MFP Copier Blog

University of Texas Athletics teams with Ricoh to bring football fans to the stadium in the form of printed cutouts

EXTON, Pa., Sept. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ricoh USA, Inc. has teamed with University of Texas Athletics to produce individualized fan cutouts to help fill the stands at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, home of the Texas Longhorns football team, during game days. These cutouts, produced in conjunction with local Ricoh partner UT Print San Antonio, allow fans to show their school spirit while respecting social distancing guidelines. A portion of the proceeds contribute to the health and safety resources for more than 500 Longhorn student-athletes, including weekly COVID-19 testing, special health monitoring related to COVID-19, clean masks, face shields, and more.

"The fans make Longhorns Football what it is, so the thought of not having the full force of that cheering spirit in the stands was simply unacceptable. We needed to be innovative to deliver for our team, school and fans," said Chris Del Conte, Vice President and Director of Texas Athletics. "When we decided we wanted to have fan cutouts, we of course reached out to our partner, Ricoh, to make it a reality. As we worked out logistics, it became clear we could produce the cutouts locally and put the proceeds toward supporting health and safety, all while giving fans a chance to show their pride. This quickly turned from a morale booster to true investment in the community, one that wouldn't have been possible without our partnership with Ricoh."

The program is already widely popular. In fact, fans bought more than 500 cutouts within the first 24 hours of the promotion. To support this high demand, Ricoh helped manage the overall process while working closely with Texas Athletics and UT Print San Antonio. This approach reinforced Ricoh's ongoing commitment to growing alliances with partners and customers, while helping ensure collaboration between experts at each organization was seamless. UT Print San Antonio prints the cutouts in-house on its fast, versatile RICOH Pro T7210 flatbed.

"At the end of the day, sporting events are about community, and in the era of social distancing, supporting communities isn't always achievable in person," said Gavin Jordan-Smith, Senior Vice President, Commercial and Industrial Print, Ricoh Americas. "This project helps fans feel connected to their team and brings cheering fans to game day 'in person.' At the same time, it offers a new way to contribute to student-athletes' health and well-being, helping keep them safe on and off the field. Each of our companies are invested in the University's success, and are committed to collaborative innovation to help move communities forward."

"The way this local community comes together for Texas Athletics is truly something special to see," said Garry Boytos, Director, UT Print San Antonio. "It has been an honor and a joy to play a role in bringing the fans back to Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium while helping keep student-athletes, staff and fans safe."

Ricoh's partnership as the Official Workplace Technology Provider of Texas Athletics is managed by Longhorn Sports Properties, the Austin-based Learfield IMG College team and Texas Athletics' multi-media rightsholder.

For more information on Ricoh, visit www.takealookatricohproduction.com or follow along and engage on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter using #LookAtRicoh.

| About Ricoh |

Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services enabling individuals to work smarter. For more than 80 years, Ricoh has been driving innovation and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, communications services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2020, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,008 billion yen (approx. 18.5 billion USD).

For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com.

© 2020 Ricoh USA, Inc. All rights reserved. All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies.

SOURCE Ricoh USA, Inc.

Copier Manufacturers Shrinking MFP Offerings

Wow, first  time in months that I'll blog about something other than my days of selling copiers during COVID19.

By now what I'm about to state shouldn't be considered  breaking news for the copier industry.

It was a few weeks ago when I received an email from a Print4Pay Hotel member that Ricoh was making some major changes to their MFP offerings.  For many years it's been my belief that all manufacturers have too many devices offered to end users.  The reason I take that stance is because of new reps coming into our business, it's impossible for a new rep to wrap their head around that many models.  Especially when different speed devices may or may not have different features along with different accessories.  

It was a few weeks ago that Ricoh removed these MFPs from their monochrome lineup.

• MP 2555 ARDF
• MP 3055 ARDF & SPDF
• MP 3555 ARDF

What this means is that Ricoh will still offer the MP2555 SPDF (single pass document feeder) and not longer offer the MP 2555 ARDF  (regular document feeder).  The MP3055 (30 page per minute) ARDF & SPDF is eliminated from the line-up.  The 35 page per minute SPDF version is still available.  Thus four models were eliminated from the monochrome line-up.

