Tagged With "West Point Products"
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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...
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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
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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
Very interesting point of view. Always informative. Old adage. The more activity the greater the results. Plan your work. Work your plan. Have a great day.
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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
Canada charges a 270% tariff because the US has a massive over supply of milk production. If US dairy product was to enter Canada without tariffs it would destroy our perfectly working dairy industry. Why should the USA be allowed to destroy our milk industry so as to partially solve a problem created within the USA? Besides, how do you think Canada maintains its "free" single payer health care system. It is by charging high taxes on all consumer purchases. I do not think that anybody thinks...
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Re: Is This the Beginning of the End for the Padding of Lease Rates?
Hello Art and the rest of the P4P members - Our industry association (ELFA), along with several independent law firms that represent many of our industry members are reviewing this legislation to determine the actual effects it will have on the industry as a whole and to provide guidance so that our members will be in compliance with the legislation. What we know at this point is that is you are involved in offering financing to businesses in California, you will be subject to this...
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Re: Is This the Beginning of the End for the Padding of Lease Rates?
from today's Leasing News. Ralph Petta Reaction to Tom McCurnin's "Is the Disclosure Too Complicated? of SB 1235" [ http://leasingnews.org/hires/petta_ralph2018.jpg ] From: Ralph Petta President and CEO Equipment Leasing and Finance Association 1625 Eye Street, NW * Suite 850 Washington, DC 20006 "Allow me to take exception and set the record straight with respect to Mr. McCurnin's statement in his September 21 article(1) about passage of disclosure legislation in California, SB 1235 that...
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Re: Attention Sales Leaders... What Are Your Sales Reps Prospecting For?
Larry, You are exactly right. Excellent article. The challenge in our industry is the mindset of obtaining new business and putting ourselves in the minds of the 21st century customer. We need to break the cycle of a commoditized product offering. I have not waived the white flag and surrendered to that thought process. Instead I believe we need to evolve as sales professionals and engage in the 21st century sales process and those sales professionals/ companies that do will become behemoths...
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Re: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
I can imagine your "spin" to customers already. There is certainly a big sales hammer to close deals by Dec 31 2018. Probably some manufacturers "stuffed" their warehouses with product in anticipation of this tariff. Probably by Feb March 2019, if things go completely sideways, prices have to rise as inventory in the USA is depleted and new product is introduced.
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Re: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
Yup, it's a pretty BIG Hammer! I heard a radio report that the US trade debt rose significantly in July. I'm thinking what you stated is that "many of the manufacturers have stuffed thier warehouses". That's probably why we haven't seen anything to date with increases.
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Re: "You've just WON Presidents Club, What Are You Going to D0 Now?"
"I Love Cold Calling!" Don't worry - I haven't lost my mind. (Yet.) Cold calling isn't fun. You know it and I know it. So why did I say that? Because I can remember countless times when I heard someone say, "Cold calling is fun!" In fact, I even did it once. It's true. Early on in my sales career, when I was going from job to job, failing by cold calling, and not understanding why it wasn't working - after all, my managers all said it would work - I began deluding myself into believing that...
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Re: Is it Frowned Upon if you Join a Competitor?
If you were unsuccessful where you are, but are unhappy with the company or the product, then moving should not be a problem. But if you were successful, and happy, and only the money was the inducement to move, then I suggest you have a good chat to your current dealer/manager before jumping ship, as "the grass is never greener" in most case. And if that turns out to be the case, then you will very quickly become dissatisfied and move on once again which could easily become the descent into...
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Re: Best Black & White MFP for 10k/month yeild. Suggestions?
First is this your actual reply to the account looking at thoseToshiba products listed (455 & 305)? If yes and they have a great history with the Toshiba product, telling them there a "bottom dweller" would make anyone think that you're only wanting to sell them what YOU'RE offering. The models they requested are older models of Toshiba and who knows if they've worked well for them or not. Also if you research the Okidata product, most of their MFP's are based on the Toshiba platform now...
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Re: Best Black & White MFP for 10k/month yeild. Suggestions?
FYI: Toshiba, overall, is in the top ten for R&D Spend-to-Sales ratios. "Bottom dweller" really is not a fair use of words. With any device manufacturer, product is only as good as its dealer support. Get references if need be. RE: maintenance; The asker is talking B&W devices not color. Regardless, get the maintenance. Fewer spikes in copy quality or hardware issues because you'll make that phone call to fix rather than putting up with poor copy quality, etc. for fear of how much it...
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Re: Best Black & White MFP for 10k/month yeild. Suggestions?
