When looking at copier leasing, it is interesting to see how some companies have very little choice on renewing their copiers with their current lease company.  We recently were chatting with a potential client in New York City who have 15 copiers.  They are frustrated with their current supplier and would love to get out of their lease.  It is going to be tricky for them though.  About everything is set up so that change is hard, even though their service is bad and the communication is terrible from their current vendor.  They called us to help them with their copier lease situation because they found us through our copier leasing site.  

From the amount of threads there was some awesome activity.  While reading through one of the threads, I noticed the Samsung SCX 6345N.  For me, this was the start of the A4 multifunctional era.  I believe cost for the 45ppm device was somewhere around $1,900 with MSRP about $4,000.  Not much room for margin, however I can remember acquiring many net new accounts with the Sammy because there was no need for 11x17.  Funny, it's ten years later and many manufacturers still refuse to give us full featured A4 devices that can staple, three hole punch and multi-folding.

Re: C2525 Scan to email HELP????

Once asked about why he was so successful on the basketball court, Kobe Bryant looked at the reporter and said: “Have you seen Los Angeles at 4am? “I see it often because that’s when I start training.”

It can sometimes be difficult to find differences in top athletes which are noticeable. Their level of physical imbalance is minimal. What is it separating the good from the great? What separates Kobe Bryant from good athletes?

At the IMG Sports Academy, they share their insight on what differentiates average athletes from the excellent ones. Top athletes have a growth mindset. These athletes believe their talents can be developed through consistent training, evaluation and practice. Conversely, athletes with a fixed mindset tend to believe their talent is the key determinant of success thus their ability is fixed. These athletes end up not realizing their full potential. Sound like sales reps?

Is there a possible similarity between top sales professionals and the average ones? Sales reps consistently talk about their work ethic as most enjoy puffing the chest BUT are they really committed to it? Do they really walk the walk and talk the talk when it comes to putting in the hard work and long hours it takes to separate the top sales professionals from the average?

Top athletes understand the process of developing their talents will have obstacles along the way. They embrace the challenge of getting better every day. They understand failure is just another challenge, a roadblock to overcome. 

Top athletes encourage feedback from their coaches, using it to focus on areas of improvement. Less successful athletes tend to dismiss, ignoring feedback and focus on the person providing it, rather than using it as an opportunity to reflect and grow. Sound like sales reps?

What separates an average athlete from an average sales rep? Millions of dollars and their mindset

Average athletes see the success of others as a threat, top athletes find inspiration and motivation. They learn from the success of others by modeling their behavior and habits. Top athletes do not fear competition, they embrace it. They use it as motivation to push themselves to the next level and maximize their potential.

The roadmap to success for an elite athlete is based on hard work, personal ownership and how it is applied. They understand they must apply themselves in all aspects of their training. They take ownership, holding themselves accountable to the process.

So, this had me thinking...

Why do sales reps have difficulties doing what elite athletes are paid to do? What makes a sales professional AND how they go about doing their job any different than an elite athlete?

My answer to you all is quite simple - MINDSET!

MINDSET - WILL DO VERSUS CAN DO

At the highest levels of sports competition, physical ability between athletes is relatively equal. The difference in performance comes down to what is happening inside the athlete’s mind. Can the same be said for a sales professional?

“To think of me as a person that’s overachieved, that would mean a lot to me. That means I put a lot of work in and squeezed every ounce of juice out of this orange that I could.”

Kobe Bryant

Baseball great Yogi Berra once said “Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.”

What does the “mental game” actually mean? Can this translate to one sales rep versus another sales rep? What does a top sales professional do differently from a sub-par sales rep when it comes to the mental side of the equation?

WHY DO SALES REPS INSIST ON GETTING PAID TOP DOLLAR BUT LACK A TOP ATHLETE MINDSET?

Top athletes, the elite of the elite do things just a little differently than the average athlete. Does the same apply to sales reps?

Think for a moment... How can a professional athlete, an elitist sitting at the top of their game operate at peak performance with the mindset of most sales reps?

TOP ATHLETES GET REAL

Can the same be said for sales reps? Elite athletes set goals and invest the mental and physical energy towards achieving their goals. They equip themselves with an arsenal of effort, patience, and persistence as they know their journey is difficult. They are realistically optimistic. Can the same be said for sales reps?

