Life as a copier sales rep, especially in major accounts is challenging and I get it. I thrive and embrace personal and business challenges. No risk no reward!

"Choices, Chances, Changes... You must make a choice to take a chance or your life   will never change"

If you want to win consistently you need a plan. You need to develop a strategy which gives you an edge, the business "IT" factor over the competition; driving sales opportunities through the pipeline all the way to the finish line.

Where do you start?

When thinking about what it takes as a major account copier sales rep to formulate a winning sales strategy, a good starting point to remember is you are dealing with a complex buying environment. Multiple decision-makers and influencers are involved, the needs and issues are multi-layered, multi-faceted and often times conflicting. The solution configuration and implementation management is likely to be complex and sophisticated.

SHARPEN IT, DEEPEN IT AND BROADEN IT

As a major account copier rep, a great way to stand out inside a large group of diverse individuals with diverse goals and interests is to teach them something new and unique about their business.

Major accounts have no generic customers thus there are no winning generic account strategies. Every opportunity is unequal and each major account strategy must take this uniqueness into consideration.

MY $1.3 MILLION MAJOR ACCOUNT SALES STORY

After spending almost 20 years of my sales career with the same copier dealership I decided it was time for a change. I set the ego and fear aside to embrace the next chapter of my copier sales career. This opportunity was a "net new" sales position within the Corporate Major Account team for a global office technology manufacturer. I was handed zero current clients, an $840,000 quota and I had to build out a target account list to call on.

I ask you all, how many tenured sales reps would leave 20 years of business behind them to venture off into new horizons without a single account to feed off of. The answer my friends is blowing in the wind, it is zero!

The first 90 days I ate slices of humble pie as I threw up goose eggs; big fat zeros! I had to change my mindset as I was beginning to build my relationship funnel. I strongly believe in order to have a healthy sales funnel you have to engage and commit to building up your relationship funnel.

3 THINGS I LEARNED AS A MAJOR ACCOUNT COPIER REP ON THE STREETS OF LOS ANGELES

Major account copier reps, the 3 things I learned very fast in a brutally competitive business climate and marketplace, you must...

Walk it, Talk it and Look it. You must have the IT factor!

I am a firm believer in "What is old is forever new" No relationship funnel no sales funnel, plain and simple. I changed my mindset by integrating the use of social selling concepts inside the traditional copier sales process.

Building, leveraging and promoting my brand socially on LinkedIn (walk it, talk it and look it) was the defining major account moment. This allowed me to foster and build up my relationship funnel as I soon started to convert these relationships into net new meetings. These net new meetings took on an entirely different meaning as I already had developed the personal connection as I socially committed to building relationships based on three simple words - Teach, Tailor and Educate.

Leveraging LinkedIn or for that matter any social platform is just a vehicle to enhance your business development. This does not replace old fashion hard work, dedication and commitment to be your very best.

In the span of one year, with daily discipline I leveraged these LinkedIn relationships to bring in well over $650,000 of net new business in conjunction with $1,300,000 in sales revenue in calendar year 2014! Over 50% of my sales revenue was directly attributed to how I leveraged LinkedIn. LinkedIn became the cog in the wheel of my prospecting strategy and success.

My question to major account copier reps... How are you walking, talking and speaking about how you help major corporations solve their issues, challenges and initiatives?

As a major account copier rep, building your credibility and leveraging your network are two great places to start. Another great place to start is a mouse-click away...

PROMOTE YOUR MAJOR ACCOUNT IMAGE

Your LinkedIn profile is your professional image to the major account business community. Are you seen as a subject matter expert? How are you positioning yourself as a thought leader? You are creating your personal brand via what you promote within LinkedIn.

It all starts with your professional headline. This is not the ideal position for your job title. Do you honestly think any high level decision maker cares about your major account business title? You have seconds to capture their attention and draw them into your LinkedIn profile. Promote value, create your call to action and propel them into continuing to read your profile.

"Think of the challenges your prospects have and how you can help solve them"

CREATE ALIGNMENT WITH YOUR STORY

After drawing executives in with your headline, pay close attention to the summary section. A great read is Simon Sinek's Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. I used the summary section as my why. Why would someone do business with you? What do they get when they engage with you? What makes you who you are? This is your personal story-telling time. I drew in business executives by sharing with them what they can expect by engaging with me. It was my promise of value which catapulted the start of many real conversations.

   “People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”,

Simon Sinek

GENERATE AWARENESS AND ATTRACT EXECUTIVES TO WHO YOU ARE

Completely optimizing your LinkedIn profile is a must as a major account copier rep. No excuses! The time is now! Resuscitating your sales funnel through social business development is a must for major account copier reps. Commit to nurture, grow and build those business relationships.

To all major account copier reps, their managers and dealer principals I ask you this...

