MFP Copier Blog

It's always great to get an email response from a blog you've written.  Whether they are good, bad or ugly! 

Just this week I received the email below from a Print4Pay Hotel member that responded to My Top Three Sales Quotes "part 2" Prospect by Day and ....  We'll start with the email and they gave me permission to post and also keep the Print4Pay Hotel member anonymous.

"I love your blog and all your posts every week. I have been reading for years. This is my 23rd year in copier sales and my last year also. I'm 45 years old and started when most businesses only had a typewriter. In my opinion this industry is now nothing more than a big race to zero.  I'm still selling but looking at everything else as something to do. I came to this conclusion only a month ago when my family doctor (and client) had me sign a form on an ipad for a visit and the form I signed showed up in my email as they promised. We are going to loose this client soon and they already cancelled their service agreement. I asked the office manager about their system and they love it... best of all no paper needed... then I all i could think about was the direction of our industry. Scan to your ipad... mobile print from mobile devices and the silly game of MPS, and how cutthroat it has become, competitors selling out and so forth. The question is this ... is it worth it? Should I stay? I read your post on prospecting during the day and quote deals at night, really? I have a family and responsibilities after 5 too! I don't feel I owe this industry every waking hour... if that's the case it will soon be over for all of us copier guys. It goes like this... do you know what the best job was before they invented the automobile? It was making horse shoes. I believe this is the end of copier-paper-multifunction era.

Sorry Art just had to let that fly! There is nobody else to talk to in this crazy business and sales mangers and owners don't give a ****."

I did send this P4P member a personal email with some of my thoughts, but I'd like to dig deeper about our industry.

It's no secret that digital workflows, email, tablets and scanning is reducing page volumes for certain vertical markets. It's also no secret that dealerships and manufacturers are diversifying into new products and services that they can offer to their customers and prospects. 

The future of our business will still include imaging hardware, but will center on helping businesses improve their business process to make them more competitive in the market place and to reduce costs.  The growth in printed pages is in the very high end (production), niche imaging systems (specialized digital print devices for different media), and the low end systems. 

None of us can make a living in the low end.  For those of us that just sold 35-50 page a minute copiers, we need to change.  We can still make a living by prospecting for companies that still have a paper intensive process, or expand our horizons to include production system. 

Better yet, we need to be on the look out for how to take a mundane labor intensive process and turn it into a solution!  Case in point, last week I was able to meet with a prospect that hated, hated the copier that they had leased a year ago.  They were only 12 months into a 36 month lease and there was nothing I could do to generate a hardware sale, thus I started asking questions.

• Is there any process in your business that you wish you had a better alternative?
• What is the worst process you hate to do each day?
• Is there something you do on a daily basis that grinds your gears?

Well, none of these worked with the CEO, however the CEO directed me to Sally and stated that I ask her.  I went over to Sally and before I could ask her anyone of these questions I noticed she was inputting data from a piece of paper into an excel spreadsheet.  BANG!  I knew we could automate this process for her and I asked if we could automate this process would that save you.....but before I could finish the CEO blurted out. "I WANT THAT" WOW!  that was great to hear, but I knew that I still needed to do a quick ROI. I then asked how many hours she worked on that project each week and then asked the CEO later what his overhead cost per employee is per hour.

The end result is I have a lead to sell a business process that will include software, professional hours and may or may not include a new piece of imaging equipment.

We NEED to change, if we as sales people state woe is me and all is lost, then ALL is lost. We can still prospect for imaging equipment but we need to keep a sharp eye to see what is going on around of us while we're in the field.  The traditional line of copier and MPS questioning know need to include additional questions that may help us uncover additional opportunities.

Special thanx to the P4P Hotel member that sent me the email. BTW, I received another email from a disgruntled rep about the company that he works for hired back someone that left the company almost two years ago. I'll share that email and their thoughts next week.

-=Good Selling=-

Over the years, every now and then I've stumbled across some great way to new way to prospect.  Whether it was to perform dual prospecting or in my latest find I found out something that you can do with the FREE version of linkedin to get you connected with those prospects that you can never get a hold of. We'll save that for later in this blog.

Got a customer who is only busy for four to 8 months out of the year?

4. Seasonal Lease to Close:  You can close additional business by offering a seasonal lease, six months of payments and six months of no payments is one example.  Call your leasing company for details on how to structure a program that can result in you closing the deal with a creative financial solution for the customer.

LinkedIn Tip:  Start following those companies on linked in where you can't get any traffic with a phone call, mailer or stop in.  Next week I'll tell you how to get them to check your profile first!

-=Good Selling=-

Decreased margins, introduction of A4 MFPs aka MFD, lower MSRPs, increased competition for net new business equals a whole heck of a lot of work!! 

