that."
Norman Vincent Peale
IS YOUR TEAM BEING VIEWED AS BEING EMPTY?
Buzz-riddled descriptive words may sound impressive but despite sounding important, there's usually little meaning nor substance behind the words.
Are your salespeople using the same standard sets of sales jargon to describe situations as a replacement for just speaking plain old normal language.
Are they relying on buzzwords to communicate concepts rather than explaining what they mean?
Sales leaders... Let's get real for a moment... do you think this makes your people sound or look smart? I can imagine it adds more confusion as opposed to clarity.
Words matter and you must choose them wisely.
Sales professionals communicate in a way that brings them to life. Hiding behind catch phrases and buzzwords only gets your team exposed for what they really are, empty.
These words drive your clients bonkers...
- Turnkey
- Streamline
- Think outside the box
- Best in class
- Efficiency
Nothing worse than an uneducated sales rep who recites information off the back of a brochure!
IS YOUR TEAM HIDING BEHIND BUZZWORDS?
We all know how hard it is to gain access to the C-suite. When your salespeople do get that meeting, it’s mission critical they maximize every minute. The last thing you want is to have them walk away empty handed, or worse, leaving their clients confused and none the wiser.
Are your salespeople being viewed as being empty suits? Would you know?
Empty suits cover up their lack of understanding and experience with science and jargon, all because they think it sounds good. In reality, all this does is confuse and alienate your clients.
When your team hides behind buzzwords and jargon this only prevents them from building rapport. Your clients and decision makers are smart and will quickly see what's happening.
In George Orwell’s essay, “Politics and the English Language.” he shares his opinion on our reliance on “dying metaphors,” “pretentious diction,” “stale similes and idioms,” that have clouded our thinking.
He understood that if we only recite clichéd and meaningless phrases because they sound nice, we’re spared the effort and challenge of not only crafting our thoughts and opinions into fresh language, but actually confronting what our thoughts and opinions really are.
In other words, using unclear and cliched sales jargon reflects upon your salespeople with unclarity and canned thinking.
ARE YOUR SALESPEOPLE WORTHY OF A CONVERSATION?
One huge reason why executive's pay lip service is your team is using canned sales crapola and buzzwords positioning them as being weak.
Your team must live, walk, talk and breathe as a sales professional.
How well is your team demonstrating competence? An executive appearance, presence and attitude may open some business doors of opportunity, however; without competence those will quickly dissipate.
Think about this equation...
An executive presence - competence = an empty suit
Let's stop for a moment and think about this scenario...
What happens in a first meeting, when the executive opens up about their problems and all your salespeople can contribute to the conversation is a stream of buzzwords, canned pitches and sales jargon?
In a split second it becomes painfully obvious your team has no clue about what they do, what problems they have or how you can even help to solve those problems.
This my sales leader friends is an empty suit. Your team is dead in the water!
YOUR TEAM MUST AVOID BEING LABELED
Your salespeople must ditch the buzzwords, sales jargon and canned pitches. They're better than this!
They all must remove the mask and become their true self. They must ditch the facade.
There are way too many sales reps who believe they are ‘A’ players, but they are nothing more than ‘C’ players hiding in an empty suit.
Expensive Armani suits are no substitute for business acumen. Fine clothing is not a substitute for brains.
As the leader of your team, I encourage you to look in the mirror...
- Are your salespeople being sincere with your clients?
- Are your salespeople bringing substance to your clients?
- Are your salespeople engaging in business conversation with your clients?
Please don't allow your team to suffer in silence as this only leads them down the road of obscurity.
I understand, I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and heartfelt strategies into your current sales process to grow new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way! It's about understanding value before visibility.
Selling From the Heart is making a difference! I poured my heart into every page of this book and I think you're going to love it. You can find it on Amazon in paperback, kindle and in audio. You can click on the book image below and this will take you to Amazon.
In a world full of empty suits, I'm passionate about helping sales reps succeed by getting valuable before they get visible. I help sales teams understand the true value they bring to the market.
I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my stories. Integrating the use of social and sharing my story on LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive office technology world. With great pride I transform, challenge, coach and inspire sales teams to grow new business by helping them share their story and how they communicate it out by integrating the use of social inside the sales process. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.
The Week in Copiers Ten Years Ago
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!
Tohoku Earthquake Wreaks Havoc on Printer Industry Supply Chain
Xerox Launches eConcierge Tool To Increase Print Supply Sales
Kyocera Mita America’s Awarded 2011 Monochrome Printer Line of the Year by Buyers Lab
Océ Arizona Series UV flatbed printers offer greater versatility and productivity
Konica Minolta Launches PageScope Mobile
Konica Minolta adds new MFDs
Xerox Keeps Every Day Color Costs in Check with Newest Solid Ink Multifunction Printe
KNIGHT MEDIA, INC. TAKES DELIVERY OF RICOH PRO 907 AND RICOH PRO C720S DIGITAL PRINTE
Canon U.S.A. Announces Two New Media Types For Large Format Printers
TOSHIBA’S 19TH ANNUAL PROMASTERS SERVICE AWARDS HONOR DEALERS PROVIDING EXCEPTIONAL C
Fraud suits jam Long Island copier firm [Long Island Business News (NY)]
W--Printers and Copier FOB Denver 11-07
Managed Print Services Association Announces Winners
Wondering How Much That Big Copier is Costing You? Try a Kilowatt Meter
Managed Print Services: What Comes Next?
Canon imageFORMULA Document Scanner Products Are Now Compatible with Nocson EasyConne
Re: Tohoku Earthquake Wreaks Havoc on Printer Industry Supply Chain
Océ Announces 2011 “Green Reprographer of the Year”
Tablet printing
Canon U.S.A. establishes new imaging solutions company
Xerox Premier Partners to Convene Next Week in Berlin
Flash back!! 1986 copier lease!
Lee Hortman of Gray & Creech Releases Podcast on the Evolving Office Systems Industry
Need help with 2 page print & staple
From Racine to a top Ricoh exec
Five (5) months flat rate short term copier lease for Kiev, Ukraine
Copier Lease Agreement
OKI Data Americas to Feature Newly Evolved Managed Print Services Program as Silver S
Industry event brings together leading experts to discuss the new era of disruptive t
HP Enhances Office Productivity with New Workflow Solutions
Nuance eCopy ShareScan MFP Scanning and eCopy PDF Desktop Selected by HP for Worldwid
Regarding the Safety of Ricoh Products from Risk of Radioactive Contamination
CBillows
Re: Tablet printing
Re: Ricoh Convergence "Who's Going?"
Recent letter to RFG principals
Re: pay question
John H. Peters
michael sevcik
joe collette
ray9817
lowh20rd
Re: Tablet printing
Re: Tablet printing
pay question
MPS Providers Finding Success by Focusing on Verticals
The Week in Copiers Five Years Ago
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.