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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-=Good Selling=-

Seems ten years ago this week, I attended Rico Agenda in Dallas.  Don't remember much from that trip.  Thus it will probably be a decent read to view that thread below.

Yikes, I had a bad link in the section for the Ricoh Agenda, working to fix that now.  Points of the meeting were acquisition of Global by Xerox, the merge of Lanier & Gestetner brands for a new National Network for Ricoh.

Topic

Xerox 7665 v Savin 6045

Member

tkern

-=Good Selling=-

"How do we differentiate ourselves enough that they (prospects) want to talk to us and not feel as if they are getting the same story they hear from every other sales rep?"

What language are you speaking to your clients and prospects? Speaking their language will accelerate your sales and make the brand YOU more engaging.

Quite simple, cut out the fancy words, cut out the B.S. sales jargon and stop trying to develop creative ways to describe your value proposition. Just describe how you help your clients and prospects solve a particular business issue or challenge as succinctly as possible in easy to understand language, their language.

Your clients may not be an expert in your business but I guarantee they are an expert in their own.

Every industry has their own lingo. Your clients or prospects approach problems from their perspective and their experience. They have a way of talking about their business, their clients and the services they provide. I urge you to set aside the time to understand the language your clients or prospects use and adapt it to your business.

A very effective way to gain these insights is to interview your customers. Roll up the sleeves and get inquisitive about their business. Find out how they approach problems. Ask your clients to describe how they deliver value and just listen.

As you listen, carefully take notes of the words, phrases, examples and stories they share. This is their language. Adapt it into your own as this will help you with your value proposition.

Nothing will accelerate your brand more than speaking your value message with conciseness, clarity and conviction.

Remove the language barrier and open up a meaningful conversation.

THE DREADED OPENING FOR SALES REPS

If you have been in sales for any length of time you have experienced having to answer this question at networking events, prospecting calls or practicing inside your sales team meetings, "So... Tell me what is it you do?"

I 100% guarantee you when sales reps are asked this question you will never get the same response. In fact, you will rarely get a short concise response and more than likely you will hear a bunch of this "Um, um, um... I sell (fill in the blank)"

Those first two sentences you share must pack some punch or your potential business conversation isn't going anywhere.

What makes you valuable as a sales professional?

People won’t ever engage in a business conversation nor buy from you if they don’t even understand why they should pay attention to you.

What is sad is if you can't open up conversation through traditional prospecting means what makes you think you can do it with social selling?

Think about how you are opening up sales conversations face to face on and online. Sales reps have been given a platform (LinkedIn) to share with the business world how they can help but they fail to capitalize on the benefits. They are failing to capitalize on how to proactively market themselves online while engaging in opening up another form of a conversation.

Being the best sales rep isn't enough. Your future client's need to believe you’re the best option for them. How does this happen? As long as you can't backup and prove what you claim, prospective clients are unlikely to really believe them. Thus, your value proposition becomes useless.

YOUR PROSPECTS CAN'T READ YOUR MIND

It’s your job to hit people in the head with what makes you different and worth attention. How are you making a difference?

You can use case studies, client testimonials, and common sense, among other methods, to prove what makes you different.

What sets you apart from your competitors? You are better than your competition and it is up to you to prove it. The issue is most sales reps just don’t flat do it. Instead, they try to persuade prospects with general promises, corporate jibber-jabber and overused sales jargon.

If your value proposition you use face to face as well as within your LinkedIn profile doesn’t clearly articulate to your prospects what makes you worth their attention (and money), they won't spend the time to figure it out on their own.

How are you opening up conversations?

You need to clearly restate and market your value proposition everywhere. Think of your business cards, your email signature and even within the body of your sales proposals. If you say something just once, people can easily forget it, or they don’t realize how important it is.

Do everything you can to make your value proposition as clear as possible to your prospects.

YOUR UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION

Your unique value proposition sets you apart. It’s the promise you make to your clients and future clients to deliver a unique experience. Those few sentences can give you an unfair advantage and how you open up a conversation.

A unique value proposition guides people to you, your services and how you can help. It keeps you top-of-mind within your clients and future clients' thoughts.

When you have a unique value proposition, it’s easy to stand out among the crowd of undifferentiated offerings from most of the sales reps out there.

So how come so many sales reps get this so wrong?

Your unique value proposition is what differentiates your promise of value delivered from every other similar promise made by every other sales rep in the same industry. It’s the thing, the IT factor which makes you stand out, earning a special place in your audience’s hearts and minds. It’s what keeps people coming back to YOU in particular, and not merely the cheapest nor newest vendor.

