Tagged With "Thomas More College"
Comment
Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 47"
Karl Thank you! Please feel free to share via social media also! Ten more to go. I was just thinking about doing a journal for the entire 2017. Art
Comment
Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 47"
I am seeing more of that with wide format recently and I am not sure why. Most of what I have seen has been where they are running the same volume as before but they just don't want to have a machine anymore so they outsource it and it doesn't seem to matter if the machine was leased to them for a $1 a month they still wouldn't do it.
Reply
Re: BLI Recognizes Leading Healthcare Solutions Providers with First-of-its-Kind PaceSetter Award
Well, this is the first type of award/acknowledgement that I've ever seen that is geared towards a vertical market. Guess there will be more of these to come in the future
Reply
Re: Hiring Sales Reps - what are you hearing
Surprising there are no replies yet. I would figure this to be a "hot" topic. We recently found one in the age demographic that will work out. He has more than a 45 minute ride, has closed a few orders already. Maybe you need to show them $500 at the interview and ask how they would like to get that $500, by working a week or trying to talk you out of it. After reading your thread it seems that neither of those "salespeople" have the "desire" to compete, yet alone the determination to "win".
Reply
Re: Canon and Konica Minolta Reps
Jason, Wow, that KM C6500 is ancient. It's all about the media. Does the customer run (or need to run) coated or heavier stocks? The C75XX series may suffice. However, it tops out at 256gsm and crawls when coated stocks are throughput. The C750 offers you superior quality, registration and efficiency (at a higher cost). Also, the C750 offers a more powerful front-end option, additional finishing options etc...
Reply
Re: Canon and Konica Minolta Reps
Thank you Carl. We've had to reschedule the meeting. I didn't realize how ancient it was until I pulled a buyers lab report on it! I'll have more after I meet with the guy next week.
Comment
Re: COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Eighteen of Sales
Give #1 a second look. https://business.toshiba.com/b...-business/#more-2420
Reply
Re: Kyocera finally launches color inkjet PPS
Very curious if this will fly, I'm concerned over how long it took to launch and if there were issues of some sort. We are a Kyocera dealer so we will be hearing more about it soon.
Comment
Re: The End Of The Day With Ray! Don’t Screw Up Your Defining Moment
I've got shut down customers asking how we can help them because they can't operate. It sucks for us but it sucks way more for them. I have "suspended" an MA for one because they asked" no cost no expense". I was lucky enough to get my PPP loan in on day one, approved and closed. I live to fight another day but I don't think things will change all that much. Americans are not going to change everything because of Covid 19, I may be wrong (wouldn't be the first time) but this is a major...
Comment
Re: COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Forty-Three of Sales
I just created my own YouTube channel doing product videos with future ones planned mostly focussed on MS365. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OotckdOtEg ... and I am working Linkedin a lot more in different ways. Most of the people I know say they have never gotten a lead from Linkedin. They think of this site as a static business card talking about who they are and not what they can do for the customer. They never post to Linkedin. Like most things, Linkedin requires almost daily work to...
Comment
Re: COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Forty-Three of Sales
SSG that's an awesome video! You can send links to clients, and direct them to your channel. It's a virtual demo that keeps on giving. Kudos I have some of the same issues with getting appointments through Linkedin, however I know of several peeps that use Linkedin as their only source for prospecting and they are doing well. I will keep working it since I have a Navigator account now
Reply
Re: Leasing Company Changes and Funding Disruption
We only use Great America but i have not seen any disruption. All seems normal with them other than the little caveat that the business must be open and operational at the time of funding. I haven’t seen credit tighten up from them or feel they are any more strict than usual.
Reply
Re: COVID-19 Impact on Dealers and the Channel?
I was on the MPSA call today. Here's some points of interest I was going to post on another thread but will put it here for everyone. One major MPS company reported 29% decline in pages or revenue Another major MPS company reported a 71% decline Healthcare for one of those clients saw a 40% increase More inquires from clients in respect to file sharing and content Expecting continuing decline for another 30 days in revenue and prints First week of April they hit bottom and has stayed that...
Comment
Re: Post-Virus We Must Defeat The Zombie Companies!