Art, I like your general guidance to the initial poster, and I won't grade your writing since this isn't an English class. In regard to this brief post conversation, I think honesty is the best policy with customers and with ourselves. Yes Tim, they probably are in the top ten. However, the customer was asking which is the best. By rankings in the market place, the top seven do not include Toshiba. They fall within the bottom 7% of market share for shipments and the bottom 8.6% for market...
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Re: Copier Scams Part Deux "Dude Where's my Copier"?
Art, it's a part of the industry that I doubt you will get rid of. I would like to add my own "observation". I don't think that 99.9% of dealers do a good deal. If 99.9% was the case these instances would not even be noticed because they would be unheard of. I think the reality is that around 60-70% of dealers are OK. Another point is that the leasing companies do not give a damn about the state of the copier at the end of a lease. As long as the customer has made all the payments they're...
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Re: Copier Scams Part Deux "Dude Where's my Copier"?
That's not really the point I was trying to make. The point is that a salesrep shouldn't assume anything as fact because the facts vary from dealer to dealer and lease to lease. That having been said, you are missing a big part of the lease equation and that is the "alternative forms of revenue" that comes at the end of the lease. Anytime a lease is ended effectively, the lease company loses the chance of an automatic renewal (evergreen clause), in some cases they lose the chance to sell the...
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Re: Copier Scams Part Deux "Dude Where's my Copier"?
I'm not sure if that has an equivalent in the UK. here we have the Consumer Credit Act. However, it only applies to consumers. Business to business isn't covered (except in a small number of cases). "I've almost never seen a disputed copier lease where the lessee wins. I'll admit I'm no expert in leasing however most of these agreements are rock solid." In my experience the reason why they're perceived as rock solid is because they are rarely challenged. If they're not challenged they'll...
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Re: My Top 5 Secrets About Using Linkedin for Prospecting
Art One of your better articles!! Short, sweet, to the point and should be helpful to most reps. Thank You Have a Great Day Tom Koenig Sr. District Business Manager Northeast Region - Dealer Sales Division Ricoh Americas Corporation 5 Dedrick Place West Caldwell NJ 07006 cell - 570-439-2864 thomas.koenig@ricoh-usa.com
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Re: 5 Questions for HP about the Acquisition of Samsung Printer Business Unit
What is puzzling to me is almost the same day that HP announced they were purchasing Samsung's print business, they launched a major new product line. Are they going to ditch the new Samsung line? Did HP buy Samsung's print business to take out a competitor and get the recurring revenue from parts, supplies and cpc contracts. To me, HP has always been an abbreviation for "hardly profitable".
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Re: 5 Questions for HP about the Acquisition of Samsung Printer Business Unit
I hope HP (Hardly Profitable)'s idea of market innovation is not to make the whole industry hardly profitable. Outside sales reps need to make a buck and will not flock to a new product that dramatically reduces their commission on every sale. Kind of like the A3 to A4 transition of a few years ago. Sales reps do not want to be forced to try and sell a lot more boxes to earn the same income regardless of how great the technology might be. Did that, been there.
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Re: 5 Questions for HP about the Acquisition of Samsung Printer Business Unit
I'm not sure......will be interesting to see how the industry responds. I think it may be time for HaaS or Seat Based Billing for MFP's. Get ahead of the curve and tie up your accounts now!
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Re: 5 Questions for HP about the Acquisition of Samsung Printer Business Unit
As of this date, BLI has published no specs on the new A3 product line. HP's website has posted a few images. http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-ne...s/2016/GPC_2016.html Tiered billing has been offered by Kyocera and Xerox for a few years. I think the tiers are very low and a customer quickly gets knocked up to Tier 3 full or above market price.
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Re: Will H.P. Uber the Imaging Channel
This is a great article! One point that I disagree on is that HP will be entering the SMB market with this acquisition. What's the point? Dealers own the SMB market, and most dealers will sell whatever their customers already have. Where HP has the advantage is going into their national and global accounts where they dominate with MPS contracts on A4 devices. Finally, they can go back to the banks/governments/etc and kick out the Canon/Ricoh/Xerox A3 devices that are in there. And because HP...
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Re: Why I Spent 30 Minutes Researching a Headset and What That Means to Copier Sales Reps
Larry, good stuff. Just the other day I was at an appointment for an envelope press. It was an existing account, and before we could meet, they wanted me to send the pricing on three different models. I was somewhat reluctant, however, since it was an existing account, I caved. After a few follow ups, we had the meeting, which I thought was going to more about telling then what the system could do and can't do. After 20 minutes or so, the DM stated that she had done quite a bit of research...