If I Were King

Personally I would have gone a step further.  I would have eliminated the entire monochrome line-up except for the 6503 (65 ppm), 7503 (75 ppm) and 9003 (90 ppm).  That would eliminate nine monochrome devices.  The elimination of these models and accessories would save Ricoh tens of thousands in manufacturing, and engineering costs.

My next plan of action would be to keep the IM C2000 A3 color MFP (this model was also eliminated from the line-up of color devices).  In addition I would have lowered the dealer cost of all the color A3 MFP's to the price of the corresponding monochrome (black) devices.  

Subscription Service

Okay so now we're offering color MFP's for the same price as monochrome MFP's?  Not really because I have one more change to be made.  I would add a color license to turn on color for these MFP's and I would offer that as a subscription service (yes a monthly or annual fee).  Thus clients could still get a black monochrome device if needed and clients who want color would just pay the subscription fee. 

This could also be the plan for the faster black A3 devices also.  The only move I would make is to eliminate the 90 ppm A3 MFP.

It makes a lot sense because we remove ten models from the line-up. In the long run we're supporting far few devices, lower parts inventory, and lower device inventory.  This would make the manufacturers more competitive along with the dealers with the shrinking click scenarios we're experiencing.  

We can even take this a step further with the color-line up.  A manufacturer could offer only two models for color. One model to cover low end usage and one for higher end usage. 

Speed Licensing as a Service

Let's call one the A model and one the B model.  A dealer would buy the A model and then purchase a speed license for printing and scanning (20-35ppm speed). In addition we could offer any speed that the client wanted whether it's 20, 23 30, 33 for printing and we could do the same for scanning.  We could also make this a subscription service for the speed.  

The B model could be configured for speeds from 35-65 pages per minute.  The B model would only be offered for clients that are producing higher monthly volumes.

Anyway that would be my plan to increase sales, lower costs and simplify our industry.

Would love to hear comments.

-=Good Selling=-

Not a lot happened today and that's probably because I had a nagging sinus headache for most of the day.  It wasn't until about three PM that my head cleared a bit and I was able to log a few calls and emails to finish the day.

For most of the day I concentrated and getting additional research and information to clients that I wanted to move forward. 

For one account I put together two simple word documents for each device.  Each file made reference of the existing device situation for each device and then proposed upgrade for each device.  It has to be simple because the information was not going to the decision maker but a "gatekeeper".  

Both of these devices were interesting since the one A3 black MFP had close to a million prints and the other A4 MFP was closing on on 600K.  The A3 was almost ten years old and the A4 was close to six years old.  I received an email back later in the day stating that they would run it up the ladder.

My day wasn't all that bad since I was able to add another three opportunities for about $13K. Not a lot in the revenue department but it was something.

I have this saying that when it get's tough out there and that means whether you're negotiating or every opportunity is stalled.  The it's time to drop back to your value points. Those value points when negotiating  is to tell the client(s) why your company or product is the best product for them.  When it comes to having every opportunity stalled then it's time to get back to sales 101.  That sales 101 tool is your friend the telephone.

Recently Greg Walters and I had a chat about business in general and he asked me for a line or two about sales.  Greg was working with another industry rag and wanted a quote from someone who's been working through COVID19 in copier sales.

I can't post the entire article but with Greg's permission I can post a snippet and a link back to the other site.

Cold Calling Post COVID-19 is More of the Same

There is great pressure in the sales realm no matter what you’re selling.  But for those of us in the imaging industry, the stress is exacerbated.  Our volumes were dropping before COVID-19, consolidation was a daily occurrence, and layoffs happened almost every month.  COVID-19 kicked all that into high gear, accelerating the transformation in a most turbulent way.

Today the talk about town is working from home, the death of the office and surviving the next month.  Few meetings are centered on new copiers and toner supply management. you can read the rest here

So for those that may need a little encouragement or help I found this blog to be a good tool for the rookies, the novices and even the tenured like me.

I also took a snap shot of the the paragraph that starts with "Warm up the Call".  It's not that I didn't know about it but more about it being a gentle reminder to use it more often when calling.

Down to six selling days left in the month and there is still much work to be done.

-=Good Selling-=

COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Twenty-Seven of Selling Copiers & IT Services

Did you notice anything different in the title?  I finally included IT services because I spent quite of bit of time today prospecting for both.  While I'm no master at selling IT I do have an entire team behind me that can help.  Now it's just up to me to ask that six foot question. 

