Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Thirty Six of Selling Copiers

Yay!  The end of the week and just two days from the end of February sales month for me.  The week has been very good to me and I'm hoping the next two days can be the icing on the cake.

To date I'm at $76K for the month and there are still two additional opportunities that could come home to Papa.  One opportunity is for $56K that I have a verbal on and documents were sent for signatures today.  The other is rather small at about $5K. I hate to count my chickens but there's a decent shot that I can get to about $130K for the month.

Even if I finish where I'm at it will be a great start to 2021.  The thought that lingers in the back of mind is to limit the slumps that I'll see in 2021.  As I stated in the previous blog that only comes with prospecting.  Guessing this March will be all about prospecting.

A few minutes ago I was able to log into Linkedin Live to hear Earl Everson chat about sales people in our industry.  What we both agree on is that most new and even novice reps have no clue as to how our devices can help solve day to day business workflows or issues.

Business Intelligence?

One item I always bring up is if the client is using and cloud applications for their document retention.  Are you using apps like DropBox, Box, Google Drive or One Drive?  Sometimes you'll get a no but more and more often I'm getting a yes we are using one of those apps.  It's that time that you can then ask the client to please tell me how you are scanning those documents now?  That question will lead you down the path of their existing workflow for scanning.  In most cases you will find that your product/feature will save them time in their scanning process. In addition this can lead to several other questions,  such as is there a need to scan document to MS Word or how about MS Excel, or maybe ask if their existing scans are searchable. Asking that those questions leads you down the rabbit hole and you'll be amazed at what you may find out. Is there a document retention policy, is there pain in the current process, or you might unearth the holy grail that the client has been thinking about the implementation of content management solution.  Of course if you don't ask you don't get.

Read Your Brochures

To this day whenever I get get a new brochure for one of our devices I will read it and then read it again.  In addition many manufacturers publish their own internal information guides about their products.  Read them, not once, not twice but multiple times. They are packed with nuggets of information that can make you the guru of your product in your market place.  In most cases after reading these you will have questions. So don't just read to day I read it, jot down your questions and get answers.  Finding those answers to your questions will help you understand your product better and when you know you product better than your competitor it becomes a win win for you.

Q & A

You can go many places to get those answers one of those places in our forums. There are man of us that are hear to help because it's something we like to do in addition the chat we have can also help us understand a competitors product or feature.  Another way is to go directly to your manufacturers rep to see if they can help.

If you don't know the product you're selling inside or out the next salesman will. The question becomes who do you want to be?

-=Good Selling=-

Geesh it's been another week since I last blogged!  My apologies for not keep up with the or three blogs a week.  It's been a bit hectic in the last three weeks or so.

We have another week left in our sales month of February and for the month my revenue is about $72K.  I believe last month was about $80K in revenue, thus I've collected enough revenue for quota 5 weeks early.  Some would take a bit of a break, some would take a few days off and some might just hide for a few days.  For me it's a chance to add gravy for the quarter and put my self in the plus position for the start of the second quarter.  My pipeline has dried up a bit thus it's back to what we do best, prospecting.

Today I was scheduled to be on-site for training for one of my clients in Monmouth County.  Training is not something I do that much anymore however with this account it was the offer of the personal training that tipped the scales for the order last month.

The drive along the Ocean was nice especially since the temps were in the high forties.  Not bad for a day in February around here.  I arrived on time and spent a few minutes with the DM about the logistics of performing training during COVID 19.  We agreed on three shifts of three people each.  We were all wearing masks and doing the distancing thing.  It's been more than a year since I've trained anyone for use of our IMC color series.  While in front of the copier I realized that I didn't know as much I as thought I did.  Lucky for me that the staff I was training new less than me.  The training went well all were satisfied but it was bugging the heck out of me because of what I didn't know.  By tomorrow I'll have that knowledge and get back with the client.  Right, one more item one of note is that one of the staffers asked me to figure out why quick books was still using the old print driver.  That issue was solved by just closing the program and starting it back up again.

All in all it was a good morning and on the drive back to my home office I was sent another purchase order for an A3 color MFP with a net new client.