What would happen to your income, your bonus and your dealership's service revenue if you lost one of your major accounts? How would you replace it? How soon could you replace it?

START INTELLIGENTLY PROSPECTING AND CREATING A PLAN

It all starts with developing a new mindset, learning new skill sets and adding them to your major account tool chest. Nothing happens until you make the commitment to drive change in your life. Lose one major account customer and you will soon realize where I am coming from.

It is imperative, major account copier reps must position themselves to be viewed as go-to resources for thought leadership and industry news. Incorporating LinkedIn as part of your growth strategy, I firmly believe you will have less competition for the executive buyer’s attention, you will create a positive personal brand image, you will position yourself as a subject matter expert but most importantly you will consistently keep the sales funnel full of major account prospects.

It is all about the top of the sales funnel. Nothing going in means nothing is coming out!

Please don't allow your major account sales funnel to look like this...

If an old school, baby boomer copier guy can adapt so can you! I get where you all are coming from as I have walked a day in the life of your shoes.

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 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

Since I had a 9:30AM appointment about 20 miles from the house. I opted to make that my first stop instead of driving 45 minutes north to the office and then have to leave 30 minutes later for a 40 minute drive south to the account.

The appointment was with another non-profit account that needed to replace an older Canon device (did not know it was a Canon until I arrived).  Yesterday, I did my home work for the account and had readied a spreadsheet of four different MFP's.  Two of them that were pre-owned black MFP's, one pre-owned color MFP and one new color MFP.  The speeds started at 20ppm for A3 color (new), 30ppm A3 color (preowned) and then the two black pre-owned MFP's.

A side note for everyone. About two years ago, I stopped using the work "used", and replaced it with pre-owned. Over those two years I've noticed that clients are more receptive to a pre-owned MFP rather than a "used" MFP.  Thus, if you're using  "used", I suggest you move to "pre-owned" and I think you'll create some additional opportunities for those devices.

Our meeting took about an hour, of course our gatekeeper needed to review with someone else.  There was more interest in the two color devices and they would have a decision on which one they wanted in a few days or so. 

So, here's something else that may help you with non-profits. If they support me, then I will support them, meaning I offered up taking an ad in their ad book rather than giving them a discount.  Spending the $100 for the ad helps me garner additional exposure, along with a copy of the ad book. Once I have a copy of the ad book, I will pick out the paper intensive accounts, call them and make sure that I reference their company, the ad book and the 501C corp.

The ride back to the office took me ninety minutes because of a bad motorcycle accident on the parkway.  As soon, as I arrived back, I broke for lunch.  My afternoon was filled with additional emails, a couple of calls and I spent about an hour researching a Samsung X7500GX for a net new account.  The specs on that device are awesome, however when you look at some the MS Word productivity print times, my A3 Ricoh is blowing that device away.  I'm involved with a "bean counter" and that bean counter does not understand value, nor productivity,  only price.  How the frack can I compete with .039 for color and .0067 for black?  The answer is I can't. I've got to find another way, and that way was to research the crap out of that device.  BTW, Jason and John, thanx for the help. (Jason and John are P4P Hotel members, and that's the real value behind the P4P Hotel is that we can reach out to others that are not in our market placed for help.  You would be amazed at the amount of people that are willing to help you get an order).

I spent another hour crunching numbers and devices for that 501C from last night, because I wanted to have some ideas for the Charity Dinner on Sundayt night.

I busted out early, because I didn't want to drive home in the dark, and finished up the last hour from my home office.  I created one opportunity for a pitiful $4K.

Amount Sold Today = $0K

Total Revenue to Date = $80K

New Opportunities Created Today= $4K

Total New Opportunities Created = $224K

Revenue Required $138K

-=Good Selling=-

My bad, I missed yesterdays post, because I didn't get home from work until 9:30PM.

Thursday morning was a long one. I made sure that I arrived at the office before 7AM, because I had to prepare and research some data for an existing customer.  This existing client had been laying fallow in our CRM since the last sales person exited our company. I can even remember if that sales person resigned or received the boot.

Thus, I wanted to make sure I was familiar with the existing equipment. I did not want to go in cold,  however I did want to go in hot!  Which means I wanted to be prepared to write the order on the spot if the opportunity presented itself.  I did my homework, I knew what they recently leased, I reviewed the contacts, I read the notes, I paid a visit to their web site (wanted to know what they did) and even prepared a spreadsheet of the existing costs vs proposed new costs.  I GBC'd the brochure, the spreadsheet, copy of the old lease, copy of the original sales order, copy of the old maintenance agreement, along with a new order doc, a new lease and a new maintenance agreement. Of course I highlighted the signature areas and off I went for the 30 mile ride.

