MFP Copier Blog

One of the more prominent threats to IT security throughout the past five years has been mobility, as smartphones, tablets, portable computers and the software they run remain common sources of breach and information loss. In healthcare, lost or stolen devices, as well as misuse of those gadgets among employees, can quickly lead to a major breach of corporate IT, and this has happened more times than one could count in the past couple of years alone. 

Because medical firms are expected to oblige the statutes under the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, as well as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, one can only hope that leaders are getting on board with stronger mobile security strategies. Unfortunately, it would be hard to say that much ground has been covered thus far in this regard, as the sector remains at the highest risk of breaches and fraud. 

More recently, it has become clear that hackers are increasingly targeting these organizations because the data they store - patient records - is far more valuable on the black market than credit card numbers and other traditional subjects of theft. At the same time, insider threats and negligence are still major causes for concern, as they represent a relatively large rate of data theft events in health care and other industries to boot. 

Secure cloud services, HIPAA email solutions, employee training and more should be on the priority list for health care decision-makers today, and all of them will relate back to mobile protection as well since smartphones, tablets and portable computers are replacing traditional equipment. A new report indicated just how quickly mobility is gaining in prominence among the American workforce, and how much further it will go through the end of the decade. 

Health care leads
International Data Corporation recently estimated that there are 96.2 million mobile workers in the United States today, defined as using smartphones, tablets, portable computers and wearables to complete their tasks. This currently represents a significant portion of the overall workforce, and the forecast put forth by the analysts placed the rate to reach 72.3 percent by 2020, with a 105.4 million population at the end of the study period. 

Plenty of factors are drawing organizations into BYOD, which is currently the most popular approach to mobility, including the fact that nearly 70 percent of respondents to an earlier IDC survey saw reductions in operational or capital expenditures following the deployment of these policies. Additionally, the researchers stated that the universe of potential gadgets is only expanding more quickly as time goes on, with near-field communication, the Internet of Things and augmented reality all beginning to play a role. 

Perhaps not that surprisingly, the report indicated that the health care sector will have the largest share of the mobile workforce in 2020, as it does today, at least when those operating inside and outside of the office are counted. 

"Mobility has become synonymous with productivity both inside and outside the workplace, and the mass adoption of mobile technology in the United States has cultivated an environment where workers expect to leverage mobile technology at work," IDC Research Analyst for Mobile Enterprise Device Solutions Bryan Bassett mused. "This expectation will be supplemented by new solutions specifically intended to manage the challenges associated with the growing needs of the mobile workforce."

Again, healthcare faces the most challenging landscape when it comes to security and compliance for general IT matters, and increased mobile workforce sizes will only compound the issues should leaders not take proactive steps to mitigate threats and lower risk. As has always been the case with IT security, comprehension is key. 

Maximizing control
Because the mobile and regular workforce populations are increasingly converged and, subsequently, indistinguishable, health care leaders should be working to develop centralized strategies that govern the entirety of IT in a streamlined and efficient fashion. Vulnerabilities will always be more prominent when the organization has disparate controls and policies in place to govern varying technological and operational frameworks. 

Leveraging the same types of solutions and strategies for mobility that are in place to dictate the use of more traditional equipment and tools will create cohesion and clarity that can quickly reduce the number and severity of vulnerabilities. Especially when medical firms are taking a BYOD approach to mobility, which is inherently the least secure given the lack of corporate ownership over devices and the data they store, secure cloud and similar services need to be in place. 

Additionally, since employees will be increasingly reliant upon their smartphones, tablets and portable computers to communicate with others, email encryption and HIPAA-oriented tools will need to be properly configured on the devices. With a lot of effort and plenty of foresight, the massive mobile workforce population can be a boon to operational success, rather than simply a hindrance to data security. 

Dam, I almost finished this entire blog and I erased it!! 

There's a new game in town for comparing printer and copier devices 

Back in the eighties it was all about speeds and feeds, if you needed to compare a Ricoh vs Canon, you grabbed your spec check book, made a copy of each page, then broke out the color highlighters and proceeded to highlight your best specs vs the competitors worst specs.  Those that had more "best" specs usually won the day and the sale.

