Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

Invest in Yourself and Get Outstanding Sales Results

Art Post · 4/4/249:30 AM

First, I'd like to give kudos to the person on LinkedIn who made mention of "investing" in yourself. Can't remember who it was and it might have been Earl Everson. Earl, if it was you, thanks for giving me the idea to write about "investing in your sales career". If it wasn't you, I'll have to make sure that I thank that person.

Okay, first, I'm not much for doing videos. I like videos but don't enjoy seeing myself in them. Does anyone else feel that way? I guess I just like to write. Do you invest in yourself to further your sales career?

Investing in yourself can come in many flavors. Purchasing sales books, hiring a sales coach (something I never did, nor did I want to, guess I'm hard-headed), purchasing software, a new notebook, setting up a home office, the list goes on and on. One of the biggest investments you can make is in how to spend your time wisely. I recently caught a tip on LinkedIn that everything you do should be calendared. Setting a time for each task, whether it's 5 minutes or 30 minutes, will help you stay on track.

Throughout the years, I've never shied away from investing in something that will help me get better at what I love to do. One of my recent purchases is a Ricoh 65" Interactive Whiteboard and that is $4K investment that I will turn into thousands. The plan to is to develop videos using the board to help educate my clients on the benefits of having one, two or twenty!

Sales people

I'm amazed at how many salespeople in our industry don't make the investments that can lead them to the top of sales success. The opportunities are out there and a small monthly investment of only one hundred bucks per month or less can be the difference of always being at or above quota.

When was the last time you attended an industry event? When was the last time you wrote some type of content? When was the last time you used LinkedIn to increase your connections? When was the last time you posted something on LinkedIn? Why don't you have a client email list and send them educational content each week or each month? When was the last time you sent a client a thank you note for that recent order? When was the last time you gave a shout out for one of your favorite clients on LinkedIn? When was the last time you asked a client for referrals?

Most of the above questions only involve your time, why not take some time before or after work hours to invest in your sales career?

Constant Contact

Did you know that you can get a free 60-day trial for Constant Contact? After the first 60 days, the cost is only twenty bucks a month for 1-500 email addresses. Think, it's only 75 cents or so a day! If you ask, Constant Contact will actually do your first template for FREE. I've been using that same template for five years now. Once a week I send more than 2,000 emails to our Print4Pay Hotel members. Once a month I send to 30 of my top Stratix accounts. These are the accounts that I need to stay in front of. Out of sight equals out of mind!

LinkedIn Pulse

It's free! A place to write and share your blogs on LinkedIn. I know at least six people that write a blog each week on LinkedIn. Not me, because I do it here, but all of these people have kept at it week in and week out. Those people are now very successful and have developed some outstanding numbers of followers and connections. What's the key? Commitment, week in week out, set aside the time and don't stop after three months. It's a long-term commitment, but after 12 months, you'll probably gain thousands of connections and followers.

Video

Getting more and more popular every day. Still not sure if video is for me, but I've been toying with the idea. Check out Earl Everson, Larry Levine, or Dale Dupree; they've all made the time commitment and dedication to "keep on posting" (ah, that should be my line). Each one of them has thousands if not tens of thousands of connections. It's not easy, but what the heck in this life is easy?

You Owe it to Yourself

Why am I in sales? Have you ever asked yourself that question? I certainly have and the answers keep coming back the same.

I love helping clients
I enjoy solving problems
I enjoy making what I want when I want
I'm in control of my own finances

Make the investments whether it's time, a product, a book, a coach, a trip, software; it will be worth its weight in GOLD.

-=Good Selling=-

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

So what's your 3rd party dealer horror story?

Art Post · 3/28/249:30 AM

Thought this would be a good collection of threads to share about 3rd party dealer horror stories on our site. Here's the original thread.

"I don't give a sh** about dealers"

This was something a 3rd party solutions vendor rep said at a dealer event to me once that left me speechless. The actual full quote was:

"I don't give a sh** about dealers I just want to sell and move on."

Needless to say when that same person called about becoming a partner recently I had to shoot it down.

This got me thinking. It's hard enough day-to-day for our sales teams battling to the lowest click rate for pennies which is why we look at alternative solutions to increase profitability. So when those solutions go south it completely erodes sales confidence.

So what's your 3rd party dealer horror story?

