Tagged With "Authorized Dealership"
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Re: What's it Like at Your Dealership?
I guess I will add some. Our dealership has not furloughed anyone at this point in time. Of course all sales and admin are working remote. We've had a few orders trickling in and my hat goes off to those that have been able to secure those orders.
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Re: Canon Production Question
While our Canon dealership sells neither product line, I'm pretty sure they're open to dealers. Canon's website shows a few dealers in our area for both the varioprint and imagepress models you listed.
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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: Target GP Margins
I know everyone is just ball-parking it here but these questions are really hard to get dependable answers for. Most sales reps do not know what the dealership markup is prior to establishing sales cost so a 20% markup might actually be 40% from cost. The other is the compensation package. If there is compensation based on clicks or a click incentive, GP becomes less important. My payplan changed this year from being GP based to being revenue based. Consequently, I just sold a 22 unit deal...
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Re: The Death Of The B2B Salesperson [Infographic]
Art, I call Bull ****! At least for our industry, the copier industry! This may be true of a commodity (like envelopes, or coffee, or even a PC) but copiers, really MFDs require a lot of attention, both before and after a customer buys it. This article seems to be written by an old brick & mortar company that successfully transitioned to internet sales. This will work for any company that drop ships their products. And I agree that the MFD manufacturers would LOVE for this to be, or...
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Re: Leasing, Insurance, Padded Rates, Buy Out Price
In my opinion, what the dealer was funded is not material. That is between the dealership and the leasing company. If it truly is insurance to cover just the device you either insure for the amount necessary to cover the debt should something happen which would be sum of payments plus the residual value or insurance to cover the replacement cost. However, most office equipment is covered under a blanket policy covering all building contents.
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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...
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Re: Why Social Selling Stinks for Most Copier Sales Reps
My dealership does, we use DealerMarketing for our blog posts.
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
Wow. No poll answer regarding the rep’s activity…interesting. Over the years I have learned that if you work hard and SMART, you’ll hit your numbers. I also think that there is a condition that affects a lot of sales reps in virtually all industries. It is a type of an iron deficiency disorder. It is when iron in your blood is transformed into lead that forms in your rear end. If someone bounces from dealership to dealership and never finds success it is most likely them. If they’ve had...
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
I did not put an option for reps activity, because I believe most of the members here are true professionals and we understand how important it is to complete those activity goals for the week, month or quarter. You are correct, there are no short cuts, you need to work!! Originally Posted by dimaxusa: Wow. No poll answer regarding the rep’s activity…interesting. Over the years I have learned that if you work hard and SMART, you’ll hit your numbers. I also think that there is a condition...
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Re: Is there a different approach?
I think you are in for a pleasant surprise. For the second part I've quoted here, I think the idea is that as long as I'm only telling Ricoh people about Ricoh strenght's and weaknesses, that's great, as soon as I tell a Xerox person, I'm educating my cometition.
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Re: Is there a different approach?
Check this thread out: http://p4photel.com/eve/forums...76084491/m/162102322 What we need more of is open discussions for all. We're all in the same boat, whether we're selling Ricoh, Canon, Xerox, KonicaMinolta, Sharp...etc. Sharing our ideas how how to sell more, learn more about the competition, how certain third party software will enable a solution will all help us in the long run. Having a better group effort will help all of us, there are only a handful of us that will stay at one...
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Re: I need everyones opinion on this!
I used to work for a dealership that sold Sharp (when this came out). It is a very nice box, the ultrasonic feeding in awesome, and the pricing for parts and consumables is aggressive. The mistake that Sharp made was to not do a beta program with commercial printers and other high volume users. The irony of Larry's statement is that I would not consider Ricoh a player here. They are chasing Xerox, Canon etc in Seg. 6 and 7, and are seriously held back by their lack of a production color unit.
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Re: Additional Insured?
When I had my own dealership, I beleive all of this was covered by my BOP (Business Owner Policy), thank God we never had to use, however that was over 13 years ago. Can anyone else help? In reference to leaving the tailgate open and driving down the road , well.....we never had this happen!
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Re: Epson Stylus Series
Just installed the 9700 today at a client site today and it is amazing. Kicks out D size full color plots with full coverage in about 45 seconds, and they were beautiful. Love the flanges for the paper rolls in the fact that they are adjustable for either 2" or 3". Best part about the unit was the ease of setup and use of this system. Very happy to have this as part of the lineup I can offer, and not have to give my leads to my buddy who works for a competing large format dealership.
