MFP Copier Blog

^{January 4th, 2021}

MSP, MSSP and IT Industry Notes

Sponsored by

Arcoa Group

Why partnering with ARCOA makes sense
Electronics Recycling is an important and profitable part of the IT asset lifecycle, but it can be overwhelming with all you already do, varying state regulations, and the limited resources at hand. That’s where ARCOA comes in. When you partner with ARCOA, you get all the benefits of a big company without any of the capital investment. We’ve been doing this since 1989 and have the expertise, certifications, and nationwide resources to get the most for all your clients’ retired IT assets. Plus, positioning your clients as environmental stewards not only elevates their appeal to consumers, it meets government requirements and avoids fines.

What partnering with ARCOA looks like
Our role is to make it easy for you to bring more value to your clients. We work with you to help stretch your clients’ IT budget by reducing the total cost of ownership of their electronics. We’re experts at identifying and implementing the solutions your clients need for the end-of-use remarketing, recovery, and recycling of their technology assets. The sooner you involve ARCOA, the sooner you and your clients will see better results.

Tyler Technologies to Provide Case Management Solution to Akron Municipal Court in Ohio

• Tyler Technologies, Inc., announced it has signed an agreement with the Akron Municipal Court in Ohio for Tyler’s Odyssey® court case management suite
• Agreement includes Odyssey Case Manager™, Odyssey Financial Manager™, and integrated content management
• Akron Municipal Court processes approximately 44,000 cases annually
• Akron Municipal Court marks the fifth Ohio court to choose Odyssey

Stark County commissioners approve new sheriff's record system

• Stark County commissioners voted 3-0 Wednesday to approve the Stark County Sheriff's Office purchasing a cloud-based records system from Tyler Technologies
• The cost is $1.02 million for equipment, software and installation, plus at least $289,735 a year in maintenance but with no maintenance fee the first 18 months
• The estimated cost of having the system for over 10 years is about $3.52 million
• Approved the sheriff's office adding another printer at a cost of $127 a month for the Metro Narcotics Unit as part of a five-year agreement with Graphic Enterprises. The contract already includes the cost of leasing 10 Konica Minolta copiers and 12 Hewlett-Packard desktop color printers

One Equity Partners Acquires VASS Consultoria de Sistemas

• One Equity Partners ("OEP"), a middle market private equity firm, announced that it has completed the acquisition of VASS Consultoría de Sistemas S.L. ("VASS" or "the Company"), a leading European provider of digital transformation, cloud infrastructure and managed IT solutions
• Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed

Novel Approaches are Required to Satisfy Demand for Comprehensive Cybersecurity

• The global cyber security market size overall was valued at USD 156.5 Billion in 2019
• Expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.0% from 2020 to 2027, according to data by Grand View Research

Cerberus Sentinel Announces Acquisition of Alpine Security

• Cerberus Cyber Sentinel Corporation, a cybersecurity consulting and managed services firm based in Scottsdale, Ariz., announced that it has acquired Alpine Security, a St. Louis, Missouri-based cybersecurity services provider
• Under the terms of the acquisition, Alpine will become part of Cerberus Sentinel and will continue to focus on providing integrated risk managed services to a diverse set of national customers
• Alpine will continue to be based in St. Louis, and its compliance team will add to the experienced Cerberus Sentinel team led by chief compliance officer Baan Alsinawi

Valeo Networks Acquires Etech Solutions, Further Expanding National MSSP Footprint in the ...

• Valeo Networks, a division of Saalex Corporation a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), today announced the acquisition of Etech Solutions, an Iowa-based Managed Service Provider (MSP)
• The acquisition includes Etech Solutions' affiliate brand EtechASP
• Financial terms are not being released
• Etech Solutions and EtechASP brands will operate as DBA Valeo Networks companies and maintain their Ankeny, IA headquarters

IZEA Managed Services Bookings Swing to Show 12% Annual Growth

• ZEAWorldwide, a provider of influencer marketing technology, data, and services for the world’s leading brands, announced today that it has been awarded a new contract for influencer marketing services from an existing customer who is a Fortune 100 retailer
• The contract, in combination with other recent wins, has now pushed IZEA’s Managed Services bookings growth in Q4 2020 to a 47% increase, as compared to Q4 2019

Code42 Wins Pair of Cybersecurity Awards

• Code42 was named as a Top 25 Cybersecurity Company by The Software Report and a gold winner in the 12th Annual 2020 Golden Bridge Business and Innovation Awards^® for Data Protection Innovation
• Code42 and its Incydr^TM product were honored for the unique way they help customers speed detection and response to insider risks to data
• Incydr is a SaaS data risk detection and response product

