MFP Copier Blog

As copier reps, it is imperative to continue to nourish, maintain and grow your existing client base. What has become challenging is grabbing net new business.

Net new business fuels the growth of your dealership!

As copier reps, there is a new currency and we call this trust and value. We must adapt and adopt to integrating the use of social media to create major branding and marketing opportunities to build trusted networks. In the business community, people "believe" when your friends tell them about your services thus they are more likely to buy from you as opposed to listening to your copier sales pitch.

Build your brand, build your network, build your business and watch it grow!

As a copier sales rep it's more important than ever to learn how to brand yourself online. Why you may ask... Over 1 billion names are Googled every day so unless you have lived in a cave or crawled out from underneath a rock, you've been Googled. It is what people find or don't find out about you online which affects their decision to do business with you.

Please don't kid yourself; in this day and interconnected age, the first thing anyone is going to do when you catch their interest is run a Google search on you.

Word to copier sales reps, if you don't believe me, then I encourage you to think real hard and ask yourself just what your prospects or clients will find if they search for you on Google.

Why is this important? You are front and center, the face of your respective dealership. 

"Branding is not just about being seen as better than the competition. It's about being seen as the only solution to your audience's problem", John Morgan

Understanding how to brand yourself as a copier sales rep begins with uncovering your personal brand. Your personal brand is not a tagline or something you take for granted. It's a combination of your interests, beliefs, aspirations, values, talents and skills, along with numerous personal characteristics. 

Uncovering your personal brand is mission critical. Personal branding is not a theater act or a show you put on for your prospects or clients. Your personal brand is you to the very core. The qualities and characteristics which comprise your personal brand are unmistakable. If I were to ask members of your family or your current clients how they would describe you, I am sure they would describe you by using a few specific words.

This may help you in gaining an understanding of where I am coming from. I encourage you to consider these questions, reflect on them and take your time in responding to them.

1. When thinking about the work you do, what words do your clients, peers or managers consistently use to describe you and your work?

2. What are at least 4 things you wish every person you were meeting for the first time either in business or personally knew about you?

Understanding who you are is your launching pad and how this relates to a successful new prospect close rate by integrating LinkedIn into your daily business development routine is critical.

A vast majority of your clients and prospects are already engaged on the LinkedIn platform. This is where you want to socially hang out in managing your professional reputation. With fierce competition for market share inside the office equipment space, how do you grab and close for the attention of C-level executives?

The single best way to raise your visibility amongst your competition is to have a knockout profile by creating a cohesive, compelling brand for yourself on LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn profile maybe your first, and can be your last chance to make a positive impression online. I stress, your first impression may not be face to face but rather a digital handshake.

This all points back to branding. You’re communicating a unique promise of value separating you from your competition which is different than everyone else out there. 

Copier reps, I encourage you from this day forward to create the mindset and rethink your approach to incorporating LinkedIn to help you close more business. Think of LinkedIn as a digital sales presentation on your behalf, a personal representation of you, your digital business card, an educational brochure of you, your personal mission statement, voices from satisfied clients, a mini web-site all designed to digitally say hello to your prospects and clients.

Having a complete, compelling profile is a great way to control what others see when they search for you online.  A well-rounded LinkedIn profile brings your personal brand to the marketplace to parallel your business brand.

I challenge and encourage all copier reps... Create a rock-solid LinkedIn profile, maximize all the real estate you can ensuring you present yourself to the business community true to yourself then promote the hell out of yourself on LinkedIn.

These 3 areas of your LinkedIn profile can enhance your brand and boost your close rate in engaging with net new prospects on LinkedIn

Area 1 - Headline

Your headline stands as one of the most important elements to your LinkedIn profile. This is your crowning moment to make a positive first impression to entice your prospects to want to know more.

What usually happens... sales reps are enamored with their title so they broadcast it immediately to the business community within their headline...

"Hey there here I am Mr. or Mrs. Prospect, I am an Account Executive or better yet Senior Sales Executive... Do you think your prospects really care?"