Response 1)

Not sure if I can remember any third party horror stories, but I did have one with Ricoh many years ago when they introduced their first 80 ppm production MFP. At 80 pages a minute I thought it was a no brainer to place them in print shops. I was so wrong. Turns out that piece of crap could not print or copy good halftones. I sold one and it came back, I later found out from Ricoh peeps that they knew the device was horrid with halftones, however they did not tell the dealers or the sale peeps.

Response 2)

The most obvious one we had was we were working on a document management deal with our best client. The document management company started calling the client directly every 2 days and the client asked me to get them to knock it off. I called them and they said they didn't care what we wanted because we didn't know how to sell the products anyway, and that's why they needed to take over and call the client themselves.

Response 3)

Channel Sales is a difficult work process your sales cycle is dependent on other people to complete and you have to sell to the salesperson who is doing the selling. that takes time and trust, I get why these guys would not care about working with the dealer but they shouldn't bite the hand that feeds them for a quick deal, this takes a long time to cultivate. Software as Service companies is better at this than transactional companies. I was in channel sales for a long time it can be hard, especially when you are in the dark over the sales cycle

Response 4)

Yeti- I agree with you, and I was in channel sales as well. I think a big part of the program is there's a lot of channel sales people that don't understand that it's a two way street. When I was "feet on the street" you'd have a channel rep come in, make a presentation and then say "okay take me on meetings". To me that literally says the same thing that one of the reps said to me in my original post. Unless you're bringing real value and maybe a hardware lead from time-to-time then you're only as good as any other channel-schlub that comes in the front door.

Response 5)

About 5 years ago Print Audit made the decision to not sell directly to end users it was a policy ours. From the way I was compensated to how I interacted was solely focused on the success of the dealer.

Response 5)

Hey Paul, get out of my thread! (LOL)

Paul's one of the good-guys when it comes to these things

Response 6)

Here's one from last week with a certain company that just got acquired by another company (hint: sounds like LoJack)

Me: Hello we have a customer that we ordered cost-recovery tablets for in the past and we need to order a new one for a new office.

Guy in Budapest: What's the customer name and do you have a serial?

Me: Customer's name is Billy's World-O-Law and the serial is XXX-XXX-XXXXXXX

Guy in Budapest: I'm sorry we can not sell to you. You need to call Cranel.

I call Cranel, they tell me no, I can't buy it from them I need to call the manufacturer whom we ordered the MFPS from

I then call the manufacturer and get told "no those aren't our item codes you need to call Nusiance for that"

I then call back the Budapest guy and he tells me "No we can not sell to you, you need to call the manufacturer"

At this point we're trying to get a copier delivered so I call LoJack directly and finally get hold of someone who can help and lo and behold I get all of the information and a quote. We get the order and send over the PO.

Sales rep asks me what about set up?

I call the local Northern California dealer who says "yeah we don't set up those tablets you need to call the manufacturer "

I then call Lojack again and they're happy to help with the set up! FINALLY!!!

But then he says:

"We can get this scheduled in about six weeks........"

Response 7)

We were at a convention in Vegas talking to one of the App developers and we were visiting with him about a customer wanting his app and we needed to know more about it. 5 minutes into the conversation he looked over our shoulder and said "Oh there is a bigger dealer I need to go talk to them" and left in the middle of the conversation. We are not a huge dealer, 10 employees but that was over the top. We don't support his app....

Last thread

My solutions horror story is DocStar. One of my major MFP customers has a DocStar system. Year after year my customer has paid for DocStar's "Softcare" product support which is supposed to entitle the customer to support and the latest software updates. I'm guessing they've paid $18,000 through the years for the software support for which DocStar really didn't have to do much of anything. With the latest update they are now forcing the customer to upgrade to a whole new platform and here's the catch........You have to pay DocStar to do a data conversion to get your data onto the new platform. At minimum this upgrade will cost the customer another $14,000. I can tell my customer is not happy. Me as the sales rep am caught in the middle as the bearer of the bad news.

-=Good Selling=-

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

MFP Wars "The Final Five"

Art Post · 3/24/248:56 AM

re-post with corrections from 2009

How many players do we have now? Let's see: Ricoh, Xerox, Canon, KonicaMinolta, OCE, Sharp, Kyocera, Toshiba, Muratec, and Panasonic.

