Tagged With "Implications For More Than Enterprises"
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Re: A Classic Way to Create a Sense of Urgency in Your Prospect [Roleplay]
Ok, I get it, you bring out the pain in advance and have the customer tell you in advance what will happen if they don't act now. All of this is easier said than done.
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Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 44"
Love it Art! I had a day of running around with a networking luncheon followed by a training for a new device that I sold earlier in the month and stole from Sharp. I was extremely late to the party with this deal but they already had a canon that was very old and decided they wanted another canon and on top of that wanted someone to deal with local over Sharp and Ricoh direct. Then I was walking into the grocery store on the way home and got a call from a person I quoted a machine to about...
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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".
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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.
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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.
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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...
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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...
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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.
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Re: Things getting weird for Xerox Dealers
Very strange. I interact with the CRG on a regular basis and have had no indication of reduced staff, etc. I can’t comment on your issue with parts as we do not rely on xerox to send our parts, we stock and replenish out of our own warehouse. No substantial difference between xerox parts on b/o than Canon or HP. Not nearly as bad as Ricoh. We dropped the ricoh product years ago as we couldn’t handle the constant toner b/o issues. Parts I can somewhat understand, but toner? Hope that your...
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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...
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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...
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Re: Those Magnificent Men and Their Copy Machines
we have stair climbers when no elevators are available, other than that, we are shrink wrapping and use the cabinets, except when they are console.
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Re: When is Net New Business not Net New Business?
I've always learned the two terms separately: Net New Business: Placing an MFP into a new account that had no existing MFP Competitive Knockout: Displacing a competitor's MFP with your own Base Upgrade: Upgrading one of your current MFP's Base Net New: Adding a new MFP into one of your current accounts The terms would be based based on the department. So for your car dealer example, you would be an existing account for their service department but net new business for their sales department.
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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...
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Re: When is Net New Business not Net New Business?
Originally Posted by Czech: I've always learned the two terms separately: Net New Business: Placing an MFP into a new account that had no existing MFP Competitive Knockout: Displacing a competitor's MFP with your own Base Upgrade: Upgrading one of your current MFP's Base Net New: Adding a new MFP into one of your current accounts The terms would be based based on the department. So for your car dealer example, you would be an existing account for their service department but net new business...
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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...
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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...
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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.
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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...
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Re: How I turned $15 into a 24K Opportunity
Hey Art! I started using Aweber email software about 5 months ago. I send out a monthly newsletter with a customized template. People read it! Best part is that you always stay top of mind with your prospects. I actually exported my contact list from my CRM software and imported that into Aweber. Currently have about 100 prospects and customers in my email list. It's great! Much cheaper than a mailer.
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Re: Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!
The Epson thing is a joke. You can buy it on-line for less than you can buy it from Ricoh and so can your customer. I've got a customer right now who is at end of term on a 48 month lease on a LW426 and I have no choice but to go back to them with the exact same machine......oh and my cost is now higher for that same machine thanks to Plotworks (which gets thrown in the garbage). Would love to have KIP now.
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Re: Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!
Only 16% of W3601 users turned on Plotworks!!! (from PLP) Originally Posted by fisher: The Epson thing is a joke. You can buy it on-line for less than you can buy it from Ricoh and so can your customer. I've got a customer right now who is at end of term on a 48 month lease on a LW426 and I have no choice but to go back to them with the exact same machine......oh and my cost is now higher for that same machine thanks to Plotworks (which gets thrown in the garbage). Would love to have KIP now.
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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
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Re: Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!
Originally Posted by Art Post: Only 16% of W3601 users turned on Plotworks!!! (from PLP) Originally Posted by fisher: The Epson thing is a joke. You can buy it on-line for less than you can buy it from Ricoh and so can your customer. I've got a customer right now who is at end of term on a 48 month lease on a LW426 and I have no choice but to go back to them with the exact same machine......oh and my cost is now higher for that same machine thanks to Plotworks (which gets thrown in the...
