MFP Copier Blog

For the last forty-five days I've been closely monitoring the impeding tariffs that are to take effect on July 6th of 2018.  

About two months ago the United States had 1,333 lines (products) that are imported from China. That list was recently reduced to 818 lines.  One of those lines is for "copier parts and copier accessories".  For those that are not living under a rock, we know that most of Japanese copier companies have manufacturing facilities in China. If you're not sure just check out the serial plate on one your existing copiers and it will tell you the country of origin.

Below is a recent clip from a NY Times article:

Although the United States economy is especially strong, the tariffs are expected to drive up prices for American consumers as well as for businesses that depend on China for parts.

It seems the only other is industry Publication that's  posting anything is Action Intel (last post date was April 3rd).  Action Intel did some research into one of the sub headings of the classification and believes that the tariffs will also include most imaging consumables. I urge you to read this article Will U.S. Impose Tariffs on Printer Consumables Made in China? This was published on April 3rd, but much has happened since then.

I paid a visit to The United States Trade Representative site and there you can see the most recent June press release. Below is a cut from that release and link.

USTR has determined to impose an additional duty of 25 percent on these 818 product lines after having sought and received views from the public and advice from the appropriate trade advisory committees. Customs and Border Protection will begin to collect the additional duties on July 6, 2018.

In this press release you can also access the current list of 818 products that is set to start on July 6th.

More Tariffs ?

After the release of the 818 lines of products, China exercised their power and added additional items and tariffs to goods that the US imports to China.  Keep in mind that the original list of 1,333 lines included not only "copier parts and copier accessories", however, it also included "copy machines". 

If the trade war escalates I would tend to think that the list of products will be increased to the original 1,333 lines of products.

Other than some chats from existing Print4Pay Hotel members, it seems that most are not aware of the impeding tariffs. A recent call to DSM on the east coast asking about price increases was met with something like, "haven't heard anything about this and this is the first time I heard about it".  Since that call it's been silent. I also offered up a call to a P4P'er on the west coast and asked him to pepper his DSM with a few questions.  The response from the west coast DSM was, "we don't act of threats".  It's obvious that this DSM has no clue of what's about to happen.

Can the US cancel this before July 6th? Of course they can, however, it seems like the US is in this for the long haul. I'm a betting guy and I would bet that the tariffs will go into effect. I guess the next question will be about how long they could last and of additional products are added.

A few days ago I was on the phone with another Prin4Pay Hotel member and we chatted about what manufacturers would be hit harder with the impending tariffs.  We agreed that they were three or four high profile manufacturers that would have some issues.  Not going to mention names, this blog is more about educating all on what will happen on July 6th.

I have questions as well:

Will the cost of maintenance & supply agreements increase?

What about MPS programs?

Will all of my copier accessories increase also?

Will the Japanese manufacturers ship more products from Japan?

When the tariffs go into effect, how soon could we see increases?

-=Good Selling=-

Today, I declare like the patriots in Boston back in April of 1775, The Revolution has begun. So, let the A4 battle for market dominance begin.

I had the pleasure to share the BEI Services data at the Lexmark Roadshow in Boston. As the Copy/Print Industry continues to modify, BEI’s data highlights some of the reasons A4 equipment is driving much of the many disruptions coming to the print services deliverable.

The battles of this A4 Revolution will be fought in the conference rooms of the complacent, there will be skirmishes between salespeople trying to push yesterday’s technology as the end-user customers try pulling what their predefined needs. There will be sacrifice demanded from service providers as yesterday’s extensive services are replaced by new technologies which are more and more void of service.  

“In the future customers won’t evaluate how good your service is, they will buy products that don’t need service.”

The revolution has been long coming, and many have been hiding way too long behind those “Big Paper Drawers.” This A4 Revolution will cause A3’s mortality to finally see its end. Print Equipment Manufacturers will be struggling as their dealer’s orders for A3, are replaced by the end-user customers’ demands for A4.