Many moons ago, I made a few predictions regarding what I thought would happen with Ricoh Americas. To sum it up, my thoughts were that Ricoh would take all non-performing dealers and ask them to become Lanier or Savin, while keeping the top Ricoh Dealer performers. It made sense to me that the Direct Channel would then have less competition for the Ricoh name and the emergence of the Print Production Group. Ricoh then buys Ikon, and the Direct Channel is now massive. Who do you feed first? Do I think this will happen? Well, we've all seen stranger things happen, right?

Xerox

Xerox remains a strong force with the purchase of Global and then the Global purchase of Conmdoc. As a matter of fact, there's a neat poll on the RFG Family Group. It asks, "What Dealer Will Global Buy Next?" There are three dealers listed, and all three are giants in their marketplace. RFG P4P Hotel. I'll try to repost here in a few days for everyone.

Canon

Canon, OMG! It seems they are signing any dealer that's still breathing. In my marketplace just a year ago, we had two Canon dealers. We now have SIX dealers all competing in the same marketplace. What a way to erode your prices and saturate the market.

Panasonic

Panasonic seems to have thrown in the towel with their dealer network, and Muratec remains strong as a secondary source. I would have to believe that three of these companies will retire from the MFP marketplace in a few years. Rumors were rampant a few weeks ago that Toshiba was going to sell its MFP division to Canon until Mark Mathews, President, and COO, Toshiba America Business Solutions, announced that this was not true and they have never engaged anyone. However, two weeks ago, Norio Saskai was announced as the new President and CEO of Toshiba Corporate.

Toshiba

Toshiba seems like they are betting the ranch on Micro Nuclear Reactors (don't want one of those in my backyard). I don't think we've seen the last of the Toshiba rumors, and if the economy keeps going the way it is, things will happen!

Kyocera

Rumors have also been rampant that Kyocera has or will sign an OEM agreement with Canon for their segment 6 systems. Let's be real; there are some great Kyocera Dealers out there. However, how many really have the sales force and the bucks to play in that market? I see Kyocera's future as a dominating force for Global Solar Panels. You read more press releases about their solar technology than their MFP technology.

Sharp

Sharp, your guess is as good as mine. They release some fantastic boxes, trying to play in Print Production, and then they pass on the "On Demand Show" in Philly. Go figure.

So, that leaves us with the "Final 5" copier companies: Ricoh, Xerox, KonicaMinolta, Canon, and OCE (rumors here with OCE that KonicaMinolta may make a move). These are my bets for who will make the final five. Maybe we can flip Kyocera and Oce.

The big conglomerates such as Panasonic, Toshiba, Sharp, and Kyocera may have bigger roads to hoe than MFPs.

-=Good Selling=-

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

I Did Something Different Today for Lead Generation

Art Post · 3/21/249:30 AM

At 8 AM, I found myself extremely far south in one of our open territories for an appointment. The appointment went well with a net new prospect that is having a terrible time with their existing vendor. Yes, it was a Xerox, and yes, the service and support were terrible.

When the meeting ended, I found myself an hour away from Atlantic City in New Jersey. Just so happens there was an AEC trade show event there at the Hard Rock Casino. Since the AEC (Architects, Engineers, and Construction) is in my wheelhouse for hunting wide format opportunities.

While I was in the parking lot of my net new prospect, I accessed the trade show's website and purchased admission for $50. A few days ago, I visited their site and reviewed the list of 100 plus vendors, also known as exhibitors. I thought this would be a great opportunity to do some booth-to-booth prospecting, especially since it was a cold day in March.

The Plan

I had some interest in knowing more about this event and if it might be a good fit for Stratix next year to exhibit our wide format MFPs. I really didn't want to hand out brochures or business cards because I thought that would be unprofessional since they were looking for leads.

I walked the show floor three or four times until I decided on the pitch I would use. The pitch was rather simple as I asked those in the booth how the show was going for them. My next question asked if they've attended this event before and if so, how many times. I then followed with telling them that I'm interested in attending next year with a booth. In most cases, I was then asked what I sell? Thus, the talk track went to a conversation about the services that we offered that then opened me up to ask them about types of devices that they have and who the contact person would be.

Walk Away

Out of the 100 or so vendors, I walked away with 15 decent contacts with DMs, devices they have, contact people, and where they are located. A few of these prospects I was never able to get the right time of day with cold calls or emails.

The end result was the four hours I spent at the show and the three hours of driving were well worth the time and the effort. Keep in mind that all of this work will be worthless if I don't follow up in a timely manner.