Last week I was able to knock down one content TEAMS meeting with an existing client.  I realize that my focus can't be just about copiers anymore especially with the way things are today.

Pretty busy day for me, while I didn't have a lot of prospecting time I was able to know down two small orders and get them processed today.  I'm no where close to where I want to be, but like I stated on Friday you just never know what tomorrow will bring you.

I'm still dealing with many of the same issues with no call backs, no return emails and leaving plenty of messages.  For now I have to be satisfied with growing the funnel because at some point in time the funnel will burst.  I just need to be patient and stop driving myself crazy with why is stuff not happening.

A good friend of mine wrote a nice piece on his blog site the other day. It was so good that I thought I would share with everyone.  I've know West McDonald for some time now and I've always been impressed with his knowledge of the industry along with his blogging. I may not ready that many books however I always find the time to read blogs from my favorite peeps in the industry.

If used properly, LinkedIn is one of the most powerful and “free” sales tools you can add to your arsenal. If used incorrectly, it won’t do you any good at all. In fact, it could actually hurt your close rates. The blog you’re about to read will help make sure you squeeze as much value and power out of LinkedIn as you can. We’re going to cover the “DOs” and “DON’Ts” that I’ve learned as a power user over the years. Let’s dive in!  Read the rest here

I've been a member of Linkedin since 2003, and on most days I'm posting up 0 to 30 threads a day (some may say that is too much).  Most of those threads were always something leading back to my blog or threads I posted on the P4P Hotel.  It was three months ago when I turned on the paid premium service.  I find the service is somewhat pricey however after using the premium for three months I'm hooked.  

What's changed with Linkedin?  I believe the recent pandemic has lead to an increase of more C level execs finally tuning in and using Linkedin more frequently than before. I've had the premium service before but really never had that much luck with it.  I would like to thank Dayna Karron for helping me out in late April of this year.  It's amazing when people you've never met are willing to go out of their way to help each other.  I know how that feels because I've done the same with other peeps in our industry.  But a special shout out for Dayna!

My numbers for the day.  Two orders placed for not a lot a revenue, seventeen emails, one appointment, sixteen calls, one inmail and one Linkedin post.  Like I stated not a great day for prospecting.

Seven days left in the month.

-=Good Selling=-

“I’d say handling people is the most important thing you can do as a coach. I’ve found every time I’ve gotten into trouble with a player, it’s because I wasn’t talking to him enough.”

Lou Holtz

Sales are the engine. Sales drives profits, growth and success.

Just like any engine, your team needs maintenance on a routine basis in order to keep them humming along nicely.

Any mechanic can tell you that the best-maintained engine can break down due to the unexpected failure of individual parts.

I will ask you to think about the following:

• When is the last time you did routine maintenance within your team?
• When is the last time you gave your team a sales health check-up?

The sales health of your team has a direct bearing on the health of their sales pipeline

ARE YOU SETTING THE TABLE OF FAILURE?

It's fair to say, many in sales fail to close every sales opportunity. A consistent batting average of .300 in baseball and a player sets themself up for a huge payday. Ironic isn't it, they fail to hit the ball 70% of the time?

• How many on your team fail 70% or more of the time to close their targeted opportunities?
• How many on your team have holes throughout their sales funnel?
• How many on your team carry the same opportunities every month on their funnel report?

The lack of opportunities can be pin-pointed back to one thing - prospecting!

I'm sad to say, many in sales have developed the dreaded disease called Lackitis Prospectitus

These dreaded disease attacks 1 out of every 2 on your sales team. Lackitis Prospectitus doesn't happen overnight. It is a slow growing, self-induced disease. Through years of scientific research, I have pinpointed the root cause, identified the culprit and even created a name for the culprit.

Allow me to introduce you to... Managementus Enablementus - otherwise known as enablement by management

When your salespeople spend a majority of their time baby-sitting the client base, moaning and groaning about how busy they are, not paying attention to new business opportunities, cross-selling opportunities or referral opportunities because of all the "stuff" they are doing while subsequently being rewarded extravagant President's Club trips, I call this Managementus Enablementus.

My sales leader friends, you're the reason why many on your team fail to close more new business!

