The Christmas season in Italy begins on the first Sunday of Advent, which is four Sundays before Christmas. Christmas fairs feature fireworks and bonfires along with holiday music. Families go to the Christmas markets to shop for gifts and new figures for the manger scene. Some families set up a Christmas tree and decorate it. Families set up their presepio, or manger scene, on the first day of the novena. They gather before the presepio each morning or evening of novena to light candles and pray. reposted from Christmas Traditions Around the World.

This blog will mark the ninth blog that I've posted over the years for "What I Want for Christmas" from Ricoh.  Over the years I've asked Ricoh to supply me with new products, and services that could help me sell more Ricoh stuff!

Alas, I must have been a bad boy for most of those years, since many of my requests did not come to fruition.  I've been selling Ricoh products since 1998, thus I've been that loyal sales person, along with that sales person that is enamored with the Ricoh brand.  Just can't figure out my so many of my requests go unanswered.

A few years ago, I asked for faster A4 black devices with advanced finishing capabilities. Finally, this year I get the faster A4 black devices, but Ricoh then eliminates the finisher/staplers!  Wawawa, I just don't get it, who is better than me to decide on what products should come to market here in the US?  LOL

What I Want for Christmas in 2016

• I want a level playing field for Direct & Dealers,  and enough of the BS that we care about our dealers, just give us the same pricing as Direct.
• Can you please get me faster A4 color devices with advanced finishing/stapling and hole punching.
• I need this too!  The faster new A4 black devices are really awesome (even if there're OEM'd by Kyocera), but I need finisher/staplers with these devices also!
• I could really use a Color Label Press, and I can help you with the design too!  Just take the MP C8003, remove the copier, scanner features, add a Fiery, add an exit conveyor and then add the StraightShooter envelope feeder. I could kill it with this device. This system could print #10 envelopes up to 100 per minute!
• How about a giving me a 24 inch wide format MFP?  You're offering a 24 inch version the of the MP CW2201 in Japan, why not bring it too me!
• Enough already with the crappy copier apps for the new 04 series!  Do you really think anyone copies any more?  Instead bring me some scanning apps that I can use for my social media accounts. 
• I need, a faster wide color wide format MFP. Don't care if it's ink based or toner based. I'm tired of not being able to compete with the likes of HP. KIP & OCE.  Color wide format is the next great opportunity for wide format devices.
• Since I'm asking for wide format stuff, please, please design a document feeder for the Ricoh wide format devices.  Believe it or not, the last few that I sold, I had calls that the device was not feeding multi originals!  Don't think about copying, think about scanning, how awesome would it be to stack 20 wide format pages in a document feeder.  Set it, scan it and forget it!
• I want folding units!  Please bring me some folding options that will work with the new A4 series color devices.
• Xerox recently announced that they were going to migrate many existing Xerox Direct accounts their dealers. I think this would be an awesome gesture if Ricoh could do the same with their Direct accounts.  Can you make this happen?

I'd like to take the time to thank all of our readers for the comments, the likes and the replies that have been posted this last year. In addition, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and have a tremendous healthy and happy New Year!

PS, if you can think of anything else please post it in the reply section!

-=Good Selling=-

What I Want for Christmas from Ricoh 2006

What I Want for Christmas from Ricoh 2008

What I Want for Christmas from Ricoh 2011

What I Want for Christmas from Ricoh 2012

What I Want for Christmas from Ricoh 2013

What I Want for Christmas from Ricoh 2014

What I Want for Christmas from Ricoh 2015

I've just gotta start writing these blogs earlier.  It's past 10PM and I'm struggling with remembering how the day went!

I just finished up the weekly email up date, along with some recent press releases.  Seems this week and probably next week will be slow for Press Releases from the manufacturers.

After that tough Friday, I was determined to change things around.  In order to get that $48K opp sold, I knew what I needed to do.  Funny, some of my peers will poke fun of me for doing what I do best.  For me, it's just another way of working a deal so I can get the order closed.

For this particular opp on Friday, once the prospect backed out the third unit, there was not enough revenue in the deal to get the client to commit.  It's an easy sale when you can show the client they will have their costs reduced. 

What I'm going to share with you is one of the tactics that I used to close an order that I need and or make some additional revenue/GP. I'm sure some of you are doing this just like me.

