MFP Copier Blog

The End Of The Day With Ray! Sharing a Prediction

Art Post · 4/22/209:30 AM

COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Twenty-Six of Sales

Art Post · 4/21/209:17 PM

Tell me how this happens? My wife starting ordering food from a local company in New Jersey. I like it, she likes it and we're pleased with the service and the food. We started using them at the end of last year so it's not a COVID19 thing. One of the things I like is that in every book there is a recipe, instructions and a gloss brochure. Yup you guessed it..., the documents are printed in color and it means potential prospect! Maybe production also.

Inspection of the box provided no phone number to call, inspection of the documents that were shipped provided no phone number. No worries I'll hit up their web site right? Nope no phone number there either! Okay do a google search for the phone number and nothing. I searched and searched and it seems they do not publish a phone number. WTF

There's no way I can drive there and pay them a visit, and some quick searches on Linkedin got me two 3rd level contacts. Problem is I don't have the Premium Linkedin and Linkedin wants $60 for one month. Mind you I spend money when I have to, but I still can't get past the company not having a published phone number. Thus I will be contacting them through their "contact us" page. I just need to think of a crafty email to get a response. One of my jobs for tomorrow. My little rant of the day.

Today was a busy meeting day for me. Three on tap but only one for an existing client. All three of the meetings took up the entire morning. However the one client meeting did produce another opportunity! Nothing right away but something for the 3rd quarter of this year.

Today is rant day for me and here's another one. We're allowed to go to convenience stores, allowed to shop for food, allowed to go other essential stores, but the caveat is that everyone needs to wear a mask. I have no problem with that. Yes, we all look a little lame with those masks on but that's the price we pay to be safe. So what is the problem with not opening up the economy with those caveats in place. What's wrong with going to the park, the beach, or the gyms as long as you have a mask on and are being socially responsible?

The problem lies with the elected officials and the fact that they don't trust us to be socially responsible (key word here is social). I tell you when this ends we're all going to find out that COVID19 was here in mid December. I get it enough with the rant. I want my freedom back.

My afternoon was all about trying to move some deals forward. I was able to secure another appointment late in the say with a pre-COVID19 opportunity. I was not able to turn the tide for the order because the clients owns the existing mfp and he's right in waiting it out a bit more because the mfp is working. It's just old.

Phone call after phone call, email after email a check mark went next to every opportunity. I keep check marks next to every opportunity so that I can see the seven touches. Those seven touches are suppose to help you get closer to winning the order and establishing a deeper relationship. The only thing I got was an appointment to an assessment for BDR, however that kinda floundered when I was told my contact did not have admin rights to the servers (that's another story for another day).

My $35K deal is out there still, however one of the principals is out sick. I found that out today, not sure if it's COVID related or not. I'm hoping it is not. There's a follow up in place for tomorrow.

Tomorrow has me down for one meeting late, other than researching one of my new opportunities it's going to be a day of calling and emailing. My CRM has never looked so good!

Another day another dollar, looking forward to tomorrow!

-=Good Selling=-

R.J. Stasieczko

The End Of The Day With Ray! Amazon Selling Production Print Equipment?

Art Post · 4/21/209:30 AM

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Twenty-Five of Sales

Art Post · 4/20/209:11 PM

The end of the day was pretty cool for me. After 5pm I had the chance to speak with a dealer principal out on the West Coast. Yes, things are just as bad out there as here in New Jersey. But we really didn't speak about COVID19 that much, instead our talk was about how the industry has changed in ten years and where are industry is going in the next ten years. It's always great to hear from dealer principals that still have the desire to go after it in this business! Yes, there are still good years ahead for us.

Today was more about prepping for meetings. A 10:30AM meeting with a client tomorrow and I wanted to make sure I knew the last four months of volume along with the last month. Those drops were awful, in fact the volume dropped 98% for both black and color, thus I'm thinking that office is staffed by one of two people. There's a trigger for this account since the end of the lease is six month outs, thus I wanted to make sure understood their pre-covid print volumes.

My second task of the day was to prep some data so I could call later in the day and get an appointment for a possible meeting this week. I took the time to put together a short spreadsheet with what the client is spending now and what the costs would be to upgrade. In this case the lease came out 15% higher, of course maintenance was down, but the kicker was on the wide format device that has 240K on the meter. After emailing the file I was able to schedule another meeting for this week. I believe I ended the day with not even a handful of calls or emails but snaked out three appointments.

Right now I'm going through all of my crumpled papers to see my notes from today. Every day it's been about making a list of "to do's" accomplishing those tasks and adding more "to do's) to the list. The list never ends.....

My third task was to nail down an appointment for a 60K opportunity. I was able to schedule that with about a half a dozen back and forth emails.

The last item on my list was to co-ordinate with other peeps in my office for an event that's set to go off on the 29th of this month. It's by personal invitation only. It's my plan to send out 100 invitations by the end of this week via email.

Tomorrow will start with a 9AM appointment with Jerry, then it's the 10:30AM with my client and then an 11AM sales teams meeting. It's going to be a busy day tomorrow!