I arrived late, because there was no address to their building, after panicking for a few moments because I had almost zero juice in my cell, I was able to connect with my contact. I finally arrived about fifteen minutes late.  The size of this building was HUGE!  I was escorted in by the guard, meet my contact and she then introduced me to the Operations Manager.  The Operations Manager then took me to the old Canon device that they wanted to replace. He asked if we can connect our system to the network IP address that was boldly stuck on the outside of the Canon. I stated "of course" and the Op Manager then stated well we want the same exact system that we received from you last time.

Thank goodness I did my research!!!!! I then asked, "how soon do you need it?  The Op Manager told me that he needed it before the 30th of this month. I then replied with, "got it, we're five to ten business days, I suggest that you order the system today", he replied with "that's fine, do you have paperwork for me?". I thought to my self (do I have paperwork, of fraking course I have the paperwork).  Five minutes later the docs were signed and I was out the door!

Every now and then we get a nugget right? That nugget goes back to the old days when you closed more orders on the first visit rather then meeting multiple times to get the order.  That order was worth $12K

I arrived back at the office about 11:30AM, replied to a few emails and then broke for lunch.  The afternoon consisted of additional follow up calls for open opportunities along with preparing all of the docs that I needed for my 7:30PM appointment before the board of a 501C organization.

I ended up leaving the office about 5:45PM, and headed south for a 90 minute drive. I arrived at the account about 7PM. I called in some back up on this one and invited my VP of Major Accounts in. Since I was going to present in front a board that had more than five people, I thought it would be best to have two experienced guru's available. In addition my  Veep was a champion of what the 501C organization does (sorry, I can tell everyone what they do, because that would let the lead out of the bag).

The presentation went ok, not great, because there was were many objections from one of the board members. Not a big deal, I just need to get more creative, do some additional home work and I'll see them all on Sunday for a charity event.

The order in the AM was for $12k, I also received the PO that I spoke about the other day. Thus, I'm putting up $18K in revenue for today.

Amount Sold Today = $18K

Total Revenue to Date = $80K

New Opportunities Created Today= $0K

Total New Opportunities Created = $219K

Revenue Required $120K

-=Good Selling=-

It was a late night last night, I finally got to sleep around 2AM or maybe 2:30AM.  The election had me riveted to the TV for hours and hours of counting votes, percentages and listening to commentary.

Rather than give you my journal for the day, I thought I would share an email that I just sent to a net new account that I had an appointment with today. The end of the appointment was somewhat humorous. The client had back to back appointments, my was first and then the competition followed.  As I was getting meter reads from an A4 color device (client did not know how to do this, nor where they aware of their color volume), I noticed a one of the two reps give me a stare down as I was working my magic with the A4 color device.  I thought, geesh they need to bring in two people?  Means of them is a rookie and the other is the most likely the sales manager. 

I had offered up a couple of closes, however with the other appointment waiting, the client also needed to met with them.  I did find out that we are close in price, in addition I knew the what the competition was offering from the brand but not the model number.  When I arrived back at my office, I placed a call and received additional information about the appointment with the competition. Below is the email that I just finished up a few minutes ago.

I hate to lose, especially to those that low ball service and supplies, because we all know what is going to happen on the back end.  Not sure where this deal is going, but I can tell you that I'm one tenacious rep that is not going to go down with out covering all of the bases.  Would love to hear some comments, even if it is from the two dudes that followed me!

Dear ...........

I've attached a document for you that list some of the advanced features of the Ricoh device compared to the Samsung device.  I put this together with my knowledge of our Ricoh and data that I found on Samsung.

The side by side that you sent me was great.  However those highlighted areas showing where the Samsung and Canon have "superior" specs is nothing more than an old sales gimmick.  Yes, the Samsung print engine is rated 5 pages more a minute, but the modeling is done with a controlled test document, with an optimized network.

Real print times should be measured when a document is printed from MS Word, MS Excel or .pdf documents.  It's not about the speed of the engine but more about how the engine can process (rip) files from different MS applications. The same holds true for scanning.

Samsung is a relative newcomer to the multifunctional copier industry.  Samsung Imaging Division (printers and copiers) is owned by HP.  It's business as usual right now, but what happens when XYZ company decides to part with Samsung because they don't like the HP business model, or what happens if HP does not want XYZ company as a business partner.  In both of those cases there will be pain for your company. 

We would like to offer you a demonstration/trial of the Ricoh product. We will install one in your location, connect for print, scan and fax and then give you a product demonstration.  You get to try it before you buy it.  There are no strings attached, if you like it you can buy it, if you don't like it we'll remove it.  All of this is done at our cost, no cost to you. 

We can't match the .039 per color page that XYZ company is offering. It's my opinion that they will have an increase after the first year or the first quarter. We've seen increases as high as 25%, that low price tactic is used to lure clients in, hope they don't read the fine print and then increase the heck out of the price to bring them to the normal color cost per page. 