Do You Remember When?

Back in the day, after the demise of the spec check copier books, there were a few companies that offered lab reviews of copiers along with speeds and feeds.  Believe it or not, it was possible to get a report that rated a copier as "stinky" (something like that),  many of us in the industry always held our breath when the lab reports came out.  The "stinky" lab report was usually the kiss of death, and you better believe that your competition was using this to crush you!! 

It's All GOOD, Ever Copier is GOOD

FOOEY, I'm claiming BS!  Years ago, those manufacturers that received those "stinky" reports starting throwing more money for independent labs to test their copier devices. As the amount of money tossed around got larger and larger, then all of a sudden, low and behold, we were not seeing any "stinky" reports for any copiers.  How is that?  All of a sudden there was no copier that stunk?  We all know what happened (wink), because we all have to deal with "stinky" copiers from time to time, even with the advancements in technology.

Where Do you Fight the Battle?

Off the top of your head, what is foremost on almost every buyers mind when purchasing or leasing a new copier?  Give up?  It's cost, and not only the cost of the system but the Total Cost of Ownership. 

It's easy to figure out your costs, and easy when you can get the net new customer to give up their costs. But, what happens when they can't produce an invoice, can find the maintenance agreement or there is a new staff in place and all of the past copier paperwork is missing?  Arrrgggh, it's a nightmare.

gapCompare

I'm pretty lucky, I have this great relationship with gap Intelligence, and for the last two months I've been able to test their gapCompare product.   I'm impressed with the product, and was floored that I was able to do four up cost comparisons for total cost of operation.  It was so cool that I was able to model the same unit four different ways for cost per page scenarios!

I can also view average street costs for my competitors, along with street CPC, along with all of those speeds and feeds.  In addition I can add and subtract filters for finding the "right" competitive device.  In a nutshell, with using gapCompare, I'm gonna crush my competition!

LAB Reports Are Lame!

Reports are lame, because there are NO "stinky" copier report anymore, gapCompare is awesome because you're focused on what your buyer is focused on, and that's the true cost of operation.

All of this leads me to the gapCompare webinars, there are two of them scheduled in the next 30 days. You can view them on our P4P Calendar, but here's a link to the one in May and the one in June. Be there, and make sure you mark RSVP on our site!!!

Who is gap intelligence?

I posed the above question to Gary Peterson (President) back in February, his response is below.

When people ask me how gap intelligence is different from other research houses I always use the "forest vs. the trees" analogy.  Other research houses take a "30,000 foot view" of the forest and from that vantage point they can tell you where the forest is growing, struggling, or is on fire.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with this approach and they all do extremely strong work following the industry this way.  Our approach is different in that we check every leaf on every tree every week and by doing so we believe that we can tell you where the forest is thriving and struggling faster.

-=Good Selling=-

1945 Europe VE Day / Victory In Europe Declared 8th May 1945 : President Truman and Prime minister Churchill declared victory in Europe today, celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany . Following the announcement huge crowds, many dressed in red, white and blue, gathered outside Buckingham Palace in London and were cheered as the King, Queen and two Princesses came out onto the balcony. 

Canon Imgerunner 7105 help!

What does “community service” mean to you? For some, community service means helping around the four-block radius surrounding their homes. For others, community service may mean their entire neighborhood, city, or town. Regardless of how you define community service, you should know you can play an active role in building it and helping it to grow.

Acronyms and buzzwords are riddled throughout the copier sales community. As a recovering copier sales rep, I have had countless dreams and or nightmares:

• ABC - Always be Closing
• CTA - Call to Action
• ABP - Always be Prospecting
• AFTO - Ask for the Order
• CPP - Cost per Page

ABH (Always be Helping) is one acronym if intertwined within your weekly ritual within your community will catapult your sales success and may just resuscitate your sales funnels.

