On My Way Home

I’m on my way home this evening in another driving rainstorm in New Jersey.  I have one stretch of highway that is 10 miles in length but has 35 traffic lights!  Only in New Jersey!

Hardly ever do I catch all of the traffic lights when they're green. As I sat at one of those red lights, I thought about how much time I spent working a wide format opportunity today.  That red light was symbolic to me because it reminded me that there are always obstacles in your way when you're striving to reach your goal of obtaining the order over your competitor.

Almost a week ago I had an email response from my jerseyplotters web site that a company was interested in a wide format MFP.  I followed up with a few emails and a call for the first three days and finally connected with one of the DM's on the fourth day.  As luck would have it,  we are flush with wide format demo MFP's in our office. We were able to set the demonstration and our prospect (DM) arrived and was able to see three of our wide format MFP's. 

Concerns of the Prospect

• Price
• Quality of Prints
• Features

The Demo

Our prospect stated that he was not so interested in color because he believed that all of the ink based wide format MFP's would bleed or run if the paper got wet (at first I missed this and was more focused on price as his main concern). I could tell that this prospect had done his research.

We gave a quick look at the MP W6700SP, and then moved to our demo MP 3601(which has a killer price on it).  The prospect was also made aware of a pre-owned MP W3601 that we also have.  Sitting next to our MP 3601SP was our Color CW 2201SP demonstrator unit.  A few questions was asked about the CW2201SP and I made sure that I mentioned the Gel-Ink technology that prohibits the ink from bleeding or running if the document(s) get wet. All of the prospects focus was on the pre-owned MP W3601SP.  After a couple of trial closes I was made aware that there was another DM involved and our prospect was going to look at additional devices. 

Let The Ball Travel

I didn't follow up immediately but rather let the opportunity sit for a few days. I still had 35% of my month left at that time.  Sometimes you just need to be patient and things can come to you.  Right, nothing came to be thus a follow up call was placed two days ago.

Things Change

I was able to chat with the prospect and was told that he was not so giddy with the pre-owned device, but more focused on the demo MP W3601.  We ran through some lease numbers, some purchase numbers and finished up with that I would get him a quote for the pre-owned. 

The next day I had a call from the prospect and he starting asking additional questions about the CW2201SP color MFP.  He then let the cat about of the bag and told me that they were also considering an HP T2530, and he thought the HP T2530 has pigment ink. Okay let me explain pigment ink. According to HP's web site it's almost identical technology for the Ricoh Gel-Ink. It's basically toner but has a liquid carrier attached to it. Once the ink hits the pages, the carrier evaporates and the toner is left (so I'm told).

Research

Okay, this was something new to me, I was not aware that HP had that ink technology. I did some additional digging in the specs of the HP and found that the only ink that is pigment based is the mK Black (matt black), all of the other inks are dye based.  Dye based inks will run or bleed on the paper when wet.  HP uses the wording of hydrate and re-hydrate.  Thus this isn't really what the client is looking for. Chalk one up for me!

In an email later in the evening the client then asked if my CW 2201SP has an exit document stacker like the HP.  What?  I was not even aware there was an exit document stacker.  Sure enough I checked and was there was one that spec's to hold fifty pages. WTF!  I had nothing, my prints fall awkwardly into a catch basket.  Minus one on the chalk board and now we're even.

I then noticed that this formidable HP T2530 also has a dual roll feeder.  WTF again, this machine is kicking my ass with features. I can add a another roll feeder to my CW2201SP, however that makes me even more expensive than the HP. I'm thinking I'm now down one and wondering how the frack can I even the playing field.

I reviewed the specs again and noted that the max paper roll length is 300 feet. I found that kind of odd because I don't remember seeing 300 foot rolls of bond plot paper for sale on the web. I had a hunch that I should google 300 foot plot paper with a 2 inch core.  After a few web site visits I was finally able to find a supplier for 300 foot paper.  Some quick math told me that the 300 foot paper was more expensive than 500 foot paper.  After running the cost per square foot of 300 vs 500, there was almost a 35% savings by using the 500 foot rolls.  I then turned to an analysis of the clients volume over 5 years and saw that the client could save more than $1,200 just on the paper cost with the Ricoh CW 2201SP that could accept the 500 foot rolls. Okay, chalk one back up for me, now we're even. Here's the document I sent to the prospect

But, I needed to get ahead somewhere.  Thus I put my client hat on, accessed the great HP web site and had a chat with an "HP Expert".  I was able to confirm that if the customer wanted to print and scan PDF's that they would need the T-2530PS (post script), which is more expensive than the base T-2530. I really don't understand why HP would even offer the T-2530 if it can't print and scan pdf's.   Okay, I'm one up now.

