MFP Copier Blog

Tell me if I'm going crazy, but are you finding it harder and harder to maintain decent margins or GP?  

Seems like every office equipment dealer now has special comp plan for attracting net new business.  It's the sales war that we really don't talk about, but each one of us knows that there's someone out there that's willing drop to get that net new client.  I could go off on a tangent about plans to keep existing clients, but that's a blog I'll save for another day.

How does one find a client that's willing to pay for value?  I hate to use the word "solution", but if you can solve a clients problem or pain with a piece of hardware or accessory, isn't that a solution?

For those that are not students of the imaging industry (multi-functional copiers), they have no clue of third party accessories that can help a client solve an existing problem.  Right, accessories are going to help me?

First let's tackle some pain points for copier dealers and our special clients that lease or buy our copiers.  

Types of companies:

Companies that manufacture concrete items

Quarry companies

Companies that manufacture wood products (furniture manufacturers)

Companies that manufacture candy 

Companies that manufacture starch

Companies that manufacture glue

Companies that are located near a desert

Companies that produce textiles

What do They Have in Common?

Each one of these companies create and excessive amount of dust!  Dust can kill a copiers performance, drain service revenues and sour the client on your brand because copiers can't deal with dust!

Years ago I was called out to a concrete company that was in need of new copiers.  When I had my first look at those copiers.  I'm thinking, dang these copiers are covered with dust. What am I getting myself into, my service department will shoot me!

Pain

Okay, so we remember pain points right?  What's the pain with these copiers?

A. They don't make good prints or copies

B. The client is replacing the copiers every two years

C. The client has been threatened that their maintenance contract does not cover abuse (dust).

D. The copiers are always mis-feeding or jamming

Do you remember or every heard of dot matrix printers? 

If so, you'll remember that many of those printers were quite noisy because of the impact printing that they performed.  Clients wanted a solution to reduce or eliminate the noise.  The solution was to sell the client a printer cabinet.  Think of that cabinet more like a desk that enclosed the printer and had ports to allow for electric and the paper to flow in and out of the printer. We sold quite a few of these back in the day.

Let's get back to that dust issue for copiers  

GOOD NEWS! Today there is a company that manufacturers dust enclosures for copiers!  These dust enclosures are good for the copier dealer because eliminating the dust will improve performance, reduce service calls and eliminate pre-mature parts failure.

Clients will benefit from the elimination of mis-feeds and jams, ensure that they can get more than two years of service from each copier, ensures that a dealer will not drop the maintenance agreement, and print and copy quality will be acceptable.

GP

Remember that word GP and margin? That dust cabinet can be the difference from you getting the order over a competitor. In addition you get to hold or increase GP or margins because you're offering a value to your client.  Reminds me of an order I had last year for a specialty product.  I had almost $40K GP for selling two devices. Why did I get the order?  Because I was the only one who knew about the solution to ease the pain of the client (another blog for another day).

Above is the picture of the copier dust cabinet. It's now up to you to click the link and find out more about Copier Solution Shop and their dust cabinet.

Anyone else have an interesting stories about a special or unique order?  Would love to hear some!

-=Good Selling=-

Ever ask your customers what they think of you? Are you ready to hear the truth? Or a better question would be, "Do you want to hear the truth?"

"Your perception may not be my reality"

Aporva Kala

No matter how excellent you think you are, your success depends first and foremost upon how good you are in your customers’ minds when responding to their ever-changing needs. 

John Mackey (CEO, Whole Foods) nails it, “For us, our most important stakeholder is not our stockholders, it is our customers. We’re in business to serve the needs and desires of our core customer base.”

You must always be delivering on your promises or your reality in the eyes of your clients, which is the only reality that counts, will all but negate your efforts.

THE CUSTOMER MINDSET IS WHAT MATTERS

And, it's unfortunate, because most customers have an instant mistrust for those in sales, no matter what industry.

This really effects 'sales professionals' who place their clients on a pedestal, placing their needs above their very own. They are faced with widespread prejudice that must be overcome.

A stereotypical mindset exists. All too many bridges have been burned and moments of being let down are all too fresh in their minds.