Close opportunity 1... Use your headline to introduce your professional story drawing in your reader to want to know more.

Use your headline statement to promote how you can help solve business problems or challenges for your prospects. Does your current headline promote the value you bring to your prospects? If not, then think in one 120 character sentence what you do for your clients.

Provide to your prospects a value centric reason why they should get to know you. Describe by integrating how you can help them. I have provided you an example...

"Helping businesses achieve results and contain costs with improved process management"

Area 2 - Summary

With a value centric headline you now want to lead your reader right into your summary.

This is your opportunity to bring you to life. This is your opportunity to closely align yourself with your prospects. Biggest way to create disconnect with your prospects, use this section to promote all of your sales accolades. It is not about you it is about your prospects.

Integrate your summary by stating the value you can bring to their business. Think of the W’s. What you do, what makes you different, why you do what you do, what is your promise of value and how you can address the challenges businesses face in today’s market.

Close opportunity 2... Use your summary to speak the language your prospects speak and understand as you will create immediate alignment. An example, if you call on CFO's then Google search CFO initiatives for 2016. Learn their concerns and further more learn their language.

Area 3 - Experience

A well written summary creates alignment with your prospect. A well-crafted experience section reinforces your professional value while providing a clear idea of what they can expect from you if they become a client.

Ask yourself this question, "Does my experience promote added value and differentiation?" If the answer is no, then give thought to promoting how you serve your clients and what do you do within your role that makes you different?

Remember you are helping your prospects solve their business problems and challenges. 

Close Opportunity 3... Remove your prospects doubts and fears by promoting how you enhance your clients experience in working with you. Share with them what they can expect if they become a client of yours.

Incorporating these ideas and making a commitment to become social new business developers; your sales funnel, your sales manager and your wallet with love you for it.

Attention to all Copier Dealer Principal's, V.P. of Sales and Sales Managers... your sales team and their LinkedIn profiles do matter

I encourage you all to think about these three things:

1. Sales is changing every day and we need to adapt
2. Your digital first impression has become a big deal
3. LinkedIn is where people go when they want to learn more about you

This is a great time to be a copier rep! Be Social. Build relationships and watch what happens. To your future success!

If you enjoyed please share your comments. Look forward to connecting and starting a conversation.

Check out more at the Social Sales Academy blog site.

Please enjoy my other posts on LinkedIn Publisher and on SlideShare

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 and coach copier sales professionals to grow net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. My commitment is to help independent office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, as well as at the Social Sales Academy 

How much do I insure my leased copier for?  Was a discussion I had with one of the sales rep in our office yesterday.

From time to time, we will field calls from the clients asking how much to insure the leased copier for.  The client then needs to submit that information to their insurance agent in order to produce a rider for the leasing company.

Let me back up a moment.  When a copier is leased, whether it's a dollar buy-out option or  Fair Market Value, all of the leasing companies require  insurance on their property in case of catastrophic loss.  The client can either purchase the insurance from the leasing company and pay the monthly fee or call their insurance agent and have a rider for that copier with listing the leasing company listed as the loss payee.

Our discussion centered more about insurance with Fair Market Value (FMV) lease. We ran through a few options.

1. Do you tell the client the invoiced price to the leasing company? or
2. Do you tell the client that the amount is the stream of payments for the total dollar amount with the lease, "e.g." payments of $200 per month for 60 months equals $12,000? or
3. Do you tell the client that the amount is the stream of payments (above) and the FMV purchase price?

After debate, we both agreed that none of the above options are the correct answers to give to the client.  The right course of action would be to call the leasing company and get a quote that includes the stream of payments along with the FMV purchase option.  Then deliver that document to the client.

Fire

In the last few years, I had the opportunity to help a client with a catastrophic loss due to fire.  In that case the leasing company calculated the stream of payments along with the Fair Market Value purchase option. 

Super Storm Sandy

When Super Storm Sandy struck here in NJ, we had a few claims due to copiers that went under water.  Now, here's something we found after the storm in reference the leasing companies insurance offer. 