When I access the buyout/trade up numbers for the leasing company, I pay close attention to the Trade up to Keep. In some cases there can be a heck of buy for the existing leased equipment.  In the case of my potential order, the price for the two 80 ppm color devices was extremely low.  Thus, the plan is get one or two prospects to commit to buying or leasing these units before I cut the deal with the original order.  I had put a few feelers out a couple of weeks ago on these units, but nothing came back.

Thus, today, I had a 4:30PM appointment with an existing account (501C), who had just leased a pre-owned A3 color device a few days ago.  The equipment was not delivered yet, and one of these 80ppm color devices would be awesome for this account.  The original plan for the meeting was not to sell anything, but to gather contacts and a letters of introduction to additional CEO's that my CEO is connected to. 

Thus, first thing this morning I was crunching the numbers with the prospects existing lease, the lease we just signed, and what they price would be to make the 80ppm device the main copier and the current leased copier the back up.  By the time I was done crunching the numbers, I felt really good about presenting the 80ppm device along with the customer keeping his current device.  The numbers?  My account would only pay $46 more dollars per month!  This was awesome.

At 4:30PM we met, and after gathering the contact information for the other prospects, I explained to my DM that I'm hear to tell you not to lease the copier that you just signed the paperwork for.  I was greeting with, "why do you have a better deal for me?"  With that we went over the T's & C's and my DM was able to tell me that we're 95% that this will happen. He just needs to talk with one other person (I'm thinking it's his marketing person). In previous interactions with this DM, 95% is something I feel really good about.

Just selling this one system will give me the revenue I need to cut the other order. I need to work a few things out tomorrow, and hoping I can wrap both of these up this week.

Otherwise, I was able to schedule four appointments today, and two of them were net new. One appointment had to be scheduled in January, but the other one was for this week.  The one for this week will be at least a $5k opp.

I'm driving home, and I get an email from another existing account that I spoke to in the AM.  That account sent me the order docs for a $6k deal!  Slowly but surely!

It's late, I'm done, hope you all have a great selling day tomorrow!

Wait, wait, one more item, there was another email from a referral, they want to meet ASAP for a wide format! WooHoo! Hoping to add this op tomorrow.

Amount Sold Today = $6K

Total Revenue to Date = $121.5K

New Opportunities Created Today= $5K

Total New Opportunities Created = $351K

Revenue Required to hit 200K Goal = $78.5 K

Lost Opportunity Today = $0k

-=Good Selling=-

Congratulations if you’re on track to meet or exceed your sales goals this year. Even if this year has been challenging for you as a major account rep, now is the perfect time to make a few adjustments, tweaks and commit to a successful 2017. Set aside quality time to do some serious sales planning so next year you get extraordinary results.

As you reflect and start working on your business plan, think about one word...

"TRANSFORMATION"

As a major account copier rep, how can you transform yourself to smash through the glass ceiling called quota?

A MAJOR ACCOUNT COPIER REP

As a major account copier rep, you are a vital component to your dealership's sales force. On behalf of the dealership, you represent their largest accounts and are responsible for supporting as well as managing the strategic relationships with their customers.

THE BRADY BRUNCH AND MAJOR ACCOUNTS

In my last blog post, I referenced 3 Things Major Account Copier Reps Consistently Do To Shoot Themselves With Complacency Bullets. I encourage and challenge all major account copier reps to walk, talk and act like major account copier reps. Be the example and set the example for all other sales reps on your team.

Unfortunately and all too often, I see major account copier reps act like spoiled rotten children exposing their childlike behaviors to all those inside their sales team. All this does is create animosity as other sales reps begin to talk... "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia"

GLORIFIED BABYSITTER

I don't mind opening Pandora's box. We are all feeling the pressure. The pressure from our manufacturers, pressure from our clients and pressure from our competition. Major account copier reps, I guarantee you will all start to feel the pressure as net new business growth is added to your compensation plans.

Are all of you truly and mean truly major account copier reps or glorified lease-end babysitters? This is the stigma you all have created inside your sales team. It is time for all major account copier reps to rise up and accept the sales challenge.

To borrow a line from Days of Our Lives,

"Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our sales lives"

THE 3 P CHALLENGE FOR ALL MAJOR ACCOUNT COPIER REPS TO CRUSH QUOTA AND SET THE EXAMPLE

The time is now for major account copier reps to rise up, set THE example and become true leaders inside your sales department. You all carry the highest quota numbers, you earn fantastic money and take care of your dealerships "cream of the crop" clients. We must walk, talk and act like business owners.

We must set the example to all other sales reps as you once were a "geo rep".

