Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

I've been thinking quite a bit about the world that I now sell in.  With the Delta variant picking up steam here in the East, I'm concerned that the Pandemic may have not run it's course just yet.

It's my belief that this pandemic started here in the US in late November or early December of 2019.  The reason I believe that is because everyone in my family got sick in December and all of us tested negative for the flu.  It was nasty for us but we came out it. We'll never know since there was no testing for COVID19 at that time.

Thus as far as I'm concerned we're into this for 21 months now and most of us in the sales world have experienced 18 months of change. Personally I thought we were out of this in May, however in recent days at least here in NJ some businesses have instituted their own mask mandates, all K12 schools will be in session but all will have to wear masks, and most all of our colleges are mandating that students be vaccinated or they can't attend class. In addition I've heard of some businesses now mandating that a condition of employment is that you're vaccinated  for COVID19.  The NJ Marathon was just cancelled and many indoor and outdoor events are requiring proof of vaccination.

Sales

Sales has been uneven for the last 90 days. Some months are up and some are down, I was fortunate to close two rather large opportunities last week that totaled $135K in revenue.  One of those opps with an existing client took 6 months from start to finish. The other opportunity that closed wasn't even on my 90 day funnel (the hardier you work, the luckier you get).  However I still think about the state of business if those two opps did not go down.  When removing those opps the market here in NJ is sluggish and it's not just me, I've spoken to two other dealer principals that are seeing the same business climate in NJ.

BTA National Event

This week features the BTA National Convention in San Diego. Many solution vendors, speakers and vendors will gather from across the county for this two day event.  I'm sure the state of our industry will be one of the hot discussions with those back door chats. I wish I could be there but I choose to stay home and put in the work to make sure I can finish my year where I want to be. This is what I do and I know no other way and I still enjoy what I do even after all of these years.

Questions I Have

• Will companies in our industry start to mandate a COVID19 vaccine for employees?
• Will companies that I visit require me to show proof of vaccination?
• Will companies revert back to no visitors from salespeople as the Delta variant gains strength?
• Will we ever get back to where we were in business prior to the pandemic?
• Will we do this all over again for the next H1N1 or Swine Flu?
• Is this our new normal business climate?
• Will NJ or other states go back to requiring masks for indoors?
• Has the pandemic forever altered our industry?
• Will we really need a Virus Passport to travel from State to State?

One thing I do know is that I don't have the answers for any of those questions.

With the 20th anniversary of 9/11 just a few short weeks away it got me thinking about many of the hardships we've been through over the last twenty years. With 9/11 did not give up, we went back to work and we made the best of things that we could.

I guess that's the attitude we have to take with us as we continue to fight an unstable business client.  Keep pushing, keep moving forward and don't ever, ever give up.

-=Good Selling=-

It's common knowledge that I've been struggling with hitting my numbers for the last 8 weeks.  I should have expected a run like this since I had a run of 14 months that were above average.  Instead of saying "Why Me", I'd rather stick to "Why Not Me".

I had five appointments in the field today and that gave me a lot of windshield time and time to think.  Because of the pandemic and now the ensuing Delta variant I have at least 5-6 leases that are in renewal.  At this time I've not found a way to get those clients to upgrade.  In most cases it's easy to show the show the savings on the maintenance side in order to facilitate the  upgrade.  I have three clients that can save thousands yet they still won't pull the trigger and  are in rollover with month to month to month clause.

With most copiers leases there are four options at the end of the lease.

• upgrade
• purchase
• return
• don't return and don't buy, just keep renting on a month to month, or every two months and some leases will auto renew for 12 months

I would tend to think that most copier dealers that use leasing companies have these options in the lease.  The fourth clause can be different from each dealer and or leasing company.

I'm also aware that there are many dealers that have their own leasing companies and they may dictate the end of lease terms differently from what I've seen and what I use in the field.

Car Leases

I just looked up the terms of my car lease and at the end I have three options. One is to purchase the leased vehicle, upgrade to a new lease or return the car and walk away.  There is no rollover clause that I know of, however I have heard that some of the car manufacturers will grant a short term extension of the lease if needed.  Pretty simple stuff right?

