MFP Copier Blog

Some of us do ROI presentations and some of us don't. For those who don't you're missing opportunities! Do not leave any stone unturned when consulting on current costs for the total cost of operation.

Recently, I had the opportunity to quote for two MFP's in two workgroups. The first thing I noticed is that every desk had a laser printer on it. Below is a run down of the two work groups:

Workgroup #1 (6 people)

• 6 laser printers
• 1 fax
• 1 large copier (MFP) however it was not connected

Workgroup #2 (8 people)

• 8 laser printers
• 2 fax (one for inbound and one for outbound)
• 1 large copier (MFP) this also was not connected

I did my usual routine, gathered config sheets from every printer, got the meter reads from the copiers and printer along with the reports from the faxes for inbound an outbound pages. Once I gathered all of the information, I went back to office and looked up the cost per page for each device and put together a ROI spreadsheet for the customer.

As per usual, I indicated that the desktops printers and fax machines should be eliminated because of the higher cost per page when compared to a connected copier/MFP. Working late on the proposal I needed to save the customer some additional dollars, but where was it going to come from? I had already accounted for auto duplexing to save paper, fax4ward2email to save paper and consumables, put them on a cost per page plan, and even had 10 licenses of PPDM to help save paper.

Something finally clicked and I did a search on the Internet for "electricity cost for copiers" and I got what I was looking for at http://www.aps.com/ . They had a document that actually showed the average cost of running office equipment on an annual basis. With that I created a new line in the spreadsheet that focused on the electricity savings by removing 14 laser printer and 3 fax machines. Eliminating the fax machines would save $27.00 per fax per year (if left on 24 hours), and then the laser printers were $44.00 per year (if left on 24 hours).

The faxes total $81 annually and the laser printers came in at $616 annually. Total $697 per year. Break that down to a monthly cost and the savings would be around $58 per month. Over the term of 60 months, the total savings is $3,484.99.

Summary: I doubt that the laser printers were left on 24 hours a day (ya never know), however even if they were turned off at night, the end user still had a savings each and every month. Plus, if you're the person presenting the ROI proposal and you've taken the time to show this to the client, my guess is you'll get their business.

I've been the first one in the office in the AM, my office is a branch office with employees coming and going all day. Can't tell you how many times I've arrived and every electric device in the office is on!  That's a waste of energy, and decreased profit.  It may not be much for one office, but what if you had five, ten or 50 offices?  It's big bucks!!  Have you ever considered doing an energy audit or thought about offering a Managed Power Program?  If not, check out what my friends at ESP/SurgeX is doing to help dealers grow their business and create new revenue streams.  PS, watch the video!!  It's all about saving money.

-=Good Selling=-

-=Good Selling=-

"My pipeline is always 100,000k+ and I'm required to do 12-15 appointments per week.  I'm finding the opportunities, but not winning competitive deals. (I have a small base list of 10 accounts)."

Was one of the statements that was emailed to me by a Print4Pay Hotel member in Canada this week.  I thought this would make a good topic for this week to see if I can help.

Ok, I'm thinking if you only have a base of 10 accounts and you're not winning competitive deals that means all of your business is net new.  Here's a few things that I try and do with net new business.

1) Find out what brand of equipment they have now and who is servicing the product.

2) Once you've found out what brand they have, ask them what brand they had before their current brand along with who was servicing that equipment. If they had a different brand and servicing dealer this can tell you that they have no brand or service loyalty. If they have the same brand and the same servicing dealer or direct branch, then you've got a tough road to hoe since they have brand and service loyalty.

3) I will dig deep with the customer to see if there is some type of lockout feature or software that will position my company at the top of the pack. I've often found that many reps are lazy and won't take the time to explain many of the features, advantages and benefits of their systems.  Thus you may mention something as simple as embedded scanning to create searchable .pdf's and this could swing the decision in your favor.  Try not to leave any stones unturned when you are in a competitive situation. If you're selling MPS, make it more about the service, the reporting tools, and your fleet software advantages.

