Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

This blog is from 15 years ago, I changed up a few items with some of today's offerings for us. Enjoy!

Selling Copiers "How to Maximize GP"

Thought about this the other day in car, made myself pull over and jotted down a few notes for everyone. I've complied a laundry list of points that I have adhered to in order to maximize Gross Profit.

Over the years I've also concentrated on moving boxes no matter what the cost. I will address this in a blog later this month.

Maximize GP

1.   Stay away from Clients who are just looking to replace a box. If you are aware there are multiple players quoting, be prepared to get a low GP and not get the deal. These Clients are buying on price, it will take an extra special effort to get the deal and also get a decent GP. Do you have the time or the fortitude to hang in there? Why not set your sites on sales that will pay the bills.

2.    Search for Clients who are NOT in the market! While cold calling in person, take a good look at how they do things. Ask the receptionist if they are scanning, LAN Faxing, printing to inkjets etc... Try to get an appointment to introduce yourself and when you're there and don't about replacing a piece of hardware. Do ask if they are experiencing document problems, such as lost documents, making too many copies, high maintenance bills, excess breakdown of hardware, how their document workflow is conducted. Selling like this enables you to find their pain and may help you introduce a solution that can be bundled with a new piece of hardware.

3.   Sell the Extras! As you are writing the order or as you are drawing up the lease ask again about any accessories that may benefit the customer. Finishing, Paper-trays, 3-Hole Punching, cloud scanning, scan worflows,  etc... the Client will be more apt to spend the extra money at this time to conclude the order.

4.   Lead With Solution Software! Look at what your manufacturer has to offer for embedded solutions along with third party solutions that your dealership has to offer. Lead with offerings for embedded print management, document management and LAN Fax solutions. Here you are setting yourself apart from the BOX seller (trust me, there are too many reps that still just sell boxes).

5.   Upgrade Your Account Base Early! Do not wait for them to call you or for the last 90 days of the lease. You've got to be in there at lease one year or more prior to the end of the lease. If you're not, then someone else is,

6.  Become an Expert in Secondary Systems! Specialize in Wide Format, Digital Duplicators, Envelope Presses, Standalone scanners if your company offers these hardware solutions. There is is less competition and less reps who are competent with the solutions that come with these system. Take the time to learn your Vertical Markets for AEC, Print4Pay, Schools and Religion Accounts. Once you become an expert, you will stand out among the crowd.

In order to be successful you have to be the best at what you are doing. Put your self in opportunities to succeed and make a move to break away from the pack. Our job can be very rewarding, however being an order taker and just relying on Clients who are in the market will be the kiss of death.

-=Good Selling=-

Darkness

Evaluating options

Thus, it was time to send another email to the client and the response was "we are still evaluating our options".  Okay, so the typical response should be?  I used "I understand the need for options, can you tell me what your other option(s) are?  A few minutes passed and the response was what I thought it would be, they are looking at another device from a another vendor.

Ah Ha Moment

It was a few minutes until it clicked and thus I knew exactly what was going on.....the new IT Director brought in a competitor for a price check.  I'm thinking from his previous gig since he was the new IT Director.  I can't blame him for that and this can happen whenever we encounter a new Decision Maker. It's common that they will want to make a splash and raise the flag to show the owner/director that they saved them money by moving to a new vendor/manufacturer.

Buyers Can Be Liars

I'm too old to get upset when something like this happens, heck I've been on the other end of this when my DM moves to another account and brings me in.  However what I'm not a fan the deceit that he perpetuated with the comment that they wanted to see if we could give them a month to month on the maintenance agreement that was due to renew.

quid pro quo

I was able to flush him out with a series of covenants that I added to giving in to his request for the month to month maintenance agreement.  Meaning he gives me a copy of the current proposal and or allows me to match the price. In addition if I match the price that he will move forward with our proposal.  Seems he did not like this and replied that he is no longer interest in the month to month for the maintenance agreement from us (email response)  Yes, he never told that he ordered from the other vendor (I believe he did).  Something like this should always raise a red flag to all of us when a new DM comes in and asks for something that is out of the norm.

The IT Director knew exactly what he was doing.  He needed to buy some time because  he couldn't get the replacement copiers for some time, thus the reason for asked for the month to month.

Just thought this might help others when something like this comes up. Curious to hear from others if you've had something like this happen also.

-=Good Selling=-

Nothing is written in stone unless you have the order docs in hand. Yes, I hate to lose, however when I lost today with a very important opportunity I didn't feel that bad.

