MFP Copier Blog

The Week in Copiers 15 Year Ago First Week of September

Thursday night here in NJ.  I'm hoping when the Labor Day Holiday is finished that things will break wide open for business.  Jobs report is due today.

Enjoy these threads from 15 years ago this week

Seems like maybe I was on vacation from the amount of threads below

Why Copier Dealers Should Offer a Premium Maintenance & Economy Maintenance Plans

Chris Polek and I chat about the Pro's of why office equipment dealers should offer two maintenance and supply plans to their clients.

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

I was able to have a chat with the manager of a University Print Shop today in New Jersey. I won't get into details about the call other than they are operating mostly remote with few students on campus. In additional purchases are put on hold and was told there is no timeline when things will return to "normal".

That person made other statement to me, "I wouldn't want to be in your shoes right now, it must be terrible". Whoa!  What was I to say?  What I did say is that we've had full employment with our staff during this pandemic and while business is down we are holding our own. That call went on for another twenty minutes until we agreed that we would catch up in 60 days or so.

Our Governor of New Jersey stated today that we are in the heart of Stage Three re-opening and the next stage is the "new normal". I don't think anyone in the state knows what that "new normal" is and I'm alarmed that there will still be some control in place.  Hey, it's been almost 6 months what's another few months after we were told we would only have to go through this for two weeks.

I was a bit of a prospecting fool today.  I managed to score four appointments on my tally sheet along with 25-30 calls, 15-20 emails and 2 inmails.  I was also happy that I was able to add a $40K opportunity that could close before the end of the year.  Who knows maybe even this month if all goes well.  Thus I've hit the first goal of the month for adding the $80K in opportunities that I needed. Now all I have to do is sell something .

As far as my week goes I'm thinking I'm going to be pulling a zero at this point. I've got two opps out there for $20K for this week, but with tomorrow being the Friday before labor day I'm not counting on them. Would be nice though.

I figure by noon tomorrow since the weather is going to be awesome for the entire weekend that most DM's will getting an early retreat.  I can't blame them either, at this point in time I think we need all of the rest and relaxation that we can afford to take. Maybe, just maybe after Labor Day we'll start to see the action heat back up.

There's no blog for tomorrow an I'll be back at it on Tuesday.  Everyone in the US have a great Labor Day weekend and to our friends that are not in the US have a great weekend!

-=Good Selling=-

We've got a bunch of improvements our site coming your way via the Digest Release (scheduled to roll out sometime tomorrow, September 3rd).

The main focus is on streamlining and improving the notification system - making it easier for our community members to manage their notifications and making the system more turnkey in general. 

Let's get into it!

The "What's New" Digest

This brand new weekly or daily email digest summarizes new and trending posts on our site, as well as upcoming events and content by people you are following. It's a snapshot of content activity for the given time period that is designed to keep your community members coming back.   It includes all content types.  We send the emails based on each member's time zone, so that they always receive it in the morning.

All new members are subscribed to this digest by default. By default, it is sent weekly, but each member may opt for daily (or turn it off entirely) in their own settings.

Digest Mode

Importantly, though, the new "What's New" email is only supported if your is set up in "Digest Mode". 

We added a few new notification settings, as well, for Digest Mode, including the ability to be notified about ALL new posts to our site (for those that want instant notifications about everything).

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/