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Re: A4 Page Volumes
One of my clients is a car dealership, and they recently replaced (2) Ricoh MP2510's & (2) Ricoh MP3010's with (4) Lexmark XS658dfe's. The average monthly volume on each of these is around 7,500, so considering that the Lexmarks are significantly more productive and haven't had any service calls in the first quarter, reliability doesn't appear to be an issue. As a point of reference, I have a customer that has a Lexmark XS463de (40ppm desktop mfp) that runs almost 11,000 per month and...
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Re: A4 Page Volumes
I'm looking at a break point of around 10k/month, at that point, at least at my dealership, a3 is a lower tco. They [the samsung rep]say when you look at total volumes, 11x17 only accounts for like 3% of the global print volume. What I've seen is that its not accurate to extrapolate that only 3% of customers need it, it means that there is a wider group of customers that use it outside AEC, but they do a tiny amount of it. Even so, once you've got a feature that is used, even marginally,...
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Re: A4 Page Volumes
The most important question to ask is "how much do you copy 11x17"? If the answer is none, then the next question is "how often do you print 11x17"? When the answer is quite often, well A3 is then a no brainer, however if the answer is rarely, then I'll bundle an 11x17 laser or ink printer. Based on under 10K per month, A4 will save the customer on the TCO over the term of a 5 year lease.
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Re: When was the last time you did a demo in your demo room?
i'd say 1 every other week, but still most coming from brochure/pencil close. Its only hard if ppl arent serious buyers or serious about you. Our demo room is probably the envy of every dealership around- its like a new macintosh, unashamedly modern in appearance but your not afraid to play with it.. compared to other showrooms that are more like an apple II - all the current products (except seg 1) and all of the software we'd sell is ready to go.
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Re: When was the last time you did a demo in your demo room?
the vendor's risk should be proportional to the customer's committment. If they will sign a contingent order then you treat them like a customer. Though, if the answer to this question is based on a cost justificaiton, it would depend upon how streamlined your dealership is... If your salemen are doing the networking then you are gambling with more money than if your dealership has a tech taking care of the fine tuning.
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Re: Possibly moving to Ricoh....
Unfortunately, I am already at a place that only sells "boxes". I don't know which companies in my area do those other services, or if the Ricoh dealership does so, but I know that I can't be too choosy, because some of the companies have no interest in hiring me. But according to the owner of the Ricoh dealership, they are doing very well. As far as the Ricoh itself, what I'm wondering is WHY it ranks at the top of the industry, WHY are people buying it? I can't find much in the way of...
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Re: Possibly moving to Ricoh....
I'm going to say something here from my experience of being a copier buyer BEFORE I started working in the copier industry. Yes, it's true, I was a client of the very dealership that I came to work for. You're not going to like what I have to say because you're sales reps and you trained to think a certain way. Please, for once, listen with an open mind to someone with experience being on the other side of the proposal. Ponder it, don't spin it. Most buyers don't care one bit what brand of...
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Re: Possibly moving to Ricoh....
A couple of thoughts based on my lengthy experience with both Sharp and Ricoh. Ricoh is far and away a better product. No doubt about it. As stated above buyers buy the dealership and the relationship with the sales rep in my experience not the brand name on the front of the box. Take it from someone who spent years explaining to customers who "Gestetner" was that had never heard of them........and now "Lanier". Finally, in this market I would urge extreme caution making any sort of...
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Re: Possibly moving to Ricoh....
Some great points in this thread. In the end all of the main copier products do the same thing...they put toner on the paper, fuse it and offer a collection of ancillary tools which in many cases are more important (like scanning) than the copy function anymore. Someone said earlier it was the whole package that the client wants to buy...they get impacted from everyone in your dealership, admin, billing, shipping, support, sales and yeh your suppliers too. We are a multiple branded op with...
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Re: Another Ricoh Direct Give Away
Hey, I'm a new RBS rep, I mean reallly green. Just started out in the business. FYI, I've been told to stay away from dealer accounts. I admit, it can get sticky when proposals are thrown around; but generally we have been instructed that its a "hands off" customer. There isn't some corporate push to squeeze dealers out is all i'm saying. Your point on margins is noted. I'm just confused that this is somehow something new. If Ford sold cars directly, I'd expect them to be a little cheaper...
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Re: Another Ricoh Direct Give Away
Well, my view the situation you describe is this: If Ford wants to sell cars directly, that's fine and they can do that. If they instead choose to sell cars through dealers, they do not need also come into the same market as those dealers and hang a big banner saying "$4,000 cheaper than not buying direct!" "Get better support by buying direct!" All I'm trying to say is this: If you have a dealer channel, support it. If you think direct is the way to go, just get rid of dealers. Simple enough.
