18. Ben Franklin Close: Can’t get the customer to make a decision? Use the Ben Franklin close on one side of sheet of paper ask the DM what they like about your product, they key is to help them with as many “likes” as possible. Then make a column for dislikes, ask the DM want they don’t like, the key here is not to help them.
Interesting news for the first week of December 2003:
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of audio and video by digitally processed and multiplexed signal, in contrast to the totally analog and channel separated signals used by analog television. It is an innovative service that represents a significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s.[1] Many countries are replacing broadcast analog television with digital television and allowing other uses of the television radio spectrum. Several regions of the world are in different stages of adaptation and are implementing different broadcasting standards. There are four different widely used digital television terrestrial broadcasting standards (DTTB):
I always like to give a little back ground about about the previous models and one important note is that Ricoh has decided to not offer non networked version of the MP 2553/3053 and the 3353.
With the previous "52" series you were able to get a non networked version, which means that the system was just a copier. I'm kinda on the fence with this decision since I've recently quoted a few of the older "52" series with a coin box attachment. I felt that I had an edge against the competition since I did not have to price a system with scan/print and a document feeder.
Thus the new "53" series enables these systems to have the same features as the recent "03" series of color systems that were launched from Ricoh this year. End result is that these systems should help win some additional market share in Segments 2 & 3.
So, everything about this system screams "state of the art technology", keep in mind that you once you install the web browser you can then use UDOCX which enables users to scan via cloud to MS365, Sharepoint, Alfresco, Dropbox you can get additional info here.
-=Good Selling=-
What is Workflow?
Workflow is the movement of documents and information throughout an organization in-order to make decisions and complete any required processing that they create".
I found this on the FileBound site.
I know that most of my clients are using their multifunctional copiers to scan, but it wasn't until the launch of the new Ricoh Metis multifunctional copier series that I felt that I needed to dig deeper with my prospects and clients about how they are using the scanning on the copier.
Most of my clients are small to medium size businesses. Lately, I've been asking additional questions that are related to scanning. Mind you I don't want this to be a long drawn out blog (I hate those and won't finish reading them), so I'll try to cut to the chase with some bullet points on what I've discovered.
Back to the question at hand "How Can a Workflow be Created on a Copier?" For one of my clients I uncovered that one of the documents that was scanned on a daily basis consisted of 15 pages and some of those pages were had imaging on both sides of the paper. The users liked the idea of the document being converted to a searchable pdf (keep in mind that I've found that in order to have better accuracy with converting a document to a searchable .pdf that we need to scan that document at a resolution of 300dpi or higher), they would like to file to be sent to a folder on the net work and then also be emailed to two other people in their department.
Thus, with our Ricoh multifunctional copier I was able to design a scan workflow with the copier, With the Ricoh systems that I work with I was able to set the scanning to auto two sided, increase the scan resolution to 300dpi, turn on blank page detection, turn on OCR, and then select two email addresses from the address book and one folder location on the server to deliver the documents. When I had all of the settings correct, I was then able to save the settings in a program mode and then place a short cut on the home screen and then name the program. Thus what I created was a simple workflow from the copier that can be accessed with a one touch button.
I wanted to keep this short and to the point, digger deeper and understanding your customers scan process can help you uncover some redundancies or pain. This one process saved almost this one user almost 10 minutes for each day of the week, and almost 4 hours for the month, imagine if you uncovered five or six different scanning workflows that saved the customer 10 minutes each at 6 times a day! Add it up and that's almost a 40 hour work week.
Many of you may be doing this now, and many may not, but we can all agree that scanning with multifunctional copiers is playing a more important part in how our customers and prospects use our devices.
I understand that there can be more elaborate workflows with scanning documents to document management systems, extracting data, naming conventions, and meta data. Sometimes it's best to keep it simple, gain their trust, bring a new client on board and we can then go back and help them with more elaborate workflows in the future.
-=Good Selling=-
Christmas in Sweden begins with the Saint Lucia ceremony. Before dawn on the morning of 13 December, the youngest daughter from each family puts on a white robe with a red sash. She wears a crown of evergreens with tall-lighted candles attached to it. She wakes her parents, and serves them with coffee and Lucia buns. The other children accompany her. The boys dressed as star boys in long white shirts and pointed hats.
The custom goes back to Lucia, a Christian virgin martyred for her beliefs at Syracuse in the fourth century. The Saint Lucia ceremony is fairly recent, but it represents the traditional thanksgiving for the return of the sun. Often she is followed by star boys, who wear pointed hats, and carry star wands.
2013 marks the fourth installment for "What I Want from Ricoh for Christmas", last year I was fortunate to finally get a color wide format system that was able to print/scan and copy! In addition Ricoh finally delivered Ricoh ICE (Integrated Cloud Environment), woohoo!