4) Make sure you meet with the DM, if not you need to put your best foot forward with the quality of your presentation and proposal.  Many times the DM may leave the decision making up to the person you met with, in this case the cheapest/lowest price may not be the right choice for the person you met with and most likely they will not select the highest price, nor the lowest price.

5) Ask "When will you be making a decision on acquiring the system and what is the process for choosing one vendor over another", make this one of your first few questions.

6) ABC, Always be closing, if a closing opportunity comes up, don't pass it buy. The worst that can happen is you'll get additional info on how the process will transpire.

7) I'm not sure of your market, however in large markets you've got to be prepared and I hate to say this, is to "offer your best deal" in order to get the business.  If you're in this for the long haul and your company services the product well, you'll be able to have an upgrade or additional units in the future that you'll be able to hold margin.

These are just a few items that came to mind.  What I can also tell you is that you need to remove yourself from competitive situations, you need to find the prospects who are NOT in the market. Basically this means that with your skill set you've been able to secure an appointment, assess their pain or challenges and offer a solution that will help them NOW.  Hard to do, but the opportunities are out there, all you need to do is find them.

-=Good Selling=-

Dear Mr. Jones:

I hope this letter finds you well.  I was doing some research on commercial real estate companies and I happened across your web site. I do business with two of the largest commercial real estate companies in Monmouth County.  Each of those companies have dozens of sales people that are engaged with finding new business, and supporting existing business. Thus, I'm sure your company operates in the same fashion.

Can you image what the world of business would be like for your sales people if they ran across these scenarios on every sales call?

• "I'm sorry", stated the receptionist, "we don't accept telephone solicitors" and the receptionist then hangs up.
• Your sales representatives emails are returned, because their email address is not approved with the prospects email system.
• Your sales representatives emails are ignored by prospects.
• Companies doors are locked, there is no bell and no one at the front desk.
• Mail, when it is received is sorted and anything that resembles junk is thrown in the trash.

I understand that we're all busy, however, do you think your company would grow, do you think that your sales people could prosper, better yet, do you think you would still be in business a year from now?

I called your company today to see if I could meet with Mr. Smith in your IT department. The reason for my call is that we were able to help two of the largest commercial real estate companies in Monmouth County reduce their IT costs by an average of 35%.  I would bet dollars to doughnuts that you and or your Mr. Smith would be interested in meeting with us.

Instead, when I called to speak to Mr. Smith, this is what your receptionist stated, "I'm sorry", stated the receptionist, "we don't accept telephone solicitors" and she then hung up the phone.

I'm not mad, not angry, just disappointed that I was not able to connect with Mr. Smith.  I'm also a little curious if you condone that type of response to sales people when they call your office.  I hope not.

Either way, thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope that more companies don't act like yours when a sales call is placed. If that every becomes the norm, then we're all out of a job.

Regards,

Your IT sales person

Note from Art:  This actually happened to me the other day on a telephone sales call!  No, I did not send this letter, but after writing it down on the blog, I am going to send the letter to that company.  Not sure what will come of it, but if anything it will make me feel better.

Would like to hear from others

-=Good Selling=-

The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act is almost 20 years old at this point, which might lead some to believe that the medical sector has a tight handle on the requirements therein. However, the statutes were never that simple, and the rapidly evolving face of health care - most notably with respect to the new technologies in use - has only worked to compound the challenges over the past decade or so.

At the same time, the rising prevalence of data breaches and privacy protection failures has led to public demand for more stringent and widespread enforcement of HIPAA laws - and for good reason, as so many individuals have been impacted by these events in a relatively short period of time. Subsequently, the various entities responsible for auditing firms' practices and enforcing the statutes that might apply are seemingly ready to answer this proverbial call to arms, and medical firms must be prepared.
HIPAA email requirements, as well as regulations under the act related to general storage, sharing and privacy of patient records, are written relatively clearly and the solutions needed to oblige the law are readily available. Leaders in the sector simply need to realize that they are responsible for taking the initiative and getting the relevant strategies into motion as soon as possible, or run the risk of experiencing disruptive fines, litigation proceedings and even data breaches when not in compliance with the law.