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Re: Another Ricoh Direct Give Away
Ford would LOVE to go with this model. Unfortunately, state franchise laws make it virtually impossible for auto manufacturers to eliminate dealers. That's why the domestics have two to three times as many dealers as they need, compared to the imports. This leads to lower average selling prices, lower dealership value, and a need to gather margin elsewhere. Such as muffler wax and windshield wiper protection plans. All in all, worsening the car buying experience. Some links...
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Re: Possibly moving to Ricoh....
Thank you to everyone for your input. I was offered the position and accepted. I will now be selling RICOHs, but I have the option to also sell Sharps. To fisher: I understand what you are saying. However, my current boss has provided neither my co-worker nor myself any real sales training. He won't even demonstrate how to sell (we think it's because he can't). I have also learned that we are being underbid by the other Sharp dealer in town, and our service dept head has said our prices are...
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Re: Should you ever sell something for nothing?
I am just about....37 yrs young. Started with in 1993, SR year of high school part time servicing printers. After 2yrs of serving printers, married for 1 yr to my high school sweetheart I was envious of all the "copier reps" driving nice BMW's etc...I asked if I could start selling. When I first started selling in 1995 we carried Canon/Mita. I had an uncle who sold copiers and typewriters back in the early 70's and managed a large dealership in CA until his retirement in 1990. When I went to...
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Re: MPS And Profit
Agreed, its hard not to see MPS as just another factor driving consolidation in the industry. Especially of you consider Auxilio knocked out a number of very profitable agreements. what is the typical profit margin of a standard $16m/year copier dealership?
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Re: Copier Compensation Plans
This was emailed to me from a P4P'er who wishes to remain anonymous. Art, This past April I had the opportunity to leave the industry but I have kept an eye on it since then. This topic definitely perked my interest because I feel like I was both the beneficiary and victim of a Gross Profit Comp Plan at my last gig. I have been on both sides of this topic, Revenue & GP plans, and I never made more than $51K in a given year and yet I was always 100% of plan. My final year under this GP...
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Re: Q. How does your company handle networking charges?
Mid-sized dealership in Midwest- We have recently added a section to our maintenance agreement where the customer has to check either a network services rider($195-295 per year depending on the customer) or check the box that says if you don't check the above box, you will be billed $xxx per hour for network services. This doesn't mean as a salesperson we can't either remote in or stop out and load a print driver, but the customer up-front knows that we now charge for IT services. A couple...
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Re: HDD Wiping/Reformatting
Jason, You are absolutely right, it isn't the responsibility of the new dealer to wipe the Hard Drives of the old Dealers MFDs. And if it is a line that your dealership does not carry you couldn't restore it to working order after you did wipe the Hard Drives. Which would cause them more problems and cost if they return it ti their leasing company in non working order. But if you want to add value you do have the discussion with the new client and inform and advise them of their options. I...
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Re: Unfair practice of providing startup supplies on state and federal contracts
To say that start-up supply costs are "lost" is not accurate and if your dealership is charging that "cost" against the G.P. of the deal, the salesrep is getting ripped off! It really isn't any different than selling supplies and getting paid via invoice in 30-60 days (which many dealerships actually pay commission for). The supplies get paid for in the subsequent clicks. This all assumes that there is a maintenance agreement that includes supplies of course.
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Re: Comments on the Canon 1730/1740/1750 Models
The Ricohs have been slow sellers is not because of end user needs or wants. Basically ours is a quota/revenue driven business from the top to the bottom. The preferred compensation model for commissions is that of a revenue based plan with commissions. Why have a GP driven comp plan for your sales people when your Dealership or Branch has a revenue based quota plan from the manufacturers? It just doesn't make sense. With that A4's from Canon, Sharp, Ricoh, and KonicaMinolta has presented...
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Re: Prisim Doc record
We have used DocRecord internally at our dealership for the last two years. I like it; I find it pretty easy to administer and our end users think it's intuitive and friendly. I can't speak to integration with your specific platform. But, for automation it's just a matter of setting up a process with a watch folder through DocRecord's Automation Server tool, and programming a one-touch button on your MFP that scans into the watch folder. PS - we're a Konica Minolta dealer. :-)
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Re: PaperCut
Old Glory, Not sure how long the MF version has been in play. I've only been back in the industry since January and my new dealership already had some PaperCut installations when I arrived. The software does have the behavior modification pop-ups you are referring to, and I'm told specialized scripts can be easily written to force almost any behavior. For instance, during a WebEx last week my PaperCut account rep told my client of a PaperCut installation in which the user set up a rule that...
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Re: Marlin Does Not Disclose Possible Loss Of Evergreen Payments
There isn't more chatter on this forum because most salespeople don't consider it their responsibility to care. Many sales people will go to the ends of the earth to make their equipment perform for the customer but consider the lease contract the customer's problem...their the ones who signed the contract, right? Never mind that we are the ones that shoved it under their nose and it is because of their trust in us that they sign it without questioning. I suppose I shouldn't put all of this...