Descriptive words such as...

• Used car salesman
• Pushy
• Talk too much
• Aggressive
• Money Hungry
• Egotistical
• Annoying

But, you can make a difference...

How well do you truly know your customers and how well do they know you? 

The only thing that counts is what your customers think of you. You are what your customers say you are!

CHANGE THE GAME, CHANGE THEIR MINDSET

If you want to be viewed as being 'great', if you want to be viewed as a true 'sales professional' then learn to become a servant. Stop selling…Start serving... Start being a leader of yourself and lead with your heart!

Truly successful sales professionals lead with the heart and seek to serve their clients. The most high-valued sales relationships are peer-to-peer in nature. This is a huge mental and strategic shift most will find exhausting. This is a non-negotiable item if you want to change the perception of your customers.

Adopting a servant mindset takes a conscious effort by learning and committing to develop self effectiveness in areas such as:

• Listening
• Empathy
• Healing
• Persuasion
• Foresight

Think about stewardship with your clients. Make the commitment to grow relationships not for sales sake but to genuinely and with a sincere heart build a great community of clients.

You are what your customers say you are

3 THINGS TO LEARN TO CHANGE THEIR PERCEPTION

If you truly want to get to know your clients then take the sales hat off, roll up your sleeves and engage in healthy conversations. Are you having meaningful discussions with your clients outside of the selling process? How many relationships are you developing and nourishing?

Develop a sincere desire and demonstrate you're interested in your client's world and what motivates them.

When was the last time you had a conversation with one your clients that didn't involve trying to sell them something?

LEARN TO SERVE

You serve as the liason between your client, your company and the products and services you provide. Learn to be of service with each and every client. Lead with your heart.

• A servant has a sincere, genuine and authentic desire to serve
• A servant is all in and digs in deep
• A servant is focused in on serving the needs of the person sitting right in front of them. They simply give a rip!

We all have an opportunity to serve. I can't think of a greater return on investment.

LEARN TO RELATE

Become a bit vulnerable. Reveal a little bit about yourself. Provide your clients with the feeling they know who you are. Empathize with them. Let them know you care! Find mutual common ground as you continue to nurture the relationship. Allow your clients to get to know the real you.

Place yourself in their shoes. Understand what they go through. Take your sales hat off and place your client's hat on.

Ask your clients what you can do for them. Don’t wait around for them to ask. You must become proactive and ask ahead of time.

LEARN TO LISTEN

Listen with intent to learn and without an agenda. It's not about you, your wants nor needs, it's about them. Too many come to the sales table with their own agenda.

Stop thinking about your quotas and commissions.

Ditch the hidden agenda and leave it back at the office. Sincerely focus on your customer and how what you sell can best serve their hopes, dreams and goals.

Zig Ziglar said it best, 

“You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.”

Listen closely to your clients. Sales professionals seek to understand the needs, concerns, desires, issues, challenges and listen with curious intent. An amateur sales rep sells products, a professional sells a solution to the clients' problems.

IT'S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY

It's your responsibility to understand what your clients say about you! As a sales professional who's focused on long-term success, your main responsibility is to profitably serve your clients. 

By learning to change their perception of you, you will slowly but surely, eliminate the negative perception of salespeople.

Approach each client with the utmost of integrity. Remember, be authentic, be real, be genuine and most of all sell from the 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 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!

In 2016, I was recognized by ENX Magazine as, “The Difference Maker,” as someone who is making a difference inside the B2B office technology sector. I am passionate about helping sales reps succeed in creating their online brand image.

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.

Wow!  So far this week in March has proved to be filled with opportunities for copiers.  We even had one this week for a commercial account in East Ohio.  As of today I' haven't found a home for that lead. If you're reading this please contact me about that lead if east Ohio is your territory.

Since the first week of March we've posted 23 Leads for copiers. While most of these are in the US, there's a couple in Canada also.

These leads are reserved for our Premium Members. During the first few weeks of this year we had a special for Premium Memberships.  Where the price was $119 annual, we offered up 20 Premium Memberships for $99 and that was for a Lifetime Membership.