Soon dealers will be throwing over the preverbal ship into the preverbal harbor the boxes of old sales manuals filled with old billing models, the parts and supplies from old A3 models, and the boxes of the undeveloped aspirations of production print. Yes, the A4 Revolution has started and those who believe that the oversized systems stand of the A3’S Army will prevail against the speed, agility, and price points of the A4’s Militia, are not listing to the sounds of the cannons as they practice for the celebration when 80-85% of all A3’s are defeated by the merits of A4 Melita.

As many manufacturers continue with their stubbornness in making more of things they want. Instead of making things the end-users want them to make. Organizations like Lexmark can and will seize the moment. Lexmark is not getting sidetrack into assimilating A4 into an A3 world like so many other manufacturers.

The Revolution has started, and there is no going back. The Imaging Channels current circumstances will modify continuously, and there is no stopping the A4 militia, soon the A3 warriors with their big paper drawers will sink to the bottom of that preverbal Harbor called Too Stubborn to Modify.

Don’t fall victim to the disruptor become the disruptor.

“You can be the vendor with the greatest relationships and lose to the new unknown innovator who delivers a better experience.”

R.J. Stasieczko

I though it would be a great time to write about Ricoh Global Scan NX V2 Serverless solution.  At time to time I've struggled with when and where to have that conversation with an existing or prospective client. Hoping that this document can help in our quest to solve complex business problems with scanning.

GSNX V2 Serverless

GSNX V2 Serverless allows the administrator to set up pre-defined workflows on the MFP screen that guides the user to scan to the correct destination in the correct format, with the correct file name, all automatically. 

The user has the ability to browse a folder structure to place the scan in the right folder without having to go back to their desks and move it manually. 

The administrator can ask the user simple questions or have them pick from a pre-defined list of options to name the scan file correctly every time. 

GSNX V2 Serverless can leverage the Searchable PDF function of the MFP (optional) to create Searchable PDF files automatically, without the user needing to set anything. 

As the name implies, there is no software that needs to be installed in the customer’s network.  All functions are running on the MFP.  Great for environments without a server.

If the customer later decides they would like a more advanced workflow, a Global Scan Server can be added to the environment to enable features such as full OCR capability (Word, Excel), Barcode scanning, automatic data extraction with Zonal OCR, scanning to Document Management Systems, etc.

Ten Discovery Questions

1. How are you currently capturing, processing and archiving your documents?
2. How are you managing your legacy documents and files?
3. For business processes that still use paper, how are physical files incorporated into your document or content management system?
4. Where are your paper-driven processes slowing down work flow or hurting your business?
5. How much are your paper-based systems slowing down billing and revenue collection?
6. Do you scan hardcopy documents on a regular basis?
7. Do you need to organize legacy hardcopy files in an electronic archive?
8. Do you have document workflows that are error-prone?
9. Do you send and receive scanned files to and from branch or remote offices?
10. What volume of transactional documents (bills, invoices, purchase orders, statements) do you scan every month?

Bonus Discovery Questions

• Do you use enterprise document management (EDM) software?
• Would it be helpful to receive fax documents electronically?

Closing

When I'm meeting with prospects I would say that 90% or more are scanning the old fashioned way.  Scanning to their email or scanning to their folder, then opening the file, naming the file and in many cases then moving the file to another location.

Offering Global Scan Serverless can get you the leg up on the competition since most reps will not even dig that deep. In addition you may be able to generate additional GP because you are saving time in the process of scanning documents.

Special thanks goes to a Print4Pay Hotel member that helped me with this.

-=Good Selling=-

I'm with you, in recent years it's been tougher and tougher to get through to DM's (decision makers) to schedule that first appointment.  In some cases it's taken me a hundred plus calls and many years of trying to get the DM on the phone.  The good thing about the 100 plus calls is that by the time I do get the DM on the phone they definitely know what I'm calling about.

Gatekeepers are better than ever, and the thought of potential phone scams keep them vigilant in their quest to not let you through.

There's much talk in sales about building relationships and that's all well and good as long as you can make contact with the DM. You can't start or build that relationship until you've made first contact.