Times Like These

We've never endured times like these before in our industry.  I've got five to six leases in rollovers and I can only imagine how many others are in the same boat as me.  It's times like these that make you think about those terms and conditions and if they could be changed to help facilitate upgrades in a more timely manner.

Rollovers

At some point in time these clients will pull the trigger on the upgrade but when you're struggling you tend to think that just maybe there is another option to add or takeway.  Most leases state if you don't exercise your option the lease will renew on a month to month, every two months and then some that have a 12 month rollover.  I've heard that some of the leasing companies will roll a portion of that rental back to the dealer.  So, that's great for the dealer but not so great for the sales person because they don't see any of that revenue. Thus good for the leasing company and somewhat good for the dealer.

What I Would Like to See

I'm not sure if I'll be around when the next pandemic hits, but it would make sense to me that a dealer may want to re-think the the fourth option of the roll over.  Now this idea comes from chats with many clients that have asked me about the end of lease options. When I get to option 4 which is the roll over some of the clients asked me if there is an additional cost for the device once the lease goes into the month to month. The reaction from the client is more like they thought there would be an increase at the end of the term.  Of course there isn't but what if there was?  Why can't the month to month rental double in cost or there is no month to month option and the equipment has to be purchased, upgraded or sent back.

If we had these additional covenants it would be a win for the leasing company (especially if the lease went to rollover at double the cost), win for the dealer and the sales person would have a much better chase of securing the upgrade at the end of the lease.

Again the only reason that this came to mind is my current situation but it does get you thinking and when you compare the end of lease options with a car it seems to be that they are better at protecting the upgrade process.

As my buddy @VinceMcHugh, just my two cents

-=Good Selling=-

Just when I thought the coast was clear of COVID19 it seems that we may be in for a bumpy ride.

New Jersey

Where oh were do I start?  During our Governors press briefing today he stated that the Delta variant cases are up 22% statewide. In addition the RT has risen to 1.37 (anything over 1.0 means the virus is spreading).  While our Governor has not mandated any restrictions other than those in already in place he did state that they may be coming down the road if the situation gets worse.

Lovely just lovely to hear

If we go back to masks and closings I'm afraid that all of the good that was accomplished since May will be nothing more than a flash in the pan.

Seven Weeks

The last seven weeks for me has been stale. I'm holding at least 28 opportunities and all have stalled.  There's a couple opportunities that would put me over the top, with one for $65K and the other for $35K.  One trigger point has passed on the one lease and the other has a due date in September.  With Delta on the horizon I've got this feeling that these two larger opportunities could hold their cards a longer that I thought.  Which really screws up my pipeline.  I have some smaller opportunities that could pop but all them are in the $5-7K range and it takes a lot of them to make up for the last seven weeks.

I relegated the last four weeks to prospecting an I'm sure that will be the theme for the next two to three weeks.  When the pipeline is dry or stalled you go out and find more opportunities right?

We have reps that are kicking ass and doing really well in Pa, but New Jersey seems to be a different animal when it comes to COVID19.  It's my belief that since New Jersey was locked down for so long that many took the opportunity to enjoy the summer and put off those buying decisions until the fall.  I can't blame them because most of us did not take the time we needed last summer because of restrictions.  This summer has proven to be a real bear in the business climate.

What can I do to change things?

The only chance I have to reverse this is to keep on prospecting and sooner or later good things will happen. The old saying still holds true that winners make things happen and losers wait for things to happen.  Lately even prospecting is starting to take it's toll on me, when I used to be able to find 5-7 opportunities in a week, it's now more like 2-4 I'm finding and most are small revenue.

But we continue to move forward, never give up with the expectation that good things will happen.

Tomorrow is another day and it's always a good day to find more opportunities!

-=Good Selling=-

click the image for the podcast link

Is 1 Rate aka Flat Rate Billing Passe in a Post Pandemic Business World?

Since July is all about prospecting I've been able to pay many visits to Linkedin for conducting my research.  Today the post below stood out from all of the others.....

Yes, it seems Kyocera is going to have their own version of the 1 Rate aka flat rate billing for MFP's. For me the ad implied that the "one fixed rate subscription will be coming to a dealership near you soon".