Your unique value proposition must answer the question...

“Why should I listen to, read, buy from or hire YOU?”

If you want to get better at opening sales conversations then you must be able to with conviction, clarity and conciseness articulate your value proposition.

ASK YOUR CLIENTS FOR HELP

Here is a suggestion which may help you craft your value proposition. I want you to go face to face with your top 5 current clients and ask them this question, "What is the value I bring to you and your business?" Take notes and listen as your clients are a wealth of knowledge.

To all sales reps... If you don't know the value you bring to your current clients then how the heck can you go out and prospect for new business? Your clients are a wealth of sales help all you need to do is ask.

As you start to nail your unique value proposition and when done correctly, this will engage the hearts and minds of your clients and future clients.

Encourage your clients to go on and spread the word for you to your target audience. What better form of a thank you than having your clients helping you to grow your business.

Words of encouragement, as the old saying goes: “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.” In this crazy, hectic business world, buyers are deciding how to prioritize their time. Who would you choose to spend time with? A passionate sales rep who is a ball of energy who can clearly articulate their value proposition or the self-centered, boring sales person?

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

Just wanted everyone a little bit of a background about this blog. It's baseball oriented, can you tell? 

I was thinking about a blog that I wanted to write for Polek & Polek for the last few weeks.

Chris Polek and I are huge fans of baseball. 

Chris Polek being a Yankee fan and me being a Mets Fan. While driving from one account to the next, the idea came to be to make the blog baseball themed for the start of the 2017 baseball season.  Thus, Chris and I collaborated while at Itex and did our interview today.  In each inning (question), we've used a baseball term to help drive the answer.  Hope everyone enjoys, I had a great time writing this.

First Inning

Art: How can dealers hit a Home Run with profits from products purchased from you?

Chris: Swingline brand staples. Once dealers see the quality performance of Swingline brand staples versus OEM, and the significant profit it adds to their business, they never go back!

Second Inning

Art:   What is the biggest Sacrifice you see dealers making when buying supplies today?

Chris: Did you ever decide to buy something at the lowest price, only to find that you sacrificed quality? In the age of the internet it is easy to search and find low prices on items. The problem is the overall value and experience with that product(s) doesn’t compare to paying a bit more. When you buy, you want affordability and reliability. Polek & Polek helps dealers discover the proper balance of affordability and reliability versus the OEM. 

Third Inning

Art: Great hitters take Batting Practice every day, how can dealers take batting practice and apply it to their daily grind?

Chris: Get up early, and do consistent and productive work, day in and day out that carries over to game time where you perform at the top of your game!

Fourth Inning

Art: How can dealers turn a Double Play when doing business with Polek & Polek?

Chris: You may regularly buy your MFP toners from Polek & Polek. Did you know that Polek & Polek offers an extensive line of high quality toners for HP, Brother, and Samsung printers that can add profit to your MPS accounts? If your costs were 20% higher than they should be, how would you know? Contact Polek & Polek for a FREE Profit Impact Assessment.

Fifth Inning

Art: In reference to the cleanup hitter, which one of your products produces time and time again?

Chris: Buy the Omega Supreme Plus Vacuum (manufactured in USA by Atrix) from Polek & Polek. Significantly quieter and twice the motor life of standard service vacuums, and comes with a standard 10 foot hose(versus 6 foot). All Atrix filters are compatible with 3M/Desco/SCS service vacuums.

Sixth Inning

Art: Having a great Fast Ball can be your go to pitch, what would be your go to pitch to for dealer advise?

Chris: Adding profit is better than increasing revenue. Did you know that $60K in additional profit could be the same as adding $1 million in revenue? Imagine if you were doing both?! Let Polek & Polek show you how!

Seventh Inning

Art: If a dealer principle wanted his supply department to "pitch a gem" of a year, what would you recommend to them?

Chris: I would recommend that they go to the top 10 clients where they have great relationships, and ask them this year for 100% of their business. You will be 100% loyal to them, and you are asking for their loyalty in return. Many people might be scared to ask that question. Would you rather ask that question, or have your competitor ask that question? Next become the King or Queen of Follow Up to all your customers to show that the reliable, dependable, and smart choice to do business with is YOU.

Art: It seems that the Stolen Base is almost a lost art in baseball. Gone are the days of Ricky Henderson, Lou Brock and Vince Coleman. What’s your advice for dealers to win back profits and stolen accounts?

