MFP Copier Blog

I've been writing original content for the past 6 years or so, maybe even longer.  One of my courses in High School was creative writing,  though I never did well in English, I've always enjoyed the chance to put thoughts on paper and now on my blog.

On most occasions writing comes easy for me, don't know why, it just does. 

Over the years, I've been able to build the Print4PHotel web site to more than 600K page views a month with zero dollars spent on advertising or SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  However, that was not the plan, the plan was to just write interesting stories and share ideas with those of us that are in the Imaging business.

I'm no marketing or web guru, I will admit that I think I'm a little bit smarter than the average bear and at times come up with some killer ideas.

Thus, I want to share one of those killer ideas with our Premium Members. 

My idea on how to grow your website generically with original content.  Let's say that your dealership has 10 sales people, and each sales person turns in an average of  four orders per month.  That's forty orders per month to work with.

Of those forty, pick four or eight interesting orders, you may want to stick with four at first.  Create a form with 5 questions for the sales person and five questions for the client that purchased/leased the system.  You or your marketing person can interview the sales person who sold the client and then interview the client that you sold to.

Some Questions to ask Sales Person:

1. What does your client do?

2. Did they have pain with their current system or supplier?

3. Where are they located (county, city)?

4. What did they like about us (services, guarantees, hardware, features)?

6. Was there a certain lock out feature that solved a business pain?

Some Questions for the Client:

1. Who made the decision to buy from us?

2. Was there competition for your business?

3. What was the main reason for selecting us as your vendor of choice?

4. Did we solve any business pain or problems?

5. How did you find us (if net new)?

(feel free to subtract or add your own questions.

Once you have all of this data, you then wrap a less than 500 word blog about the order/sale, using the data that you obtained from those questions.  I would leave the company name out of the blog, unless you have asked for permission to use it and they have granted it.

Let's say that the one company we made the sale to was an Mechanical Engineer, and they leased a wide format system from you. I would then title the blog something like this, "Mechanical Engineer Leases Ricoh Wide Format System in Red Bank, NJ to Improve Wide Format Scanning Functionality".  You could play around with the title somewhat but keep in mind that you want to mention the vertical market, address the pain issue, the hardware (or software) and the geographic area.  I do tend to think that more users are defining their searches more locally.  Thus, your content might not show up if you just titled the blog without the local geo area of Red Bank, especially if they user used Red Bank, NJ in the search.

Above all, have fun with the blog, put an interested factoid in every blog. 

If you're not the creative type, then guess what?  I'm available to write those blogs for you. If interested, please send me an email arthurkpost@gmail.com

-=Good Selling=-

Today, I had to do some research on the new HP PageWide XL 8000 system.  For those of you that are not familiar with the HP PageWide XL 8000, plain and simply put,  it's a beast!  Able to print 30 "D" size full color pages in a minute!!

Information on the web is pretty much limited to an HP spec sheet, and the HP Press release.  Neither one of those documents were going to cut it for me, I needed to learn more, because the word on the street is that the XL series of PageWide could possibly put KIP out of business along with making a huge dent in Oce wide format sales.  Did you notice I did not mention Ricoh?  Well, let's leave Ricoh alone for once and focus on the two leaders in wide format systems.

Back to the need to know more, after a few minutes of searching I was able to find the HP XL installation guide.  This was a huge find!  After reading through the manual I was able to glean a few useful specs that will help me in the future.  While I was researching the XL 8000,  I had a call from my friends over at ESP Surgx.  While I had them on the phone I had some questions about some of the electrical specs that HP mentioned and what devices are required for the install.  ESP Surgx was able to help me comprehend those specs and put them into content that I could comprehend.

So, it's really not about what I found in the manual. It's more about doing the detective work, reading the manual and then using the information in the manual to sell against your competition.  Over the years, I've downloaded many operation manuals, one that I remember dearly was the Xerox ColorQube.  By them time I was finished reading the manual I had enough data to consult with potential clients why the ColorQube was not the right system for them.

Dang, after reading the operation manual I probably knew more than the Xerox rep!  But, that's the key, you arm yourself with knowledge, you are then considered not only the expert on your system but also the competitions!

Thus, when you're stuck for reasons why the customer should not go forward with the competitions system, go find the operation manual, give it the twice over and you'll have all the content you need to create a convincing argument!

-=Good Selling=-

It might seem as though journalists and analysts have been beating a dead horse with the information on healthcare's severe IT security struggles, but awareness is critical in the fight against modern cybercrime. This is especially true given the widespread prevalence of data breaches caused by negligence, a lack of training or simple error, as those particular issues have been the first or second biggest ones in the industry for years now.