But like any good kid I'm yearning for a few additional items this year. Here's my wish list for this year, and keeping my fingers crossed that we'll have these products for 2014!!
What a wish list right? Please feel free to add your wish list for Ricoh, or any other manufacturer sometimes the best ideas come from those of us that are in the trenches day in and day out!!!
Click here for last year Christmas Ricoh Blog
-=Good Selling=-
I tell you some of the stuff that I'm reading about selling is......stupid!
I agree that selling, and prospecting has changed, but when presented with the opportunity to sign the order...., well we need to get the order signed or not get paid. Being a valued business partner is a valid concern, however you can't become that partner if you don't have any closing skills or can't negotiate (if needed)
17. Call your Manager Close: Are you in a tough negotiation? Has the customer just given you a price that you know or don’t know you can accept but you want to close then NOW. Ask the customer if it’s ok to call your manager, you then call whatever number you like...at times I’ve called my home number and made like I’m talking to my manager. I then state that so and so account wants to buy from us however he’s offered this price, can we do this? You then get back with your customer and tell him or her that my manager has authorized the price as long as we can write the order today.
-=Good Selling=-
With net new customers that have never leased a copier this is probably the top question that gets posed to me each and every month.
There are many advantages to leasing, you can go check out my recent blog "10 or More Reasons of Why to Lease Copiers & Printers", but before you click that link read more about my number one reason why you should not buy a copier.
"Trapped in Technology", I refer to this phrase all of the time when I'm posed with the question about leasing or buying a copier.
Let's say you've decided you're going to the purchase that beautiful new copier with all of the advanced technology that will help improve productivity and lower costs. Let's say that the cost for the new system is $15,000, and you shell out the dough because you can afford it, you may need the write off, or you just don't want the payments. Thus you're the proud new owner of that really awesome system.
Fast forward to the future to almost three years, and you find that your company has grown in staff, you're using the copier much more than anticipated for scanning, printing, and copying. With the expanded use the system is requiring additional service calls each month, your maintenance and supplies costs have risen, and your productivity is suffering at the copier because the system is down more frequently for general maintenance and service issues.
You know you need something new, however your last thought is that you just paid $15,000 for the system a mere 3 years ago. You've been approached by numerous sales people and all are telling you that you need to fork out another $15,000. In a matter of 36 months you're going to spend $30,000 dollars.
There are some additional features on the new system that will increase productivity, lower maintenance and supply costs, but not enough to make you pull the trigger on another $15,000 purchase! Thus you are "trapped in technology", because you decided to purchase the system 3 years ago and can't see the ROI to spend another $15,000. Now you'll continue to limp along with the old system, deal with the breakdowns, deal with the questions of "why or when can we get a new copier", and questions that maybe mumbled by your staff questioning the financial resources of the company.
Bad scenario above right? You betcha.
Consider the same scenario above but you leased the system for 36 months and you have a lease payment of $418 per month. You're then approached with a scenario like this. The cost to upgrade your present system is less or the same as your current lease payment. In most cases it may be less and most likely your maintenance and supply costs will be less along with some new features that will save additional time when processing or printing documents. In this case you have an immediate ROI and it's a no brainer to pull the trigger for a new copier lease.
Think of a copier lease more like renting, you don't want to own the SOB, technology changes so quickly, every 18 months or less manufacturers are refreshing the systems with new features, lower cost factors and improved reliability.
If you have any additional questions please post a reply here or you can email me at arthurkpost@gmail.com, if you're looking for an Imaging Professional like my self in your geographical area, please click the banner add below, then click your state and then follow the link to tell us more about your needs and we'll connect you with an Imaging Professional that can help guide you through the process of obtaining a new system at the right price point, and always keep in mind "the cheapest price usually represents poor service and support".
-=Good Selling=-
It's always good to review the basics, and to remember the basics when explaining equipment leasing to a client that is new to leasing office equipment. It's also not a bad idea to keep this in your portfolio!
Back in 2003, I still can't believe ten tears have slipped away that quickly,I started a small community for Ricoh copier sales people.
The platform was an MSN Community (remember those), the first reason for starting the community was that after being in the business for 23 years I still couldn't get information about the Ricoh products in a timely manner and the thought of having someone call you back because you needed the information that day was non-existent.
The second reason was that there was a certain product from Ricoh that should have had great halftones, I placed the unit in a major copy center and the halftones were horrible. Our best techs couldn't do a darn thing with the system. I was able to get the product manager on the phone and that person basically told me that they knew the system had so so halftones but released the system anyway. Well, to say the least I was pretty upset.
At this time Ricoh had a forum where salespeople could collaborate with each other. To make a long story short I slammed the Ricoh unit on the site for the crappy halftones, and then made sure that everyone know that Ricoh knew about the deficiency of the product. Well...Ricoh booted me from the forums...and that's when I stated I could do this better than they could.