Got back to the client with all of this and the prospect then tells me that he saw some videos on the web and that they are all showing CW 2201SP's printing color at about a minute a page.  Well, here we go again.  My knowledge of the specs led me to believe the speed was just over two "D" pages a minute. Since I had the demo unit, I did some testing on color prints. The first page was 47 seconds which is not close to 30 seconds for each drawing. After a few tweaks with the drive I was able to get the speed to 41 seconds, somewhat better but not matching what I wanted. I understand that all files are different and I'm not replicating the exact file. Thus, I made a video of the color print with a timer and I'm going to send that tonight or in the AM.

Note to Art

I went back to the Ricoh brochure to check the color print speed. Seems I over looked the size of the paper that is in the specs. Ricoh is specs A1 paper which is not 24x36 inches (“D” size). A1 is referenced as 23.4 x 33.1

Tomorrow

I'm going to try to get this prospect closed tomorrow. It's not done yet, but the buying time frame was within a week (hoping that does not change).  I feel that I’ve got a fighting change and I’m elated that I didn’t give up because there’s still a shot to win this. Never ever quit, because you just don't know what tomorrow will bring you!

-=Good Selling=-

Very cool thread from Boston Mike below.  From all of the threads about the Color MFPs, I think we can say that 2003 marked the beginning of the road for color MFP's.  Fifteen years later color MFP's are common in the office today. Margins continue to erode along lower cost devices.

It's been ten years since Ricoh introduced the W7140 and W8140, couldn't believe that when I saw this in one of the threads below.  One of the threads was also about the Ricoh 760 scanner. What a difference ten years makes.  Ricoh no longer offers scanners and in the US they only offer one Ricoh manufactured digital duplicator.  Ah, times do change!

The next time I go to Indianapolis it's going to be by plane and not by car. It was a last minute decision on whether to make the trip or not.  Thus when I looked at the flights and saw that the cost was almost a thousand bucks, I decided the make the drive. On the way out I did two six hour drives and stayed over night in western PA.  But, the trip back I had to make in one day.  It was fourteen hours from start to finished and I was mentally drained by the time I arrived home in Highlands.

Muratec America

A few weeks ago I was notified by my friends at Muratec America (Division of Konica Minolta) about the InfoFlex Event in Indianapolis.  The InfoFlex event is for those businesses and professionals that use the process of flexography to print labels. 

Here's the definition.

Flexography (often abbreviated to flexo) is a form of printing process which utilizes a flexible relief plate. It is essentially a modern version of letterpress which can be used for printing on almost any type of substrate, including plastic, metallic films, cellophane, and paper.

Flexography

There's a few reason why I wanted to go.  For starters a recent blog from GAP Intelligence stated that the digitization rate of four percent. That means that only 4% of the presses in use are digital. That market is ripe for the penetration of digital label presses.  In addition, there are not many players offering digital label presses.  

Secondly, I needed to learn more about Flexography and how those presses work.  My last reason was to learn more about the label presses that are being offered by Muratec America.  It's a different world from copiers, however it's a channel that is still thriving and when it comes down to it, it's all about putting ink or toner on substrates.

I walked the show floor twice before I gathered up the gumption (I had no clue as to what 90% of the vendors were selling) and thought of the questions that I wanted to ask. To everyone, I introduced my self as a beginner with Flexography. To my surprise everyone was willing to answer my questions and help me better understand flexography. Everyone that I spoke to was aware that digital presses (ink or laser) is the wave of the future.

Takeaways 

1) My biggest take away is that Flexo presses are very similar to off-set presses.  There are still plates, make readies  (labels), waste, press cleaning, drum cleaning and set up times. Can take up to 25 minutes to 

2) Flexo Presses can start at about $800K and go in to the millions of dollars!

3) Short run labels of 500-5,000 are frowned upon especially if they have a wide web flexo press.  

4) Flexo Presses can create full color labels capable of cold foil, spot varnish and variable printing. Cost is measured in MSI (cost per one thousand square inches).

5) Flexo printing at least with some of the older devices still needs a craftsman to dial in the press and make it hum.  Same as off-set.

6) There are no generic digital inks for Memjet or PageWide print heads. At least that's what I was told.  I did have a conversation with a rep from TOYO inks and he stated that they do have a digital ink division (suggested that I speak to someone in their digital ink division), however they may have a relationship with HP.