TOP ATHLETES BELIEVE IN BEING THE BEST

Can the same be said for sales reps? Top athletes know, no matter what, there is always room from improvement. Sometimes this may involve learning a different technique, strategy, or having a different coach. It also may involve learning a new skill altogether. How does this apply to sales reps?

TOP ATHLETES BUILD UPON SUCCESS WITH CONSISTENCY

Can the same be said for sales reps? Their success is built upon small sustainable changes. When those become second nature, they add in new challenges. Whatever their goal is they track their progress towards it by keeping training logs. Can the same be said for sales reps?

TOP ATHLETES HANG OUT WITH TOP ATHLETES

Can the same be said for sales reps? Top athletes surround themselves with positive energy and other top athletes. Find those people and groups who support your goals. Eradicate as much negativity from your life as you possibly can. You are who you hang out with!

TOP ATHLETES HAVE GRIT

Can the same be said for sales reps? Fear of failure is crippling. There will always be naysayers and Debbie-doubters. Top athletes commit to long-term goals and hold firm in the face of challenges and difficulties. They simply possess and utilize consistent skill sets which elicit positive results. Elite athletes believe in themselves and their ability to constantly improve. They set realistic goals, they surround themselves with the right people, and they stay the course through tough times. Does this hold true with sales reps?

All this being said, why do seasoned, tenured sales reps believe they don't have to do the things necessary that top athletes do in order to stay at the top of their game?

WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE UP?

Imagine for a moment, how long would any professional sports athlete last on their team with the attitude and mindset of most sales reps? Not long at all, as they would be released from their team immediately. Some can say athletes are over-paid prima donna's, however; the one thing they possess that most sales reps don't - a growth mindset.

I encourage the self-centered and the "all about me" sales reps out there to kick the complacent mindset. Do you think a complacent mindset lands an elite athlete a new contract?

Sports athletes don’t come out of rookie training camp saying, “I’m shooting for average – average skills, average income and average performance.

When you started out as a sales rep you didn't set out with the goal of hanging on, doing enough to just “get by”, or riding it by figuring out how to survive until I can inherit another sales reps accounts. Well, at least not in the beginning, correct?

You learned that mindset. You learned that behavior. You learned to settle.

I am positive the mind can be convinced of almost anything if you tell it the same story over and over again. So here lies the question to all of you in sales...

Are you really happy with average results or have you just convinced yourself that’s the case?

I understand where you all are coming from. I have walked a day in a life of your shoes and still do on a daily basis.

I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and modern strategies into your current sales process to grow net-new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way.

In 2016, Larry was recognized by ENX Magazine, “The Difference Maker” as someone who is making a difference inside the copier channel. Larry is passionate about helping sales reps succeed in creating their online brand image

You can find more blog posts inside the Social Sales Academy website.

I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my LinkedIn stories. Integrating the use of LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive copier world. With great pride I transform, coach and inspire B2B Office Technology Sales Professionals to grow net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. My commitment is to help office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, as well as at the Social Sales Academy

Insuring Correct Information

Arkansas-based title company, Community Title & Escrow, uses DocuWare to manage and store their vast database of property records. The solution allowed them to grow their business to 3 additional counties by giving employees shared access to one database of information. By reducing their turnaround time to under 48 hours, the company gained a huge competitive advantage. Secure document management also streamlined regulation compliance and the completion of audits.

Founded in 1886, Community Title & Escrow (CTE) provides title insurance for properties located in Clay, Greene, Craighead and Poinsette counties, in Northeast Arkansas. The company maintains its own archive of every land transaction in the area since the early 1800s when records were first kept. Document types include: maps, deeds, lawsuit notices, judgements, liens and more.

Requirements

When Van Winton took over the family title business in the mid-90s, researching ownership of a piece of property was a manual process. Documents were geographically indexed in “tract books” that directed employees to numbered boxes or binders to access the physical documents which make up the chain-of-title. As CTE grew and acquired other title companies, manually maintaining all these records became very difficult.

Solution

At a state convention, Winton saw a demo of document management software and knew this was what he needed to modernize his company. CTE chose to implement DocuWare because of its security, ease-of-use and flexibility and the fact that it had been in use for more than decade. In addition, DocuWare’s scalability features have been able to keep pace with CTE’s continued growth during this time.

Today, CTE’s database has grown to contain over 40 million images. They index 1,500 multi-page documents, or about 5,000 pages, a day with 20 different index fields. Staff members digitally highlight information on the document to tag it as an index field, speeding the process and eliminating manual re-entry errors.

