Seems that every new day brings a new set of issues for Toshiba Corporation, which is not to be confused with Toshiba Tec.

You might ask what does Toshiba Tec offer besides copiers?  After a short visit to their site I was surprised to see so much diversification of products.  Software, POS (Point of Sale) Systems, Printers (thermal, mobile and more), Self Checkout Kiosk, Displays, and Digital Signage.

So, who could benefit?

Almost two years ago, we posted up a survey for "Who Would be a Viable Buyer for Toshiba Tec?".  Seems anything with Toshiba nowadays seems to be a hot topic. In recent months we've had a flurry of activity with the voting.

Kyocera was the top vote getter with 23.9%, surprisingly "other" was second with 23.2%.  Rounding out the top five was Samsung, KonicaMinolta & Ricoh.

As I thought more about these players, I came to the conclusion that why would any of these companies buy Toshiba Tec.  They all have their own brands of copiers, Samsung sold the Imaging Division to HP. Oh! Wait a moment, would HP not be a viable buyer?  HP & Toshiba Tec do have many similarities in the products that they offer.  As far as copiers goes, HP could have that BTA dealer network they've wanted.  But, the word around town is that many of the Samsung dealers want to get out of Dodge and don't want to parlay with HP.  It's interesting to day the least.

Dark Horse

One dark horse that only accumulated 1.4% is Muratec America.  If you're not familiar with Muratec America they are owned by Murata Manufacturing in Japan.  Murata Manufacturing has a market cap of 30.7 billion dollars.  Toshiba Tec's market cap is 1.5 billion dollars.  Seems to me that if someone was going to buy Toshiba Tec, that Murata Manufacturing makes a lot of sense. 

However, in order for any of this to happen, Toshiba Corporate would have to be willing to part with their 52% share of Toshiba Tec stock.  There's been no talk of that, no reports of that and lastly no rumors either.

Times Are Tough

But, times are tough for Toshiba Corporation.  Many articles from the web have Toshiba Corp bleeding cash.  From someone who reads almost every article regarding Toshiba it seems like they are hedging their financial freedom on the sale of their valuable semiconductor unit.  An article from tonight states that the second round of bidding is under way for the semiconductor unit.  Bids are as high as $20 billion US.  What I could do with $20 Billion US!

The thought of $20 biilion US could cure a lot of the illness that Toshiba Corporation has developed in the last two years. But, there are issues here also.  Western Digital recently  filed for arbitration because they believe they have the authority to negotiate a sell-off (could tie it up in the courts).  Another sticking point is that the Japanese Government does not want to lose another Tec company to a foreign firm (Foxconn bought Sharp).

Thus, there seems to be no quick fix for Toshiba Corporation.  Toshiba Tec on the other hand is doing quite well.  Just not sure how much more of a beating can the brand take.

Wow, I started out just wanting to keep everyone updated on our voting by Print 4Pay Hotel members.  Enough of my thoughts, take a trip here and see how the voting is panning out.  You may even want to cast your own vote also.

-=Good Selling=-

What were you doing in 2007? Below are the all of the threads for the last week of May in 2007.  Enjoy!

Is Ricoh Corp Unfair to Ricoh/Savin/Lanier/Gestetner Dealers?

"I know I'm supposed to be there, I know I'm supposed to lead by example. I know that. And I'm not shoving it aside like it don't mean anything. I know it's important. I do. I honestly do. But we're talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice? We're talking about practice, man!"

Alan Iverson

What a fantastic quote which segues wonderfully from... Can You Imagine A Professional Athlete Operating With A Sales Reps Mindset?

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

A growth mindset is such a critical component to the success of an elite athlete and a sales professional.

I asked the question...

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

I am here to tell you there is one more separation point between elite athletes and an average sales rep - PRACTICE!

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." 

Will Durant

One of the best ways you can transform your ordinary day as a sales rep into an extraordinary one is to master the art of being a sales professional. Transform your thinking from sales rep to sales professional. Think of your sales profession as a work of art and handle it with care. 