There are countless opportunities within your community or even your sales territory to get started. The way to really make a difference over time is a series of small steps. The single biggest impact you can make is quite simple:

Volunteer

One of the best things you can give your community is your time. The reward is more valuable than you think! I get it, we all work hard and we all lead busy lives but if you’re willing to carve out a few hours each week to helping within your community, you’ll wind up making a big impact.

Here are a few things you could consider doing:

• Tutor underprivileged students to help them get ahead at school
• Sign up to deliver hot meals to the elderly or sick
• Help serve food at a homeless shelter
• Participate in school cleanup projects
• Join a not for profit board as a director

Attention Copier Reps... Always be Helping within the Community

Get involved in the community you live in or within the sales community you sell in. I can't think of a more rewarding experience than lending a helping hand. Get involved and get active. By giving back I have gained so much in return. My motto,

"Offer to help without expecting anything in return"

My personal commitment to helping has led me to become active with my local Elks Lodge, Kiwanis Group and Senior Concerns; where I deliver food to home-bound seniors. My commitment to service led me to being awarded "Kiwanian of the Year, 2015" within my local community.

3 Areas Your "Always Be Helping" Mindset Will Grow Sales Success

1. A personal bond around a common cause - rapport building within the sales process is extremely important. Within your LinkedIn profile you can share your volunteer experience, the organizations you support, and the causes you care about. What a great way to kick start a deep meaningful conversation to help your relationship building with a C-Level executive, as they too may share the same philanthropic characteristics as you.

2. Corporations support the community - philanthropic efforts in supporting the community through giving sits within the core and mission of most corporations. Corporations will embrace and make it their responsibility to be a leading corporate citizen. They will look for diverse perspectives to inform the community, strive to strengthen through financial contributions and become proactive in caring for through volunteerism, all for the betterment of the community.

As a copier rep, look at your target list of accounts and start conducting research. Look for the charities they support, the schools they support or even the local events inside the community they volunteer within. Why? Get involved and volunteer as you may never know who you will run into. These can and will lead into prospecting moments, relationship building moments and more important conversation starters.

3. Executives sit on not for profit boards - quite often C-Level executives, key decision-makers or even influencers as part of their civic duty will offer their insight by committing to join boards of not for profit organizations. 

Start thinking of joining a not for profit board to elevate your status within the community. What a great way to get involved, offer your insight as well as your knowledge. You never know who you may sitting next to in a board meeting.

Think of adding not for profit organizations to your prospecting efforts. If you don't get involved personally then think of all the board of directors you have the opportunity to get to know if these organizations become your clients.

My community service experiences have led to many great personal and business friendships.

Attention to all copier sales reps, a great way to connect with business executives is through your commitment to Philanthropy.

Whether you invest money, energy, or time within your community, the sooner you get involved, the better you’ll feel about your community and the brighter your opportunities to build relationships will become.

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 

FYI, I wrote this blog back in 2012 for a series of blogs titled, The Transition of the Copier Industry.  Back in 2012, I focused my this blog around the Ricoh eWriter, today the Ricoh eWriter is no where to be found.  Why? I have no clue, I thought this product would kick start paperless forms, service tickets, delivery tickets and many other mundane paper based processes. 

The Digital Copier Industry of Today

The digital copier industry of today is changing and companies like Xerox, Ricoh, KonicaMinolta and Canon are making the transition to service led companies. These manufacturers and their dealers will be the sole provider for documents whether they are created electronically or printed, we/they want to help customers with print stream management, forms, email, archiving of documents (electronic and paper), they also want to provide consulting to help businesses increase efficiencies, provide easier work flows and reduce your costs.

I'll take an example of a Ricoh product because I'm more familiar with their products since I sell their products. One of their brightest products is the eWriter, it's not for playing games, surfing the web or doing your fantasy football at the office (Ricky), the ewriter is a business tablet that is designed to address technology gaps in the digital work flow by replacing paper based solutions with digital alternatives (I borrowed this from Ricoh). Basically, the Ricoh ewriter will replace paper, maybe the best example I can give is my own.