TO CRUSH QUOTA - YOU MUST HAVE A BUSINESS PLAN

In a previous blog post, Why Having A Business Plan Is A Must For A Major Account Copier Rep I encourage sales reps to set aside some time and think about What's Your Purpose, Plan And Goal For 2017?

• What is your plan to grow your business by xx% in 2017?
• What are you going to do to enhance your attitude, skills and knowledge?
• What are you going to do to enhance your mindset and skillset?
• What support do I need from management?

Your business plan becomes serious when I ask you this question...

How would you crush quota in 2017 if 50% of your base decides to keep their current equipment as opposed to upgrading?

Learn how to develop your business plan here at the Major Account Sales Workshop.

TO CRUSH QUOTA - YOU MUST BE ABLE TO PROMOTE YOURSELF

How are you perceived by your clients? How are you perceived in the marketplace by your future clients? Major account copier reps, it is imperative you promote yourself out in the marketplace not just to your current lease base.

If you want to crush your numbers and exceed quota you must be willing to promote yourself. No this isn't bragging about your tenure in the industry or how many times you made the president's club trip; this is about positioning yourself as the subject matter expert in your marketplace.

It starts with building your brand presence and no other has built a brand presence through self-promotion than the one and only Grant Cardone, Mr.10Xer himself.

"Promote yourself until people know your name and your face. Promote until they know you as a threat. Keep promoting until they know you as the leader in your space. Promote yourself until your competition is no longer threatened by you but finally admires you and wants to collaborate with you."

Grant Cardone

Your self-promotion begins with building your brand on LinkedIn. My challenge to major account copier reps, YOU must become better marketers as well as better sales reps as your sales funnel and bank account will love you for it.

TO CRUSH QUOTA - YOU MUST PROSPECT

Sorry peeps, ask any major account copier rep their strategic plan for prospecting in order to develop new business and listen for stone cold silence. Strategic and well planned out business development has become a lost art within the copier channel.

 Again I ask you...

How would you crush quota in 2017 if 50% of your base decides to keep their current equipment as opposed to upgrading?

As a major account copier rep, why has prospecting been put on the back-burner? One huge reason... you have grown accustomed to flipping your customer base. So, as the lease cycle goes we all must face reality, a true major account sales professional creates a balancing act of nurturing their current clients while adding new clients to their sales family.

To crush quota in 2017, major account copier reps must integrate new school business development methodology into your sales process. Intelligent prospecting starts by improving how you manage your target list of major accounts.

It is hard to keep a consistent sales pipeline as a major account copier rep without a proactive, modern method of prospecting. Furthermore, without a healthy relationship funnel how can you maintain a consistent sales funnel?

TIME IS NOW FOR ALL MAJOR ACCOUNT COPIER REPS

To crush quota and maintain the sales leader status inside your dealership you must develop a change maker mindset. You are the sales leaders BUT in order to set the example for others to follow YOU must build something bigger than the walls of your own ego can hold, YOU must become vulnerable. You must put your ego aside and reach outside of your silo and integrate your plan, how you promote yourself and how you prospect.

I get where you are coming from. I walked a day in the life of a major account copier rep.

Please share your comments or share this post. I am here to help and open up a great conversation with you.

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 drive conversations 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

Just watched the Giants go ahead of the Cowboys, go BIG BLUE GO!

It's late, almost 11PM.  Over the weekend I lost a day on my sales calendar.  That my friends was a mess up on my part.  I have ten days left in the month, not eleven, unless I missed a post somewhere.  I'll make up those hours this week with putting in some extra time.

Friday, well..., was not the kind of day that I was hoping for.   I had the 11AM appointment for that $48K opp,  in addition I found a few mistakes when double checking my math in the AM.  I'm so glad that I double checked my work, because nothing will kill a deal quicker if you have mistakes in your spread sheet.

In order to get to the account by 11AM, I needed to leave at or around 10:15.  A little back ground about this account for everyone.  They have two leases that were signed for 36 months. One of the leases has 5 months and the other lease has three months left on the left.  Two of the 80 ppm devices are at one location and the other device at another location.  

When I developed the existing cost vs new cost spreadsheets, I was able to prove that there would be an annual savings of more than $2,000 per year.  In most cases, saving two thousand a year is a no brainer to upgrade right away.

The fly in ointment was the location that had the one device. In addition when I originally sold that device it had some decent GP.  As we were reviewing the volumes at this location, our DM expressed that they may be closing that location, since it was only staffed with one person right now.  Thus, there may not be a need to replace that system!  With that device out of the equation, it blows the entire spreadsheet up and there is no more annual savings. In fact the cost rises to more than $200 per month that what they are paying.  Sigh....