The leasing companies insurance policy will cover flood damage.  

With two other storm losses where the client had submitted a rider to the leasing company from their Business Policy, there was no protection for floods. This may vary from insurance company to insurance company.  Thus, a lesson was learned.

In both cases the clients were able to claim the losses with FEMA.

Thus, even though the leasing companies insurance may cost a few more dollars, it's our belief that this is the best course of action when leasing a copier.  If you're a rep reading this, we hope that you are having that insurance discussion with every client.  If you're the lessee reading this for research we highly recommend using the insurance services of the lessor.

-=Good Selling=-

How to have your showroom in your pocket. Perform an unplanned presentation/demo

Periscope is a live video streaming free app for iOS and Android.

Their motto: Explore the world through someone else's eyes.

You can really see live what others are shooting in the world.

Broadcasting can be public or private.

PrintAnalyze is cloud software designed to help the salesman in the Imaging business.

The spark came from Art Post’s blog.

Yes, of course, the idea would be to present something that remained at office, probably in the showroom, to a prospect.

Let’s imagine there is a camera/smartphone in the Dealer’s showroom.

This camera/smartphone is on a kind of mount and broadcasts all day long a film of the showroom.

This camera/smartphone is on Periscope, but in a private session.

So this camera is ready to present something.

When required, the salesman logs in Periscope and joins the private session.

At this point, obviously, the salesman needs the help of someone at the showroom to use the camera/smartphone and show precisely what the salesman wants to present.

Of course the salesman can phone to #1 techie or assistant.

If not available, phone to #2 person.

And #3…

There, I imagine something more quick, less disturbing and more in the mood of technology: on the PrintAnalyze screen , you have an extra icon. Tap it and information is directly sent to the 3 people in question. (Text? eMail?)

A quick thing that would mean: one of you three, please go to the showroom, demo or presentation required…

So the salesman doesn’t lose time on trying to join someone.

Periscope and PrintAnalyze are in the same state of mind: the name ‘smartphone’ was not well chosen.

A smartphone is not just a telephone that’s less stupid as another one.

That’s a computer and a communication device.

I pulled these from Wikipedia for some of the world events from ten years ago this week.

• March 6 – March 20 – The first World Baseball Classic is held in San Diego, California, U.S.A..
• March 9 – NASA's Cassini-Huygens spacecraft discovers geysers of a liquid substance shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus, signaling a possible presence of water.^[34]
• March 10 – NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters Mars orbit.

Konica Minolta Launches the bizhub 500 and

I thought I would share an email that I received from a Print4Pay Hotel member that I received a few months ago.  That rep has since left the industry due what you'll read below. Below are some of the bullet points that were outlined as to why that rep is leaving the industry.

Here we go!

--The solution to revenues being down isn't to improve our ability to compete, skills or develop a unique value proposition or approach.  They hire more reps.

--We took so many different runs at Managed Services with the wrong approach that when we found the right one we didn't go all-in & only gave it 9 months before getting out of it.

--Despite declining placements & volumes & a more competitive market (at times we discount service & hardware by 20-30% off our published pricing) due to direct ops and dealers from outside our territory opening branch offices here, we refuse to adjust our model in order to compete.  I won $300k in new business in 2015 but lost the same in existing accounts and twice as much in other new accounts.

--I'm sick of changing comp plans every year because I found a way to blow out the model & made more than the model says I should.

--I'm tired of wondering how I'm going to get paid & trying to figure out how to make deals book at the right time in order to hit the right gates.

--It took 10 months of evaluating Print Audit before joining Premier (I recommended it 4 years ago), & now we're over-pricing it based on what other dealers in SDG are find.

--The last original idea our owner had was starting the business. They just do what the industry consultants says that should.

--I'm tired of being every other rep & manager's info source since the dealership provides no training other that web & the free crap we get from Ricoh, & they take no initiative.