Audits are coming

Workforce.com recently reported that the Office for Civil Rights, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is planning on increasing its rate and intensity of audits to ensure that all firms handling medical data are adhering to HIPAA. It is worth noting here that there have been plenty of times in the past few years during which the OCR has started to increase its activity in these regards, and chances are this will not be the last one.

According to the news provider, Gordon Rapkin of a New Jersey-based human resources document management firm stated that preparation is key, and understanding responsibilities across departments will be crucial in the coming months.

"Employers need to know that they are obligated to protect this information, they must show that they are capable of protecting this information and prove that their employees have been trained to do so," Rapkin told Workforce.com. "You must be able to prove all that in a very short window of time if you're unfortunate enough to be selected for an audit."  So, knowing that these audits are going to increase in frequency, it might help to understand where many firms get tripped up in compliance practices.

Common threats

Because of how popular phishing scams have become in health care - not to mention their consistent effectiveness in exposing sensitive patient information - firms will want to first focus on this matter. Health IT Security recently reported that administrative safeguards can be a start to strong, compliant defense against phishing and similar scams, but they are not the only matters that need to be enacted.

Rather, the source argued that training and awareness for all employees who handle patient information is one of the only ways to really reduce this particular threat, citing commentary directly from HHS. This tied back into the argument that people, process and technology must all be converged and managed properly for optimal defense against data breaches.

By training employees in best practices, aligning processes with compliance requirements and leveraging email encryption and other protective technologies, firms can better protect patient information and avoid the prospect of failing a HIPAA audit in the coming years.

I'm on LinkedIn every day, how about you?  Some days it's a few minutes and other days I could spend a few hours.  For me prospected is not about how many phone calls I make in a day to people who don't want to talk to me, prospecting with LinkedIn has turned me into being more of a detective, than a salesperson. Hey, just something else to add to the bucket list!  

I have a dual profile, one for the Prin4Pay Hotel where I'm listed as the CEO and the other for Stratix System.  Every day I receive requests to connect, and most of them are for the Print4Pay Hotel.  In the last few months I've noticed a drastic increase in the amount of people who want to connect with me. 

For awhile I was trying to figure out how they found me, could it be all of my connects (now more than 1,800), could it be from the groups I belong to, could it be from all of the posting I do?  Never the less, they found me and wanted to connect. 

I would say that ninety percent of those that wanted to connect had no clue as to what I do with the Print4Pay Hotel, nor did they take the time to research what I do.  Much of the connection activity was from far east toner suppliers looking for me to buy generic toner, yet I don't sell generic toner or any toner!  Thus, for those who wanted to connect, I selected the "I don't know them" tab, and marked them as spam!  You get two many "I don't knows" and "spam" and you're pretty much a goner with LinkedIn.

Think about it, are you prospecting on LinkedIn like this?  If so, you'll soon be booted or wondering why you are not getting any connections.  It's pretty cool that I can also look at LinkedIn from the eyes of someone who owns a company right?

Thus, if you want to connect with me, spend a little time to figure what I do to make a living with the Print4Pay Hotel.  Send me a custom invitation that maybe states that you liked a certain blog post or a press release and would like to know more about what I do. Maybe, even tell me that you're currently doing business with someone that I do business with.  If stated this way, I will probably connect and when you send me a follow up inmail, I will most likely reply.

Take your time, do your research, make sure your profile is awesome, because as you were checking me out, I'm going to be checking you out also.

-=Good Selling=-

Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith reaches a record high at the box offices on opening day with $50 million on 9,400 screens at 3,661 theaters worldwide, edging out Spider-Man 2's top opening day record of $40.4 million and Shrek 2's top single day record of $44.8 million. (marketwatch) (AP via Yahoo! News) (Link dead as of 02:43, 15 January 2007 (UTC)), (boxofficemojo.com).

Dang, it's been 10 years already!!!

Ricoh/Savin PCU's

          5/16/05 2:45 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          Does anyone know if used pcu's are being bought for recycling?