Direct Correlation 

For me the beginner, I see the direct correlation between off-set and Flexo for the placement of digital label presses.  For those that want to get into this lucrative field we can take the same path that we used to replaced off-set presses many years ago.  We're not go to be able to replace those Flexo presses at the start, however what we can offer is an alternative digital technology that can enhance a company that is using Flexo Presses.  We need to address and attack the short run orders that that are turned away or are making a much smaller margin. Focusing on those short run orders to find placements for digital label presses.

Consumables & Maintenance

Ink, ink and more ink.  Since there seems to be no generic inks available, selling label presses that uses the Memjet or PageWide print heads will make your dealership the "go to" source for the ink.  If you're thinking about click charges there is none.  Maintenance Agreements should be billed as "device billing", which means that the dealership can charge a month or annual cost with unlimited usage.  

Comment

After a recent post on Linkedin about the event. Ray Stasieczko offered the comments below.

"Not without a solid business plan to understand the market potential and true cost to deliver. A dealer selling 5 or 10 won’t provide the ROI. These are no different than Production Print equipment too many chase revenue instead of profit".

I'm in agreement with the need for a solid business plan. But I'm not in agreement with the statement of a dealer selling 5-10 presses won't provide enough ROI.  With an average selling cost of $45K per press, the sale of 10 presses will create almost a cool half a million of revenue.  All of the ink consumables will be captured by the dealer, and depending on price a dealer may be able to capture much of the substrates that will be used.

Ray also stated that these label presses are no different that Product Print. I'm also in agreement with that. If your dealership is successful with selling Production Print, then the Label Presses should be a no brainer to move forward with. Think of it this way, if you can't get in the door with a Production Print, you may be able to create excitement and get in the door with Label Presses.  

"Too many chase revenue instead of profit".  I hear you Ray, but Label Presses allow you to chase revenue and extreme profit margins.  The high GP's for Production Print has already past in most major markets. There's too much competition battling for the slice of the pie with cut sheet opportunities.

Opportunities for GP

If the opportunities to make GP continue to dwindle with MFP's, then how the heck are dealerships going to keep their best sales people.  Let's not think about the old dogs like me, but those youngsters that are really good and you can't keep them because another industry offered them better opportunities to make bundles of cash.  Do we really want a continuous revolving door with sales people? I don't think so. Wouldn't we want to them to make bundles of cash with us?  Sales reps that make bundles of cash is also making piles of profit for the dealer.  

Change is Good

There are many discussions in our industry about the need to change, and not be complacent.  Yes, you can squeeze more profit from existing MFP accounts, and you can grow your business from acquiring other dealerships. But how long can that business model last with declining pages and everyone stealing each others accounts with net new pricing?

END

Will digital take over Flexo anytime soon? No, I don't thing so. Is there a market for digital ink or laser label presses?  Absolutely there is. It's all about becoming a fan of the channel, and doing your homework (just like copiers).

Boy does this bring back memories from my duplicator days!

-=Good Selling=-

“The heart is a muscle, and you strengthen muscles by using them. The more I lead with my heart, the stronger it gets.”

Mark Miller

In society and especially within our business culture, an image of the heart is often associated with yielding kindness or weakness. However, the heart is strong and powerful, the driving force of life, one heartbeat at a time!

Your ability to succeed as a sales professional 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 tactics.

Sales professionals who lead with their heart and not just their wallet are 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 sales professionals maintain the wisdom to positively transform their clients business by helping them to do better business, a profitable one.

"A selling from the heart sales professional seeks first to be understood as they turn transactional sales opportunities into transformational experiences."

LEADING WITH HEART IS NOT A SIGN OF WEAKNESS

Honoring your heart is not a sign of weakness. This especially holds true within the sales world. 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.

Sharing your knowledge is not a sign of weakness. Focus on how you can help your clients and prospects. 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.

A HEARTFELT SALES PROFESSIONAL

I believe sales professionals must become...

• Servants by making themselves available to serve
• Servants by paying attention to others needs
• Servants by completing every task with equal dedication
• Servants by becoming faithful and trustworthy

If you want to be 'great', if you want to be 'successful', learn to become a servant. Stop selling…Start serving... Start being a leader of yourself.

A heartfelt sales professional commits to serving others. They walk, talk, live and breathe every aspect of a servant. They're humble, genuine and sincere as they roll up their emotional sleeves. A selling from the heart sales professional measures success not by their commission check but on the impact they've made on their clients. Loving their clients and obtaining results are their two-headed sales coin.

