Tagged With "Internet of Things"
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Re: Post-Virus We Must Defeat The Zombie Companies!
We generally do not build in prepaid copy/ print blocks into our leases. We do give away free copy prints up front but only intended as a short term bonus. We do normally charge a $25.00 minimum monthly maintenance fee but have waived that until the economy rebuilds momentum. I am in Canada, lease vendors are currently offering 90 day payment deferrals added back on at the end of term for those customers who request them. Leases expire every month and customers are happy with the equipment...
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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: 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...
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Re: When is Net New Business not Net New Business?
We do almost the exact same thing... anything but Canon, Toshiba, & Xerox. If I could get Reps to bring in 4 figure maintenance agreements, life would be spectacular!
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Re: 3 Ways Sales Professionals Nail New Sales Opportunities Using LinkedIn
nice job Larry. One thing I'm finding is that many of my first level contacts will have no clue about some of their connections. I have called and asked about other first level connections and most know recognize the name. I guess it's some type of Linkedin failure. Another item I've found about Linkedin is that many "C" level execs don't post their own threads. Someone in marketing is doing that for them. Linkedin is a great source for knowing who may or may not be connected to someone.
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Re: Five Reasons Why I'm Stoked About the New Ricoh SP8400DN Printer
Had a conference call with Epson Monday afternoon. They said the ended up with a 1 year warranty on the print heads but you can purchase an extended warranty for something like $250/yr.? I didn't write that down because the only thing that matters to me is what gets passed on to the customer and manufacturers warranties are seldom passed on. Epson Ink Process advantages: No heat so no heat related issues...no fuser, no cooling fan, no warm-up. Consumes 50% less power No drum or developer so...
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Re: Five Reasons Why I'm Stoked About the New Ricoh SP8400DN Printer
Interesting, I thought jh told me the cost was 2,500 per year. I was like what? Can you find out exactly that that cost is. I'm curious as I guess we all are
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Re: Five Reasons Why I'm Stoked About the New Ricoh SP8400DN Printer
I guess he was just referring to the Epson C869R (25 ppm). We kept asking questions about the 100 ppm unit and I lost track which unit this information applied to. Sorry for the confusion. We have a launch on the 11th and he promised more info on the 100 ppm at that time.
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Re: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
Trump is doing the right thing. As far as Ricoh is concerned, I couldn't care less of their opinion. It's all about putting food on the table for our families.
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Re: Sales And Branding Must Get Married, And Larry Levine Is The Priest
Do you mean former copier rep? The only way I can see myself as former is when I retire. Recovering almost sounds like selling copiers was a "bad thing"?
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Re: Is This the Beginning of the End for the Padding of Lease Rates?
Maybe not such a bad thing. This makes shorter term leases with less interest more attractive and therefore leases can be turned faster as long as your not padding your leases to begin with.
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Re: Is This the Beginning of the End for the Padding of Lease Rates?
Here is a report from leasingnews.org. One of their legal editors is doing a three part review of this legislation. Leasing News Exclusive: State Senator Steven Glazer and the genesis of CA SB 1235 (Part 1 of 3) By Tom McCurnin Leasing News Legal Editor This is important not only if you are doing commercial business in California, but this may affect other states. If you are new to this, here is legislation passed both the assembly and senate, awaiting California Governor Jerry Brown’s...
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Re: Ricoh MP C3003/3503/4503/5505 & 6003 Scanner Review
Another thing all of these new machines including the 6502 and 8100 have is an insanely fast ADF, 120 sheets per minute or 240 images per minute duplex. Everyone that sees these comments how fast the ADF is.
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Re: The Transition of the Copier Industry "Part III"
Great article as usual Art. I agree, technology like this is a great option for any industry. I think that the reason it has been so slow to take off is that people like the "hard copy". Whether it's because they feel it's more secure, or just out of habit, having the signed document in hand is a tough thing to let go of. I see the same with becoming a cashless society, people love paper!
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Re: 3 Ways Getting Involved In Community Service Can Help Copier Sales Reps Enhance Their Sales Success
You are very welcome Art. Best thing sales reps can do is get active, get involved, get noticed and help. This will elevate their status as a business professional. This blog was posted live from Sydney, Australia for all the P4Per's.
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Re: 5 Questions for HP about the Acquisition of Samsung Printer Business Unit
I think everybody was thinking who in the copier industry was Samsung planning on buying. Nobody thought that it would be Samsung who got bought up. It is not like they needed the money. I think there was some corporate pride at Samsung that they would become #1 in any industry that they entered. It must have been obvious to Samsung that to conquer the consumer electronics industry is one thing put to conquer the business to business copier industry was unlikely.