When making a sale, I need to produce a sales order, a maintenance agreement, and a lease. I need to print these documents and then have the customer sign them. Bring them back to the office and then print another 10 pages of information to complete the order process.  This type process is archaic, thus if I had an ewriter all of my forms would be on the tablet, I enter the information on the tablet, capture the customers signature and then transmit the documents to the office. Then I'm done, thus if I wrote 10 orders per month I could increase my efficiency 4-5 hours every month. In ten months I could write another weeks worth of business! S

So why aren't dealers embracing this technology?

The Ricoh ewriter is just an example of awesome technology that is changing our industry.  Other manufacturers have also developed real-time visual communication devices for the office that share video, audio an image sharing.  Thus if you had one of these in each office your offices you would be able to communicate in real time with video, and audio.

It's not only just about the hardware also, it's about the services.  Dealers and Direct branches can now offer an array of services including Managed Network Services, Managed Print Service, Managed Print Stream (managed print stream seems to be one of  the most overlooked solutions in our industry) and Managed Document Services.  Our industry is preparing for the eventual demise of what got us to where we are today. Putting toner or ink PAPER!

The holy grail is how can we get to new renewable revenue streams with print volumes that will be on the decline ?  Of course I have some ideas, however I'll address these in Part #4

Note from Art:  In recent press releases, most or all of the major copier manufacturers have reported lower profits.  A few of these manufacturers even reported higher sales volumes and lower profits.  What's my take?  Too many players in the field equals a drain on profits, we're many years past the boom days of digital copiers and we've now entered a phase where the market is flooded with digital color devices.  Basically, if we're just focused on selling copiers then the only thing we're accomplishing is stealing business from each other. Not a healthy plan for a mature market.

-=Good Selling=-

The healthcare sector has had to overcome a wealth of challenges when it comes to IT security, service management and delivery in the past few years, with so many new tools and solutions quickly gaining a vital designation among leaders. From telemedicine and mobility to big data and electronic health record system management, the average medical firm is using technologies that were not even available only a couple of decades ago. 

For the purposes of this blog, the focus will be placed on enterprise mobility, which has been a proverbial battleground for security professionals and health care practitioners of late, and many of the news stories were less than desirable. BYOD has been found to be sliding backward in the medical sector, with fewer hospitals allowing the use of personal smartphones and tablets today than last year, and this has been the direct result of security and functionality issues. 

With more robust technologies and services such as a secure cloud, medical firms can begin to enable a range of mobility initiatives without taking on quite as much risk, but it is up to leaders to come up with the right strategies to govern information and users in relevant activities. Mobility remains as one of the most important trends in computing today, especially given the demands of the modern workforce, and cannot be sidestepped should a medical firm hope to optimize its operational performance. 

Weight arguments
A recent mHealthIntelligence article discussed some of the ways in which leaders in the IT security discussion, and health care technology markets at large for that matter, are beginning to argue that mobility is indeed the "biggest liability" facing the medical sector. Although this might seem like hyperbole, it is actually quite true, as such a large portion of recent data breaches have been attached to lost, stolen or otherwise compromised smartphones, tablets and other portable gadgets. 

Again, healthcare decision-makers cannot truly balk at this trend due to security trends, but instead must embrace it head-on and armed with the right tools to protect their data, systems and users from breach. According to the news provider, the attention placed on mobility in medical industries has fueled plenty of research and best practice frameworks for leaders to digest and leverage in their own strategy creation procedures. 

Referring to a recent post published in the Journal of AHIMA by former U.S. Magistrate Judge Ron Hedges, the source pointed toward the need for significant expansion in the average information governance strategy to get the security job done right in the mobility arena. 

"In the context of litigation, IG (information governance) must encompass the means to deal with litigation that is either in process or reasonably anticipated when the duty to preserve relevant information arises," Hedges explained, according to mHealthIntelligence. "IG is important in this context, as a healthcare provider cannot preserve anything appropriately unless the provider knows what information they have, where the information is, and how to preserve the information correctly. All of these things are necessary for effective IG as it relates to legal considerations for a provider."