I had a rather long chat with an industry veteran today and we covered so many items in the industry and then landed on the 1 Rate aka flat rate programs.  I was asked about my opinion for the subscription based billing model that was gaining popularity before COVID19 struck.

I believe that the subscription based models (1 Rate or Flat Rate) is good for clients that are producing a high volume of prints.  Most DM's can see the value and take it to the bank.  With those lower volume users there are many us of in the industry that can pick the plan apart and offer a less expensive alternative to the client.  That's what we were doing in the pre-COVID19 times.

Since we're in a post pandemic business climate my thoughts have changed about the subscription based billing model.  Many if not all businesses were forced to adapt to "shelter in place" and then launch remote services for most employees to work from home.  Thus those MFP's in the office sat idle for months and months on end with little to no volume being produced.  Win, win for the manufacturer and major loss for the clients.  Since many subscription billing models are tied to a lease there was no way for a client to get a financial relief with the MFPs not in use. They still had to pay and I'm sure the thought of what a great plan it was turned in to more of what did I do?

I guess the nice thing about having a maintenance agreement separate from the lease means that if a client asks the dealership there maybe a chance that some relief can be offered.  Well not a chance because I know many dealerships that did offer some type of relief for those clients that asked.

Post Pandemic Subscription

Most business leaders will make decisions based on past experiences and many will also rely on a vision of what the next few years will be like before signing a long term contract.

I and others believe that we will see more of these "shelter in place" and businesses relegating employees remote working when the next pandemic hits.  I don't believe it's a case of "if" it happens but rather when it happens. I don't believe that it will be another 100 year cycle like the Spanish Flu.  I do believe that we now live in a different world when it comes to viruses and whose to say that what we just went through won't happen again with the next few years.

Getting back to the subscription billing model means locking in for 5 years and I can't see any business owner/leader approving something like that after what the world just went through.

_=Good Selling=-

About a week ago I posted a thread in our forums about an appointment I had with a net new account here in New Jersey. 

I met with the client on Thursday or Friday of that week, went through the discovery process and got the feeling that this opportunity would have a decision sooner rather than later.  The reason for that assumption is because the client just completed building out a new space and the supply chain issues our entire industry is experiencing.  It's interesting how no one bats an eye when you tell them 5-10 days but when it 4-8 weeks things seem to heat up quite quickly.

By Monday of the next week the client had their quote (via email), we were still in a moderate lock down then.  The client also told me that they are required to get at least two additional quotes.  I thought, let the **** show begin. 

In my early selling days I was one of those that was taught the tactics of high pressures sales that came along with those closing questions.  I used them but really never liked them.  Yes, at times they worked but I always wanted to sell the way I wanted to be sold.  Meaning give me all of the information that I need in order to make an educated decision on what's best for my company or me. Which led me to being patient with existing and net new clients. 

It was about 10 days later when I followed up with the client and they told me they had still not received the other quotes. Once I heard that I asked if we can schedule the second meeting to review the proposal and that meeting was granted.  A few days later we had our virtual meeting for the review. 

At the end of the meeting I was told that they are not interesting in getting the additional quotes and they will put my quote in for approval. Yay!  Today I received the approval from the client and not a bad opportunity since it was net new and had two color MFP devices (A3 & A4).

All of this brings me back to the other proposals, the client did reach out to two other companies and both of those companies failed!  One of my first guesses would have been if the company can't follow up on lead how good can they be at service?   I'm astonished that neither of the reps followed up with a phone call or email.  Is this the way it's going to be in a post covid19 world? If so I'm going to really like the new normal .

The best part about this opportunity is that I lost when they were in market five years ago for MFPs.  At times I do consider myself to be like a dog with a bone with a lead.  Not gonna give it up, will place it off to the side and when it's time I'm going to be back on the bone. Consistent and not nagging follow up calls produced this decent opportunity and I'm happy that I lose from time to time because that increases my chancing of winning next time. We like to win.

-=Good Selling=-

Late March 2^nd (Monday), 2020 my wife and I arrived in Newark Airport from my Presidents Club trip to Aruba. It truly was a great week although we were peppered every day with news headlines with COVID19.  I asked my wife “is this something we should worry about?”

Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week back continued to be the normal selling days that I’ve been accustomed to for the last forty years.  It was Thursday of that week when the North East USA when the news was stating to shelter in place.  Calls to offices were going unanswered, emails not being return and by Monday the 9^th of March our entire office and sales staff was told that we are working remote now.  That was 13 months ago and I’m still remote here in New Jersey.

March/April 2020

I’m now 100% remote from my home office and I was one of the fortunate ones I guess because years ago I set up a home office for the Print4Pay Hotel.  Thus I had everything I needed with PC, printer/scanner/copier, desk and a not so comfortable chair. I’m guessing I had more than most with the immediate optioning to remote working.

Those early days were spent making the phone calls and after a day or so I realized that there was no one in the office to pick up calls.  I thought what’s going to be the best way to stay in touch with my clients and that answer was email.

Since no one was in the office I accepted the thought that no one is going to be buying copiers.  The only thing I could do is to keep in touch with all of my existing clients and tell them about the IT services that they might need for all of their remote workers.  In addition,  I asked how they were coping with the new normal and how they were doing business.  With every email I sent I made sure that I asked at least one question (hoping for a response) and positioned the question as the last sentence of the email.

Inserting those questions helped big time because I was able to learn more about what my clients were experiencing and allowed me to continue to ask additional questions.  Almost more like texting but in an email format.

Those types of emails persisted for more than a month. March and April were definite months I want to forget. I believe I sent every existing an account an email in that time frame and I believe that helped me in the coming months.

All of my existing prospects fell of the table except for one account, we had a rather unique email chain going and during April we were able to schedule a couple of MS Teams meeting. I give credit to Stratix for quickly adopting the MS Teams platform to help us stay engaged.

May/June

I asked my-self early on what is the biggest driver for my clients now since many of them was in the same boat on the same creek with me.  If there’s no revenue coming in what is going to make clients listen and buy.  I went through this type of scenario one other time in my career and that was the great recession of 2008-2010.  The lesson I learned from that is all clients will listen if you can reduce their costs.

It was also during that time that I was still out and about helping my wife with food shopping since that was another unique experience.  While I was out and about I took notice that there was still activity with construction projects. Commercial and residential business was still happening and that told me that the AEC (Architects, Engineers and Construction) market was still active.  It was then that I set my sights on all of my AEC accounts.  I reviewed every account that had copiers and wide format, did the cost analysis in advance of email or speaking with them.  When I had the final numbers of what I could save each account I then made the emails and calls and presented the savings.  When most clients are presented with the unknown of future revenues they will hunker down and cut costs because they don’t want to go out of business.

With help of a net new client who purchased a production MIRC printer.  May turned out to be my best month ever in the industry and I was able to sell $200K of gear and seventy-five percent of that was wide format device.

By the end of the quarter, I believe I was over $300K in revenue.

July/August/September

The theme of concentrating with the AEC market and reducing costs was still the name of the game for these three months.  I’ll admit that I also had a stroke of luck with that net new client that bought the production printer because they bought another one from me.  Each one of those was a $60K hit.  In fact before the end of the year they purchased another which made a total of three.

All through out these months there’s once thing I didn’t do and that was to give up and say I can’t take this or I can’t do this. I looked at this event as to why can’t I do this, and why can’t I excel at this.  Thus every week when we had our weekly sales meeting I wrote down a sales quote on my small white board that I was using to give me that mental edge to keep pushing forward. I was not enamored with oh why did this happen to me but rather why not happen to me.  I can do this.

Another key for me is that I was able to have Zoom meetings with my peers in the industry about every two weeks.  On those calls we would discuss what’s working and what’s not working and learned from others what they were seeing and doing.

When it comes right down to it, I worked by butt of so I could be assured that I would not fail.

October/November/December

After I had run my course with most of my AEC accounts I turned towards my commercial accounts.  With summer COVID19 numbers being down across the summer more accounts were adopting a hybrid work schedule.  Prints were down BIG time, but I kept with the theme of saving them money and most of that was with analyzing there pre-COVID19 print volumes with the existing print volumes. Pretty much right sizing the volume while still keeping the same style/speed MFP and that’s because at some point in the time we’ll be back to work and print volumes will migrate upward.

In addition, I partnered with a lead company to supply me with leads.  I did this out of my own pocket because you need to spend money to make money.  The lead service was so so at best but gave me additional net new prospects to keep me busy.