Local county courthouses maintain the legal record of property transfers by storing the information only alphabetically by the buyer or grantee name. CTE’s documents are not only indexed alphabetically but also by the actual legal description and various other information contained in the recorded instruments providing them with complete and easy to follow chain-of-title for each property.

“We have a digital copy of every document on file in each court house. Our database is easy to search. Our documents are scanned and indexed by property description and the parties’ names,” said Van Winton, President and Owner of Community Title & Escrow.

Benefits

With DocuWare, CTE can research a property’s history and create the title insurance document in less than 48 hours, versus 4-7 days for other companies that do not maintain their own records.

“Having our own database or title plant is the key to our success. Without our own database, we would have two choices: lease access to a title plant which could cost upwards of $20,000 a month, or rely on the county courthouse records and increase our property research time frame and the possibility of errors going undetected. With DocuWare in place, we have a low operating cost and are able to provide our clients with a quick turn-around. Both of these factors give us a huge competitive advantage,” said Winton.

As the company expanded into new counties and acquired other title companies and their documents, they were able to scan or import those new documents into DocuWare. CTE stores information in one trusted system, regardless of source. Even the very oldest records from the 1800s have been scanned and are managed with DocuWare. Because these records are infrequently accessed, they were not indexed, but using DocuWare’s fulltext search feature CTE can find what they are looking for every time.

“If we were still manually indexing information in tract books, we would not be able to keep up with the volume of information we receive. With DocuWare in place, we’ve expanded our business and reassigned two-thirds of Title department employees to other departments. DocuWare has improved our efficiency and allows us to effortlessly keep up with volume of documents we receive from the courthouses to add to our database,” exclaimed Winton.

The company’s 20 employees from across 4 branch offices all have access to the information in DocuWare, allowing CTE to balance workloads among employees in different offices.

The solution also helps CTE meet regulations established by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal agency who ensures that all consumers have access to markets for consumer financial products and services that are fair, transparent, and competitive. One regulation requires a minimum 30 year search for each property. CTE prints a report in DocuWare about the search and adds this report to the property’s record. DocuWare also helps the company comply with other regional regulations and streamlines its yearly audit by AIM+, the company’s closing software.

Conclusion

In conclusion Winton said, “In the world of title insurance, you can’t be close, you have to be right! DocuWare is easy to use, very accurate and can handle a large volume of records. It is a core piece of our IT infrastructure.”

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

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

The old days of vendor complacency based on relationships are over. Today customers put more value on their Experiences, not only from the things they buy but those they engage to buy them. In a fast moving digital world, our customers can determine what they want, or believe they need long before they engage with those who deliver it. Organizations must learn how to monetize their Customers’ Experience, and then put the structure in place to exceed in providing a better experience than that of their competitor. The competitor who relies on relationship selling. Too many organizations focus on the things they deliver and their perception of the derived benefits along with their long status quo relationships.  Successful companies make the deliverable about the Experience. Think of this. When a potential customer is deciding on one vendor over another, the process becomes commodity driven. However, when prospects are introduced to satisfying experiences they then shop for the better experience. Exceptional Experiences are never a commodity, and Exceptional Experiences always challenge the arrogance of those banking only on their relationships.   

Some organizations are confusing the importance of balancing the scales between their “Internal Customers Experience” and “External Customers Experience” this out of balance is weighing heavy against customer service, and customer experience. I recently read a comment on LinkedIn where the commenter suggested that customer experiences where over rated and organizations should focus more on employee experience. Well, most logical business professionals would immediately realize if unbalanced how stupid that thinking is. Without the customer, it matters nothing on how well everyone on the team gets along, or how happy they are in their unchallenging existence. These organizations who put their employee experience ahead of their customer's experience will be defeated. Their defeat will come from the competitors who understand a business exists for its External Customers; they understand rewards for internal customers are paid by the External Customers, and they understand the reward amount is determined by the Experience their External Customers receive. In 2017 your customer relationships will not win over your customers’ desired experience.  

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

 So next time you evaluate your vendors, ask yourself these questions. Whose “Experience Satisfaction” is more valuable to you? Is it yours or the vendor you hired? Do you care more about the perks your vendor gives its employees or the service and support they give you? Does the vendor tell you how great they are, or do you tell them? Does the vendor ever help grow your business even if they may sacrifice from that growth? Does the self-proclaimed great vendor charge more based on the words of their greatness, or the actions from their greatness?

