MFP Copier Blog

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Art

This Week in the Copier Industry Ten Years Ago September 2010

Yesterday I posted a press release from Oki Data that they are leaving the printer/copier market in the Americas.  Seems this is the first casualty of COVID19 among the print manufacturers here in the US.  I was asked who would be the next casualty?  Would love to hear from others on this topic.

Enjoy these awesome threads from ten years ago this week!

COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Nineteen of Selling Copiers

Yay!  Today is finally over.  Tuesday means its time for our weekly sales meeting and today's meeting meant it was time to review some of the quarterly numbers for the team. It was nice to see my name mentioned a few times, actually it was awesome to see my name up there with our other top performers.

To this day I still want to be the top dog or least least one of the top dogs.  Some things never change do they.

Much of my time was taken up with some internal meetings with trying to find a solution for a client.  That client has a ticking time bomb with an XP OS and software that can only run on XP OS.  If we can figure this out this would be a home run for the end of the year.  Thus since there's not much of anything else going on I put more time into that today rather than a full day of prospecting.

I was able to log maybe twenty calls, another ten emails and three inmails. But it was another day without adding opportunities or appointments.

I did have one client that asked me to send the contracts over for an A3 color MFP for about $6K. The other 13K opportunity was sent an email earlier in the AM.  Some how some way I need to get close to $20K this week. If I can do that I've got a decent shot at getting to where I want to be by the 23rd of the month.

I had a late call from Tim (VP of Sales) for a check-in.  I told him how the day progressed and how frustrating a couple of days of prospecting can be.  I also told him that I'm going back to something I used to use years ago.  

"Prospecting by Day and Quote by Night" 

Years ago before and during the first couple of years of the Print4Pay Hotel I would only develop quotes and or sales order at night or before 8AM in the morning.  The plan was simple because it would allow me more time for prospecting.  I'm back at it now, thus if you see some of the post's slowing down over the next three weeks it's because I need to get to where I want to be in my day job.

Tomorrow means more prospecting since there is nothing else on my plate.  

One other interesting note from today.  One account that I'd like to break was on my list for contacting today. Instead of calling first I used Linkedin to see who I had connections with at that company. I had not first level connections but there was about a dozen second level connections. I picked out one person that we had more connections in common. From there I read that persons bio, seems that person worked in sales for many years in Xerox.  Dang, we had something in common!  

I sent a short intro of when I broke into the business and how I stated as a tech.  I then asked if that person could direct me to the right person to follow up with.  Will it work?  I have no clue but in today's world I believe it's best to try just about anything. Be different!

-=Good Selling=-

When talking with your client(s) do you have that come to Jesus moment with them?  That would be the talk track about what makes your company (dealership) unique and different in your market?  If not maybe it's time to add it.

Enjoy these awesome threads from 5 years ago this week and check out the one about Great Sales People and how some great peeps at another dealership helped me out.

COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Eighteen of Selling Copiers

From earlier in the AM I knew today was going to be one of those tough days. 

Kathy and I attended our grand daughters baptism on Saturday we then hosted a small get together at our house.  Sunday was more of the main event with more family members and friends to make a great celebration.  Kathy and I finally arrived home about 9PM last night.  It was a very long day but was one of those days that you never want to miss.  There are two things in life the trump all others, family and health.

It's no secret that I'm back in one of those slumps.  Nothing really on the horizon for this week except for the $13K opportunity that eluded me last week. I was able to deposit a $6.7K order with an existing client.  However when you need to get to $50K this month, the small order doesn't help with keeping my sanity.  I'm thinking if I can find a way to get to $20K by the end of this week I've got a shot.

Between addressing a couple of inbound calls and emails I was able to knock down about 53 calls, 15 emails, and three inmails.  Which accounted for zero opportunities and one appointment. Not a good day, but not a bad day either because I was able to out a dent in my calls for this week.  Tomorrow will have the same effort since I'm a zero for appointments.  Hoping that tomorrow will be better than today and I'm determined to be better tomorrow than I was today.

It's not easy and I commend those that can roll through 200-400 calls a week.  You are my hero's!  With almost no appointments for the week that's a number that I need to duplicate this week. I logged about 5 calls after 5PM just hoping I might catch someone.  

Today I updated my opportunity list for the next 90 days.  There are 26 companies that have a chance of closing.  Out of the 26 thirteen are net new opportunities. The potential revenue for net new is $173K, I'll put pen to paper in the AM and count the rest.

I mentioned last week that my $30K existing opportunity came out of the weeds last week. It took me three days to finally get a meeting with that person.  The $30K opp has now dwindled to a weak $10K opportunity because I was told that they are selling some of their operations and will not upgrade those facilities.  As much as I hate losing $20K I was happy there is still a $10K opportunity.  

Sometimes the crap just never ends, you're humming along it seems like everything you touch closes and when you're slumping ever opportunity has an issue.  It makes me want to open the window and scream "I'm not going to take it anymore!"  