You can't sell everyone is something you always here in sales, and I believe it's the same for building relationships. Not everyone you meet or greet is going to want to build a business relationship.  Thus it's the numbers game that can really increase your opportunities and your potential business relationships.

So where are your best sales people after 5PM?

1) They're still out in the field making cold calls!  One thing that I've noticed is that many gatekeeper leave in between 4:30PM - 5PM.  If you're in the field making calls after 5PM, it's a good shot the doors will still be open.  Most likely you'll trip over the DM as you scout your way around the office to find someone.

Instead of starting your day at 8AM.  Why not start your day at 9AM and work still 6PM, with the last two hours of the day dedicated to calling on those that you can't land the DM on the phone. It makes sense right?

2) Other sales peeps are attending and working at charity events.  There's nothing better than meeting that influential person while they're volunteering their time for a great cause.  Remember the six foot question? That's when you get within six feet of someone that you strike up a conversation and one of your questions is "where do work"? Of course then continue the conversation asking about what their roll is within that company.

3) Still at their desk or parked in a parking (by the beach) lot trying to squeeze in a couple of extra calls on their cell phones after 5PM.  You just never know who will pick up the phone.  Think, if this were your business, wouldn't you be working whenever and wherever you can? 

4) Continuing their education with reading sales books and or learning more about their industry. The web is a great tool because it's open 24 hours a day.  It's those rainy weekends that can give you a great kickstart to the week.  Been there and done that.

5) Continuing education not for sales people but for Professionals such as attorneys, architects, engineers, surveyors.  Each month these associations meet to deliver educational courses to their members so that they can stay up to date for state requirements.  Most associations will accept speakers (as long as they pay for booze or dinner) allow you to speak for 15 minutes and maybe have a small table.

6) Some are even sending emails late into the night.  Can't sleep, nothing will get a DM's attention more than an email sent at 2AM.  That DM can only wish they had that sales person with their company.

It's more about doing the extra work than it is about having fancy lines, trinkets or lame cold call gimmicks.  You need to be where the DM's (decision makers) are and interact with them. Not every stop in will generate a lead or build a relationship.  But from years of experience I can tell you that being in front the DM's if much better than not.

-=Good Selling=-

Special thanks to our friends at Polek & Polek for sponsoring tonight's blog, please make sure you check out their site and their awesome products for copiers

All I can save is, it must have been a slow week at the Print4Pay Hotel

Enjoy the threads from ten years ago this week!

"The Status Quo Is Simply Unacceptable"

Brad Henry, Former Governor of Oklahoma

Settling... Contentment, creatures of comfort; it's out there within the closets of all those in sales. Lurking in the dark shadows of their successes, hiding where you least expect to find it is a great balancing act of excuses. It's the silent sales killer, lurking and striking sales reps without warning. It even brings the biggest and brightest to their knees. 

"Settling, better known as Complacency"

WORKING THE LAND 'HOPING' FOR A FERTILE SPRING

Don't think it can't happen to you? It strikes, every day. Settling, it's a ruthless disease. It cares not about how long you've been in sales, where you rank within your sales department, or what day of the week it is. It cares only of the weak and timid or the wait and see mentality, the hard reality behind all of this is while you've become content, another breed of sales professionals has been lurking inside your accounts. With extreme precision they're rewriting the playbook adapting to the changes inside the buyer's world.

"We plow our sales fields for growth within a digital business world yet sales reps fertilize their sales fields with analog sales tools, WHY?"

A selling from the heart sales professional has remodeled, retooled and re-engineered their sales business model cultivating it, making it better, rebranding it to resonate with today's modern business executive and KABOOM your client's have become their appetite for destruction. You've allowed them right into your sales jungle. Your client base has now become their paradise city where the grass is green and the sales revenue is pretty!

A SELLING FROM THE HEART PROFESSIONAL OUTCARES A SALES SETTLER

Giving a rip is the single best attribute a selling from the heart professional possesses. They care about their career, their sales growth and most of all, they care about their clients. They understand other sales reps may outsell them or outsmart them but no one will out care them.