Keep in mind you may not be asking these questions of your vendors, but I wouldn’t bet on your customers not asking these questions of you.

Today I believe the vendor who hollers the loudest about their Great Relationships should be the vendor its customer's audit first. Today customers are looking for solutions to problems or are presented products or services that capture their imagination. Today customers want to benefit from an Experience, today’s customer will determine their relationship to be second to their experience. Organizations who sacrifice customer experience based on their defined relationship will soon perish. Customers do not search for companies who put their internal customers over their external customers. Customers do respect the balance of happiness between both internal and external customers, well as long as the scale tips just a little more toward them.

"A business is rewarded by its customers, the size of the reward is determined by the experience they receive."  

R.J. Stasieczko    

I sat down with James Foxall to find out how Tigerpaw is leaping into the office equipment space with a fully vetted product

Well, there's one thing that James and I have in common, boy can we talk it up!  So much, that this will be a two part interview.

It’s unusual to find a 30-year-old company that still has the passion and entrepreneurial spirit of a startup, but that’s exactly what I found when I interviewed James Foxall, CEO of Tigerpaw.

I caught up with James in-between his busy days to find out what makes Tigerpaw so special, what benefits Tigerpaw One has for the office equipment space, how it helps businesses solve their pain points, and hopefully get a peek at a few secret projects they’re working on.

Art Post

James, thank you for taking the time out of your day to chat with us. I appreciate it and I’m sure our readers do, too.

James Foxall

You’re welcome, Art. Happy to talk with you.

Art Post

Let’s get right to it. Can you give us a quick overview of Tigerpaw One and what you guys have been up to?

James Foxall

Absolutely. Some quick background: Tigerpaw was founded in 1984, and today we have more than 40,000 customers in 29 countries worldwide. Our flagship product, Tigerpaw One, is an end-to-end business automation and service management software. Our software includes robust, multiple award-winning CRM, sales and marketing tools, invoicing, quoting, service, and inventory management functions.

In 2015 we changed our business model from selling perpetual concurrent-user licenses of individual software modules and add-ons, to an all-in-one, subscription based offering with one low monthly price per user. And that change has spurred a huge amount of renewed interest in our offering.

Art Post

That’s an impressive amount of functionality.

James Foxall

We’re very proud of Tigerpaw One and the value it brings to our customers!

It’s been a great tool to show new customers the power of our software, but we’ve also had a huge base of our longtime customers convert over to the new model as well. There’s no complex pricing matrix, you don’t need to keep track of what features you have or don’t have, and you don’t need to guess what your bill is going to be. With Tigerpaw One you get everything at one affordable monthly payment. And our customers love that.

Art Post

Tigerpaw is known as a software company, but I’ve heard you say that’s not necessarily your focus. Could you talk about that?

James Foxall

Of course. At Tigerpaw, we build and sell software; but that is not our mission and that is not our purpose. Our purpose is to help people run better businesses. The software and the training that goes along with it are the tools that allow us to get that done.

When we hear about companies juggling multiple spreadsheets to manage their sales pipeline, a different system to manage their invoicing, and yet another system to manage their quoting and proposals — when we hear about companies like that, we know we can help them.

Tigerpaw One does all of those things. You can do all of those things and much more in one tool. There is a better way than managing a dozen different systems that don’t even talk to each other. From a business perspective, that doesn’t make sense; but that’s where many people find themselves.

And often times companies, or CEOs, or department heads don’t even know there’s a better way out there. Or, they know there are other ways, but they may be nervous about jumping into adopting a new software package when they don’t know what their after-purchase support will be like.

It happens all the time. People are sold on a new product but then have no support after the sale.

We don’t want to become another piece of “shelfware.” There’s no value in us getting software into someone’s hands and then they don’t have the tools to use it properly.

We just don’t believe in doing business that way.

Art Post

So what does Tigerpaw do differently when a customer comes on board?

James Foxall

That’s a great question.

When a customer commits to Tigerpaw, we commit to them. And we continue to support them after the sale. We have detailed onboarding and training, we have a dedicated team that will work with you hand-in-hand for your implementation, we work with our customers to discover their business pain points and create a customized project plan to help them reach their goals. All Tigerpaw One customers get unlimited access to our Support Team and they can reach us by phone, through the web, or email.

And we recognize the importance of customized learning. We’ve created a top-notch training program in our Tigerpaw Academy that will help new and veteran users alike take their businesses to the next level.