Cybersecurity Updates

• Proliance Surgeons of Seattle, WA notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI may have been exposed after a cybersecurity incident.
• Elite Primary Care, aka Dr. Peter Wrobel Clinic, of Waycross, Georgia, was ordered to pay $36,000 to settle HIPAA violation regarding failure to respond to patient’s request for their PHI.
• University of Vermont Medical Center gave more details on October ransomware attack:
• • Did not pay ransom
  • Attack deposited malware on all servers, 5,000 computers and laptops
  • Took entire month to restore PCs and servers
  • So far, 80% of the hospital’s applications have been restored
• Microsoft announced it has discovered a second hacking team dubbed “Supemova” installed a backdoor in the SolarWinds software, which impacted a minimum of 18,000 government and private sector organizations
• • While original malware originated from Russia, second strain’s origin not yet determined
  • SolarWinds of Austin, TX provides network-monitoring software to hundreds of thousands of organizations worldwide
  • Networks running SolarWinds that have been infected should “burn it to the ground and rebuild it” according to Bruce Schneier, a security expert for Security Week magazine
• Facebook paid a bounty of $13,000 to Saugat Pokharel for exposing a flaw that exposes email addresses and birthdates of customers.
• The U.S. Attorney’s office announced it had taken possession of domain names that were being used by hackers to create website that claimed to offer COVID-19 vaccines, and then steal user’s info and launched email phishing and malware attacks.
• EyeMed, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, notified 485,000 patients that are Aetna and Blue Cross insurance members, that their PHI was exposed after e-mail phishing attack.
• Rangely District Hospital of Colorado announced that after 6 months of work, it has restored all of its computers after ransomware attack in April.
• Jefferson County government of Kentucky notified an unknown number of citizens that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.
• City of Ellensburg government of Washington notified an unknown number of citizens that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.
• TennCare of Nashville, Tennessee notified 3,300 patients that their PHI may have been exposed after mailing error.
• Forward Air Trucking, headquartered in Greeneville, TN notified an unknown number of customers that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.
• Premier Kids Care Inc. of Monroe, Georgia notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI may have been exposed after ransomware attack.
• Uri Shaked, a security researcher, published report detailing on how he hacked into several 3D printers.
• • Showed the method during his “Live Breaking into Encrypted 3D Printer” online workshop.

"No one really sees pro athletes behind the scenes. They don't know how hard they work. They don't see how you work on the basics. They couldn't possibly know. You wouldn't think that someone who hits like Alex Rodriguez needs to use a tee every day. But that's how he stayed on top of it."

Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs

Let that quote sink in for just a moment.

Now, think about the following question... Could you enhance your sales results and become more successful, if you consistently learned how to master the basics?

Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach, once said that football comes down to only two things: Blocking on offense and tackling on defense, and those are the basics his teams spent 80% of their time on in practice.

How many of you spend 80% of your time practicing the sales basics?

Here is my concern, too many of you are wasting time chasing shortcuts, automation magic and excuses; before mastering the fundamentals.

The greatest skill in your sales endeavor is simple... just do the work. And it is for this reason, most of you don't need more time, more tips, or better strategies. You just need to do the real work and master the basics.

Never is this truer than when times are challenging, just like they are now. There are certain key fundamentals, or basics, to follow that ultimately lead to sales success.

Most salespeople avoid the fundamentals because they don't have the guts to become great at them. When you eliminate the unnecessary crapola and excuses, there are no details to hide behind. You're left with the basics and whether or not you have mastered them.

"We have to have the courage to train the fundamentals, the basics, at least 80% of the time. Sure, add some spice in there now and again, but focus on the basics."

Dan John, Olympic Weightlifter

Unfortunately, you allow your ego to get in the way as it’s easier to say you’re “working on a new sales strategy” or you’re “doing more research.” It’s harder to say, “I’m focusing on the basics, but guess what, I haven't made much progress on them yet.”

How many of you will commit to doing the basics in 2021?

BACK TO THE BASICS

Your success in 2021 will depend on how well you commit to mastering the basics.

Regardless of the sales language, company culture, generation, product, or industry; mastering the basics are the key to any successful sales professional.

Let's take the success of great companies, we often question “How’d they do it or how did they get there?” On the surface, we see the success but not how it was achieved. It may appear to us their success was luck, a twist-of-fate, or a rare combination of chance meeting opportunity.

Success is more than circumstance. Success does not just happen. It begins with the basics.

"If you can't do the little things right, how can you do the big things right?"

Basics, the universal language of businesspeople.

Basics provide the foundation for all sales success.

I would like all those in sales to think about this for a moment...

We are asked to give “basic ideas,” “basic info,” or “explain it to me like I’m in second grade.” We break down things into basic, bite-size chunks, so wouldn't it make sense to train ourselves in the same manner?

Sales leadership and salespeople, you must get back to the basics. Applying the basics in 2021, will allow ordinary salespeople to do extraordinary things.

Believe in the basics, execute the basics, and succeed with the basics.