Years ago you could sell four or five 40 & 50 page per minute multifunctional devices and the average selling price with accessories would be in the $13-$18k range.  Over the years I've pretty much tracked about 6 systems per month, thus it was easier to hit your total revenue number and or your GP number than it is now.  Continued pressure from Direct, introduction of A4's, lower MSRPs and the pressure to win net new business has lowered revenue and profits.

So, what is one to do?  For starters one needs to prospect more, and some will say that I have no time left to add for additional prospecting. By the time I've made my calls, updated my CRM, did the appointments and created the proposals there is NO MORE time left in the week!

Yoda, would then tell you "Luke, it's time management, if you want to play with the big dogs, hit the revenue for each month and quarter, then you'll need to....."PROSEPCT BY DAY AND QUOTE BY NIGHT", and may the force be with you!

Prospect by Day and Quote by Night is one of the other sales quotes that I try to live by. Ours is not a 9 to 5 job, and if you need to add more prospecting time then you need to move one of your tasks out of prime prospecting time.  Those who can't quote at night (family time), can maybe approach it by getting to the office an hour earlier and leaving 30-45 minutes later.  Using this type of time management you can have an additional 7.5 hours of prospecting by moving your quote time!!

Newbies in the industry are probably not generating as many quotes and proposals, thus most of their time will be spent prospecting.  Usually within to 3-4 weeks they have generated enough interest or gathered leads that they too will need to find the time to quote and prepare proposals.  Point of the matter is that newbies will then sacrifice prospecting time to generate proposals and quotes, which then takes them on that downward spiral because there're not prospecting as much.

For instance this month (for me), is already 25% over, I have the next 3 weeks or 14 selling days to hit my number. Thus, I've already made a plan to be in by 7AM and leave by 5PM, and I'll save all of the quotes and proposal work for when I get to my home office.  Don't have a home office?  The I suggest you start one...NOW.

So from 7AM to 9AM, I will update my CRM, send emails, read emails, and prepare a few mailers. If I have no appointments for the day I will prospect all day long, since this is a short week in the US, I've got Wednesday and Thursday booked with half the day Tuesday and all day Friday ready for prospecting. 

Prospect by Day and Quote by Night works, and I hope you'll be giving it a go!

-=Good Selling=-

Whether you're selling MFP's, Document Management, and even Managed IT, there is always a time to close.  A good sales person is an excellent listener, and if you listen well enough in most cases, you'll know when to ask for the order. Asking for the order can be as simple as......

3.      Lease or Buy Close (either or):  When you’re asking the questions, save this one for last.  “Were you planning on leasing of buying the system?” If leasing, bring out the lease form and start filling in the blanks for them, if buying fill out the price and see how far you’ll go.  I’ve had customers that bought that way.  You don’t know until you try it.

Better yet, have the forms filled out before you meet with them. Do your homework, have a system, solution and price in mind.  In some cases I;ve brought out two leases, two order forms, two maintenance agreements for different systems.  Also bring a blank for this "just in case" scenario's.

-=Good Selling=-

If you asked my sales manager, he would probably say NEVER! 

Many of us know that only the strong (tough minded) will survive more than three years when it comes to selling copiers, printers, and managed print services.  Those who survive more than 20 years of selling (not managing) to commercial accounts should be viewed as Olympians and those of us that have been selling 30 plus years should be viewed as Titans.

So, every year I struggle with when to take my vacation time. Do I take the time in December right after Christmas, or maybe in August for the week before Labor day, or maybe the week that leads up to Easter?  I've been fortunate to be at the same dealership for the last 15 years, thus I've been able to acquire some extra vacation time. But, when is the right time to take vacation when my sales won't suffer. I've also considered taking a week during the first week of the new quarter.

But, is a vacation really a vacation when you still have to hit your monthly and quarterly sales quotas.  My answer would be NO! It's never a true vacation, because if it was a true vacation then my quota should be reduced for the month that I took a weeks vacation, right? If I'm not working for a week then why can't my quota drop by 25%? WTF, I'm not working!!!!

If you ask your sales managers of Veeps of Sales about reducing your quota most of them will stare at you for a few seconds and then give you some smart ass answer why your quota shouldn't drop.  So, the real answer is even though we get vacations in our industry we really never get that much of the mental break that is needed from time to time.  Thus, this is one of the reasons why there aren't that many Olympians and Titans in the field or in the business anymore.

Ok, I've had my rant, I try to take time during the last week of the year from Christmas to New Years.  Thus, it's a mad dash to try and get all of my business finished by the 22nd or 23rd of the month.  The next time I will try and book is the week before Labor Day, there's just too many people on vacation already during the month of August and the week leading up to Labor Day over the years has usually been a dud.  If you're allowed to take two weeks in a row then I would suggest that you take the week of Christmas and the week after leading into New Years.  Past experience has proved that taking two weeks at this time of the year can really recharge your batteries.