Art Post

I took a visit to your website before our call and I was curious about Tigerpaw Academy. Can you tell us more about that?

James Foxall

Tigerpaw Academy is our customized education and training portal that is designed from the ground up to help our users become Tigerpaw experts. Our Training Team has put together a comprehensive education program that allows our customers to become experts at the features that matter to them.

We understand that not everyone needs to be an expert at everything, so we have courses with clear flow that build on each other for specific job roles. Are you in sales? We have a training course to help you maximize your funnel, track your pipeline, and close more leads. Are you in marketing? We have courses to teach you how to schedule activities and campaigns, optimize your email marketing, and drive more qualified leads into your sales team’s pipeline.

And we have those same deep levels of learning and training resources for accounts and contacts, billing, accounting and taxes, price book and inventory, service, our mobile app, and dozens more.

Even better, we have broken down our curriculum by profession and title. So you can find a match for what your job is and we have a series of courses designed just for you.

We recently added the ability for managers to assign courses to their team. Managers have the ability to be in control of their own success. You don’t have to wonder, “Did my people get trained? Do they know how to do this?” Now you can assign your team courses and watch their progress as they move through each module and unit of their training.

It’s really a holistic system to help companies better implement Tigerpaw One; and it teaches a lot of great business-building practices.

This is all on top of our training library, free templates, Community Forum, webinars, and live Ask the Expert sessions.

Art Post

While I was cruising through your website and stumbled across your Ask the Expert feature. Can you tell us more about what that is?

James Foxall

We are absolutely dedicated to the success of our clients. So we put a lot of resources out there to make them successful. Ask the Expert is one of those resources; it’s a very unique thing to Tigerpaw.

Every Monday through Friday we have one of our training experts give a live webinar session that any Tigerpaw One user can attend. And anybody in your company can attend that session and ask them any questions. There’s no feedback loop, no waiting for lengthy responses, no wondering if your email disappeared into the void like you get with some companies. You can attend these sessions and get real, direct, applicable answers to your questions about our products.

Sometimes these sessions are packed and you can learn from other peoples’ questions during Ask the Expert. And other times you’ll get lucky and you’ll be one of a handful in that session. That’s like getting personalized training from our experts. These are trainers that we typically charge a couple of hundred bucks an hour to get access to, and we make them available every day of the week at no additional cost.

Art Post

That’s a great service.

James Foxall

It’s really cool. We think it’s something unique. And it is especially helpful for businesses that are just getting up and running.

We also have an 800 Help Desk. Lately we have been averaging under three-minute hold times, which is just stellar in this day and age. When you call, we have human beings that will pick up the phone and answer your questions. You will be talking with one of our deeply trained support experts. Our people are here to help you solve your problems.

And when you really want to do a deep dive into a specific topic or feature of Tigerpaw One, we have all of our additional resources. The Academy, our live webinars, daily Ask the Expert sessions, and our Community Forum — those resources are there to really teach you instead of just answering a quick question.

We even have a calendar of events we maintain so you can plan what you want to attend and find a live learning session that fits perfectly into your schedule.

Note from Art:  I'll be posting up Part Two of this interview tomorrow.  Enjoy!

About Tigerpaw

Tigerpaw Software, Inc. is a leading developer of end-to-end business automation and service management software. Its flagship product, the award-winning Tigerpaw One, empowers thousands of businesses to manage and automate marketing, sales, service and inventory functions. The company was founded in 1984 and quickly established itself as a premier solutions specialist for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Tigerpaw remains firmly on the cutting edge of business software development with an ever-expanding base of more than 40,000 users in 29 countries worldwide. Despite its growth, Tigerpaw remains a family-owned business that specializes in helping a wide range of clients better run their business with a complete, 360 degree view of their operations. 

Tigerpaw One is sold by subscription for one low monthly fee per user.

For more information, visit the Tigerpaw website at tigerpawsoftware.com, email sales@tigerpawsoftware.com, or call their toll-free number at 800.704.9009.

Have you ever considered as to why copier reps fall short of achieving their goals? In fact, it is estimated that 67% of sales professionals fail to hit individual quota. (Source: The TAS Group)

Cognitive Dissonance could be the answer as to why you are not achieving your copier sales goals.

Cognitive Dissonance is the mental stress we cause ourselves by holding two conflicting beliefs simultaneously. Subconsciously, this causes us to act towards maintaining both beliefs, often resulting in self-sabotage.