Based on your color volume of 2,500 pages per month. Our excellent service and support would cost $25 more month for the color pages.  Over 36 months that's only $900.  In addition, I have provided you with our cost increases in writing.

What I can tell you is that Stratix is a professional corporation that does not rely on low price tactics nor old sales gimmicks to lure you in. We believe that our service and support is far better than any other vendor in our market.

Please let me know if you are interested in the demonstration at your location, and also please feel free to call me if you have an additional questions in reference to our proposal.

Art

Note from me: I feel that the only change I have is to get the demonstrator in there. If I can do that I know I can demonstrate the heck out of the advanced features compared to my competition.

Amount Sold Today = $0K

Total Revenue to Date = $62K

New Opportunities Created Today= $10K

Total New Opportunities Created = $219K

Revenue Required $138K

Comments are always welcome

Assessing Document Management’s Value

An Arkansas County Assessor implemented DocuWare and gained an electronic workflow that reduced a document’s processing time by 28 days. Their county Treasury Department now has more time to process tax bills, and the county’s cash flow has improved. New transparent processes facilitate employee accountability and have reduced errors. In addition, customer service is more efficient since all documents are digitally stored in one easy to search archive.

The Pulaski County Assessor’s Office is required to value all the real estate property, personal property, business inventories and automobiles in the county for two reasons: to maintain an accurate county tax roll and to keep the legal property descriptions up-to-date. With valuations in place, the county’s tax burden is then fairly and equitably distributed based on the tax rate applied to a property’s assessed value. The Assessor and her staff determine market value and perform maintenance on over 350,000 taxable real estate, business and personal property accounts.

The process in the Assessor’s Office begins when it receives deeds and other property documents from the County Clerk’s Office. These documents are sent electronically, then printed and evaluated to determine which documents need to be acted on. The Assessor’s Office reviews over 80,000 documents annually and usually moves about 12-15% of them through its own multi-step verification process. Some of the reasons for a verification occur when a house is sold, land is sub-divided or special tax districts are created in a neighborhood for water, recreation or fire services.

Requirements

The Assessor’s Office knew they needed to update their work processes by embracing a digital solution. After dealing with “lost” documents and a workflow slowed by paper-based procedures, they decided to implement DocuWare, an electronic document management solution. Key requirements for the new system included: a faster, more transparent workflow for accountability; a reduction in the number of lost documents; and improved access to information for better customer service.

Solution

The Assessor’s Office worked with their Authorized DocuWare Partner to map out their electronic workflow processes and indexing requirements prior to implementation. They chose to implement DocuWare because of the workflow capabilities and the transparency it provided.

“We operate on a crawl, walk, run mindset and it was very important to us to take things slowly in the beginning in order to successfully and easily rollout DocuWare. This approach worked very well enabling us to roll out DocuWare without any operation interruptions,” said Joe D. Thompson Jr., Chief Administrator for the Pulaski County Assessor's Office.

Today, electronic documents from the County Clerk stay in their electronic format to go through the Assessor’s two-step review process before the workflow is deployed allowing employees to complete tasks simultaneously. Electronic stamps are added to a routing sheet so that in a single glance management can tell where a document is in the workflow. Once a document has been completely processed, the Assessor’s Office can easily send it electronically to the Treasurer’s office so tax billing amounts can be updated and annual tax bills generated.

“By moving to an electronic workflow, their work can be completed simultaneously, speeding processing from 30 days to 2 days. This allows the Assessor’s Office to easily meet the legislatively mandated processing schedule and ensures information is given to the Treasury Department in a timely manner so tax bills are sent promptly and the county’s cash flow is not delayed,” said Thompson.

Benefits

“Over the last year, approximately 81,000 documents were filed with the County Clerk.  We looked at all of them and determined that 10,000 needed attention from our office. Nearing the end of the year, with only 50 documents to take a closer look at, we were readily able to see if these were duplicates or being held for delinquencies. Our year ended easily with all documents having been completely processed ahead of our deadline. DocuWare is amazing,” said Thompson.

Electronic workflow has formalized their processes, increased employee accountability and accuracy, and significantly improved the way they process information. In the past the Treasurer’s Department would “kick back” approximately 130 documents a year because of missing verifications. Now with DocuWare in place that has dropped to only 6 or 7- a 95% decrease in the number of documents to re-process.

The Assessor’s Office goes through a legislative audit each year. With DocuWare in place, the audit is fast and painless because documents can be found in seconds instead of hours. Documents are never missing and the office does not need to devote extra resources to pull paper documents from boxes.

“When folks call us questioning their tax bill, emotions are running high. It is imperative that we are able to quickly address their concerns. Many residents call to find out if they had applied for the Homestead Tax credit. With DocuWare we can search for this information in seconds, compared to our paper-based processes which caused us to often spend 3 hours looking for a document only to come up empty handed,” said Thompson.