I had someone ask me why I'm writing this blog series, the question was "what inspired you to do this?". There's two reasons and I guess the most important reason is to give my self motivation for every day. Hey, I can't be writing about how I watched movies and napped all day can I? The second reason is that I hope that some of you that are reading this can take something from each day. Whether it's the motivation to keep on pounding or maybe something I wrote sparked an idea that could you help with a sale or prospecting.

The end result is that we all need to pay our bills and feed our family. I truly believe that our members our family, and family helps family through tough times.

-=Good Selling=-

R.J. Stasieczko

Imaging Channel's Classroom

Ray Stasiezcko · 4/20/209:30 AM

"Repetitive learning is a Procrastinator's Journey."

It's not about Chairs or seats, no meters, one-rate, everything free, or what a few minuscule-dealers with less than 100 customers claim to be doing new ever week, which will align the Copier/Printer industry with the realities of the marketplace. It's about smart business people understanding the importance of data over the noise of nonsense.

Those who follow me will remember back when the industry started filling seats in courses on how to bill customers; I was a critic yelling stop the madness! And suggested the industry focus more on learning the cost of what they delivered. It was then I came up with a new acronym for the Imaging Channel

CABB (Cost Awareness Based Billing).

"It's not about Chairs, no meters, one-rate, or everything free. It's about smart business people understanding their data and simply billing based on what the data tells them."

The reality to billing printers and their services without collecting meters is not rocket science, is nothing new, and it defiantly does not take college courses to understand how to implement it.

What it takes is Data and the ability for dealer owners to modify their current billing processess. Over the last, nearly five years, the channel has spent way too much money and time trying to learn secret knowledge, which is commonly available; it lives it their data.

"Dealers need to focus more on their cost to deliver what they bill, over how they bill what they deliver."

Our friends at Konica have been billing customers without collecting meters for nearly two years. Our friends at NEXERA have been showing dealers the data, and providing them the science to understanding the cost of delivering with no-meter for over a year - utilizing their trademarked iDaaS program (imaging Device as a Service.)

All those dealers using NEXERA, have the Data they need to understand their cost to service every device they deploy. What dealers need to do is look at their data, understand their cost, and determine the customer's volume band.

Once those three things are understood, simply write an agreement just as you did in Cost Per Copy Models. The difference, you will never bill for overages because you will include the customer's volume in the contract.

My friends this works because everyone in the industry understands volumes are declining, and everyone in the industry understands leasing partners pass-through service revenue collected as part of lease payments. They have been doing this for three decades.

Regardless of how a dealer describes the agreement, CPC., No-Meter, OneRate, No-Clicks, Chair based billing, or whatever the next guy or gal comes up with. Leasing companies have passed through to dealers the service revenue portions of lease contracts for decades. It's not innovative; frankly, it's old school.

Now we have a pandemic problem with bundled leasing.

This current Pandemic is now exposing the problems with lease payments and service payments being bundled. As End-users are looking at all their accounts payable and questioning that if they are not using the devices on lease should they be paying the service portion of the bundled payment? This practice will also be question by disruptive innovators as they seek to bring new approaches to the channel's end-users.

While dealers are wasting time learning something they should already be doing. The real innovators are looking at ways to truly innovate and disrupt the print equipment and its services deliverable. These innovators are looking to replace out-dated leasing with subscription-based programs. Innovators will replace those early upgrades and the rolling in of excessive buy-outs with more customer-centric approaches. Innovators will fight for customers by explaining the Overselling of A3, and provide the channels customers A4 and, online procurement capabilities.

I am not sure how many of my friends are worn out like me, on the channel's obsession to continue making themselves feel good by believing changing the name of a deliverable is the channel's innovation. My friends, we need to change the game and realign to the field the new game will be played on.

So regarding No-Meter Billing or billing by the chair, I suggest Dealers - just bill with no meter regardless of the number chairs and move on to the next thing. I do caution dealers to pay attention to Data and build programs based on business plans, not noisy lunacy from tiny dealers selling things in unscalable ways who are lacking not only Data but business acumen as well.

The Imaging Channel needs to align its deliverable based on market realities instead of their obsession in learning what they already know. or, doing stupid unscalable things based on emotional nonsense.

The Pandemic experience should prove to all that. End-Users won't care about chair-based billing when they are in their home office, and they need toner, need to buy a desktop printer, need to pay online with a credit card, need a computer, a laptop or they need some help with software applications. The list of things the imaging channel's customers can currently do online with competitors outside the channel is way past what most dealers can offer. This lack of innovation must be addressed immediately.

" The time to replace yesterday's mentalities with tomorrow's realities is now."

The channel needs to shift their tuition dollars from yesterday's redundant education to learning what today's market realities demand, you know. The channel needs to learn quickly how to navigate through what I describe as that intersection between the physical and digital worlds.

The Imaging Channel is wasting too much time learning things they already know. It's time to fill the chairs in new classrooms leaving behind the insecurities which have kept the channel living in yesterday.

Remember, "Repetitive learning is a Procrastinator's Journey."