--Last year I was miserable reporting to an old school sales manager, so our VP has me reporting to him which I'm fine with, but his goal isn't what he initially told me (to test my ideas & see if we can build something unique) but rather to take my hardware production from $900k to $1.6mm in the next few years.  That was the nail in the coffin.  I'm done trying to make a living selling people stuff they no longer need, because we focus everything on hardware and little training (and no process) for software.

--I'm tired of spending weeks on a single proposal because we don't have tools we need to expedite that process.

-I'm tired of so much talking with no actual action & the culture of over-promising & under-delivering.  Look at the quotes from management in the TWII website articles (Biggest Challenges& Biggest Wins) the past few weeks, & you'll immediately see how full of hot air that are.

Why Can't We Change?

I've received many emails similar to this one over the years,   and all of those extremely talented reps were quota busters at their place of employment.  Great reps, great talent,  lost to another Industry because some dealers are either afraid or reluctant to change their culture.

Our industry can't continue to lose these types of top performers, because of the inefficiencies of their employers. 

Keep in mind, there are a lot of Dealers in our Industry that have excellent cultures & programs for their sales people. 

But, I believe there are just as many Dealers that are still wallowing with a culture that does not allow sales people to expand their knowledge to truly help the customer with a business problem.  Continues to plays "hide the cheese" with internal pricing programs that are revealed after the sale.   Still embraces the eighties and nineties thought process for prospecting and box dumping.  In addition for most there is no career path for advancement.

It's my hope, that by posting this excerpt from the email that we can all learn and improve our business cultures where needed.

-=Good Selling=-

When people ask you about yourself, what are the first few things you share?

Aside from where you may live or whether you are married with kids, one of the first things you are most likely to share is your job title or what you do for a living. There’s a good reason as work is a common thread in most of our lives. Sharing with someone where you work and what you do gives them a good idea of what’s important to you. This is just a part of normal "get to know" conversation.

In previous posts, I have shared how important personal brand development is to copier sales reps. In a saturated, highly competitive and somewhat commoditized market, a quick Google search can turn up multitudes of information regarding your dealership and the sales reps who represent your corporate brand.

"Personal branding is about managing your name - even if you don't own a business - in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records. Going on a date? Chances are that your "blind" date has Googled your name. Going on a job interview? Ditto"

Tim Ferris

Your sales rep's name, face, personal style and LinkedIn presence can be major factors in building a positive reputation with prospects and your clients. This is especially true in the complex and rapidly changing business environment where price is no longer the primary differentiator.

Here’s the problem, in the business world, it’s not enough for copier sales reps to take on your dealership's brand as their own. Instead, your sales reps need a well-defined and well-developed personal brand. Your dealership needs to encourage brand development and thank your sales reps who build their brand, as this means more business and a much improved customer experience.

Time and time again in sales meetings, copier sales reps are being told, "Run your sales territory as if it was your business. You are the CEO now go out there develop new business and take care of our clients!"

Copier Dealer Principal's, I am going to ask you all to stop and think real hard about one word for a moment...

Would you allow your dealership to operate without any web presence? Of course you wouldn't. Your website is the window into your dealership portraying your brand in a business professional manner out into the community.

If you are encouraging your sales reps to be the CEO's of their own territory and you know how important your corporate website is to your brand then why on earth would you allow your sales reps to operate their business with incomplete, non-branding LinkedIn profiles?

I ask you, as dealer principals; place yourself in your client's shoes or for that manner a prospect's shoes. Based on your first impression of your sales reps LinkedIn profiles or for that matter any aspect of their digital footprint would you hire and bring them into your company? Tough to digest? 

Here are 3 Reasons Why Copier Sales Reps Help Your Dealership's Brand

1. Your dealership has very little personality without your sales reps 

Lets face it we currently operate in an business environment where connections and relationships are the most valuable assets a business can have. Your clients and prospects make choices about the copier dealership they want to work with and buy from based on how well they connect with your sales reps. Copier sales reps with a strong personal brand behind their dealership brand make it easier for clients and prospects to make a meaningful connection.