Conclusion

The staff loves the DocuWare system because of how much easier it is to process information and then quickly and easily find it again when needed. They were able to easily manage document retention schedules by moving historical records into DocuWare. Boxed paper records were scanned and other digital records imported into one digital archive. Since the older documents are accessed less often, they were not indexed. Instead employees utilize DocuWare’s fulltext search function to find the records they need. Providing top-of-the-line customer service is happening now that finding and accessing information is electronic.

Now that historical records are securely stored, the Assessor’s Office is automating as many other processes as they can, e.g., time card approvals and vacation requests. These processes previously consumed almost an entire day, and now they can be done in minutes. 

With DocuWare now in place, the Assessor’s Office plans to integrate it with assessor software, Assessor’s Apprentice, by installing DocuWare’s Smart Connect module. This will help to streamline customer service since the staff will have access to documents while working in Assessor’s Apprentice.

“DocuWare’s biggest benefits are twofold: employee accountability and faster processing time. Both have made a huge impact in our office by giving our staff the motivation and ability to do their jobs well,” said Thompson.

The Assessor’s Office works hard to utilize every technology reasonably available to make Pulaski County the best assessed county in Arkansas. “Best assessed” means that all assessments will be the most equitable and each contact with the public is professional and courteous.

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

I woke up today with this AM with serious trepidation that my candidate for President of the United States of America might not win.  It's now 10:25PM and we're still in the thick of it.  Hard to believe all of this started a mere eighteen months ago. After watching four hours of election results I'm really having a hard time remembering what I did today.

There are days when you have a plan, you start to execute that plan and then  everything goes south.  Today was one of those days. 

Since it is election night, I'm going to make this short and sweet.  My entire day was spent in the office.  I was able to move two opportunities closer to obtaining those orders, not sure though if I'll have them this week or next week.  In addition I was able to schedule two appointments, with one as net new and the other with an existing account for next week.  Even though tomorrow is the 9th of the month I only have eleven days left before the end of the month.  The last day of the month is the day before Thanksgiving, thus I can pretty much call it a day by 11AM. 

There's another way to look at the eleven days that are left.  On average there are twenty two selling days per month, thus I could also take the position that there is still more than fifty percent of the month left.  I like that spin much better.

There was a short discussion in the office today about creating the sense of urgency when you're meeting with your clients. For me, I always bring up the topic of my expectations when we can move forward with the order. In most cases this topic will flush out what the clients buying time is. In sales we understand that we need to know the clients buying time, however I find that telling the client my selling time has helped me close more orders when I need to have them. Thus, I'm creating that sense of urgency.

Oh Crap, Trump picked for North Carolina, it's getting exciting!

In addition to receiving more than 30 emails and sending more than 35 emails today, I was also able to finish up my presentation that I needed for a 7PM appointment on Thursday night.

I have one appointment with a net new tomorrow, this will be my fourth appointment with them and I think we're close to obtaining the order.  With this account, I prepared all of the documents in advance, if they're ready then I need is the signatures.  A wise man once told me, "assume the order". 

PS I'm suppose to get a purchase order tomorrow, however not going to put it in the book until I have the signed docs in hand!

Amount Sold Today = $0K

Total Revenue to Date = $62K

New Opportunities Created Today= $0K

Total New Opportunities Created = $209K

Revenue Required $138K

That's it, I'm out!

Monday, the bane of my existence in sales.

Makes wonder how many sales Mondays I've had in my sales career.  Thirty six years with fifty two Mondays for each year would mean that I've survived 1,872 Mondays. That's a crap load of Mondays.

To give me a better feel for Mondays I did a Bing search for all of those Monday songs. So far it's been, I Don't Like Mondays (Boomtown Rats), Manic Monday (Bangles), my those gals were awesome, Monday Morning (Fleetwood Mac), and for those of us old enough to remember, Monday Monday (Mamas & Papas). My fav?  Manic Monday by the Bangles

For me, Mondays mean a new beginning for the sales week. If you had a bad week last week, don't sweat it, you've got a fresh start with a brand new Monday!

Early Monday was spent getting to the office on time (woohoo), cleaning up any emails that were sent over the weekend. From their I move to developing my proposal for my 2PM appointment with an existing account. I'm meeting with the DM, and this account has been with us for the last 12 years.  The DM and spoke about a week ago, and their requirements are simple, the need for color, the need for wireless and the need for the system to scan to the cloud and print while not on the corporate network.  Did I say that was simple?  My plan was to supply  a MP CW2201SP with a wireless card, the DM could then use his phone as a hot spot and would be able to scan to the cloud, as far as printing goes, we would use the USB interface for printing. Easy peasy!