Immerse yourself in your work, become fully engaged. Transform your mind to one of growth. As this happens, you improve your ability to grow. As you grow yourself you grow your career as a sales professional. The opposite is to disconnect just doing your time, settling for complacency. Doing your time turns sales professionals into average sales reps.

PRACTICE IS THE DIFFERENTIATOR

A basketball game isn’t won on the court. The game is won in the days, weeks, months and off-season work leading up to the 48 minutes of actual playing time.

The game is won with preparation. The team watches film, memorizes plays, hits the gym and eats properly. Preparation and practice are the keys!

The lie you tell yourself, "But, I practice on the job."

Just ask the all-time greats. Kobe Bryant saw Los Angeles at 4:00 A.M. Michael Jordan was the first person on the court and the last one off. Magic Johnson was the true definition of a work horse. It was his work ethic, growth mindset along with his commitment to practice which made him one of the best basketball players of all time.

So, why do sales reps struggle so much with practice?

If you want to be the best you can be in sales, you have to become a better sales professional away from the phone, away from your email, away from your desk and disconnected from social. In sales, you don't have an off-season to condition the mind or body. You don't have 3 months off to prepare for the season long grind.

CONSISTENT PRACTICE

Consistency is what separates elite athletes from good athletes. The ability of these elite athletes to go out there, day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out for years is incredible. Can the same be said for top sales professionals versus average sales reps?

What makes elite athletes and top sales professionals so consistent? I believe it is consistent preparation in every aspect of what they do including physical conditioning, practice efforts, technique, tactics, mental aspects, nutrition, sleep, and on-going learning.

Consistently great performances comes from consistency in practice efforts. The best way to build this consistency is to have clearly defined goals and structure for every practice session.

Unfortunately, this is where I see the disconnect between elite athletes and sales professionals. Elite athletes have great coaches. Can the same be said for sales people? How many sales reps can say their managers make great coaches?

If you aren't willing to help yourself and practice then how can you help your clients do better in their business?

SALES REPS MUST HAVE A GROWTH MINDSET WHEN IT COMES TO PRACTICE

SALES REPS MUST PRACTICE LEAVING THEIR EGOS AT THE DOOR

The buyer as well as some clients portray sales reps as egomaniacs with “do whatever it takes to close the deal” mentality. There is always some truth to stereotypes. In some sales situations one's ego may hurt more than help them.

“When you are about the other person more than you care about hitting your quota, when you make that shift, you go into the jedi-ness of becoming a salesperson.” 

Gary Vaynerchuk

Just let go of you big fat ego! Believe me as it is not always about you. The prospect is not saying no to you. There are saying, "You haven't given me enough reason to say yes."

SALES REPS MUST PRACTICE BECOMING BETTER LISTENERS

Seek to understand goes a long way as a sales professional. Don't just listen to be polite and build rapport. Listen with intent to understand and gain vital information to help your clients and prospects. Sales reps must be genuinely interested in helping their clients.

• Listen for clues and look out for problems affecting their business
• How could you fix these problems?
• What potential implications could this have to them?

SALES REPS MUST BECOME BETTER AT PROSPECTING

Point blank, “How can some people call themselves a ‘Sales Professional’ but do little or no prospecting?" This one blows my mind!

Let’s get this one straight, prospecting is a challenge. Most salespeople aren’t very good at it. Why? Because they haven’t cultivated the right habits and fail to practice.

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

There is a pundit feud going on as to the best vehicles to leverage business development. I find this quite humorous as most sales reps lack the fundamental skills necessary around practice to make any of it work.

Ask any sales rep the hardest part of their job and most will utter the word, PROSPECTING. If one fails to practice at the single most important aspect of their job then how can one achieve a consistent level of success?

Successful sales reps continually practice the art of prospecting as they keep their sales funnel full. They divide their time between selling, prospecting and taking care of their clients. Top sales reps who crush their quotas are fully dedicated to prospecting and have modernized their prospecting approaches to align with the modern buyer. The primary differentiator of today’s successful sales reps is their ability to prospect.