The personal brands of your sales rep's help to humanize your dealerships brand. This is so huge and a key way to distinguish your dealership from your competitors, especially when you all sell a perceived commodity.

2. Loyalty is built when clients or prospects identify with a sales rep's personal brand 

When your sales reps develop a strong personal brand people will pay attention. These strong personal brands of your sales reps will help your dealership build a loyal client base. Helping your sales rep's build and develop their personal brand is a key strategy as the dealer principal. The value your sales rep's have to your dealership isn't just measured in their sales results but also the impact they have on your dealerships clients.

Foster the culture and the environment to help your sales reps build their personal brand. Encourage them to professionally network, speak at not for profit groups, volunteer out in the community and most importantly have them build out their online presence with their LinkedIn profile.

3. Your sales reps personal brand helps to build your dealerships culture 

Encouraging and allowing your sales reps to build their personal brands will have a positive effect on recruiting and your retention efforts. It definitely portrays something positive about the culture of your dealership and provides a clear window for prospective sales reps to gauge how they will fit into your business culture.

Retention is also easier when you celebrate the personal brands of your sales reps rather than squashing them behind your dealership's brand. Think about it from your sales rep's perspective, wouldn’t they  rather work for a dealership which helps them build upon their brand to help align with the modern buyer rather than being coached to sales methodologies from years gone by?

Now more than ever before personal branding by your sales rep's is not only important to their success but to the success of your dealership. 

Your sales reps are front and center, the face of your dealership. You can help by fostering a sales environment full of skill set development, mindset building, self-development as well as a growth minded atmosphere. Provide to them the tools necessary to perform at their highest level.

Coach and guide your sales reps to create their professional brand. Think of their online and offline reputation in the same manner you think about your dealerships brand. When a prospect is considering a purchase or a client to continue to do business with your dealership, the reputation of your sales team for delivering value and their social proof is mission critical.

"It's important to build a personal brand because it's the only thing you're going to have. Your reputation online, and in the new business world is pretty much the game, so you've got to be a good person. You can't hide anything, and more importantly, you've got to be out there at some level."

Gary Vaynerchuk

It always isn't about this...

But rather this...

It is my commitment to help copier dealers grow, win and develop a team of brand building sales machines.

If you enjoyed please share your comments. Look forward to connecting and starting a conversation.

Check out more at the Social Sales Academy blog site.

Please enjoy my other posts on LinkedIn Publisher and on SlideShare

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 and coach copier sales professionals to grow net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. My commitment is to help independent office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, as well as at the Social Sales Academy 

Make no bones about it, I'm a junky for technology.  I had heard about the periscope app about a year ago, but never downloaded the app.

The periscope app allows users to stream video from their Apple or Android device from wherever you have a cell or wifi connection. Users of the app can access the periscope global map and see icons of where users are streaming video from.

About a month ago,  we had a blizzard here in the northeast, with some additional time on my hands I thought it would be cool to download the periscope app and see if anyone was streaming video from the Caribbean Islands.  Yes, I was jonesing for some sun and nice weather.  With the power of the periscope app I was whisked away to the islands of Saint Lucia, Aruba, Montserrat, Martinique and Jamaica to see if anyone was streaming video from the beaches.  I can tell you, that I was not disappointed and made a note to myself that next years vaca is back to the Caribbean.

For a couple of days last week I found myself working from my him office due to an severe issue with Big Foot.  I won't elaborate on the Big Foot thing, let's put it this way, I was hobbled for a few days.

I enjoy working from the home office, no distractions, can focus better, put the news on in the background, roll of the sleeves and get stuff done!

Thus, I working on a proposal when my cell phone makes a tone that I've never heard of before. I picked up the phone and noticed that there was text for a periscope alert that GAP Intelligence was streaming live video via the periscope app.

Gappers

I thought, hey, I know some people at GAP, and there's some Gappers that are members of the Print4Pay Hotel.  Good enough for me, I accepted the notification and there was the live video from GAP Headquarters in San Diego.