After finishing up the order docs (which I use as the proposal), I moved to my Thursday night presentation for the board of a 501C. Since I'm going to be presenting for at least seven members and with most of them being older than me, I figured I would develop a short power point that focused on existing costs vs proposed costs and a slide outlining that the assure parts availability expired more than a year ago.  I'm not a fan of power point presentations, however in this case I think this is my best shot to present the facts.  Not sure, if I'll print these out or not, I hate it when you had out multi page ppt's and within five seconds there is someone who is on the last page.  I'm thinking if I do print them out that I only hand them one sheet at a time, it's a little more work, but I can be assured that I will remain in control of the presentation.

By the time I finished the ppt, it was about noon, I grabbed a quick bite to eat and it was time to leave for my 2PM.  Forty five or so minutes later I arrived, had to check through security and then waited another ten minutes or so.  I heard an "Art Post" from the distance, thus it was my time to shine.  Wait, who is this?  The person calling my name was not the DM!  I was then informed the DM could not make it because he had called in sick.  We finished our meeting in about an hour, the upgrade looks good, however the person I met with was not able to sign anything. Man, do I hate leaving stuff out there!  But, I have a plan to get a hold of the DM early tomorrow and see if I can close the order over the phone.  Nothing is ever simple is it?

The ride back to the office took me twice as long as the ride there, due to the fact that I chose a different route back to the office. Well, that plan stunk because of traffic. In addition, my phone was dead the entire ride back and I have left my car charger in the wife's car.  Yes, my wife has the new car and I had the old POS.

After dinner (I was in charge of cooking), I checked the corp email. Nothing good, mostly junk, but I did have one voice mail.  That voice mail was a verbal for an order!  Wants me to call them in the AM.  This was the opportunity where I did all of those side by sides, NICE!  I do Like Mondays!!

Amount Sold Today = $0K

Total Revenue to Date = $62K

New Opportunities Created Today= $0K

Total New Opportunities Created = $209K

Revenue Required $138K

-=Good Selling=-

I'm not going to get into a lot of details, because there was not much going on for Friday. 

I had two stops and one appointment scheduled for the day. The stops were due to some issues with one client about supplies and another client with mobile printing. I could have handled one of them on the phone, but I wanted to get in from of the client fort two reasons. One is that mobile print tends to be a little tricky and I wanted to make sure I asked for a referral in person rather than over the phone. 

I had about 90 minutes before my first call and I used those ninety minutes to send a few emails, return a few emails, check LinkedIn and then prepare for my 2PM appointment.

The 2PM was the one I was looking forward to all week.  I'm looking to knock out a 90ppm A3 black device, along with a color A3 printer.  This opportunity will not be an easy one, since both devices are owned by the client and it was my idea for them to at least consider upgrading both devices.  I stated I would give them an analysis of the last  year of maintenance, supply, labor and parts for both devices. I would then take the existing volume from both existing devices, migrate the volume to the potential new A3 80ppm color and see where the numbers fall.  I have one plus in my favor and that's the age of the current devices.  The 90 ppm A3 device is at least nine years old and the color A3 printer is at least seven years old.

I arrived at 2PM, waited around for about 25 minutes because there was a previous meeting still in session.  Once my clients exited that meeting, we all gathered around the table, and one of the clients stated, "it's lunch time", and before I knew we were ordering up a pizza.  While someone went out to fetch the pizza, it was my time to go over my idea and the analysis for the potential upgrade.  I won't get into to details, however the meeting went so well that I was invited to prepare a presentation for the board and come to the board meeting which is slated for Thursday night of this week.

Thus, I have the opportunity to present and close this Thursday night, what else could I ask for?  I'll create a short and sweet power point, what's old vs what's new, existing costs vs proposed costs and a slide that details the age of the current device along with the parts availability for both devices.

I ended the day at an existing account that was not able to find toner that we had shipped to them.  Their IT person was on vaca and their current device was out of toner.  After five minutes I located the "lost" toner and was then on my way back to my home office to finish up the last few hours of the day.

I'm looking forward to next week. I have at least three scheduled closing appointments and I do see a path to $100K before Thanksgiving. 

-=Good Selling=-

Paper shuffling, sweaty palms, time to go to the bathroom, nobody answers the phone; the excuses run rampant inside sales bullpens. Sales monkey business has run amuck inside sales teams of all sizes.

Sales suffers' may have no problem communicating face to face, but have difficulty doing so over the telephone.

Here we come, walkin'

Down the street

We get the funniest looks from

Ev'ry one we meet

Hey, hey, we're the Monkees

And people say we monkey around

But we're too busy singing

To put anybody down

With a comedic twist, my prior post 3 Things Sales Reps Must Use So They Don't Look Like Sales Monkeys With A Loaded Gun pinpoints how top sales reps successfully integrate the use of three silver bullets - Customer Relationship Management Software, Content and their Clients as their fellow sales monkeys run amuck inside the sales department.