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

I welcome all to connect here on Linkedin and subscribe to my youtube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channe...A?view_as=subscriber

Ray Stasieczko CEO TEASRA, The Innovation Channel and Host of End of The Day With Ray! https://teasratic.com/

DocuWare

DocuWare Developer Joins the Fight Against Covid-19

Art Post · 4/20/208:30 AM

Rath is working with Makers vs. Virus, a Berlin-based volunteer group that connects individuals and companies who can donate protective equipment with healthcare organizations that urgently need it. The organization only works with “makers” who will donate the items for free or offer them at cost. It’s not an official organization and provides the equipment without a warranty.

DocuWare Manager Research & Development Thomas Rath Rath read about the effort online. “Now there are more than 6,000 people in a group that meets on Slack. They’re from Germany, Austria and Switzerland,” he says. “My work at the Future Lab, where we explore new technologies that could benefit our customers, helped set me on this path,” he explains. “I also have friends working in hospitals or in the medical field. They’re lacking so much equipment and are often completely on their own when it comes to procuring it immediately.”

read the rest here

MSP & MSSP & IT Industry Notes

End Of The Day With Ray, Saturday Special

Art Post · 4/19/209:30 AM

In Times Of Crisis, Sales Professionals Get Reacquainted With And Recapture Their Hearts

Larry Levine · 4/19/207:30 AM

"An act of kindness may take only a moment of our time, but when captured in the heart the memory lives forever."

Molly Friedenfeld

Heart in sales, it's not a dirty word.

Within the sales culture, an image of the heart is often associated with weakness or being too mushy gushy. However, the heart is strong and powerful, the driving force of life, one heartbeat at a time!

Your ability to succeed becomes crippled when there's an unbalanced connection with your heart. Embracing a heart-centered approach to sales rests with your ability to stop, look inward, and reflect upon the course of action you know is the right one, rather than succumbing to external pressures and misaligned sales crapola.

Our heart is the absolute key to survival. Plain and simple, if our heart stops beating, we die. We know this, so we take good care of it. We exercise, we eat healthy and we try to avoid stress; all in the name of heart-health.

How can you sell from the heart if your heart is broken?

A BEATING HEART

Unfortunately, many sales organizations have become bottom line focused and results driven. They're looking outward as they're being led by their brain. Their inner core values have been thrown to the waste side as money and profit have become the driving force.

“If your goals aren’t synced with the substance of your heart, then achieving them won’t matter much.”

Danielle LaPorte

For the brain to work we need a strong heart. When I look inside many sales organizations, I often find unhealthy hearts where values and beliefs are misaligned. Layer on top of this misaligned values in management and folks... this is a recipe for sales disaster.

HONESTY IN TIMES OF A CRISIS

Right now, throughout the entire world, we're faced with a crisis.

This is the time where relationships, connections, love, caring and a sense of belonging must be placed at the forefront of humanity.

You see in a world full of turmoil, turbulence and trouble, it's time to protect, safeguard and restore the human approach to sales.

A sales professional gets honest with themselves in times of crisis and uncertainty.

Honesty helps to detect self-deception that we use as a smoke screen to mask our problems and imperfections.

Brené Brown, in her book, "The Gifts Of Imperfection" talks about self-love. "Practicing self-love means learning how to trust ourselves, to treat ourselves with respect and to be kind affectionate towards ourselves."

Honesty begins with you and not the people around you. If you're not honest with yourself then who can you be honest with?

REMOVE THE ROADBLOCKS TO THE HEART

Sales professionals use chaotic and crisis filled times to recapture and get reacquainted with their hearts.

"Poor sales performance is due to an unhealthy sales lifestyle"

In a sales context, let's refer to the Merriam Webster definition... something that blocks progress or prevents accomplishment of an objective

EMBRACE WHO YOU ARE

Here's a little secret, you're not perfect and you never will be. Accept your scars and your flaws as something to be proud of, instead of something to hide away from. Embrace and learn to love what makes you, you.

The sales world is riddled with braggadocious, bravado filled behaviors. Armani suits, rolex watches and fancy cars mask the insecurity. You see we all have imperfections. We all have baggage. We all have ghosts in the closet.

Embrace it. When we're willing to say "FU" to everyone and shout, "This is who I am" then your sales life begins.

"Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you."

Dr. Seuss

CHANGE YOUR OUTLOOK

Recapturing your heart during a crisis means setting aside some alone time, pausing and then reflecting... what has been preventing me from becoming the best version of me?

Honoring your heart, it's not a sign of weakness. True power resides with listening to your 'gut' and finding it within your heart by making a commitment to clear all that stands in the way of a heartfelt connection.

"We need connection to thrive emotionally, physically, spiritually and intellectually"

Brené Brown

Sharing your knowledge, it's not a sign of weakness. Share your knowledge, your insights and what you can do for others rather than for yourself. I guarantee no one likes a know-it all, self-centered and stereo-typical sales rep... This does not build followership.

"Givers give, are you giving of yourself to those who need it the most?"

It takes strength, those who lead with their heart and not just their wallet is able to connect with the emotional needs of their clients and prospects. They understand people have the need to be valued, respected, heard and acknowledged. By acknowledging and not forgetting the human element, heart-centered professionals maintain the wisdom to positively transform their client's business by helping them to do better business, a profitable one.

