MFP Copier Blog

Today, I had to get some tires replaced and when you're on the road as much as I am, well.......I have a tendency to not clean my car as often as I'd like to. But, today was one of those days to find old faded toll receipts, a dried up banana peel, some forgotten business cards and a copier prospect card from 1992!  Now, my car is not 21 years old and I'm really at a loss how the card got there, but it brought me back to my "golden" era of selling copiers.

In 1992 I was 32 years old and running my own Adler Royal & Copystar copier dealership out of Atlantic Highlands, NJ.  We had some desktop computers but they were mostly used to letters and keep the accounting part of the business up to date. I can remember that we used Peachtree accounting software and for the life of me I can't remember the word processing software.

What I do remember is the prospect index cards, my prospect box (it was orange), and the index field tab cards.  We had an index tab card for each month of the year.  When we cold called in the field or called from the telephone we would fill out a prospect card and when we got a lead or generated a hot prospect.  We would then hand write what we spoke about, the type of copier that they had, the contact information and the date and time that we spoke with the prospect. Following up was just a matter of putting the card in one of the future months, thus if the month was June and the prospect wanted a call in three months, we would then forward the card to the month September and mark the day of the week that we needed to follow up. If you took sloppy notes or put the card in the wrong month there was always the possibility that you would lose the opportunity! 

Before I had my dealership I worked as a sales rep for a Minolta dealership and looking back there was a five sales guys, we were all in our mid twenties and I could tell some stories about what we did to alleviate the stress of selling!!  As new sales guys rotated in and old ones rotated out there was always someone looking to swipe the their index (prospect card file box). 

These were the days that if we had no appointments we would load a copier in the car and go cold calling, we were hawking to find the right prospect to do a demo on the spot and we used every close possible to have the order signed, get the check and return to the office without the copier. My how times have changed. There were was no CRM software, there were no rules, you just knew that you needed to make the touches to find the prospects, whether by grabbing the yellow pages and calling right down the list or knocking on doors.  Funny back then the script was kinda like this:  Hi this Art and I'm with Copy Machine Specialists, who am I speaking with? HI so and so, the reason for my call is to see if your company is interested in a plain paper copier? If there was a yes, we would schedule the appointment and if there was a NO we would dial the next number (and we didn't have to ever call them back!!).

Yes, things have changed, but I can remember some really good tricks we used to play on each other in the sales room (like unscrewing the handset on the mouth piece of the telephone and then screwing the plastic cover back on, the rep would start making calls and would only hear on the person on the other end saying hello, hello, is anyone there and in the mean time the rep was screaming in to the mouthpiece of the phone), indeed it was a great time to sell.

Don, John, Kelvin, Matt & Kathy we had some great times.....

=Good Selling=-

          Contact: Art Post

          arthurkpost@gmail.com

Newly Revamped Print4Pay Hotel Website Provides

Members with Added Features and Value

Highlands, New Jersey, June 18, 2013 – Art Post, founder and proprietor of The Print4Pay Hotel www.p4photel.com, has announced the rollout of the new and improved Print4Pay Hotel Website. The original Website, which was designed by copier and MFP professionals for exchanging information among colleagues in the imaging industry and storing industry knowledge and information, has been enhanced with additional features and functionality with the look and feel of a social networking site.

The new Print4Pay Hotel site still offers the popular Forums that have been so critical to members for exchanging ideas and best practices, but now provides members an opportunity to have their own “wall” where they can upload videos and audio, post photos, post on each other’s walls, and send private messages to one another.

“It’s now more of a social site and is a hybrid between Facebook and LinkedIn for users in the imaging industry,” says Post. “I wanted to develop a unique user experience for imaging professionals in our industry.”

A new feature is “Grind My Gears,” a 15-30-second audio clip where once every two weeks Post will rant and rave in an audio file about something in the industry.

As with the original Website the revamped site will include weekly blogs, which are now available in a printable format. In addition, the site now features videos about hardware and solutions, and starting in 2014, the site will feature training videos for new salespeople.

Another new feature allows the user to elect to receive either an immediate verification whenever anybody posts a comment or replies to a post or just a notification when they log onto the site. The site also includes clip sets of images related to the imaging industry along with sales documents, photos, videos, audio files, and printable blogs as well as quotes or proposals shared by members. Members can also track street pricing, including information on what a machine was sold for or leased for, and the current cost per page on the maintenance agreement.