-=Good Selling=-

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

Prospecting and the End of the Day

Art Post · 3/14/249:30 AM

After sending out at least 20 emails and around 20 calls the bell rang for me to quit my day....

It was also a day that I spent in the my home office with some type of viral bug. However with the quarter ending in less than two weeks, the touches had to be made. In the past we used to state it was at least 7 touches to get the appointment. Since COVID it's more than 15 touches, yes more work and more touches.

When the bell rang and I found my-self were I started in the AM, nothing new, no appointments and could not move anything forward. I guess the saving is grace is that was was able to whittle my call and email list down by 40 clients.

It was abut 5:30PM when I received an email from a client that he was interested in meeting and wanted me to present some options. I've always stated "as long as your work, you will never know what tomorrow will bring you". #sales #selling #coldcall #technology #officetechnology #notgivingup

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person Prospecting

Ten Tips to get the DM to Take Your Call "Selling Multifunctional Copiers"

Art Post · 3/9/2410:29 AM

I noticed this blog was stuck on the on out old site, however there is still some great information.

Ten Tips to get the DM to Take Your Call "Selling Multifunctional Copiers"

Digging up leads for multi-functional devices can be trying at times, especially if you're new to the business.

I'm sure if you've just landed a position with a company that sells multi-functional copiers, you've been given a list of accounts to call on. These accounts will consist of existing accounts and named accounts (accounts that you'll need to crack). With the existing accounts, it will be pretty easy to book an appointment, but how about those "named accounts"? How the heck can you get past the gatekeeper to speak to Mr. or Mrs. Right? You could make phone call after phone call... and this isn't a bad idea. My personal approach is if you can't get them on the phone for reasons such as "just stepped out", "in a meeting", or "out to lunch at 4 PM", it's obvious they don't want to speak to you. Here are some of my favorite tips for constant contact:

Put them on a bi-monthly call; sooner or later, you'll catch up with them.
Vary the times that you call: early (before 9 AM), midday, and then between the hours of 4:30 and 5:30 PM.
After you've made your first call to the DM and left a message, send them a letter referencing why you are calling and a letter of introduction. Make sure to mention mutual accounts that they know or do business with.
See if you can get the email address of the DM. If so, send one email and don't become a pain in the ass with multiple emails. Here's a little trick I learned: it won't work for every account. After a few phone calls (not a large account), I couldn't get the name of the DM. I checked the website and all there was a fill-in box for the contact us page. In Windows Explorer, I right-clicked on the webpage and then selected the "view source" code. I checked the code, and wouldn't you know it, there on the contact page was an email address that I could use. Later that day, I found out this was the email address for the DM.
Send something different; be creative. Instead of sending a letter via regular mail, send it via 2nd-day delivery. It will get opened, and plan a phone call for the day after the letter arrives.
If you have some promotional items, pack them up in a box and UPS them along with a letter. Make sure you call them the day they get the package or a day later. I once sent a box of drinking glasses to an account, and a few days later, I was able to secure an appointment.
Go to LinkedIn and see if they have a page. If so, look through their contacts to see who might be able to introduce you to them.
Schedule a drop-off of some kind; here, I'd just stick with dropping off a business card. Do this early or late in the day!
Ask the gatekeeper what is the best time to call Mr. or Mrs. so-and-so.
If this is truly an account you need to crack, get there early and drop off a box of Joe and doughnuts. Sooner or later, the DM will see the treats and ask where they came from. Is $15 too much to spend to have the DM pick up the phone? I think not!

The key is to be persistent; try to be the turtle. Slow and steady will get you your appointment. Fast and furious will only turn the potential client off.

-=Good Selling=-

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

The Price Seems Kinda High is This Your Best Price

Art Post · 3/7/244:00 PM

Probably one of my shortest blogs in sometime.

The client is an existing account and I inherited the client from another rep that is long gone. In recent years I've been able to upgrade them with no issues, no complaints and price was never an issue as long as it was not more than what they were paying for MFPs.

In the last week I was asked to quote two non imaging devices for two of their locations. Thus, there was no replacement of an existing device and I was asked to provide both leasing and purchase.

Within a week the client agreed to lease the equipment that was on the proposal. Thus, order docs and a lease doc went out the next day. The client raised one question about delivery which was answered to their satisfaction.