RECAPTURE YOUR CAREER

Placing your heart at the forefront is about opening the human door to connection, to serve, and to become vulnerable. It’s about showing up in a way that lifts the spirits of the people around you. It’s about the willingness to be real, relatable and authentic.

"Vulnerability is a sign of strength"

Bringing your heart to what you do makes for a deeper, richer experience which benefits both you, your clients and your prospects. I encourage all of you to step away from the armor and the sales facade. Create opportunities for in-depth relationships that can never be experienced hiding behind a “professional” sales mask.

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Recapture and get reacquainted with your heart, I promise it will change your life and your sales career.

If your heart's not in it then how can your mind be in it? In times of turmoil and turbulence, gaining an understanding of who you are and how this aligns with heart is the key to your success.

What is powering your heart engine right now?

There is an old proverb:

“Above all things guard your heart…”

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.

MSP & MSSP & IT Industry Notes

MSP & MSSP Industry Notes for April 18th, 2020

Art Post · 4/18/2010:59 PM

MSP & MSSP Industry Notes

The End Of The Day With Ray! Search for the Painful Truth

Art Post · 4/18/209:30 AM

This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago

This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago for the Second Week in April of 2015

Art Post · 4/18/209:00 AM

For those of you that are new to the industry, there's a cool blog I wrote about making the phone calls. Believe it or not the phone is your friend. You can read that here or below.

Fourty Eight Hundred Phone Calls a Year Can Equal a Lot of Dough!

Enjoy these awesome threads from 5 years ago this week!

Bid Tabulation for Xerox_Sharp_Samsung_Canon_Kyocera.pdf

Art Post · 4/14/1512:55 PM

Topic

Konica Minolta Expands and Enhances Corporate Communications Team at US Headquarters

Art Post · 4/14/1512:20 AM

ofIT strategy, support, project and cloud computingsolutions across all verticals. Konica Minolta has won numerous awards and recognition, includingplacement in the Leaders Quadrant on the Gartner 2014 Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services (MPS) and Managed Content Services (MCS). Konica Minoltahas been recognized as the #1 Brand for Customer Loyalty in the MFP Office Copier Market by Brand Keys for eight consecutive years. Konica Minolta, Inc. has also been named to the Dow Jones

Topic

Konica Minolta Named as an Industry Leader by IDC MarketScape for Smart MFPs

Art Post · 4/21/1510:02 PM

Gartner 2014 Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services (MPS) and Managed Content Services (MCS). Konica Minoltahas been recognized as the #1 Brand for Customer Loyalty in the MFP Office Copier Market by Brand Keys for eight consecutive years. Konica Minolta, Inc. has also been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for three years in a row. For more information, please visit: www.kmbs.konicaminolta.us and follow Konica Minolta on Facebook , YouTube , and Twitter @konicaminoltaus. About

Topic

Print Audit® Introduces Embedded Application for KYOCERA Small Panel MFPs

Art Post · 4/21/1510:07 PM

previous releases. Please visit the following page for a list of all the changes that have been made in the new version: http://www.printaudit.com/software-updates.asp?id=13 For more information about Print Audit Embedded for Kyocera, please visit: http://www.printaudit.com/prin...dded-for-kyocera.asp About KYOCERA Document Solutions America: KYOCERA Document Solutions America, Inc. ( www.kyoceradocumentsolutions.com/us ), headquartered in Fairfield, N.J., is a leading provider of computer

Topic

Konica Minolta and MGI to Preview JETvarnish 3DS to Canadian Market at Graphics Canada 2015

Art Post · 4/15/1510:35 PM

MGI Digital Graphic Technology and Konica Minolta announce the preview of the JETVarnish 3DS to the Canadian commercial printing industry at Graphics Canada 2015. The JETvarnish 3DS is designed and manufactured by MGI Konica Minolta to help printers expand their services to include new, amazing spot UV and 3D tactile varnishing capabilities with powerful inkjet productivity efficiency benefits. Graphics Canada 2015, Canada’s largest showcase for the Graphics Communications and Printing

Blog Post

3D Printers & Copy Machines "is there a common thread"?

Art Post · 4/15/1511:37 PM

list. I'mfinding a few here and there, but not nearly as many as all of the copier RFP's, but enough to keep me looking for more. In recent months, I've seen more libraries K12sposting RFP's for 3D printers, in fact the last library I came across was getting their 3rd 3D printer! For those of us that make our living on selling hardware, it's pretty obvious that more and more 3D printers are being placed in Libraries, Colleges, Universities, and K12s across the country. It seems likemany office

Topic

Xerox and Fotoba Establish New Wide Format Speed Benchmark: Five Seconds for Full-Bleed Prints

Art Post · 4/16/1510:20 PM

matte coated, photo gloss, satin, blueback and backlit/stoplight films, enabling printers to offer their customers a wide range of applications . In addition to fast turnarounds of finished prints, the cutter’s flexible trimming options let shops produce any size job without having to stock multiple roll sizes or make frequent roll changes, saving time and money. Its self-sharpening blades also minimize maintenance requirements. The IJP 2000 and Fotoba FHS42 Cutter will be on display at FESPA