If you email me this week, and mention this blog, I'll release another 5 Premium/VIP Memberships at the special sale price of $99 for a Lifetime.  This special is only open to new Premium/VIP members. apost@p4photel.com

Here they are for this week!

Lead for Fleet of Printers in Tennessee

Lead for Five Copiers in Florida

Lead for Grand Color Wide Format in California (this is a $100K opp)

Lead for Fleet of Copiers in Canada

Lead for Color Copier in California

Lead for Fleet of Printers in Connecticut

Lead for Fleet of Copiers in Missouri1

Lead for Fleet of Copiers in California (2)

Bid for Fleet of Copiers in California

Lead for SMALL FLEET OF Copiers in Maryland

All of these are time sensitive leads. Some big some small! 

-=Good Selling=-

Recently I heard someone say, they were there to save an industry! It was at that second; I realized why some leaders in transitioning industries, are much too obligated to yesterday. For some it's not about saving an industry, it's about saving a deliverable or a process which yesterday’s benefactors have become less appreciative of today. Caution!

“During disruptive times self-preservationist may disguise themselves as lifeguards.”     

So, here’s my thinking. It’s not about saving. Just the word itself screams bring me back to life and make what I do last forever. Well, sometimes things must die to facilitate the growth of what will be new. In my mind, it’s not about saving industries being disrupted. It’s about re-inventing them.

There are too many wishful thinkers, unfortunately wishing for the wrong thing. In all businesses the evolution of products, people, and circumstances cause a constant modification process. Let’s stop thinking about how what we do must be somehow saved from extinction allowing us to do it forever. Instead, let’s think about how what we do must modify to remain relevant.

 “If you have to change you waited too long and should have modified along the way.”

Today the world moves so fast that yesterday is history and the future is closer than ever to today. Both agility and speed are needed to survive. In the past, the lease was longer on the vehicles customers used to get the outcome they desired. Remember; “Customers buy outcomes the means to their achievement always changes.” Meaning you must constantly be modifying.

Today progressive organizations are re-inventing themselves and winning against their peers who decided to focus on saving yesterday so they might live tomorrow. During innovation stop thinking about circumventing evolutionary changes or, saving something; stop thinking about how customers benefited by you in the past. Instead, listen to both their voices and their actions telling you what they want from the future.

Customers are not obligated to remain in the past to keep you company. One’s stubbornness’s to the way things were will not survive their customer’s quest for the freshness of a new future. Customers today have more and more options. Stop rejoicing about yesterday while your customers are being invited to the future by new competitors some born there or your old peers who moved there.

Re-invention is the reality of our ever-innovating world. So, stop trying to save an old value proposition and instead re-invent a new one.

In Closing: Beware of the lifeguards on the Pond called, Stubborn these lifeguards are there to save themselves by keeping you from swimming to the future.

 “A company becomes obsolete when they focus on bringing the past to the future, instead of bringing the future to the present.”

R. J. Stasieczko     

Coordinated Information Management in Social Services Positively Impacts Families

United Family Services, a nonprofit agency that provides services for juvenile offenders and their families, implemented DocuWare Cloud to manage case files between five offices. Improved information security coupled with quick, easy access to information when needed has provided caseworkers more time to dedicate a higher quality of interaction with their clients. Productivity and accountability has also improved along with a lower stress-level for workers as they keep the goals of their organization in mind.

United Family Services (UFS) is a nonprofit organization that was established in 1991 in Arkansas to provide services for at-risk-youth, as well as juvenile offenders and their families. The organization’s goal is to keep families together, prevent out-of-home placement and reduce commitments and re-commitments to the Division of Youth Services Juvenile Justice System.

To achieve these goals the agency offers: Casework, Aftercare Services, House Arrest, Education and Therapy, Mental Health Services and Emergency Shelter and Residential Treatment.

Requirements

United Family Services has five offices throughout the state, over 50 employees and hundreds of clients, many of which are in multiple programs. Before implementing DocuWare, the agency was completely paper driven and transferring files between offices was cumbersome. If a client moved, someone would have to physically drive the file to the new office. Files were often quite large and the agency was running out of space to manage all this paper. In addition, the policies and procedures they had in place to secure their files and check for missing documents were laborious and inefficient.