 

Xerox 6060Doc

          5/16/05 8:27 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

Xerox 6060Doc w/CREO RIP & Scanner $120,000 cpc w/20K min .092

 

Canon iR3220

          5/16/05 8:28 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

Canon iR3220 w/Fiery C-1 w/ADF, N2 & paper deck $20,800 Base of $150 per month and cpc of .05 cents

 

Canon iR 3200

          5/16/05 8:30 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

Canon iR 3200 (demo) w/ADF, N2 and side paper deck $13,300 Monthly base of 150 plus .o5 per copy 11 x 17 billed as one click

 

Xerox DC3535

          5/16/05 8:31 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

Xerox DC3535 w/finisher Service & Supplies $50 base plus .089

 

RICOH DEMONSTRATES PRODUCT OFFERINGS AND

          5/18/05 7:18 AM

 

          Topic by Guest

          security features. Included in Ricohs Black to Color (B2C) portfolio, these MFPs enable users to Scan-to-Email/Folder/FTP. Additionally, the Aficio CL4000DN color laser printer can also provide these functions by connecting to a peripheral scanning device. From

 

Need a Kyocera Dealer

          5/19/05 8:34 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          I have a lead for 11 units in my territory, the 1650 fits the bill (because of the scan2file). I'm pretty sure I can sell the deal. Would anyone want to work with me on this? Please call my cell 732.977.1211Art

 

Xerox Docucolor 3535

          5/20/05 6:54 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

Xerox Docucolor 3535 w/CREO Rip $32,000 cpc $50 base and a cpc of .089

 

KonicaMinolta C500

          5/20/05 7:01 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

KonicaMinolta C500 w/embedded Rip $28,700 cpc of .055 each black @ .013 each

 

New Aficio 5560

          5/17/05 9:15 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          Seems like this machine will compete with the Konica/Minolta. MSRP somewhere around $50K, plus maybe a MSRP retail cpc of .07! We won't hold our breath. Can't wait to have a few of these in the field. At this time there were no preliminary brochures. Art

 

RE: Aficio NEW 3260

          5/19/05 9:12 AM

 

          Reply by Old Glory

          Some quick questions that you may or may not be able to answer: 1.) The 1224/1232 were mono-component...are these also? 2.) The 3200 series has units from 24cpm up to the 60cpm 3260C. Were you given any idea what was going to be structurally or

 

RE: Aficio NEW 3260

          5/19/05 10:17 AM

 

          Reply by Neal

          If you go to the Ricoh-usa website there is a press release on all of the new color systems and when you print it out you get all of the specs for the new systems

 

RE: Canon iR 3200

          5/20/05 6:51 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

Canon iR 3200 w/C1 $12,750 CPC 3K min. .075 11 x 17 billed as one click

 

RE: Canon iR 3200

          5/20/05 6:52 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

Canon iR 3200 $11,200 CPC no minimum .08 each 11 x 17 billed as one click

 

RE: Canon iR3220

          5/20/05 6:59 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

Canon iR3220 w/Fiery C-1 w/ADF, N2 & paper deck $$16,200 and cpc of .0079 cents

 

RE: Canon iR3220

          5/20/05 7:02 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

Canon iR3220 w/Fiery C-1 w/ADF,M1 $14,100 and cpc of .0065 cents

 

@Remote shows promise for laborious meter-reading

          5/15/05 8:06 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          @Remote shows promise for laborious meter-reading On May 10, Ricoh held a press conference at Ricoh's Technology Portal in Chicago in Chicago announcing eight color devices, but @Remote, called "an intelligent remote device relationship management system

 

Aficio NEW 3260

          5/18/05 9:04 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          This is the ramped up version of the old 1224/1232 (gee, I hope I got the model numbers right, I have not sold one of these in a year, Ricoh probably has not sold one since then either). We were told there is no more cycling issues (period!) Once the gal

 

RE: KIP 3000

          5/16/05 10:47 PM

 

          Reply by John

          launch in November but should ship in first quarter of 06'. Have heard that Oce' is going to have a unit similar and in the price range that will be manufactured by Syntex and that Xerox is either going to have a same class system that will come from

 

RE: KIP 3000

          5/17/05 9:07 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          The window is only open for a short time. I would hope that Ricoh will be agressive to hold onto the market share that they have gained and will repostion the MSRP of the 240W in time for the release of the new product from KIP and OCE. I was at the

 

-=Good Selling=-

The health care industry has been under the gun of late because of the increasing prevalence of major data breaches that have exposed the medical records of millions of individuals around the globe. As more entities fall victim to these events, regulators, advocacy groups, the general population and others are beginning to bring down the proverbial hammer, demanding improvements be made and more stringent consequences be faced when negligence occurs.