When we were in elementary school, teachers focused on the “Three Rs.” These were reading, writing, and arithmetic. These three basics were the mainstay of education.

Follow along with me as we get back to the sales basics.

READING

Imagine what you can learn through reading. How about setting aside the first 30 minutes of your day to read.

As you read, your mind becomes engaged. What you read may influence your conversations. Think about how this can help you drive better business conversations with your clients and advance new opportunities.

Leaders are Readers

How well are you leading your clients?

Feed your brain to kick start conversations. Think about reading what the people you want to communicate with read.

"If you want a prospect to invite you to the table to bring ideas, you need to position yourself as someone that can help."

Darrell Amy

Where do sales professionals get these ideas? It comes from reading.

Sales reps sell products. Sales professionals deliver ideas. Ideas come from reading.

"Sales winners educate with new ideas almost 3x more often than 2nd place finishers."

Mike Schultz, Insight Selling

Imagine the conversations you could start with your clients... Imagine the knowledge you could impart on them... Imagine how they would view you.

Now think...

• Are you driving engaging conversation?
• Are you reading to learn?
• Are you sharing what you're reading?

Get back to the basics and give your clients a gift in 2021, your knowledge and insights based upon the books you read.

WRITING

I'm a firm believer salespeople can write. We all have the capability of writing, it's what we do with it.

In today's business world, which is digitally driven, socially connected and highly networked; it is imperative you communicate your thoughts in writing. This is a critical skill must become proficient in 2021.

Identify your self-limiting beliefs around writing and take action steps as it may open sales doors and business conversations. Isn't this what you want?

How well you communicate is critical to your sales success but how well you write about it will be catapult your success.

A few years ago, Josh Bernoff, author of "Writing Without Bull****" published this article on the internet, "Bad Writing Costs Businesses Billions" -

"I emphasize the importance of writing by quantifying the annual cost of poor writing to U.S. businesses at $396 billion—and that could be an understatement of the effects of poor writing skills."

I encourage all those in sales to soak in that quote for just a moment. Let it really sink in.

Writing opens up conversations. Writing attracts prospects. Writing opens up relationships.

Here's some help. Gather the top questions you're either asked or you hear from your clients during your meetings and answer them in a short format social post or article. Potential opportunities could open up as those doing research online could end up engaging with it.

I am here to inform you wisdom comes from the mouth of sales professionals.

Lastly, no one can write your sales story, so write it yourself.

ATTRACTION

I chose to replace arithmetic with attraction. I believe you will see how this plays out.

Inside a digitally driven, highly connected and socially networked business world... How well are you leveraging attraction and influence to assist in kick starting business conversations?

What are you doing to attract people into conversations with you? How well are you getting out of the batter's box? Are you still stuck at home plate or are you standing at second base?

How well you... Capture, Converse, Collaborate, and Connect along with providing relevant and insightful Content will determine your sales success in 2021.

You must leverage content as conversation bait in order to help facilitate business conversations. How well are you reeling in conversations?

All of this comes from... The ideas you get through reading, then sharing the ideas through writing.

What can you do with the law of attraction? How does this fit into your prospecting approach? Position yourself and leverage the power of social to kick start conversations.

"A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes."

Gandhi

As you capture, converse, collaborate and connect with your audience; share with them what you're reading, educate them and help by guiding them in the right direction.

One direction you can point them is to your LinkedIn profile. This is where you can promote your story, how you have helped your clients and what your prospects can expect when they engage with you.

BASICS DO WORK

Chasing the shiny bullet and finding the short cuts with the least amount of work, doesn't pan out in the long run.

Reframe your attention in 2021 and get back to the basics. Shiny objects and tricky sales tactics occasionally work. Tricky sales tactics are built upon a façade, not fundamentals. It is time to get “back to basics” and stick with what works.

My challenge to all of you... will you be willing to refocus your effort. There's work to do and it starts with sales 101.

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.

COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Ninety-Eight of Selling Copiers

This is my second selling day of 2021 and the one hundred and ninety eighth  day since I was optioned to working remote in New Jersey.  This is also one of my traditional vacation weeks.  You may ask what the hell is he doing writing about a selling day when he's on vacation?  Ah grasshopper it's because every day is a selling day whether you're on vacation or not.

For someone like me it's extremely hard to shut the engine down especially after the events of last week.  Our team put some special sauce on the last week with garnering almost $400K in revenue for the last three selling days of 2020.  We can go into 2021 with the attitude that pandemic or not there is business to won and clients that need our help.

Today

I had a few action items that I had to clean up today and it was just a few emails that I needed to attend to.  It was about 9:30AM when I received my first order of the new year via email.  I was also not expecting the order because it was for two accessories that I didn't think the client would follow up on.  Thus instead of letting the order sit for 5 days I put in the 40 minutes or so to process the order for our client. Nothing big but every order is going to be needed in order to get where I want to be in 2021.