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Re: Marlin Does Not Disclose Possible Loss Of Evergreen Payments
Old Glory: Could not have stated it better, most dealerships could not give a rats ass about what's best for the customer, if that was the case we'd all be selling 10% leases (remember them, they are a thing of the past) or the $1.00 buy out. Not only what I mentioned above, what I'm seeing is that dealerships are letting the leasing companies now add additional fees to return the equipment early, these fee's were NOT a part of the original dealer agreement and dealer ownership is allowing...
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Re: Big Hole in Ricoh MFP line up
The only way that makes sense is if your company has negotiated a better cost across the board and they obviously are not passing that lower cost down to the reps. Any prospect that belongs to the Chamber of Commerce automatically qualifies for SAS2 cost (plus Dealership markup of course) under the TABS program (in the USA). The savings don't even have to be passed on to the customer, the dealer just gets a lower cost of goods just by proving the customer is a Chamber member. Why would a...
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Re: I have a buyer in South America
Gentlemen, Please proceed with caution here. This reeks of a scam that my previous dealership was burned by. Credit card order is placed for an overseas shipment; Payment is processed (to a stolen card number); Once product has shipped, stolen card number is discovered; dealership has been burned. If it sounds too good to be true; it probably is. Good luck.
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Re: SP431DN will it..
no I haven't, however I'd like to test just to make sure, I put a call into the product manager but never got a call back and seems my dealership is too cheap to buy an additional tray to test. I am going to sell a C431DN to print envelopes only, will have four paper trays and I figure I can load about 600 or so envelopes in all of the trays.
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Re: Use of LinkedIn as a sales tool
I'm now experimenting with my own personal blog, you'll see the links this week when reading one of my P4P Blogs. In it each blog I'll be using keywords an links that describes a recent sale (of course I'll be leaving out the customer name), but I will be addressing the vertical market, and the solution or the reason why I was picked as the vendor of choice. This is too also address the lack of leads that I get my Ricoh and from the ealership I work for. I have not have a real lead in my...
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Re: Ricoh Printers & MICR Toner?
When I owned my own dealership back in the eighties, we were refilling HP toner cartridges and I seem to remember that I could buy MICR toner as well as the regular toner. It's been years since I did this, thus the reason for checking with everyone, can anyone else lend a hand?
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Re: Managed Network Services discussion
Art, We looked at All Care through Konica Minolta but the contract T's & C's were so one sided we thought it was written by the Mafia. The bottom line was they got paid (by the Dealership) whether or not the customer paid you or not. I was speaking to a VP of a large independent dealer on the east coast who had a discussion with the principal of his company. What it would take for his company to do Managed Network Service. His answer was we can: 1) Hire people 2) Partner with a company...
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Re: Doculex Webinar "Learn How to Write a SOW for DMS"
:: Doculex Join Us for a Dealer Webinar Document Management Strategies DocuLex, Inc is proud to present this 60 minute educational Document Management Industry Overview As a dealer, are you just beginning to embrace a new Go To Market strategy with document management solutions? Unsure how to begin or to protect your dealership with concise SOW’s (Statement of Work)? Learn how to create effective SOW’s, automate your client’s business processes, improve efficiencies, reduce paper and cost,...
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Re: BTA's Capture the Magic District Event - Nov. 15-16, 2012
NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release For More Information Contact: Oct. 10, 2012 Brent Hoskins Executive Director Business Technology Association (816) 303-4040 BTA West to Host Capture the Magic Nov. 15-16 in Las Vegas Kansas City, MO — On Nov. 15-16, 2012, the Business Technology Association’s (BTA; www.bta.org ) West district will host its second annual Capture the Magic event at the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas, Nev. Dealers who register by Monday, Oct. 15, will receive a $50 on-site...
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Re: ecopy paperworks discontinued????
Just don't try to connect PPDM to the copier. The desktop software is really good. I bet your dealership has hundreds of unused licenses for it laying around so its basically free. The Nuance PDF Professional softeare and Omnipage software that comes bundled in there is great and the OCR engine blows away e-copy.
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Re: Ricoh Dealership in Minnesota will buy.......
Independent Dealers will never compete successfully with any Direct _BS branch on price. The _BS Branch has shown that they are willing to run their branches at a loss for years! We must sell at a profit, IMHO they should (Legally) have to also sell at a profit (Don't get me started on dumping). If you work for an independent dealer and you are trying to compete with a _BS Branch (that sells your product) on price then you are playing into their hands, and you are going broke. They can...