From hackers and insider threats to employees who have not been properly prepared to handle sensitive information and communications safely, the risk management demands of modern health care security are vast and still expanding. What's more, entities operating in this industry are also tasked with adopting and optimizing highly innovative and somewhat uncharted technologies in a relatively short period of time, including mobility and electronic medical record systems.

Most of the trends to have revolutionized the private and public sectors in the past few years have been specifically well-received by health officials and professionals, as evidenced by the rapid adoption rates seen in these markets. Big data and mobility are two examples of trends that have already helped to improve patient care and medical firm efficiency, while telemedicine and the Internet of Things will likely be even more prolific in the coming years.
Virtually none of these trends - nor general operations management - come without security threats, though, as hackers and other risks continue to target core communications and information sharing platforms to steal data. No matter what type of IT or communications strategy might be in place, health care companies must ensure that they are shoring up defenses for everything from email security to network access management.

Core themes in risk management

Healthcare IT News recently reported that the medical sector has certainly faced a quickly accelerating level of security incidents in the past few years, citing Verizon's latest Data Breach Investigations Report that found 80,000 events were experienced across industries in 2014 alone. The source interviewed Suzanne Widup, the senior analyst on the Verizon RISK team that put together the report, and pointed out that health care accounted for 234 of those incidents last year, as well as 141 data breaches out of the total 2,100 identified.

The study gave helpful information with respect to the ways in which entities are losing data to thieves and other threats, many of which have been consistent for the past few years. For example, Healthcare IT News cited the finding that 26 percent of incidents were caused by physical loss or theft, making this the most common issue, while insider misuse, errors, denial-of-service attacks and application events rounded out the top five.

Another strange but enlightening note was the finding that threats are changing their tactics to still thwart medical firms' security improvements. According to the news provider, Verizon found that attacks in this industry are most similar to those on personal laundry services, human resources administration and performing arts companies, and noted that this has been an effective approach, but nonetheless bizarre.

"A lot of different industries have the same attack profile, even though they're not really related," Widup told Healthcare IT News. "If you're going to be doing any kind of intel sharing, look at the other industries that actually have common attacks as the same one you're in because you might actually get better data from them than you do with industries you think are more closely related."

In a word, the frequency of attacks and problems that lead to data breaches is rising, while health care providers appear to have been far behind the eight ball when it comes to keeping up with the demands of protection.

The lasting impact

Consequences of data breaches are generally broken down into reputation and financial damages, but Deloitte recently asserted that the events are also holding the medical industry back from improving in an article for The Wall Street Journal. The firm stated that medical information is not all that relatable to other types of data in the sense that it is more valuable and sensitive, while the sector still has a long way to go on the path toward raising awareness.

Deloitte suggested that breaches are stifling the prospect of innovation and progress on a large scale given the amount of time, money and resources that need to go into resolving the fallout of the events and further fortifying the systems in place. However, the analysts did state that risk reviews, better communication of security practices, and investment in the necessary programs and solutions might help in the long run.

By leveraging smart, simple protections such as email encryption and secure cloud services, medical firms can at once embrace modern trends and better defend patient data, all the while maintaining compliance with HIPAA and other regulations under which they are covered.

David Bailey is Senior Vice President at Protected Trust. 

Protected Trust is a sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel. I urge members and readers to visit their site to see their full line of products and services.  More and more we need to provide well rounded strategic solutions for our customers. Protected Trust offers some unique solutions that can help us in our day to day efforts. Check them out here.

There is a huge tug-of-war and discussions flying around between sales experts citing cold calling is dying or better yet dead.