Topic

Canon Solutions America Launches Expanded Professional Certification Initiative

Art Post · 4/21/159:55 PM

management solutions. A wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc., Canon Solutions America is headquartered in Melville, N.Y. and has sales and service locations across the U.S. For more information on Canon Solutions America, please visit csa.canon.com . About IDEAlliance IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance) is a global community of content and media creators and their service providers, material suppliers, and technology partners. The association identifies best practices

Topic

Konica Minolta bizhub: How to Modify Default Scan Settings

Art Post · 4/14/1510:58 PM

Comment

Re: 3D Printers & Copy Machines "is there a common thread"?

Czech · 4/16/155:32 PM

Originally Posted by Art Post: Czech Thanx for the response, 3D printing is here to stay. However, it's not about now, it's about positioning your dealership as a technology leader and innovator. 3D printing sales will grow. I look at the 3Dindustry and am comparing it to the copier industry in the early 70's. I have no doubt that 3D printers will stay. The technology will only get more and more innovative. Is it technology that dealers will adopt? I'm sure many will try. It may be too soon to

Topic

MURATEC AMERICA, INC. RELEASES SEVEN NEW A3 MULTI-FUNCTION PRINTERS

Art Post · 4/14/1511:31 AM

Muratec America, Inc. 3301 E. Plano Parkway, Suite 100 Plano, TX 75074 469-429-3300 Fax 469-429-3311 CONTACT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Lou Stricklin Apr. 1, 2015 469-429-3481 Andrew Jones 469-429-3320 MURATEC AMERICA, INC. RELEASES SEVEN NEW A3 MULTI-FUNCTION PRINTERS PLANO, Texas—(Apr. 1, 2015)—Muratec America, Inc., manufacturer of multifunction office equipment and business productivity solutions, announces the release of seven (7) new A3 multi-function printers (MFPs): MFX-C2280N, MFX-C2880N

Comment

Re: 3D Printers & Copy Machines "is there a common thread"?

Art Post · 4/16/158:58 AM

Czech Thanx for the response, 3D printing is here to stay. However, it's not about now, it's about positioning your dealership as a technology leader and innovator. 3D printing sales will grow. I look at the 3Dindustry and am comparing it to the copier industry in the early 70's.

Comment

Re: 3D Printers & Copy Machines "is there a common thread"?

Old Glory · 4/17/155:08 PM

I know your comparison is very conceptual but there really is less commonality than you think. In the beginning copiers needed nothing but an original needing copied and the copier could fill the need. No variance in throughput, no variance in input. With 3D you have a variance in throughput that spans a very large Gamut from plastics to polymers to metals and unlike a copier, the hardware for each is radically different. Then you have the input. You can have a need and a printer and still be a

Topic

Canon Announces imageWARE Secure Audit Manager Express V2.1

Art Post · 4/14/1511:04 PM

environmental responsibility. In 2014, theCanon Americas Headquarters secured LEED® Gold certification, arecognition for the design, construction, operations and maintenance ofhigh-performance green buildings. To keep apprised of the latest newsfrom Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss and follow us on Twitter @CanonUSA. +Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office. Specifications, availability and prices subject to

Topic

Canon Information and Imaging Solutions Announces Digital Conversion Services for Healthcare

Art Post · 4/14/1512:16 AM

CIIS sales organization. About Canon Information and Imaging Solutions, Inc. Canon Information and Imaging Solutions, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc., was formed to harness the power of Canon’s in-depth knowledge of information flow and world-class imagingtechnology. Utilizing Canon's vast collection of imaging technology anddevelopment tools along with select third-party enterprise applications,Canon Information and Imaging Solutions delivers compellingmarket-driven

Topic

RICOH LAUNCHES AFP2PDF PLUS, BROADENING SUPPORT FOR AFP TRANSFORMS AND MULTI-CHANNEL COMMUNICATIONS

Art Post · 4/14/1511:41 AM

electronic presentment options for the communications they – and their customers – deliver.” For additional information regarding AFP2PDF Plus, please contact your Ricoh representative. | About Ricoh | Ricoh is a global technology company specializing in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems and IT services. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in about 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ending March 2014, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales

Topic

Canon & Ricoh Dealer Promotions - A3 BW and A3 Color

GIntel · 4/17/156:45 PM

Hey Gang, Trying to get a feel for how Canon and Ricoh incentivize their dealers to push specific lines. Basically, how does Ricoh's A3 BW MFP promotions/programs to dealers differ from its A3 CLR MFP Promotions/programs? And... Same question for Canon, how does Canon's A3 BW MFP promotions/programs to dealers differ from its A3 CLR MFP Promotions? I know both want to drive color MFP sales of course, but Canon continues to dominate the A3 BW segments, so its possible that Ricoh sees a need

Topic

Canon Named as a Leader in IDC MarketScape on Smart Multifunction Peripheral Assessment Report

Art Post · 4/20/1510:33 PM

MELVILLE, N.Y., Apr 20, 2015 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Canon, U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, for anotheryear, has been positioned as a leader in the IDC MarketScape: U.S. SmartMultifunction Peripheral 2014-2015 Vendor Assessment, doc #254761, March20151 report, for being innovative and excelling in the paceand productivity of its research and development efforts with respect tomanaged print and document services. The report cites Canon’sachievement in demonstrating strengths in

Re: 3D Printers & Copy Machines "is there a common thread"?