A selling from the heart professional crushes the sales settlers' mindset. They're self-aware, genuine, authentic and comfortable in their own skin. They understand being themselves is what it's all about as opposed to being somebody they're not, a sales settler.

A heartfelt professional settles in to be of HELP; not a sales shark looking for another commission check reeking of commission breath.

“Offer to help without expecting anything in return as this will come back tenfold.”

These professionals are constantly looking inward to avoid being crushed by the sales settlers' syndrome.

WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF SALES SETTLERS SYNDROME?

DON'T INVEST IN THEMSELVES

When sales reps stop investing in themselves, it's a warning sign they've lost their drive to become a high performer. Equally concerning are the tenured sales reps who stop investing in themselves because they feel they've learned enough, earned the right to be taken care of or believe they know enough people (established client base) to get by; cruising through business life.

STOP THINKING

When sales reps stop asking questions, becoming curious about self-growth or challenging themselves, this is cause for concern. When they've mentally settled to just go with the flow, they've decided to stop thinking as their only concern is completing what they're only managed to do.

NOT MANAGING THEIR PERSONAL BRAND

I'll admit, most sales reps aren't managing their personal brand because they don’t know how, however; those professionals who are motivated to achieve greater success in their careers are aware of the importance and are making every effort to figure out their personal brand.

What do you wish for people to associate with you when they think of your name? 

NO SENSE OF URGENCY

Playing the waiting game. Waiting for customers to call them or a little birdie to drop a lead on their desk. Lack of urgency in developing business is a sales killer. No matter how successful your day, month or sales year has been you must act as if you're always climbing to get to the next level.

Proactive sales development must come by doing things to push one out of their comfort zone. One huge area involves prospecting for new business and not constantly relying on current accounts. Sales reps who fail have a hard time making calls on new prospects for one simple reason; they spend a majority of their time in the comfort zone of conversations with people who know them and not enough conversations with people who don't know them.

"Salespeople have hypnotized themselves into believing what they aren't doing doesn't work"

A selling from the heart professional lights the fire deep within their soul to prevent never being burned by the sales settlers' disease!

"We're operating on autopilot and it's killing our dreams and stunting our success"

Jim Keenan, Not Taught

The luxury of time no longer exists. Settling and complacency have become a rampant epidemic within sales world.

A SELLING FROM THE HEART PROFESSIONAL CREATES CHANGE

These heartfelt warriors never settle. They inspire themselves as they crush the settler's mindsight by creating change.

Acceptance of change is critical within the information age we live in. This applies directly to the sales settlers' mentality.

We have only three responses to change --- resist it, accept it or create it. A change resistor likes things just the way they are. A change acceptor will wait to see what is happening. While change creators have become today's problem solvers. 

These heartfelt change creators identify new processes, look for new opportunities, bringing new and different insights into businesses with the goal of helping executives solve business problems or challenges. They do this because they care!

Adopting a heartfelt change creator mentality will enable you to clearly focus on helping your clients and prospects for all the right reasons versus closing the "big deal" for your personal benefit.

"A sales professional who is heartfelt, fills out a suit with empathy, emotion and excitement."

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.

If you are a small to medium sized business you may be looking for ways to grow by developing a more effective marketing program. You also know that the world is changing and what might have been effective even 5 years ago might not do the trick today. That’s why we’ve written this blog! To help you shorten your cycles and to more effectively build a marketing strategy that won’t break the bank.

A traditional marketing department for a small to medium sized business focuses on 2 key areas: advertising and promotion. Each of these areas are ripe for new and more economical ways of reaching your target audience while increasing your ability to measure success! Let’s break them down:

The purpose of all advertising is to create brand awareness. Your first job is to ensure that you get your name out there, that people start to become familiar with you as a brand. After that you need to establish influence and trust. Here are 3 different and effective ways for you to do that:

1. Print Advertising: Currently you may do that through print advertising. According to studies Print advertising is still extremely valuable. You can better target your audience by advertising in trade magazines specific to the customer you are trying to reach.