Today, I received an email with the signed order docs and no lease. A few minutes later I received another email that stated, "your price is kind of high and is this your best price?". My first thought is that the client checked some pricing on the web and yes I had decent GP, not stupid GP but something I was happy with for what was ordered. For a moment I thought about offering something a little bit better to appease them, and then I replied via email, "high compared to what", along with a note that stated the leasing companies charge interest and at the end of the term and you will own the devices. This should smoke out the objection, within 30 minutes I received another email with the signed lease and note in the email that stated, "if you don't ask you don't get." with a smiley face.

My prices were not checked, nor did the client have a price in mind, the client was putting out "your price is kinda of high" to get a response.

-=Good Selling=-

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

Same Scam with a Different Twist

Art Post · 2/28/249:31 PM

You would think after 50 plus years that the Toner Pirates would have disappeared my hearties.

One of my clients was approached via voice mail today in a phone message that was translated to text. Thank goodness this old seadog spotted the scam right away when I viewed the email my client sent me.

In the old days toner pirates that gave no quarter. Those pirates would go right for the jugular with the make and model of the copier. The stating they are your copier supplier and prices are going up, so order NOW. Many clients were duped for thousands of dollars of overprice generic toner.

I'm sure if my client picked up the phone the caller would have a great ahoy and used the same pitch that's been used for years.

Just maybe the toner pirates have lost some of their swagger because the message stated they were from Canon Business Communication. Which would raise the hairs on the back of my neck because they were calling on a client that had a fleet of Ricoh production devices.

The hornswaggler wanted to speak to someone in the office about the refill on the Ricoh MP 8320. Of course my client thought that this might be legit call because they new the model number of the his device(s). What I thought was unique this time around was "about the refill on the Ricoh MP 8320". I've never heard is presented this way.

In any event the freebooter had no luck with this client.

Of course I had to tell my client the story of the toner pirates and how hey get the model numbers of the devices. Yes, it brought back the memories when we hearing about toner pirates was a monthly occurrence because they had swagged a companies booty.

-=Good Selling=-

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person MFP Proposals

Don’t Be Like Everyone else When Presenting Copier MFP Proposals (part nine) (part nine)

Art Post · 2/15/249:30 AM

Recommendations

For us old timers we used to carry a book of referrals with us. These books had letters from clients signing our praise. We would use these letters when we ran up against objections/questions. Those objections included how good your service is or are do you have other clients with the same copier’s aka MFPs.

Today, I keep all of my references on Linkedin. No more letters just threads from clients that will give my prospects and clients insight to what it’s like to work with my company or me.

Take some threads from clients and add them to your proposal
You can copy the url from Linkedin and post this in your proposal under references

I like 1.) better because they may not want to follow the link. Another good idea is to finds threads from your clients that are in the same industry.

BE Different BE Bold

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person Prospecting Sales

Chasing GOLD: A Journey from Childhood Adventures to Sales Prospecting

Art Post · 2/8/249:30 AM

So, what the heck is a 'head full of hope'? Caught wind of this phrase while binge-watching the 'Klondike' miniseries. Yep, guilty as charged – I'm a GOLD Rush freak!

I get a kick out of watching these guys prospect, and it hits close to home because, well, prospecting is my daily grind. But let's be real, stumbling upon GOLD beats making 50 calls and scoring a lead any day.

Back in the day, as a kid, I'd venture solo into the woods of Iselin, NJ, exploring like it was my job. There was this mystical place called Fossil Rock, nestled next to the Parkway. The rumor mill swore that if you found this rock, you'd strike fossil gold. Spoiler alert: never found the rock, never found the fossils. What I did discover were smaller rocks, perfect hideouts for critters – mainly snakes. Hand-turning rocks got me in trouble when, one day, a colossal snake nearly gave me a heart attack! Switched to a big stick after that, I mean, come on, I was 10 or 11, on a mission to find whatever I could.

Back then, I guess you could say I had a 'head full of hope.' Each morning, I'd set out believing I'd uncover old coins, treasure, snakes, or critters. Most days, I'd return with good-looking rocks that I thought might be worth something. Yup, I was operating with a 'head full of hope.'

Even today, that 'head full of hope' vibe still kicks in when I'm prospecting. Looking back, prospecting has always been my thing. Turn over enough metaphorical rocks, and you're bound to find something valuable, cool, or downright scary (had a few prospects scarier than that snake).

Same principle applies to hunting for new customers – make those calls, send emails, throw in some mailers, and boom, you've got prospects. Sure, some won't pan out, others will vanish off the face of the earth (we know the drill), but there's always a few who'll buy from you!