In the next couple of days I'll also put in some additional hours to make sure Monday is off to a clean day of prospecting.  Looking back it's seems like 2020 was over in the blink of an eye.  The days of frustration, and anguish of 2020 are past and all I can think about is what pitfalls and perils may lay in wait for us in 2021.  However from the past we know that hard work, that never quit mentality can and will pay off.  Thus I'm looking at 2021 as a fresh start and there's something I need to accomplish one more time.

Afternoon

What does one do with a stay at home vacation?  Well for me it was time to dedicate some time and resources to my other passion.  That passion is creating and for me that means creating art of our items I find on the beach.

After four years of prospecting the local beaches I've taught myself how to make works of art and jewelry out of the shells and beach glass that I find. I will admit the first year I was learning and experimenting however and over the past three years I've been able to craft almost 500 pieces of artwork and jewelry.

It was two years ago when I started up my Etsy store named artpostdesign.  The Etsy shop was another learning experience and much of my time has been taken up with taking pictures, uploading those pictures and then trying to tell a story about each of the shells that I find. I admitted to my wife the other night that I had not idea how much time is involved with setting up and maintaining the site.  In addition I need to now gather an audience and create my brand.

It won't be easy, but I guess that's what I like about it. It's going to be another challenge to prove to my self that I can be successful in something other than copiers.

I call this shell "wheatfield". The "wheatfield" has an interesting story to it. I found that shell on my friends beach on the Coan River in Virginia. Every year Kathy and I take a trip there in the summer months.  I found that shell three years ago and from what I gather it's a piece of a larger shell, however the sands and tides of time creating a beautiful piece of art.  All I did was to find it, recognize the beauty and figure how it would hang.  But the colors and the lines are wonderful. To this day I've never found another shell like it.

I call this piece "sunrise".  The shell was found close to where I live and local name for the shell is "jingle shell".  When you get a bunch of these shells together they can sound like small bells when they brush up against each other.  This particular jingle shell (also know as mermaids toe nails) is "cupped" in shape and what you see in the middle is what I think is a rose quartz beach pebble.  Thus both were cleaned, polished and drilled and I set the rose quartz in the cupped jingle shell.  One thing I learned is that you need quite a few diamond drill bits to out a hole in quartz.

Creating

The creating is another passion of mine. I guess it's kind of similar to sales in a way because in a way we are creating opportunities with our clients and prospects.  We are giving them a vision of the future on how our products and services can help then in their day to day business processes.  Thus whether I'm out on the beach or in a clients office, oopsie I meant virtual meetings we are painting a picture of the future from our discoveries, right?

It's late. I have a big day of shelling in the cold tomorrow.  If you have the time please pay a visit to my site. I also have a facebook page Jersey Shore Jewelry by Art Post and give me a like and a follow.

-=Good Selling=-

December 28^th, 2020

MSP, MSSP and IT Industry Notes

Sponsored by

Arcoa Group

Why partnering with ARCOA makes sense
Electronics Recycling is an important and profitable part of the IT asset lifecycle, but it can be overwhelming with all you already do, varying state regulations, and the limited resources at hand. That’s where ARCOA comes in. When you partner with ARCOA, you get all the benefits of a big company without any of the capital investment. We’ve been doing this since 1989 and have the expertise, certifications, and nationwide resources to get the most for all your clients’ retired IT assets. Plus, positioning your clients as environmental stewards not only elevates their appeal to consumers, it meets government requirements and avoids fines.

What partnering with ARCOA looks like
Our role is to make it easy for you to bring more value to your clients. We work with you to help stretch your clients’ IT budget by reducing the total cost of ownership of their electronics. We’re experts at identifying and implementing the solutions your clients need for the end-of-use remarketing, recovery, and recycling of their technology assets. The sooner you involve ARCOA, the sooner you and your clients will see better results.

IBM Announces Acquisition of Cloud Implementation Application Transformation & Managed ...

• IBM Corp., announced on Tuesday it has acquired Nordcloud, a European cloud implementation, application transformation, and managed services provider
• acquisition comes just days after IBM announced it acquired Expertus Technologies Inc., a Canadian Fintech company that assists clients with processing over $50 billion in transactions per day
• Nordcloud claims to be a European leader in public cloud infrastructure solutions and cloud-native application services

Sirius Captures No. 1 Ranking of Top Diversified Managed Services Providers

• Sirius Computer Solutions, Inc. (Sirius), a leading national IT solutions integrator, ranked first in the inaugural 2020 Channel Futures 2020 NextGen 101
• Champion Solutions Group, Inc., a newly acquired Sirius company, also made the list.
• Florida-based Champion ranked 31^st on the NextGen 101
• The 2020 MSP 501 and NextGen 101 lists are based on data collected by Channel Futures and its sister site, Channel Partners. Data was collected in 2020

Atos confirms expertise in Cloud services with renewed recognition as a Microsoft Azure Expert ...