Czech · 4/16/158:45 AM

Hey Art, We just got a desktop 3D Printer in our showroom. I expect it will do great at getting IT folks in for demos. The technology really is cool! But that's about it. From what I've seen, 3D printers have 0 practicality in an office or business environment. Perhaps the occasional school will purchase one. A lot of dealerships sell telecom services on top of copiers. It's a very similar industry: - 5 year contracts - upfront hardware revenue that can be purchased or leased - reoccurring

Comment

Re: 3D Printers & Copy Machines "is there a common thread"?

Rogue · 4/16/1511:40 AM

Personally, I think you're right on with your ideas about 3D. I don't know if it will ever have the acceptance copiers had in their heyday, butright now, it's a product looking for a market. I saw something intersting on TV involving a 3D printing application. The company (which was not involved in any medical field) found it could use it's 3D printer to produce aprosthesis specifically designed for children. Children grow and therefore quickly outgrow their artificial limbs. This 3D printer

Comment

Re: 3D Printers & Copy Machines "is there a common thread"?

Art Post · 4/16/1510:33 PM

Rogue: Thanx for the response! Time will tell, and over time they will get faster and additional materials will come to market for building all types of items. Take the copier industry and what if you had a 3D printer that could print on demand 25% of your parts. Reduce back orders, cut inventory, enhance the customer experience. It's just a matter of time

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Re: 3D Printers & Copy Machines "is there a common thread"?

exit148 · 4/21/158:32 AM

There is an interesting article in the April 2015 edition of the BTA Office Technology Magazine. I can't seem to get a link to it but it interviews dealerships who have been selling them already. Article is named "The Next Dimension: Are 3D printers a good fit for the BTA Channel" By Brent Hoskins. Maybe someone can post the link??

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Epson Unveils New SureColor P800 17-Inch Wide Professional Printer

Art Post · 4/14/1511:10 PM

LONG BEACH, Calif. , April 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Epson today announced the highly anticipated SureColor ® P800 printer, representing a new benchmark in photographic print quality. Designed for professional use, the SureColor P800 is a full 17-inch wide borderless printer with unique Epson ® MicroPiezo ® AMC TM printhead technology. Leveraging an all-new Epson UltraChrome ® HD eight-color pigment ink set, the SureColor P800 is capable of producing the next generation of color and black

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Epson, ReThink Label Systems Partner to ‘Disrupt’ Color Label Printing

Art Post · 4/14/1512:04 AM

apart from other printers in its overall cost-effectiveness. This printer is high-speed, high volume, and high quality. Itsdurability is unparalleled: it can produce 20 million inches of printingbefore requiring a service, compared to 500,000 inches with traditionalcolor inkjet printheads. The Epson C7500 provides a new flexibility in full color production printing that had not been available before. It is capable of printingfull-color labels at a blazing fast 11 inches per second. The Epson C

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Sharp's default risk drops on possible rescue by Foxconn

Art Post · 4/14/1512:12 AM

for the banks to support Sharp." Mizuho and Mitsubishi UFJ lent the company 360 billion yen in September 2012, and 150 billion yen more the following year, according to its 2014 annual report. Miyuki Nakayama, a spokeswoman for Sharp, declined to comment on the company's default swaps. Sharp reported about 724 billion yen in net debt in its latest filing, the third-highest among global peers, after Toshiba Corp. and LG Electronics, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with net

Blog Post

Fourty Eight Hundred Phone Calls a Year Can Equal a Lot of Dough!

Art Post · 4/14/155:00 PM

Make the calls and the prospects will be there. Whether yoursending inmailsthrough LinkedIn, sending emails, calling on the phone, or just knocking on doors, if you do the work, the prospects pool will only grow larger. A recent email to me about the base metrics that sales people need to hit each week got me thinking. This particular email stressed the fact that there needs to be 100 phone cold calls a week. Which I'm in total agreement. Sometimes you'll eat the bear and get more and sometimes

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MakerBot Partners with D&H to Distribute 3D Printers and Scanners in Education, Healthcare and Government Verticals

Art Post · 4/15/1510:26 PM

BROOKLYN, N.Y. HARRISBURG, Pa.--( BUSINESS WIRE )-- MakerBot ,a global leader in the desktop 3D printingindustry, is pleased to announce it has signed an agreement with DHDistributing as a distributor of MakerBot® 3D printers andscanners in the U.S. DH specializes in important vertical markets for3D printing, such as education, medical/healthcare, government and manufacturing. MakerBot is excited to work with DH to help gain penetration in these spaces due to DH’s breadth of programs for

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P4P Pricing on the street XEROX WC5638 .pdf