Although I am 60% on board with your move to A4 strategy, most of the rest of the stuff you are posting is "knocking it out of the park"! I would like to see a poll. As a business owner, during COVID-19 would you prefer? 1). No lease payments for 90 days 2). 1/2 price lease payments for one year The auto industry is pushing no payments for 90 days but I think business owners are more concerned about cash flow for the next year. I think the correct strategy is to offer as part of your...
Comment
Re: Post-Virus We Must Defeat The Zombie Companies!
SalesServiceGuy, I would suggest that a payment strategy is not something I see valuable at all. Customers need help deferring payments on what they already own. In all do respect. A payment strategy is not helpful to end user strictly based on selling a new MFP. The Imaging Channel's resellers who only sell print equipment are going to find themselves in serious trouble. Customers don't need to upgrade their all already oversold A3 to another one. Dealers should credit back the unused...
Comment
Re: Post-Virus We Must Defeat The Zombie Companies!
SalesServiceGuy I will discuss this more on tomorrows "End of The Day With Ray!" Have a great evening
Reply
Re: Need HELP! Kyocera Color A3 question
Top three points I make when against Kyocera. #1. Take them color samples from your device and any Kyocera because the color output is sub par on all units. If you don’t have access to one look in your crm for an account you co-exist with Kyocera in. Or the next time you have a knock out make some samples and keep them in a binder. If color quality is important to the customer it will be a win. Another point is showing them you get what you pay for, meaning 3 tier color is what they have...
Reply
Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
Monte I don't believe you are paranoid! The ecommerce is a real threat for sales peeps. In order to over come that we as sales peeps will need to wear additional hats to better serve out clients. Those as a trusted adviser, become more knowledgeable with cloud services, IT services, MSP, MSSP. It's my belief that we will evolve from just print to be able to consult on all aspects of business office. I would love to hear from others on this as well, this is a great subject for discussion.
Comment
Re: It’s The End Of The Day With Ray! 2020 Who Will Educate Endusers
Art, Thanks for comments it's conversation which starts change. There is way more applications for A4 MFPs than those few applications you suggest. The large disruption will be from those who can isolate the realities of the customers needs and sell based on those realities. Declining Marketplaces are disrupted when the old way continues delivering to all the market's customers the same way they did before the decline. The old way needs to focus on the realities of over 80% of the market...
Reply
Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
"Why should the local dealer expedite service, parts or put you at the top of the list for support when you did not buy from them?" I think more and more companies, our industry and others are separating the service department from the sales dept so much that each will be required to stand alone if necessary. There has always been a gap between sales and service and who wins is usually dictated by whether the person at the top came from sales or sevice. At some point the service dept is...
Reply
Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
@fisher I agree almost completely, but to play devils advocate I will say that we are selling more desktop printers now than we ever have before. Mostly brother, as we became a partner a couple years ago. I think people are looking for reps to show them a better way than just buying another HP off amazon, but the rep still has to have a higher level conversation with the client...not just hey buy your printers from us.
Reply
Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
We definitely are not out chasing them but we are much more versed talking about them and the benefits of buying them from us rather than the big box store. It has led to some very nice MPS accounts for us this past year. I don’t have a final count but I believe we added about 3 million new clicks this year from printer sales. Not breaking any records by any means but adding an extra 50k or so of revenue never hurts. And thanks to brother for having a minimum advertised price online for the...
Reply
Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
In 10 years there WILL be outside sales reps, and many of them will be the committed, true professionals of today. The E-Commence platform have changed our business and how we do it. For example gone are the days when you could duck into a 15 story office building and cold call. But electronic format can still be your attention getter and facilitate your efforts in creating interest. I can buy anything on line and cut out the sales person. Try doing your own investing and getting the right...
Reply
Re: Ricoh Copy Output Tray for MP 9002
Yup agreed. I'm working with Copier Solution Shop in the Netherlands for a third party replacement. In addition for right Ricoh Europe is still offering these. I have a contact and can get more. Thinking sooner or later they will run out also
Reply
Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
I’m a little late to this party but had the thread open since it was posted. As a 35 year old i straddle the “millennial” and old school gap (in my opinion haha). There is value of ordering things online that can be commonly used or even basic electronics. But if it’s anything above basic, I still believe talking to someone even if on the phone, pays dividends. We recently bought a new vehicle for my wife and explored for weeks online our options, the new vehicles options, what the price...