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Re: 5 Questions for HP about the Acquisition of Samsung Printer Business Unit
I had the time at lunch today to listen to a recorded webex meeting from Photizo that offered up speculation on why HP bought Samsung. Here's my takeaways: Patents, more than 6,500 of them 1,500 world class engineers The eventual replacement of all canon marking engines with Samsung Thus, as there was much hype about the purchase of Samsung, I don't think was for the laser based engines, but more for the patents, the engineers, and the laser engines for HP printers. In addition, HP will now...
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Re: How Far Out On the Pier Are We?
Ray Stasieczko Great point with the typewriter industry. Many of those typewriter dealers saw the writing on the wall and moved into the imaging industry. They survived, they flourished and they made the change to another product within the Office Technology Industry. There are too many brilliant dealers principals out there that will let themselves fail by staying on board a sinking ship. Those dealers will innovate because they have too in order to survive. Those that are not brilliant...
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Re: The Quest for $200K "When I bit off more than I could chew"
Jason WOW, congrats on the excellent year! You're right about the time thing, no matter how hard we try, there's no telling of forecasting the future. Unless you have an obscene pipeline, and that's what I'm planning for in 2018. BTW, Jersey just seems to be getting worse and worse, do you think a Jersey accent would work well in North Carolina?
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Re: When your Deliverable doesn’t excite your Customers’ then it’s time to Innovate or even change that Deliverable.
Special thanx to Ray for letting us post this blog today Water, what's wrong with water? There is still growth in print, just not in the SMB or Enterprise markets. I'm in the trenches every day and you're correct. There's no more excitement with mfps. They all do the same thing, they are all reliable and when push comes to shove, all we are doing is stealing clients from each other. Growth for companies like Ricoh, Konic a Minolta, Canon and Kyo could be robotics. Robotics could mirror the...
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Re: Little Story About a Man Named Jed
I had a similar situation with an existing account, the purchasing manager had to retire due to a medical issue. I reached out to the new purchasing manager, calls, emails, tried to get thru IT and no return call. Next thing I know they are cancelling the maintenance contracts on their equipment. I continue to call and finally she calls me back and says they got an unbelievable deal from one of my competitors that they couldn't afford to pass up. I asked her how did you know it was such an...
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Re: Should Ricoh Offer a Rebate When Dealers Buy the New Smart Op Panel?
We have probably put it on 3 machines since it came out and the funny thing was it was our sales rep who is almost 70 years old. He loves that panel. My younger guys could care less it seems. King of backwards in my mind. I haven't quite found the practicality of it other than making everything "look" like a tablet. If they could make it as functional as the new Samsung 10.1 tablet on the MFP's it may become more practical. Just my $0.02
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Re: To Ricoh "What I Want for Christmas"
The best thing Ricoh could give us is advanced scanning functionality as a standard feature. To be able to navigate to whatever network folder a user wants would be huge, as would the ability to scan to Word or Excel. Canon already has these features, so we are at a huge price disadvantage if it is functionality a customer needs since we have to add ICE (which has a less-than-desirable UI) or NSI AutoStore.
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Re: Selling Copiers "Opportunties Abound to Make a Few Extra Bucks"
Let me play devil's advocate here...First of all, usually it's not the dealers that forbid selling in other territories, it's the manufacturers, and dealers are bound by contract to uphold that obligation, which by the way is the only thing keeping us from having to compete with the internet. Secondly, if you receive any kind of salary and spend daytime hours selling a different product, that would be grounds for dismissal, regardless of brand or territory. If you question whether that is...
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Re: Canon Business Systems Pulling a Ricoh
Originally Posted by Art Post: Whoa there Art.... I've been with Canon (CSA) for 20 years. We have thousands of well satisfied customers. Not everyone everywhere is going to be happy but, to the chagrin of our competitors, most are. If they aren't, they will leave. You know it and I know it. We have ROE's that are rigidly enforced where I do business, we are not out to buy the business and the competition from Canon's own dealers often force prices to rock bottom margins. You've been at this...
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Re: Canon Business Systems Pulling a Ricoh
Had a deal recently that we were the incumbent and CSA came in and placed the exact same machine as we tried. Customer gave us the quote and our true cost was around 14,000 or 15,000 and they sold it to them around $9,000.00. Anytime CSA is in a deal there is a very small chance of winning. The only thing we have going for us is their service is very lousy so after the lost sale we usually pick up a service agreement at some point. Ricoh has been good about enforcing the rules of engagement...