For example, let’s say that your goal is to lose weight. Despite trying diet after diet, you just cannot seem to get the weight off. The belief system of someone looking to lose weight very often looks like this:

Belief #1: I am committed to follow my diet plan and will lose 20 lbs by December 31, 2017.

Belief #2: Ever since I was a child, I’ve always been overweight. I love food too much. This is who I am.

Deep down, the inner belief that someone who wants to lose weight has about themselves is being challenged by a new one. This cognitive dissonance causes the person to act towards maintaining both beliefs, resulting in sugar cravings and quitting prematurely on the diet.

Let’s look at another example. Money!

Belief #1: This year I will earn a salary of $100,000.

Belief #2: Money is hard to obtain. We didn’t have a lot growing up and my parents always told me that, “money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Almost everyone in the world wants to earn more money. Yet why is it that some find it easy to make money, while others struggle to get ahead?

Cognitive Dissonance theorizes that it is our internal beliefs distilled in us at a young age that cause us to self sabotage. Even when we start earning a higher salary, we subconsciously act towards fulfilling the original belief by spending money on materialistic items, gambling and unnecessary entertainment. This might explain why 70% of lottery winners end up broke within a few years!

Of course, Cognitive Dissonance is just a theory. However, let’s apply it to our performance as copier reps.

Belief #1: I am a quota-smashing rep. This year, I will hit 125% of plan and earn $80,000 by closing 1 deal per week and maintaining a 5% higher profit margin in every deal.

Belief #2:

• Copier sales is too hard
• There are not enough opportunities
• Paper is going away. Print volumes are decreasing
• People no longer need to print. Everything is going digital
• Most offices want A4 instead of A3
• I don’t have enough base accounts
• My territory is too small
• The equipment margins are too thin
• There is too much competition

Copier reps hold so many negative beliefs about our industry that no matter what your goals are or what new belief system you try to create, you are already pre-programmed to fail.

“The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” 

People have been predicting the end of paper since the 1980’s when the personal computer came out. 37 years later and there are still thousands of employed copier reps around the world selling boxes every day.

There are opportunities in abundance if we view things with a fresh, positive gaze.

• More dealer acquisitions have happened in the past two years than any year previous
• Ricoh and Xerox have sold off their SMB accounts to a select group of dealers / sales agents
• Samsung has sold off their entire copier division to HP
• Epson is planning to disrupt the industry through inkjet A3 technology
• Managed Print Services is evolving through Managed Services offerings and Seat-Based Billing

Personally, I see now as one of the most exciting times for copier reps to steal market share and drive value to their customers. You can choose to live your career as two different viewpoints: Either you see opportunity within this industry or you do not.

If you do not see the opportunity and want to remain fixed in your negative ways, you might as well leave the industry now. You are only proving to yourself and others that you are working in your “job” for the paycheque. (“J.o.b.” by the way stands for just over broke.)

But if you see the opportunities within this industry like I do, you need to make a paradigm shift to break away from the Paper Poverty Mindset.

Continue reading this post at The Business Engagement Process Blog.

Ten years ago this week, we saw the launch of the W2400 & 3600 from Ricoh, still can't get over how quickly time flies by.

"I'm Listening are You?",  was a thread I posted ten years ago.  I re read the entire thread and the first thing that came to my mind is that I need to concentrate on letting the client do most of the talking.

Canon 1023iF vs Ricoh MP161spf

It's just about 9:30PM, I arrived home from the Epson Road Show (special shout out to Impression Solutions Inc., and Joe Buck for the invite) in Philly about four hours ago.  My plans were to skip writing tonight and watch the Mets game, well that plan failed since the Mets are in a rain delay. 

As I listened to Bob Palmer (Research Director with IDC's Imaging) during the opening session for the Epson Road Show today, I found my-self in agreement that disruption for the copier industry will not come from the likes of HP, Ricoh, Canon, Xerox, nor KonicaMinolta.  But, rather from a player that is on the outside looking in. Bob put it something like this, "why would they want to disrupt the business model that has made them so successful?'

For those of you that may not be familiar with the Epson WorkForce C-20590, is an A3 high speed inkjet line (scans & prints 11x17 for print, scan, copy) color MFP that will print at speeds of up to one hundred color pages a minute with the Epson inkjet PrecisionCore line head. 