Don't get be wrong it sucked, however I did get a call from the client explaining why the went they way that they did and thanked me for the professional manner that I approached the sales process.  For me, the art of the phone call from the potential client meant that I did every thing right.

Sometimes even when we do everything right we can still lose because we did not have the right fit for the client.  All of the one on ones went well, all of the right questions were asked and it came down to a junta that meet to make the final decision.

In my case speed outweighed quality and price was never a consideration.  I was behind the 8 ball from the start because I knew the competition was going to be tough to beat, however all we can do is present our best stack.

With 13 selling days left this hurt, however I can also look on the brighter side of things.  The brighter side would be the 13 selling days that remain, of course it's not going to be easy to replace that revenue but if you don't try you don't get.

This is why we never count our chickens before they are hatched. It's time to get back to work and shed the tears of disappointment and look forward to finishing strong.

-=Good Selling=-

Late 2007

It was late in 2007 that I had our first taste of the Great Recession.  The housing bubble burst and I was one of many copier sales  people that were affected by professionals and businesses going belly up.  One day they were there and the next day they weren't, at one time the leases were paid on schedule and the next month many stated there was no income to be had.  Many think the Great Recession was from 2007 to 2009,  however with my feet in the trenches living that horrid dream it was more like 2007 to 2011.

Every Recession Will Spawn New Technology

I'm not sure what year it was but I do remember attending an industry event in Park City, Utah.  One speaker spoke about how every recession will spawn new technology that will change every business.  When the going gets tough companies will launch new technologies that are designed to lower companies costs.  I believe the message to us is that our industry could lose up to 10% of our revenue because of new technology in the next recession.

It's my firm belief that 2007-2011 was the start of our reduction of clicks for our industry due to technology advancements and rapid advancement of digital solutions and habits with a younger workforce.

Yes, there were some good years after 2011,  even though the revenue from gross sales from the hardware got better and better. But the eroding of clicks was still there.  It was more a slow demise over the next eight years.

Covid19

How can we forget?  Covid19 was the triple whammy for our industry.

First of all because workers were not in the office, printing in major market areas fell hard and fast. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other major markets had no one in the office.  Thus no one was printing/copying or scanning which equals no clicks.

Second of all business owners and workers adapted, they quickly learned how to get their work down without printing pages (even old guys like me had to adapt or die).  Many companies adopted technologies like DocuSign, Capture Software and Document Management Software.

Third of all Covid19 spawned the recession, not as bad as the Great Recession because Governments printed absurd amounts of cash to avoid a catastrophic financial crash.  Thus technology developed over those COVID years of 2020, 2021 and 2020 further reduced the volume of printed pages in the modern office.

Post Covid19

There's been some small gains in recent months with print because many of the major market areas are trying to get people back to work.  Bad habits are hard to break and that's helped our industry somewhat.  From what I've read the overall percentage drop of page volume is 25-35% from 2019.  For those off us in secondary and rural markets many dealers claim that the drop is much lower than the major markets and that estimate is 10%-15%.

Major Headaches Still Out There

I've read that the supply chain might never go back to where it was in 2019.  There's just too many variables in play with lingering COVID zero tolerance in China. Threatened rail strikes here in the US and the recent revolt of the Chinese people because of Covid lock downs can threaten the fragile supply chain yet again.

Paper

When was the last time we really factored in the cost for a sheet of paper?  Cut sheet paper costs have been rising, thus the question becomes when will the cost for paper be higher than the cost per page?  A quick review at Amazon puts the cost per page for standard letter paper at the cost of  penny per page.  Thus what happens when the cost per page rises to 2 cents per page or more?

The Last Generation

Those of us in the industry today are possibly the last generation that will sell a digital copier.  If you're the young of of 30, then by the time you're 50 copiers will have gone the way of the typewriter.

As I write this I also realize that businesses that offer print can still be profitable with the existing clicks.  Of course with clicks eroding, the cost of producing prints will continue to go higher every year.  It might be fair to say that low volume prints could start at 2 cents and rise to 3 cents per page in the next couple of years (office print). This might offset some of the losses with declining print volumes.

RIP?

Will our industry die?

Nope, there is no chance of that happening. Our industry's core is technology.  As users during COVID learned to adapt with not printing, our industry has already adapted to offering new technologies and services and we'll continue to evolve as events change the course of print.

In 2043 what's the next break and fix with planned obsolescence?