Art Post · 4/19/155:22 PM

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P4P Pricing on the street Xerox 4260XF .pdf

Art Post · 4/19/155:22 PM

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Industry Analyst Inc. 2016 Kyocera Dealer Show Recap

Kyocera Guy · 4/20/1510:32 AM

on the amount of color in the printed document. Prints with very little color (like an email with a single small hyper link or logo) cost less than prints that have full color. Kyocera has made this available to dealers for about three years now and I’m pretty surprised that only about 40% of them are using it. It’s funny because if I was still a sales rep I would be chomping at the bit to go out there and show customers how I could absolutely save them money just by buying from me. However, the

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Adding Wide Format to the Mix - Presented by Canon Solutions America

Art Post · 4/14/1510:57 PM

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To The Moon and Back: The Essential Guide to Seat Based Billing for Managed Print

Art Post · 4/14/153:18 PM

To The Moon and Back: The Essential Guide to Seat Based Billing for ManagedPrint by Print Audit On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers did something that most people said was impossible. They took a myriad of wood, cloth, and cables and became the first human beings to take flight. 66 years later Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon. Today we have a myriad of satellites and rovers giving us a historically unparalleled understanding of the planets in our outer solar system

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New Kyocera A4

Kyocera Guy · 4/14/158:03 PM

Here is one of the New A4 Units. They were talking about a release this summer possibly. We will see.

Topic

Print Audit to Sponsor and Exhibit at Photizo Group’s Navigator Meeting

Art Post · 4/16/1510:12 PM

Print Audit to Sponsor and Exhibit at Photizo Group’s Navigator Meeting April 16, 2015 Calgary, Alberta - April 16, 2015 - Print Audit®, the company that helps office equipment dealers grow their businesses, will attend, sponsor and provide an educational session at Photizo Group’s 2015 Navigator meeting which takes place from May 13th to 14th in New Orleans, Louisiana. The first annual Photizo Navigator meeting is an exciting and exclusive event for the imaging industry. Executives are

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Webinar Announced for New Business Intelligence Tool: Print Audit Insight

Art Post · 4/16/1510:14 PM

Webinar Announced for New Business Intelligence Tool: Print Audit Insight April 10, 2015 Calgary, Alberta - April 10, 2015 - Print Audit®, the company that helps office equipment dealers grow their businesses, announced today that it will conduct a public webinar on Wednesday, April the 29th to showcase its new Business Intelligence Dashboard known as Insight. The new reporting tool, which will be made available exclusively to North American Premier members, provides a powerful way to marry

Topic

Ricoh's Legal MFP

Art Post · 4/16/1510:22 PM

Topic

Sharp remains on life support

Art Post · 4/18/1511:26 PM

Japanese electronics giant Sharp may be struggling, but the banks will keep the heavily indebted firm on life support, analysts say. "The banks are on the hook – it goes back to [John Maynard] Keynes' famous saying: if you borrow $100 from the bank, it's your problem; if you borrow $100 million from the bank, it's the bank's problem," Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal told CNBC. Sharp's financial issues are slightly greater than even a $100 million, however. The company owes around 700 billion

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Print Audit Insight Webinar

Art Post · 4/20/159:15 AM

here's the link, I previewed it on Friday and it's unreal. I can see MIF field placements by county, in addition I can drill down with customers and find inefficiencies with their printing habits. You've got to see this!!! http://www.printaudit.com/insight-webinar.asp

Topic

Ricoh MP 401SPF Drum Cartridge

Art Post · 4/21/153:50 PM

Does anyone know the MSRP and yield of the drum cartridge? Just curious also to see if there is a fuser kit on this system too. ty-

-=Good Selling=-

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Twenty-Four of Sales

Art Post · 4/17/2010:26 PM

Yay! Friday night and the weekend lays ahead! Not so fast grasshopper since tomorrow is going to be in the high thirties and raining in the AM. Maybe we'll see a high of 50 degrees.

Typically this time of year is prime for combing the beaches and finding money. Well not really finding money but finding sea glass, jingle shells and hard clam shells that I turn into wampum. For me each piece of sea glass can mean $10 a pop. The shells are worth the effort because I'll also turn them into jewelry. Spending a couple of hours at the beach can net me a few hundred dollars each time.

Walking those beaches and looking for the odd color that stands out, that perfect flat jingle shell or the hard clam shell with the deep purple is a form of prospecting. I'm fortunate that the shells and glass will not tell me to get lost or that we just leased our copiers last week. lol

My favorite beaches are closed in New Jersey. In fact a few weeks ago a guy was arrested by the police for walking below the tide line on a beach. No one around him in sight, someone called the police and he was promptly arrested. I'm not blaming the police because they are doing their job. I do find fault with the person that called the police because one person was enjoying a solo walk on that beach not hurting or endangering anyone.

Apologies I kind of went off track there.

Prospecting, it never ends in sales, those of us that are good at it have learned that it's what pays the bills and feeds the family. It's those times when you walk into a new company and for some reason of fate that account or that person needs exactly what you have to offer. It's those type of days that keeps us going, because we know every now and then we're going to find that special deal.