Thus, there was Erin, thanking everyone for tuning in, and thanking everyone for their first inaugural periscope video.  Erin brought us in through the front door, gave us a virtual tour of the office, introduced the staff, and told us what each Gapper does at GAP.  During the video, users are also able to make text comments and or ask questions via the texting option.  There I was more than three thousand miles away and I was thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to see the Gappers, learn more about what they do, and learn more about what makes GAP unique and different.  One user posted a thread and asked if GAP was looking for help, and that user was directed to contact the HR person at GAP.

Thinking Periscope Has a Place

If GAP can do it, then why can't we?  Wouldn't it be awesome to give your own virtual tour of your dealership to your customers and potential prospects?   I had no idea that GAP was going to live stream that day, just happened to be at the right time at the right place.

One of my ideas would be to schedule such a virtual tour of my office, and this can be accomplished with alerting your prospects and clients through social media. For those that are creative and pioneering, we could also promote and schedule micro demonstrations of hardware and software.  Maybe, even a big thank you to existing clients from the principal of the dealership.

Some Ideas for Live Stream Events

• What's New in Copiers
• Managed IT Offerings
• NOC Tour
• Meet & Greet the Staff
• Micro Demonstrations
• Meet the Owner
• Town Hall Dealer Forum

When the GAP periscope had ended, I realized that it just wasn't Erin that I knew anymore. I was introduced to the entire team, and was able to put names with faces, learn more about their culture and came away with the feeling that I had a better relationship with the people at GAP.  That personal understanding of the people and the knowledge can help build better relationships with our customers!

If, you don't have the app, you can down load it on Apple or Google Play, and who knows maybe you'll see me giving our first periscope of our office here in NJ.

Erin from Gap Intelligence wrote up and awesome blog gap intelligence Joins Periscope about their event and she did a much better job of explaining the app than I did.  Make sure you leave a comment!

-=Good Selling=-

In a previous post, I posed the question, "Should copier sales reps leverage the power of branding to differentiate themselves to rise above the noise?" My answer, an absolute yes!

I don't care if you sell Ricoh, Canon, Konica Minolta, Xerox, Toshiba, Sharp, Kyocera or the other multitude of manufacturers; they are all copiers which do virtually the same thing.

"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make", Jane Goodall

Dealer Principals, V.P of Sales and all copier sales reps welcome to the new sales currency...

"TRUST & VALUE"

How you sell it and how you offer it has become your competitive advantage.

Attention copier people! Do end users today really care about the name on the outside of the copier, NO!

Create your brand promise and your unique differentiation and rise above the "sea of copier masses"

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to a mentor of mine who impacted my life almost 10 years ago, Ryan Blair. He guided me to uncover my brand promise and uncover my unique differentiation inside the copier world.

I learned old school convince and convert sales calls were largely ineffective. For the most part the buyer has already learned what you’re telling them, they’ve formed their opinions, and shaped a positive or negative feeling about your brand (the copier you sell) for their potential purchase. If your buyer has not yet heard of you or your story, forging personal value in a cold first-in call or meeting is damn near impossible.

The 5 Steps I Followed To Build My Brand As A Copier Rep

1. Commitment - I made a commitment to myself and crafted a personal mission statement. I internalized it as this became the start of my brand. "My commitment and dedication is to provide outstanding, personable, out of this world customer service and support. It is my goal to surpass your expectations and to create your loyalty." How committed are you?
2. Competence - I made a commitment to myself to increase my sales competencies. This meant learning new communication methods, new self-marketing methods and new sets of social skills. I had to become competent in learning how to influence through storytelling. Are you adapting to a new set of sales competencies?
3. Content - I committed to learning through consuming content. I wanted to know what other influencers were doing and how this could translate into my role as a copier sales rep. I realized very quickly, the impact of a well-crafted, strategically placed piece of content can have on the sales cycle. This had a huge impact to my sales funnel. Yes, content is king and so is self-education. What plans do you have to devour content?
4. Consistency - Consistency is the difference between success and failure. I committed to crafting a business branding plan. It is all about follow through. From experience, consistency is a must as you build and grow your personal brand. You can measure consistency. Consistency creates accountability. It also allows establishes your reputation, your relevancy and helps to maintain your clear message to the business community. How diligent are you in communicating your brand message?
5. Conversation - I shared with my clients, prospects, friends and family how I was embarking on building out my brand. This allowed them to share with their friends as well. Hey copier world, learn the power of your network! Nothing happens in sales without a conversation. Conversation has become different as this can start online before it ever gets face to face. I took a step back and said no more sales pitches! I was simply going to start conversations based on helping my prospects and clients solve their business problems. How many daily conversations are you having?