A HEARTFELT SALES PROFESSIONAL UNDERSTANDS VALUE

A selling from the heart professional recognizes the value in both their sales based tools and their heart based tools. They're skillful in building rock solid and credible relationships. They display kindness and concern as they truly understand these emotions demonstrate strength rather than weakness. 

Heartfelt professionals are not afraid to use the most powerful tools which come from the heart. They understand that by nature people are emotional and relationship based. They understand how to incorporate these skills to become an extremely powerful sales professional.

ARE YOU A HEARTFELT SALES PROFESSIONAL?

There's damage to your bank account when you neglect the human connection point within sales. A selling from the heart professional deeply touches the heart and minds of their clients.

If some of these traits sound familiar and resonate with you then you maybe on the way to becoming a heartfelt sales professional.

• You're committed to personal and professional growth
• You have compassion for yourself and others
• You have the willingness to look in the mirror and come to terms with your own character flaws
• You are committed to making a difference not only in your own life but in the lives of your clients
• You listen before speaking

Your clients and prospects crave a genuine, authentic, real-deal and selling from the heart professional. I urge you all of you to lead a sales life full of authenticity and integrity rather than the pursuit of lining your sales wallet.

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 modern 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!

I'm writing a book. The title is Selling From the Heart! I'm pouring my heart into every page of this book and I think you're going to love it.Enter your email address here in this hyperlink and you'll be updated as the book is released. You'll also become part of our launch team. As a thank you, I'll have some special bonuses waiting for you! 

You can find more advanced training material inside the Social Sales Academy website.

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, Social Sales Academy and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.

Don't have much time today, still trying to play catch with blogging and posting.  Just arrived in Indianapolis for the Flex Show.  Stayed tuned to @artpost, here and my linkedin wall for updates!

Weekend Copier Notes from 05/04/08

I  recently attended the Lexmark Roadshow held in Vegas. The theme was winning, and the after-hours fun was driving exotic sports cars at Speed Vegas. Lexmark can win the A4 race and here’s why. Lexmark isn’t listening to the noise of keeping things as they were or temporarily are. Lexmark has always lived in and is doubling down on A4. A4 is the future and those who dismiss this will be left in the past.

It seems amazing the speed of these small footprint output devices. All of which have duty cycles enabling them to replace Tens of millions of A3 devices. While the rest of the manufacturers are racing towards approvals from outdated dealer programs, or have pulled into the pit stops investing in production print equipment the lowest percentage of placements in the market. Production prints deliverable once controlled by one vendor now every vendor is toting their new light production printer thinking it’s as exciting as the Lamborghinis racing around the track in Vegas and as they fight to survive this small market share, they will destroy all possibilities to monetize it profitably. These manufacturers should be creating better A4 products with as few replaceable parts as possible.

The cost for a dealer to move into production print is enormous. The better investment is reinventing your sales and service platform to differentiate yourself. Learn how to deliver cheaper faster and focus on the space the majority of the customers you seek live segments one through four. 

The future will be unimaginable to those who still live in the eighties. The end-users who support the industry are more and more evaluating service as not how good you are when you show up. They evaluate service by how little you need to show up. 

The next decade will completely change print’s deliverable. Everything which is thought unchangeable will indeed change and those in the industry who understand the importance of continuously modifying will prevail. The future will challenge today's leasing strategies, today's billing strategies, today’s sales strategies, and most importantly today’s management strategies.

The new competitors will come from places once thought impossible. The industry must explore and welcome the introduction of ways to monetize print’s decline. Chasing clicks is not the industry’s future. Without the ability to reinvent themselves the industry’s collaborators get circumvented by the new innovator. 

So, my advice to those selling A4 stop competing against other A4’s go after A3 in all segments one through four. The volumes are low, and the end-users acceptance to replace A3 with A4 is growing quickly. The growth of the pull-economy will increase the acceptance of lighter out of the box set up, and service free equipment. All dealers must prepare and continuously modify to maintain profitability.

R.J. Stasieczko

Who remembers Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood?  How about Mr. Fuji nd Professor Tanaka?  If not,  I'm sure you familiar with the likes of The Hardy Boyz and also the The Hart Foundation in the nineties.

If you've never watched Professional Wrestling then you've missed out on some great entertainment. Growing up and then watching Pro Wrestling with my son was always a treat when there was a tag team match.  Yeah, those matches got way out of hand and pinning ones head to the floor just so they couldn't tag their partner was wild!

All of this leads me to a few moments I had with a former rep in our office a few days ago.  That rep had stopped in for a visit and caught me for a few minutes before I was going out for appointments.  We spoke about the cool things in life for few minutes, and I then asked to tell me more about what he sells. As he got more into depth I saw that we could share many accounts.  In fact there seemed to many existing accounts that we could share with each other.