Today, I was able to see the device up close and also take a good look at the print quality.  Well, the print quality was actually very good, and while HP touts "affordable" color with their new A3 PageWide MFPs, I'm thinking the quality of prints I saw today was better than what I saw from the HP PageWide device while at ITEX a few weeks ago.

If you're not afraid of this device, then I need to tell you that you should be.

Right now it's only one device, but more will be coming.  The Epson WorkForce will ship with a enough black ink for 100,000 pages along with 50,000 pages of color (I'm thinking I'm spot on with that).  If that doesn't open a few eyes, then you might be shaking in your boots when you hear that the warranty on the print head is 3 years (rumor it may be longer). Yikes, no drums!

Are you scared yet? 

Besides the ink and print heads there are no additional consumables!

Death of the Cost Per Page

A few weeks ago, I wrote the blog "The Death of the Cost per Page", that blog centered around the "what if" scenario of device billing.   Device billing would be where the dealer charges a monthly service fee for the WorkForce. That fee could be $200 or maybe $300 per month, the client would pay for supplies (ink) and the client would be entitled to unlimited clicks.  Do the math, at $200 per month the device would develop and annual revenue of $2,400, at $300 per month the annual revenue is $3,600.  How could you not get your price of $300 per month with a color 100ppm device?  The dealer would not have to supply any consumables with the contract, plus they would also garner the profits from the ink.   I'm just guessing here, but with no consumables and no heat process, how many on-site service calls could there be in a year? Two, three, maybe four at max.  That's a pretty tidy profit stream.

End Users Don't Want Overage Charges

I'm still in that day to day business of selling copiers.  Every month, I have at least four to five clients that I conduct account reviews with.  More than half of those clients have quarterly overage charges.  Many ask, "why do I have to pay for overages when I already pay a base charge?", and then we have to lead them back to how our industry billing model works.  If you go over on clicks, you pay, if you go under, we win,  you lose and you don't get those clicks back. This type of business model puts a strain on the client vendor relationship.  Why can't we give the clients a flat rate and unlimited pages? We know why, it's because the toner based devices require more service.

Where Does the WorkForce C20590 Fit?

If you're a Major Account rep, you need to start shaking now!  The Epson WorkForce device will kick your ass on price, speed, cost per page and or device billing. I see the 100ppm WorkForce device excellent for Colleges, K12, Universities, Hospitals, and many other Enterprise accounts.   As far as solutions, the WF-C20590 features Epson Open Platform for seamless integration with web-based enterprise applications such as PaperCut MF and other workflows, and is fully MPS compliant.  I'm just glad that I'm not selling in that major account space.

Is Time is On Your Side?

Geesh, I'm not so sure.  The WorkForce C20590 (Epson can we give this device a name instead of the 5 digits, the device is worthy of one) is due to be launched this summer.  Pricing should be ready for dealers in thirty days or so.  If I had to guess about dealer pricing, I would guess somewhere in the higher four figures area (again that's just a guess).  All you need is a few savvy dealers that will run the numbers, and then develop the cost per page plan or the device billing plan.  Anyway you slice it, that Epson Dealer will win business and still make a tidy profit on the service and supplies. 

What Would I Do?

Eddy Jones and I spoke about this.  I told Eddy,  if I can't beat em, then I need to join em.

Ink is here to stay.  Epson is here to stay and we need to figure it out.

-=Good Selling=-

Tonight, I find myself doing an over night in Philadelphia, PA. My day tomorrow will consist of consuming additional knowledge about ink technology which will one day replace toner technology.  However, that's not want I want to blog about tonight.

Last night i found my self working two quotes an emailing potential new clients all the way up until 10:30PM or so.  I had to put in the extra hours for the hours I would lose tomorrow.

One of those clients was in the market for a replacement of their current A4 color device.  For starters I'm in no position to give the A4's away.  I want to sell every A4 at MSRP.  Thus, I asked my self how can I create additional value with replacing an A4 color device with another A4 color device.

Even I get caught in the trap of preparing numbers and just listing the device, the accessories and then the price.  When that's the meat and potato's of your proposal, then what options does the client have but to shop your price?

Last night I added a "what's Included" and "what's not" included in my proposal and email to client.  I've listed these below.

