MFP Copier Blog

"Can anyone come up with a fun and creative name for a Canon copier/printer? It's my job to name it since the office just got a new one the other day and I'm the new work study employee. All the other ones were named by previous work studies and were good like a leased Canon was Lisa Canon...since they leased a Canon. Thanks!"

Whoa, this was a thread I picked up the other day in my google alerts for a yahoo forum.  After 32 years in the industry, I now find out that office workers actually giving names to their copiers?

I have to admit that the old name for the Canon for Lisa Canon was pretty creative! Of course everyone could use the Lisa for Ricoh, Xerox, KonicaMinolta and the rest. So, I thought I would try my hand at thinking up some names for copiers.

Here we go (I took these names that were popular in the Victorian Era):

Hope Xerox (hoping it works all the time)

Lottie Ricoh (we make alotta of copies)

Lulu Kyocera (our copier is a loser)

Benedict Arnold Toshiba (the copier never works right)

Dick KonicaMinolta (our copier sucks)

Nimrod Sharp (odd name for an odd copier)

Owen Savin (we owe a lot of money on this copier)

Pleasant Muratec (we like our copier)

Zebulon Xerox (it's our prized copier)

Newton Ricoh (we just got it)

August Kyocera (the month the new copier was purchased)

Merlin Toshiba (our system is amazing)

Avis KonicaMinolta (we're only leasing this system for a short time)

Beaton Sharp (we beat on this system all the time)

Charity Savin (a hand me down)

Eustace Muratec (our system is useless)

Faithful Xerox (always works well)

Hercules Ricoh (our system is a workhorse)

Marmaduke Kyocera (our system is huge)

Patience Toshiba (it'll work just give it time)

Postumus KonicaMinolta (our last copier died unexpectedly)

Temperance Sharp (sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't)

Thurstan Savin (our system is always going through toner so fast)

Wy Toshiba (why did we ever get this system)

I'm done, my favorites would be Hope, Benedict Arnold, Dick, Owen, Avis, Charity and Marmaduke.  But maybe we can name copiers and printers after rock stars right, these copiers and printers keep the wheels turning at the office every day and without them the paper process does start.  Think about Bruce, Billy, Mick, Ringo, Frank (I'm aging myself), and another thought might be to name them after songs like Sweet Home Alabama, Stairway to Heaven, Under My Thumb, Wild Horses.  

So, the next time I sell a copier, I’ll ask the new owner what name they would like to use for their new copier or printer, and I'm sure I'll get one of those strange New Jersey looks and be escorted to the door. Hey!  If you've got any really cool names drop them here in the response section!!

-=Good Selling=-

How to Close More MFP & MPS Sales

The other day I read and article by Tom Callinan titled "Close More Sales" on The Week in Imaging.   I found the article enjoyable and a good read, in closing the article Tom presented this paragraph.

How do you actually close more sales? That’s easy; uncovering a solid business case by asking great questions, listening attentively, and focusing on moving the sale forward with every meeting. The best closers are those that spend their time to uncover specific issues their product or service will alleviate, and understands the precise value of addressing those issues before they ever move to their proof source. After you’ve uncovered a quantifiable business case and you’ve proven that your product or service can address that business case closing will be as easy as “It seems like it make sense to move forward with the (your product or service) acquisition/installation, doesn’t it?”

I agree with everything above, what I don't agree is that this will help you close more sales, it will help you close a sale.  For those of us in the business long enough we know that WE CAN'T close every opportunity.  There will be those appointments where you can be the best listener, you can ask great questions, you can uncover those specific issues, but you're just not going to get that deal for whatever the reason may be.  It could be price, value, a cousin pops up who is in the business, a neighbor is a friend of the CFO who has a guy, the list goes on and on.

The key to closing more sales is to have a bounty of opportunities and follow what Jim pointed out with every appointment. Let me put it this way, if your quota is 60K per month, you need three times that in opportunities that may close that month. That's $180K worth of potential business every month, if you don't have three times you quota in the monthly pipeline you won't close more sales.