Sales leadership, you have hypnotized yourself into believing what you are not doing doesn't work.

HARSH REALITY

Article upon article on sales tells us how it's harder than ever to sell. Let's layer into this the turbulent, troublesome and chaotic time of the present (COVID19); and where does this leave you and your team?

How many on your team are 'at' or 'above' their plan number year-to-date?

With the course of recent events, more and more opportunities are ending up in “no decision” status than ever before.

I am concerned, many of you have been bitten by your sales sins of the past. You have let complacency, your ego and yes fear set in. You have allowed it to get the best of you!

The way it is now is the not the way it will be

When is the last time you examined the way your team engages with their clients?

Is it conceivable they could sell smarter and more effectively than they are today?

The status quo, it's not working and it’s getting worse! Fight back and look for better ways to improve your sales results.  Rather than lamenting, bitching and moaning - do something about it! It is not 1999 any longer!

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR TEAMS FAILURE

Your mindset plays such a critical role in your ability to succeed or fail. If you’re afraid to fail, you’ll stop yourself from trying new things. You will miss out on having the opportunity to broaden your skill set as well as trying a wide variety of new experiences to help your team grow.

Ask yourself:

What can I gain, what do I want to learn, and what opportunities will be lost if I prevent myself from taking new actions?

How will this affect my sales team?

FAILING TO DEVELOP A NEW MINDSET

Are you feeding your mind through education or by uncovering new ideas and trends within your specific industry?

You must continuously be adopting new competencies and skill sets. In turn, it is your responsibility to pass on these new skill sets to your team in order for them to become better.

Imagine the head coach on any professional sports team... if they aren't enhancing the level of their teams' play, what usually happens to them? Need I answer?

Being open to new ideas does not come easy. In fact, change plays mind tricks but without the right mindset, learning will not occur. Your team will not grow!

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."

Michael Jordan

You must develop the mind of a champion. You must adopt and develop a growth mindset, or you are setting your team up for failure.

A growth mindset is based on the belief you can cultivate your team's ability to learn. It’s not about getting things right the first time, it’s about learning over time. You must realize, in order for your team to succeed within this highly connected, rapidly changing business world, you must adopt a new mindset.

FAILING TO ADAPT TO CHANGE

The gap between relevance and obsolescence is growing wider every day. If your salespeople are to remain relevant, they must adapt to change. They must do so before "change" beckons the call. This means you must adapt to change yourself.

In order for your salespeople to remain relevant, they must adapt and self-educate themselves with emerging trends inside their industry; to anticipate new direction and foresee the writing on the wall which demands innovation.

Coach your salespeople to stay relevant and adapt to the rapidly changing environment by:

• Welcoming and learning from failure
• Asking for help and soliciting feedback
• Becoming voracious learners
• Becoming focused on the process of growth
• Becoming extremely accountable to themselves
• Checking their ego at the door

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less."

General Eric Shinseki

FAILING TO BUILD AND LEVERAGE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Reality, like it or not, the presence of all types of social whether it is social media, social selling or social networks is here to stay.

Take the crisis filled times of the present, if anything it's becoming a bit more mainstream and all the more encompassing. It layers in quite nicely with traditional sales approaches.

Social networks offer an excellent opportunity for your team to demonstrate their expertise.

Stop rolling your eyes! Yes, I know it is a tricky endeavor as you all try to manage your time and patience levels. However, failure to cultivate social networks will become a recipe for disaster within your team.

You are directly responsible to ensure all of your salespeople meet or exceed quota!

Social allows your salespeople to expand their reach exponentially by using technology allowing them to socialize on a grander scale.

Coach your team to develop the mindset and skill set as they tap into their social networks to help grow their business.

This allows your team to:

• Discover where their clients hang out online
• Discover opportunities to listen, listen and continue to actively listen to what is being said online - dial up the social phone!
• Reach out, start conversations, build relationships geared towards moving to an offline conversation

Social intelligence is the key to unlocking conversations

ONE FINAL THOUGHT

Are you accepting a failure to adopt and adapt growth mindset, thus settling for status quo?

A status quo mindset, it's a sales death sentence.

Set aside and squash “that’s the way we’ve always done it” mindset. This would be acceptable if your current sales conversion rates for profitable new business was 2-3X higher year over year.