UFS knew they wanted to implement an electronic database that could be shared across locations and across departments. Ease-of-use and cost were major issues and the agency just did not have the budget for a large software purchase expense. After evaluating five or six solutions, UFS decided to implement DocuWare Cloud because of its consistent cost per month, the software’s features, and the integrity of the agency’s trusted IT vendor and Authorized DocuWare Partner.

Solution

Lekita Thomas, UFS’s Special Program Manager, set up a series of workshops with her supervisors to standardize document and form names across programs and develop a uniform list of index fields. The agency’s intake form was also revised to make it relevant for all programs so information didn’t need to be duplicated. After an employee training class was held, caseworkers started using DocuWare Cloud immediately for all new clients. The second step was to scan all active files into DocuWare. To speed up this process, the agency hired and trained “scan workers” who completed this project in just two short months.

As a last step, the “scan team” met with case workers one-on-one to back scan their files. The agency is required to store seven years of case files. Once the files from the past two years were digitized, the decision was made to stop back scanning older files and focus on expanding the use of DocuWare to other work processes. Furthermore, with DocuWare Cloud in place, document retention became completely automated.

The agency set up 2-3 scanning stations in each office and developed a list of who was responsible for scanning which documents. Each program has its own “digital” file cabinet. The agency uses DocuWare’s “All Cabinets” search if they need to find the original intake form for a client or review which programs they are enrolled in.

“We made using DocuWare mandatory. Moving away from paper was hard for some of our employees but after a few weeks of seeing the benefits of a digital document solution and the user-friendliness of DocuWare Cloud, those that initially opposed came back to us to tell us how much they really liked the new system,” stated Thomas.

 Benefits

Revising the intake form and renaming documents eliminated duplicate work, simplified information access and streamlined document retrieval across the agency.

“Most of our clients are in more than one program, so when we revised our intake form, we eliminated a lot of unnecessary paperwork. Our updated form only has to be filled out once, regardless of the number of programs they join,” said Thomas, “And with more than 700 clients in multiple programs, this reduction in the amount of paperwork is a good thing.”

Document retrieval time has been drastically reduced now that files no longer need to be physically reviewed and checked in and out of a file room. When using paper, the agency had a lot of procedures and policies in place aimed at keeping track of information. Today, digital access and security have replaced those processes. Likewise, gaining the ability to electronically search a large case file has had a significant impact on the usability of existing information. These factors combined enhanced employee productivity.

Additionally, employee stress levels have decreased as the burden of working with time-intensive paper processes has been lifted allowing employees to have more bandwidth to dedicate to quality interactions with their clients. This new flexibility has improved their work-life balance and overall job satisfaction.

“I had a case worker take her client to a community college to enroll in school. The client felt very out of his element, so his caseworker took the time to sit with him throughout the entire financial aid process. DocuWare Cloud has lifted a burden for my caseworkers. They always made time for their clients but now they have the flexibility to really make a difference” said Thomas.

Now that DocuWare Cloud is in place, the agency’s file rooms have been repurposed and turned into an on-site clothing room for kids and adults clothing. “We may have a client going to a job interview with nothing appropriate to wear. A quick stop at our on-site clothes closet can make all the difference. I’m so glad that we now have the space to provide this service,” continued Thomas.

Approximately 10 employees, who used to work as “gatekeepers” and were responsible for checking files in and out of the file room, have been reassigned to other tasks.

Conclusion

DocuWare was so successful with the case files that the agency moved their Human Resources documents to DocuWare. Indexing the documents was easy and setting up security and controlled access rights to meet privacy requirements was straightforward. United Family Services even converted some of their HR forms from word documents to an online form that automatically indexes and stores itself when the new employee hits the “submit” button.

For Thomas, the biggest benefit for her personally is the increase in employee accountability.

“I never need to ask an employee, ‘How many visits did you do this week?’ I can just look up the information in DocuWare. I love the transparency it brings to our process,” said Thomas.