This month alone I had two opportunities that went by the way side, one I lost and that opportunity was over $70k and the other was put on the back burner for a few months and that opp was $42K.   That's $112K lost, fortunately I still have another $60K that still may be able to close this month.

Many reps especially new reps will have a few good months or a few good quarters and then they'll relax, thus the activity will drop (which includes calls, emails, mailers, stop ins). When the activity drops then so does the opportunities. 

My belief is that you need to generate 3-5 opportunities each week to close more sales, we'll lose a lot of them but we'll also take our fair share also.

If you'd like to read more on this and become a member of the Print4Pay Hotel. We have more than 2,300 registered members from around the world that share sales information and tips on a daily basis. Registration is free and the forums are secure for members of our industry.

-=Good Selling=

About a month ago when I found out that I could add clips to the new site, I went in search of old copier ads. I found quite a few of them, however I'm thinking that most of the old ads maybe lost forever since they were never scanned. (If anyone has any old dealer magazines lying around please see if you an scan some of those old ads and upload them here).

The glamor and the sizzle of a big TV, Sports or Movie Star can go along way with promoting a product or a brand for companies.  Copier companies back in the seventies and eighties incorporated many these celebrities to promote their products. One celebrity that comes to mind is Tony Randall, Tony was signed on from the hot series the Odd Couple to pitch copiers for Minolta (only from the mind of Minolta). In the mean time Canon had hired Jack Klugman (the other part of the odd couple) to pitch it's personal line of copiers.  I remember these ads well, every time I saw Jack pitching the Canon personal copier I cringed because the price of the copier was unbelievable compared to what we were selling at the time.  Little did we know that the image cartridge that Canon developed for this system would change the way we did business forever.

Here's an interesting paragraph I pulled from the web about that Duo Ad Campaign:

CELEBRITY ADS can backfire if a competitor turns a star's image to its own advantage. Canon USA, whose personal copier line Jack Klugman has represented since 1982, has fallen victim to this counterploy. In his most recent major TV role Klugman played Quincy, a nice-guy medical examiner of unquestioned integrity. Though perhaps irrelevant to Canon copiers, the image was at least positive. Then Minolta, needing to make the most of an ad budget that its ad agency says was a third of Canon's, hired Tony Randall as spokesman for its copiers last year. The two actors were featured in the long-running TV series The Odd Couple, reruns of which are still popular in many cities, with Randall playing a compulsive neatnik and Klugman an inveterate slob. The Minolta ads, which according to his agent riled Klugman, played up the Odd Couple stereotypes and even made a thinly veiled reference to Klugman when Randall ad-libbed, ''Of course, I'm not a slob like, uh . . .'' and gave his you-know-who-I-mean look. Minolta's marketing coup was to associate Canon machines in consumers' minds with Klugman's mess: jammed paper, perhaps, or ink-blackened hands. A performer's success in one campaign may reduce his chances of success in another.

One of the old copier names that comes to mind is Apeco. We posted a few of these ads that show Arnold Palmer preparing for a put with the tag line "the copymaker that never needs a "mulligan" either...  meaning you're always going to get a copy and you never have to make a do over.  In another ad for the Apeco Super Stat ultra, Arnie is pictured finishing a swing with the tag line of "we've taken the oops out of copy making".  All in all it brings us back to a time when not all copiers had the same reliability factor and some copiers were downright horrible to operate!

In another ad for Canon, I'm thinking this is the "Kansas Comet" aka Gale Sayers.  It's shame I can't get additional definition with the picture, however go here and check it out for yourself.

"The Mad Duck" aka Alex Karras of the Detroit Lions also pitched copier for Apeco. In his ad he can be seen in 1971 lumbering over a console Apeco with the tag line of "Tackles Your Big Copymaking Jobs and brings down your costs". Hmmmm seems like lowering your costs has always been a key factor when deciding about which copier you're going to buy.