What will you do about it?

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.

You can find more material inside Selling From The Heart.

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 Twenty-Six of Selling Copiers

It's 10:24 PM with a cool breeze blowing in from the Ocean tonight.  After a frustrating four day work week I finally packed it in about 5:30PM tonight.

It had been a long week of phone calls, emails, inmails and texts.  I was able to get docs for a small A4 black device late today.  I'm hoping that will be the order that opens the flood gates with my 25 plus opportunities.  

I'm going to get a little off the rails here for a bit.  Why do so many peeps in our industry refer to MFP's that only print black as "black & white"?  When the heck did "white" ever work it's way into our language? It's either a color MFP or a black MFP right?  I prefer to use monochrome however that's really not the right definition either since monochrome could mean any single color.  

To make sure I'm correct I got this off wikipedia.

"A monochromic image is composed of one color. The term monochrome comes from the Ancient Greek: μονόχρωμος, romanized: monochromos, lit. 'having one color'. A monochromatic object or image reflects colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white."

The time before color copiers became available we just called them copiers.

I was not intending to write this blog tonight.  I was spent for the week and needed to relax and not think about work for a couple of days.  I had a final push at the end of the day to make sure I was ready for Monday,

It was about 10PM when I checked my phone for emails. I run a series of alerts with Google so that I receive the latest and greatest news for our industry.  Checked the gmail and there was nothing worthy to post and I then checked my corp. email just to clear out any junk.

The other day I mentioned in one of my blogs is that as long as you work hard you never know what tomorrow will bring you.  I can't tell you enough how true that is because there was one email that came in at 8:16PM.

Seems one of the phone calls and emails (after I call and get a voice mail I always send an email) to an existing account. My email forwarded to another person in that organization.

This person wants to meet with me next week and see what we can offer in the way of copiers for their 14 locations in the US.  Now that's a pretty fraking big opportunity!  Yes, I'm sure there will be competition, and yes it's not a deal yet.  However we need to be in it to win it.  My email went out a few minutes later asking what time is good for that day next week,

Thus for many of you that are going through the ups and downs in this new normal like I am.  Anything can happen at any time as long we we put in the effort.  We just need to put the effort in on a daily basis.

-=Good Selling=-

MSP & MSSP Industry Notes

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IDC report on mobile workers

• S. mobile worker population will increase from 78.5 million in 2020 to 93.5 million in 2024
• Will account for 60% of total U.S. workforce
• 87% of U.S. enterprises expect their employees to continue working from home 3 or more days per week once mandatory pandemic closures are lifted

Keypoint Intelligence Announces Winners of New Buyers Lab PaceSetter Awards in Three Categories of Managed Services

• The winners for 2020–2021
  • KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS U.S.A., INC.
    BLI PaceSetter 2020–2021 in Managed IT Services

• HP INC.
  BLI PaceSetter 2020–2021 in Managed Print Services
• RICOH USA, INC.
  BLI PaceSetter 2020–2021 in Business Process Services
• XEROX CORPORATION
  BLI PaceSetter 2020–2021 in Business Process Services
  BLI PaceSetter 2020–2021 in Managed Print Services

To determine the vendors that lead the market in each category, Keypoint Intelligence invited the leading document imaging OEMs to participate in an in-depth study that covered areas such as portfolio of offerings, primary differentiators, go-to-market strategy, ability to accommodate remote employees, and much more. Keypoint Intelligence analysts then applied a proprietary scoring rubric to determine the winners.

Crawford Technologies and Nuxeo partner to provide document management solution

• Crawford Technologies and Nuxeo, are collaborating to develop a new integration that will allow organizations to move their high-volume documents and customer service data
• CCM Gateway for Nuxeo integrates Crawford Technologies’ transformation, indexing, and document classification techniques with Nuxeo’s robust cloud-native platform
• solution makes it possible for enterprises to move from problematic legacy storage systems to a modern, cloud-based, natively web-enabled solution to accelerate digital transformation initiatives

SolarWinds Backup Recovery Testing Adoption Underscores MSP Security Growth Opportunities

• MSPs replace manual backup verfication with efficient automated testing
• Reports in June 2020, with more than 3,110 devices currently enabled