Chris: Tired of losing deals to the manufacturer direct? Buying compatible products from Polek & Polek is the secret weapon to lowering your costs, and winning the business you were losing to the direct manufacturers!

Art: In baseball, the Yankees are also known as the “Evil Empire”, due to their wealth and winning the most World Series. How can dealers create their own Evil Empires with Polek & Polek?

Chris: When you buy from Polek & Polek, your competition will hate you. It is better for your competition to hate you, than for you to hate your competition. When your competition hates you, it’s because you are taking food off of their table, and consistently beating them on the battlefield of business everyday!

I will close this interview by saying: GO YANKEES!!!

Art: Let’s GO METS!

-=Good Selling=-

Successful sales reps pay attention to their sales funnel as social integration can happen 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours per day.

Sales reps must start shifting their mindset when it comes to prospecting in a digital business world. I set the business table with How Social Turns Sales Reps Downtime Into Prospecting Time. We must recognize as sales professional's social media is not our primary prospecting mechanism but simply augments prospecting, it changes our approach as this is then integrated into our sales strategies.

A commitment to daily prospecting is a must or your sales funnel will dry up and your business will suffer. There are no excuses as there will always be a million distractions pulling you away from this essential part of your job. You need to consciously embrace, not just accept but actually embrace, the idea that prospecting is a must-do activity every single working day of your life as well as some of your days off.

DOES TECHNOLOGY HELP OR HINDER SALES REPS?

Is the average sales rep on the street afraid to open up and let technology serve them better as a way to enhance their prospecting efforts? Why is it such a challenge to get sales reps, sales managers and executive management to buy into the idea that technology can really be a benefit?

Is it ego? Is it fear of the unknown? Is it a time management issue or lack of patience? Sales people have been brought up to believe in the cold call as this is the single most important task to master. Prospecting or cold calling is a tough world to exist in as this world requires stamina and an enormous amount of self-belief.

I ask you all to think about how leveraging technology can enhance your sales prospecting efforts. The biggest challenge is to gain an understanding there may be a better approach to enhance a sales reps effectiveness when it comes to prospecting. Companies must gain an understanding of how to leverage digital technology inside the sales prospecting arena.

First and foremost, please understand digital sales prospecting is not a replacement; it’s a way to help enhance traditional prospecting to allow sales reps to become more efficient and effective.

The new reality in sales - how are you opening up conversations? I ask you all to remove your "digital diaper" and take into consideration how technology along with the "social phone" can tremendously enhance your prospecting efforts.

TIME TO START DIALING THE SOCIAL PHONE

More mad props to Kenny Madden and his witty humor as he has brought to life the social phone - "A smashing together with absolute discipline the very best of email, Inmail, Voicemail, offline/online, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram into one beautiful integrated approach - 'the social phone' ”.

Social Window + Social Phone + Social Selling = Enhanced Sales Funnel

The social phone allows you to listen and communicate with the voice of your clients and prospects. By engaging in online conversations and leveraging social networks, you create the opportunity to listen to the voice of your potential clients. The more intimate, authentic, genuine relationship you can establish, the more loudly you’ll hear their voice.

SALES REPS MUST DIAL UP SOCIAL LISTENING

Business times they are different. When you don’t pay attention to what your audience is saying, your current clients; you’re basically giving key information to your competitors. What are your client's pain points? What do they love about you, your service experience and your company? What are those in your industry talking about? What are potential clients taking about?

For simplicity sake, social listening allows sales reps to leverage social media tools to monitor, track and uncover information which allows them to open up and engage in conversation as another form of prospecting - social prospecting.

Social listening as another means of prospecting can provide sales reps with a great intelligence tool. Social listening can be used to:

• Help understand your marketplace or sales territory
• Help understand your competition
• Help understand your clients
• Help understand your prospects
• Help understand your buyer
• Help to provide great customer service

Social listening provides the tools to help you gain a better insight of what your targeted prospects and more importantly your clients are thinking. This allows you to be in a better position to open up conversations to deliver what they need, when they need it.

Social listening and social prospecting helps you to identify potential customers outside your established audience using social platforms as an effective means to augment traditional prospecting methodologies.

We all know if you aren't opening up new conversations then we know what happens to your sales funnel - it dries up! It is about learning new ways to enhance your sales funnel. We have all heard of Buyer 2.0, Sales 2.0, Sales 3.0 but what about Learning 2.0?