Bob Seagren was an American pole vaulter, the 1968 Olympic champion. He can been seen in a TV commercial for 3M.

One of the ads that I can't find is with Tony Randall when he was pitching the worlds first zoom lens copier from Minolta.  At one time there was a youtube video of Tony pitching the Minolta, but just a quick searched turned up this and this youtube video with a scrooge theme.

I haven't seen or can't remember a celebrity that has pitched a copier/MFP in recent years, but was just thinking that Eric Snowden may be a good pitchman for copier security commercials!  Eric seems to be the man without a country, whether you like or dislike what Eric did he probably should have thought the whole thing through a couple of times.

If you've got any copier ads with or with out pitch men, please scan them and upload them here.  At least we can try and save what may be lost forever.  By the way you can go here for the clip section.

-=Good Selling=-

Today's offering from manufacturers is overwhelming to say the least. I can remember starting out on the business where one of the requirements is that you had to own or have access to a station wagon! One of the basic routines was to load a copier in the morning and then go cold calling, and if you found a hot prospect you would ask them if they would like to see a demonstration of the product. When they replied yes, you stated "great, I have one in the car, where can we do the demonstration? Yes, the good ole days when doors weren't locked, no soliciting signs were not the order of the day along with any intercoms and cameras to allow access.

Since, 2001 I've taken a vertical market approach to selling, having a territory that is high in NOPA ratings allows for a multitude of possible accounts. The vertical market that I concentrate on is Construction; which incorporates architects, engineers, general contractors, contractors, surveyors, mechanical contractors, and security systems companies.

Focusing on a vertical market allows me to learn more about each of this business and how they print, copy, fax and scan on a daily basis. I have become very familiar with the terms and their language, and boy does this help when trying to open the doors for discussion or attempting to dig for a solution that you might be able to present. Knowing their language positions you as the expert and the consultant that they can rely on for up to date solutions. It's really not as big a world as everyone thinks it is, most companies know of everyone else in their industry or have at least heard of them.

Here's how I started, I started with wide format systems for a few reasons. One the competition is not as fierce as regular copiers and the margins are usually higher due to the fact that there are only a few manufacturers. Plus the volume of paper that's needs to be copied, printed and faxed is enormous.

Focus on your smaller architectural firms that have 5-15 employees, most of the time when cold calling in person or when calling on the telephone you will be able to get to the owner of the firm. From there you need to use your skills to close for an appointment or a demonstration. Once you have sold an architectural firm you must ask for references, you can ask for Mechanical Engineers, General Contractors or Excavators and even Landscape Architects. All of these will have a need for wide format, copiers, scanners and fax. By the way, you can also go back to all of the wide format accounts and then solicit them for copiers, printers and fax.

Keep the ball rolling; use the "6 foot" approach when working the vertical market. Whenever you get within six feet of them ask them if they are need of saving time or saving money with their wide format documents.

I developed a mailing list for the wide format vertical market and every month I send out mailers to them. I do this in quarters, meaning the first month is for wide format, the second month is for MFP's and the third month is for software solutions (ecopy desktop, fax server software). Each quarter I repeat the process, after about one right or nine mailings, you will have clients calling you!

You can get your lists from Trade Associates, just go on the Internet and do a search for type of companies that you are interested. After the mailing I will also conduct phone calls and in person cold calls to the accounts. Conducting your prospecting this way will insure that you will get an audience sometime in the future.

Become a member for these trade organizations and offer to sponsor a meeting; most of these associations will have monthly or quarterly meetings. We have done a few of these and are always looking to do more. Nothing is better than having a captive audience and showing that you are recommended by their Trade Association.

Vertical Market Selling allows you to become an Expert in their business in a short amount of time and also allows you to spend more time with learning Features, Advantages and Benefits of the hardware that will be suit their needs.

-=Good Selling=-

When you've been in the business as long as I've been there always seems to be that little something that you can write about.