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Re: "MFP Wars" Hi Speed A3 MFP's vs A4 MFP's
Art, one of the problems is dealers servicing a machine for $30.00 a month. however, the reality is the industry has allowed the sales engine to destroy the service model. selling full service on A3 for .006 or less in volumes of 5k a month. Dealers were chasing sales revenue as they sacrificed service profits. As volumes continue declining so will margins. Dealers will begin realizing that all the A3 service they gave away is too costly to manage and the shift will begin. The A4...
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Re: "MFP Wars" Hi Speed A3 MFP's vs A4 MFP's
Hi Ray I agree with the silliness of the low cost per page for A3. However most dealers have escalators that can raise the price as much as 10-15% per year whether it's A4 or A3. AS far as the $30 per month, almost no one will send out and invoice for $30 It's either billed quarterly or annually. One thing the A4 manufacturers won't due is too sacrifice the consumables. I also believe that dealers will always find a way to make their profit, whether it's Daas, flat rate, or seat based. I...
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Re: Five Reasons I Love the New Ricoh MP 430f!
One thing I noticed is the weight. It feels heavier, somehow more robust? They seem to run good so far, other than the fusers catching fire.
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Re: Ditching the Polo Shirt Can Increase Your Sales
It's becoming the norm it seems. I wear a polo if I am in the office for the day, but wear a dress shirt for meetings. I have not worn the tie in quite some time unless it was a major account type of deal. I found that most don't care if you wear a tie or not. I had one customer in a corporate office setting see me putting my tie on in my car out his window and when I walked in he told me to take it off and never wear a tie in his office again because it made him uncomfortable because he...
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Re: Ditching the Polo Shirt Can Increase Your Sales
I feel like many clients are intimidated by someone in a full suit and tie. You want to relate to the customer and I rarely even see ties in the workplace anymore. Millennials just don’t care about a piece of cloth around your neck. But I’m 30 so obviously there’s a generational thing here too. I do agree with the shoes though, studies show it’s the first thing someone notices about you. I think a nice polo with a company logo shows your part of the team.
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Re: Ditching the Polo Shirt Can Increase Your Sales
I can agree with not needing the tie & suite jacket with existing accounts. At least with net new accounts a suit with no tie is still appropriate. Appreciate the comment .
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Re: Xerox's MFP "All in Plan" Reveal
Art, I did the same thing but did not see where they gave me the benchmark amount. Where didnyou see that volume at?
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Re: The Day After The Last Selling Day of the Quarter for Copier Reps
I just did the same thing myself. Thursday I sat and cleaned my office, purged a bunch of old junk I didn't need and reorganized some files etc. Friday I had two meetings, one to write up an order, and the second for a large format and an MFP. After that I decided I was going to go sit by the pool, relax and recharge. And of course since we aren't 9-5 people I am now back to doing work on Saturday morning. Happy 4th everyone!
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Re: Why We Still Need Legacy Sales Skills
Czech Yes and no. What I do find is that are many that will procrastinate with the decision making process. Usually, this means that there is some type of objection and the client is entertaining other offers. In many cases I run into the same thing with new offices, but what aggravates me the most is the client that refuses to email you back or take your call after you've meet with them the first time. I'm a big boy, if you don't like me or what to go somewhere else, just tell me and I'll...
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Re: 3 Promises Major Account Copier Reps Must Make To Themselves And To Their Clients
Art, Plan on attending in Dallas in April. A central spot for all parts of the U.S. Investing in growth is a good thing. I am sure Stratix will support your endeavors.
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Re: 3 Promises Major Account Copier Reps Must Make To Themselves And To Their Clients
haha, you're a funny guy!
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Re: 3 Promises Major Account Copier Reps Must Make To Themselves And To Their Clients
Re: 3 Promises Major Account Copier Reps Must Make To Themselves And To Their Clients
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Re: Why I'm So Past Reading Sales Blogs on Linkedin
While that blog has some valid points, much like Art, I'm more inclined to think "when's the last time that writer took off their headset and actually pushed some pavement or had a face to face meeting?". While there is something to be said about not hard closing all the time, it's got to be done but with some skill. In my nine years doing this, each sale is different in that there are some customer that want to be hard closed and others that have their own way of making a decision. One...
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Re: Letter to Mr. Jones about Sales Reps
But we all do the same thing when the ball is in our court. I get calls all the time from people wanting to sell me software packages with my machines, I blow them off because I know my customers aren't interested....I've asked, believe me. Besides, the fact of the matter is we are interrupting them with something WE think is important. I still cold call all the time, but in person. I get a card, leave a card and a flyer then follow up periodically. I don't take offense, I am the one asking...