I would also say that a key to my success is that I never stopped prospecting whether it was with emails, phone calls, text messages and my monthly email campaign to net new clients.  I never stopped believing that I could excel in this type of new normal

At the end of the year, I had my best revenue and commissions in 40 years. I’m also a firm believer that the harder you work the luckier you get.

-=Good Selling=-

There I was going back and forth with the client trying to figure a way to get the deal done for a couple of production devices.  Seems what ever I tried was not working. I even reached out to others in the Print4Pay Hotel community for help with how to get bring this deal home.  All of the suggestions were not working and then the client told me "I need to get this deal done so I can go rescue the cat!".  What, the cat wtf **** does that cat have to do with ordering the damn copier I thought?  You want to order the copier so you can rescue a cat I asked. The reply was "yes, let's get this done now".

I guess the cat, the copier and the rescue escapade didn't sit well with me and that's when I realized it was all a really vivid dream.  When I made my way downstairs this AM I told me wife about the dream and she stated, "there was something going on because I heard you talking in your sleep trying to cut a deal".

Well, I guess the cat is now out of the bag and this isn't the first time I've been accused of trying to cut a deal in my sleep.

Even those these are dreams there have been times when a dream helped me figure out a way to get an opportunity closed.  It was more about looking at something from a difference perspective and I guess the subconscious part of my brain figured it out for me.  Mind you it does not happen often and the dream I had last night was wild and will not help to close any working opportunities today.

On the other hand the part about reaching out to others within our community is something to take note.  Sometimes as sales people we think we're understanding the client needs and wants but something went missing during the sales cycle.  I guess the moral of the dream is if you think you need help then you do and should reach out to others for help.

Curious to know if anyone else has been accused of cutting deals in your sleep.  If so I think it would be great to hear some of those stories.

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working at Three Hundred Days of Selling Copiers

It's been eight days since my last blog and tomorrow marks three hundred business days of working remote since March of 2020.

Jersey is just about wide open at this point however we are the only state in the continental US that still has a mask mandate and social distancing for indoor activities.  The only other state with mask mandate is Hawaii.

May

May has been kind of up and down and with three days left in the month I may end $5 or $6k short of my monthly quota.  A good thing is that there's still more than 10% of the month left.

The month has been somewhat frustrating since one large existing account has decided the get lost in the weeds for the last three weeks.  Emails, calls and nothing seems to get them to poke their head out for a chat.  Patience.....I keep telling myself that because sooner or later something will happen.  One of the good things that came from this week is that another existing account that went into the weeds for four months made an appearance and I was told they need asap 5-7 A3 color MFPs.  That's a nice one. We'll see if this can come to fruition before the month closes on Monday the 24th.  So far crickets for the last 24 hours.

Now if just if I could get both of those well that would be a nice way to end a so so month.

300

The past three hundred days have been a long long journey during COVID19.  I know the blogs have tailed off as of late and I guess the reason for that is two fold.  One it's almost summer time again and I do love my summers and the other is because with the transitioning to a post COVID19 era, I've been more active with in person meetings.  In addition I've actually populated the NJ office for a couple of days in the last two weeks.

I couldn't have done this without many of you.  The zoom chats, the phone calls and the emails helped me make it through one of the toughest times our industry has ever faced.  It will be interesting to see the changes now that we're in a post COVID recovery and I'm sure I'll have something to write about the changes that I'm seeing in the field.

Special Thanx

I guess the first person I need to thank is my dealer principal, he's the one didn't cut staff and believed in his people. To him I owe a heartfelt thank you because if I had been furloughed who knows what the next step would have been.  Next is my VP of Sales, he has that no quit mentality like me and helped me believe that if you have faith you can accomplish anything.  Guess what?  We accomplished EVERYTHING!

Greg Walters our early zoom meetings were the bomb and I know we both helped each other and others as well. John Anderson, what can I say I love John like a brother and our consistent chats kept the juices flowing.  Larry Kirsch, the old veteran that knows more than me and I'm still learning from him.  Dayna Karron, what can I say but I wish I could be more like her. We had an early Zoom call in early April about the use of Linkedin and what I learned (can you believe I'm still learning) helped so much. Chris Pierson, was the only guy I could chat with that understood what it was like in Jersey for the past 300 days.  Gonna miss Chris because he's transitioned out of the industry.