I was taught that after every order/sale I would then ask Mr. or Mrs. Right for three referrals that I could call on.  Seems back in the 80's everyone needed a plain paper copier. Wait! Let me stop right there, I'll go out on limb and bet that at least 60% of today's reps that are selling copiers probably always thought that copiers always printed on plain paper! Yes, the 80's, everyone needed a plain paper copier, and at the end of every sale we asked "Would it be possible to get the name of two or three businesses that may be interested in our services"?   That was then, and to tell you the truth the last time I used that is when a prospect asked for a better price and I tied in, "If I give you a better price will you sign the order today and I'll need two or three businesses that may be interested in my services".

But, it does bring back memories of things we used to do. Here's a short list of how we did things in the 80's:

1) Send a Thank You card for every sale you made.

2) Send a check for $25 or an in house credit to a customer that gave us as a reference and we made the sale.

3) Ask for referrals after every sale you made.

4) Knock on the doors of the businesses next to the customer you just made the sale to.

5) Give a check to the technicians for leads (they loved this, and I was very generous to many, now it seems that most dealers are controlling this, because too many sales people never paid up).

6) Send Christmas cards (I sent them with my name and the dealership name).

7) Call an existing customer and ask them if they know of anyone who is interested in my services (offer them free toner if a sale goes down).

8) Call and ask for a letter of reference (now you can still call them and maybe email them and ask them to post a referral for you on linkedin. I include my linkedin signature link on my emails)

I'm sure that some of are still doing a few of these today, but I plan to pick up my game with mailing Thank You cards again, asking for referrals after the sale, calling an existing customer to see if they know of anyone they could refer me to along with adding more referrals on linkedin.

-=Good Selling=-

Whoa, over the past 4 months, our Print4Pay Hotel members have had a lot of fun with this thread, so much fun that we turned it into a contest and had our members vote on it!!!  Before I post the results we're going to post some of the comments and we'll keep everyone's threads anonymous.

This is the opening thread:

Let's have some fun, seems the participation on the forums has been a little slow of late.  Either we're all to busy, or we're just a bunch of know it alls! 
So, let's have some fun, in a recent thread from yoda, he took me to what I think was one of the worst copier companies web site I ever seen. So, if you've been to a competitors that just plain stunk, post the link in the reply section and after 30 days or so, we'll have vote for the worst copier web site in the work! Yoda, thanx for the idea!!

Here are a few I think are pretty awful:
http://www.nevillsolutions.com/
http://copytechsys.com/about_us.aspx
http://www.awatsoncopiers.com/index.html
http://www.thecopierguyinc.com/

Wow, a couple of blasts from the past.  Nothing like having 15 year old copiers as the home page pictures on your website.  Sharp SF7900 on the one website and a Pre Konica Minolta....Minolta on the other site.

this is awesome!!  right now nevill gets my vote, it is a cluster****

The newest addition to the Sharp arsenal of High Technology world beaters. Please note the lack of a phone number or email address anywhere.
http://www.sebmhsv.com

My vote is for the copier GUY.  He's got some kahoonas.  New Radio spot:
"Its always summer at the copier guy!  10 year old copier?  No problem!  Don't let that pesky parts thing keep you from calling!  I'm THE COPIER GUY!"

A Watson is not bad either love this on the services page
"FREE Service available with the purchase of a new copier and there are no overage charges on maintenance agreements.
Call today for details." 
What possible details could there be its free?

BAAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAA LMFAO!  Is that a sorter?
Nice job   http://copytechsys.com

  these are awesome, I haven't been able to stop laughing at these, geesh, I hope none of these are some P4P members!!  More, we need more sites!!

http://baronetechnologygroup.com/
This company has 9 locations try to find them...

This site was emailed to me, they still have a promo from 2005 on the site!! Yikes   http://www.copierplus.com/index2.php

In total we had more the 50 replies and more than 500 page views for the topic, we had many laughs and in an age when copier aka imaging companies are selling "state of the art" technology it seems there are many dealers that can't manage a decent web site.

We'll be announcing the top vote getters in out next blog!!