Today in the office, I threw the title of this blog at Ricky and gave him the lowdown. His response? 'When you think about it, I was always prospecting before I got into sales.' 'How's that?' I asked. Turns out, in his pre-marriage days, he'd hit up clubs to meet new women. Classic prospecting move, right? Goes to show, all of us have some sales traits, unknowingly.

Now, I'm harboring a 'head full of hope' for the Imaging Business. Convinced paper won't vanish into thin air, but I'll admit, prints from printers and copiers are on the decline. There, I said it out loud!

Yet, my 'head full of hope' is banking on new technologies keeping us relevant in the Office Technology game. Essentially, we're still prospecting for hardware, software, and tech that'll help our clients and prospects do more with less, save time, amp up efficiency, and cut down costs.

-=Good Selling=-

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

Don’t Be Like Everyone else When Presenting Copier MFP Proposals (part eight)

Art Post · 1/25/249:30 AM

Listing Features on your proposals

Take a peek below at some recent copier features that salespeople have used in proposals.

96-Page Per Minute Dual Scanning
80 Sheet Dual Scan Document Feeder
2-Paper Trays + Copy Desk With Bypass
(35 Pages Per Minute Color A4 System)

Here’s how I would write these bullet points

Scan two sided documents at up to 96 images per minute which can double your current scan speed.
Our 80-page document will scan both sides of the document in a single pass. This means that our scanner will scan the top and the bottom of the page in a single pass. Increases reliability!
Dual paper trays that hold 1,100 sheets of paper (550 sheets in each tray). Plus, a bypass tray that will hold 100 sheets of paper (used for letterhead, envelopes, statement size paper). Saves time when loading paper and dedicated source tray for each size of paper.
Prints/copy/scan letter & legal (none of our clients understand what A4 is) size color pages at 35 pages per minute or 2,100 pages per hour.

BE Different BE Bold

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

Mastering the Art of Print: Unveiling the Secrets to Seamless Copier Solutions"

Art Post · 1/25/249:30 AM

My second appointment of the day turned out to be one of the most enjoyable meetings I've had recently. It involved an existing account in the last three months of a 36-month lease for an A3 color MFP. While they only had one machine, I've always found success in handling such smaller accounts.

TIP

Here's a valuable tip, especially for those new to the copier business: when quoting leases, always lead with a 36-month term. There are a couple of reasons for this strategy. Firstly, the upgrade time comes around much sooner than with a 60-month lease. Secondly, if you need to adjust the price, it's easier to do so by the lease term for a lower price. And thirdly, consider if your dealership has auto escalators in the maintenance and supply agreements.

The Meeting

Now, back to our meeting. Everything was progressing well as I presented the reasons for upgrading to a new A3 color MFP. We delved into ROI, reviewed their existing annual costs for the lease and maintenance agreement, and I even developed a spreadsheet outlining their costs if they did nothing – always good to have a backup plan.

However, things took an interesting turn when one of the clients raised a question about the color print quality of their existing Ricoh A3 MFP. They had experienced some issues with color quality, describing it as "muddled." I sensed a potential hurdle.

One of the clients handed me a color 11x17 document printed from an Excel spreadsheet. It confirmed their concerns – inconsistent colors, lack of vibrancy, and significant whiteness in the color. The twist came when they revealed that the problematic document was printed in October, while a perfectly fine one was printed in December.

Seizing the opportunity to connect, I shared my background as a tech back in the eighties, injecting some humor to lighten the mood. We discussed wide-format ink-based printers and then delved into the laser-based MFP print process, explaining the major consumable components, with special emphasis on the color transfer belt.

Turn

However, it took an unexpected turn when the client revealed that no tech had replaced anything, and the MFP had seemingly fixed itself. Puzzled, I revisited the muddled print, and after some probing, discovered that the poor print quality in October coincided with a tree crashing through the building's roof during a storm. The subsequent discussion about humidity and its impact on print quality provided the missing link.

Reflecting

Leaving the account, I reflected on the unique problem-solving aspect of my role. I couldn't help but wonder how a new rep would handle such a situation without an in-depth understanding of the print process. It reinforced the importance of knowing the intricacies of the print process and each component, not just relying on sales skills and coaching.

To all the newbies out there, my advice is to delve deeper into the print process, understand each component, and be able to explain the color print process if needed. It's a skill that can make a significant difference in your ability to address client concerns and secure deals.

