MFP Copier Blog

I started the day at 7AM because I had to get a revised quote out early this is client that was in the weeds on Wednesday, out them yesterday. I sent the email off about 8:00AM prepping for a good start to the day.  That client ended up back in the weeds and never got back to me today.

From 8AM to 9:30AM I was able to finish off another blog for my Jersey Plotters site. I'm a firm believer in writing interesting content to will establish myself as the go to person for wide format printers in New Jersey.  It doesn't happen over night, but after two years of writing my site places on the first page of Google when search for wide format plotters.  In those two years I've been able to move 8 wide format MFP's and one color MFP copier.  You might say that's not a lot but it's 8 more than I had and you never know when the big one might hit.

That act of writing content is called "pull marketing", the act of sending emails, knocking on doors and making phones call is "push marketing".  Writing content on a consistent basis will grow your brand and reputation.  Eventually those leads will come to you. Much better than making 100 calls and setting one net new appointment in my book.  In addition when you have a decent book of accounts there's a lot of work that goes into supporting those accounts which limits your phone prospecting.

I wasn't able to finish out the week with any additional orders.  I had one early in the week for the pre-owned wide format and everything else stalled on me.  Of course the deal in the weeds for 8K (who knows whats going on there), the verbal I received on Tuesday produced no documents today.  After following up with that account I was promised order docs this coming Monday.

During the summer months in New Jersey, Friday is the day that many people cut out of work early and head for the beaches.  It's common to have bumper to bumper traffic by 3:30PM on the Garden State Parkway.  The nicer the day the heavier the traffic. For years I would pack it in at the office and leave by 3PM so I didn't have to fight the traffic since I live so close to the beach.  

Nowadays I'm always at the beach and the thought of leaving work early to beat the traffic is not an option.  Today I had a 4:45PM appointment scheduled with an existing client for a telechat.  Yup, 4:45PM on a beautiful Friday and I'm still grinding.  That meeting went well and it should produce an order for late Monday or Tuesday AM (14K).

I have seven days left in the selling month for June.  We close out books at end day on the 23rd. As of today I'm sitting at $25K for the month.  But I still have more than 25% of the month left.  I have a decent shot at pulling in $45K next week with $20K being net new business.  If I get all of that I'll be close to my $300K for the quarter goal.   Of course anything could falter thus I need to find a few more opps during the week and something that can close quickly.  

It's late, I'm beat, everyone have a great weekend!

-=Good Selling=-

It is better to give than to receive.  We've all heard it and many of us give in times of need or in times of emergencies.  It's just what we do.  Some even believe that it's good Karma. 

Karma: the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.

I think it was the third week in April that I made a $300 donation to a non-profit group that's one of my clients.  In May of each year they have a walkathon and due to COVID19 they had to do a virtual walk and I could tell they were nervous about getting the funds they needed.  I signed up for their virtual campaign and kicked it off with three hundred dollars and then sent invitations to friends.  In total we raised $400.  Not much but it was better than nothing.

A week later is when the orders started coming in for May.  I can believe that those orders were from hard work in March and April or I could believe that it was the karma that I created with giving back.  I'm a believer in hard work but also a believer in the harder you work the luckier you get.  Indeed I thought I was really lucky with a few of those orders in May.  It seemed more like I had the Midas touch because every touch produced an order.  Strange times indeed.

On tap for today was zero appointments, it was a day that I should have been prospecting.  That full day of prospecting eluded me again today, however I was able to schedule two appointments today for today.  One was with the existing client where the deal went in the weeds when the DM thought they only had a few payments left on a lease.  After chatting for a few minutes it was time to give back.  This company was in one of the hardest hit industries that I know of, thus I added an additional incentive that came out of the GP.  I knew that the were worried about incurring any additional costs. In order to make it a no brainer I threw in two quarters of maintenance and supplies. I'll have my answer tomorrow if this will move forward.

No paper work for the verbal I received on Tuesday but a call from the client promised the docs today or tomorrow. 

Later in the day was a meeting with a net new company (major) that wants to buy local.  We had been emailing back and forth through out the day and I got to the point and asked if we could have a tele chat meeting.  That meeting went off about 4PM and lasted almost until 5PM.  In addition another mfp could get into the mix for another location. I feel good about this one since this client has been a two year project also. Thinking this has a good shot at closing next week for about $20K

Another great thing happened today.  I was finally able to secure a recent KM flat rate lease with T's & C's. I plan on reviewing this tomorrow and writing a blog about those T's & C's some time next week. I was also stunned at the price for a 30PPM color MFP.  More about this next week.