Ontrack Announces Global Data Recovery Agreement With Toshiba

• Announced the provision of data recovery services to customers of Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation hard disk drive products
• Toshiba customers will receive the following benefits when choosing Ontrack
• Free shipping of their Toshiba hard disk drive (where Ontrack operates)
• Free consultation and evaluation of the media
• An exclusive 10% discount off Ontrack Data Recovery services
• A dedicated Data Services Representative to help at every stage
• Fixed pricing, with no hidden charges
• No recovery, no fee policy
• Data recovery services performed by expert engineers
• Complete end-to-end security and peace of mind

Ricoh Canada joins Vizetto Inc. rBoard™ Alliance

• Announced that it has joined Vizetto Inc.'s rBoard alliance
• rBoard alliance is a group of technology companies that share a common commitment towards promoting the highest standards and user experience for team collaboration
• Ricoh Canada certified rBoard^TMsolutions integrate with display, touch and computing technologies

Lead for IT Services in Colorado

• Information Technology Staff Augmentation

Free Educational Event Helps IT Service Providers Scale with Managed Security Services

• GreatAmerica Master Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), announced a free online event focused on best practices for technology providers to grow their IT business with cybersecurity
• MSSP Accelerator will feature different cybersecurity industry thought leaders from: CharTec, Pax8, ID Agent, SolarWindsFortinet, Datto, PathShare HR Services, and GreatAmerica
• MSSP Accelerator is designed to educate progressive technology providers how they can capture more opportunities with cybersecurity

Konica Minolta Expands Portfolio of Software Solutions with Introduction of PaperVision Enterprise

• Konica Minolta Business Solutions (Canada) Ltd. (Konica Minolta) announced that it will begin offering PaperVision Enterprise
• PaperVision Enterprise, a Content Services Platform (CSP) or Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
• PaperVision Enterprise delivers any document, anywhere, anytime – including email

DataTribe Announces Third Annual Cybersecurity Start-Up Challenge

• DataTribe announces the launch of it's third annual DataTribe Challenge
• Competition to identify and curate Pre-Series A, seed high-technology start-ups with vision to disrupt cybersecurity and data science
• Three finalists will split $20K in prize money, one winner will be eligible for receive up to $2 million in seed capital from DataTribe

Trump administration introduces cybersecurity policy for space systems

• Space Policy Directive- 5 (SPD-5) puts in place key systems for global communications, navigation, weather monitoring, and other critical services
• Trump administration announced a new cybersecurity policy for systems used in space

About 56000 records hacked at Northwestern Memorial HealthCare system

• Notified the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about a data breach
• Blackbaud provides software to manage fundraising databases and said it notified the healthcare provider that in mid-July

Panasonic Webinar | Win with our Scanning Solutions

• Panasonic gives you winning advantages against the competition by creating better solutions for your customers. Panasonic's scanning solutions give your clients the ability to better allocate their resources, minimize time spent on document management, and give them easier access with better clarity to their most important information