While things are going well I also know that sometime in the near future things will not be going well.  I could say that I'm on a bit of a hot streak, but that hot streak will become a slump.  You can't avoid the slumps, they will happen, however what you can do is to minimize the time and the scope of the slump.  That brings up back to prospecting, it never stops, it never end, because once you stop prospecting all is lost. of that month or quarter.

Tomorrow means that I'll be back to square one with making calls, sending emails and in-mails.  After all of these years it's just something I'm used too.  I really don't dread the act of prospecting and that's because I know that "x" amount of good will come from it and that translates to order, commissions and revenue.

-=Good Selling=-

Losing is the Key to Winning Part II

I've know Deon Boshoff for many years and Deon has been a member of the Print4Pay Hotel for as long as I can remember.  Deon is the Managing Director at Nashua Paarl & West Coast in Cape Town, South Africa.

Nashua offers print & print solutions, workspace solutions, connectivity and surveillance & access control solutions for their marketplace.

Deon offered up some additions to a recent blog I re-posted on Linkedin last night (Losing is the Key to Winning).  His offerings are in red and I think Deon offers up some great additional information for all of us.

Losing is the Key to Winning Part II

We hate to lose right?  Nothing grinds my gears more, than losing a prospect. The reason why your daily activity must increase to make provision for the losses and declined credit approvals. Your pipeline should be 3x your target i.e. R120 000 pm x 3 = R360 000 pm at all times.

I expect that I should be able to secure an order from all of my prospects. I expect to bat 1.000, however the reality is far from that.  I definitely lose more deals than I win. A healthy pipeline is the only answer together with exceptional activity.

In fact, I lose about 65% of the time. Then your activity should increase by 65%

Is losing 65% of the time a bad thing?  I don't think so, because I know that every lost deal moves me closer to obtaining an order, in addition there is so much to be learned from the deals you don't get. Hopefully you made friends with the business people and obtain the necessary information, now they also know you and they can put the face to the name, you informed them what type of products and services you can offer, your service levels and most probably that you are local?

Just today, I had a prospect contact me to tell me that they were not moving forward with my proposal, and that they are going to stay with their current vendor. Did you offer all your products and services? Your opposition might not have them all?

At first I thought it was awesome that I was contacted right away,  because I  wouldn't have to place countless calls or emails with no answers.  Secondly, I thanked them for their time and asked why we were not able to secure their business.  In a response email, I was told that pricing was similar for both systems, and they were happy with the present dealer and their level of service. Never give up, promote yourself, your products and services. Always be courteous

Hey, that's okay by me, I don't mind losing, because I was able to keep the door open for Managed IT and BDR, which they expressed interest in.  The dealer that I lost to does not offer those services, thus I'll be able to schedule an appointment down the road and an opportunity to "own" the network.  Once I own the network, I'll have a better shot at upgrading the copier sometime down the road. Fill your diary to fill your pipeline to get a deal

The prospect emailed this back to me:

"We were impressed with you and your presentation." Your presentation should be the differentiator.

"As I mentioned, it just came down to who we were familiar with since both your pricing's ran neck-and-neck." The reason for more daily activity.

Here's what I learned from losing today

• The prospect values service and support because price was not the issue, this will be helpful when having a conversation about our IT offerings and all our other products & services
• I was able to keep a high level of margin and was told pricing was neck and neck, thus on future deals against that competitor, I may have a leg up with pricing make notes and remember for future quoting purposes
• The prospect is loyal, because they stayed with the current provider. We're all in need of more loyal accounts. How, by visiting them regularly, the reason for a minimum of 5 appointments per day
• I found a prospect for Managed IT, yes sir,  because I asked additional qualifying questions about their current IT status and initiatives. In today's business environment we cannot ONLY focus on the copier, ask the qualifying questions on the other products and services we offer?
• I found a prospect for Backup Disaster Recovery, could not help to see the dozens of backup tapes when they showed me their current copier system, which lead to, "what happens if there is catastrophic loss and when was the last time you tested your backup" Be the expert and suggest alternatives
• They will be a prospect again for a copier in 30 months or so, and what comes around goes around since they decided for a 36 month lease. Build your pipeline and diarize – stay in contact

All of the above then gets logged into my CRM, along with a call in two weeks to schedule an appointment about Managed IT services. Most important part of your daily sales cycle.