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Re: Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!
We are getting $.03 per sq ft. That is less than the monochrome machines, this is why I don't see us placing anymore new monochrome machines. We will place some refurbished ones to the customers that have to go low budget. Not only that it blows the Oce Colorwave away. We have a customer who makes these 20 ft full color GIS aerials that cost him $21.00 each to run on the Oce (his numbers not ours) we ran them on the KIP at a cost of $1.76.
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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.
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Re: Kyocera SWOT
Jake, First the positives. The apps are the differentiator hopefully they will keep rolling these out and updating the ones they have. The lines they are putting out are strong and reliable. Support from our local Kyocera reps is great both presales and and service support. On the other hand our techs do get somewhat frustrated with the help line. I've been with a Kyocera dealer for 8 years now and we just picked up Xerox as a second line. One of the weaknesses we saw with Kyocera is lack of...
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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: >
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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.
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Re: Five Reasons Why I'm Stoked About the New Ricoh SP8400DN Printer
Client Pro's: Lower purchase or lease price for hardware Faster print speed than laser based vs same segment ink vs laser Unlimited pages No overage billing No unpredicted costs with overages Less downtime than laser Client Cons: Quality of prints or copies may not be equal to laser (does not matter if prints or copies stay in house) Print Head cost Ink cost may be higher than color laser, however that may be off-set by the lower purchase price Anyone care to add?
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Re: Five Reasons Why I'm Stoked About the New Ricoh SP8400DN Printer
Thanks! Same functionality regarding scanning? Scan to email, smb, ftp? Secure printing? Authentication and account track? Ability to implement solutions like paper cut? I guess this will be my last question
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Re: Are Copier Sales Reps Asking the Right Questions
As you said, this blog wasn't meant to cover all the bases but your comments about brand loyalty and brand/service provider loyalty are only true if the decision maker has been the same for each decision. If you aren't talking to the owner, you may be talking to a totally different person than the one that made past decisions. You need to know that before you decide whether to pack your bags and walk away. Also, in a leased equipment environment, the decision to stay with the same brand and...
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Re: Toshiba e-Studio Erasable Toner 4508LP Questions
There is an all inclusive cpc charge for the Erasable Blue toner. The cost per copy analysis suggests that if on a 60 month lease you do not expect the the customer to erase more than 210,000 pages (3,500 pages per month) you can forget the parts cost and charge the same cpc as for Black at around $0.010 per page with a decent profit. There is no charge other than the users effort to recycle pages printed with erasable blue. If a sheet of paper costs $0.010 and Erasable Blue costs $0.010 you...
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Re: Question about Toshiba MFP's
Less than 5% of my Toshiba clients are not under a Maintenance Service contract. Toshiba sells lots of kits designed for trained service techs to install but not typical end users. Even those customers who prefer not to be invoiced for monthly meter reads we try to automatically collect the meter reads via email or fax and usually but them on copy blocks.
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Re: Up=Coming China Tariffs on Copiers parts & accessories
These are two listing that I found on ustr.gov site: 8443.99.20 Parts of printer units of subheading 8443.32.10 specified in additional U.S. note 2 to this chapter 8443.99.45 Parts and accessories of copying machines; nesoi Subheading 8443.99.20 following parts of printer units of subheading 8443.32.10: (a) Control or command assemblies, incorporating more than one of the following: printed circuit assembly, hard or flexible (floppy) disk drive, keyboard, user interface; (b) Light source...
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Re: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
More than a few copier/ printers are manufactured in Thailand and the Philippines due to low labor costs. I do not know but I think these products tend to be more low end A4 and printer products. I think most A3 product is made in China. I can only speak for Toshiba but I know the majority of North American toner is made in North Dakota. As I am from Canada, I am hoping with fingers crossed that this very likely US tariff war with China will not effect us.