Sure, there have been more pure attacks against the healthcare sector of late, with some researchers logging a 125 percent increase in the frequency of assaults on medical databases given the higher value of the files therein on the black market. However, the same types of security best practices that work to reduce the threat of overt attacks will also go a long way in lowering the prevalence of human error, negligence and other avoidable causes of breach.

A new report revealed some of the more prominent themes in the IT security discussion among leaders in the field, as well as just how commonly hospitals and other medical entities are being victimized by intrusions and data exposure.

Organizations must keep their ears to the ground when it comes to this type of research, working to identify the most pressing issues and threats, then mitigating them in stride to protect themselves more proactively.

Far too many victims
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, more commonly known as HIMSS, recently released its 2015 Cybersecurity Survey, which questioned nearly 300 chief information security officers. According to the report, roughly 87 percent of these individuals have made IT security a high priority, which is good news given the need for more concerted efforts to invest in the right technologies and practice the proper techniques to mitigate threats.

Right now, HIMSS discovered that the average health care firm is using as many as 11 different tools for security purposes, which does not necessarily mean that those entities are better protected. Remember, centralization and efficiency are key in the security equation, as threats evolve too quickly to develop a perfect strategy that can withstand the test of time for more than a few months.

The researchers also pointed out that roughly 66 percent of the respondents had indeed been victimized by a data breach in the time leading up to the report, which is somewhat lower than other studies have indicated. At the same time, one consistent finding was related to the cause of breach, which HIMSS found to be employee negligence. Sixty-four percent of the respondents did note that they had seen hackers breach their systems, though.

Finally, another positive result from this research was that the majority of CISOs are now identifying intrusions within the first 24 hours, which can go a long way toward reducing the overall damage of the event.

Time to wake up
If employee negligence is indeed the biggest threat to patient data security, something needs to be done soon to quell this issue. It might seem easy to simply blame the staff member who made the mistake, but that will be a cosmetic fix at best. Rather, health care organizations should always look at breaches as institutional failures, no matter what actually caused the event.

Getting everyone on the same page through persistent training programs and easing the strain of security on employees with intuitive email encryption and secure cloud services can go a long way toward reducing these institutional failures and better protecting sensitive information over time.

Copier prospecting without having contact information?  How can you locate an unknown email address?

I believe the year was 1995. I had taken my first copier sales job working for a Lanier direct location. Sales was a pretty straightforward prospect. I would drive up and down the street (dressed in a suit and tie no less), walk into someone’s business, and try to reach the owner. Face-to-face contact was always, and arguably still is, the best way to reach new copier prospects. At that time I really only had two methods to reach them – the telephone and my oversized Smurf blue colored van full of gas.

Then Lanier did something special. Every salesperson for Lanier received a brand-new, shiny laptop (thank you Mike Murray), which we were able to utilize to store all of our contact information and database notes. Most important to me through this process was I had an efficient way to reach out to clients through email. I had great templates set up and was able to build a pipeline pretty effectively utilizing them.

Fast-forward 19 years. For some reason people are not as willing to give out their email address today. With all of the interruption marketing and spam that goes out through email, it’s no wonder that CEOs are unwilling to give their email address to a sales person. They already have an influx of newsletters, advertisements, business emails, personal emails, and 1000 other items that they have to delete every day. Why would they want to give their email to a sales rep who will then add to the bevy of emails received each day?

The purpose of this article is not to discuss the quality of emails that you send out to your prospects but to show you the most effective way to find the email address of the prospect who won’t give it to you.

Google Knows …

Google knows just about everything you need to know thanks to well-optimized websites – including the email address of your prospects! Here’s how to put this amazing tool to work for you in two simple steps.

1) Know the Obvious

You really only need to know two things to make this work – the correct spelling of your prospect’s name and the website address of the company they work for. The correct spelling of their name will be vital in getting the proper results to show in Google.

2) Learn to Quote

There is a little-known technique that Google allows you to use which will return exact results. Quotation marks. When you do a search, anything you put in quotation marks will force Google’s results to return only pages that contain that exact results. If you search for “Baconator” (which happens to be 1330 calories of deliciousness from Wendy’s), the only results that you get will be results that have either the word Baconator in the title of the page or in the actual content of the page. No other results will be given to you.

What’s cool about this method (and incredibly valuable to you) is that it also works with URLs and email addresses.

So let’s make this practical. You have the name (i.e. Darrell Amy) and the URL where they work (i.e. dealermarketing.net). Now let’s get to work.