But, there was a couple of wrinkles that I need to explore. One was the possible addition of an advanced scan solution and the other was a few projectors. I need to review and consult with others on Monday

If that wasn't all, and existing opp for this month finally emailed me back and stated they were not going to do anything with their wide format device.  At the end of the lease they are going to return and do with out one.    That was a $12K lost.

Every now and then we'll get these days, while some will say woo is me, I will try and find a way to get it done.

Not much else, not opps created, no orders, no appointments.  Ten days left!

Amount Sold Today = $0K

Total Revenue to Date = $115.5K

New Opportunities Created Today= $0K

Total New Opportunities Created = $346K

Revenue Required to hit 200K Goal = $84.5 K

Lost Opportunity Today = $12k

-=Good Selling=-

I just checked my recent constant contacts and I was upset because three members opted out of the weekly email update.  As my Father in Law states, what do you expect from a Pig but a Grunt.

It's obvious to me that those three that opted out are probably terrible prospectors and terrible sales people.  Over the years, I always believe and stated to others that Print4Pay Hotel members are the best of breed for the imaging industry.

Below are ten quotes that we've recently ran across, and or we emailed to me so that I could post them up on the site.

There is so much that can be learned from these quotes!  If you're an everyday user of the Print4Pay Hotel you could develop your own spreadsheet and figure out the average cost per page, the lease price and or the purchase price of many devices.

For me, I'll be combing through all of the recent Canon quotes so I can develop a quote against multiple Canon devices.

Yes, the quotes are Premium/VIP content, however the cost of $115 is well worth the investment because you would access to the entire site!  Heck, it's an investment into your future.

Thus, adios to those three members that unsubscribed from the weekly email updates.  Won't they be surprised the next time they log in, and find out that they are banned from the site.

Here's the quotes!  Enjoy!

Ricoh MP CW2201SP Quote

Ricoh MP C4504SP Health Care Quote

Ricoh MPC4504SP Quote

Ricoh MP4054SP Quote0 pro

Konica Minolta Bizhub C454e Quote

Konica Minolta Bizhub 454e Quote

Xerox WorkCentre 5945APT Quote

Xerox WorkCentre 7845PT Quote

HP LaserJet Enterprise flow MFP M830z Quote

Canon IRC5540 proposal

-=Good Selling=-

It's Friday evening, just about 10:30PM. I've finishing watching my Friday night series of "Z Nation" & "Gold Rush" and have put away a couple of Bahama Mamas for a night cap.

I've often wondered how many other sales rep get a rush every time one of the three gold crews come up big with their weekly clean up of the wash plant.  For me,  it's prospecting 101 and digging in the dirt to find that gold streak, well, it's something we do every day. We're just not digging in the dirt.

LOL, I'm having a senior moment about Thursday! 

In the AM I prepared my presentation for an appointment I had on Friday with an existing account. Preparing meant, that I researched the last year of maintenance and supply costs on three different devices.  Developed a spreadsheet that outlined last years cost with quarterly meter reads for each device. Once I developed those three spreadsheets I then analyzed the annual and quarterly volume of each device.  I then took those existing spreadsheets and ran models of what the cost would be with new devices.  Yes, it's a lot of work, however when you present this to the client you are leaving no stones unturned. You have every bit of data that can help you close the order.

In addition to the six spreadsheets, I cut and pasted a Ricoh PPT on the new devices into a short format of what's new and different.  I capped all of that off with a brochure, order doc, lease and maintenance/supply agreements.  I'm figuring I spent at least three hours from start to finish.

My next project was to model a few pricing scenarios for the net new account I visited yesterday. When I was finished I sent it off to my manager and we'll have a pow wow about this account on Monday. All in all, I figure this ate up another two hours.  BTW, special thanx to those Print4Pay Hotel members that helped me out with the finishers for the existing Canon devices. Could not have completed this without your help!

The rest of the day was spent was preparing for my 7:30PM appointment in South Jersey.  This will be my second time before the board, in the last thirty days. My first proposal had then spending another $200 per month to replace two devices.  My new proposal now has them saving $132 per month and going to one device. 

I finally left the office about 6PM, grabbed a quick bite to eat and arrived for my 7:30PM appointment about twenty after seven.

