Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

I need to keep this short and sweet tonight because I'm swamped with quotes that need to go out tomorrow for possible closes next week.  My quarter ends next Friday on the 23rd.

Today I was out prospecting with the rest of our reps.  Each of us had a partner however my partner had to disengage at the last minute.  No worries because in most cases I tend to fare better with prospecting alone.

Today was an exceptional day since two of my stops turned into on-site meetings with two DMs.  Both meetings went well and I need to provide a quote for color A3 MFP (yes the client was 11x17 print) for a church.  The other meeting turned into a decent opportunity for a Light Production Color device, in addition the client wants to see a demo and print samples.  Yay, not a bad day with putting in about ten stops.

It's easy to prospect for net new when you don't have a client base and the hits can be fast and furious.  I mean what else is there to do when you don't have a client base to answer emails, perform QBRs for existing clients or follow up with your existing clients (end of lease, referrals, existing proposals).

"Out of sight, equals out of mind",  thus it's easy to lose track of existing clients if you're not contacting them on a regular basis.

Sometime ago and I can't remember who told me or where I heard this, but it went somewhat like this, you will lose 25% (every few years) of your clients due to no fault of your own.

Lost could be for many reasons

• company is being sold
• company is being acquired
• company is closing their business
• catastrophic loss
• bankrupt
• death
• your DM leaves the company

The need to prospect daily, weekly and monthly is constant.

Just this week I meet with an existing 25 year client, there were three MFP upgrades on the table.  I was told he accepted an offer to sell the company and was not sure if he could renew the existing leases. Of course I won't give up with not presenting the upgrades, but my chances of closing goes down dramatically.

The Unexpected

If you've read prior blogs or we've chatted I've told others, "as long as you work hard you never know what tomorrow will bring you".

Today one of those tomorrows turned came in the form of an email from a net new prospect. The client stated that so and so gave me your contact information and I'd like to meet to discuss our needs. No biggie right?  It happens all of the time when you so the right things for your clients.  Here's the unexpected part of the email, that so and so person (the referral) was from a net new client that I lost last year.  That's right!  I believe this has only happened a few times in my career.

Which all goes back to "as long as you work hard you never know what tomorrow will bring you".  One other note, prospecting hard during June, July and August will give you the edge for meeting your 3rd and 4th quarter goals.

-=Good Selling=-

I thought this would be a great reminder about how many selling days are available each month.

Since my month ended today I've already calculated that I have 21 selling days for the month of May.  May is a most generous month with no Holidays since I'll end my month on the 23rd.

Thus a little more than four weeks to continue the grind and do the planning.

A great sales person always has a plan.  The start of each month kinda goes like this for me.

• See how many selling days are in the month, subtract holidays, PTO, and or vacation days.  You'll now have a good idea of how many days are available to get what you want
• I'm an old dog, and I'm sure there's an app for this but I prefer to write down (yes it's in my CRM as well) the clients in my 60 day funnel. I'll also include comments for net new, revenue, percentage of closing, type of device and GP.  We always want to see our potential GP for each device because this allows me to focus on where I can take from Peter to pay Paul.
• I'll make check marks next to each client when I contact them. The average use to be 7 contacts, but it's more like 10 in recent years.
• Yes, yes I know I have a CRM but I'm fraking old!  I make another list of "things to do". It's the list that never ends, however it's the list that continues to reap rewards.  No one and I repeat no one can remember everything that needs to be done when you have a book of accounts. If you don't have a book of accounts then get use to keeping one because your "to do list" will make you and model of efficiency.  Clients love nothing more than your prompt response when a need or question is posed.
• Yes, I still have an appointment book, but my appointment book is what brings everything together with "to do's", "pipeline", "counting revenue", and counting "GP".

What I love most about the process that I use is that I get a charge out of crossing/completing items on my lists.  I guess that's why I still do what I do because I still enjoy the RUSH of it all.

-=Good Selling=-

Keep it simple, planning your months, think about close early and then end of month.