• Atos announced that it has successfully renewed its status as Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (MSP), for the 2^nd consecutive year
• Atos is one of less than 100 Microsoft Azure expert MSP partners worldwide and was amongst those that qualified early in July 2019

Konica Minolta Receives Four BLI Awards from Keypoint Intelligence

• Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) announced it has received four prestigious Buyers Lab Awards from Keypoint Intelligence
• BLI PaceSetter Award in Healthcare
• BLI 2021 Pick and Outstanding Achievement Awards
  • Outstanding Cost Accounting & Recovery Solution: Konica Minolta Dispatcher Paragon
  • Outstanding Achievement in Innovation: Return to Work
  • BLI 2021-2022 PaceSetter in Hybrid Workplace

Pharos updates solution

• Now offering version 5.3 of its Blueprint Enterprise solution
  • Provides administrative improvements
  • Touchless printing via Pharos Print mobile app
  • Mobile QR Code print release configuration
  • Sentry Print secure print support for Konica Minolta, Xerox and HP devices

Employees now more likely to expose data - Study conducted by Code42 Security

• 85% of employees are more likely to leak files today than before pandemic
• 76% of IT security leaders say their organizations have experienced one of more data
  breaches since work from home started
• 59% = insider threats will increase in next 2 years
• 54% = do not have formal insider risk response plan
• 40% = do not assess how effectively their technologies mitigate insider threats

Study on government use of paper - Research conducted by Center for Digital Government

• Survey of state and local government leaders
• 52% = paper documents make up 50% or more of initial records
• 68% = indicate eliminating paper is moderate to very urgent
• 70% = need for digital documents have increased due to pandemic
• 70% = accessibility on constituent-facing applications is either important or extremely important

Square 9 launches new services

• Square 9 Software, maker of DM and ECM solutions, and headquartered in New Haven,
  CT, introduced GlobalCapture Cloud Transformation Services
• Provides an end-to-end secure platform for digital transformation in the cloud
• Users have a complete cloud solution to capture, store and automate business processes

Boston Managed IT Outsourcing Cloud And VoIP Security Solutions Updated

• Newly updated IT outsourcing and managed IT services have been launched by the team at IT Management Solutions.
• Work with clients from Boston, New England

Ntiva and Southfield Capital Announce the Strategic Acquisitions of Forget Computers and Netlink ...

• Southfield Capital, announced that Ntiva Inc., has completed the acquisitions of Forget Computers and NetLink Systems
• Transactions represent Ntiva's ninth and tenth acquisition in the United States, reinforcing the company's continued growth in the MSP market
• Forget Computers, based in Chicago IL, is recognized as the top Apple Technology experts in the NidWest and have focused solely on helping organizations support their macOS and iOS users
• MetLink Systems, a provided of Managed IT services in Queens, NY, adds direct access to Manhattan and the surrounding Metro area,

AuthBridge, India's largest Authentication Technology Company unveils electronic signature ...

• AuthBridge Research Services Private Limited, India's largest authentication technology company, announced the launch of its new electronic signature solution, SignDrive, a cloud-based document management solution
• SignDrive is built on AI-driven optical character recognition (OCR) and the image recognition technology, and comes with an in-built signer verification
• SignDrive combines AuthBridge's AI-powered verification technology with MSBDocs' automated document processing capabilities and offers a hybrid signature solution which includes electronically generated signatures

Cybersecurity Updates

The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reported a large scale hacking incident involving government agencies and organizations that use SolarWinds supply chain software.

• “grave risk” to federal, state and local government networks
• Symantec has identified infections on over 2,000 computers at more than 100 of its customers
• Attackers delivered malware to possibly thousands of organizations in the U.S.

The FBI is reporting that the Wizard Spider hacking group of Russia is using Ryuk ransomware to extort $61 million in ransom from US healthcare firms.

Colbi Trent Defiore was sentenced to 3 years in prison for stealing PHI to resell while working for a Medicare enrollment company in Louisiana.

ThreatPost magazine reports that Microsoft Office 365 credentials are under attack by fax alert emails.

• Email impersonates eFax to coerce users to click on attached document to unleash malware.

Armis Security published report that 97% of devices affected by the Urgent/11 security vulnerabilities have not yet been patched

• 80% of impacted devices are still vulnerable to attack
• Relates to CDPwn flaws in the devices that use Wind River VxWorks code
• (could include printers and MFPs)

Weslaco Independent School District of Weslaco, TX notified an unknown number of students that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

Researchers announced that they have found a way to turn RAM chips into WiFi cards to steal data from computers.

• Malicious code could be planted by attackers to manipulate the electrical current inside the RAM card in order to generate electromagnetic waves with frequency consistent with WiFi signal spectrum

Taylor Made Diagnostics of Newport News, Virginia notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.