Today was the day the wife and I had been waiting for.  A new fridge was to be installed today, after 20 years it was sorely needed.  The price?  Well let's say it wasn't cheap.  We had been kicked the idea around for a couple of months. It was two weeks ago when I reached in the fridge to get a drink and everything on the top shelf came with it.  I said it's time!  We did the research which is horrible to do on-line (I can only imagine what copier buyers go through) and we finally decided on one that was more top of the line.  

Here was my thinking, the more I spend the more I'm going to want to replace those funds in a hurry.  To me it was more like losing $2,400 bucks and I needed to replace that cash.  Thus I created a "to do" on my list for "make up fridge money".  How do you make up the fridge money?  Find more opportunities!

Hoping tomorrow goes well. I could be at $8K for the week or $36K, hoping the karma stays intact for another 24 hours.

-=Good Selling=-

Special thanx to those that left replies and those that emailed me with yesterdays blog.  I decided to change the time when I writing these blogs so I'm not doing them so late at night.   Looks like I'm here for the duration!

June 17th will mark 66 business days since I've been optioned to working remote, those 66 days will represent a full quarter. Initially I thought this working remote gig would last 3-4 weeks at most.  I was way off the mark on this one.

Today was another kind of screwy day that eventual got out of hand but I was able to reel it back in by about 3:30PM.  I started off the day by finishing up two commission sheets that had to be delivered today and then found myself mired in an accounting issue for about an hour,  I don't want to go off on a tangent here but I will say that some of the things we do in our industry is complicated.  We tend to make then harder than what they should be, I'm in the camp that simple is better and providing an excellent client experience is always  front and center for any business.  In the end things worked out awesome.

Around 10AM I had to prep for my 11AM meeting with an existing account.  I was ready, had the numbers ready and the call went fantastic. It went so far as the client stating "this is a no brainer, send me everything I'll talk with my Dad later and we'll get this done".  Put another one in the books right?   

Well this did not go as well as I had hoped within an hour of sending that email I had an email back from the client stated "my Dad told me there are only two months left in the lease and we own the copier at the end, is that the case?. If so we'll just stay where we are".  I have no clue where this came from because the client will not own the copier at the end of the lease and there are many more months left in the lease. I sent a copy of the lease and explained that was not the case. I followed up an hour later with a call and did speak the client, however was told can I call you back.  The call back never came today and this deal is now in the weeds from some reason.  I need to flush this out tomorrow and see why those thoughts were there about the lease. Emailing isn't going to work this will need a phone call.

Remember that to do list with 20 items on it. I was able to complete all of those to do's from 3:30PM on.  Most of these to do's were follow ups on my funnel.  Not much of anything except for scheduling an appointment on Friday for the wide format existing account.  That's the one for 14K.

I didn't receive the docs back for the verbal I had on Monday (just sent the docs yesterday morning), hoping I'll have these sometime tomorrow.  Out of all of the calls and the emails I was able to set up two additional meetings.

I had a nice surprise today also, one of my prospects who was not in the 90 day funnel got hot. That email came right after lunch and I was able to schedule an appointment to review needs, and time frame of delivery.  Sometime after 5PM I sent some preliminary info and I'm now in waiting mode with an additional questioned I posed about a spec.  My surprise email turns about to be a $17K opportunity that could close by the end of this month. 

I'll say it again, if you're always working hard you never know what tomorrow will bring you.  Today it brought me that additional opportunity that I needed.  That one opportunity makes all the non answered calls and the non answered emails worth the effort.

Moving into Thursday I'm waiting on docs for 8K, the deal in the weeds in 9K and the wide format is $14K.  At this time I can have a great week or come up empty handed.  I'll be happy with getting one of these and then busting it for next week.

I have no idea if I have any appointments for tomorrow. I'll check when I'm finished with this blog.  I have another 12 items on my to do list and it's back to prospecting.  Never ever stop prospecting.

-=Good Selling=-

While most of the US continues to open the State of New Jersey continues to plod at a snails pace. Our Governor lifted the "stay at home" order however still instructed the masses that it's not time to go back to the office. WTF!

A report surfaced last night that stated COVID19 could have been present in China as early as the summer of 2019.  Again it's just a theory but sounds reasonable since the article spoke about satellite surveillance of hospitals and the marked increases of vehicles. If that turns out to be the case then COVID19 was here in the US prior to December 2019.  There's my two cents on COVID19 for the day.

I've been contemplating ending this series of blogs at 66 days. Those 66 days would reflect a full quarter of working remote and in the pandemic.  Send me a note if or give me a response below if you would like to see me continue.  At this point in time and in NJ I still think we're at least another 6 weeks out from getting back to some sense of normal and people getting back to the office.  Let me know!