CONCLUSION - SOCIAL IS A CONVERSATION ADDITIVE INSIDE TRADITIONAL PROSPECTING

Inside the Demand Gen Report, B2B buyers reported their purchase cycle has increased since last year. Why? They are scrutinizing potential vendors and sales reps more closely than ever before. Buyers overwhelmingly reported spending more time conducting research (80%) and using more sources to investigate purchases (73%).

More than half (53%) of B2B buyers report turning to social media to make buying decisions. Therefore, please consider sprinkling in more modern methods to aide in your prospecting efforts.

I leave you with this to ponder...

As sales reps, you operate inside a digital business world communicating using digital technology to a digital buyer but still operating with an analog mindset. Change your mindset to change your outcome.

I understand where you all are coming from. I have walked a day in a life of your shoes. I walk, talk and practice on a daily basis what I preach about.

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

One item that stands out this week is the launch of the Ricoh fax 1180L.  Just a few weeks ago, one of my clients wanted a fax machine.  No print, no scan, just a fax.  Too my surprise, Ricoh is not offering a stand alone fax anymore.  I had to sell one of the smaller A4 devices and I was not happy about it, since the client was coming from a high end fax device. Instead of being able to write an order for a few thousand, it was more like $800. GRRRRR!

Enjoy the threads from ten years ago this week!

Why are MFP manufacturers not GREEN!

IT departments are constantly under siege by demands from “the business.” They usually run something like this:

“We want a mobile app!” (Translation: we’re connected to the business through a range of mobile devices and our productivity can’t suffer.)

“Why will it take so long?” (Translation: in a world of user-friendly apps and electronics where things just work, why does this kind of software take forever just to turn on?)

“Put our project first!” (Translation: we have scope, budget and executive approval -- and our project will make a big difference for the company.)

“That’s not it! … Change it!” (Translation: shifting scope is part of changing goals and executive direction, and we need to move quickly to adapt.)

“We found our own solution!” (Translation: we don’t need to go through a complicated procurement process – we found a cloud solution that just needs a credit card to start right now.)

These headaches are often caused by legacy software that simply fails to deliver on the needs of a modern business. Outdated content and document management systems are frequent villains: updates are difficult and expensive, integrations frequently break, and access is impossible through mobile devices. Why can’t it just be easier?

Cloud document management is a key enabler for a new set of IT requirements driven by “the business.” It solves five crucial pain points that are often the source of the “demands” listed above.

MOBILITY:  Cloud solutions are about total availability, anytime and anywhere – device, OS and physical location are irrelevant to staff getting work done. Key tasks like capturing, routing and approving documents should all be available.

PRODUCTIVITY: Rapid set-up, short learning curves and zero downtime enable workers, managers and executives to manage documents and participate in digital workflow with minimal disruption to the business.

AGILITY:  Turning on new services, adding new users, configuring new workflows and more are handled instantly with simple licensing terms.

SCALABILITY:  Cloud is key for businesses that value scalability. By leveraging robust datacenter stacks and infrastructure backbones like Microsoft Azure, near-infinite storage and compute power are available.

CONTROL:  Security is never not a priority. Cloud document management systems take advantage of active, comprehensive datacenter security as well as robust user profiles controlled from a single system.

Document management means considerably more than just archiving and managing documents electronically. It’s ultimately a system empowering geographically dispersed knowledge workers to participate in digital workflow that takes the friction out of their daily responsibilities.

Cloud-based document management cures the most common IT headaches while enabling both the technology experts and the business owners to succeed. Ready to see a document management solution in action? Schedule your personalized demo today.

General opinions from the show floor was that the first day was much better than last years event.  There was some issues with registrations in the AM, I heard that many attendees had waited almost an hour to get their badges.  I was not able to secure a badge until mid-day, however Jessica went above a beyond the call of duty to get me on to the show floor asap.  There was a small problem with my registration not being finished.  Hard to believe when someone with ITEX walked me through the registration process for the press a few days ago through the web.  All good, I was in and that's what counted the most.

HP

Had many questions for the HP people in reference to the new A3 PageWide devices.  I was most concerned  with the maintenance billing model, will they going with a device billing with unlimited clicks like the PageWide 8000XL series (you still need to buy the consumables) or keep with the traditional BTA model of the cost per page. I was told the BTA model was going to be the choice since these systems are designed for the dealer channel.  In addition these models will also be available through the HP web site, I then asked if device billing would be used by HP, and I pretty much received a "I dunno".  I guess we'll have to wait and see.  