Eddie Jones, Jason Habbal, Monte Jensen, Deon Beshoff, Joe Escamillia, Frank Vasquez and everyone else that attending our early zoom calls was amazing.  Having the ability to talk about our markets and what's working or not working was key!

Martin Hoffman (Copier Store), Chris Polek (Polek & Polek), Brent Martin (Arlington), Brett Apold (Arcoa) our calls and zoom chats helped me to understand what was happening with our vendors.  Funny story with Chris it was in mid February that we did a chat about COVID19  in China and how that might affect our supply chain.  It's 300 business days later and there are still major supply chain issues!  Guess Chris and I knew something but never thought it would be this bad.

To my wife, one amazing women that puts up with my crazy ideas, my workaholic attitude and ADD, Could not have gotten through this without you dear.

The End

At 300 business days I'm calling this blog series a wrap.  I can only hope that I've helped someone along the way and if I did it makes all 300 days something very special.

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Ninety One Days of Selling Copier, Managed IT and Content

Look at me blogging on a Friday night one more time!

What a travel day it was for me. I had a 9:30AM in Princeton (45 miles) from my home office, then a Noon appointment that was another (50 miles) from Princeton and further from my home office. It was then another 65 miles or to our Edison office where I had to print order docs for the wide format approval I received this AM.  There was no way I was going to email the docs and WAIT to get them returned.  Thus is was another 35 miles to my clients office (closer to my home office) where we spent maybe 20 minutes chatting about his business, what's new with him, looked at the space for the KIP C660 and got my two signatures.

Thus for a week that I thought was going to be another struggle I received three sets of order docs for a total of $33K. Top top it off my Noon appointment gave me a verbal to send them order docs for a new A3 color worth about $11K.  Not a bad way to end a week.

Even though I had a lot of windshield time this week and lost productive hours I believe I made that up with my Noon appointment.  If I had not paid an on-site visit I would not have know they have a Canon color wide format close to the end of the lease (it was not working), I would have not know they are a huge user of BOX and I guess the icing on the cake I also found out that the account has additional print/copy/scan devices around the US. Thus one opportunity added for the wide format and many possible opportunities to come down the road.  Now I'm pretty sure I would not have found out all of that on a video call, I may have, but I'm going with being on-site and in person was a good thing.

Eleven selling days left and things are shaping up.

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Ninety Days of Selling Copiers, Managed IT & Content

Just now I realized that it's been seven business days since I last blogged with this blog series.  I believe that's the longest stint I've logged without blogging since the pandemic started.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in previous blogs but I've been able to survive the entire pandemic without the use of home office printer/scanner.  At first it was rather cumbersome since my entire order workflow in the past was based printing and scanning order entry docs and forms.  The first couple of months was an absolute pain in my ass with not having a printer/scanner.  However I persevered and found ways to develop a digital workflow for unsigned order docs, signed order docs and all of those pain the butt forms we all use.  In addition I found shortcuts with my pdf software that would allow me to add and redact text on forms quicker than before the pandemic.

Today was the day that I had to print a document and my first document of the pandemic.  Thus today was the first day in months that I made a plan to work from the office in Edison, NJ.  Traffic was somewhat heavier than what I've grown accustom to in the past few months.  Arriving at our industrial park I also noticed that there's definitely an increase in amount of parked cars.

I believe I may be getting to the end of the road with this blog series.

NJ

Over the past three weeks infections are way down. Amount of New Jerseyans that are fully vaccinated is over three million now.  Our Governor has relaxed a little and has opened bars (with six feet of distancing still) and if you're not eating or drinking you still need to wear a mask (wtf). In addition outdoor gathering time lines have moved up and he is allowing larger groups.  I heard from someone that he will not relax the mask mandates, the social distancing and Health Emergency Order until the seventy percent of the NJ population is vaccinated.  May 17th is the timeline for the next extension.

You can now get a walk up vaccinated however the fever of peeps getting vaccinated has slowed.  Slowed so much that our Governor instituted a beer & shot spiff for everyone that shows a full vaccination card at participating establishments. Has the entire world gone mad?