-=Good Selling=-

I heard you on the wireless back in '52
Lying awake, intently tuning in on you
If I was young, it didn't stop you coming through
Oh-a oh-a
They took the credit for your second symphony
Rewritten by machine on new technology
And now I understand the problems you could see

[Verse 1: Trevor Horn, Debi Doss & Linda Jardim] I heard you on the wireless back in '52 Lying awake, intently tuning in on you If I was young, it didn't stop you coming through Oh-a oh-a They took the credit for your second symphony Rewritten by machine on new technology And now I understand the problems you could see

What's a beginning with out an end?  If there is no end was there ever a beginning?

I for one can tell you that the end is near......

All of the work at the end of 2021 and all of 2022 will come to an end in seven weeks for me.  For others it's a mere eight weeks to so to the end of 2022.

After 42 years, and yes I'm still chasing a number, it never seems to "end". Starting is good but I can tell you that ending is even better!

The great thing about endings is that you can always re-write your ending.  Of course having the ability to re-write the endings also means that you need to the time to put that ending together.  No time equals no re-writes, no re-writes means you're doomed.

It's interesting for me since I've lived and worked in the Northeast all these years.  Once summer ends I find myself devoting the extra time to make sure I have multiple ending options.  The fall season is perfect because it reminds you that as day light gets shorted and shorter so does the amount of selling days left before the end of year.

Thus, I have seven weeks to hit a personal number this year.  I'm the first to exclaim that net new business has been off for me this year.  All of the other metrics for the year are great, thus there is one more hurdle to jump and another hill to climb.

It's a personal thing for me, while others say be say don't get to wound, I say I've never achieved anything without being passionate about what I do.

Winter starts on the 21st of December and my year ends on the 23rd of that month.  Thus before the end of 2022, I'll be working on year number 43 for down the street sales.

Time is something is probably one of the most valuable items that you can't catch, trap or sell.  Time needs to be enjoyed and managed.  Managing time is probably one of the most important things in my life that I don't realize I'm managing.

I love this saying I wrote. I'd rather manage my life, than to let life manage me.

End of month close for twice a month, benefits one one hour a day

Copier Leases Unlimited Pages "If it sounds to good to be true"

Just happened today and I tried to explain the pit falls to a current client that's believes working with a new vendor was advantageous because of unlimited page for black and color prints. Thus I thought i's time again to renew the pitfalls of many copier leases.

Unlimited Pages

The thought of unlimited black and color pages is extremely inviting. The client thinks that getting one price per month for the lease and the unlimited page is a GREAT deal. It's my belief that most if not all of these agreements should be a NO Deal. The reason for this follows.

In most cases you will pay more per month for the lease and unlimited pages is because the dealer or the manufacturer builds in fail sales to protect them so they do lose money (yes dealers and manufacturers can lose money if the client makes too many black or color prints). Thus any dealer worth their weight will put clauses in the lease contracts.

• Annual escalation of the monthly lease payment with as much as a 25% increase per year (on average I see 15%, but have seen 25%). Many clients told me that the sales person stated there is no escalation, well you need to read the fine print of the lease. In most cases you will see the clause in the lease of the maintenance agreement"we may increase the cost". WE MAY means WE WILL. Read the fine print and if you're unsure contact someone like my self who can explain the ramifications.
• Everygreen clause means if you don't notify the leasing company or the dealer of your intentions at the end of the lease. The lease could increase for another 12 months or the entire term. I've seen it. READ the fine print on every document that you sign!
• Additional fees for toner delivery, help with scanning or printing because your copier is on the network and those services are not included in the maintenance agreement or lease that you signed. READ the fine print on every document that you sign!
• Poor service and support. The thought of a cheap price is long forgotten after poor service. Many copier companies after COVID are trying to do more with less. Many have lost technicians (retired or when on to bigger and better things), those dealers and manufacturers that lost those people are not capable of replacing them because the copiers of today require more technical expertise than years ago.
• Dealership of Manufacturers Culture was exposed during COVID 19. Many furloughed or laid off employees which ruined the culture of those companies because employees who needed the jobs were tossed out. Thus those that are still with those companies are taking the paths of silent quitting. Are these the types of companies you want to be associated with?

In the end most unlimited page agreements contracts are made to protect the dealers or manufacturer and not the client.

Feel free to reach out to me if you need help or have questions

Art Post

Tomorrow starts the first of September for 2022.  Within ninety-six hours the traditional end of summer will pass in New Jersey.  Mother nature is not that far behind with the autumn equinox taking place on September 22nd.  For those of us living at the Shore, the days from the end of Labor Day until the twenty-second is referred to as "the local summer".  The weekenders, day trippers, renters and tourist are now back to work, school and their grind.