I was able to sit in on the board meeting and finally presented my proposal just about 8PM.  My second proposal was a hit, all of the board members were in favor, however, they told me that I had place a call to the head board member and run it by him. Damn, it's always something right.  I'll be calling him in Monday, since I have a full day tomorrow.

Finally arrived home a little before 9:30PM!

Amount Sold Today = $0K

Total Revenue to Date = $115.5K

New Opportunities Created Today= $0K

Total New Opportunities Created = $346K

Revenue Required to hit 200K Goal = $84.5 K

Lost Opportunity Today = None

-=Good Selling=-

Thirteen days left..... it's been exhausting.  It's about 20 past ten and I'm ready to pass out.

In the AM, I had a training session for one of my largest accounts. Recently, we placed three wide format multifunctional systems, the primary use of these systems was for scanning.  My training session was to teach them about the additional scan features that could be used for scanning wide format documents. 

Their IT department had the systems set up for scan to a single folder.  The user would name the file at the MFP, scan to that folder and then go to their PC and then upload that file to their document management system. 

Just last week, I spoke to our sales people about FAB (features, advantages and benefits).  I spoke about the importance of how a single feature on a device can lock out the competition. We call those "lockout features". 

With our line of Ricoh wide format MFP's we have one of those "lock out features", that feature is the TWAIN scanning driver that comes with our Ricoh wide format device.

Why is that important?

During training, I was asked, can the system scan the document and save it as a .tiff file? "Of course" I stated, and then added, "why do you need a .tiff file?". I was then told that their document management system will only recognize .tiff files.  Basically, .pdfs were of no use to them.  I then asked their IT person if their document management system can use a TWAIN scan driver.  The answer was yes,  I then stated they could load the TWAIN driver, then pull scan the documents right to their document management system.

Now, I was not aware of the need for the TWAIN driver during the initial sales call, however I learned a valuable piece of knowledge today.  I learned that "xyz" document management system can use a TWAIN driver and eliminate a few steps in the scanning process. I'm keeping this tidbit of info in the memory banks and will proceed to call other accounts that are using the "xyz" document management system. This one little piece of knowledge will open some doors for me in the near future.

Back to the training, after two hours, I was finally out of there. I was going to do a planned stop in for a production system, but had to scratch that in order to make my 1PM appointment that was more than an hour in another direct. In addition, I had to pick up my Guru of Major Accounts.

You never know what tomorrow will bring 

Our appointment was with a larger SMB that was pricing four new MFP's for replacement in February of 2017.  Three A3 black devices and one color device, volume with black was more than 100K per month and just about 10K per month in color.

This is the same account, where I have failed twice before, just can't seem to knock out the incumbent. I brought in my Guru of Major Accounts because he is the best at presented our IOP.  While I listened to mu GURU deliver the IOP, I also had my eyes glued on the client for body language.  That body language told me that we have a decent shot this time around. 

Of course, I asked what is your time frame to order. I was expecting January, February and was delighted to hear that our prospect will be making a decision in the next ten days! Woohoo!  Chalk up a $40K opp.  Yeah, it's not a sale, but never the less it's another roll of the dice that I'll have before the end of the month.

By, the time we returned it was later in the day, and I was so pumped that I started crunching the numbers for this account.  Believe or not, I had kept all of my quotes and notes from the last six years, and I'm going to rely on that data to try an win this.

Nothing sold today, I was able to schedule my other large opp for $48K for Friday. I have a long day tomorrow, with my last appointment scheduled at 7:30PM.  Probably will not post up a blog tomorrow night.

Amount Sold Today = $0K

Total Revenue to Date = $115.5K

New Opportunities Created Today= $40K

Total New Opportunities Created = $346K

Revenue Required to hit 200K Goal = $84.5 K

Lost Opportunity Today = None

-=Good Selling=-

Proven Efficiencies with DocuWare

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation automated the business processes in their accounting department to streamline workflows and provide all employees access to needed information whenever they need it regardless of their location. Additionally, audits are now easy to deal with and the company is in strong compliance with Sarbanes Oxley regulations.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation is a publicly traded exploration and production company in the oil and gas industry operating 6 offices between Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Requirements

With 2 large offices and 4 field offices, Cabot wanted a digital document management system that could allow all employees to have controlled online access to information and eliminate the need for a physical file room. As a company that is audited frequently by joint partners and other internal audits, they also needed a faster, easier and secure way of providing requested documents.