One of my other thoughts was to take every Friday in the summer and turn the summer into a four day work week.  I haven't done this yet because I'm afraid that losing 4 selling days each month for three months would create too much stress with trying to hit the monthly and quarterly quota.  Hmmmm, if they would only reduce my quota when I'M NOT WORKING, this could be doable right?

When it comes right down to it, we really never get a vacation that we can never think about selling.  Why?, I think for most of us that have been doing this for so many years that we just can't turn the switch off.  The switch is always on, even when we're away.

With vacation time I always come back to a saying I heard and I can't remember from who, that selling is not a horse race for who is the fasted to the finishing line, but it's more like turtle that keeps on going and going and never gives UP!

-=Good Selling=-

Figured I would use some Jersey slang for the "gotta attend" part.  I was able to attend the BTA event last year in White Plains, NY and was impressed. This years event is  Thursday & Friday in late September at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.

The Inner Harbor of Baltimore: I've heard so much about it and I've never been there. The harbor is within walking distance of Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. A water taxi connects passengers to Fells Point, Canton, and Fort McHenry.  If you're a sports fan, there's the Orioles and the Ravens. If you're patriotic then you can also visit Fort McHenry where Francis Scott Key was inspired to write our National Anthem the Star Spangled Banner!

Tod Pike of Samsung will give the keynote presentation. I've heard more good things about their equipment and dealer programs that I'm making this one of my top choices for the event!

Frank Cannata will moderate on the dealer panel for "Our Industry is Changing! Where Do We Go From Here". In my thirty plus years in the industry I've never been able to met him. I for one will be in attendance and also be fortunate to hear from other industry veterans.

Baseball with the Baltimore Orioles, here's another first for me!! I'm an avid baseball fan and I've never been to Camden Yards.  The home of Ripken!  The Orioles against the Red Sox with both teams in contention for the playoffs, what could be better, the house will be rockin!

The Six Education Seminars are always informative and can have a dramatic impact on what's new, what's changed, and what's happening in our industry!

Personally, I'm looking forward to see the many vendors, many Print4Pay Hotel members and writing about some of the new products and services!

BTA East will host its annual district event, open to BTA members and non-members from across the country, on Sept. 26-27, 2013, at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore in Baltimore, Md. This event will be a great setting to learn from industry leaders, gather new ideas and network with your peers. Register here!

See you in Baltimore!!!

-=Good Selling=-

I had posted this a few years ago and thought it would be good to get up on the new site.  While I was on the old site I was amazed that the site received 13,000 page views last month. (www.mfpsolutions.blogspot.com) Thus I added some additional information to the blog for everyone.

Since I started blogging about multifunctional copiers a few years ago, this question is at top of everyone’s list in the emails I receive.

Who Makes the Best Multifunctional Copy Machine?

To me it's not a question of who makes the best, the question that should be asked is "Who gives the best support and service?"

It's my general belief that most multifunctional copiers are equal when it comes to performance, quality, features and reliability. When leasing or buying a multifunctional copier you need to pay attention to the people that stand behind the piece of equipment. There's a saying in our industry, "that the lowest priced copier (equipment) is long forgotten after poor service", isn’t that the truth!

It's the people, the guy or gal next store, the cousin, the uncle or the friend. When you select good professional sales people and dealers even the worst machine ever manufactured could be the best system you ever purchased or leased.

How do you find these professionals?

Well there’re out there, and they’re usually not the companies that have the lowest price. Dealers and Direct Branches that excel have additional layers of support that are designed to support the customer at a moment’s notice, by either repairing the equipment right the first time, having a large inventory of parts and having experienced expert professionals to help with the complexity of these systems. Many of your local sales people can be found on linkedin, search for their company or you can search for them by name.

In essence when shopping for a multifunctional copier system, do yourself a few favors. Check out the people in the organization. Ask them how long they've been doing this and how long they've been with the company. If there is tenure, odds are the company that they work for are true professionals and experts with multifunctional systems. Also, do a credit check on that company, see if they are paying their bills, a so credit report could mean that you'll get so so support/service and may be indicative that they may soon be out of business. I can't stress how important the credit check is!!!

Ok, so some of you may still be asking what's the best? I believe there are three tiers of manufacturers for multifunctional copiers. Here they are in the tiers.

Tier I: Canon (includes Oce), Ricoh (includes Savin and Lanier), Xerox and KonicaMinolta (all are equal in my eyes, it will come down what features work best for you)

Tier II: Kyocera, Toshiba, Sharp (market share is lower than the above group)

Tier III: Muratec, Samsung, Okidata, HP, Lexmark

Did I leave anyone out?