Ink cartridges will have a yield of 15K, pagewide print head is warranted for 3 years (no page limit).  The system also allows for tiered billing for color. That was kinda interesting since I've never seen that billing model take hold (at least not here in the East).  One of the other points was MSRP, I really did not understand the answer, since the PageWide models will print full color at different speeds.  Best quality will be much slower than draft (they don't call it draft anymore), what I got was the MSRP of their 60PPM device would be comparable to a 40PPM laser MFP.   Keep in mind that they are selling this as "acceptable color" and we've all heard that before. The quality will not rival toner based color devices that we are used to.  Going back tomorrow to see if I can get any MSRP pricing so I can post on the site.

Muratec

Yes, Muratec America is the story of the show this year.  Their booth was one of the largest, if not the largest and they commanded a flow of attendees for the entire day,  A few people I spoke with and especially one well respected veteran believes they will hot a home run with the new PLS series of color label presses. I'm in full agreement, the time is right, the technology is there and they are "all in".  In fact after yesterdays blog, I had a call from a dealer principal that asked me to put him in touch with the regional rep asap!  Kudos to Muratec America.

Vendors

I had a list of twenty vendors that I wanted to meet and greet, many of them are  Print4Pay Hotel sponsors. In the next week or so, I'll be writing a post blog featuring those sponsors and including a what's new and what makes them unique.  Please find the time to give it a read and also maybe shoot them and email if there is interest in their products.  Their continued support of what we do, allows for the Print4Pay Hotel to remain a FREE site (at least most of it). Who knows, more sponsors may lead me to open up the entire site.  They are awesome and please let then know that we appreciate their support.

In addition, as long as I can get the content, I'll also post up additional information on many of the other vendors that were at the show.

It's late, will hit the ITEX show early, then it's off the the ISA show which stars tomorrow.  The ISA in the International Sign Expo, and there will be plenty of wide formats devices to see!

-=Good Selling=-

All of theses years in the business and I've never attended an ITEX event, hard to believe right?  In the eighties and nineties I was able to attend a few of the NOMDA events and those were some killer events.  Just think, all of the manufacturers, suppliers and dealers at one event at the same time.  It was one giant party event.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to catch three pre-show events.  Muratec America kicked off the day with there four hour Muratec University. 

Walking in to the event for me was like a kid walking into a candy store.  There they were,  four color label presses, one digital packaging printer w/laminator and one digital finishing system (attached to the PLS-875i).   I did some research recently with a a couple of my accounts in New Jersey.  While at those accounts  I posed these two questions.  " I see that you use color labels, where do you get those labels from?" and "Can you tell me how much you spent on color labels labels last year?" One account came back with $100K and the other account came back with almost $50K.  Digging a little deeper into the $100K  account revealed that they were spending 52 cents per label!

I was hooked,  reel me in,  bring back the eighties and the opportunity to bring back product demonstrations, SIZZLE, along with the ability to pencil sell these opportunities is incredible.

The PLS-875i and pLS-475i print engine utilizes the memjet engine, while the PLS-175i print engine using the PageWide engine.  THe PLS 2112 print engine utilizes the OKI color laser engine. I'll be digging in to these products more today and will post some additional information as the show progresses today and tomorrow.

Later in the day, I was able to sit in with Print Audit for their Top 100 Summit meeting.  That meeting was more of a round table event that was hosted by West MacDonald.  "What changes are you seeing in the industry" was the main topic and our discussions centered around device based billing, enterprise accounts holding onto equipment longer, Toshiba Corporation and the recent Ricoh SMB move of accounts.

Lastly MPSA hosted a network event that started about 6PM.  I was there and kinda not there.  After waking up at 3AM to catch my flight out of Newark, I was beat.  

However, I still had another meeting i wanted to attend with Martin Hofman from VZ industries.  Martin developed the Copier Solution Shop just about 9 months ago for our industry,  That shop is a web based store where dealers can purchase security options for every brand of copier.  Paper tray locks, security covers, you name it, they have it, and if they don't have it they may be willing to develop something that could help you win a bid or large contract.  

It's 8AM here is Vegas and it's time to get ready for today.

-=Good Selling=-

Rawlings Sporting Goods Scores Big with Cloud Document Management

Rawlings Sporting Goods implemented DocuWare Cloud to improve information sharing and communication with its vendors worldwide. Since implementing this cloud document management solution, the company sped up its production through business process automation, raised the quality of customer interactions, and improved customer service and vendor relations.

Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc., established in 1887 and based in St. Louis, Missouri, is a leading manufacturer and marketer of sporting goods in the United States. They focus on developing and producing innovative, high-performance equipment and protective apparel for the professional, amateur and entry-level player. Known for their quality baseball equipment, the company also makes softballs, footballs and basketballs, as well as operating a robust custom uniform business. Rawlings sells direct to end-consumers through retail stores, schools, leagues and booster organizations.

Requirements

The Rawlings customer service team works with clients to create custom products such as apparel, uniforms, sporting equipment and other licensed items. With so much information to manage for each order, Rawlings found it challenging to tie custom specifications and artwork back to the original order and effectively communicate this information to their vendors. Finding a solution that allowed document and file sharing with vendors across the globe while maintaining version control became business critical.

One of Rawlings’ Vice Presidents watched a DocuWare demonstration and was impressed to find a powerful and flexible document management Cloud solution. He asked his IT team to evaluate the product to see if their ERP data could be integrated with DocuWare to help them manage important information in one system.

Solution

Rawlings’ IT department approved DocuWare for their solution. Now that DocuWare Cloud is in place, Rawlings can easily share artwork, approvals and ordering information with their vendors. They invited their vendors as external collaborators into DocuWare Cloud and simply provided each one with a login and password.

Rawlings focused on using DocuWare for the piece of the process between order entry and artwork approval. For Rawlings, custom artwork and specifications are treated as raw materials because they are essential to create the custom goods.

Order information is pushed from Rawlings’ ERP system into DocuWare and used as an index term. The staff then uses DocuWare to create a sequential project number which is also used to index the order. Digitized art files, art approval forms, photos, notes and ordering information is all indexed and stored in DocuWare. A workflow between the sales rep and customer service department is in place to alert the customer service team if order approval has not occurred. Once the art has been approved and the order is finalized, the customer service rep will add the supplier number to the order, allowing the supplier to access the order and start production.  Each supplier simply logs into DocuWare and has immediate access to everything they need to customize an order.

Benefits

DocuWare helps improve the quality and accuracy of each customer order by giving vendors self-serve access to only the final artwork and relevant customer notes, eliminating confusion and potential delays. Rawlings’ purchasing department works with vendors to make sure they have enough raw materials for each order.  Due to short lead times for playoff games and materials constraints, Rawlings often splits one order between two suppliers.  Items need to be identical and with DocuWare in place, the company is able to give each supplier access to the information to make that happen.

A photo of each team’s finished uniform is added to DocuWare before shipping to the customer. If a customer calls with a question or complaint about a uniform, the customer service rep can quickly access an image of the uniform and have a better, faster conversation with the customer instead of reading art placement descriptions. The adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” is true for Rawlings.

“The information in DocuWare raises the quality of our customer interaction and allows us to respond faster,” said Sally Vandegrift Yeast, Vice President of Customer Experience & Analytics for Rawlings.

Rawlings does a lot of repeat business, so when a team orders a few more uniforms for their new players they absolutely must match the existing uniforms. It is essential that the correct information be readily accessible. With DocuWare in place, the vendors have immediate access to the artwork used for each order.

“The relationship with our vendors has improved because we now have a consistent and reliable way to communicate order information. We’ve found that better vendor relationships supports better customer service,” said Yeast.

Having great success after their initial use of DocuWare, Rawlings began to expand their use of in the solution in creative ways. For example, when a new customer calls to order a uniform, the customer service team can quickly do a search in DocuWare and pull up several examples of other orders with a similar logo. Being able to share art mock ups of different versions really helps new customers see what they want or don’t want when ordering their own uniform.

“It was hard to imagine all the benefits we gained by moving to DocuWare, until we implemented the solution. I can’t tell you how much help it so to be able to search for information in more than one way,” exclaimed Yeast.

Conclusion

DocuWare’s fulltext search feature is helping Rawlings’ sales force embrace the new solution. The sales team has quickly learned how easy it is to find an order — even searching a unique player name can help them find the order they need. DocuWare is now expanding to the engineering division and the company is working to store technical documents and product specifications in DocuWare.

“The ultimate impact of implementing DocuWare is that it has sped up our business and production processes and raised customer satisfaction. Uniforms, season and special games are time sensitive. You don’t get a second chance to deliver goods on time,” said Yeast.

 “The relationship with our vendors has improved because we now have a consistent and reliable way to communicate order information.  We’ve found that better vendor relationships support better customer service.”

Sally Vandegrift Yeast

Vice President, Customer Experience & Analytics

Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc.