MFP Copier Blog

I posted this almost three years ago on the old site and thought I would re-post for everyone.

While going through my emails the other day, I had an email from a client in the South. The email was in reference to "what is really the interest rate for a Fair Market Value lease for a copier."

The email stated that for the life of them they could not figure out the interest rate and was asking for help and advice. Well, asking me to figure out the interest rate is like asking me to get my dog to stop sniffing every pole or fire hydrate he passes. Not going to happen!

What I did enlighten them on is how copier companies figure out the monthly lease payment.

First, there has to be a rate factor that the salesperson gets from either the leasing company or the copier companies management. There are many different rates from many leasing companies and the rate factors change with the term of the lease (12,24,36,39,48,60,63 months), also the dollar amount of the lease would also change the rate factor along with the option at the end of the term (buy out).

There are primarily two different types of leases used: 

Fair Market Value: Leasing company gives you the option to purchase for a percentage of the purchase price. This type of lease has the least amount of interest. True lease, tax deductible and write off every month

Dollar Out: You own the equipment at the end of the term for one dollar. This lease will have a higher interest rate than Fair Market Value. This is a finance lease and may not be depreciated like a true Fair Market Value Lease.

What's more popular?

The Fair Market Value lease, basically has four options at the end of the term. A) Ship back to leasing company at your expense at the end of the terms. B) Renew the payments at the end of term for 30 days, 90 days, or longer, check the lease that was signed. C) Trade the equipment back to the dealer and start a new lease, the dealer will then return the system for you. D)Buy the equipment from the leasing company for Fair Market Value.

How was the Cheese Stolen?

So, who is stealing the cheese? Well in this particular email, the customer wanted to find out the interest rate, which I couldn't help with, however I asked them to send me a copy of the quotes and I would tell them how much interest they were paying over the term of the lease. The next day I received five quotes.

For you newbie’s out there, as long as you have the monthly lease amount you can figure out the lease purchase price of the system or at least come close. You take the monthly dollar amount of the system and divide by the rate factor. In this case the customer was quoted $762 per month for a 60 month lease. They were also quoted a purchase price of $26,375 and they had a buyout of $9,142. This made the lease base according to the Direct Branch $35,517.

Now using an average rate factor of .0200 we take the lease price of $762 per month and divide by .0200 which equals $38,100 that would be funded to the Direct Branch for the system that had a purchase price with buyout of $35,517. Well...., we can see that someone has "stolen the cheese".

If you now take the purchase price with buyout that was quoted at $35,517 and multiply it by the fair (60 month) rate factor of .0200 (fair for over $20k), the customers payments should have been $710.34. Hence the customer is getting ripped for $52 per month on a 60 month lease, thus paying an additional $3,120 over the term of the lease.

What's a rate factor?

Rate factors are given from the leasing company to the dealer or direct branch. A rate factor of .0200 means that the cost to borrow is $20.00 per thousand dollars. Thus if you wanted to prove the above numbers you would multiply $20.00 x 35.517 which would equal the payment of $710.34.

This was not a cost per copy lease, nor was service and supplies built into the lease, it's basically a game that has been played in the industry for years. Not only are they making money on the hardware but also "padding" the lease for additional profit!

To be fair, there are many different rate factors from different leasing companies, in this example I used an average rate factor. There are lower rates and higher rates that could either increase or decrease the amount to the dealer or direct branch. Most dealers and direct branches are in the average that I quoted.

Don't Blame the Salesperson

Don't blame the salesperson, most of the time the salesperson is not even aware of the average rates, there is a finance department at the dealer or direct branch that "pad" the rates to the sales person and or dictate that they HAVE to use these rates or ELSE! The salesperson is not getting the extra dollars for the unit.

In the instance above, the salesperson probably quoted the right purchase price, however they had to use a "padded rate" which increased the lease price per month. The branch received the additional profit from the lease.

Word to the wise, always when leasing ask for a purchase price for the equipment or the total amount of the order. Do some homework; ask what rate factor they are using and how they arrived at the price per month for the lease. If you think you're paying too much, you probably are.

How can you find fair rate factors? Well, that's probably the hardest part of the equation. You can always send me an email and I can give you the average for any dollar amount or term. Then you can do the math!

Oh, by the way, there are many dealers and branches that pass along rates without padding the rates, I think there are more of these than those who pad. I also think that this "padding" is much more common with direct operations than dealers. Just my thoughts!!

Have I done this, yes!  Did in work in my favor?.......well no, however I did get the order.  In a previous blog titles "What Type of Day Is It", I made mention that "business will not close by it self", yes there may be some strays that come in from time to time, but for the most part you've got to move the sales process along.

1. 20.      Flip Em Close:  Try this, the customer wants to buy for “x” price and you want to sell for “x” price you really don’t want to come down and he or she does not want to come up.  Offer to flip a coin and have the customer call heads or tails.  If he wins you have to sell for the price he wanted and if he loses well you get your price.  This is a unique close!

-=Good Selling=-

Dang, picking up a solid lead on a Saturday is a wonderful thing, right?  

So, I was out to do my Saturday AM ritual of dropping off and picking up my dry cleaning.  By the way, why is it that we sales people can't claim dry cleaning as an expense?  

Anyway, I needed to get a cup of coffee and I had been wanting to stop in at a new coffee roaster in the area for a few months, but just never had the time.

But I made time because I was jonesing for some caffeine.

I love the smell of coffee, however what I loved even more was seeing full color labels on the bags of coffee that were for sale, in fact there was a full color label for every product in the joint.  If you're a lead dog like me, well you just can't wait to get to the front of the line, get your coffee and then pummel 'em with a few questions!  

I was in luck, because both people that were working the joint were the owners.  They were so nice to help answer my questions, I started with, "do you print these labels",  and when the answer was yes, well lets say I was off to the races.  They were able to show me the printer (which is a Primera LX400), claimed that they are spending more than $200 per month in ink, and close to $200 in labels, along with the fact that the printer was so, so SLOW. I saw it printing was about 30 seconds for one lablel.   I thought,  it's a gosh darn GOLD mine!

I've already found out that just one label is .0455 cents and since the Primera is using a tri color ink cartridge that has a yield of 82-100 labels on average color (according to one site I found on the web). With the cartridge price at $44, and the full color labels that I saw printed, I'll be conservative and say the cartridge will yield 80 labels.  The cost per label is then calculated at .55 cents a label OMG!  (I will probably have to do some additional investigating with the customer to see if the yield of the cartridges that I found on the web is indeed the yield that they are getting our of each cartridge).

The labels are 4x3, thus we could get four gloss labels up on label media for our color printer.  The cost is $199 for 4,000 labels, so the cost per label is down to .04975. The label cost is higher, however the cost to print four labels in full color would be around .09 cents for my color laser printer.  I could really save them about .52 cents per label and we would be able to print 220 labels per minute instead of one every 30 seconds or so!!!

What's even more exciting is that they also have a need for waterproof labels and I've already scouted some interesting products.

I'll be promoting one of my A3 color laser printers from Ricoh, yes it's not a big sale however it will probably have a decent margin and if the business continues to take off, well you never know maybe they'll need three or four of these.

If you're always looking for applications, asking how they do this, or that, at least you have chance to present.  Many say that printing is going away,  I've always thought that print is not going away, it's just migrated from one vertical market to another. You've just got to find those markets.

I'll let you all know how I made out with this in a few weeks.

-=Good Selling=-

Where oh where has the year gone?  

With a mere 12 hours left of selling time for the month, the quarter and the year I was left with the daunting task of trying to enable another 20K of revenue to him my mark of 80k or more for the month.

While in the office today I yelled "What type of day is it"?, after no response I asked again "What type of day is it"? and from the cubical close to mine I heard the right answer......., "It's a GREAT day to SELL something"!  Darn tootin it is, every day is a great day to sell something. 

If you're keeping up with the "sales guru's" that are a dime a dozen on the internet, most are touting, "you need to be more of a consultant", "know more about your client", "become a valued business asset", "listen more", "build trust", "know more about how your client does business", "understand your clients pain", "discover your clients pain", and while doing all of this don't "become a pain in the ass"!  Don't get me wrong I agree with many of these tips for selling but many of these internet "sales guru's" are missing the mark.  YOU need to close business and the business will NOT close by it self!!

Would you agree or disagree that the amount of answering questions about your products and services by email is just about equal or maybe even a little more than the time you spend on the phone with answering the same type of questions?  I'm in the camp that believes I really do spend more time answering questions and products about my services more by email than by the phone.  

Let's take a simple question that was posed to me the other day by a prospect (we had already met, there is an interest for your product and service), you then receive and email that asks this question? 

Hi Art:

We're now thinking about financing the equipment instead of leasing it, do you offer financing or have some that you use?  How would you answer that in an email?  

1)  You could just answer, YES, we offer financing.

2)  Or, YES, we offer financing and what term are you interested in?

3)  Or, YES, we offer financing and I would recommend a 36 month lease for "x" amount where you own the equipment at the end of the lease for $1.00, would this work for you?

The first answer leads you nowhere, the prospect does not owe you anything else, however with 2 & 3 you are asking for an answer and are moving the conversation forward to a possible order. By far, answer number 3) may get you there quicker than number 2).

Treat the emailed question the same way you would treat the conversation in a face to face meeting.  

One other item I'd like to note there are some prospects and clients that would rather converse by email, you need to accept this behavior and make it work to your advantage. You can do this by giving them prompt replies, including links for additional information (you tube links are really awesome), attaching documents, and respect that they just may want to do business by email, I can tell you that there are many accounts that I never stepped a foot in their office until after the equipment was delivered!

It's always a Great day to sell something!

-=Good Selling=-

Copiers & MFP's "The Hidden Cost of Staples"

Have you recently bought a new multifunctional copier with a finisher/stapler? 

Tonight was a lot like any other night and I needed to get some new information on the print4pay hotel forums for the members.  I make sure there is new information posted daily that is related to the industry. So, I decided to investigate the REAL cost of staples for copy machines.  To say the least I was amazed at the cost per staple when I did the math.

Let's take one of the BIG 4 Copier Manufacturers (Xerox, Ricoh, KonicaMinolta & Canon), and look at the cost of the more popular staple cartridges.  In this case this one particular staple cartridge will fit most of the models from 40 pages per minute to 90 pages per minute.  The cost for 5 cartridges which have a yield of 25,000 staples is $210.  So with 25,000 staples the cost per staple is a whopping .008426 per staple. Which is almost 500% higher than the cost of the staple that you buy at the Office Super Store.  That's a pretty step increase for a staple, but I'll say that most of the manufacturers present a fancy delivery system for the staple.  When using staples to make booklets the cost can be as high as almost two cents to staple the booklet.

I understand we're talking about pennies and fractions of pennies. But what about the high volume users who are stapling 10,000 booklets, did anyone tell them that cost of the staples alone would cost almost $173 per month. How about the church or school that staples 5,000 tests or bulletins or reports, was there a mention the staples would cost an additional $42 per month?   Heck, that's almost $500 a year in staples.

In addition the finisher/staplers don't come cheap. You can expect to pay anywhere from $1,000 to $6,000 per unit.  True story I was in a Municipality looking at some old equipment, in particular one copier had a finisher/stapler unit.  The cost of the finisher/stapler unit when they made the purchase was some $2,300.  Over the course of 5 years they only used the stapler 476 times (true most systems will give you a report of how often the stapler was used). In this case the it cost the Municipality  $4.83 cents to produce 476 stapled reports, and lets not forget the cost of the staple at .008. I recommended getting a new system without the stapler and keeping one nearby the system.

Something as mundane as staples, who woulda thought that the cost was so high, I guess it's the price we pay for ease of use and technology. Geessh, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel when I have to write about staples!

Scanning, scanning and more scanning, it seems that's all anyone wants to do with MFP's anymore.  Prospects want to know how they can print and copy less and scan more.

What this suggests to me is that it's just a matter of time before the entire industry will adopt a cost per page charge for scanning.  

We'll go over some of the key bullet points of some of the scanning features that we haven't mentioned with Ricoh's new 03 (Metis) color systems, and just an FYI it seems finally all of the scanning features that we mention here are now available with any 03 series MFP from Ricoh.

• One of the most interesting and obscure features with the new 03 series that you can enable an "auto file naming" when you purchase the optional OCR module. I've been able to test this a few time with different documents and each test has given me different results and I'm not blaming this on the 03 series, but the blame will lie with the document. Documents that can be clearly marked with the file name at the top right of the document will have better success with the "auto name feature". Sometime in the next few weeks I'll take my brother p-touch label systems and print some file names and adhere them to the document to see what type of results it will produce.  As of right now unless someone has a better suggestion, I'm a little lost on how to get the bang for the buck out of this feature.
• Preview before Transmission is worthy feature, and it allows you to preview the scanned pages on the color display before sending them off to your desired location. Just an FYI on this, if you're creating a searchable .pdf you will not be able to preview the scanned document on the MFP display.
• Drop out color enhances scan functionality and increases comprehension enabling users to delete one-color descriptions (Red, Green, Blue, Chromatic Color) so that they may extract important information in other colors.
• Fuser off mode, how awesome is this feature, no longer do you have to wait for the copier to warm up in order to scan documents! With multiple users that scan documents daily this can add up to quite a bit of time saved waiting at the copier.
• Not only can you scan as a .pdf but you can also enable .jpeg and .tiff
• MP C6003/5503 and 4503 will scan 110 ipm (impressions per minute) in simplex (single sided) originals and 220 ipm duplex (two sided) originals.  Color or black at 300dpi
• MP C3503/3003 will scan 79 ipm (impressions per minute) in either color or black at 300dpi.

That's about it for now, after many months in the field I can say that I've been pleased with how these systems are performing as scanners.  If you 'd like to read more about the Ricoh Metis series of MFP's click here for additional links.

-=Good Selling=-

Many years ago I learned that all copiers are not alike, and way back, when we were up against a competitor we were taught to present a side-by-side comparison.  

Back in the day we either used a typewriter or hand wrote a side-by-side comparison to show the prospect that we had the superior equipment! Us old timers remember these right? a

Or how about the old copier spec books, they were published by various companies and it was every six months or every year they would publish another book will all of the current models and most of the past models.  It was a day of excitement in the office when we received the new books, because other than running into a brochure from a customer about a competitors model there was no other way to get that information.  

As always there were some enterprising reps that did find out ways to get the information and believe it or not one of the ways was to call another dealer and pretend that you were a potential buyer, during that call you would pump them for info and then try to get them to either fax you a brochure (there was no called ID then) and or to mail a brochure to your home.  Many times it worked and many times we were flushed out, but come to think of it, I also answered many calls from other sales people pretending to be a buyer looking for info.  Some got over on me and some didn't, but it was the way we did business back in the 80's.

Just the other day in the office I developed one of these for the Ricoh CW2200SP vs the HP T2500 and like always I was proud of what I developed and showed it to one of the younger reps on the office.  He thought is was awesome, then asked where I got it, of course I explained that I had developed it and stated he needed to do more of these for his opportunities!

I explained that the beauty of developing theses your self allows you to customize each one so that you can zero in on the features and needs that are important to your prospect in a short, clean, concise review of the system you are selling and the other system that the prospect may be considering.

Today, you don't have to develop these side by side reports yourself, many dealers and I'm sure many individuals subscribe to Buyers Lab.  Buyers Lab has been around forever and their information is always spot on.  You can run side by sides, environmental comparisons, total ownership, configure with options and the list goes on and on.  I've used Buys Lab off and on for the last 30 years, and not once did I ever question that one of their specs was wrong. I can't say that about a competitor that was in the same space with them a few years ago.  If you get the chance click this link and check out how Buyers Lab can help you.

-=Good Selling=-

It was many years ago that when it came to late December that I thought sales were done for the month.

I assumed this was due to the fact that I would be off a few days for Christmas and New Years and everyone else would too! 

I had no idea that there were companies that needed to make investments in technology to reduce their tax burden.  How dumb was I?  Fast forward, I'm now priming prospects and existing customers right after labor day about the end of year or asking them if they are interested in buying before the end of the year to reduce their tax burden.  Which leans me to #19

Section 179 of the IRS Tax Code to Close:  Look it up on google and you’ll see that there are still many advantages to a $1.00 out lease.

-=Good Selling=-

Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor, best known as the lead vocalist and a founder member of The Rolling Stones.  Jagger's career has spanned over 50 years, read more here or continue reading the popular P4P threads from ten years ago!

RE: Ikon to relabel The Konica 8050 Color System

          12/15/03 5:39 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          With extreemly aggressive service rates and a duty cycle of 150k per month (and unlike other manufacturers Konica has a history of meeting their spec) this product is going to kick out a great deal of production units, as well as a few creative units....

 

Konica's Colorforce(Tm) 8050 Named "Most

          12/15/03 4:53 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          December 15, 2003 -Konica's Colorforce(Tm) 8050 Named "Most Reliable Color Imaging Device In Its Class" In OPA 2003 Color Product Reliability StudyRAMSEY, N.J. -- December 15, 2003 -- Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta)...

 

'Selling Power' Magazine Ranks Xerox among Top

          12/15/03 8:15 AM

 

          Topic by Guest

          Press Release Source: Xerox Corporation 'Selling Power' Magazine Ranks Xerox among Top 10 Sales Companies in the United StatesMonday December 15, 8:01 am ET ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 15, 2003--Researchers at Selling Power magazine have...

 

RE: Graphics Color

          12/15/03 8:11 AM

 

          Reply by merlin

          We heard a few weeks ago from one of Ricoh Major Accounts Manager that Ricoh is at least a year away from replacing the 6513 with a new graphic color unit.

 

RE: Graphics Color

          12/14/03 10:27 PM

 

          Reply by Jayson Gilbertson

          The word I have heard is that ricoh has no plans to build any graphic color any time soon. Ricoh has let go one of the best graphic color people I have met, Bill Tiebo.JG

 

Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Introduce...

          12/13/03 11:46 AM

 

          Topic by Boston Mike

          Newly added features to PageScope Router v1.5 include:· Expanded Windows OS support including: Windows 2000 server, XP Pro, 2000 Professional and 2003 server · Ability to create and display log files with scan routing information·...

 

Xerox and Kodak affiliate to end resale pact

          12/13/03 11:41 AM

 

          Topic by Boston Mike

          NEW YORK, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Kodak Polychrome Graphics, an affiliate of Eastman Kodak Co.(EK), on Monday said they agreed to stop selling production printers made by Xerox Corp. (XRX), sparked by Kodak's strategic shift into commercial printing....

 

RE: Graphics Color

          12/12/03 8:25 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          Oh my! I for one will stay away from this box, interim relabling will mean headaches and toshiba technology that RFG reps will have to learn in a short time. By the time the techs are proficient in the service and technology Ricoh will have their own...

 

RE: Need dirt on Monica 2002 color

          12/12/03 6:24 PM

 

          Reply by Graham

          I hate to be the bearer of bad news but....We sell the Kyocera Branded of this model. KMC2030 and it we have one in our showroom. I would have to agree that it has much better color than the CL7000CMF. I hate to say that, but from what I am looking at...

 

RE: GE buys IOS Capital

          12/12/03 6:10 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          ReutersIkon Shares Soar on $1.5 Billion GE DealThursday December 11, 2:31 pm ET BOSTON (Reuters) - Shares of Ikon Office Solutions Inc. (NYSE:IKN - News), surged 26 percent on Thursday after a unit of General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE - News) agreed to...

 

Can New Technology Recharge Xerox?

          12/12/03 6:08 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          BusinessWeek OnlineCan New Technology Recharge Xerox?Friday December 12, 4:58 pm ET For Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX - News), the millennium got off to a rocky start. Revenues have fallen every year since 2000, and Xerox doesn't expect to reverse that trend...

 

Graphics Color

          12/12/03 6:00 PM

 

          Topic by dmurrah

          I heard from my Ricoh DSM yesterday that the negotiations are finished with Toshiba and we will see a relabled Toshiba color box first qtr.  This is a short term solution until Ricoh comes out with their own engine.

 

Scan Router Pro and Windows Server 2003

          12/12/03 2:24 PM

 

          Topic by Mike N

          I recently attempted to have Scanrouter Pro installed on a Windows 2003 server.  It appears that Scanrouter is not compatible with 2003 and would not complete the install.  Has anyone had this problem and if so is there a way around it.  Any ideas...

 

RE: 551 Connectivity Options

          12/12/03 10:17 AM

 

          Reply by Darren ....

          The 1055 controller is supposed to work on the 551. ... this according to Lee and our Ricoh area service manager guy.[This message was edited by dalsteen on Fri December 12 2003 at 08:33 AM.]

 

RE: Ricoh Aficio 2035 vs Canon ir3320i

          12/11/03 5:29 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          Sales, Service and Support people who sell Ricoh products. In the states there are Ricoh Dealers, Savin Dealers, Gestetner Dealers, Lanier Dealers, Lanier Direct, Savin Direct and Ricoh Business Systems (subsidiary of Ricoh USA), and Ikon.We are not...

 

RE: Ricoh Aficio 2035 vs Canon ir3320i

          12/11/03 5:07 PM

 

          Reply by Anders And

          np I'll be glad to helpExactly who do you want to know about this site?Only Ricoh/OEM dealers/resellers? Or everyone in the business...

 

RE: Ricoh Aficio 2035 vs Canon ir3320i

          12/11/03 12:07 PM

 

          Reply by Anders And

          Thanks to you all for info.Actually I'm working on the Danish market as a Ricoh Dealer, so my main competitor are IKON, at least when we're talking Ricoh.I agree with you, Ted; the color display is cool and it seems as if the Canon is much easier to...

 

RE: Ricoh Aficio 2035 vs Canon ir3320i

          12/11/03 10:51 AM

 

          Reply by Ted

          I'm not a LDAP expert, but you can import address books from exchange servers etc into the Canon. Pretty cool as far as a time saver. You can have 10 different address books in the machine. One can be just email addresses if you want, one faxes, etc....

 

RE: Ricoh Aficio 2035 vs Canon ir3320i

          12/10/03 8:57 PM

 

          Reply by Guest

          I am not the expert with LDAP.  We have members who sell the Canon line (dual products).  Can any of you Ikon guys help!  Ted,  can you help?

 

Stephen Robert Elected to Xerox Board

          12/10/03 8:22 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          Press Release Source: Xerox Corp. Stephen Robert Elected to Xerox BoardWednesday December 10, 5:23 pm ET Board Declares Dividends on Preferred Stock STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 2003--Xerox Corporation's (NYSE:XRX - News) board of...

 

Ricoh Aficio 2035 vs Canon ir3320i

          12/10/03 11:13 AM

 

          Topic by Anders And

          Hi.Can anyone help me, i need some competitive info about Canon ir3320i (compared with Aficio 2035)Is there any difference in the way they handle LDAP information?Is it possible to use LDAP information when faxing from 2035?My customer is impressed by...

 

Q & A for Minolta Di3510f

          12/9/03 6:51 PM

 

          Topic by Guest

          Question  What is included in the Network Printer Kit for the Di3510-2010 series?   Answer  10/100 BaseT support and USB Port.

 

Ricoh 2035/45 S/P versus Minolta 3510F & 470

          12/9/03 12:56 PM

 

          Topic by Mike N

          I am in a current bid against Minolta for 26 machines. From the Ricoh standpoint it is a mix of 2035S/P and 2045S/Ps.  Minolta is in with the Dialta 470 and the new Dialta 3510F.  Does anyone have any competitive information that might help in this...

 

Used Digital Wide Format?

          12/9/03 9:45 AM

 

          Topic by Guest

          Can anyone tell me who to call for used 7030D's or the Mita equivulant?Art

 

2022/2027 LDAP

          12/9/03 8:04 AM

 

          Topic by Jay

          Anybody have their 2022/27 pulling info from their LDAP server, particularly from Active Directory? I can connect to the server but I don't seem to have the search context quite right and it does not find any user info. And of course Ricoh tech...

I always enjoy answering emails and today I was able to send this reply to a Print4Pay Hotel Member that asked me this:

Do you have any advice for us in terms of what we need, challenges we'll face, and anything else you can offer?

How does leasing the equipment through a 3rd party leasing company work?

My response:

I could probably write for a few days about the pitfalls of selling used and or refurbished equipment without technical support from a manufacturer!

This is the fourth time I've revised this blog, the original was posted almost three years ago, the last update was about a year ago and just today I added some new content for cold calling. ENJOY!