With this in mind... What does a successful quota-carrying sales rep do every day?

Successful sales reps don't monkey around!

It’s no shock to learn the very best sales reps in the business are incredibly focused, organized, and clearly plan out each day with a set goal in mind.

Part of this plan involves the use of the phone as they use to secure net new business meetings. How you say things to a prospect matters more than what you say. According to Sandler Sales Training, "only 7% of communication relies on the content of what you say, whereas 38% of communication is about other attributes of communication such as tonality, etc."

Successful sales reps set aside the excuses and refrain from monkey business. They don't buy into the "Monkey See Monkey Do" philosophy. Cold calling and the use of the phone is not dead, just different!

TOP SALES REPS AREN'T DISTRACTED BY SALES MONKEYS

3 Things Sales Rep Must Use To Avoid Sounding Like Another Sales Monkey On The Phone

Top sales reps successfully "ditch the pitch" and use these three things...

Pre-Call Planning Research

Top sales reps prepare for every phone call. They have adopted the mindset of "Quality over Quantity". Pre-call planning success begins with preparation. This preparation will provide you with greater self-confidence as this allows you to come across as a more knowledgeable sales professional to your prospect.

Collecting the right information will help you gain valuable insights that, if leveraged decisively, will separate you from all the other sales monkeys. When collecting information, do so with the intent of trying to better understand the prospect’s challenges. Learn what makes their business tick and how you can be a problem solver for them. With effective pre-call planning, you demonstrate you have a vested interest in their success, which is critical in gaining instant rapport with them on the phone.

There is a wealth of information to be had at company websites, business information sites and news outlets.  During your research, consider these questions:

• What is my prospect’s market strength?
• What are their top business concerns right now?
• How are they positioned to handle these concerns?
• Who are the key company decision makers?
• How can I help?

Position yourself as the expert. Quality pre-call planning is one key to success and survival in a highly competitive sales environment.

Business Acumen

I am a firm believer business people buy from business people; not just sales people. Think about this for a second...

According to a Forrester report, "only 27% of buyers find that salespeople are knowledgeable about the buyer's specific business." Additionally Corporate Visionsdetermined, "customers believe sales reps are 88% knowledgeable on product and only 24% on business expertise."

Sales professionals must have strong business acumen skills to provide value and insight as they communicate with prospects during phone conversations. Sales professionals have no time for monkey business when they are on the phone.

Top sales reps transform themselves into a true business advisor to prospects as they communicate with them. Whether face to face or on the phone, engaging with a higher degree of business acumen sets top sales reps apart from the sales monkeys.

Increase in business acumen allows successful sales reps to...

• Prepare for the sales process
• Understand their prospects business strategy and current financial situation
• Ask business situation questions, business challenge questions, and business opportunity questions
• Position value from the client's business perspective

Strong business acumen help sales reps better understand a prospect's pushbacks, placing those objections in greater context, helping them to move a possible meeting forward on the phone.

Top sales reps understand the telephone is still an essential tool in the sales conversation, as the below mentioned findings further strengthen the third thing sales reps must use.

• The average salesperson only makes 2 attempts to reach a prospect. (SiriusDecisions)
• 42% of sales reps feel they do not have the right information before making a sales call. (Lattice Engines, March 2013)
• 75% of the more than 1,000 senior executives surveyed by DiscoverOrg said they have taken an appointment or attended an event that came from a cold call or email. (DiscoverOrg)

Referrals

Let's do some simple math...

If 25 cold calls gets 0 results and 50 dials gets 0 results

25 x 0 = 0

50 x 0 = 0

Successful sales rep don't increase their activity to expect different results they change their activity to something that works.

Quality calls will yield quality results. Top sales reps leverage referral calling into a prospect from their current customers, their network, or one of their strategic partners.

The key aspect is top sales reps are constantly developing and working their target prospect list. They leverage this list as it makes it much easier when they ask a current client, their network or strategic partner for help.

Successful sales reps leverage their social networks prior to contacting prospects. Socially minded sales reps realize they may be one LinkedIn connection away from their best sales opportunity. They ask their network to edify them by making an introduction on their behalf which facilitates a rewarding experience on the phone.

I encourage all sales reps to think about this... If you provide a high level of service and your clients know, like and trust you then why not ask them to help grow your business?

"If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will"

Bob Hooey

Ignore the sales monkeys as they run amuck inside your sales department. Please don't allow them to become a distraction from achieving the phone success you deserve. The only thing worse than phone distraction is a sales monkey with a loaded gun.

I get where you all are coming from. I have walked a day in a life of your shoes.

Your comments, likes and shares are greatly appreciated in opening up great conversations.