Apex Laboratory of Long Island, NY and satellite in Florida notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.

The U.S. Treasury and Commerce Department announced that Russian hackers broke into network and monitored staff email for months.

The Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority of New Jersey notified an unknown number of customers that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

The City of Independence, Missouri notified an unknown number of citizens that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

University Hospital of Augusta, Georgia reported that it is turning away 20% of all incoming emails due to security risks

• Averaging 550 cyber attacks per day

The City of Dade City, Florida notified an unknown number of citizens that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

The Great Neck Yeshiva High School of New York notified an unknown number of students that their info may have been exposed after cyber attack.

Moderna Pharmaceuticals reported that hackers were able to access COVID-19 vaccine data.

The Wall Street Journal reported that on December 14th, Google had an outage which impacted Gmail, G Suite apps and other services.

Spotify notified an unknown number of customers that their info may have been exposed during recent data breach.

Twitter was ordered to pay a $544,600 fine to the EU related to recent data breach.

Helena Public Schools of Montana notifies some employees after burglar snatched USB with their time sheets.

Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN, notified 20,983 patients that their PHI was exposed after an email phishing attack

MEDNAX Services Inc., headquartered in Sunrise, FL, is a provider of revenue cycle management and other administrative services to its affiliated physician practice groups that notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after email phishing attack.

GenRx Pharmacy, headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

The Pascagoula-Gautier School District in Mississippi notified 7,000 students that their info may have been exposed after ransomware attack.

The Gardiner Public School District in Montana notified 200 students that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.

Avast Security reported that 3 million users are believed to have installed 15 Chrome and 13 Edge browser extensions that contain malicious code.
American Bank Systems, a document management company headquartered in Oklahoma, is being sued by its banking customers when their data was exposed during a breach.

"People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives."

J.Michael Straczynski

The coming of a new year... a renewed commitment to an exercise plan, another new diet, another new sales compensation plan and another year full of promises.

I firmly believe the New Year is also a time to break bad habits.

Habits... they're simply behaviors that impact the decisions we make about how to spend our time, our sales activities and resources.

Over time, you accumulate experiences and knowledge which influences your outlook along with your ability to effectively manage what you do on a daily basis.

From the most tenured of salespeople to the less experienced, recognizing what's a good versus bad habit, this is the first mission critical step in understanding why you do certain things while avoiding others (like prospecting).

Poor performance is due to bad habits

I wholeheartedly believe that deeply rooted within bad sales habits, is a lack of personal accountability.

What constitutes bad sales habits?

At what point do these habits begin sabotaging productivity, performance and more importantly, pipeline?

ARE YOU PERSONALLY ACCOUNTABLE?

Weak salespeople point fingers and deflect, while sales professionals find out what they did wrong and fix it.

Honesty with yourself. This is the first step in personal accountability.

How many in sales are willing to answer for their outcomes which result from their choices, behaviors, actions and decisions?

Weak salespeople blame their situations on circumstances and other people.

Sales professionals build a strong sense of self, based upon personal accountability and these three things:

• They don't blame others
• They are constantly look in the mirror
• They always work on their process

"Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses."

George Washington Carver

RISE ABOVE THE EMPTY SUITS

I urge all those in sales to become serious about your career. Put in the time and do the work necessary to become a true sales professional.

What stunts sales growth?

What prevents sales reps from becoming sales professionals?

Ditch these horrible habits in 2021...

EXCUSES

Sales professionals slam the door on excuses.

I believe committing to excellence is the key to unlocking your success in 2021.

I'm massively concerned with the current state of many within sales.

What I’m seeing develop is a lack of commitment to excellence. A culture of excuses and finger-pointing has replaced hard work, grit, and determination.

So many in sales are using excuses to rationalize their actions regarding their circumstances, their actions toward other people, and the events or stories that prevent them from hitting their numbers.

I believe excuses are pure crap and often the primary reasons why salespeople are unable to accomplish what they need in order to succeed.

In order to smash your sales targets at the end of 2021, you must take personal responsibility.

You must hold yourself accountable to YOU!

It’s no one else’s responsibility to help you get to where you need to be; it’s yours and yours alone. This means that if you have a crappy month and fail to meet your plan, it’s not your manager’s fault, your customers’ fault, nor your prospects’ fault—it’s your fault!

You have to suck it up, self-reflect, buckle down, and get to work. Look at yourself in the mirror and commit to getting better.

Stop making freaking excuses!

Stop excusing your failures or your procrastination and start taking the steps necessary to become a sales professional

FEAR

The success you have in 2021 depends greatly on your sales skills. Everything from driving profitability, to bringing in new business, and client retention relies on your ability to sell.

What is concerning is the amount of salespeople who lack confidence with their sales abilities and skillset. Whose fault is that? I say lack of practice, preparation and planning has something to do with your low skill set.