With baseball, not getting a hit in 7 out 10 plate appearances over your career will land you into the Hall of Fame.  In sales that means for every 3.3 opportunities I will have a sale, I'll take it any day of the week! The 10:3:1 ratio works all over the world in the same way.

-=Good Selling=-

Note from Art:  Special Thanx to Deon for his input!

I had not intention of writing a blog tonight, but something kept nagging at me to get back to my office and write.  As I write this I'm still trying to figure out why I'm writing this blog tonight. 

Was it because I had two appointments in the field today, or maybe it was because both appointments will lead to orders this week?  On second thought maybe it was because at one of my appointments I had them print me some print samples for another account that could lead to an additional order?

Maybe just maybe it's because I've found a way to be successful in the worst of times. The attitude of never giving up, showing up every day (thanx @Andrew Quillen), and the desire to succeed is where it all starts.  I'm a firm believe that we can do anything when we want it bad enough.

Anyway I slice it today was a decent day in the field with two weeks left in my selling month. It also felt really good to be in the field for the better part of the day, however I still can't get past not seeing people smile. 

We're all yearning for the day when we can perform mask less business again in New Jersey.  After speaking with two different accounts today we all believe that the year of social distancing may be behind us in four short months.  In fact we all agreed that business seems to be picking up some speed again and there is hope that 2021 will be a great year.

The thought of replicating the roaring twenties 100 years later has crossed my mind.  Could we do it again, could history repeat its self one more time?  People want this to end, businesses what this to end and the pent up to demand to go out and live again could be just what the doctor ordered!

As you know I'm not a doom and gloom guy nor a woe is me and everything is bad.  We can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and the time is now to work towards the light and make things happen for ourselves and our families.

As I mentioned 30 some odd blogs ago I believe the next 5-10 years will be the best years we've ever seen.

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Twenty Six of Selling Copiers

It's been an entire week since I posted my last blog on the 27th of January.  I missed posting on day two hundred and twenty which marked my tenth month of working remote.

Nothing much has changed in New Jersey except for our Governor increasing in-door dining from 25% to 35%.  So gracious of him for the ten percent increase when many other states our allowing 100% in-door dining.  I also expect that he will extend the health emergency act for another month in the next week or so. One alarming executive order that came from our Governor was to extend access to outdoor dining to walkways, sidewalks and parking lots until November of 2021.  Oh frak could this mean that we'll still be under the health emergency till then?  I sure hope not, every extension of the health emergency means another month of most larger companies not going back to full staff.

Last week and this week has been busy for me on two fronts. One with writing three blogs about selling copiers in the seventies and eighties.  The blogs are awesome because they come from industry veterans that tell us what it was like to sell in the seventies and eighties.  The stories include how they prospected, what copiers they sold, what the comp was like and includes some fantastic stories.  One story was so awesome where one of our veterans tossed the prospects copier out the window, all because the prospect stated he will not buy until his present copier did not work. You've got to read these and we can all still learn about pain, and relationship building. How many times has we thought about taking a hammer to our prospects copier when we hears the same objection?

I went into the month of February with a verbal for a $54K order and until yesterday that order had stalled for different reason. At 4:45Pm yesterday our client agreed to sign the agreement and get the order moving. In addition he is now talking about adding a fifth production device in the coming months.  If the fifth happens in March or April that will make five production devices purchase in the last 12 months. I guess my takeaway is that there are still many businesses that are over achieving in the pandemic.  Which means as sales people we can leave not rock un-turned. Turn over those rocks!

I was also able to get order docs from an existing client for a color MFP while replacing a 9 year old mono copy machine (the client was just using it as a copier).  On Wednesday I had to travel to a net new account where they had 30 inches of snow over the course of Monday and Tuesday.  The mounds of snow was ridiculous and thank goodness I took the wife's jeep that day.  That net new account sent me the order docs yesterday.

Starting on Monday I'll have 12 selling days of the month left. If all goes well I will have my quarterly quota numbers by the end of the month.  March will be the gravy month, thus it's like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  We move towards the light and that means I can't stop and rest I need to keep pushing to build a great quarter and keep me ahead while moving into the second quarter.