-=Good Selling=-

In a recent blog "Dirty Deeds from a NJ Dealer", I had an email from a valued Print4Pay Hotel member.  But before I post the rest, let me digress for a moment.  I did not expect a reply to my recent blog, however receiving an email from another Print4Pay Hotel member giving me words of encouragement is awesome and it well appreciated!  The Print4Pay Hotel is an awesome community! 

Art,

I saw your e-mail and thought I would try and cheer you up a bit. I've been in the industry for 17 years now in your experience is not unique. Unfortunately it is part of our industry and I learned it in many other industries as well.

Being a professional salesperson is challenging emotionally and sometimes physically. To have prospects and customers lie and deceive you on a daily basis can be very demanding. And then you have your employer constantly challenge your commissions and paycheck is equally demanding. Add to that meetings that are useless and reports that are time-consuming and meaningless. I rarely attend meetings using the excuse that I need to attend to my customers and I falsify reports to satisfy those requesting it.

What I do do.. Is bring home the number. As long as I have achieved my sales goals there is no other standard that I am measured by.

I have learned that I now treat all prospects, customers and employers as untrustworthy and as such I constantly challenge them as well. For instance I am constantly challenging my employer for higher commissions. I challenge them to reward me with individual goals and rewards. Most recently I approach my employer and asked if he would lease the car of my choosing for two years if I bill over $1 million in a calendar year. It is not currently part of my comp plan but I'm working towards it. My bet is he will respond with a counteroffer of 1.5 million and I will settle for 1.2 5 million which I know I can easily achieve.

Last month I challenged him for a case of particular wine if I could bill $100,000. I hit my goal and  the case of wine now sits in my wine cellar.

So turn the tables on your employer, everything is negotiable, every day. I do it again and again and I'm relentless, as I'm relentless prospect salesperson and attentive to my customers.

I recently left a voicemail for a prospect that is very large prospect that went something like this…. “I know I've left you many voicemails, you're beginning to understand how diligent in detail oriented I am with people who are not my current customers. Imagine how hard I will work for you should you become one of my customers. This is my profession and I'm excellent at it. Please call me at 555.555.1212. Monte Jensen”

The upside of our profession is that your flexibility to work is second to none. I can work from anywhere in the world today. I stopped going into an office 10 years ago. All the office politics are out of my field of vision and I'm able to focus on the task at hand. I'm not distracted by the pretty girls in accounting, I'm not distracted by the other salespeople wanting information from me, or just wanting to be my friend. I have friends at home and don't want them at work. I want to complete my work and return to my life. If I want to work 20 hours a day I can or if I want to play golf (like I did yesterday), I do that.

Art,

I would consider you one of the most accomplished professionals in our industry. Your forward thinking to create the P4P Hotel and its crowd sourcing model was ahead of its time. I'm confident that level of knowledge and professionalism translates to your selling career. Let's both use this MFP industry to pay the bills today and allow us the flexibility to create a business outside of it that will someday stand on its own and provide us a source of income that is substantial.

Here's to the future!

P4P Member

Sometimes in this industry you can get so fed up with the day to day bull that you just need to put the pedal to the metal and get it done. 

Today was like that, sales for the better part of the month have been lack luster and it's not from the work effort.  On a day when many of us took a vacation day or called in sick, I stuck it out and went to the office so I could finish up the week with my 150 calls.

In particular one call stood out from the rest, it's an existing account that I inherited from a previous sales person. This account has a duplicator (purchased), and a MFP (leased), they also have or had a color MFP from another vendor. I visited them twice over the last 18 months and they've changed Administrators twice since then, however as many times as I've called the new Administrator (with no return calls), I've also kept in contact with the one of the operators of the equipment about every three months or so.  In the last few months I had some email exchanges with my contact person, it was all prompted because the lease on the MFP is due to expire in November of this year. But the email exchanges were sporadic and one even stated "I think you might be able to help us", after three weeks of nothing from a few phone calls and emails I sent an email today that stated we needed to meet to discuss the end of the lease options NOW, because you have a 90 day notification clause.  Thirty minutes later I had a reply to please call so and so in AP and my contact would call me on Monday. 