DocuWare Corporation | 4 Crotty Lane, Suite 200 | New Windsor, NY 12553

(888) 565-5907 | www.docuware.com

"Who is the competition?", "What are they offering?", "Did you ask to see a copy of the competing proposals?".  These are all questions that I'll ask a new rep if I hear that they are having problems with securing the order.  Believe it or not here are the answers that I received.

• I don't know
• I don't know
• No, I didn't think of the that

Many might say, well just focus on your companies strengths and everything else will fall in line.  I say, that's hogwash!  Most reps don't dig deep enough into the clients "needs" well.  Thus, what ends up happening is that most will quote an equal feature for feature replacement or a copier that may be a little bit faster.  Most don't have a clue what their copier can do and what their competitors can't. 

For those of us that have REAL quota's that are based on REVENUE & gross profit.  We need to sell.  We need to figure out the price buyer and the value buyer. If you can't do that you won't last long in this industry.  

Make a decision, do you want the price buyer because you need the revenue?  That's a call only the salesperson can make.  Keep in mind that you/we can't sell everyone and every so often you do need to walk away.  You can spend the same amount of time selling one copier or 5 copiers. Which one would you choose?

However when you don't have squat in the opportunity column you're pretty much screwed and you need to take the price buyers.  That's why it's so important to keep a pipeline that is three to four time your monthly quota.  That's deals that you think or will close in that 30 day cycle.  Forgot about the 60 and 90 cause those are going to happen unless you get very lucky in the 30 day cycle.

For those of us that have revenue quotas, and most of us do, there's a certain amount of pride that you feel when you're reached your quota. Turn it around and when we don't hit the revenue quota, we can feel like we didn't give it our best effort, or have the feeling of underperforming.  Those are the highs and lows of selling with a revenue quota. 

Personally I've had a revenue quota for the last nine years.  Then another 29 years of gross profit revenue. At times I wish I could go back to a gross profit quota just to slow down a bit.  On the other hand having a revenue quota always keeps me on my toes for continued prospecting.  Yes, I'm the type of person that would rest on my laurels if I had a big gross profit order, and yes I would suffer the next month because I didn't prospect.  Been there, done that, I'd rather have a steady stream of orders because I need that dopamine rush every week or a few times a week!

-=Good Selling=-

Ah, 2008 and not one of my favorites years.  The economy was tanking.  Clients that were at the end of the lease were opting to buy the equipment instead of upgrading. Credit became really tight, especially for start ups, and many companies were closing, declaring bankruptcy or one day they were open and the next day they were not. Some say that the economy really didn't rebound until 2015.  Any way you slice it, it was a horrendous seven years.  Looking back, I would also tend to think that the great decline in pages started back in 08.

Enjoy the threads from ten years ago this week!

Re: Ricoh c3000 manual input of fax number.

Thinking back 2003 and was an amazing time in the copier industry.  New opportunities were just developing with digital B2C opportunities. There were many analog copiers left to upgrade. In addition 2003 was the launch of the Ricoh W240 wide format copier/printer/scanner.  Yes, it was an awesome time to make some money.

Enjoy the threads from fifteen years ago today.

Its Us and Them!

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

Gandhi

Community service allows those who participate to reflect on the difference they're making in society. Volunteering within the community teaches people of all ages and backgrounds compassion and understanding. People tend to gain the most from their community service projects when they volunteer their time to help people they've never connected with before. This interaction allows them to see life from a different perspective; reevaluating their opinions of others. 

The art of the help, isn't this is the core essence of sales?

It's helping our clients do better business? It's helping those around us become better human beings. It's helping our friends, our family and our network by lending a helping hand.

What does community service mean to you? For some, community service means helping inside a four-block radius of where they live. For others, community service means becoming active within their entire neighborhood, city, or town. Regardless of how you define community service, you can play an active role in building and helping it to grow.

Intangible benefits such as personal pride, self-satisfaction and accomplishment; are worthwhile reasons to serve. When you give back your time and talents you:

• Solve community problems
• Strengthen communities
• Improve the lives of others
• Connect to others
• Transform your own life

SALES BUZZWORDS

Acronyms are a part of everyday sales communication.