How long does it take to send respond to 61 emails and then send another dozen or so prospecting emails?  Seems it took the better part of the day for me because not only do you need to respond but in most cases there is time spent researching or providing the answers.  It's all my fault because I let the day get away from me and this happens because I didn't follow my own rules.  Emails do not have to be answered right away and I need to set aside time in the day for just answering incoming emails.  Anyway my day went to **** pretty quickly.

I did have the chance to get out the documents for the verbal $8K order I received yesterday. I was able to finally process the order that I received on Friday of last week, it took a few extra days because I was waiting on the client to send me pictures of the stairs.  Why is that most wide format MFP's need to go up a flight of stairs?

This brings me to my next rant of the day. Ricoh helps us out with these beasts did you ever think whats it's like to move a 507lb wide format up a flight of stairs?

My list of things to do today had 20 items on the list. I was only able to complete five of those. I was able to book an appointment in the AM with an existing client (possible upgrade) and added an additional opportunity today. An opportunity a day keeps the VP of Sales away!

My $14K opportunity is still in the weeds and I've not had a response to two calls and one email over the last five days. Yesterday and today was letting the ball travel with this account.  Tomorrow is a phone call and possible email follow up.

We had our Tuesday sales meeting today and it was pretty awesome since yours truly was King for revenue and missed being King for net new by a few hundred bucks.  It was my last day of basking in the glory and I'm now back to being the peasant. No place to go but up!

One of my initiatives for this month is to get back to writing a blog a week for my Jersey Plotters site.  I've logged two already this week and I'm looking for inspiration for others.  The good thing about this industry is that you'll always have something to write because nothing stays the same.  Maybe the next blog will be "Five Tips to Move a Wide Format Up a Flight of Stairs", betting that would get quite a few reads.

Tomorrow is almost a solid prospecting day with only one appointment. 

-=Good Selling=-

Contex Publishes Industry Report on the Four Requirements for Successful Large Format Scanning

Chantilly, VA  — June 4, 2020 — Contex, the world leader in large format scanning, today announces the availability of a new report, Requirements for Successful Large Format Scanning. The report addresses four must-haves for scanning, which include hardware design, software options, productivity (and flexibility), and image quality. Combined, these essential requirements make it possible to deliver the best scans, at the fastest speeds, with the highest

image quality. The free report is available for download from Contex’s website at www.contex.com/scanning.

“Our latest report is a helpful resource for understanding the subtle nuances of a well-designed scanning solution. For anyone considering a new scanner or upgrading, this document is a must-read,” comments Steve Blanken, General Manager, Contex Americas.

The report, Requirements for Successful Large Format Scanning, addresses several important issues, including subtle design features that make a big difference with scanning. For example, scanners should have large-capacity input buffers that allow operators to scan one document after the next without a delay or lag time. High-quality camera lenses and scanning technology also make it possible to capture every detail in perfect color. Guide plate options should also let operators scan any type of document: thick or thin, rigid or pliable. A simple and intuitive interface should allow even the newest of operators to feel confident when they walk up to the scanner.

Visit contex.com/scanning to download the free report. For more information, visit www.contex.com or email salesamericas@contex.com.

About Contex

As the world’s leading developer and producer of large format imaging solutions, Contex drives the market with innovative technology and advanced scan and copy software applications. Sold worldwide in more than 100 countries, Contex solutions are recognized in a wide range of industries for reliability, value, high performance, and superb image quality. For more information, please visit www.contex.com.

One week from today New Jersey will begin Phase 2 of re-opening.  Phase 2 will be a 2-4 week process. Out door dining, out door drinking (can you believe that) and non-essential business can now have people (limited) in their stores. No word on in-door dining, gyms, salons, barbers another other personal type services. Can't imagine eating out side and you're suppose to wear a mask when you're not eating. It's gotten to the point of why bother if I can't enjoy my-self.

Rather easy day today for me.  I had three account reviews that I wanted to get done before 11:AM.  All of these are potential existing client upgrades and most are in the 10-13K range. All have a shot of closing this month and I would rate most 50/50 at best. But you've got to be in it to win it!

At 11:AM it was time for Monday mornings with Ricoh!  Interesting that I never seen anyone I know on the call, guess many don't have the appetite for learning that I have.  Knowledge of your industry and your offerings always put you in a great position to win and I like winning!