Get support
Balancing speed and control in these types of deployments is often difficult, and can be close to impossible when the firm does not have an IT department filled with experienced and skilled individuals. However, this balance is critical to simultaneously ensure continuous performance improvement is achieved and compliance is maintained, which is why leveraging the support of a managed service provider will often be the right move for medical firms. 

With secure cloud and other protective solutions provided by a reliable vendor, medical firms can take the bull by the horns in their mobility strategies. 

Life as a copier sales rep is dynamic, exciting, full of surprises and financial rewarding. However, this field is also highly competitive, particularly when economic business conditions become tight or as most of you can relate to commoditization. Overcoming the odds and keeping your sales numbers high can be challenging which is why you have to actively work at improving your results. The good news is one way you can become a top-performing copier rep is by creating a personal business plan and putting it into practice on a daily basis.

"Unless commitment is made there are only promises and hopes; but no plans"

Peter Drucker

For me, a huge part of my personal business plan involves reading. For those who know me know I am a voracious reader. I read at minimum one hour per day. I found the key to my success came through self-education. However, this is not just found in a book, it’s my philosophy on life. I came to the conclusion early on in my copier sales career, if I wanted to become the best then I must make a commitment to self-educate myself. Your success is directly attributed to your work ethic and the commitment you make to yourself.

I do have to thank my dad for instilling this in me. I didn't realize how important this would be until later in life. My dad self-educated himself through two Ivy League schools to become a very successful Rocket Scientist for the U.S. Air Force. I kept hearing this quote from my dad over and over again...

"Invest in yourself, or no one else will"

As a copier sales rep I encourage you all to do the same. It all starts with making a commitment to become the very best at what you do. 

I have to thank my new friend Justin Dorsey for the inspiration behind this post. 

My book-shelves are lined with many great books, in fact too many to list, however; these 7 books will be great additions to copier sales reps book-shelves.

7 Sales Books For Copier Sales Reps to Invest in to Help Them Achieve Sales Success!

1. A Seat at the Table - How Top Salespeople Connect and Drive Decisions at the Executive Level. Your clients and prospects are looking for value in the form of help, specifically strategic help. Work to help them connect or reconnect to their strategies.

2. Rainmaking Conversations - Influence, Persuade and Sell in any Situation. Your conversations with C-level executives make or break everything in sales. Every conversation you have as a copier rep is an opportunity to find new prospects and engage in deeper conversations with your current clients.

3. New Sales Simplified - The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development. Nothing kills a copier sales rep faster than a weak sales funnel. A weak sales funnel is caused by a lack of prospecting and the fundamentals around business development.

4. Not Taught - What it Takes to be Successful in the 21st Century that Nobody's Teaching You. I owe a lot to Keenan for his support, our conversations and his inspiration drove me to consistently blog. Simply put... "If you want to be successful in today's world, you need to create brand YOU and promote the **** out of it"

5. Slow Down, Sell Faster - Understand Your Customer's Buying Process and Maximize Your Sales. It is about creating lasting relationships with your customers. Furthermore, it is hard to sell anything to anybody if you can't take the time to build an authentic, personal business relationship.

"Reading is a starting step of many things, which build a more solid stairs for you to climb up achieving something big out there"

6. Start With Why - How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. As copier sales reps I am sure you can articulate what you do, why you are different or even better; but very few can articulate the WHY. Inspire your clients and prospects by sharing your WHY.

7. Fanatical Prospecting - The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, E-Mail, Text and Cold Calling. This will clearly open up your eyes to the number one reason sales reps funnels are ridden with holes - lack of prospecting! A must read in opening up more sales conversations.

Bonus Book for Copier Reps

8. The Start-up of You - Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself and Transform Your Career. Simply put, as a copier rep if you want to seize new opportunities and meet the challenges of today's fractured career landscape, you must think, act and conduct yourself like you are running a start-up, your career!