Solution

Cabot had a strong relationship with their IT vendor and Authorized DocuWare Partner who recommended the document management solution DocuWare because of its flexibility and ability to easily integrate with third party systems. As a first step, the company decided to digitally store voucher packets containing an invoice, accompanying back up documents such as work tickets, spread sheets and the pay voucher sheet generated by the accounting system.

Initially, completed invoices and accompanying documents were mailed to the corporate office for filing. This process was time consuming, costly and every so often a document shipment was lost. In addition, looking for a specific piece of information in these packets was long and labor intensive

With DocuWare in place, accounting documents are now easy to access and submit. Invoices continue to be processed the same manner as before; however, now a barcode of the voucher number is added to the voucher sheet and used as a cover sheet to indicate the start and stop of each packet. Cabot decided to outsource the scanning and indexing of their voucher packets to their Authorized DocuWare Partner. Utilizing a data file exported from Cabot’s accounting system and the barcoded voucher number as a match code, the documents are scanned, indexed and electronically stapled into virtual packets. The document images and index information are then sent to Cabot and imported into their onsite DocuWare system. The process has evolved and today most of Cabot’s vendor invoices are received electronically and easily transferred from Cabot’s invoicing system to DocuWare.

“DocuWare ties our accounting system, invoicing program and supporting documents together in one solution. The integration was amazingly easy,” commented Molly Malone, Manager, Systems Analysis and Programming.

Benefits

Self-serve access to information positively impacts everyone in the company. Each person has the information they need to proficiently do their job. Staff members no longer need to get up from their desks and walk to the file room to resolve a payment issue and those in the field offices no longer keep their own set of records or call the corporate office for information. Needed information is at their finger-tips as digital files.

The company’s employees echoed this sentiment saying, “I love the quick, easy- access, paperless way to search for documents rather than having to dig thru files.”

As a publically traded company, Cabot Oil & Gas is mandated to comply with the Sarbanes Oxley requirements and submit an annual assessment of the effectiveness of their internal financial auditing controls to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). DocuWare’s security features and version control help the company meet these important legal regulations.

One of the biggest positive changes that has come from implementing DocuWare is eliminating the stress of audits. Today, providing requested documents, takes only minutes rather than days. The Accounting Department is able to export all requested information onto a CD and provide auditors with a mini-cabinet of electronic information. Staff no longer need to pull paper documents, copy them and refile the originals, saving them both time and money.

Conclusion

Cabot continues to expand its use of DocuWare; the Marketing Department is storing contracts and other documents, and the Corporate and Regional Land Departments are storing long-term documents such as leases, titles, contracts and letters.

One of the latest IT projects Cabot has implemented is to give the teams in the field electronic pens with special forms in order to quickly move work tickets for projects related to fixing trucks, hauling water or other labor charges into their accounting system. These PDFs are sent to a “watched folder” and automatically imported into DocuWare, where they can be matched up with the invoice and electronically stapled as supporting documentation, reducing the time it takes to bill for services.

“As we look to the future, we know that more and more of our business critical information will be stored in DocuWare. We are already seeing the positive results from bringing in DocuWare as a key element in our IT environment,” said Malone.

DocuWare Corporation | 4 Crotty Lane, Suite 200 | New Windsor, NY 12553  (888) 565-5907 |  www.docuware.com

Fourteen days left, and yes, I'm starting to feel a little bit of pressure now. 

I have only one large opportunity that I have a chance of closing for December.  That opp is for $48-$50K, if I can nail that down, the rest of the year should be a breeze. If I can't get that opp to close, I'll then have to figure out a plan to piece meal the rest together. If the piece meal bit comes to fruition, I'm thinking I may have to write 12-15 orders for the month. Egads!

That will not be an easy task. 

On the plus side, I'm feeling much better and if I can have a few more days like to today, then I have a good shot.  I was able to log almost forty calls, thirty some outbound emails, scheduled two additional appointments, close a small order,  added another $17K to the pipeline and moved a couple of additional opps closer to a possible close this week.

Today was more about digging deeper in my CRM and seeing how many rabbits I could pull out of the hat.  I was happy with pulling two opps for the $17K, both of those opps have a chance to close before the end of the month.

I'm hoping I can get that $48-$50K rescheduled for this week. I then have two additional opps for $7K each that I may be able to close by the end of the week. 

Tomorrow brings me a 9AM appointment for some training, a scheduled stop in for an opp that went cold for a color production unit, and a mid day appointment at a larger account that has six Canon devices that are close to the end of lease term.