• ABC - Always be Closing
• CTA - Call to Action
• ABP - Always be Prospecting
• AFTO - Ask for the Order
• FUD - Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

Let ABH (Always be Helping) become one acronym you commit to doing weekly. This single act of kindness will propel your sales success and resuscitate your sales funnel, guaranteed!

There are opportunities within your community or your marketplace to get involved. Making a difference is about taking a series of small steps. The first step is quite simple... Just raise your hand and say, "Yes I will!"

One of the best 'feel good' things you can do is to just give back. The reward is more valuable than you may think. I get it, we all work hard and lead busy lives but if you’re willing to carve out a few hours of your time each week to help within your community, you’ll wind up making a huge impact.

A FEW IDEAS TO HELP KICK START THE PROCESS

• Tutor underprivileged students
• Sign up to deliver hot meals to the elderly
• Help serve food at a homeless shelter
• Participate in school cleanup projects
• Join a not for profit board as a director

GET INVOLVED

I can't think of a more rewarding experience than lending a helping hand. Get involved and become active. By giving back, I've personally gained so much in return.

My motto...

"Offer to help without expecting anything in return"

My personal commitment to helping has led me to become active with my local Elks Lodge, Kiwanis Group and Senior Concerns; where I deliver food to home-bound seniors. My commitment to service led me to being awarded "Kiwanian of the Year, 2015" within my local community. This passion for service has led me to become president of my Kiwanis Group, 2017-2018.

Attention to all those in sales... Lead with your heart, not your wallet! Check out... 3 Ways A Servant Mindset Drives Sales Revenue

'ALWAYS BE HELPING' - THIS MINDSET GROWS SALES

CREATES A PERSONAL BOND AROUND A COMMON CAUSE

Rapport building during the buyer's journey is critical. Take your LinkedIn profile as an example, you can share and promote your volunteer experience and the organizations you support. What a great way to kick start a meaningful conversation, as the buyer may share the same philanthropic characteristics as you.

A great example, check out what my dear friend Scott MacGregor of SomethingNew is doing through SomethingGood. It's their belief that good business starts with doing good things. They enthusiastically promote and financially support three wonderful organizations, Keep on Playing, Stand Beside Them and Elevate New York. In addition, their entire company devotes a full day every April during National Volunteer Week giving back to worthy causes.

Now isn't this something to rally around?

CORPORATIONS SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY

Philanthropic efforts in supporting the community through 'giving back' sits within the core and mission of most corporations. Corporations embrace and make it their responsibility to be a leading corporate citizen. They look for diverse perspectives to inform the community, strive to strengthen through financial contributions and to become proactive in caring; all for the betterment of the community.

Here's a tip when it comes to prospecting, look at your target list of accounts and start conducting research. Look for the charities they support, the schools they support or even the local events inside the community they volunteer within.

Get involved and volunteer as you may never know who you will run into. These events will lead into meeting new people, starting new relationships but more importantly, you're starting new conversations.

EXECUTIVES SIT ON NOT FOR PROFIT BOARDS

Quite often corporate executives, key decision-makers or even influencers as part of their civic duty will lend their insight by joining not for profit boards. 

Join a not for profit board to elevate your status within the community. Find an opportunity within your community to lend a hand and give back. What a great way to offer your insight as well as your knowledge. You never know who may be sitting next to you during a board meeting.

Add not for profit organizations to your prospecting efforts. If you don't get involved then think of all the board of directors you have the opportunity to get to know if these organizations become your clients.

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

My community service experiences have led to many great personal and business friendships.

A great way to connect with business executives is through a commitment to Philanthropy.

Whether you invest your money, your energy, or your time; the sooner you get involved, the better you’ll feel about your community.

The first step is the hardest. Accept the challenge and offer to lend a helping hand. You do make a difference and every person counts!

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!

In 2016, I was recognized by ENX Magazine as, “The Difference Maker,” as someone who is making a difference inside the B2B office technology sector. I am passionate about helping sales reps succeed in creating their online brand image.

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.

I wrote this blog more than eleven years ago.  Thought it would be time for a repost.