Copier Sales Reps Should Read Sales Books

One thing which distinguishes the highest-performing copier sales reps from the rest is a commitment to continuous learning. It doesn’t matter how many books you’ve read or sales techniques you’ve mastered; as the office equipment landscape continues to grow and evolve, there will always be new tools and best practices you can apply to take your career even further.

Please give thought to your upward mobility when reading. Numerous studies have proven leaders are readers. If you are content within your dealership and you want to stay this way, I totally understand and respect your choice (and it is your career). However, if you want to be in control of your destiny and your career, reading is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

The average CEO reads 5 books a month. Aren't these typically the people who work about 60 to 70 hours a week? Yet they make it a priority to read. How do they get time? This is very important to them so they make time to read. I have yet to read about a C-level executive, who mentions he or she has reached the top by watching TV.

If you need a gentle nudge or some guidance I am always here to help or lend an ear if you ever would like to have a conversation.

What is your favorite sales book? Please share in the comment section.

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 

Boy, do I have a lot of gripes,  was a thread I posted on the forums ten years ago.  That thread brings back memories of some of the bs that I've muddled through over the years. 

Thinking back, I remember what my wife tells me, "don't sweat the small stuff".

In the grand scheme of things commissions, money, sales, is the small stuff in life.  Family, and health is the BIG stuff, and is something I care about most.

Enjoy the threads from Ten years ago this week!

Sales positions in SE Wisconsin & Northern Illinois

The Internet of Things has been among the more widely discussed and hyped trends in corporate computing throughout the past few years, and is only continuing to gain steam given the explosion of new devices entering the market. Considering the fact that health care firms have thus far struggled to get a handle on enterprise mobility, which only entails smartphones, tablets and portable computer, leaders need to begin planning for the IoT as soon as possible with a specific focus on security. 

The health care sector has already begun to leverage tools that fall into the IoT category, such as for patient monitoring, telemedicine and physician assistance purposes, and these gadgets will generate highly sensitive information. Despite the fact that these tools pose significant threats to patient data security, medical firms have still aggressively deployed them, potentially creating a proverbial universe of vulnerabilities that will be difficult to monitor and identify. 

Networks will almost undoubtedly be the battleground in this trend, as organizations will need to quickly scale up their capabilities with respect to security, bandwidth and control given the IoT's unique demands on backend systems. With secure cloud services in place, this can be a relatively straightforward process, especially when provided by a reliable managed solutions vendor, but the ways in which the IoT will existentially shift the security conversation are massive and diverse. 

Change is going to come
Gartner recently released a statement on the IoT's impending impact on the cybercrime arena, affirming that the trend will take up greater portions of security investments in the near future, but the reason behind this is a novel one. According to the analysts, more organizations are likely to begin deploying solutions from the IoT category that are actually used to protect their operations, posturing novel gadgets as effective security tools. 

That, in addition to modernizing security frameworks to embrace the IoT without taking on excessive risk, will create a very different market landscape in the coming years. Gartner estimated that roughly one-fifth of global organizations will provision some form of the IoT-centric security solutions within the next two years, boosting what is only now beginning to be a fledgling industry segment. 

"The IoT now penetrates to the edge of the physical world and brings an important new 'physical' element to security concerns. This is especially true as billions of things begin transporting data," Gartner Research Vice President Ganesh Ramamoorthy explained. "The IoT redefines security by expanding the scope of responsibility into new platforms, services and directions. Moving forward, enterprises should consider reshaping IT or cybersecurity strategies to incorporate known digital business goals and seek participation in digital business strategy and planning."

In many ways, companies will need to ensure that they are taking the bull by the horns with these initiatives, working to not only capitalize on the benefit of the IoT, but mitigate any and all threats that might become an issue throughout the lifecycle of the project. 

Head start
Even when medical firms are not considering the prospect of deploying solutions for the IoT, they will still need to get their IT house in order with respect to backend infrastructure and software systems. Because of the unique demands of the modern workplace, including enterprise mobility, email encryption, telecommuting, big data and more, leaders ought to be leveraging secure cloud services that will boost the elasticity of their computing capabilities while simultaneously maintaining steady capital expenditures. 