SALES REPS DO NEED TO PRACTICE

Elite athletes as well as sales professional who achieve extraordinary results put in a lot more hours of practice than the average. While their performances, outcomes and what they do are remarkable, there is no mystery at all about how this was developed. They practiced beyond the average ordinary individual.

If you want to reach the next level in your sales career, it’s imperative you spend more time preparing and more time practicing. It’s foolish to say it is all about working smarter, not harder. If you really want to win in sales, you have to work harder and smarter.

Don't be an Alan Iverson!

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

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

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

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

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

Before we start, I thought it would be good to give everyone a little back ground about my relationship with Jack Carrol. 

Jack was one of the principal dealer owners at Century Office Products.  Jack hired me in the summer of 1998 for a sales position in NJ.  One year prior, I had sold my stake in my dealership to my two partners. 

In essence, Jack was my first sales manager.  Over the years I learned so much more about selling, building relationships and was hitting six figure compensation consistently while at Century . In 2009, Century was sold to Stratix.  I have a great respect for what Jack accomplished and valued his leadership.

Here we go:

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

Jack:  I start in the copier industry in 1971. I worked for SCM Corp, a fortune 100 company. I was hired as a Sales Rep. My responsibilities encompassed sales of equipment and selling supplies to the present account base. At the time, Xerox was the only company selling plain paper copiers. SCM sold treated paper units just like everyone else. SCM manufacture red their units in Skokie, Ill., can you imagine built in the US.

Art:    What company aka manufacturer or dealer did you work for during the seventies? If you worked for a dealer please tell us what brands you sold?

Jack:  I worked For SCM direct branch in Hillside, NJ. One of three NJ branches. SCM had 75 direct branches at this time. This office also had the regional dealer manager there, the Marchant calculator office and the SCM typewriter division housed here. Because I was a newbie I didn’t realize that SCM also had dealers, until I lost a couple of deals to Superior in Edison. Within a couple of years SCM started to relabel Minolta’s and others. SCM was one of the only treated paper companies to use sheet fed paper. Most of the others all use rolls of paper, so it cut it to size. The market than was dictated by Xerox. It was a rental market. So SCM rented their products, only the small units were sold outright. There was no leasing yet. Our process was in the paper. So, the rental was buying paper each month. Dealers couldn’t do this program, which was lucky for us.

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

Jack:   SCM didn’t hire very often. The few that they hire lasted 2 years or more.

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

Jack:  A year after I was hire I became a selling sales supervisor. I was transfer to the Princeton branch for this job. I supervised 3 sales people. About 2.5 years later SCM merged the three branches into one in Hillside, NJ which was central. We covered from Bergen to Ocean counties. I was now the Sales Manager and had about 14 sales people. So, most of the 70’s I was managing and going on sales calls just about every day. We also had major account people. We were ranked #2 in the country until they sold out to 3M in 1978. I really enjoyed this job of working with salesmen and being involved in sales every day.

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

Jack:   During the seventies SCM started to relabel much of our line. In     1975 we started selling our 1^st plain paper unit. We relabeled the VanDyk 4000, a Whippany, NJ manufacturer. It was 67 cpm and used a roll of plain paper. Some rolls were 11x1500 ft. (heavy). It was like the highly successful IBM I & II, but did up to 40 different sizes. Our next unit was the SCM 1200 roll fed plain paper with a sheet bypass made by KIP. Now we were in the middle of the Japanese invasion and dealers were moving into the marketplace at a fast pace. This was now developing into the price wars because people were now buying and leasing companies were now entering the business. Savin also now had the 1^st plain paper liquid unit. Kodak was now in the market with all high-end units…75 cpm +. The other companies were still selling treated paper but now it was with powered toner. The result was the copier wars were on and we were moving up market with a 67 cpm unit. Only the strong would be highly successful

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

Jack:  When I first got into the industry there was no salary. There was a $75 expense check and a $500 per month draw. Selling supplies was supposed to take care of your draw…. sometimes. Based upon the rental plan of either 12, 24 or 36 months and the monthly volume was how you got compensated.