“The Print4Pay HOTEL was originally envisioned as a means to satisfy our need for knowledge and that mission continues with the new site and its many new features and enhancements,” states Post. “The new site just takes things to a whole new level and provides members with added value that is unmatched anywhere in the industry.  

The Print4Pay Hotel currently has more than 2,300 members. To become a member visit: https://www.p4photel.com/join

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Is it unreasonable to ask for ten calls per hour from a rep dedicated to setting a net new appointment?  Dang, ten calls an hour is sweet music to my years!  Just think that five hours of work will produce 50 calls and if you do this three times a week you'll have 150 calls and still have 25 hours (that's of you only work 40 hours a week) left in the week to travel to accounts, follow up with accounts, research, emails, mailers, educate and meet with prospects.

I have no clue what the industry average is for calls to appointments and frankly I don't care. I just make the calls and it seems that when I make the calls I can average 5 net new appointments per week. That's on top of the other appointments that I've made that can come from a variety of sources like leads (they few that I get), follow ups, or that rare occasion when someone calls in. 

When I look at a months worth of work I can have up to 20 appointments.  Out of those 20 appointments I can close 2 or maybe 3 of those the month that I call, I will lose some, some will not be interested and some will go on the back burner and a few may take longer than 30 days to mature. 

The amount of calls that you make directly impacts how many appointments you can make in the week and month along with how many orders you can write. Those 2.5 deals that I close each month could go down to 1.75  if I only make 75 calls per week, and 40 calls a week would not even eek out an order for that month.

Having a dedicated call plan in place where we'll have 5 hours of calls for 3 days a week for calling for new business. I will try not to set any appointments for those blocks of hours, however sometimes the plan will go awry and you'll have to change things up. But you pencil yourself in for another call block.

I'm 33 years in down the street sales and you can't rely on others to feed you leads, you've got to work hard and work many vertical markets and touch as many prospects as possible. Prospecting is like a dog looking for a bone, he's not going to give up until he finds it and after he finds it, he's right back to looking for another bone!

Oh, I forgot the real reason you need to make 150 calls a week is.... if you're not making the 150 calls a week, then your competitors are.

-=Good Selling=-

The Week in Imaging

A Sustainable Publishing Group Publication

21 Llanfair Lane

Ewing, NJ 08618

(609) 406-1424

www.theweekinimaging.com

              Contact: Scott Cullen

                       (609) 406-1424

                               scott@theweekinimaging.com

The Week in Imaging Seeks Nominations for 2013 Elite Dealer Awards

Ewing, New Jersey, July 17, 2013 – The Week in Imaging, a weekly online publication from Sustainable Publishing Group is seeking nominations for its 201 Elite Dealer Awards.

The Elite Dealer awards honor office technology dealers who exemplify an entrepreneurial spirit, exhibit innovation and creativity in the way they operate business, and display a commitment to their customers and the communities they serve as well as have the foresight to embrace new technologies and services that allow them to keep pace with ever-changing customer needs.

Dealers interested in a nomination form can download it at www.theweekinimaging.com or can request one from Editor Scott Cullen at scott@theweekinimaging.com or call (609) 406-1424

Deadline for Nominations is Sept. 6, 2013. Winners will be announced and profiled in The Week in Imaging throughout the month of October.

# # #

About The Week in Imaging: The Week in Imaging is an online, news and information resource that serves sellers of imaging technology, solutions, supplies and services, including independent dealers, VARs, and sales and service personnel in manufacturer direct branches. Content is developed by Scott Cullen, a long-time editor and contributor to imaging industry and office-related publications, who serves as publisher and editorial director.

Last week I posted Worst Copier Web Site in the World blog.  The Blog centered on the copier sites that were nominated and the threads about those sites from our Print4Pay Hotel members.

Even though our poll was not scientifc we had a lot of fun with the comments and just how terrible some of these sites are.  Unfortunatly these companies sell technology, however they can't find the time to update their sites, ingoring the site, or the layout is terrible!

In the #1 slot and the Winner of the Worst Copier Web Site in the World:  Baron Technology Group collected 33% of the votes.  One P4P member stated "They've successfully taken crappy web design to a whole new level".