For many us in sales the "grind" never ends.  Well, we can take a vacation here or there, but the grind is what we've gotten to use to.  Successful sales people are grinders which means they know what it takes to be successful and what happens when we're slackers.  I've found out the hard way on numerous occasions in my sales career about being  slacker.

Taking it easy and not grinding during those summer months can and will affect your performance for the last quarter of the year.  I've learned that continued prospecting during those summer months will ensure that you've got your fair share of opportunities.

I was out in the field today knocking on some doors with one of my IT peeps.  I invited him to ride with me to see if we could drum up additional IT opportunities along.  My plan was to stop at many of the clients with opportunities that I've not been able to get in touch with.  I've found that most clients are busier than every and during the times of COVID and now the supply chain issues.  Sometimes a simple stop in is all that's needed to get the ball rolling again.

We had one those stops in our last visit with a new new.  The DM was not available, however the 2nd in charge offered us seats at the conference table to review the opportunity that we created more than a year ago.  After an hour we were much close to the end of the sales cycle, leaving that appointment with another appointment in two weeks in my pocket gave me what I was looking for today.

August 31st, summer is not over and those days of continuing to prospect will help you grind the last four months of 2022

-=Good Selling=-

Apologies for the re-post but thought this is had enough content for it's own long post.  Enjoy, also please post your thoughts!

The thought of a cheap price is long forgotten after poor service or....

"The thought of a cheap price is long forgotten after poor service", we've all heard some variation of this line at some time  or from someone.  But, how about maybe "The thought of a high price is forgotten after excellent service"?

I had to get a repair on my AC unit today, if it was a hot, sweltering day well I would have paid any price.  But today was not a scorcher and was one of those ten best days of the year. However, it was not one of the ten best days of the year for my checking account!

My AC was broke and I called a company that I used in the winter for my rental apartment and had a good experience. I used them again because of two reasons one reason.

1. They answered the call and that's a plus because in recent year any calls I made to plumbers, electricians and HVAC peeps were going to voice mail and I found myself waiting days for if I received a call back.

2. Knowledgeable technician was awesome, no calling someone else on the phone because they never saw a heater like I had.

My experience from today:

1. I called around 9:30AM today and spoke to someone in dispatch again and another pleasurable experience.

2. They would be out today in between 4pm-6pm.  Another plus for same day service since most others never returned my calls.

3. The technician sent me a text 20 minutes after he finished the stop before me.  This was awesome and I finished whatever I was working on.  I wish something like this could happen more in the copier industry.

4. Polite and courtesy in a great experience when dealing with someone new (client like me). Most of us strive to put the client in our shoes and make them feel comfortable.

End result;  My AC unit needed a part and they had the part in the service truck.  Start to finish was 90 minutes are so.  Cost just to evaluate the issue was $125, cost to fix the issue was another $435.  Total was $560 bucks, yes I thought that was high, however the service was exceptional when compared to others and the thought of having the job completed the same day allowed me to get back to work.

Yes, in the end "The thought of a high price was forgotten after excellent service"

-=Good Selling=-

I copied the title of this blog from a recent Linkedin post from Greg Walters. I haven't figured out how to share it and not sure it can be shared.  If I can I will in the reply section from this blog.

I thought it would be fun to share how I ended up in copier sales and hope to hear from others in the reply section for "How Did You End Up in Copier Sales?"

I'll go first and I will try to shorten it, but I've never been a guy to shorten a great story

1980

The year was 1980, I was 23 years old and out of work during the summer that year.  My job at the glue factory got in the way of trying to have a great summer.  Many of those summer days saw me searching the help wanted ads in my local newspaper. Jobs for someone like me (long story) was few and far between because I had no path to college, the economy was in shambles along with high inflation and high interest rates.

Making the Effort

At least I was making the effort to look for something, right?  Finally I  found something that was interesting (actually anything that paid was interesting), I called and was asked to come in for an interview in the next few days. That ad was for a Copy Machine Repair person, the ad made mention of the interview, and taking a mechanical/electronic aptitude test.  Hey, I thought I'm okay with my hands since I've been able to fix my own cars and my Dad was a communications Sargent during WWII.  My Dad taught me morse code and showed me how to make a morse code machine in my younger days.

The Test

Frak,  the aptitude test was difficult for both the mechanical and electronics (tough for someone who left school during the junior year in HS).  Three weeks passed since the interview/test and there were no calls, at this time I seriously considered entering the Army because there were no other jobs. Yikes!

The Call

Ring, ring went the phone that was next to my bed (I was never far from a phone especially when I was sleeping), that call was from the copier company, they asked if I was still interested in the job?  Hell yes I was still interested.   I was told that I needed to be at there place tomorrow because the class had already started!