One of the orders I had for last month closed for one reason only.  My prospected stated he didn't want to lease along with not wanting to part with $33K for the order.  Stalemate or was it an objection.  I took it as an objection and used the Bakers Dozen lease.  It worked and the order was sealed.  The objection wasn't really about the client not wanting to lease, the objection was the fact that the client did not want to pay that kind of interest.  The Bakers Dozen Lease got the interest rate to 8% which he was okay with for a finance lease.

More to come next week!

-=Good Selling=-

I came across this blog I wrote from 8 years ago on my old site.  Cleaned it up some and thought it would be a good read to share with everyone.

8 Tips from Selling Copy Machines in the 80's

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 wanted (not needed) a plain paper copier.

I'll go out on limb and bet that at least 70% of today's reps that are selling copiers today probably always thought that copiers always printed on plain paper!  Yet that was not the case. In the eighties every business wanted a plain paper copier.  The ability to copy on bond paper saved companies money, they were easier to maintain and made filing copies easier.

I also remember that we were trained after every sale to ask "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 pitch is when a prospect asked for a better price, I would then answer with, "If I give you a better price will you sign the order today and give me three referrals of businesses that would need a plain paper copier?"

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 our techs.
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 to put in your binder of references

I'm sure that some of you 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,  and calling an existing customers to see if they know of anyone they could refer me to.

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Nineteen of Selling Copiers

It's Wednesday and it's already been a long, long week for me.  I was able to secure a net new at the end of last week for about $30K.  Thus I came out of January at about $90K.  A nice head start for the quarter.   However there is always the good with the bad, and that bad part is that another net new for $35K has gone back in the weeds on me.

Thus February is going to be somewhat of a challenge to get to my quota.  In addition February only has 20 selling days!  That's 10% of my month lost before it starts.

After two hundred and nineteen days there is still no relief in site for businesses getting back to full staff in New Jersey.  Our Governor is stating that he is hoping that New Jersey will be somewhat back to normal in July. In addition I've heard that he would not lift the health emergency order until we have 60% of the NJ population vaccinated.  By my calculations at our current vaccination rate it would take just about two hundred days which is more than six months.

Better Call Art

The last part of my day was the best part of the day for me because I had a chance to help one our reps with a wide format opportunity.  When you have a wide format opportunity I like to say "Better Call Art". 

We took about 45 minutes to go over some notes for the wide format opportunity and strategize how on it would be presented via a MS Teams Meeting.  This opportunity was in the last couple of months with their current wide format and wanted to move to another device that offered color print as well as color copy.  Much of our conversation was centered around the cost per square foot for service/supplies along with some new features that we thought would help the client. 

Little did I know that our rep wanted me to stay on the MS Teams meeting while he email the proposal and then called the client in.  The call to the client went through and there I was doing my best imitation of Silent Bob.  Listening is key right?

  With MS Teams we have the ability to do a text chat and before I knew it I was coaching him through the call with specs, numbers and features for the device we were offering. I then realized what a useful tool the chat feature is and having the ability to listen in on the call and be the Silent Bob and offer up questions and answers for our rep. 

After the called ended we stayed on the MS Teams meeting and gloated about how cool it was to have a Silent Bob on the call.  I guess that's virtual coaching at it's best.  We'll find out more tomorrow about how well we did.

Wide format is such a great product to sell because there's not that many of us that understand the specs, and can speak the language anymore. In addition there's only three major players in the AEC wide format market place. 

Tomorrow we have our annual sales virtual kick-off event.  Should prove to be interesting since it's all virtual.  I have short time to prospect in the AM and then it's a real trip to the office!

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Fifteen of Selling Copiers

Five days is all that's left to reach ten months since I was optioned to remote working.  The last ten months have been a learning lesson with many mistakes along the way.  But how can you learn something new without making mistakes?  You can't.   It takes desire, determination and dedication to succeed.  I've mentioned this in other blogs that you can't teach nor coach the three D's of selling.  You either have it or you don't.