Hence I called that person and found out that they had upgraded the color system (from the other vendor) and our system many months ago! To boot I was told they upgraded with a vendor who is now closed (rumor has it they duped a leasing company for 1.2 million in creative leases, and is under Federal investigation).  The person from AP was not sure where the machine is and personally at this time I don't care where the system is either. 

I sent an email back to my contact and asked, "we've been in contact many times in the last 18 months and you didn't have the courtesy to tell me that you've upgraded the systems, why would you waste your time and my time like this"? I did call first and was told my contact was not in the office today. Am I going to call them on Monday, no way, I'll let them wallow in their own dirty deeds and I hope the dealer that went out of business did have their old system and it's nowhere to be found.

However, at the end of the day, I finished my goal of 150 calls for the week, got two appointments when I thought I would have none and moved a few potential sales closer to closing, but what made me feel the best was the email I sent to the account.  Looking forward to a great week next week!!

-=Good Selling=-

Special Note: Please keep in mind that any members can post new messages on the new Print4Pay Hotel forums. We're all here to learn more about the industry and share information.  Sharing information, sales techniques and solutions can help all of us.

What I share on the forums may help someone else who can't or does not know the answer. Or maybe it's that tidbit of sales knowledge that helps us close another deal.

Let's face it we're not in this crazy business because we like copiers/printers/fax, we're in it because we have the ability to write our own pay check along with being able to do our own thing from time to time.

Those veterans in the industry know what I'm talking about.  Heck, if you're an above average producer you can write your own ticket in this industry. If you're below average the information from the site can help you become a top earner!

The Print4Pay Hotel forums was created back in 2003. To make a long story short, Ricoh had a forum/message board on there aficio league (intranet site).  Many of us conversed about solutions, hardware and shared information. I had just sold the of my first 80 ppm digital copier to a print shop in NJ. It was a great sale until I had a call from the owner asking me to take the machine out (he had not signed the D & A yet), because the 80ppm could not reproduce halftones that were acceotable for his print/copy business.  I went there and truth be told the halftones were not good, we sent techs, ricoh techs and nothing made a difference.  We pulled the machine and I lost a sale.

 
To say the least I was not happy, I kept digging and had a former Ricoh person tell me that Ricoh new in advance that the 80ppm would not produce good halftones.  After I heard this I blasted the TRUTH about the new system on Ricoh's message boards, the first reason was an emotional one since I was upset, but two I didn't want to see this happen to anyone else. Thus a few days later my account was deleted from the site. 

At this point I stated I could do a better job and started my own forums on an MSN community. A few weeks later I was re-instated on the Ricoh message boards with the condition that I would not slam Ricoh products.  Well, I accepted because I needed the site at that time, but in the mean time I was emailing members stating what had happened.  After a few years my msn community had more action than the Ricoh forums, another year later I started what you see today. 

Today we have members from every manufacturer, members from all over the world. It truly is a global community.  But the community can't work if members don't share information. You might ask "how can I help", that's easy, post a question, post a story about a sale or a solution sale, tell us what you like or don't like, ask for help like how to do this or how to do that.  Maybe you had a similar sale like I did, well post it here so we can all benefit from your knowledge.

As sales people in the imaging industry we have no union, little help from corporate marketing (rarely do you get the real spin on certain products), we pretty much have to do it all (sell, market, prospect, research, close). If you've been doing this awhile most upper level people want to keep sales people in the dark about certain things on many levels.

The Print4Pay Hotel is your community, treat it as an extension of your family. No question or thread is not worthy on the forums. We are here to help each other sell more, become more knowledgable and support ourselves and our families.

Please find the time to contribute to the forums, you'll be glad you did.