Funny, the mid day appointment will be my third try in six years to win this account.  I lost the last two to the incumbent, and I'm hoping the third time will be the charm.  I'm bringing out the BIG GUN with this one, and inviting my VP of Major Accounts.  Momma did not raise a fool and I'm all in for a little help on this one and two heads are usually better than one. 

December is one of those months that can be off the charts and other the hand it can also be one of those months that you can put up a stinker.  I will do everything in my power to make sure it's not a stinker, however I also realize that there are some things that are just out of your control.

Thursday is our scheduled phone day and I'm hoping I can duplicate what I did today. 

So, what's the plan for the rest of the week?  Work the phones, work the heck out of my CRM, make contact with at least another one hundred accounts, and close a few opps.   Need to finish strong this week.

Amount Sold Today = $1.5K

Total Revenue to Date = $115.5K

New Opportunities Created Today= $17K

Total New Opportunities Created = $306K

Revenue Required to hit 200K Goal = $84.5 K

Lost Opportunity Today = None

-=Good Selling=-

I had the chance to speak with John MacIness, President of Print Audit and West McDonald, VP of Business Development for Print Audit about the recent acquisition of NeoStream.

My first thought when I heard the news was this recent Xerox publication:

A recent Xerox International research effort reveals that nearly half (46%) of SMB’s will turn to office equipment resellers for help with paper free solutions. In addition, 25% will look to their IT provider and 37 percent to the product manufacturer.  

Art:   The last time we spoke at the Top 100 Summit, you stated something big was coming down the pike for dealers.  You were right, this is BIG! Do you have time for a few questions?

West: Fire away

Art:  How can Print Audit help office equipment dealers capture a portion of that document lifecycle business?

West: Print Audit is poised to help with the 71% of customer needs covered by office equipment dealers and IT providers. Thanks to the NeoStream acquisition we can help with printed pages and entirely digital ones. None of our competitors can do both, it’s an industry first.

Art:  Print Audit’s current Premium subscription service offers “x” amount of licenses per month for “x” amount of dollars per month. Will you be using the same subscription model for your new document management solutions? In addition what types of plans will be available to the dealer?

West:  Premier members will be able to upgrade to Premier Plus for an additional monthly subscription plan. Additionally we will likely offer a stand alone ECM subscription for those who won’t be doing managed print.

Art:  What is the advantage to the dealer with the subscription based monthly billing model?

Under Premier a member’s costs are fixed, no matter how much they grow. The more they grow, the better their margins get.

Art:  Can existing Premier Dealers upgrade to the new Premier Plus Program?

John:  Absolutely! Premier members will actually have an exclusive window to upgrade and provide NeoStream solutions before we open it up to the world at large.

Art:  What is the benefit to office equipment dealers to offer management of the entire document lifecycle?

 John:  We all know that pages per user are in slow decline and that digital documentation is growing exponentially. The benefit to the office equipment dealer is to stay relevant as their customers needs evolve. They’ll stand to make a lot of money if they do that right.

Art:  Can you tell us more about the advantages of the “buy vs build” scenario for SharePoint?

West: Anybody that works with SharePoint knows that it’s extremely powerful. They also know it can be a beast to implement. Building is really, really hard. NeoStream makes it much, much easier to get Sharepoint functionality right out of the box. NeoStream does that better than any other provider.

Art:  Will Professional Services be oddered to the Premier Plus Members? If so, could you tell us more about the services that Print Audit will offer?

West: Premier Plus members will make a ton of money by offering additional professional services above and beyond the standard rollout for SharePoint that we provide. We will help them to develop the professional services packages. Print Audit is in the subscription business, not in the professional services business, and we need to explore a little more to see if we provide them ourselves or not.

Art:  Where do you see the sweet spot for your new services? Meaning how many employees should we be looking for in order to present these services?

West:  The great thing about NeoStream, unlike other ECM offerings, is that it fits really nicely in the SMB market where most of our Premier members already play.

Art:  Will Print Audit be offering toolsets that are prebuilt for the client?

We will be working on a standard NeoStream template for office equipment dealers so they can experience its power for themselves. The cool part is it will bring a tremendous amount of back office and customer facing benefits to the table for Premier Plus members, right within their own businesses.

Art:  So what do you see as the billing model? Seat based for subscription portion and then adding professional services to that?

John: Yes, that is the most likely way. Subscription is the way of the future for our space, especially Seat-based. The day of selling people software are disappearing as customers like the continuous support that comes under subscription.