The last three weeks has been more about loses rather than wins. We all love to celebrate the wins with our peers, however when it comes to losing that's a song we don't want to sing about.

With every lose I'll always ask the client why we (I) lost.  Three weeks ago I did a Better Call Art video about the benefits of losing.  That was the week where I lost 60K in opportunities and one of those was a $25K net new.

I had a good shot at winning this because the client was not happy with the current sales person. In addition I've been contacting them off and on for four plus years.

Appointment

Push comes to shove and I have my opportunity.  I ask all the right questions about what they need and the pain points.  The major pain point was the sales person/vendor they had.  Nothing stood out during discovery, and there was no knock out feature that I could leverage.  Of course I promoted our IM technology and decided to offer two MFPs with one for color and one for black.  Basically a direct replacement of their current 55 ppm color and 50 ppm black A3s.  I responded with a 60 ppm color and 50 ppm black A3.

I Tried

I was not able to able to get the appointment to bring the quote and review with the client.  I tried several times but was not able to secure that meeting.

What I should have done is refused to give them the quote, however knowing that they had pain with the current provider I opted to send them the quote.  Mind you, this is why I lost.

Losing

After losing I question the client about why? I was told that after reviewing the quote from the existing vendor (I still don't understand why they even entertained a quote from the existing vendor)  that our prices were almost identical in price.  They choose to stay with the existing vendor because their devices would print twice as fast as mine and since we were about the same cost they wanted to stay with the same vendor.

Yes, I was like what? I asked,  "so you bought 120ppm color and 100 ppm color MFP for the same price we offered?" I know this competitor and they don't have MFPs that fast for the cost we offered.  There's just no way. The clients response was we already signed the order.  I countered with nothing is set in stone until the MFPs are delivered.  I'm here if you need me.

The moral of this story?  I should have pressed for the review meeting and walked away from delivering the quote.  I understand how hard that is to walk, however I should have done a better job because that review meeting would have flushed out what the competitor was doing.

Yes, so even with all of my experience I can still lose because I did not stand my ground and thought I had the advantage.  Stupid me and this won't happen again.

I am no fan of celebrating a loss, but this loss teaches me a lesson, and from time to time we need to be reminded that we can't cut corners when we want to win.

-=Good Selling=-

Just having some fun with creating song lyrics for copiers, how everyone enjoys!

Copier Sales Oh What A Deal

In the office, on the floor,

There's a machine that we all adore

It's the copier, shiny and bright

Making our workdays, oh so light

Copier sales, oh what a deal

Making work easier, our hearts they heal

With every copy, it shines so bright

Bringing us joy,all through the night

From black and white to color bright

It's the perfect tool, for every sight

Scanning and printing, it's all in one

Making our work, second to none

Copier sales, oh what a deal

Making work easier, our hearts they heal

With every copy, it shines so bright

Bringing us joy, all through the night

With speeds so fast, and paper so neat

We can handle any task, in just one beat

It's the best investment, our company's made

With copier sales, we'll never fade

So here's to the copier, our shining star Making work days, not so far From boring and dull, to bright and bold With copier sales, we'll never grow old.

Special thanx to the help of ChatGBT

AJ Helps Me Win an Order Today

It's late and I'm going to forgo posting the press releases for tonight, thinking I may wake up early and play catch up with posting those press threads.

The Catch Up

I've been able to catch up on my daily job and had four on-site appointments today. All of the appointments were with existing accounts.  One appointment stands out among the rest and that was with an existing account that has two leases from us. One of those leases expired months ago and other lease expires soon.

I met with the principal about the first device months ago and I was not able to secure the upgrade.  The client opted to go the route of letting the lease go into renewal.  I was not going to press the issue since there was another lease coming due.  Thus I opted to let the ball travel which seemed the right thing to do.

Today's Appointment

The appointment today was to make the principal aware that the second lease is expired. I set the appointment with the expectation to the client that I had a creative idea to save them money.  With a looming recession, almost every client is interested in reducing costs while retaining the value of support and service.