With conviction and based on observation, it's no surprise that many tenured salespeople are nervous, afraid, and hesitant to do anything relevant to improving their sales skill set. Why? Fear of being exposed! Yes, I said it!

Admitting one's weakness is no easy step, but it is a step in the right direction.

Become vulnerable and develop the courage to help overcome your fears. Vulnerability will set you free.

Fear of being exposed will keep you in a state of complacency

I believe all of you have strengths. Becoming vulnerable with yourself won’t hurt you. It may put in a dent in your pride, but it is well worth it. I promise you.

Set aside the fear, become a bit vulnerable...

• Ask for help
• Admit to yourself... you don't know everything
• Embrace the chaos and the stories in your mind

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."

Theodore Roosevelt

EGO

Sales professionals check their ego at the door.

Social Media, the movies and a vast majority of the public portray salespeople as egomaniacs with slick-backed hair and a “do whatever it takes to close the sale” mentality.

Perception is reality and it sure does remind us of Glengarry Glen Ross scenes, doesn't it?

While there’s always some truth to stereotypes, the biggest exceptions to the rule lie within us.

A huge ego is a sales growth buzzkill

Ego, it certainly plays a part in one's success but it can also hinder one from significant sales growth.

In our highly connected, digitally driven and socially empowered business world; highly assertive, a know-it-all mentality combined with a super-charged ego will be the kiss of sales death.

The real-deal sales professionals, you know... the true superstars - sell from the heart, are open-minded, curious, collaborative, vulnerable, open to learning and aim for genuine partnerships with their clients.

These professionals have humility and operate without any deception whatsoever. This is a direct conflict to the behavior of ego-driven salespeople.

Being an ego-maniac and self-serving, ruins relationships, cuts you off from authentic experiences and chips away at your clients' happiness.

“More the knowledge, lesser the ego. Lesser the knowledge, more the ego.”

Albert Einstein

YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF

What would happen if you got rid of the excuses, overcame your fears and squashed your ego? Would this change your sales results? Would this help you in prospecting for new business sales opportunities or strengthen your client relationships?

Will excuses, fear and ego prevent you from being the best version of YOU?

Let's face it... we have all laid down the excuse egg. We all have beat ourselves up over excuses.

Excuses stunt our personal and professional growth.

Whining, moaning and crying in sales can be prevented. It starts with giving a rip about yourself and your career. Why is this important? You owe it your employer and more importantly your family.

"There's no crying in baseball and crying in sales can be prevented"

The legendary Carlos Santana nails it,

"Most people don't have that willingness to break bad habits. They have a lot of excuses and they talk like victims."

You can be a victim 2021 or you can choose to take action.

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.

Selling From the Heart has been awarded by 'Book Authority', one of top 100 sales books of all time.

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.

COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Ninety-Six of Selling

Where do I start since I've come to the end of my selling days for 2021?

Do I start with the fact that I was down the last day of the year this morning and knew that anything can happen to screw things up?

The year is finally over, it was the year that started when I got back from vacation this time of year.  My end of year vacation is a stay at home vacation and it allows me to get some things done at home and just relax.  I was back at it for 2020 business that first week of January.

Quarters

My first quarter of last year was a bummer and I did not meet my revenue quota. I was somewhere around 75% and as we know COVID19 struck in March and pretty much all was lost.  The second quarter of April, May and June was one of my best quarters in the business in 40 years. At the end of the second quarter I was 1.5 months ahead of plan.  My third quarter posted up at maybe 75% of plan.

When looking back on this year I can say that it took some really hard work along with some creative thinking to make things happen.  At times in sales we can take a few days here and there to wait for things to happen. I also call that "letting the ball travel".  At times you'll need to slow down a bit, slow the grind and see what develops or happens.  However for the other 90% of our time we need to make things happen.  We need to push the envelope, offer up different ideas or different financing vehicles for our clients.  At lease two of my orders I used the "bakers dozen" lease.  I truly believe that with out the knowledge of something as simple as the "bakers dozen lease" I would have not received those two orders.

2008-2009

This year proved to be the largest challenge I have ever faced. Especially when clients were faced with closing, lost business revenue and falling profits.  That scenario reminding me of 2008 or 2009 when we had the financial meltdown around mortgages and the economy tanked.  For those that were still in business there was one key denominator for all of those accounts.  Whether they wanted to admit it or not all of them needed to brace for impact.  All of these clients needed to reduce their cost of doing business.  That cost of doing business is what I relied on to close many of the orders.  I was able to give clients my vision of what they should do with their overall costs to run their print devices.  It was a combination of reviewing needs, print volumes and getting creative with different print devices.  Everyone wants to do more with less.