• Cost: Medium to High

2. Digital Advertising: Print advertising provides good results especially with older demographics, but if you are selling to younger customers (think Millennial's), effectiveness could be reduced. You will want to ensure that you have a digital strategy to effectively reach those that do 90% of their research online. Think banner ads and targeted advertising on LinkedIn or Facebook. For B2B, LinkedIn has become the most effective digital platform for us, followed by Google Adwords.

• Cost: Medium

3. Content/Social: In the last few years, this type of advertising and promotion has taken center stage yet most organizations in the office equipment channel don’t make very good use of it. Younger buyers want to be educated, to be part of a conversation, and nothing delivers this like social and content. Think blogs, podcasts, videos and eGuides. Most people that know me know that I’m a big fan of content and social as a marketing platform. This blog is an example of just that! You are taking the time to read it, to learn something new that you can apply to the benefit of your business. Maybe you’ll go to my website after this, maybe you’ll look for additional blogs from me in the future to help your business even more. That’s called influence, and the value I give to you the more likely that you’ll consider buying whatever it is that I actually sell.

• Cost: Low to Medium

What is the right mix? This is a really hard question to answer because it really depends on who you are selling to. A good rule of thumb is that the older your customer (55+) the more print advertising might hold influence. The younger your prospects (25-50) the more likely they are to be influenced by social media and content. At Print Audit, our mix is 70% of our efforts are social/content, 20% is digital, and 10% or less is print advertising. We do surveys with our Premier members to find out what kinds of marketing channels work best and our statistics are pretty much inline with their responses. Of course this is not a recommendation as your business and target audience could be entirely different.

If you are serious about increasing your social and content marketing and advertising efforts, here are some links for inspiration:

• Blogs: https://www.printaudit.com/printaudit-blog
• Podcasts: https://www.printaudit.com/podcasts
• Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/PrintAudit/videos 

If you want any additional help make sure you give us a shout. We love helping businesses to do more and could have the answers you’re looking for! Also, be sure to leave your comments on things that are working for you.

About the author:

West is Vice President of Business Development at Print Audit and Founder of FocusMPS. He has been recognized as one of the top 40 most influential people in the imaging industry and an ENX Difference Maker in 2015 & 17.

Sometimes it’s that one little feature that makes the difference from leasing a Ricoh CW 2201SP or an Oce/Canon wide format. For our Jersey Electric Contractor it was the TWAIN scanning feature that drove their decision to lease the Ricoh CW2201SP.

TWAIN

TWAIN scanning is also known as ‘pull scanning”.  Pull scanning means that your software program has the ability to use a TWAIN scan driver. With our Electrical Contractor they have the ability to use a TWAIN scan driver with their business line of software.  We demonstrated that the use of the twain scan driver would allow them to scan wide format drawings directly to their client records. This eliminated the tedious task of scan2email & scan2folder, naming the file and then transferring that file to the software.

read the rest on my Jerseyplotters wordpress blog

I couldn't help my self and re-read the two HP threads from ten years ago. Back in the day, there was a saying that buyers used to clung too, the saying went like this.  If I buy the Xerox, and even if it doesn't work, no one is going to fault me for buying the Xerox over the Japanese brand. I feel this is the same with HP, even if that HP plotter, printer of copier stinks, the buyer will never hear a word from anyone for not buying the other brand. 

Weekend Copier Notes from 06/08/08

During the last ten years, I've been delighted to help rookies/newbie’s or whatever you'd like to call new people that are breaking into Managed IT, Copiers and Managed Print Service industry.

I'm not a manager or owner (was an owner once) of a dealership; I work down the street accounts (SMB) and love what I do!  I enjoy helping new sales people and that's probably because I had no help when I started in sales some 38 years ago. It was nine years ago that I encountered my first sales manager (we'll save that for another blog). For twenty nine of those years, I did not have a "sales manager". My first mentor in copier sales was Jack Carrol, and Jack was one of the owners of Century Office Products. When I arrived at Century I already had seventeen years of copiers sales under my belt.