Later, when purchasing/leasing came on we got a direct 7.5% commission plus supplies. Around 1975 sales rep’s salary was $750 per month, senior reps were $1,000. Managers were getting about $25,000 a year. We now also had monthly and quarterly bonus’. President’s Club was an honor from the day I got there and never missed one.

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

Jack:  Every Monday was our phone day to set up appointments. Each rep had in a locked in territory. With your territory, you got boxes of prospect index cards. Your job was to keep this info updated. After any appointments, you were responsible to visit your account base and to cold call. Demos were very big. What fun it was to demo these liquid units. Some guys removed their front car seats and threw the small fold up cart into the trunk. You would load the liquid toner in a place where you hope they didn’t see you. When finished you would remove the liquid from the tank in a toilet bowl (mess). Leave the copy in the tray as long as possible so it would dry better. Many closes were as simple as putting the agreement on the decision makers desk and shutting up. Around 1975 you had to have a station wagon. One of my demo programs was convincing one of my accounts in a 10, 20+ story building to let us use his machine for demos. We compensated him and it worked out well, sometimes 10 demos in a day. It was also a referral at the same time.

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

Jack:  In the 70’s I sold primarily SCM. The 1^st 4 years it was probably the double sheet fed console the 211, 30 cpm & very reliable.

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

Jack:  I believe much of this was previous stated. In addition to the station wagon and the large building demos, we used a monthly demo day. Each rep had to bring in to the office at least one demo in the am & the pm. We served a nice lunch. This started about 1975 because of our new 67 cpm plain paper copier. This program was successful. Our weekly demo goal back then was 8-10 demos per week. So, doing demo’s in accounts and having the demo day each month greatly aided the sales rep’s quotas.

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

Jack:  Not funny but……….Duplifax started when Jerry Banfi traded his wife for a copier dealership. Steak & Beans contest. NY vs. NJ. Every phase of the meal was different kind of beans. The customers in the restaurant loved it. This was when I came up with the demo’s in customer’s offices in multi floor large buildings to get 10 demos in a day.  

The SCM/Kip PPC always jammed under the drum and started to smoke. It smelled like toast. One of their divisions was Proctor Silex who made toasters. Some guys gave away toasters with the copiers. Lucky, they got the employee price. In the early 70’s I knew a guy who substituted plain paper copies and removed the liquid paper copies on the demo.

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

Jack:  Even though I’ve been out of the industry for several years I keep touch with dealer owners……like Larry Weiss, Andrew Ritchel, and several others.

With Ricoh’s recent changes it somewhat enhances the dealer’s opportunities. Mergers continue, manufacturers constantly keep putting out the software to keep them and the lion share of placements appear to go to the big guys. The small/ regular dealer can’t compete with decent size prospects. So, it will continue so only the strong survive. Obviously, technology is playing a major role every day. So therefore, the industry will continue to thin out.

Art:  Jack, thanx so much for your time on this, I'm sure many of our readers will enjoy this.

Jack: glad you enjoyed it, it was fun to go back in time

-=Good Selling=-

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

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

Last week, I posted up Part One, below is the second part of our interview. 

Art

I apologize for being such a novice in your space, but is Continuum a competitor? Could you explain your relationship?

James

Continuum is not a competitor of ours; they are one of our partners. Continuum produces a great RMM software (Remote Management and Monitoring). Their software allows you to monitor your clients’ network, get detailed performance stats on their systems, and install any necessary patch or software updates.

Through our partnership, Continuum has created a great platform that will monitor alerts and even automatically fix many of them. When there’s an alert that can’t be immediately addressed by Continuum, it will create a ticket inside of Tigerpaw One through its workflow integration. The Continuum integration makes a fluid link between your monitoring software and your service software. It works in the background and, as you work a problem, our software will push that information back over to Continuum for detailed documentation down to the individual device level.