Number #2, well we had three web sites tied at 12% each. Since I run the site, I made the call that The Copier Guy  web site is the runner up. I just checked in to the site and yup this would be #2, one page site actually displaying one of the old DiALTA series copiers.

Number #3, goes to Southeastern Business Machines which is OMG ugly with some horrible graphics. The site gives me a headache!

Number #4, Nevel Document Solutions (this was my vote for the worst web site), fonts are too small, too many logos next to each other, too much info on the home page. Bad desgin job, hope they got the design for FREE!

5th Place is awarded to Copier Tech Systems, Inc out fo Farmers Branch, Texas. Our members could not beleive that the copier graphic is one that is at last 20 years old and displaying an antique bin collator!! However, they do mention that they offer State of the Art Technology for copiers but are displaying a picture of a 20 copier that I sold 20 years ago!

Coming in at number 6 with 8% of the vote is Copier Plus out of Gaithersburg, Maryland.  They earned the 6th spot because they have not changed their products and news since 2005!!! Geesh that's eight years, why even have a site!!!

Sweet number 7 is Panalink with another terrible design, there are two links for "about us" and "contact" and both of them are not working.  Where are they located, no solutions which probably equals no business!!!

#8 Rapid Copier, take a look for yourself and you'll see why Rapid also made our top ten.

9th place goes to a jersey dealer Preferred Business Systems.

10th place is Associated Business Equipment from Oswego, Ill

Stay tuned to forums we've got another poll running for the BEST copier web sites in the world.

-=Good Selling=-

3D printers are hot, and they got even hotter after President Obama made mention of them in his State of the Union address this year.  My google alerts now carries at least 10-15 mentions of 3D printers each week, before the State of the Union address, maybe 5 or 6 per week.

Maybe you have or may be thinking about getting that 3D printer, could we possible see 3D MFP's (multifunctional device) that will scan 3D and copy 3D items in the near future?

Think about it, if I'm a novice user with a 3D printer and I'm really not good with engineering software or I'm tired of the template files that came with my 3D printer, why the heck would I want one?  Where I see the value at least for me, is the ability to place and item on the 3D MFP and then make copies of them. Think of it, you could make a copy of just about anything, whether it's a small part, a sculpture, knick knacks, flower pots, or whatever the heart desires. I'll admit I'm knew to the entire process of 3D printing, however if we had a 3D MFP would we'd be able to scan an item and then have that data transformed into a CAD or some type of engineering file.  Better yet, what about sending a copy of that item to another 3D printer that could be located anywhere in the world.  Could there be a 3D printer portable image format that's just dedicated to 3D MFP's for copying and scanning?  Would I be able to them email that to someone else?

Maybe 3D MFP's could be the first replicators that were used in Star Trek in the seventies.  I'm thinking there is a place for 3D MFP's in the very near future.  Would it be farfetched that we could scan out favorite pet and keep the likeness of them around forever?  Could we see color 3D MFP's in the near future?  The possibilities can become endless, but could also open up new businesses opportunities for those creative entrepreneurs.

Why haven't we seen any of the major copier manufacturers enter the industry?  It's a no brainer to me, closed consumables, service contracts, onsite service and training it's all there. 3D printers would be a great additional to your dealerships portfolio of products and services offered also!

3D printers, 3D MFP's (maybe), but for right now it seems like it's the Wild, Wild West about this for this growing industry.

-=Good Selling=-

I had an email from a new Print4Pay Hotel member the other day asking for help.  Here's the email:

I saw your posts on The Week in Imaging site and then decided to sign up for the P4P blog. Very informative! You mentioned to a poster on the Imaging site, that if requested you could email some good elevator speech scripts. I am fairly new to the industry and am struggling coming up with an effective, compelling elevator speech. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Here goes:

1.  State of mind is key, you've got to clear your head and focus on the task ahead which is to first get through the DM and then try to set the appointment.

2.  When you've got the DM on the phone you need to grab their attention quickly, since I sell a lot of wide format I'll always drop of name or two about accounts that I've already sold.

3.  Give them a short story on how you helped Joe Smith Architect reduce their costs or improved a key aspect of their business or a business process.