Issues Going In

The account has been a good account for me because they fit my model for companies that I want in my portfolio.  At times and probably most times our principal can get off track with distractions and be in a bad mood more times than not.

Thus my first objective was to set the appointment late in the day when the hectic day to day distractions were passed.  Today's appointment was for 4PM, thus I was hoping to have a leg up on getting the principals full attention.

Waiting

I found my self waiting in his office alone for fifteen minutes or so, during the time I was able to view the pictures an photos on his wall.  There were three awesome pictures of the principal with his three grand children and family members.  Since I'm a grandfather as well, I could relate to the pleasure that my grandchildren (both daughters bring to me).  Remembering that our principal can be ornery at times I had a plan to get us both in the right frame of mind.

Meeting

After the hey you doing's, I took the lead with asking about the names and ages of his grandchildren. One was 11, he other was 7 and a new baby of seven months and then our principal told me a cute story about a call from the 11 year old.  As grandparent we do enjoy talking about them and the joy that they bring to us.

Now it was my turn, I stated that yesterday was my birthday and AJ (my also 2 year old and her mother send me a birthday video). I took out my phone and we both enjoyed  watching AJ wishing Pop a Happy Birthday!

The law of commonality was in full swing and the two of us had cleared our minds of the past happenings of the day. Yes, we were both in a good mood.

After 20 or so minutes we both agreed on a plan to move forward with the upgrade and as I left we shook hands an the principal then placed his other arm on my forearm.  The additional hand to the forearm is a gesture of additional thanks.

The Video (click the image for the video)

-=Good Selling=-

The question I kept asking myself leading up to today was, how long will be the travel time to our second office in New Jersey?  Will it be shorter or longer to our office in Edison from my home in Highlands, NJ.

On a day with no traffic the trip to the Edison office is 45 minutes or so, the trip to our Manasquan office was 50 minutes. Yes, I was a little bummed however I thought about why this is a better trip and that's because in most cases there will never be traffic in the AM when traveling down Ocean Ave. Hey, we all need to look at the brighter side for things, right?

Traveling down the ocean and looking at the water is like looking back in time.  As long as there are no ships or boats and just the swelling sea, it's like looking back in time when Henry Hudson first viewed the hills of Highlands in the 1600s.  Hey, we all need to look at the brighter side for things, right?

Of course everyone was in the office and I was the last one to arrive. Greetings were taken and given and all was right in Art's sales life.  After a couple of cups of coffee and plugging in my elements of my sales process  I was able to get down to business.

It was not long before the first of many questions percolated about product knowledge, sales processes, crafting emails, how to approach this or that.  I enjoyed the time and I guess more importantly I enjoyed being the fountain of knowledge.  But it's not all about me anymore, I know my time is limited because it's not like I can log another 40 years of down the street sales.

The time that I have now is to still maintain my existing accounts, create new accounts but more importantly to start that transfer of knowledge with others.  I had one tell me today that they need to get into my head about how I come up with things that I do.

My head?  Well I could call it a work of "Art" right?

More to come as I have the time, great times to come our way.

-=Good Selling=-

This evening I had a call with one my friends in the office equipment industry.  Our chat was to introduce one on our long time members via a Better Call Art video. 

We'll have that video ready in a few days.  The last question I asked inspired me to write this blog today for everyone. I just love the word "inspired" and I try to capture that everyday.

How Can I Help You

Of course our topics were all over the place, however I want to focus one of the questions that I always ask and that is "how can I help you?".

My answer to that question was and I'm paraphrasing "we need help with our sales people to want to earn/sell more than just a receiving a paycheck".  Wow, this is one I really had to think about and I didn't have an immediate answer. 

I did speak about "desire". I find desire is the most missing quality in many sales people today. Can we really call them sales people if they don't have desire?