Don't get me wrong you can still be an average sales person and make average pay without the three D's. But who the hell wants to be average?  I did not get into to sales to be average!  I got into sales on a fluke, however I was addicted to sales when I received my first commission check.  To put it in a nutshell I can make whatever I want when I want.  That my friends is a great job to have.

Opportunities for End of Month

As of yesterday my only two possible opportunities for the end of the month (25th) went in the weeds. There was no return email or phone call from them.  Both are net new and both have revenues of over $30K each.  Adding both of those to this month would make a great start to the new year. 

By the end of the day today I heard back from both of these opportunities.  Both are still in the running for the last two selling days of the month.  I think with the one account the objection of not moving forward on Tuesday has been answered. With the other opportunity a new objection was raised today via email.  That email basically told me that they are still up in the air and did not want to commit to a lease now because of the uncertainty of COVID19.  Funny because that objection was not mentioned in our meeting last week.  We are meeting tomorrow and I've already set the stage to answer the lease commitment objection.  For now that answer is to use a deferred lease for 90 days.

I went on to spell out the estimated time of delivery, the fact that there is no money down, and the lease is billed in arrears.  By my math if delivery takes place in February the first payment would be due in June.  In addition from everything I'm hearing is that we should be past COVID19 or on the road to getting back to normal by June.

Appointments

Today was the first day that I had two appointments back to back in at least four months.  One was with an existing account and the other was a net new client.  Both accounts were close together and thus travel time was not an issue.  My first appointment with an existing account was to pick up docs that they had emailed to me a few weeks ago.  The quality of the scans were not good thus the reason to schedule.  Getting in front of clients for any reason can always lead to additional opportunities.  At our meeting today we discussed IT services and how that works with their existing client.  The more I got to know the more I knew that their could be an opportunity in the near future.  Thus the trip there just to get the documents was not a waste of time.

The second appointment was with that net new account. I can't speak about the the offering however I can tell you that I was in my zone with the type of account I feel most comfortable with. End result is that I need to do some testing and get back to them asap.

End of the Day

By the time I got back to the office I had some time to muster up a few calls and a few emails.  All were follow ups to move existing opportunities forward.

Two days left and still almost 10% of the month to go.  Anything can happen it's all about the harder you work the luckier you get!

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Thirteen of Selling Copiers

Not much has changed since I wrote my last blog on the thirteen from last week. One opportunity is in and still looking to see if I can land two net news by the 25th of this month.  Seems like every opportunity has some sort of hoop that needs to be jumped through.

One opportunity is solid for $35K as long as I can get the lease approval and the other potential client is extremely price conscious. At my meeting today with that the price conscious client I felt I was saying no more often than I was saying yes.  But using the "no" word did lead us to additional discussions about different hardware.  I rate this opportunity 50/50 at best for closing this week or any other week. We had all intentions of writing the order today but there was a snag with something that was not in my control.  Thus it's back to drawing board one more time for this opportunity.

This afternoon produced a great meeting with an existing account with the possibility of them changing their BDR and Managed IT to me.  There's much more work to be done and I was delighted that we were able to schedule an appointment with the next step for this client. Always schedule that next sterp before you leave a clients office or end the call.

Again prospecting has eluded me for quite a few days in a row.  But I can tell you that the act of asking for referrals has picked up some.  In the last week or so I've been able to add two additional opps based on asking for a referral. It's the old adage of "if you don't ask you don't get".

Cost Per Page

In the last week I worked a lead for and net new opportunity.  That net new client was in the need for a small A4 black device but also had a volume of 8-10,000 pages per month.  During discovery I found out that they were using an "x" brand of a small inexpensive (cheap) MFP.  I also knew the cost per page for that device was around six cents per page because of the high cost for the toner, drums and fusers.   

As much as I tried to convince the client that a $2.5K A4 device would save them thousands of dollars. It all fell on deaf ears.  After much going back and forth I found out that they only wanted to spend $400 for the device.  I stated do you realize how much you're going to spend on consumables?  It didn't matter and I guess they thought I was trying to give them a snow job.  I blame this on me, I should have asked them what their budget was and I did not.  If I would have asked that up front I would have walked away.  I will tell you it's hard to walk away when you know you can save the client so much money!  My fault  but I will chalk this up to what do you expect from a pig but a grunt.