Reply
Re: Print Copy Tool versus Plotworks
John, The PrintCopy Tool compares pretty favorably to Plotworks. I attached two documents to this post. The Product Support Guide lists differences between the two products. The PowerPoint has screen shots of all the settings in PrintCopy Tool. I hope this helps.
Reply
Re: Ricoh Pro C5300
I tried to get more details from my Ricoh production rep, he tells me more info will be available towards the end of the month and that was it, hoping for some big changes, especially in the LCT area.
Comment
Re: 7 Deadly Topics from 7 Deadly Sinners at Top 100 Summit (Part One)
I disagree that you have to own the network in order to offer seat-based billing. Before I go into why, can we (imaging industry) please stop referring to Managed Services as MNS? No one in the IT world uses this term; it's industry jargon that makes you stand out as a copier dealer 1st and an IT Services provider 2nd. Managed IT Services, Managed Services...fine. MNS needs to die. Now, here is why I disagree that you have to own the network as a client's Managed Services provider in order...
Comment
Re: 7 Deadly Topics from 7 Deadly Sinners at Top 100 Summit (Part One)
No, Art. You're spot on. I haven't had many jobs outside the industry, but the majority of the old guard is so proud of the way they've always done it & receives so much validation from other dealers with the same mentality (via BTA, CDA, SDG, et al) that they often refuse to admit the need to change until it's practically too late. There are ideas & concepts that I brought up 3-5 years ago that were considered to be "interesting but not really necessary" that we're suddenly latching...
Comment
Re: 7 Deadly Topics from 7 Deadly Sinners at Top 100 Summit (Part One)
Originally Posted by txeagle24: I disagree that you have to own the network in order to offer seat-based billing. Before I go into why, can we (imaging industry) please stop referring to Managed Services as MNS? No one in the IT world uses this term; it's industry jargon that makes you stand out as a copier dealer 1st and an IT Services provider 2nd. Managed IT Services, Managed Services...fine. MNS needs to die. Now, here is why I disagree that you have to own the network as a client's...
Reply
Re: Need everyones help w/ how we give back to community
can anyone help with this?? I had a response from Ethos, need about 5 more.
Comment
Re: Those Magnificent Men and Their Copy Machines
Hey Art, Really admire your efforts in our industry and with your blog. Its been a long time resource to keep me updated in our industry. I will be celebrating 14 years at Martin Group, and was happy to see us represented in the list above. We are as enthusiastic as ever in supporting our communities, and below is a quick write up we refreshed to be current. Martin Group in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: Is a regional power house in the office equipment community. With 35 years in the industry, and...
Comment
Re: When is Net New Business not Net New Business?
Jay, We typically go after about any machine other than a Xerox. If someone wants us to service their machine and its not a complete piece of junk we will take it on and will get parts and supplies from dealers etc. until we can upgrade to one of our lines; Savin, Canon, or Samsung. We expect our reps to go out and take service agreements and we pay them the first months billing. Most don't like to mess with 30.00 agreements but they add up and eventually you find a big one. We had a rep who...
Reply
Re: Global Imaging aquires Conestoga Business Solution
Global Acquires Pennsylvania-based Conestoga Business Solutions - Tuesday, July 07, 2015 Global Imaging Systems Acquires Pennsylvania-based Conestoga Business Solutions; Bolsters Xerox’s Presence in SMB Market LANCASTER, Pa., July 6, 2015 – Global Imaging Systems (GIS), A Xerox Company, has acquired Conestoga Business Solutions, an award winning, independent office equipment dealer in the Pennsylvania region. The company will offer the full range of Xerox office and printing technology, and...
Reply
Re: Target GP Margins
Czech, I got nothing for you, well, may have something. Every opportunity is different, all depends on the time of the month, we're I'm at with revenue for the quarter or the month, if I can hold MSRP with a certain account. I taken the position (Commercial), that all my A4 devices will be priced at MSRP. A3 devices 21-40ppm would be 1,500 to 2,500, and 3,500 or more on everything else. Just a guide line that I try and follow. I'm not in the Major account business, maybe some other P4P'ers...