John & West, thank you for the time today. I'm sure many of our members will appreciate this update about the acquisition of NeoStream.  Additionally, I love the idea of managing the entire document life cycle. 

-=Good Selling=-

After a weekend of rest and relaxing, well, If you define decorating the outside for the house for Christmas, then I truly had a relaxing weekend!

By Sunday, I was feeling somewhat better, so the wife gave me a kick in the ass and stated, "you need to decorate the outside, honey". WHAT?  You know the saying, "Happy Wife, Happy Life".  Ten AM to Three PM, geesh I wish we lived in a condo in Florida.  By four PM we were leaving for the wife's Birthday dinner.  It was a busy day and night, and the reason why there was no email update last night. Still trying to get this done tonight, however it's already 9PM.

I received an email last night that my Tuesday appointment needed to reschedule, and that he would be back on Wednesday of this week.  We agreed that we would touch base on Wednesday and re-schedule that meeting for later this week.  This one of the big opps I have for the month, coming in a $48K. My plan for the day was to prepare for this appointment, gather additional data, do a few spreadsheets, figure out what I could hang my hat on and develop a short ppt for him.

So, plans have changed again!  More phone calls, more researching the CRM, more of trying to find existing accounts that may be interested in upgrading.  I'm focusing more on those existing accounts because I know those accounts will close faster than any net new accounts. In addition most of those net news that are in my funnel for December seem to have taken a trip to Africa and could be lost near a small village on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. (wink)

I was able to close a small order for a pre-owned A3 color device.  Scheduled two additional appointments and moved an 80 ppm color A3 device closer to a close.

I also set at least a half a dozen emails to some existing accounts about Section 179 of the IRS tax code. Explaining that depending on how their tax status is they may qualify with signing a finance lease before the end of the calendar year.  I crossing my fingers that I get something warm from one of these tomorrow. Not holding my breath though.

I have one appointment tomorrow, with a decent shot of closing, I'm thinking 60/40.  Other than that it's back to prospecting!!

Amount Sold Today = $3.5K

Total Revenue to Date = $114K

New Opportunities Created Today= $0K

Total New Opportunities Created = $289

Revenue Required to hit 200K Goal = $86 K

Lost Opportunity Today = None

-=Good Selling=-

Yes, I'm somewhat behind on my blog posts. I was reminded of this when I arrived at the office this morning.

Friday, was not one of my better days, still fighting what ever bug someone gave me. 

I was able to accompany our resident rookie to an appointment with an existing account.  This account had recently received a repair estimate for a duplicator that was almost seven years old.  There was no maintenance agreement in place, and the estimate for repair was in the very low four figures. 

We really did not know much about the accounts print habits and this was going to me more of a fact finding mission rather than trying to sell something. 

We arrived a little before 9AM, waited for a minutes and our client arrived a few minutes later. 

I wanted to find out if a duplicator was still a requirement. After thirty some questions we found out that a duplicator is still a good fit for them.  Did they need something as high end as they have? No, they could be better served with a smaller duplicator that didn't require 11x17. They could also benefit with a duplicator that was capable of printing from the network. 

Thus, we have a repair estimate for over $1,000, the existing duplicator is not under maintenance agreement, plus the duplicator is almost seven years old.  Yes, they could just spend the money and get it repaired, but when will the duplicator break down again?  Next week, next month, six months, two years?

We have no way of knowing that, nor does the client.  We then retreated a bit, explained that we need to look at some numbers and get back to them with a recommendation. 

During the ride back to the office, we discussed a plan to price up an A4 duplicator with a print controller.  Offer this on a 60 month lease and see where the numbers fall. It's my thinking that we can offer them a fixed cost to lease a new duplicator that will be less expensive than the current cost to repair the broken duplicator.  What I mean is that we are only going to look at the first year lease, maintenance and supply cost, thus hoping it will be the same or less than the out lay of the thousand dollars to fix the existing duplicator.  The client will then have two options, repair the existing duplicator or get a new one. It's not a great plan, but it's the only plan.

We also found out the existing lease cost for the current copier, all I can tell you is that sales person should be shakin in their boots!

I was just not up to the task of tackling the phone today.  I focused on processing the two orders I had from earlier in the week, and then focused on sending and answering a few emails.

I had a few more pricing discussions with our resident rookie and by about 3:30PM I was shot.  I left early, sent home, fell asleep and woke up about 10:30 Friday night.  After that I logged another right more hours of sleep.  Guess I needed it.

-=Good Selling=-