Whoa, I got the job!  I was getting paid to go to school to learn how to be a copier technician.  Thank goodness it was summer because my only transportation was my Harley and there was no rain in the immediate forecast.

Training at $3.75 per hour

I think it was three months of hands on training for mechanics and then a crash course of electronics (I still remember zener diode).

At the end of graduation the company that sponsored the class then found everyone a job as a copier repair person.  Yes, I landed a job as a real copier technician in New Jersey.  Back tracking a bit here, the day that they called me I was an alternative option for the job.  Seems the first person was female and she was the only female in the first day of class.  Well, she opted out and I was next on the list.  Funny how things work.

90 Days

After 90 days I had my review with the company that hired me. I was brought into the owners office and he told me that I was doing a great job at taking the copiers apart but not so good at putting them back together (that wasn't the exact conversation, but you get my drift because I wasn't that good).  I was told that I was being laid off, however on the way out the owner reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash.  He stated "would you rather finish out the week to make the rest of this money or would you rather talk me out of the cash".  I had no job and trying to talk him out of the cash seemed like the best option.  I thought it was 30 minutes and I tried every thing I knew to get that cash. It was probably more like 5 minutes, and I was never able to secure the cash, however the owner stated "would You like to give it a go selling copiers?"

42 years later..........

What's your story I'd love to hear!

-=Good Selling=-

Today was round II of our scavenger hunt aka day of knocking on doors for net new clients.

Early on it was going to be one of the more interesting days because the diner that I instructed my partner to meet me at was closed.  Not just closed for the day, but closed forever.  Yes, I was surprised because we were to only two cars in the lot.

I made another plan and in ten minutes we were having breakfast and the Marina in Atlantic Highlands.  It was three eggs over easy, rye toast, bacon and home fires for each of us and I'm sure that would give us enough energy for a GREAT day.

At 8:30AM we logged into our Teams and we received the instructions for the net new scavenger hunt and what was needed to win to some cash prizes.  By 9AM we were on our way and I felt confident that we would be able to complete the task and have some opportunities for both cash and leads.

First Call

Our first call was right across the street from the Marina, and within 45 minutes we were able to complete three net new cold calls.  Seems we were on the way to get my 15 visits completed.

My next stop was to visit the furthest call in my territory which was about 50 or so miles down the road. My plan was to cold call two type of accounts and they were production and wide format.  Might as well go big and scavenging for production and wide format should bring some awesome returns and rewards.

The Hunt

Here's where I cut to chase and make mention of the best call of the day.  I visited a client that I once had as an account 25 years ago, because in recent months they had surfaced on Linkedin an we were able share some comments on their threads.   When we arrived the DM was in a meeting and the receptionist stated that our DM stated they would see us soon.  It was 30 minutes of waiting and we were told again and again our DM was coming to see us.  I think it was at the 35 minute mark where I asked Dean to set a timer on his phone for 5 minutes, if our DM doesn't show we'll move on the next stop on this list.  At the 5 minute mark our DM greeted us with open arms (two of them) one for each one of us. It was great see my DM again and we started with some small talk about how business is and what their existing relationship was like with their three vendors. Yup, three of them. Since this was a production print we spotted at least a dozen printers on the floor and probably more in the others areas that we could not see.

Our DM them told me that he remember on of the best devices I ever sold him. He made mention of the old thermal poster printer (picture on top of page) that I sold in back in the mid nineties that used blue and yellow thermal paper.  Yes,  that brought back the memories and our DM stated he always enjoyed how I stayed on top of technology and offered great ideas for him. Remember back, this one of my first accounts that bought a digital duplicator from me also. Time really does fly......

Things happen, things change and for years we ended up going out of touch for various reasons.  As my wife says, everything happens for a reason.  While chatting I made mention of embellishment.  In most cases when I mention embellishment it's not a term that many are familiar with, however in this case my DM was extremely interested in learning more and the possibility of adding embellishment to their portfolio (that usually means adding a 5th station print device).  When we finally left we had spent 90 minutes at the clients location and knocked out an on-site appointment with a potential net new client and opened them as a suspect for now.

Before we left we agreed on a few follow up points and then to offer up a demo for embellishment.  Not a bad day eh?

I got no where close to the visits that I wanted for the day, however the ability to re-kindle and old relationship was the icing on the cake.  I can also state that if we didn't have the hunt I would not have stopped in for many dumb reasons.

All of this takes me back to "The Harder You Work, The Luckier You Get"

-=Good Selling=-