And, I should mention, our software can also do automated billing for all of those devices that you manage with Continuum.

Continuum is a great partner. That kind of seamless integration between an RMM product like Continuum and a professional service automation (PSA) suite like Tigerpaw One creates a great one-two punch combo for our customers.

Art

Is your platform built on SAP?

James

No. We’ve built our entire application from the ground up. This allows us to pass incredible value on to our customers, since our company doesn’t have to live by the additional fees a SAP platform has. We also find things like that a bit limiting because you have to build on their engine.

It’s hard to think outside of the box when you’re confined to someone else’s box. So we have built our own platform and we work every day to expand and improve our tools, our software, and our core product.

Tigerpaw One is 100 percent our code.

Art

Could you talk a bit about your entrance into the office equipment space? That’s a big move for any company with 30 years of experience.

James

Even though we are new to the office equipment space, we are not new in general. We’ve been doing this for 32 years. We have a long track record of success. We’ve got 40,000 users on our product. That’s a lot of company owners, CEOs, and industry leaders who trust Tigerpaw to improve their businesses every day.

We have a fully vetted and proven process: our customers are given a clear path and plan to implement Tigerpaw One to have a dramatic and measurable impact on their business. We’re not some fly-by-night software startup. And we do not enter a new market vertical without in-depth research and competitive analysis. We know we can help companies automate their businesses in the office equipment space, and we’re excited for these businesses to see the full range of services and features Tigerpaw One has to offer.

In the IT space there are a whole bunch of want-to-be-PSAs, but there are only three truly successful companies. And we’re happy to be one of the top three. We’ve spent years and years in a very competitive space against very sharp competition. Because of this we have constant improvement, iteration and innovation baked into the core of who we are as a company and what our software does.

The feature set, the automation, and the full range of business tools Tigerpaw One has — it’s kind of revolutionary because it hasn’t been seen in the office equipment space.

There’s a tremendous advantage and peace of mind that comes when you are trusting your business growth to a product that was honed in the forges of competition.

Art

What makes Tigerpaw One unique and different?

James

Especially for the office equipment space, it’s incredibly valuable that we have a product that can do everything a current product does on the market and so much more. We can help businesses move into a converged space for managed services.

In the office equipment space some of the products are pretty weak with managing the service side. We are exceptional at that. Tigerpaw is absolutely tops for ticketing.

In the IT space we have an inventory package that can’t be touched. Our inventory package is the best you’re going to find short of a million dollar ERP system.

At the end of the day, it’s the completeness of our solution. Our software is a cohesive suite of tools that work together flawlessly across your entire business. Whether it’s marketing, sales, lead generation, ticketing, quoting, inventory, or servicing after the sale — Tigerpaw does all of this.

You can do marketing out of Tigerpaw One and we will track your open-rate, click-rate, and analytics. You can turn those click-throughs into opportunities and track sales funnels inside the product. You can grow your pipeline and create beautiful proposals to send your client.

Our mobile solution allows you to manage service orders, track time, work with inventory on a vehicle, capture signatures, take photos of the job– all in real-time.

And recently we’ve built an incredible integration with Print Audit that gives you the ability to generate and email invoices and process the payment on them 100 percent touch-free, with no human interaction at all. We’re also working with FM Audit and Print Fleet to add even more tools and functionality.

It’s the totality of all of that combined that makes us unique. No one offers this level of comprehensive tools that work cohesively across all layers of your business, backed by our experience, workflow engine, unified security model, and comprehensive training and education resources. 

That’s what makes us special.

Art

How long have you been doing this?

James

I’m second generation at Tigerpaw. I’ve been running the company since 2010. My father started it in 1984 and I’ve been around pretty much since the beginning. I have been in every role in the company: from sales to development, to organizing trade shows and conferences, to creating graphics and marketing material, all the way down to stuffing packages and working in our mailroom.

Art

Where is Tigerpaw located?

James

Bellevue, Nebraska, just outside of Omaha.