Attention to all in the Office Technology Space.... Time to stop bragging about response time, guarantees and all-inclusive service contracts! This isn't 1995!

To be effective today your sales reps inside your dealership need to acquire a whole new skill set: self-branding and content!

It is 2016, buyers today routinely conduct their own research online, ask their peers for advice, compare products side by side, get the pulse on social media, or Google results. This goes a long way towards shaping a decision before they ever connect with a sales rep. Buyers do not need to rely on single sources of information any longer. This means YOU!

Your sales reps are front and center of your dealership. As a representative of your brand; your dealership, copier sales reps must build their own personal brand, becoming the trusted go-to expert in their sales territory. Copier sales reps must take a position not of a sales guru, but as a help guru.

Bill Caskey, the host of the Advanced Selling Podcast nails it,

“The truly innovative sales people are writing ebooks, blogging, have podcasts, are owning their media, are speaking to groups and conferences. They are positioning themselves correctly….and in so doing, they have distinguished themselves from the ‘commodity masses’,”

If you want to be perceived as a commodity then continue to pursue being involved in the dog pile; continuing to go to war over cost per page and lease payments.

I challenge copier sales teams... time to set the egos aside. Start helping your clients and prospects solve their business problems and challenges. Rise above the copier noise! I know you can do it!

Don't pigeon hole yourself - brand yourself

This is a great time to be in copier the sales world! Be Social. Build relationships and watch what happens. To your future success!

If you enjoyed please share your comments. Look forward to connecting and starting a conversation.

Check out more at the Social Sales Academy blog site.

Please enjoy my other posts on LinkedIn Publisher and on SlideShare

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 and coach copier sales professionals to grow net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. My commitment is to help independent office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, as well as at the Social Sales Academy

Well, it took long enough.  I'm sure this brought a smile to Vince's face. I see that he's on the site right now.

What happens NOW?

Initial reports from a few days ago stated that Sharp Execs would kept on board.  There was no mention of how long from recent reports, and I would those execs may have a year or so at most.   If I were Terry Gou, I would offer them an additional severance package to leave early.  You don't want them hanging around and mismanaging the company.

Another report stated that the business units would be kept intact. That may be true and may not be true, we'll find out in short time.  I would tend to think that a covenant was put in place with a time factor, you can bet your bottom dollar Terry Gou did not sign an agreement that would keep the business units intact forever.

From what you may hear from others in the industry in subsequent days, ask yourself, why did Foxconn buy Sharp?  Was it for the Imaging Business Unit?  No fracking way!

There's a number a reasons and you can read them here.  Keep in mind, there is no mention of copiers or the Imaging Business Unit.

It's my gut feeling that Terry Gou has already called Samsung, and if not, I lay odds that Samsung will be on the phone with Foxconn tomorrow.  Gou needs to get back some of his $6.2 billion in short order.  Pitching the copier division to Samsung is a smart move.

Keep in mind that Sharp Corp turned down an offer from Samsung back in March of 2013.

Change, there is always change, nothing is constant.   Next up on the block is Lexmark and then possibly Xerox. 

Comments???

Sharp Corp.’s board approved a plan Thursday for Apple Inc. assembler Foxconn Technology Group to take over the company for ¥700 billion ($6.24 billion), people familiar with the situation said, in a rare case of Japan Inc. relinquishing a venerated brand to a foreign buyer.  read the rest here