Most peeps seems to be happy working 9-5 work and most are happy with 9-5 pay.  Then three to six months later those reps will leave to accept a job that has a higher base pay.  To put it bluntly,  they appeared to be a good choice with you pre-hire assessments, however the rubber hit the road three to six months down later when there was no sign of desire.

Born With It

I stated this before and it's my belief that you can't teach desire, and you can't coach desire to anyone.  Desire to make the extra backs, hit that monthly or quarterly bonus comes from within a person.  Desire is that innate quality or ability that you're born with.  You either have it or you don't have it. Sorry everyone that doesn't have it.

Looking for Desire

I believe that most people that hire don't look for desire in the person, nor they know how to interview the client to see if they have desire.  Just maybe when you're hiring for sales people you should also include your top rep in the interview.  Everyone's top rep has desire and they know what to look for or what questions to ask.

Thinking two or three questions could be:

• Are you okay with getting an automatic cost of living increase to your base pay each year or would rather have the ability to an unlimited amount of money?
• If you had the chance to work more than 40 hours a week to earn more would you?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

There are good questions that you can add to your current list of hire interview questions.

I'm no expert with sales interviews or pre-hire assessments, however I will admit that I'm an expert in detecting desire in people.

-=Good Selling=-

As 2022 draws down.  I hope all of my friends and vendors had a prosperous year.

All of 2020, 2021 and 2022 presented significant challenges for me  and our office technology industry.  Years ago I would I would have labeled us a the copier industry, but with all of the changes I believe office technology better suits us as a whole.

Heart Aches Still Persist

One of my largest challenges for me and maybe our industry was the ability to meet net new objectives in 2022.  In fact I failed for the first time in many years for hitting my annual net new number.  The supply chain ramifications and not being able to get A4s put me at a disadvantage because I did not plan correctly for 2022 (that will not happen again).

I should have seen the writing on the wall and increased my activity with A3, however I also understand that our entire (competitors) industry was also focused on winning A3 business as well.  I believe our challenge will continue to exist well into 2023 for A4 MFPs.

The Competition Softens

If you follow the press releases many traditional copier companies have been purchased by those MEGA dealers again in 2022 (this will continue in 2023).  It's my belief when those companies are purchased they are no longer a competitor of mine.  There's a few reasons for my belief and that's because many employees will leave the MEGAs due to the cultural shift and many employees will be terminated to increase profits for their investors.  Thus there is and will be a talent shift away from the MEGAs and to companies like Stratix Systems that I work for.

Those those of us that are left can continue to write our tickets for success.

Work from Home in 2022

While there is still much hype for remote work and hybrid work.  I see many companies are feeling the pain from people burning out because the culture of work from home does not lend it self to the TEAM.  While there are many people that lavish in the remote and hybrid work, there are just as many or more that can't adjust.  I've heard from many companies that work from home is not a great option for many companies because they can't teach their new and younger employees on craft of their industries.  People still need to be with people in a TEAM environment for companies to succeed.

Office Print in 2022

Yes, print volumes are down and they will continue to erode as time passes.  There is no holy grail that will stop progress to the  paperless office one day. However for those of that still sell print there are still opportunities to make a great living with selling MFPs for many years to come.  The MFP opportunities exist with finding companies that have manual processes in place with paper (there are still many of those). MFPs offer companies many ways to reduce costs and increase productivity with those manual processes.  We just need to find them.

How to Win in 2023

The last couple of days I've thought a lot about how to make a difference in 2023.  I'm in a unique place in my career since I'll be 66 in February and I've taken the position that I'll continue in my current role for another year as long as I stay healthy.  I've got experience on my side!

I will put prospecting for content opportunities on the top of my agenda for both net new accounts and existing clients. Content can be a mixed bag of offering for business intelligence, serverless printing, AI and RPA (robotic process intelligence). It will not be easy,  but in order to win I also need to increase my knowledge for 2023.  Of course I will never give out prospecting for MFPs, because I believe the MFP prospecting will lead to the content opportunities.

The best way to win again is to never, ever stop prospecting.

-=Good Selling=-

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=-