About a half hour into the call I received a call on my cell from a 610 area code.  There was no name on the phone, I thought it was a call from corp since they are in that zone. Any other area code I wouldn't have taken the call.  Turns out I did the right thing it was a call from one of the DM's from an existing client that I was looking to upgrade.  We spend somewhere in the area of 30 minutes on the call and our call ended with an order for the upgrade.  Nice little order with $8K of revenue.

Other than that I followed up on some of my funnel, sent a dozen or so email and maybe a dozen or so calls.  No appointments but one opportunity was created for $12K.

I almost forget I did have a rather lengthy email exchange with an existing client that is looking to make a move. At this point in time it's a 50/50 shot when this will come home.  I was able to to find out the competitors model numbers which set me in motion to find the good, the bad and the ugly.  Needless to say I feel better about this deal than I did last week.  I just love having the time to do all of this research for clients and myself. I feel as though it's making me even better that what I was.

Net new business is still one of those processes that I'm trying to wrap my head around.  The thought of visiting an office in New Jersey is still remote and so many of the best ideas come from being able to see a clients environment.  I guess at some point in time I need to bite the bullet on the lead service in the near future. I've been holding off because it's been busy. However I know busy will be short lived very soon.

Tomorrow will be a great day!  Teams Sales meeting at 11AM and before 11AM I need to process one order from Friday and get the docs out for the other one from today.

My goal for the quarter is $300.  Right I'm somewhere around $258, need another $42 and have a shot at getting another $14k by the end of the week.  Would be nice to end the week at $272K.

-=Good Selling=-

“Do what you did at the beginning of a relationship and there won’t be an end.” 

Tony Robbins

I believe we live in a business world where relationships matter.

How you develop, nurture and build a healthy relationship funnel will play a significant part in the strength of your sales funnel.

• What defines a client relationship?
• What does a relationship look like to you?

I'd like for you to think about this:

The relationships you think you have with your clients; do they feel the same way about their relationship with you?

When was the last time you asked your clients what they expect in a business relationship and with YOU? Try it, you may learn something!

RELATIONSHIPS DO MATTER

In times of a crisis, relationships are tested. Right now, throughout the entire world, we've been 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.

In a world full of turmoil, turbulence and trouble, it's time to protect, safeguard and restore the human relational aspect you have with your clients.

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

Are you riding the relationship rollercoaster or are you investing in your client relationships?

STOP RIDING THE RELATIONSHIP ROLLERCOASTER

The relationship between you and your clients is much more than the brief purchase of a product, a service or a solution. It is about a personal connection. It's about the bond you form based upon trust, credibility and mutual respect.

Rollercoasters, they have ups and downs, twists and turns; some would say just like relationships.

Unfortunately for many in sales, the relationship rollercoaster has been built on the tracks of low trust and commitment.

According to relationship coach Kyle Benson,

"I define the relationship roller-coaster as a relationship that has a few emotional highs full of connection, fulfillment, and intimacy followed by longer lows of disconnection, and then back up again. Up and down, just like a roller coaster, except not as fun as the theme park you went to as a kid."

Sales professionals avoid the relationship rollercoaster by:

• Continually building new relationships by diversifying their networks
• Giving as much as they expect to get from every relationship
• Constantly pruning, renewing, and reshaping their networks frequently

INVEST IN RELATIONSHIPS

"The key to making money is to stay invested."

Suze Orman

Here's a question for all of you...

Do you value your client relationships?

I bet most of you shouted. "Hell yeah, I value them!"

Well... then here's my next question...

How many hours this past week did you put into growing your client relationships?

I'm concerned that many in sales fail to put in the time and effort necessary to grow their client relationships beyond the surface level.

SALES PROFESSIONALS INVEST

Highly successful professionals, the best of the best, spend heartfelt hours every week investing in their client relationships. They commit to listening and learning something new about their clients. They show appreciation and constantly thank them for their business.

There's no better investment you can make than to invest in your clients.

Your clients are your most valuable asset. Sales professionals understand and make daily deposits in their client's emotional bank account. They understand every investment they make in their clients, pays dividends now, next month and into the future.

Stop waiting for the next great sales lead or whatever magical mysterious event you think will occur, such as the "sales easy switch".

Start right now and invest in your clients.

INVEST AND COLLECT

In sales, investing in your clients and the relationships you have with them is one of the most rewarding investments you can make. These relationships will open up new doors and provide you with new opportunities that would have been unheard of otherwise.

I will leave you with this...

Without building your “relationship capital” with your clients then how can you keep a consistent, well flowing sales funnel?

Without investing in building deep meaningful connections with your clients then how can you expect to reap the benefits that relationship has to offer?

What will you do to keep off the relationship rollercoaster?

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.