Last Seven Days

It's no secret that I'm in somewhat of a sales slump for the past six weeks.  However this week seems to be a breakout since I'll have 13 or so appointments with most of them being on-site.  I think it was Tuesday when I added three opportunities in the span of a couple hours.  Two were for A3 color devices and one was for a wide format toner based color MFP.  Having that happen in the span of a couple of hours can really give you some pop for the rest of the day.

Up until yesterday I had lost more opportunities than sales. I lost two and one was with a net new (I think they just went cheap and I wasn't giving anything away), the other was an existing client that stated it was not me nor my company but just thought they had an offer they could not refuse.  Thus I posed the question (via email because that's how I was informed), "understood so if everything was so perfect why not give us a chance to come close or match?".  They say silence is golden, however in this case the silence told me that maybe there was a falsehood?  In any event that thought of a price they couldn't refuse usually blows up on them somewhere down the road.

As of today I made those two losses go away with two signed orders. Yesterday I had a verbal for a $25K deal, however I'm still waiting to see if we get the approval. You just can't count deals as sold unless you have the docs and sometimes until the deal is delivered.

I've also got a handful of accounts that are at the end of their leases and I can't seem to make them move.  Sometimes it's more about their timeline than mine. In addition I still have the $64K opportunity with an existing client that's gone in the weeds for a few weeks now.

With 12 selling days left in the month there is some light peeking threw the tunnel but it's going to take it's time.

Tomorrow

Get this an appointment with an account that I lost to five years ago!  Keeping in touch with accounts that you did not sell is just as important as all of the other accounts.  What comes around goes around. Later in the day I have an appointment with an existing client to upgrade an A3 MFP which I hope I can at least get the verbal tomorrow.  That would be an $11K pop.

The struggle still remains for many us in states that are not fully open. I can only hope that all of this ends soon and the economy goes on the rebound for a Roaring Twenties.  What goes around comes around.

-=Good Selling=-

COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Eighty-Three of Selling Copiers, ManagedIT and Content

Busy, busy and more busy.  Wish I could write more of these blogs each week however my day job has precluded me from that.

Quick updates tonight

We ended our month last Friday and what I predicted to be a boom of bust month ended up to be neither.  The rather large opportunity for $65K for an existing account went in the weeds on Wednesday and hasn't come out since.  In addition I wasn't going to be the one that seemed desperate to get the order, thus I've let the ball travel for yesterday and today also.  I'll call or email something late tomorrow.

I ended up with maybe $30K in revenue with one net new order and that's because I was able to turn an order at 5PM on Friday of last week.  Yes not a great month, and not a bad month, but more of a mediocre month. There's nothing I had more that being average. I was not made for average!

Okay,  so that larger order rolls to May and now it's go time for to see what else I can move down the road. I did pick up a verbal for a small A3 color today and those docs are going out in the AM.

Otherwise today was more about prospecting for the old guy.  In between two appointments (virtual), answering incoming emails, researching for potential opportunities I was able to send 20 prospecting email, 29 phone calls, created one opportunity and schedule one appointment.  Not bad for a days work and there are still 20 selling days left for May.

I was able to pick up a suspect off of Linkedin today.  I'm calling them a suspect now because I'm not sure why they accessed my profile.  However that suspect is in the AEC market and I'm suspecting maybe something with wide format.  That suspect was not even on my radar.  Now they are!  Call goes out tomorrow.

It's been a week and I'm still fighting some type of crappy cold. It's kept me tired, stuffy, and cranky for the past week. Couple that with a ****ty sales month and my wife tells me what a pleasure I am!  Strange she makes no mention of that when the big fat check comes home.

New Jersey

What can I say?  It was all over the news on Monday that our Governor had some MAJOR announcements for his press briefing that day. I was pretty pumped thinking just maybe he's come to his senses and will the lift gathering mandates, dump the masks and ditch the Emergency Health Order. His major announcements is that "he" was increasing out door gatherings to 50% and increasing sports venues by another 5%!  WTF

Tomorrow

Half a day for me baby, taking off the rest of the day for some personal time to enjoy the better weather and get my head straight.

-=Good Selling=-