Rather than just asking for a list of names and contacts to call (because that usually goes nowhere after talking about it).  I stated why don't we go cold calling together?  I'll bring up 25 companies of existing and net new that I'd like to hit and we'll knock then out together (tag team those accounts).  You hand out yours and I'll hand out many.  Matter of fact, next week you do a list and we'll hit those 25 companies also!

After a few minutes we agreed that we would make this happen during the Month of July (he's getting married in June).  Yay!

Thus it will be the old guy tag teamed with the young guy for a few fun days in the field.  I mentioned fun, because it will be something different, yes I've gone cold calling with my manager and other reps. But being introduced to many companies where my friend has a relationship with should be awesome.

Cold calling needs to be fun, whether cold calling with a buddy (tag team), or just putting on your best attitude can be all the difference in the world.

Look for other sales people that you know that are outside of your industry and see if you can arrange one of those "tag team" events and I'm sure you'll have a blast and get a few leads.

-=Good Selling=-

General Construction Company Improves Cash Flow with Accounting Workflow Management Software

General construction contractor specializing in telecommunications, Total Environmental & Power Systems, Inc., implemented DocuWare Cloud in their accounting department to improve invoice approval times for employees in the field. Now, invoices can be approved from any mobile device. The solution boosted the accuracy of their cost accounting procedures by 90%, sped up invoice turnaround time, and improved cash flow.

Total Environmental & Power Systems, Inc. (TEPS) is one of California and Nevada’s top telecommunications contractors, helping to build and maintain cell towers throughout that region. The company also provides general facility maintenance services that includes the building and maintaining of HVAC and AC/DC power systems, radio frequency systems, distributed antenna systems, hydrogen fuel cells, generators and battery backup systems. With a fleet of more than 50 one-ton, four-wheel drive trucks, and a Sno-Cat ATV vehicle with all-terrain tracks and certified drivers, the company can make on-site service calls to any location; in any season. 

Requirements

TEPS knew it was time to upgrade their accounting workflow to something electronic but the final push came when they received a request from a large customer for electronic copies of TEPS material invoices to better understand the material charges. In addition, almost 90% of the invoices TEPS received were digital and it just didn’t make sense to continue to print and process invoices in a paper-based format.

The company began looking for a solution that met these requirements: 1) mobile-ready and accessible from any device, 2) cloud-based and would not need to be tied to their server and 3) easy to implement and maintain.

Solution

After some research, TEPS choose to implement DocuWare Cloud in their accounting department as it fit all their requirements. The solution was configured and implemented remotely allowing for a quick go-live date.  Of the company’s 75 employees, about 18 people were trained to use the system.

Benefits

The new solution allowed TEPS to easily offer better customer service by quickly emailing requested supplier invoices to their clients.   The system turned out to be a huge time saver as well; TEPS has shaved off 20 man-hours a month which were spent on tracking down payable invoices out for approval.  With DocuWare in place, “approvers” that are in the field on job sites can now review and approve invoices on their mobile device keeping the accounting process flowing smoothly in a timely manner.

The company’s receivable invoice turnaround time has also been reduced by 2-3 days each month, creating better cash flow predictions in a real-time setting.  With total transparency, better business decisions can be made, and more critical tasks can be taken on as a result of implementing DocuWare.

“DocuWare Cloud allows us to do our jobs a lot faster. I can see where in the process each invoice is and easily know who I need to nudge to keep the system flowing,” said Pam Souza, Controller for Total Environmental & Power Systems, Inc.

Prior to implementing DocuWare Cloud, any invoice under $1,000 was paid with no review. With the new solution in place, every invoice is easily routed through a digital approval process, solidifying that every purchase is legitimate, the price is correct, and that the cost has been assigned to the right job number.

“We found that a lot of our invoices had inaccurate job numbers. With DocuWare Cloud, we simply have our project managers look at every invoice, large and small, and make sure everything is accurate. If the job number is wrong, the approver simply makes a digital note for us to change it. It is very important to apply our costs to the correct job and I’m happy to say we’ve improved the accuracy of our cost accounting by 90%,” stated Souza.

On the accounts receivable side, TEPS has enhanced their invoice turnaround time, narrowing the gap between completing a job and invoicing for the work, positively impacting their cash flow.

Conclusion

The owners of TEPS are very happy with the contribution DocuWare Cloud has made to their bottom line and look forward to expanding it to other departments.