Reply
Re: Target GP Margins
Across the board, I probably average 12-15% margin above whatever markup management puts in before my "Sales Cost" is published. For printers & desktop A4 devices, I just want to get a bunch of them in the field running pages & making money, so I sell most of them at my Sales Cost. That recurring revenue stream & volume in numbers is more valuable than making a few extra dollars on the hardware. On larger A4 MFPs, I'll typically have a 20-25% margin, because I typically propose...
Reply
Re: Target GP Margins
Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I'm about right with where my GP should be. txeagle: I know the feeling of those slim margins where everyone is dropping their pants!! I can make more GP on a single refurbished copier in a commercial account than 8 machines at a major account.
Reply
Re: Target GP Margins
There are a lot more of those than there used to be. That's why our industry has to change the way they add prospects to the pipeline. They are going to have to actually start marketing for a change (spend dollars on marketing instead of salespeople) & do things to position themselves as a resource companies will contact when they need something versus salespeople throwing a million lines in the water hoping they get a bite. It's got to be all about generating in-bound leads and...
Reply
Re: Toshiba now has tier based CPC's?
Very interesting. Has anyone else seen Toshiba MFPs selling with tiered CPCs? Art, how were these deals structured? I'm seeing more and more of this from Kyocera (and less and less from Xerox ColorQube), but I'm interested to see how billing evolves once metering/billing and accounting technology catches up. Thanks, Jake
Reply
Re: Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!
Art, I think the industry is starting to figure out that Oce equipment is not as well built as it used to be. My techs hate working on them. In fact were finding the Ricohs are more reliable than the Oces. GR
Reply
Re: Sharp expects first-half operating loss due to falling prices for smartphone displays
Yikes a 215 million dollar loss!! How much more can they lose?
Reply
Re: Bad salespeople still exist, don't they?
Spot on Art. I love Gary Vaynerchuk's famous quote, "Legacy is greater than currency." You never know where you will be in 5 years. Walking away from every deal with your reputation and integrity intact is more important.
Reply
Re: Cold Calling today
I have scheduled quite a few meetings via LinkedIn. Sometimes, it has been through InMail, but more times it has been the result of a client or prospect seeing something of interest that I posted and asking to schedule a time to discuss whatever that is.
Reply
Re: Sharp bond risk jumps as losses over 4½ years top $10 billion
WOW! Some take ways from the article above: Sharp does not have core business that it can look to in the future 510 billion syndicated loan payment due March of 2016. That's almost 4.2 billion US dollars! Ouch! "The chances of banks calling the 103-year-old company’s loans are therefore low", seems to me like there are more cuts to come, more business units to sell. Banks accepted shares in the company earlier this year after it defaulted on debt payments
Comment
Re: Samsung Copier Million Page Test "A Tree Massacre"
On average for every tree taken down in US for paper it is replaced by three new ones This is one of the reasons there are more trees in US than in past Dan Schmidt (sent from mobile device) > On Nov 23, 2015, at 6:19 PM, Print4Pay Hotel < alerts@hoop.la > wrote: >
Comment
Re: Slumps Happen... 3 Tips To Beat the Sales Funk
Great stuff Larry. A sales slump means you've fallen in love with the result more than the process. It's not a slump if you love selling and working with your clients.
Reply
Re: Around the World with Ricoh
Ricoh Selects Juniper Networks to Modernize its Group-Wide Network Infrastructure TOKYO, Aug. 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR ), an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks, today announced that Ricoh Group has successfully implemented Juniper Networks' high-performing solutions to modernize and simplify the operations of its core networking and security infrastructure that supports approximately 500 locations and 34,000 users in Japan. Ricoh Group...
Comment
Re: Ethos Tech Flat Rate
If you don't think that One Rate or Flat rate will sweep the industry , then think again! Need to know more? Ask me our about One Rate Webinar scheduled for the 14th of this month. apost@p4photel.com
Comment
Re: Your Copier
Welcome back😀 https://www.p4photel.com/blog/...-the-copier-industry 6 Reasons Why Flat Rate aka One Rate Will Change the Copier Industry Art Post 36 minutes ago I remember when plain paper copiers used rolls of paper and not sheets. I remember when the glass on the copiers had to move back and forth. I remember when copiers used liquid ink (toner) to produce an image. I remember when you used a dial to set how many copies you wanted to make. Yup, it's been a pretty incredible journey to see...