Today I had three meetings with clients which ranged from one client that closed their office forever and all employees would be remote from here on in. Thus there was no need for the 45ppm A3 color mfp anymore. The problem was that they still had 11 payments left on the lease. I guiding and directed on the processes and what their obligations are. There was no commission check to be made, and no opportunities in the near future, but they were still a client and they needed help. Maybe somewhere down the road they may need content management or something else. The end of the call was the best when the client stated "I really enjoy working with you".

Meeting number two was about educating the client about their maintenance agreement and a recent invoice. Seems they went some 60K over their annual black base and the extra charge was a shock to them. Rather than see them move away from us (22 payments still left on this lease), I took the time to review the initial maintenance doc, review why we selected that type of maintenance agreement more than three years ago. I also took the time to point out the costs associated with the A3 mono mfp if the client decided to cancel that agreement. After all was said and one our client remained a client and understood why we billed what we did.

Call three, was the with the client that I have the $35K proposal with. Although today's meeting was not about the copier but about BDR (backup disaster recovery), by the end of the meeting I was able to get a copy of their BDR agreement. The agreement did not have pricing, alas it was redacted but never the less it was more about seeing if they had the right plan. I sent that copy off to my IT team for review and then had another short meeting with them. The end result right now is that we need to perform an assessment to see how much storage is being used. Well that does count as an opportunity in my book! What I couldn't get today is the order for the $35K which kinda bummed me out. Hoping Monday is the day to bring this home.

Since prospecting was the order of the day after all was said and done I managed about 15 calls and maybe handful of emails. Monday needs to be a super busy day so I'm thinking I need to put a few hours in on the weekend.

Other than all of that a pretty quite Friday, personally I think most people who are working are burnt out by the time Friday rolls around. There was less incoming calls and less emails and this has been a consistent pattern for the last three weeks.

The beach tomorrow? That's a no because our beaches are also closed, thus my time will be spent with "honey do" things around the house.

Everyone be well and stay safe and enjoy what you can.

-=Good Selling=-

PS Never ever stop prospecting!

R.J. Stasieczko

The End Of The Day With Ray! Don’t Screw Up Your Defining Moment

Art Post · 4/17/209:30 AM

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Twenty-Three of Sales

Art Post · 4/16/2010:23 PM

There was some good news today in that the Feds released their plans for States to get back to work in a three phase operation. Seems each State will have different time lines depending if they meet the conditions that were set forth today. New Jersey is on lock down until the 15th of May. Could we see some of the restrictions lifted soon? I'm thinking no since we're one of those nanny states.

This may be one of my shorter blogs and the reason for that is because I spent 5 of my eight hours in meetings. Three and half with training, half an hour with NJ branch meeting and then a one hour meeting with a client at the end of the day.

That one hour meeting was to put the final touches on the 35K order that I'm working on. Thinking I'll have an answer tomorrow or Monday. One of my other potential orders is now dragging a bit. The revenue was about $12K. However I still may have shot to get it in by the 23rd (out month end).

I was only able to do 10 calls today along with 7 emails, not a great day by any means. However if you factor in the two appointments then that makes the effort pretty darn good. One of those appointments could be worth about $30k.

I didn't do anything creative today except for having some fun in one of our TEAMS meeting. I set the background to show the beach, I then donned my Aruba hat, grabbed some shades, a tropical shirt and stoked up a cigar for the meeting. I saw some smiles and a few laughs and that's what it was intended to do. There was me with the virtual beach background and imagining I was far away from Covid.

After 23 days I've got this remote working from home down to a science now. I guess no matter where you're working it's all about the effort you put in on a day to day basis. Yes, it would be easy to take a couple hour break, and pretty easy watch a movie. But who the heck wants easy? If I wanted easy I would have retired already. As much as I say I want easy I really don't. I love when there's a challenge, and yes this entire episode with Covid is a challenge. This is the attitude to take, it;s that mental toughness that makes us great!

Can I succeed, can I write the same numbers pre-Covid, can I break the monthly quota? Yes, we can do all of that if we have those three D's of selling.

Desire, Dedication and Determination

-=Good Selling=-

PS Don't forget to catch the Greg & Art show which starts at NOON tomorrow. It's my working lunch!

DocuWare

Roofing company has got its accounting processes covered with AP automation solution

Art Post · 4/16/209:19 PM

A.B. Martin Roofing Supply is a one-stop-shop for all things related to roofing, building and construction. Each year, over 19 million feet of metal panels are produced and delivered to about 140,000 contractors across 19 US states. They also purchase a high volume of materials from multiple vendors. With many invoices coming in, they needed a streamlined solution to accurately track deliveries and payments. Now with DocuWare, they have an organized supply purchasing and accounts payable operations.

DocuWare benefits:

All 20,000 invoices and counting are stored in one central database; it’s easy to search and no more time is wasted digging through paper files
Accounting team enjoys streamlined, accurate workflows; integration with accounting software Paradigm ensures the proper reviewer is assigned to check on deliveries before payment goes out
Success has led to expansion plans to add a trucking company and a new wholesale company to DocuWare operations

read the rest here

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