• Go to www.google.com
• Search for the name of the contact you’re looking for and “@sample.com”. Obviously instead of sample.com, you will use the name of the company website of the person you’re searching for.

• Scroll through the results and look for their email address in the results.

That’s it!

You may have to scroll through a page or two, but rarely will you be unable to find an email address for someone. For those rare occasions and what to do then, watch for my next article.

Now, make sure that you reach out to these folks with your newfound email address on an individual basis to connect with them. Legally, you cannot find their email address and add it to your database for next month’s email blast. That is a CAN-SPAM no-no, not to mention a sure-fire way to tick off your prospect. This is for reaching out and connecting individually as a sales rep, not a tactic to grow your marketing email database.

So there you have it. My top-secret recipe for locating that missing copier prospect’s email address. Give it a try.

Major MPS Provider Reports 12 Million Stolen Pages!

Call da Cops Major MPS Provider Reports 12 Million Stolen Pages!

Later that day, we turned on the lights and made a quick drive over to 54th Street and Lexington. 

Email security has been a relatively major pain point for organizations across industries and sectors in the past few years, as this immensely popular communication medium tends to be an easy entry point for hackers and other threats. Unfortunately, the effort to combat these malicious forces has not been a winning battle for many, as evidenced by the growing frequency and diversity of firms that have been victimized by data breaches that originate in email accounts and systems.
The fact is that email will likely be the most common form of communication in business and government for years to come, as other types of channels have certainly sprouted up, but none have come with the same adoption rates. What's more, the types of devices that are being used to manage emails are expanding in volume and diversity, making security an even more complex and challenging matter for many in the public and private sectors.

However, this does not mean that decision-makers cannot make a big difference in their organizations' security performances, but rather that the right types of tools and techniques are needed to get the job done. In fact, there have been plenty of studies and guidance released in the past few years to help all types of firms get a handle on their email security without negatively impacting user experiences or productivity.
As is always the case, the best strategies for security, or IT management demands of any type for that matter, will be reliant upon the adequate support and control of people, processes and technology. Here are five steps leaders can take and tools they can use, regardless of which industry they compete within or the size of their organizations, to begin to strengthen their email security performances and mitigate threats in a more comprehensive and proactive fashion.

1. Encryption software

Email encryption is a critical tool in today's threat-filled landscape. This particular software will help to ensure that even when information is leaked through an errant send or other issue, it will be more difficult for malicious individuals to capitalize upon and gain possession of the data therein. Advanced email encryption tools will be highly seamless in several ways, meaning that employees will only need to click one button to protect the information being sent, maintaining productivity in the process. 
Email encryption and two factor ID authentication is a core tool in the fight to protect email, but more is needed.

2. Secure cloud

Since email databases will need to be hosted on servers, companies might want to look into migrating these systems into secure cloud frameworks maintained and provided by trusted service providers. Secure cloud services can help to ensure that email data is being stored safely and encrypted at rest.  Plus, IT departments are not strained by the demands of server maintenance, and HIPAA compliance statutes are being obliged in stride with minimal disruptions to standard operations.

3. Training

Although hacking and other types of threats have overtaken employee negligence and error in some areas of IT security, the lack of awareness is still a highly common issue that leads to data breaches in email communications. As such, businesses must consider instituting advanced training programs to ensure that their staff members fully understand the best practices of sending and managing emails in a secure fashion.

More awareness and education is one of the primary and most powerful weapons against data breaches across the IT equation, and should be a priority moving forward.

4. Testing

Because negligence and error have been so clearly linked to the increased threat of falling victim to phishing attacks, tests have begun to be developed and made available to gauge the aptitude of employees in the past few years. These tests will essentially be taken without the staff members ever knowing, sending out fraudulent but benign phishing-like emails that will clearly indicate how well employees understand the signs of an attack.

This also falls into the broader category of measurement, which should be a priority for all managers. Building an analysis process that accurately and efficiently illustrates the overall capabilities and weaknesses of the firm in the email security discussion can be a boon to performance over time.

5. Always adjust

Email security threats and best practices are constantly evolving, and this is why the best strategies will never remain as such for long. Organizations, and particularly healthcare providers, that do not maintain a certain level of agility in their strategic oversight of email security will tend to experience increasing risk levels as time goes on, and dropping the ball on market research and analysis can have the same negative impacts before long.

Keep an ear to the ground and work to maintain flexibility in the programs to deal with major changes on an as-needed basis. As always, working with a provider of email security services and solutions can go a long way toward boosting the firm's protection against data breaches in these mediums.