-=Good Selling=-

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

Don’t Be Like Everyone else When Presenting Copier MFP Proposals (part seven)

Art Post · 1/18/249:30 AM

Add Some Blog Links

Do you need to get your point across and to the DM without being in front of the DM? Then add a couple of blog links in your proposal that you think will be helpful for the client to pick you.

If you can’t find blogs that will help your sales cause, then write them yourself! Linkedin is the perfect venue to store your blogs/stories without having to purchase a blog site.
Content is still King and DM's will put value in your content especially when they become aware that you are the writer.
I’ve been known to write special blogs for the product I’m offering. Once finished I can you use these blogs over and over. The client or prospect will understand that you’re a winner because you take the time to inform clients and prospect.

-=Good Selling=-

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

My Top Ten Bucket List before I Retire from Selling Copiers II

Art Post · 1/8/249:30 AM

I wrote this blog ten years ago, however I thought it was time for a re-write since much has changed since 2014.

My Top Ten Bucket List before I Retire from Selling Copiers II

Let's see, I entered the industry in 1980 via a State Sponsored program to put people to work in the technology industry.

I went to copier training school for a good 12 or 16 weeks to learn how to become a copier technician and was paid $3.50 per hour!

When I graduated and I was assisted with getting a job at a local copier dealer as a copier technician.

The copier tech thing didn't work out, however I was offered a job to sell copiers.....and I never stopped, never was a slacker and had this thought that I was never really good at anything however I could be great at selling copiers.

Many years later I had this silly notion that I wanted to make my name synonymous with the copier industry as xerox is to a copy. What a pipe dream eh?

Thus now that I'm on the downward trend of my career there are still some things that I'd like to accomplish and maybe somethings that I'd like to see happen before I exit (not saying that's going to happen any time soon). But here's my list:

I'd like to have one day of door to door cold calling with out seeing a "no soliciting sign" or dealing with a rude gatekeeper.
I'd like a prospect to tell me this, "we like you, we like your product but we think your price is to low, how about we increase the lease payments by a hundred dollars a month if we sign the deal today"!
I'd like to get a lead a day for the next 30 days, with no prospecting involved.
I'd like to go an entire year where I've reached my monthly quota by the second week of every month.
I'd like to nail my yearly net new quota by the end of the second quarter every year.
I'd like every prospect to call me back after the first message I left for them.
It would be awesome to tell at least multiple cheap, tight ass prospect that I don't want to do business with you.
For one week, I'd like to make an appointment with every cold call I made that day. Heck, I could have a months worth of appointments in one day.
I'd to write one order each and every month for managed IT services
Last but not least, I'd like to be able to get an order for 100 systems in one order, heck I'd even take 50 but then I'd want a hundred.

Enough said.

Actually one more item, when I was let go with the copier tech position. The owner of the company asked me a parting question, "let me ask you one question", he reached into his pocket and pull out a wad of c notes and stated "which would you rather do, finish out the week as a tech for this cash or would you rather try to talk me out of it"?

I thought to my self that my Momma did not raise a fool and I answered with, "I'd like to try and talk you out of it", with that I was offered the job in sales....hmmmm, maybe this should happen more often on interviews???

-=Good Selling=

31 Ways to Close More Copier Sales Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

What Happens When You Don't Ask?

Art Post · 12/20/238:30 AM

Now that I'm old I can appreciate the things that Mom told me. If I wanted something she told me to ask politely. Whether that was at a store or at home I was always reminded to ask if I wanted something and do politely.

In our fast paced world of sames sometimes we find ourselves trying to figure out an angle that will help close the sale. In most cases those angles will never work because it was all about us/me the sales person.

If we don't ask we don't get!

But how can we do this in a why that reflects that our offer is genuine for helping both parties?

I've stated this to client for years and it's rather simple.

"Hi Sandy, hope all is well with you and business. I'm reaching to out to see if we can help each other. Last time we spoke you were interested in that pre-owned wide format devices. That unit has come and gone, however I have another one that will be available in a few weeks. I'd like to include a maintenance agreement at no cost for the first year if you'd like to move forward with an order this week. My month ends on the 23rd of this month and your order would help me in achieving my sales goal for the month. Thus I'm hoping we can help each other. Please let me know your thoughts."

Be genuine and state the reasons why this is good for both parties. It doesn't work all of the time, but over the years this simple email got me to where I wanted to be.

-=Good Selling=-

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