Labor weekend is upon us here in the US.  Monday is the holiday and many clients will get out of Dodge early on Friday. Friday is the day to not slack off and put in work for the full day. Phone calls may not be the best bet of the day, emailing Friday afternoon may reap benefits for the next week.

-=Good Selling=-

One more item, our Governor re-opened in door dining for 9/4 with a 25% capacity.  It wan't because of the science and data but more about 200 dining establishments that banded together and offered an ultimatum to the Governor.  It was give us a date by 9/8 or we're all opening.

Last week gyms were allowed to open with the same capacity and peeps need to wear a mask while working out.  Can you imagine that? 

Managed Print Services, A Window of Opportunity, Sealed by The Old Normal

"Appeasing comfort over the pain of improvement is a real threat to all advancements."

The Document Imaging Channel's Old Normal is threatening its attempts to reinvent its MPS programs along with its entire deliverable. Yes, it is bad enough that some are waiting for the New Normal to show up. But I fear it's the Old Normal which presents a worse threat to the industry's reinvention.

The document imaging channel's Old Normal continues hijacking the channel's good intentions with its silence for change, its grip of complacency, its appeasement towards the status quo, and its fear of uncertainties. 

Managed Print Services was always an enterprise deliverable. Somehow, the experts keep in their attempts to convince an entire industry that all the channel's customers would one day be in MPS contracts. Hopefully, the evolutionary event of this pandemic will cause common sense to prevail. It's time to end the need to complicate what should be simple. Let's call MPS - Making Print Simple

"It is in fear of uncertainty where you find a lack of understanding."  

The Old Normal is attempting to repaint over the open window to the most significant opportunity to align its MPS mindset with today's marketplace realities. An evolutionary event has broken loose the sealed window freeing it from decades of complacency paint.  

Behind this closed window, are all the outdated marketing slogans, all the expert's claims of the massive future that MPS would deliver, all the unprofitable MPS agreements never audited, and the data from DCA tools being dismissed or ignored.

Outside this sealed up window, other providers are selling the channel's customers hundreds of millions in printer, supplies, and services. Because outside this window, there were no contracts needed. Outside this window, the imaging channel's customers are welcomed by those without the restraints of an our way or the highway approach. 

The MPS programs built for an enterprise customer were never going to be accepted by the SMB space. For over a decade, these attempts to secure contractual agreements on all print devices as failed miserably. Even as we all hear, the document imaging channel has the greatest salespeople in the world. 

All the industry's actors can look into the DCA tools and see 5-7 devices uncontracted to every device contracted, and nearly all of these devices are bought, supplied, and even serviced by those outside the channel. This unintended consequence of insisting on only contractual business has cost the document imaging channel hundreds of millions of dollars.  

So, let the channel's actors who are ready to embrace the future declare this. It's time to relieve the Old Normal of its duties selling market fantasies and seek alternatives based on market realities. Creating a New Normal didn't need a pandemic to cause a quest for continuous relevance. Because New Normals have always been part of innovative organizations. As my friend Ed McLaughlin says, "Change is constant, and it has been creating New Normals way before the pandemic."

The Document Imaging Channel needs to modify its deliverable now. Today's alternative opportunities to sell printers, supplies, and services are plentiful, and yet many still refuse to accept even the plausibilities that these alternatives opportunities are real. Hell, you don't even hear them talking about different approaches to engage end-users for printers, their supplies, and needed services. 

Today, if you read about MPS, you have to check the article's date because most articles written could have been written in 2010. Sometimes I wonder if these articles are copied and pasted from the previous decade.  

The Old Normal still has some insisting every device must be monitored and managed; we still have The Old Normal refusing to allow e-commerce platforms. We still have The Old Normal refusing to help the channel position themselves for success, because they lack knowledge or refuse to listen to data. It's time to Create The New Normal.

Let's replace a program built to propagate fantasies so those listening would be appeased in false comfort, and now let's welcome what makes us nervous or demands a needed change to align with relevance. The pain of improvement is the tuition paid for improvement.

Obviously, if an end-users will engage in a contractual agreement as MPS intended - do it. But the industry must also do what buyers demand. Without opening minds and changing ways, dealers will continue losing more customers to new, better experiences. 

Experiences as e-commerce, no contract, no DCA tools, no salespeople, and no leases. Even the accepting of charge cards for equipment, services, or supplies. Yes, others are currently providing all these things. The question for the document imaging channel is simple. Will others also sell your customers A4 MFPs as the world replaces the millions of complicated oversold A3s agreements?  

Another decade of hoping things can stay as the past or stay equal to only what is known, because the industry's actors refuse to learn more will not align an industry to an ever-changing marketplace. 

Don't allow The Old Normal to continue destroying opportunities to eliminate product-centric approaches. Please don't allow The Old Normal to continue costing you and other dealers millions in lost revenue to other reseller channels. Because The Old Normal refused to learn, explain, or discuss anything which eliminates their comfort in the status quo. 