Cybersecurity Update

• Advocate Aurora Health of Wisconsin & Illinois notified 1,907 patients that their PHI was exposed after a mailing error by Diamond Healthcare Communications.
• The Idaho Board of Nursing reported a potential breach exposing info on nurses in the state, being used by a hacking group to extort funds.
• The Philadelphia Archdiocese of Pennsylvania notified 47 clergy abuse victims that their info was exposed after email leak.
• Morgan Stanley, headquartered in New York City, NY, was sued by current and former customers who had their confidential info exposed during recent data breaches.
• BeneSys, headquartered in Troy, MI, notified 1,070 patients that their PHI was exposed during recent data leak.
• The Connection Inc., headquartered in Middletown, CT, notified an unknown number of patients their PHI was exposed after email phishing attack.
• Summit Medical Associates of Fort Wayne, IN notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.
• Hoag Clinic of Costa Mesa, CA notified 730 patients that their PHI was exposed after laptop computer was stolen.
• USA Today newspaper reports that hacking attacks on hospitals for PHI increased during the pandemic
  • 80% of medical practices have been victims of cyberattacks
  • 51% reported patient safety concerns from attacks
  • 20% had business interrupted for more than 5 hours
  • 6000% increase in spam attacks
  • 75% increase in security incidents
  • $50 each being paid by hackers for PHI
• The American Payroll Association, headquartered in San Antonio, TX notified 20,000 members that their info may have been exposed after discovery of skimmer malware on its website.
• Cook Children’s Medical Center of Fort Worth, TX notified 1,768 patients that their PHI was exposed after a box of medical records were stolen.
• Utah Pathology Services of Salt Lake City, UT notified 112,000 patients that their PHI was exposed after hacking incident.
• United Memorial Medical Center of Houston, TX notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI was exposed after a ransomware attack.
• Greenville Technical College of South Carolina notified an unknown number of students that their info may have been exposed after a ransomware attack.
• Selma Unified School District of Selma, CA notified an unknown number of students that their info may have been exposed after a ransomware attack.
• University of Virginia reported that one of its researchers was arrested after attempting to board a flight to China with stolen materials.
• The City of Rocky Mount in North Carolina notified an unknown number of citizens that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.
• Sudhish Kasaba Ramesh, former Cisco Corp. employee, pleaded guilty to deploying malware to shut down 16,000 Cisco WebEx Teams accounts and deletion of 456 virtual machines.
  • Faces 5 years in prison and deportation.
• Ponemon Institute report states that average global cost of insider-caused breach is up 31% to $11.45 million
  • Frequency of incidents up 47%
  • Average of $211,533 per company cost per year
  • Average incident takes 77 days to contain
• ZDNet magazine reports on BEC (business email compromise) hacking attacks:
• Average attempt is now $80,000
• Use email phishing attacks that focus on stealing login credentials
• Then distribute malware
• New BEC hacking group is Cosmic Lynx of Russia
• Crowdstrike Security is reporting that an Iranian hacking group, named Pioneer Kitten (aka Fox Kitten or Parisite) is now selling access to compromised companies on the Dark Web.
• Bryan Connor Herrell of Aurora, CO was sentenced to 11 years in prison for selling stolen items on the Dark Web.
• Palau Corp. of Orlando, FL notified an unknown number of customers that their info was accessed during a recent cybersecurity incident.
• Amphastar Pharmaceuticals of Rancho Cucamonga, CA notified an unknown number of patients that their PHI may have been accessed during recent cybersecurity incident.
• Mansfield City School District of Ohio notified an unknown number of students that their info may have been access after ransomware attack.
• Somerset Berkley Regional School District of Massachusetts notified an unknown number of students that their info was exposed after ransomware attack.
• Jewish Federation of Greater Washington in Maryland reported that it lost $7.5 million after cyberattack.
• Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR notified 1,700 students that their info was accessed during recent hacking incident.
• Northwestern Memorial Healthcare of Chicago, IL notified 55,983 patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.
• Spectrum Health of Grand Rapids, MI notified 52,500 patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.
• Roper St. Francis Hospital of Charleston, SC notified 6,000 patients that their PHI was exposed after email phishing attack.
• Miami-Dade School District of Florida announced that David Oliveros, a student, was arrested and charged with conducting 8 cyberattacks on the schools.
• University of Illinois at Chicago Pain Clinic is being sued by a former patient, Bianca Anderson, for allegedly changing her medical records to wrongly label her as a cocaine user.
• The federal government is warning U.S. universities, such as University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, that the Chinese government is ramping up its hacking attempts in order to steal COVID-19 vaccine research.
• Hamilton Health Center of Harrisburg, PA notified 10,393 patients that their PHI was exposed during recent email phishing attack.
• Assured Imaging of Tucson, Arizona notified 245,000 patients that their PHI was exposed after ransomware attack.

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

The last week or so with almost no orders has seen me fighting with myself.  Am I doing everything right? Is there something I'm missing? Am I prospecting enough?  Am I asked the right questions?  What can I do to turn things around?

I thought quite a bit about where I'm at for the month with 9 selling days left in the month last night.  I figure that I'm right back to where I was in March & April where just keep making the calls and sending the emails.  My break out month was May went I billed more than $200K.  Thus it has crossed my mind that September and maybe October might be more like March & April.  I don't like it and don't want to accept it but until our Governor tells everyone to get back to get back to work in our offices it's going to be like this for quite sometime.  Almost thinking it maybe the right to time to make a move to another state.