For decades, cold calling has been the new business catalyst for salespeople all around the world. Heck, tenured salespeople can write novel’s with cold calling stories as they reminisce about the good ole days.

Granted the good ole days are behind us. Times have changed and so has cold calling. Cold calling is not dead it is just different now. Why is this happening? Simply stated the buyers’ journey has changed the way they interact with salespeople.

By 2018, 20% of B2B sales teams will go “virtual,” resulting in improved pipeline conversion rates. Buyers won’t talk to sales until late in the game…Enter the “virtual” sales rep. (IDC, December 2014)

67% of the buyer’s journey is now done digitally. (SiriusDecisions, July 2013)

In 2007 it took an average of 3.68 cold call attempts to reach a prospect. Today it takes 8 attempts. (TeleNet and Ovation Sales Group)

Only 2% of cold calls result in an appointment. Find new ways to reach decision-makers. (LeapJob)

Lets face it, in today’s marketplace cold calling is tough and counterproductive. Incorporating modern prospecting methods is a must in order for salespeople to keep their sales pipelines full. The answer…. Transition from a cold call to a warm call.

There are so many avenues to explore in order to move a cold call to a warm call. You can learn about a company via internet searches to gather:

1. Company background

2. Press releases and annual reports

3. Something significant about their business which helps to break the ice

4. Executive Bio’s

In my opinion, the game changer is LinkedIn. Gaining a complete understanding of the power behind LinkedIn takes time. LinkedIn is revolutionizing gathering sales intelligence. You all have heard the saying, “It is not what you know it is who you know.” This saying resonates within LinkedIn. Within minutes you can obtain countless bits of information to help you turn the call into a warm call.

On the flip-side, LinkedIn provides the platform for salespeople to bring their personal brand to the marketplace to parallel their business brand. LinkedIn is a sales professional’s personal website. How you promote yourself on LinkedIn determines your success in the business world today.

Just as you are doing research on your prospects, your prospects are doing research on you. Ask yourself these three questions:

1. Am I building trust with my prospects and clients based upon what is currently on my LinkedIn profile?

2. Am I building credibility with my prospects and clients based upon what is currently on my LinkedIn profile?

3. Am I eliminating risk with my prospects and clients based upon what is currently on my LinkedIn profile?

We need to create the mindsets as salespeople to work smarter not harder. I encourage sales managers and business executives to foster a culture of social selling.

The times have changed and so should our approach to business development.

About Larry Levine, I transform and coach copier sales professionals to grow their net new business by helping them tell their story on LinkedIn. I provide marketing services to help independent office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, www.dealermarketing.net/what-we-do/linkedin, www.dealermarketing.net and www.p4photel.com

I developed a wide format lead just about a week ago from an Engineering Company in my territory.  The Engineering company does not have a wide format system and is farming out all of their prints and copies to a local Repro shop.

The client specifically asked me about the Ricoh wide format and stated that they also wanted speed.  After many questions, I was able to narrow down their needs to the W3601, however, one statistic that they could not get me was the volume, nor the cost of the prints they were farming out.  They also stated that they wanted to move quickly on this.  However, they also needed to run by the DM, and the DM was not in the day of the appointment.  Right, thus I supplied them with a proposal for the W3601.

I knew that they might shop the price, but doesn't almost everyone nowadays.  I did my follow up call and spoke with my contact, still couldn't speak with the DM.  The follow up call did present the objection that they did shop price, but what they shopped was an ink based wide format system.  While on the phone, I stated all of the advantages for toner based vs ink based wide format, but it felt like I was banging my ahead against a wall, because the price of the HP system was so much less expensive than my system.

I decided thatI would then educate the client on the total cost of operation for an ink based wide format vs my toner based wide format.  However, I still was not able to get the volume of prints that they are out sourcing. I needed to do something (winners make things happen and losers wait for things to happen), thus I stated I would send some drop that information off this week.

I did some research and found that the typical volume that's produced on the ink based CAD systems is around 3,000 square feet per month.  The 3,000 feet per months breaks down to 500 "D" size prints per month. I developed an excel spreadsheet with a side by side comparison and a power point presentation that was designed to educate the client about wide format volume, and the costs that are associated for consumables, service and parts.