Thus, I have to give Thanks to Ricoh for getting started. However, I need to give a special Thanks to all of the those early Print4Pay Hotel members who joined the community and believed that we needed to share information and become more knowledgeable and informed about what works and what doesn't work. Many of those inaugural Print4Pay Hotel Members are still with us today and I need to give Thanks to that core of members.
Over the years, the site has grown an we've had many new members, and I like to think that Print4Pay Hotel members are some of the most talented sales people in the industry. We as sales people especially when working in a Dealership don't garner much attention from the manufacturers but we're the guys and gals out their everyday believing on the product and moving hardware. So, it is right to give Thanks to the all of the rest of our Print4Pay Hotel members. You guys and gals are the best and have helped me become a better sales person over the years. I love reading your threads!!!
The Print4Pay Hotel could not be where it is today without the members and our excellent group of advertisers. Our advertisers (clicking their banner ads and giving them a call helps all of us) is what keeps the basic membership FREE. Over and over 90% of our advertisers renew their banner ads and as much as I believe in their awesome products that they believe in our awesome members. It's time to give Thanks to all of our advertisers!! Thank you!
I wish all Print4Pay Hotel Members here in the US, Canada and through out the world a blessed Thanksgiving for you and your families.
Art
There was an interesting blog that I picked up today, in that blog it spoke about how the CIA & Xerox collaborated on spying on the Soviets. This was done with spies becoming copier techs and then while they were working on the Xerox copiers that would out a camera in the copier to capture a picture of every copy that was produced! On to number 16!
16. Either Or Close: Been doing this for years! With this technique you always need to present two different systems or solutions to the customer. Your close is to ask them which system they would like to lease or purchase.
-=Good Selling=-
Sure can, the feature that allows a user to place the originals in the document and the select page numbering has been around since the first digital copiers came on the market many years ago.
Most of the page number features can be accessed through the copier user panel. You may have do a little digging through multiple screens or you can read through the operator manual to find the exact location of the page numbering feature.
Not only can you add numbering to the copies but you can also do this from most print drivers. Many people ignore the "printer properties" button within the print driver, I've had many people tell me, "Oh, I never thought to select the "printer properties" button. Selecting the printer properties button will then allow the user to enable page number from the print driver. Keep in mind that all the manufacturers print drivers are different and the page numbering feature may take a few clicks to find it. Also after some research not all of the manufacturers print drivers offer page numbering.
I just downloaded a Canon UFR print driver and as promised the page numbering feature is there (see image on left), I had downloaded some of the newer Ricoh print drivers and was surprised that I was not able to find a feature in the printer driver to enable page numbering!! I know years ago, this was a staple feature with the Ricoh RPCS print driver. Seems Ricoh may have eliminated this feature.
When in doubt ask your Professional Imaging Rep and if you're in need of connected with a true Imaging Professional that know what their copiers can and can do, then I suggest you click the link in the ad below.
-=Good Selling=-
I was going through some of the web polls that we've had running on several of the old sites.I'm closing all of the old polls out and will be adding new polls.
For the time being the new polls are located at P4P Polls, as soon as I figure out additional html coding you'll see additional changes.
The Canon and Oce deal was announced on November 19th, 2009 and was capitulated on March 4th of 2010. I think we started this poll sometime late 2010. There's no science behind the poll, just p4p members expressing there views about the sale.
I tried to embed the poll, however it's not working please follow this link for the poll. Canon & Oce "Was this a good deal or a not so good deal".
-=Good Selling=-
The clock continues to tick, most in the office will hear my rants as the month and or quarter winds to a close.
I can be heard mumbling, "why do people just not call you back anymore", or "if you don't want to talk to me, just send me an email, I'm a big boy", "all day on the phone and I got nadda, nothing".
All of the above is what I call conditions, there are times when you can't change the outcome, but don;t let Captain Kirk hear you say that!
Overall, the copier business has been very very good to me over the years and I thought I'd put a few notes down about how much I enjoy this crazy business.
Tops of my list!!
If you're reading this and you're a newbie in the business, all I can tell you is that being a copier sales person is not a bad thing. For me it's been wonderful, fulfilling and has paid the bills. Yeah, we have to put up with a lot from time to time, but if you're a proven producer then you have the best job in the world!!!
As I wind down my career in down the street sales, I still have many items on my "to do" list within the copier industry. I just hope that paper sticks around long enough so I can finish what I started.
-=Good Selling=-
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Follow the link on the forums to get your Premium Membership. If you're interested in a lifetime membership please send me an email arthurkpost@gmail.com and we'll send you a pay pal invoice of $399 of a LIFETIME Print4Pay Hotel membership.