With the right service provider, trends like the IoT can be faced safely and swiftly, boosting productivity and sustaining compliance with federal regulations at the same time. 

Just because you're at work, does that mean you're working? 

Over my many years in the copier business I've seen many copier sales people come to work, and I guess that's sort of an accomplishment because they at least they showed up.

I've also encountered many sales people who don't know how to work.  I'm thinking their comprehension of work, is that they showed up, they made a few calls, knocked on a few doors, took a late lunch and then knocked on a few more doors close to home. These sales people were happy that they sold 2 or 3 systems a month!!  When the heck did that become acceptable in our industry?

I get it, there's been times when I didn't  have the drive or the ambition to put in a days work.  But those days are few and far between. 

At one point in my life I didn't know how to work.  At 16, I was hanging out in downtown Iselin, nothing to do, but to get into trouble.  One evening I was approached by a person in his twenties, and was asked if I wanted to make a few bucks un-loading a produce truck.  Okay, since I didn't have any money and I liked having money, I went to work that evening, and ended up staying at that job for almost five years.

I can't tell you how many times, I was told to get my hands out my pockets, we don't pay you to think and there is always something to do when you're at work.  After many months of being verbally abused (that was OK in the seventies), I learned that in order to keep my job, I needed to think for myself and find things to do.  Thus, when I finished a task I didn't run to the owners and ask "what should I do next?", I learned to think for my self and find a task that would keep me busy.  From pushing a broom in the warehouse, making room in the dumpster, feeding the guard dog and picking up his poop. This is what I did to earn a buck. 

College was not an option for me, I was not a fan of school, however I was a BIG fan of making money.  Today, I contribute my success to the owners of the produce company who pushed me, yelled at me (gave me a thicker skin) and taught me how to work.

Today, when I've completed the follow up calls, finished the quotes,  and replied to the emails, it's automatic that I turn to prospecting whether it's phone calls, emails or LinkedIn, prospecting never ends. There is always something to do!

Which got me to thinking, why are there so many slackers?  Where did the mentality of just showing up meant that you are working?

Even though I'm not a manager (I was a Dealer Principal once), I get PO'd when I'm busting my butt, making the calls, setting the appointments, researching data, closing the deals and then watch others muddle their way through a day or work.

You know what?  I guess what it comes down to, is that I don't want to be average, I don't want to be like everyone else. I need and want to excel, don't you?

-=Good Selling=-

I'm not sure if Ray and I have ever met, however, we've been connected on LinkedIn for quit a few years.  Ray, is also one of those old copier dogs like me. Just the other day he posted a blog about the good old days of selling copiers.  

Thus, I asked Ray if I could re-post that blog here. We've got Ray's permission to re-post the blog. Enjoy!

“When I get old, I hope I remember my copier salesman days.”

I thought it might be fun to share some stories from my career as a copier guy. I will admit the industry has been interesting – I hope you enjoy.

Back when carbon paper was the thing every office used, and it was getting less and less, it was the age of the copier/printer. I started a career with Lanier Worldwide, of course back then it was called Harris/3m, and it is known today as a subsidiary of Ricoh. The industry has not changed very much, in the sense that it stills sells the means to put dots on paper. Well, I guess they also do a few other things - after all, there has been a lot of creativity to keep them relevant.

Although today, I thought it would be nice to reminisce the glory days of vans, coffin carts, stair climbers, dongles, mono component vs dual component, toner developer, paper cassettes, sales boards, quotas, Demos (2 every day), 100% commission pay plans, and the greatest thing of all - the Bell.

Of course, the bell came with the warning: if you ring it in jest, you buy beer for the rest. Once the sale was complete, you rang the bell, then colored in the line on the sales board with the green marker to highlight the dollar volume.  Yes, back then we actually drank beer in the parking lot - every night after daily sales recap. Man, those were fun times.