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Re: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
What about the term "Free Trade" do you not understand? You argue the advantages of lower lumber prices for Americans while disputing the value of lower dairy prices for Canadians. Free trade suggests that the market should decide what is best for the consumer. Free trade would also suggest that your exorbantly high taxes really shouldn't be a factor. We should probably leave the health care debate out of the equation. I for one would rather have what we have than what the Canadians have,...
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Re: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
I am glad to hear that you are working in the copier industry so that I know that you have "skin in the game". There are very many players in the copier/ printer industry each with their own strengths/ weaknesses when faced with a trade war. Each player will have a different tolerance for how much money they want to loose to maintain market share. I definitely would not expect a uniform response. Multi line dealers will have more options to select from than single line dealers and brand...
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Re: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
as of July 6th, there is no tariff on copy machines. Just copier parts and accessories.
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Re: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
The Trump Administration today announced plans for a new round of $200 Billion worth of tariffs against China. https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/10...ffs-trump/index.html Copy machines were on the original list but but were taken off leaving parts and consumables subject to a 10% tariff. It seems most suppliers have not taken actions to increase their prices. On the new list which could go in effect sometime after Aug 30th are: 8443.39.20 Electrostatic photocopying apparatus, operating by...
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Re: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
It seems the prospects of tariffs going away anytime soon are fading. Eventually the cost of most goods in the copier industry are going to increase because of President Trump. SSG I'm okay with this! This may help in the long run because more clients may opt for something off lease, or even release their existing devices. In both cases I'll probably make more than selling new. You keep calling it a TAX, it's not a tax it's a tariff. When I go to the store and pay for an item, a tariff is...
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Re: Kyocera finally put's out a low volume A4 Color
Yes I have sold a couple of these. For the price these are fantastic. My service manager is impressed which is hard to do. Dual side scanning is a definite selling point. The cost per page is going to be higher of course. I would say in the .015 black and white and .11 color to be safe (depending on your market of course). Not as good as say the 6535 per say but the machine is less than half the cost. If the run more than a couple thousand a month I would move them up to the 6535cidn. Let me...
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Re: Compensation Question
Honestly, compensation models got out of whack when the industry became predominantly color devices. Compensation models are stuck in the B/W days. There is a reason that the manufacturer gives you a much bigger spiff on a color device than a similar B/W device. Does your dealer compensation reflect anything like that? It probably should.
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Re: MFP Purchase Decision Makers?
Depends on the size of the account. My big accounts......say companies with more than 100 employees......the decision maker is the Director Of I.T. in every case. Perhaps the IT Director runs it by his upline but I deal directly with IT. The mid-sized customers it tends to be a management level person other than the owner like a GM or CFO. In my small clients it tends to be the owner.
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Re: You can't Manage Tranformation it must be Enthusiastically Led
Good post. I agree that enthusiasm is critical in the area of leadership. I also agree that good management is critical in driving progress...which can ultimately result in transformation. However, we differ in the idea that someone is either an enthusiastic leader or a good manager. The most effective and enduring leaders I have worked with have also had very strong management skills. They were not necessarily the ones in the trenches on a daily basis...but they possessed an understanding...
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Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 16"
Never ever stop prospecting is the key. Always adding and subtracting. I would say on average I keep about $100K of deals I think can close in 30 days. I focus on 180 because 2/3rd of them will either roll, or lose. 90% of the time, I will wait until the first contact to determine if that appointment is an opportunity. Once it's in the funnel, I then determine when it may have a chance to close. If's it's more than 50% it's going in the 30 day close funnel
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Re: Manufacturer Support on Bids
Been ages since I posted anything on here! Jason, back in the day for me Canon didn't do anything unless it was minimum $50k wholesale. KM on the other hand was extremely aggressive with doing whatever was needed to get our wholesale price down. We also had a fantastic dealer account manager though who would go to bat for us every time. In a RFP situation, you would think they would understand that you are dropping your margins or more than you expect the manufacturer to. "Where there's a...