Moving to another state is interesting, would it be New Mexico, or maybe Arizona?  It then hit me that moving to another state would be giving up.  I've never given up on anything in my life. I've always had the attitude that I can get whatever I want whenever I want it.  The pandemic has thrown a tiny wrench in the attitude for the time being.  No, I'm not going to move and yes I will see this new normal play out here in the North East.

Not a lot went on today. I'm still stuck with my middle four digits for the month.  Today saw a little more action from a few clients but nothing to get super excited about.

The totals for today for prospecting was 16 emails, 18 calls, 3 Teams Appointments, 2 Inmails, 4 texts and 1 Linkedin post.  Three appointments will put on damper on your prospecting for the day.

I mentioned something new in today's prospecting and that was the one Linkedin post.  I went through some of Ricoh's Youtube posts, thought of a nest thread for the video and then posted on Linkedin.  While I'm trying to connect with more peeps on Linkedin I thought posting something about my services could help the cause.  The next thing I need to do is make a list or a couple of lists of the people that I want to see the thread and incorporate them on the post (post lol).

Tomorrow means more of the same....prospecting and growing the funnel because sooner or later the funnel will burst.  I'm hoping sooner than later.

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Twenty-Four of Selling Copiers

Eight more business days and we'll be at the 6 month mark since I was optioned to working remote.  Never in my life did I expect something like this. 

Something like this does make for some great small talk with the gatekeeper though. On many calls I find my self having a laugh with the gatekeeper because at this point in time I'm happy to speak with anyone.  It always gets a chuckle and seems to break the ice when I tell them I'm just happy that I have someone to talk to since I'm remote. In most cases the info I need which  is when is the best time or the best way to contact/communication with the decision maker.

I took yesterdays blog and put Jake Dunlops plan in action today.  One of his taking points with connecting with DM is to mention something to the CEO that they would not expect that you know.  I use Linkedin for most of my research and came up with the C Level Executive that I thought was in charge of buying what I have to offer.  You may ask how did I know that?  It's because I cruised through their contacts and saw a 1st level contact with one of my competitors.  It's a great thing being connected to so many sales people because since I'm connected I can see their level of connection.

I did the research on Linkedin, then Google and I really didn't find much. I went back to Linkedin and read some of the recommendations from others that have worked with or for this person.  One of those referenced a book that the C Level Exec wrote back in 2018.  I googled the book, it was on Amazon and the cost was $9.00 thus I made the investment in myself and ordered the book.  I then sent that Exec a message stating, "just ordered your book and can't wait to read it".  That was all I sent.

In a few days I'll have my book and I'll read the book (hoping it's not too long). From there I'll write a few notes and my plan is to send additional Linkedin messages with maybe thoughts or comments about what I read.  Will it work?  I have no clue, but I do like Jake's plan because it is different.  I'm a firm believer of throwing enough crap on the wall and see what sticks.  In addition what do I have to lose?  I have nothing to lose and more to gain, who knows maybe the book will help me in other ways that I'm not aware of.

The point is to be different, try different things in this new normal

I did this with another Exec also today. This person is the Business Administrator and in most cases they either do the buying or they know who the buyer is.  Yet again it was another trip to Linkedin.  After reading the persons bio and reviewing that persons job history I got what I needed.  In this case the BA served in the Army as an infantry officer and from what I can see maybe still be in the reserves. I sent off an email thanking that person for their service and then asked if he had trained in Fort Benning, Georgia.  The reason why I asked about For Benning is because my son went to basic training there as infantry.   In that same email I also asked if he was the right person to contact or if there was someone else to contact.  

In both cases I put the plan in action and we'll see what comes out of it.  AS I mention last night it's not something that will get me a quick sale but is something that can be nurtured over time.  Hey,  as long as you're prospecting you never know what tomorrow will bring you.

Today's stats saw me with 22 phone calls, 21 emails, 3 inmails (linkedin), 1 text and I was able to knock down two appointments.  Opportunities for the day was zero.

Tomorrow means another day of the same. I usually reserve my mornings for completing tasks on "things to do" list and the afternoon is spend prospecting.

I think I closer to maybe a couple of orders in the next couple of days.  I've got 10 selling days left in the month and don't have much to show for September yet.

I may waiver every once in a while but I will not let this pandemic defeat me in attaining my goal for the end of the year.

-=Good Selling=-