-=Good Selling=-

Compact, High-Performance Monochrome MFP for the Workgroup

Plano, Texas (July 3, 2013) - Muratec America, Inc., manufacturer of multifunction office equipment and business-class document solutions, announces today the availability of the MFX-3091, an A4 monochrome multifunction device that delivers exceptional PC printing, copying, faxing and color scanning to the workgroup.

“The MFX-3091 is a strategic product for Muratec as it allows us to deliver multifunction performance to workgroups that require printing, scanning and faxing, however are sensitive to device acquisition costs,” said Jim D’Emidio, President, Muratec America, Inc. “The MFX-3091 is key to our managed document services strategy as it enables dealers to cost-effectively replace stand-alone printers with a device that offer business-critical solutions such as scanning and faxing.”

The MFX-3091 offers 4-in-1 multifunction performance including PCL 6 and PostScript 3 printing, copying, faxing and color scanning. The device ships with a 50-sheet reversing automatic document feeder (RADF), 35 page-per-minute print output, duplex printing, 150-sheet output tray and 256-MB of device memory. The MFX-3091 is a convenient desktop scanning solution and enables users to scan documents to an e-mail address, PC folder or FTP location. The 48-bit color scanner offers an enhanced scanning resolution of 600 x 600 dpi and supports scanning into TIFF, PDF, Encrypted PDF, XPS and JPEG file formats.

The device features a standard 250-sheet paper cassette (16 – 32 lb. weights supported) and 100-sheet multipurpose bypass tray, which can support media weights of 16 - 43 lb. An optional 530-sheet paper cassette (3091CAS) can be installed, bringing the total paper capacity to 880-sheets. A paper cabinet (C2700CAB) is available to create a free standing MFP solution and enables the convenient storage of empty imaging supply boxes (to enable the return of used supplies for recycling), unused imaging supplies and both specialty and plain paper.

The MFX-3091 ships with a standard 33.6 Kbps fax modem and includes PC-faxing, T.37 Internet faxing,  (100) location speed dial directory, group dialing (up to 20 groups can be registered), broadcasting and transmission confirmation reports.

Additional features & benefits of the MFX-3091 include:

• ·        Backlit, adjustable LCD screen
• ·        QWERTY keypad located underneath one-touch buttons to enable simplified e-mail address entry, contact registration and job programming.
• ·        330 MHz processor and 5 second first-print-out-time
• ·        Letter-size platen glass
• ·        ID Card Copy mode enables the seamless capture of two-sided identification cards
• ·         EnergyStar® compliance
• ·        Color scan to USB flash drives
• ·        Ability to change the “Reply To” field when performing a scan to e-mail
• ·        Access control features to regulate machine access and usage
• ·        TWAIN and WSD compliant scanning

The MSRP for the MFX-3091 is $2,495.00. The unit offers dual component imaging cartridges designed for user replacement. The TS3091 toner cartridge is rated at 10,000 pages (5% page coverage). The DK3091 drum cartridge is rated at 30,000 impressions.

Muratec America, Inc. is a manufacturer of multifunction digital office equipment and business-class document solutions.  The company is a Plano, Texas-based subsidiary of Murata Machinery, Ltd., a privately held multinational corporation based in Kyoto, Japan.  Visit www.muratec.com for more information.

We're so fortunate to have Rick Backus  (Cybercon Services) as a Print4Pay Hotel Sponsor/member. Rick is the guru of Business Process Optimization and we as Dealers should look no further than our own business process for sales orders.  It's the old "Eat what you Cook" and if more of us had SOPA in place, well.....we can sell the heck out of it.  This month please welcome back Ricoh Backus with:

Sales Order Process Automation

• Level of attention paid to all the details of the process (credit, leasing, inventory, scheduling, delivery, etc.).  Not everyone is as in tune with this as you might expect, which is a separate issue for another time.

• Keeping all the relevant parties (sales, service, admin, management & customers) up to date on the status and scheduling of the order.

• Capturing and tracking the myriad of associated documents from numerous sources, several of which require signatures.

Here are some screenshots of a typical sales order record in SharePoint (attached at the bottom of the blog)