If you'd like to read the previous one please click here

So, you've just been hired and you manager states that you need to go out and cold call and you said "WHAT"?  Some of us enjoy it and most of us would rather have a bad day at the office instead of cold calling in the field.  

It’s the COLD CALL, I like to call it GOLD CALLING!  It's usually the day from hell or the day to find some GOLDEN accounts. If you've been doing it as long as I have, you've had success and have found some of your best accounts this way!

I must say the most daunting task is to open a door where you can’t see what is on the other side, will there be rejection or jubilation! Most times it will be rejection. Get use to it, its part of the job and comes with the territory. Attitude, Attitude and more tude will help you overcome the rejection and plow ahead. You always must keep in mind that you are there to give them a better solution or a better way of doing things, and if they are not interested then that’s their loss!

What, I hate most is a NO SOLICITING sign on the door. Full speed ahead right? You may want to think twice about this and send the owner or CEO a fedex letter or package. That will get their attention.

Here are a few tips to get you going.

What I like most, is that in most cases I can gather additional information by just looking around the office.  I can remember one manager once telling me

that you need to ask them if you can use the lavatory (even if you don't) and you can then get a better look at what they do and what type of equipment they are using. I've never used that and probably never will!

Tip: If someone won't provide you with a business card, get out your phone and take a picture of the company name on the business directory.

Make Quality Cold Calls

Make a plan to visit those companies you'd like to do business with, but what's more important is to make sure they have a paper intensive workflow, they have a minimum of 25 employees. If you're involved with wide format you can bring down the numbers of employees to five or so.

Before you’re on you're way, do some research on those companies via the Internet. Find out the name of the CEO, CFO or the principal, find out what they do and who they do business with. When you're in the office, ask for help. “Can you help me? I'd like to know who is the person who takes care of your copiers or documents”, then ask for additional help such as “When I speak to him or her, can you help with some additional information so I can be prepared when we speak” Your main objective is to get the “right” name and you also may want to ask what the best time to contact that person is.

Email Address

Find a way to get the DM's email address, one of the pitches I use is to simple say "would Mr or Mrs. Jones prefer and another phone call or would it be ok to email them", most will happily give you the email address to forgo another phone call from you. 

You can also check out the companies web site to see if there are any emails. Pay attention to the naming sequence of an email address that appears on the web site. You may see another contacts email address but not your contact, you can take the naming sequence and figure out your contacts email address.  ie: Sandra Brown is Bsandra@somecompany.com, your contact is Robert Downs, you would then use Drobert@somecompany.com.

Send Literature

As soon as you get back to the office, send an opening letter and some literature. Be specific when you are going to call that person such as naming the date and the time of the phone call.  Many sales people don't send anything by mail anymore, and that's a real shame because I believe that by sending 10 mailers a month you could double your sales.

Follow up call

Remember that date and time that you gave them for the follow up call. Use it to your advantage and stage your call at the precise time you said you would. Even if you don’t get through, the message will leave a big impression that you followed up when you said you would.

Create Interest in the first 5 seconds

Hello Mr. or Mrs. Smith. Our company specializes in the cost reduction of wide format blueprint systems. Depending on what equipment you have now, and your objectives you may want to consider taking a look at our cost saving devices.

ABCC (Always Be Cold Calling)

Over the years I have found Cold Calling to be the best way to find new business. Try some vertical market cold calling next time. For instance let’s say you want to focus on the AEC market. Do the research on the Internet in your territory and pick out ten firms that you think would need your services. Vertical Market Cold Calls are awesome, the more you do, the more you’ll become proficient in their needs and applications. 

Tip: Ask the receptionist for help, state that you're new and your objective is to just get the name of the correct contact person.

Drop Offs:

Instead of leaving a brochure and a card, maybe you leave a notepad, a pen and some candies along with your card.  I did this a few times, I went to one of the print shops that I do business with and asked them to create 100 note pads (statement) size with company log0, my name & number, and then provided company logo pens, business cards and asked them to shrink wrap one pen, one notepad, a few candies and one business card.  With that I had something unique and different to drop off and in most cases I got the information I needed to make a follow up call!

-=Good Selling=-

Here's some additional links about cold calling:

5 Ways to Make Copier Cold Calling Fun!

10 Phone Cold Calling Tips for Copiers & MFP's