Not sure if I'll get the deal, but I think I did a great job with the two documents and I'm willing to share them with Prin4Pay Hotel members (Premium).  Click the links for the documents

• ricoh CW2200 vs hpt2500 vs ricoh W3601
• Ink CAD wide format vs toner CAD wide format

Feel free to use these two documents to present to your clients.  BTW, the winner hands down was toner based over ink based, it was not even close!!

-=Good Selling=-

It's happened yet again.  I have been writing, posting, sharing and speaking to my customers, repeatedly, about the sneaky tactics of the Toner Pirate.  I have suggested that they place a large sign in a prominent position on the receptionists' desk advising to never, NEVER order toner from someone over the phone.  These pirates often call during lunch, when the regular staff is away, and say they are your regular supplier and wanted to save you money by sending you several cartridges, cases, whatever, before the upcoming price increase.  The intern or mail room clerk who is manning the phones accepts this offer thinking they are doing the company a favor.  Three weeks later a package arrives containing several knock-off, remand canisters of toner with an invoice for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars. 

I often wonder if the Pirates are in cahoots with the leasing companies as my clients who have just bought new machines seem to be the first ones hit.  The poor unsuspecting employee doesn't realize that their company is paying a monthly service/supply fee which already includes ALL their toner.  This is particularly problematic with my customers in the Bush who may not be as savvy as their citified cousins in Anchorage or Juneau. 

A contract customer from Sitka called our office this morning furious that they had been charged for toner on top of their regular monthly invoice.  Unfortunately, there is little we could do other than sympathize.  If they signed for the package and opened it, I believe that they are liable.  I have heard of businesses who have refused to pay until the Pirate could confirm who had originally authorized the purchase order.  It is worth a try.

Better yet, never, ever order supplies from a call INTO your business.  Tell them you will call your vendor back then find out who your vendor is and call that number.  I bet you twenty gold doubloons that they never placed that call, Matey!

Kathie Anderson

Sales & Marketing Professional, Business Development Expert and Lifelong Learner

What a day on the phones today, needed to pick it up a notch. I've got 16 or so opps that I need to move forward and most seem to be stalling out.

So, what do you do?  Simple, you make more phones and or stop ins.  Since, I'm back logged in my calls, the smart choice was to clean some of those up.

I was happy with setting 5 appointments, however they were spread out over the next three weeks arrrggh!  That's not going to help!  Thus, tomorrow will be another phone day and I'm hoping that I can at least log sixty of them for the day.

Sixty phones calls for a seasoned rep is a great day, the reason why it's great is because the seasoned rep will also have to field incoming calls from prospects and clients. In addition you may have to field urgent emails, answer questions from your manager and admin. It's not easy being a seasoned rep.

On the other hand, you newbies, well all you have to do is make calls and set appointments, there is no support work that needs to be addressed.

All of the above was just a lead in to a phone cold call I had today.  The phone call was the first to this potential client. I  researched  the client on Google and LinkedIn before I called.  I got nada on both Google and LinkedIn.  Thus, I made the call, and was greeting by a receptionist that seemed willing to help.  Stated my name, my company and asked if they had internal IT or outsourced. The receptionist answered with "internal", which lead me to second question.  "Does your IT department make the buying decisions for your copying & printing devices".  She stated "yes", ok I thought, now I'm getting somewhere.  My next question, "Could I please have the name of the person in IT that I need to speak with or could you transfer me please?" 

The receptionist then tells me that they don't accept soliciting phone calls and hangs up!!!  WTF?  First time for something like this!!

I collected my self and then thought about the type of company that I was calling. It was a commercial real estate company.  Hey, they got sales people too that make phone calls, right?  They have sales people, right?  Thus, they don't accept phone calls from sales people?  After thinking about this a little more, I think the receptionist was young, probably got yelled at a few times for letting sales people through.  The thought of sending a letter to the owner about the phone call quickly subsided.

Hey, what can you do, except move to the next cold call!

-=Good Selling=-