Some reading this will remember all the fun things that went with the job as a Copier Salesman (or saleswoman). Keep in mind, back in the late 80’s/early 90’s, regardless of your gender, you were a salesman. Remember the sales manager yelling! Through the entire office - every morning around 8:30. “Are you stress relieving or goal achieving?” This was his polite way of saying - get your van loaded and get the hell out of the office.

When I look back at the industry, I realize just how aggressive we all were to succeed. We literally hated the competition. The competitors were stealing food from our family’s bellies and no one liked that. One of the great ‘competition removal programs’ we had was to call pharmaceutical recruiters and give them the name and phone number of the competitor’s sales reps in our territories. This actually worked very well, as I remember.

Computers - what computers? Al Gore had not invented the internet yet - so what would we do with them? We sold word processors. Our Google machine was microfiche, and our CRM was a shoebox. Yes, a shoebox. If you used one of your own, having big feet gave you a bigger storage database. They called the shoebox CRM the Diebold file system. A-Z, 1-31, January through December, a glue stick and index cards – technology at its finest.

You old timers reading this know exactly what I am talking about. The rest of you really don’t care and it’s meaningless to you, so I won’t bore you with more technology of our day. If you really want to learn, watch the Flintstones reruns - we all did.

Back in those days... Wow, did I just say that? I thought only old people said that. Crap, I knew I would end up saying it, I just didn’t think it would be today…

Anyway, as a copier rep your day was filled with cold calls. There was no reason to make appointments - our job was to sell to people that had no idea we were coming. Yes - the famous “Cold Call Close” your grandfather talks about really happened. Which by the way, was an unbelievable high.

The demo! Yes, we did Demos and lots of them. Every successful sales rep knew that it took twenty cold calls a day and ten demos a week just to survive. It was the copier industry that came up with the saying “if you show it, you will sell it.” With a loaded van, you headed out to your geographical territory, and keep in mind we used paper maps to navigate around neighborhoods, looking for that lonely church. We all knew churches ran tons of bulletins. Every time you drove by church, you could practically hear the sounds of clicks. Clicks - the term for paper running through the copier. More clicks equaled more money. Once we found a prospect (basically was everyone in the world), we would sell the demo.

The craziest demo I ever did… Tony the Crab salesman had a van on a street corner. The kind of street corner where you wouldn’t want to even think about buying a crap from the back of a van. Although buying crab wasn’t the goal. Selling Tony a miniature Crab Flyer printing press was.

Remember, before you could sell Tony the copier, you had to show Tony the copier. This is the sole reason all successful copier reps carried long extension cords. Yes, Tony may have had no power in the crab van, but the gas station parking lot Tony called his storefront did. Once the cord was plugged into the lonely outlet in the men’s room with no door, it was time to start making copies.

I know everyone is asking themselves - what the hell does a Crab Sales Guy makes copies of? You may have guessed, of course - it would be one of the crabs. So as I began my pitch that included explaining how every crab vendor should have flyers, and why outsource that, I quickly grabbed a big blue crab from the cooler in Tony’s van (it smelled like shrimp to me), and I immediately set the crab on the glass and hit the big green button. Out came a picture of the blue crab, well it wasn’t blue - color capabilities were not available yet - but once Tony saw the crab printed on that sheet of paper he was sold.

What happened next is something all copier reps face occasionally. You may have guessed, he couldn’t get approved for the 5 year lease. He was able to muster up enough cash and of course a few crabs for trade, so Tony quickly became the proud owner of a slightly used machine, the one that had been rolling around in the back of my van for months.

So when I think back on those good old days, I ask myself what Tony would think today. He more than likely went paperless, has a Facebook page, his van is probably in a junk yard, and Uber drivers deliver his crabs. Yes, I am also quite sure Tony has a crab app.

Obviously, things have changed since then; however, one thing has not. That one thing: it doesn’t matter want you sell - just sell enough of it. Selling has never been all about the products; selling is the ability to make the product exciting and being creative enough to emphasis a benefit. Keep in mind your passion for making things exciting will always prove fruitful.  

The old is forever new.

R.J. Stasieczko