4.  Everyone is asking for a 15 minute meeting, ask for 14 or 16 minutes of the DM's time (this will tell the DM that you detail orientated).

5.  Use key phrases such as increase customer service, increase billable hours, reduce your dependency on paper documents, reduce your costs along with reducing your days payable outstanding (great for CFO's).

6. Tell them why you are calling, ie; "I'm calling to schedule a 14 or 16 minute appointment..."

7. Shoot for the early AM appointment around 8AM or 830AM, proves that you are driven and not a slacker that only schedules meetings at 10AM & 2PM.

8. Thank them for first for taking your call, and then go right to the pitch.

9. Enthusiasm is contagious, the excitement in your voice can spread to the prospect and he or she may meet just because they need to met you.

10.  What day is best to meet, I have this day or that day open at these time slots, never tell them that you have the entire week open.

If you're good you can take all of the above points and make it into your own telemarketing script.  There is nothing new in telemarketing, there is no golden script, no new approach, however what is old becomes new and some us are able to put a slightly different spin on scripts. Over the years I've taken bits and pieces from what I've heard or read and try to make it my own.  Sometimes and probably most times, I'm winging it for each call, I'll make sure I know what the company sells, supports, or the service they provide before the call.  I'll even research the person I want to speak with before I call them (linkedin).  Above all make it your own, don't stammer and keep it short an to the point!!

I'll be posting a script in the next few days that covers all of the above points for those who may need one.  It will be a Premium Blog.

-=Good Selling=-

We’ve all had the experience. You’re pushing a deadline, your anxiety is high, you need to make a few copies and get to a meeting ASAP.  There is no time to spare.

Everything is ticking along fine, coming together nicely, until you get to the copier.  It jams.  A light comes on.  It’s out of toner.  It’s out of paper.  A light is blinking and it won’t budge.  You open and close a few drawers.  You pop the front panel.  You peer around the back.  You switch it off and on.  Nothing happens.  Time is running out.  You’re screwed.  The copy machine has defeated you again".

I can't even remember where I picked this up, but it was in my google alerts and thought it would be a good topic about copier karma.

What comes around goes around, and I'm thinking this may be a case of Copier Karma coming back to haunt the people in the office.  Some may ask how do you get Copier Karma, for those of us in the industry it's simple, the copier salesperson put a hex on the copier before we delivered it to you!

Yup there are those of us that have that ability to put a curse on your copier, and we do it for a good reason.  Here's a few tips

on how to get a hex put on your next copier.

1.  You called the rep and asked for proposal, the rep responded within hours, scheduled an appointment and presented the proposal.  You stated all looks well, and we'll get back to you right away.  The sales rep left repeated messages, emails and a few stop ins over the course of a month and you never had the courtesy to respond.  Committing this act means (automatic curse) that all of your new copiers will be cursed from this day forward.

2.  The sales rep was in your office meeting with the CFO & CEO about a new system, you walked by and made a snide comment stating "What is our machine broke again"?  This act puts a hex on you only, and your days of care free copying, printing and scanning is numbered!

3.  You meet with the copier rep, let them go through their entire presentation, and then you drop the bomb stating we are looking at six different systems from six different vendors.  Dropping this bomb enables the hex that whatever copier you buy or lease it will always be a piece of crap.

4.  You told the copier rep that the only buying criteria you have is price, who ever has the lowest price is who I will buy from and we don't care about service, or brand quality.  With this one you've just unleashed the HOLY Grail of all curses. All of your existing copiers and all new copiers will be forever cursed no matter who your buy from.

5. Your company and or you signed all of the paperwork to order your new machine,  two hours later you call and tell the sales person to "hold" the order, the salesperson because you got a better deal from someone else.  You and your copier have been cursed for eternity, as a matter of fact we've put a curse of every piece of equipment the office.  The coffee maker, the water cooler, your phone and the microwave.  Every wonder why you've had problems operating all of those devices? 

At times I wish I could curse a copier, and all we ever ask for in the sales process is to return a call in a timely manner, don't make any snide comments, think about price (is $20 more a month too much to spend for a quality brand or excellent support), if you were going to buy a car would you really go to six different dealers, and usually the first deal is the best deal, plus you signed an "order", would you like someone to do that to you or one of your people?

-=Good Selling=-

"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=-