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

One of the more interesting threads below is from Gordon MacKay from Queensland, Australia.  Gordon posted a thread in reference to his existing dealership and his past experience in the copier industry.  It was awesome to re-visit this thread.  Gordon, if you're still out there, shoot us a reply.  That thread is here

Japan's Konica Minolta

Sitting on the cold marble chair under the canopy of a pillared room, this statue oversees our National Mall a most sacred place. They called him honest Abe he was a great president, a great man and to some an enemy. He died at the hands of a coward and was immortalized by a nation with gratitude. Today as Lincoln sits on his chair under his pillared gazebo his spirit can hear children at play, children of all colors greed’s and backgrounds. Sitting in his chair the spirit of Lincoln has witnessed things that in his lifetime were unimaginable.

It’s been decades and centuries since these marble men and woman walk and talked amongst the living. Now they sit stand or their names are carved in stone. These stone men and woman will carry on conversations with those who visit by creating thoughts of what was and why it is. The school children, the war widow, the suppressed looking for inspiration as they fight for new rights, the fellow soldiers touching the names on a wall of their fallen comrades, or even a current enemy looking to validate more hate, or a past enemy sharing the sorrow of past hatred. The statue is always both a symbol of what was, and inspiration to what can be. The shadows of the monuments at our great mall travel the grounds and as their shade touches the other monuments their spirits inner act in the stone world they share, its visitors should listen to the advice these spirits will share. It’s in this world of remembrance which brings the cause to what will soon be remembered. These statues tell us through the silence of reverence that everything has meaning and what we describe as current absolutes are merely current circumstances.

“Past yesterday’s can be a reflection of tomorrow, so today we should listen and reflect from what the past tells us, it is then we can improve our tomorrows.”   

As these past spirits wander in their shadows they must be amazed by what they see. The reasons for so much pain and sorrow in their live time is validated or explained in their immortal lives. These monuments must be anxious to yell and scream as they see today’s atrocities, or as they witness what those living today believe to be right, knowing their history will prove was wrong. They know this from their experiences and their own history. The past tells us what can happen when the arrogance of men both good and bad drive their aspirations to a conclusion with or without mercy. These monuments will weather and the current care takers will preserve for the future generations. As these future generations visit to remember those long before them. They will also bring life back to these monuments, as all who visit - when they think and dream with the sprits in the shadows of the statues.

“One should focus on why they would be missed rather than on what they are missing.”    

   R.J. Stasieczko

Note from Art:  If you're liking RJ's Blogs, then please make sure you click on his collection link @the top of the blog. I'm moving all of them there over the next few days

It' just about 10PM, and I just finished up my LinkedIn chores.  Twice a day, once in the AM and then after dinner, I'll spend about 30 minutes viewing my wall, sharing content, adding content, commenting on content and then wishing everyone a Happy Birthday and or a Happy Anniversary at their job.  It's my way of keeping up with contacts and promoting content that I like or find useful for others.

Was there anything unique about today?  Naw, I had to process an order early in the AM, then it was off to follows ups with existing opportunities.  I'm thinking I followed up more by email than by phone, in additional all of the three appointments I set today were via email.   My how the world has changed from the eighties.

I was able to move a few more opps closer to closing and feel that I got a shot of closing at least 20K or more in the next 3 days.  Sure, hope so, Thanksgiving will be here before we know it.

I had a 3PM appointment with an existing account a few minutes from the office. I arrived a few minutes early only to find out that the account had moved on me!!  Arrgghh, now I'm going to be late. I should have checked with the client prior to leaving, thus being late was my fault.  I was lucky because their new office was only a few minutes away. I was suppose to met with the DM to go over that new wide format color scanner from Contex.  The SD One MF is a killer, if you have the time you can check them out at National Azon.

Our DM was not available and thus I meet with the office manager who I have know for years.  We went over features, specs, needs, and pricing, however the office manager was not sure if they needed a 24 or 36 inch model.  The office manager than also asked me for pricing to upgrade to old A3 color MFP that they have, kinda just like yesterday, you just never know what tomorrow will bring!

Before I left, I scheduled the follow up appointment for next week.  Scheduling that follow up appointment is crucial to moving the deal forward.  I could have stated this, "ok, I'll research these items for you and I'll call you to schedule another appointment".  So, WTF does that leave you, especially if you can't get a hold of them for a week or maybe two weeks.  Right, you leave with nothing! You then  hope that you can schedule that next appointment on the first call.  Leave nothing to chance, make your own way and control your own sales destiny.

By the time I left it was somewhere around 4PM and that meant stupid traffic on the way back to the office.  So, not a bad day, no orders but developed another $10 in opportunities, and that's what really matters.  You can't sell jack %$#$ without opportunities.

Amount Sold Today = $10K

Total Revenue to Date = $62K

New Opportunities Created Today= $00K

Total New Opportunities Created = $209K

Revenue Required $138K

-=Good Selling=-