The new MPS must be customer-centric and replace all its product-centric goals with goals aligning with their customers 

The opportunities in front of the imaging channel are also in front of competitive channels. The document imaging channel must remember that technology reseller groups are all fighting for constant relevance. This fact is what is causing a reseller convergence and if the document imaging channel stays complacent to its Old Normal. The channel's actor's challenges and losses will be immense.  

The Old Normal has held back many good intentions with its power of fear. Those too afraid to voice their opinions, to challenge the status quo, to rock the boat, to stand up and say, "stop the madness." Remember, The Old Normal is insecure of their place in a future they refuse to imagine.

Regardless of industry, all business leaders must be willing to forge through the fields of complacency with all the vigor they can muster. "For, It is with-in the fields of complacency, where innovators hut and kills the status quo." 

There is no time for the weakness of insecurity to grip you in fear, there is no time to wait for a new normal to show up, and there is no time to converse with appeasers hoping to keep in you in a place based on what they knew because they refused to learn more. 

So, climb through and take advantage of this open window and reimagine what could be based on what should be, and never allow anyone to seal your window to the future with the paint of complacency.

In closing; There's no dealer or manufacturer's direct operation who does not know how to facilitate a Managed Print Services Agreement. So, stop wasting time relearning 2010 programs and open your minds to a New MPS. 

Remember, I am not saying stop doing MPS, I am saying stop losing customers because your MPS program does not welcome them. 

Oh, it might also be time to re-evaluate your current Appeasers' benefits if they are holding you back because we all know this. 

"Status Quo Is The Killer Of All That Will Be Invented."

Ray Stasieczko 

CEO/Founder TEASRA,The Innovation Channel and Host of The End of The Day With Ray! https://www.endofthedaywithray.com/

Hi All,

       I know that some of the Professionals who read and post to P4PHotel carry the Xerox line. Can I ask you (In all sincerity), what does this Fuji Xerox news mean to you or your Dealership? If you work for a Global Imaging branch what does this mean to Global? Thanks for your feedback.

Best Regards,

Vince McHugh

COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Sixteen of Selling

Yes,  I've been slowing down a bit on my blog posts lately.  When you're in a bit of a thunk who the heck wants to write about that!  

I've done my fair share of prospecting this week and I'm going to get nowhere near 400 calls.  I'll be happy if I get my hundred or so along with my hundred emails. 

I have one appointment scheduled for tomorrow and there is no closing opportunity.  I'm still hoping my opportunity ($13k) from last week can still come through by tomorrow.  I thought I would let the ball travel with them for a day or two.

Is it too early to start talking about Section 179? I don't think so because the earlier we speak about it the sooner some deals may get done.  In the past I would wait until October and have that chat with the client about the end of the fiscal year.  This year there will be no mention of the end of the fiscal year but the need to take advantage of those tax advantages while they are still in place.  Anyone getting my drift here?  Come November there may or may not be a new Marshall in town (D.C.)  With executive orders more normal than they once were a new President may elect to make sweeping changes at warp speed.  Business owners will need to pay attention if there is a change and will need to be pro-active.  Starting tomorrow one of the questions in emails and phone calls will be "have you thought about using section 179 yet for this fiscal year?"

I was talking with a leasing rep today about their book of business. I was curious how that person was doing moving into the end of the year.  I thought the answer would be doom and gloom, but I was surprised when that person told me it's still going to be a good year.  I asked "why so good?" and was told it was due to the falling out of a major player in the leasing business a few months ago.  It never ceases to amaze me that in such difficult times that there are still many businesses that are killing it!  Our job is to seek out those businesses and get the conversations going while the business it good.

I'm feeling a little more upbeat about September now since one of my $30K deals finally emerged from the weeds yesterday.  In the next few days we'll get back to business to see if we can make something happen.  This opportunity was not in my funnel for September.  In my previous blog I stated I needed an additional $80k in my funnel for this month.  The $30K is back in along with another $8k from an appointment that I had this afternoon.  Total is now $37K added and $43K to go for the funnel.  Make the funnel full and good things will happen.

It was Monday or Tuesday when I contacted a couple of my larger accounts.  What's large to me is probably small to others.  I was told on both calls that they will not have employees back to the office for the remainder of this year.  A conversation with another larger account told me end of first quarter for 2021.  I would suspect that this is the case with many larger companies and it's probably a great time to keep after the low hanging fruit (smaller clients) since they can change and adapt quicker than larger companies.

I also read and interesting article in the NYTimes today about emails.  That email went on to speak about "hope you are well" subject or in the body of the message.  Seems most are thinking "well, how the frak can I be well when there's a pandemic".  The article offered no alternatives but posted some other rants from those receivers and senders. I'm still going to use it because I really do care that you and your family are well.

I hope this email finds you well

That's about it for today and tonight, can't wait for tomorrow since we never know what tomorrow will bring us!

-=Good Selling=-