Art

How many people does Tigerpaw employ?

James

We have about fifty people on staff and we’re growing. We have several new open positions right now.

Art

At your last Tigerpaw Conference I read that you and West McDonald got together to collaborate about SBB. What was that about?

James

We were excited to have West at our event. He is a great leader in the community and a great partner.

Last October (2016) we hosted our annual Tigerpaw Conference, which was a four-day event full of networking, training, learning, and a great collection of speakers for attendees.

West is the VP of Business Development for Print Audit, and he was good enough to come all the way down from Canada to present.

West has been at the forefront of the Seat Based Billing (SBB) concept in managed print services. Essentially SBB moves businesses to an unlimited, flat billing model for print instead of print counts and other metered billing measures. Of course we support metered billing, but we also support SBB right out of the box – we’ve been supporting that for years in the MSP/IT space. It’s another aspect of how we can help companies be more efficient with their processes today, but also take them forward with functionality that don’t currently have.

Art

This has been great, James. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us. Is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything Tigerpaw has in development you can talk about?

James

We may be a 32-year-old company, but we’re just getting started. I’m fortunate to have a passionate, talented, and dedicated team that is focused on providing the best experience and business solutions for our customers. I can say with all honestly that we truly care about helping our customers grow their businesses.

I’m extremely proud of the fact that we’ve been doing this since 1984. That kind of longevity doesn’t happen by accident. You know, I think it’s because we listen to our customers and because of the relationships we’ve built with our customers. We’ve got individual business owners all the way to our largest client that runs over 600 concurrent users every day on Tigerpaw. We’ve got clients that have been brought on board today to literally 25-year-old clients that have stayed with us. And to me that’s really cool.

And we’re doubling down on our commitment to our customers. Just last month we launched our Tigerpaw Satisfaction Guarantee. We know the challenges that come from selecting a software as comprehensive as Tigerpaw One, so we’re working to make that decision easier.

Now, new customers get a 90-Day Guarantee that Tigerpaw One will improve their business. Customers will be given all the tools they need to be successful, and we will be with them every step of the way. We’re confident they will come out the other side with a stronger, more efficient, and better-running company. But if they’re not satisfied after all that, we will refund their money.

I’m also very excited about some new projects we have in the works. I encourage your readers to check back and visit our website. We’ve been working behind-the-scenes on some exciting new projects, and we’re planning on making some big announcements soon.

Art

James, thank you for the time today.

Note from Art:

If you happen to see Tigerpaw at an event, please find the time to pay them a visit.  If you happen to see James at an event, make sure to introduce your self as I found him to be very engaged and very exciting about what they do.

About Tigerpaw

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

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

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

You can connect with Tigerpaw on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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

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

Re: C2525 Scan to email HELP????

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, this had me thinking...

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

My answer to you all is quite simple - MINDSET!

MINDSET - WILL DO VERSUS CAN DO

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

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

Kobe Bryant

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

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

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

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

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

TOP ATHLETES GET REAL

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

TOP ATHLETES BELIEVE IN BEING THE BEST

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

TOP ATHLETES BUILD UPON SUCCESS WITH CONSISTENCY

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

TOP ATHLETES HANG OUT WITH TOP ATHLETES

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

TOP ATHLETES HAVE GRIT

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

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

WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE UP?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Insuring Correct Information

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

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

Requirements

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

Solution

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

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

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

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

Benefits

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

R.J. Stasieczko    

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

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

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

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

Art Post

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

James Foxall

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

Art Post

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

James Foxall

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

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

Art Post

That’s an impressive amount of functionality.

James Foxall

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

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

Art Post

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

James Foxall

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Art Post

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

James Foxall

That’s a great question.

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

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

Art Post

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

James Foxall

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Art Post

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

James Foxall

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

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

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

Art Post

That’s a great service.

James Foxall

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

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

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

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

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

About Tigerpaw

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s look at another example. Money!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Belief #2:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading this post at The Business Engagement Process Blog.