• De-installation of existing MP C305SPF
• Return ship to Stratix warehouse of MP C305SPF
• Inspect and repair or repalce any broken parts so that your device ships back to the leasing company in good working order
• Prep and package MP C305SPF to leasing companies return facility
• Ship MP C305SPF to return facility
• Buy out of existing lease (only one payment left)
• Delivery of new MP C307SPF
• Network Installation of new MP C307SP for scan, print & fax (up to four hours included)
• On-Site Training for new MP C305SPF
• Black Toner (good for about 17,000 pages)
• Color Toner (cyan, magenta, & yellow each one is good for about 6,000 pages)
• One year maintenance agreement that includes 24,000 black pages and 1,000 color pages.  If you go over the 1,000 pages in the year we would send an invoice for the overage. Example, you went 100 pages over, we would send invoice for 100 x .05 = $5.00
• Performance Guarantee

Take  a look at some of these, this is what we do with almost every order, but do we list them for the clients? Most times we don't,  and it's the "when we don't" that prompts many buyers to then shop price.

I even took a stab at what's not included. I can tell you that virtually no one is including that line.  

Just a few minutes ago I completed my call with Larry Kirsch.  Larry has been a Print4Pay Hotel member for more than ten years and has fourteen more years in the business more than me (37 years)!  Incredible! 

It's truly a blessing to have someone in your back pocket that you can lean on.  Thus, with out further ado, let me present our interview with Larry Kirsch.

Art:  What year did you start in the industry and what was your first position?

Larry:  I started in 1966, and I started as a supply sales rep.  My territory was NYC, and my territory was maybe 7 block square (Wall Street area).

Art:   What company aka manufacturer or dealer did you work for during the seventies?

Larry:  In 1968 I enter the world of copier sales.  Being a manufacturer all we sold was SCM (Smith Corona Marchant).  There were liquid machines and others that used zinc oxide paper which also used a transfer agent called dispersant.

Art:  What was the percentage of copier sales people that made it past two years?

Larry:  I would say about 50% or less made it past the two years.

Art:  What did you like the most about your job in the seventies?

Larry:  I liked the challenges that were presented to me, in addition the sales training with SCM was exceptional.

Art:   What did you dislike the most about your job in the seventies?

Larry:  The micro management, you had to come in by 8:30AM and back in the office 5:30PM which was a little to regimented for me.  There were times when you could not make it back and you had to conform to those policies and procedures.

Art:  What was the compensation plan like, was there a salary, what is just commissions or was there a mix of salary and commissions? 

Larry:  I received 22% commissions of the gross sale, and received a draw that was paid back on commissions. 

Art:  What?  22% of the gross sale, what did these copiers sell for?

Larry:  We sold them for $1,500 -$2,000

Art:  How did you go about finding new business, and what was your favorite of those methods and why? 

Larry: My favorite method for finding new business was mailers and paying off the mailroom attendant at SCM to give me the return mailers that were sent in by potential prospects.  Knocking on doors and drops off were also quite effective.

In addition at times I would compensate the facilities manager or super of the buildings if they alerted in advance who was moving in or out.

Art:  What was your favorite brand and model to sell? 

Larry:  Savin 220 was my favorite, it was an easy product to sell.  The Savin 220 sold for about $1,500 and we were moving about 100 of these a month.

Art:  What type of car did you use for your demonstrations and how many demonstrations would you perform in a week? 

Larry:  Since I worked in the city, we did not use our vehicles.  Once in a while we had to use a taxi in order to bring the demo out.  That was quite an adventure.  We were required to do ten demonstrations a week.  In order to do those demonstrations we had to find a facility where we could leave our demonstrator.  We would then gather the demo units and wheel the device to the demonstration.

Art:  What did you do during the winter for the demonstrations?

Larry: We also had a video that we would bring out to the clients.

Art:  Can you tell us one funny story about selling copiers in the seventies?  

Larry:  With one appointment,  I took a client out to lunch and during the lunch he has asked for the proposal.  I then wrote a number on the napkin and presented that to him. He stated, “what the hell is this?”, I stated before you get upset take a look at the napkin.  He looked at the napkin and stated, “when can you deliver?”.  He also asked me to put a formal proposal together but assured me that I got the order.  I was then known as the “napkin closer” in the office.

Art:  What is the biggest problem you seeing facing the industry today? 

Larry:  With major accounts, I’m finding that there are many more people involved in the decision making process, thus potential deals are taking much longer to close.

Larry, thanks so much for you time, this is awesome!  I had no clue what is was like to sell in the seventies, nor doing in the Big Apple.

-=Good Selling=-