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Selling Copiers "The Rep that BS's the Prospect"
I apologize for not being able to write as much as I usually do. December was a rather busy month, in fact the busiest December in years. Cheers to that! It all started a few weeks ago when received a lead (yippee) that was labeled "looking to lease a printer" . I wasn't excited about the word "printer". However, a lead is a lead and follow up has to be immediate when you get a new lead. The Call I was able to connect with the prospect that day on the phone. I was asked if I sold Canon, I...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 10 Years Ago, The Third Week in January 2009
There's a pretty decent thread below about relationship selling. It's ten years old and yes I found it some place on the web. Speaks about common ground with the client along with trust. Take the three minutes to read this thread. Relationship Selling – The Buy and Buy Enjoy the threads from ten years ago this week! Weekend Copier Notes from 1/18/09 Neal · 1/19/098:46 AM bundled with Kodak MarketMover, which is a package to assist printshop owners in marketing and selling digital output. The...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 15 Years Ago, The Third Week in January 2004
Wow, a Super Bowl thread from back in 2004, talking about the 14 game win streak from the Pats. It was the Pats vs the Eagles. Fly Eagles Fly, no Super Bowl for you this year! Enjoy the threads from 15 years ago this week! Re: Super Bowl Poll! Our Year! · 1/16/048:54 AM The Patriots are now on a 14 game winning streak. They will go into the Super Bowl on the longest streak of any team since the '72 Dolphins. And Peyton Manning is putting together what might be the best postseason for a QB in...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 10 Years Ago, The Last Week in January 2009
It's been a hectic week for me. Had to spend a couple days in PA for meetings, coupled with the end of the month. January was nothing but a bummer. That's what happens when you cram everything in for the end of the year. One item I was happy with was my commission check. Back to rebuilding the pipeline. Enjoy these threads from ten years ago this week. Weekend Copier Notes from 1/25/09 Neal · 1/26/096:56 AM server, which is a relabeled Konica Minolta PRO C 6501. This certification is based...
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ConnectWise, Continuum, and Thoma Bravo. Oh, the possibilities are becoming probable
Well, it’s not just Office Supply and Print Service Resellers who are witnessing changes which pose both opportunities, and threats to their Status Quo. When Sycamore Partners the Private equity firm who owns Staples bought the office supply wholesaler Essendant - many office products re-sellers became gravely ill knowing that their product’s wholesaler was now owned by their competitor. As the dust was settling on the Essendant deal. Staples buys DEX Imaging a mega copy/print dealer. It is...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 10 Years Ago, The First Week in December 2008
Enjoy these awesome threads from ten years ago this week! Weekend Copier Notes from 11/30/08 Neal · 12/1/087:06 AM . to strengthen its sales network in the U .S. after losing IKON to Ricoh . - Canon announced it has sold an imagePRESS C 7000VP production color system to The Processors, a printshop in Irwindale, CA. - Kodak announced it has sold a NexPress S2500 production color system to Evergreen Printing of New Jersey. - More details on Memjet Technology, the company that promised to...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 15 Years Ago, The Second Week in January 2004
Fifteen years ago I was not blogging about our industry. Most of what you'll see below is threads from P4P'ers asking and answering questions. The Print4Pay Hotel forums offers our members the opportunity to post questions, answers, news or maybe you want to blow off some steam. If you do here's a link to our forums. Enjoy the threads from 15 years ago this week! Ricoh Demonstrates Its Dedication 1/9/049:25 AM manufacturing, distribution, use and the recycling of its products. Sustainable...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 10 Years Ago, The Second Week in January 2009
Enjoy these threads from ten years ago this week! Weekend Copier Notes from 1/11/09 Neal · 1/11/098:32 PM replacement was named for Tod’s old job. - In an effort to gain its customers back from IKON (which was acquired by Ricoh ), Canon Business Solutions launched the “War Chest” program, giving sales reps ability to pay for up to 9 months of a competitive lease, - A year after being booted from the program, Canon announced that it is once again part of the U .S. Federal Government GSA...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 10 Years Ago, The Last Week in September 2003
There's a cool blog below from Bill Siderys titled MFP & Copier Pay Plan Changes for the Future . If you get the chance check it our. Bill is still a member of the Print4Pay Hotel, and I'd like to thank him for his valued long time membership. Check out the threads from ten years ago this week! Weekend Copier Notes from 09/28/08 Neal · 9/30/089:36 PM , selling out to Ricoh . Details on NewCal: o Founded by former Kodak copier technicians, Steve Tarpley & Ken Wilkens in 1991 o Won...