I came from the school of hard knocks. Not everyone knows what I’m about to tell you.  I never attended college, in fact, I never completed the 11^th grade. I was out of control in High School because I had always asked myself why did my birth parents give up on me. My brother and I were adopted at the age of 4 from a foster home somewhere in North Jersey.

My adoptive parents were great! But that feeling that someone gave up on me before they knew me was also rearing its ugly head. At 16 I was asked to leave High School or be kicked out. I choose to leave and found a full-time job working in the produce industry. That job was probably one of the best choices I made because I put in twelve hours days six days a week. In addition, I met my mentor in Sonny Green (owner), over the years he taught me how to work.  Knowing how to work is not about just being at work, but more about doing productive work once your primary job is completed.

I’m in the later stages of my career in the copier industry today. I’m extremely happy with what I’ve been able to accomplish in the industry. It was twenty years ago that I came to the conclusion that I wanted to do more than just sell copiers. I wanted the recognition that I wanted to be the best rep wherever I worked.

I used my desire, determination, and dedication to achieve most of my goals in those twenty years. It wasn’t easy, it was hard work, long hours and also putting in time on weekends (I still do that) that led to my success. Thus, I put this blog together to help those that come after me, and for those that want to aspire to greatness. 

As many of you know our industry is constantly changing, whether it's hardware, software, cloud solutions, and document management. Nothing stays the same for long!

What are the 3D's?

Put them in any order you want, it takes all THREE to be successful in any industry. DESIRE, DEDICATION & DETERMINATION

So, what is DESIRE?

–verb 1. to wish or long for; crave; want. 2. to express a wish to obtain; ask for; request: The mayor desires your presence at the next meeting. –noun 3. a longing or craving, as for something that brings satisfaction or enjoyment: a desire for fame. 4. an expressed wish; request.

DESIRE For me, it's the craving to be the best at what I do.  I enjoy the recognition, I still get a charge out of writing an order.  I have complete control of my financial future.  You see, I believe that desire is something you can’t teach, you either have it or you don’t. A pro baseball scout once told me that he can’t teach someone to throw 95mph, however, if you can throw 95mph we can teach the prospects the rest.

Your presentation/meeting is filled with PASSION and you can paint a picture of the future without relying on a power point presentation! Losing is not an option! As Ricky Bobbie put it "If you're not first you're last"!

DEDICATION

noun 1.the act of dedicating. 2.the state of being dedicated: Her dedication to medicine was so great that she had time for little else. 3.a formal, printed inscription in a book, piece of music, etc., dedicating it to a person, cause, or the like. 4.a personal, handwritten inscription in or on a work, as by an author to a friend.

Dedication You'll take the extra time to educate YOURSELF! Rely on no one!  I love what I do. I will outwork you to get what I want and in most cases, I always get what I want.  Our job is not a 9-5 job if you want 9-5 money go work for Burger King. Always ask yourself "Am I working as hard or as smart as I can?"

Even today I’m still dedicated to learning more about sales, and more about the products that I sell and even products that I don’t sell.  You see knowledge is the key to winning orders!  Prospects can relate to salespeople that have a great business acumen, and knowledge of their products plus their competitors.  Fancy gimmicks, and tricks to get the appointments only go so far, if you don’t have the knowledge you wont get the orders.

DETERMINATION noun 1.the act of coming to a decision or of fixing or settling a purpose. 2.the quality of being resolute; firmness of purpose.

Determination When it's a quarter to 5 and you're on your way home, and you pass that business that you've called many times and got nothing, do you continue to go home or do you stop for one more cold call? You're always moving forward with creating your own promotions, following up with calls until you have the answers whether it's good or bad. Selling is similar to playing chess, you're always thinking about the next step, or the next objection and the what if's, determined people always have a plan to get where they want to be.

Thus, after 38 years I still enjoy most of what I do.  There are many days when I'm the optimist and many when I'm the pessimist.  All of us can go through bouts of pessimism in sales.  What I've learned is that every new day brings a new opportunity to sell something or for that phone to ring with a customer or prospect stating "we're ready to place our order!"

-=Good Selling=-