4th Quarter

My last quarter of this year I needed to close some where in the area of $200K in revenue.  Yup I was behind the eight ball again, and it's nothing new to me.  I can't name one year, well maybe one that I had my revenue numbers prior to any December.  In addition December was also a short month because of the Thanksgiving Day break where we lost two selling days.  At times I felt defeated and asked my self why did this have to happen.  I guess after many years of selling you build a mental toughness that guards against the lowest of lows and the highest of highs. Because that's some thing that is learned by experience and not something that people are born with.

Waiting

By 1PM I had an order flow through for $12.5K which was a good.  Even with the $12.5K (btw, this was an opp that stated NO yesterday and I turned them around) I still needed another $35K order and there was only one left on the plate.  The client and I spoke yesterday and if the order was to come it would be today.  I mentioned to the client that in order to save time since it was the last day of the month if I could send the documents in advance of the meeting.  The client was okay with that and all I had to do was wait.... and wait and then wait some more.  At 1PM I couldn't wait any longer and launched an email.   It was 3PM when I heard back from the client and he stated the order was approved but there were no documents attached in the email. Yikes!

At 4PM I received the signed lease document but nothing else.  Another email was launched along with a text.  I received a text back to please resend the other two docs that need to by signed. Whew! It may just happen!

It wasn't until 4:45PM that I received the docs back. During the course of today I had prepped all of my docs that need to go with the order.  At ten minutes to 5PM I emailed the docs to our order team.

The efforts of 2020 were now over. I accomplished my goal in a year when just about everything went sideways.

It's my belief that our industry and the nation is another six months or getting back to pre-COVID19 times.  There's no doubt in my mind that 2021 will prove to be the bear that 2020 was.  But who the hell want's EASY!

Teams

As with every good person that has a win there is a team behind them. It wasn't all me and I made plenty of mistakes along the way.  But members of my team helped me to achieve my goal and I'm thankful for them.  Our service team, our order entry team and the Captain of my team is our VP of Sales.  He knows who he is and I thanked him for his help this year.

Our Community

There are others that helped and those are from our Print4Pay Hotel Community.  We always find time to chat with each other and we are always there to lend and ear and I thank them for that.  Special thanx for listening to me this year to Chris Polek, Jason Habbal, Eddie Jones, Dayna Karron, Greg Walters, Coach Salmon, Jeff Redmond, Mike Laverty, Chad Alban, Chris Pierson, Brett Apold, Brent Martin, Monte Jensen, John (wide format) Anderson, Monte (Tahoe), Mike Stramaglio, Greg Ross, Jesse Harwell,  Joe Escamillia, Larry Hirsch, Ray Stasieczko and many others.  My apologies if I didn't mention your name but I like you are getting older.

2021

Tomorrow will start year number 41 for me in SMB copier business.  Tomorrow I know that I'll only be as good as my last month, tomorrow I hope to rise to another year of achieving my goals.

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Ninety-Five of Selling

Well four out of those 5 opportunities for this month went down the tubes by 11AM.  I was able to get a re-consideration by using a drop close on one of the prospects.  I figured what the heck, it's end of everything and I've got nothing to lose.

My 11Am net new appointment for the hardware/content opportunity went very well.  We are close, so close in fact that the DM agreed for me to send all of the order documents in advance of the meeting they will have in the AM.  At this point in time I think they understand what's been ordered is needed and will allow them to grow their business.  Price seems not to be an issue.  I'm hoping by Noon tomorrow to at least have the verbal and the signed documents by the end of the day.  That one meeting was about two hours of my day.

The rest of the morning was spent playing catch up with the other four prospects. I was able to reach all of them and for various reasons beyond my control getting documents today or tomorrow won't work. I guess the good with the bad is that I didn't lose any of them to competitors and most will be in the funnel for January and February of 2021.

Sounds kind of odd talking about 2021 however in my sales life 2021 will arrive at midnight tomorrow night.

Just a another short blog and we'll see what tomorrow will bring.  At least there is another day!

-=Good Selling=-

Well......, nothing today. I wasn't able to connect with any one of the five opportunities today.  All I can say is thank goodness there are still two days left!

I'm sure some are probably trying to avoid me like the plague at this time, however that's not going to stop me from going my job tomorrow and day after tomorrow.

I was able to get some prep work for some of the accounts that may have a chance of moving forward in January.  There was no sense if making a ton of calls or emails since it's down to those last 5 accounts.  Although I did just get off the phone with a net new prospect that is looking for an A3 color MFP.

After the 24th it's sayonara for at least a week, or maybe longer. It's that time of the year that I take to relax and recharge!

On the home front it seems that congress will pass another PPP bill. I posted a couple of links on the this site today about the PPP. I also sent those links to one of my net new prospects that put a lease or purchase decision on hold until they read more about the bill. I also didn't hear back from that account also.

Our dear Governor extended the Health Emergency for another 30 days in New Jersey even with vaccines being administered.  One person I spoke with today is convinced that Murphy will not release his power until 70 plus percent of people are vaccinated in our state.

Just wanted to give everyone a short update.