Just yesterday I ran across another user who stated they were running 10K per month on an inkjet printer.  I was at the shop for another purpose and I wasn't able to see the printer.  I estimated that they are spending $20K a year just on ink!  This client will warrant a call however the logistics of having something bigger just may not work.  But another account to call on because there is a story to tell.

NJ COVID Update

We're still stuck in the same place we've been since August.  In August there was a partial opening of some services like dining, gyms, barbers and salons.  Next week our Governor will decide if he will continue the health emergency act for another 30 days.  The extension of the act will mean that offices will not go back to any sense of normal.  I also might ask what is normal now?

On average we are vaccinating 22,000 people per day. In order to vaccinate 9 million New Jerseyans it will take almost 406 days! 

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Nine of Selling Copiers

In 40 some odd business days it will be one year since I was optioned to working remotely here in New Jersey.  Two days after returning from our Presidents Club Trip to Aruba everything went to crap.  Just hard to believe it's going to be a full year.  Also hard to believe that I've been writing this blog series for almost one year.  Maybe it's time to write that book?

Today's positive cases for COVID19 reached an all time high at almost 7,000.  Many are calling for additional lockdowns while almost as many are calling for the lockdowns to end.  In addition it's an election year from our Governor.  I expect conditions not to change in New Jersey until June of this year.  I can only hope that it will happen sooner than later.

Today

As much as I tried to get ahead of the prospecting curve I was pushed back with either an important email or a call.  Those calls and follow ups need to be finished but it just wasn't in the cards today.  I was able to muddle through my important list of things to do but making the 25 plus calls or emails didn't happen.

I was able to process the one order I received late last week (was waiting for credit approval) today for about $64K.  In addition I was able to garner a $30K opportunity with a net new account.  I think this opportunity has legs for this week however I'm not counting my chickens just yet.   

One of my other opportunities for a color production device also committed to an appointment late this Friday.  I'm hoping this will be the appointment that locks down the order an we can move forward.  This opportunity is worth $35K.

Thus there's an outside shot that I might be able to run the month somewhere around $130K.  That would be nice and an awesome way to start the first quarter, however I know that anything can happen at anytime.  Thus the reason to continue prospecting and keep moving opportunities into the funnel.

Like I stated on the last blog about being ahead of quota is nice however if you slack off you'll be right back to where you started.  Just maybe this could be the year that I hit my revenue numbers early and not having opportunities go down to the wire.

Virtual Demos

Within a week or so one of my clients will be seeing a virtual demo for a color production device.  Since this is new to me and new to the client I was curious if anyone has any tips to share.  At this point I'm thinking virtual demos could happen more often because the client does not have to leave the office.  Would that be a fair statement?  I can remember many demo's in our office that didn't come to fruition because the client wasn't able to leave, got hung up on a project or just didn't have the time for the travel back and forth.  If you have any tips please leave them in the reply for this blog and they will be appreciated.

Conversations That Make You Think

I had three phones calls with one of my opportunities today.  She is very "red" and was peppering me with questions about features, pricing, and others that I just can't remember right now.  I've realized that I was not in control of the conversation and what happens when you're not in control is that you can make a mistake.  Those mistakes can be for pricing or features and once the mistake is made with a "red" person in most cases you can't take it back.

I had to find a way to grab control of the conversation and slow things down.  I was able to do that by giving the client an "atta girl".  I waited for the moment and then told her I was impressed with her knowledge and the need to get only the facts. There was a moment in silence and I then stated that we have many different features, price points and the best option is for me to get her a document that shows here everything she needs to know in a simple format.  It worked and now I have the time to research, do the pricing and make sure all is correct instead sparing with questions and answers.

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Seven of Selling Copiers

Apologies for only posting one blog last week however I've been dealing with sinus issues for the past few days.  It was somewhat better over the weekend however it's back and I'm playing catch up with many items.  I hope to have our weekly email address out this week but it's already 9:30PM.

Spy Chips

Spy chips have you heard of them?  Do you know what they are?  Seems I do because I follow press releases related to IT, IT services, MSP and MSSP.  Each week I publish an easy to read up dates of IT related articles and press releases that come across in my google alerts.  Last week I read that Toshiba in partnership with a Japanese University has developed a tool to sniff out those spy chips in electronic hardware.  The cost is about $15K per device but what's the cost of losing your proprietary or trade secrets?  The more I thought about this the more I thought this would be a great tool for dealers to offer to their high end clients. We all know how many of those Chinese made devices are in those accounts.  It makes a lot of sense to me, you can read the thread on that here.

My Day

Today was still filled with playing catch up with some accounts and prospecting.  I didn't fare to well with the prospecting but I was able to cross everything and everybody I wanted to contact on my to do list.  That was my goal for the day. No matter what I had to get those tasks completed so I could move forward.  Tomorrow means another list of things to do.  I think the end result was maybe 15 calls and and 20 emails for the day.  I was also able to schedule two appointments which was not good but it was better than the alternative of not setting any appointments.

Late Friday I emailed pricing over for that net new account that is no longer net new due a timing factor.  That account expired as net new on the last week of December.  Since I emailed the pricing late Friday, okay I'm going to stop right here for a moment.  In most cases when I think an order might be close,  in addition to sending the pricing proposal I'll also send the order docs.  For me it shows my intent to to move forward and gives the client everything they need in writing along with the proposal.  Since those docs were sent late Friday today was the day I would let the ball travel and follow up tomorrow.  At 4:45PM I received the signed order docs.  Yes, I was surprised and yes the order was a nice one coming in around $60K.  Yay! for once I'm ahead of the game, I've still got two weeks left in the month and there's another $40K out there for the month.

My next two weeks will be spent rebuilding the funnel because many have fallen off, many have delayed their decisions and many are still fighting COVID.

Tomorrow

I've got another full day tomorrow with a long list a new to do's and an on-site appointment to help an existing client. I'm hoping my time at this client can move the ball forward with a content opportunity that has been in the weeds for two years.  Plus I need to process that order and get back on the stick for email and calls.

More to come tomorrow!

-=Good Selling-=

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Four of Selling Copiers

I will be the first to admit that it's been challenging to get the motivation back after Christmas and New Years break.  Tuesday was my first official day back at work, however I did put some time in on Monday to clean up and update my CRM.

Opportunities

I had about twenty opportunities roll to the new year and also signed a small opportunity for some accessories.  Thus January will be the month of starting all over for at least another season.  There are times when I have that internal struggle when I ask myself do I really need to do this for another year.  The answer always comes back as yes I still WANT to do this. I'm still a fan of learning, still a fan of making money and above all I'm still a fan of reaching another goal.

I expected nothing from yesterday, it was the day to assimilate back to the daily grind.  One of the first emails I received yesterday was that one of my roll over opportunities is ready to pull the trigger on a production color device in the next 45 days. In addition I was asked to provide answers to questions along with providing a quote for the new systems.  This opportunity has been in the works for about two years and there's been a model change since the first proposal.  I thought the best way to introduce the new color production device was to email the link for the device configurator.  This way the client could select the options that are desired or needed and then send that configuration back to me for pricing.  By night fall I had the configuration back. I'll be quoted on this tomorrow and putting a little extra incentive to order this month with placement for next month.

It was about 5:45PM when another one of my clients (not net new anymore) emailed me that they wanted a proposal for their third production in the last nine months. I was both happy and a little concerned that many of our promo's had expired for the end of the year.  However the client was made aware that pricing may change.  I'm somewhat confident that this will be a $60K order for this month.  Docs will be going out tomorrow for this client as well.

Thus 2021 seems to be off and running with a potential for a 100K month.  As of today I have 13 selling days left in the month.  Add the vacation days, the holiday, the closing for the end of the year and most Januarys are always a struggle for me.  But it's not something that's new and it's more about just running the race and not sprinting to the end of the year now.

New Jersey

Not much has changed as far as the pandemic.  We still stuck in a partial shut down and our Governor renewed his "Health Emergency" declaration for another 30 days.  Our case load of infections is averaging around 5,000 per day and at least vaccinations are under way.

I still see another 4 to six months of our Governor extending the health emergency.  Which means another 4 to six months of most offices not being populated. 

-=Good Selling=-