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Re: Six Reasons Why Copiers Leases Can Cost You More Than You Signed For
Cheryl Thanx for the response! I'm on the side of transparency. I want companies to recognize that there are some dealers that, well, they should not be doing business with. Here in the North East we're seeing some down right dirty tactics when it comes to moving product. You're right, no reputable dealer would uplift 25%, however we do have at leas one dealer that I know of that has the kind of uplift. Not sure what you meant here, can you clarify? "Let's recognize that the dealer never...
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Re: Are we Lying to Ourselves?
Absolutely true, Ray! The Life Cycle (of a product, a concept...) is a fundamental fact. There will be blood for those who do not react in time!
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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: Konica Minolta Acquires More Than Just Copier Dealers
Attached is the letter I received from Muratec Marketing
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Re: Inbound Marketing For Sales Reps (and Sales Vets)
Art, That traffic is incredible. I think a large part of it is that you've been doing this for 10 years. Persistence as they say, is the key to success! (Imagine if everyone copier rep blogged and stuck it out for 10 years!) Are you the leads you receive local or nation-wide? I'd love to offer more tips but really I'm not the guy to do it. I can only point people in the right direction. Gary Vaynerchuk - Social Media Glen Allsopp - SEO Tim Ferriss - Productivity Frank Kern - Direct Response...
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Re: 5 Reasons Why I Like Print Audit Best Over PaperCut
I do like the control that the dealer has with Print Audit as well as the pre-sale MPS tools if you are one of their Premier dealers. But, turning on various rules in PaperCut is MUCH easier than in Print Audit/PCS Director or other similar products in our industry. Additionally, it works extremely well in environments in which Mac workstations are present, & their embedded (PaperCut MF) software works with most product lines which makes it easy to integrate if a client has a mixed ...
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Re: Selling Professional Services for SMB Accounts, Worth it or Not Worth it!
As an independent dealer we are definitely giving away too much Pro Services in the SMB space. We kind of us it as a sales pitch against the National vendors who almost always charge Pro Services. Right now we are starting to give the customers invoice for many Pro Services that we deliver but offset it with a credit, so that they can see it's value. This will set up a future invoice where there will be no credit. We leave it up to the sales rep how he sells the workflow and how much...
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Re: Selling Copiers "What Would You Do"?
Originally Posted by Iris: Hi Art, Even if you could convince him by offering a different model, some sort of guarantee or whatever, the question you should ask yourself is what happens if the problems return. Would you really want to have that standing between you and your cousin? Iris Exactly! The point is they are limited to only one dealer for one brand and the scenario isn't going to work. Thus, what is a sales person to do? I'm not going to try to convince him that all will be well...
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Re: Sharp CEO States "I believe it is my responsibilty to...)
No money means no R&D. Sharp is getting destroyed in Canada. Since Konica Minolta purchased Pitney Bowes' imaging division (Sharp's largest dealer in Canada), they've been offering customers massive incentives to flip their Sharp gear into KM bizhubs. I think there's more value in Sharp's direct channel base customer list than the actual technology. I've always found the MX series to be lacking in quality and ease of use. Prices have come down on Tier 1 products which means Tier 2...
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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
Larry I am in NC. Have been doing this about 10 years. It's all I've done since college. I love the industry, for the most part, and really am at a point I couldn't afford to leave it behind. We are a family dealer so running the company has always been my goal so I've neve freaky wanted to leave either. For the ones that are single source RFG, we use to be in the same boat. We added Samsung in 2009 so we have seen tej good and the really bad of SAMSUNG. We brought on Kyocera for a short...
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Re: Canon Business Systems Pulling a Ricoh
Yes Keith has a branch in our area but we don't run into them that much. Yes we stuck it out with Ricoh for as long as we could. We really took a hard look at the dealer/manufacturer relationship when the ikon merger happened and we saw pricing in our area that was worse than we see now. What broke the camels back was when we asked for support from Ricoh to gain some of the canon accounts that we had engaged and Ricoh told us point blank to walk away from the deals because we would never win...
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Re: Canon Business Systems Pulling a Ricoh
This has been a great thread so far! We're a mid size dealer in central pa and have most of the directs knocking around in our area. TABS, KMBS, RBS, CSA, Xerox and now Global just bought a small dealership. In addition we have quite a few other Indy dealers like us. I whole heartedly agree with what some one said before about selling the value of your company, service and the relationships. I've also told customers point blank I cannot compete with the directs price so if that's all that...
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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: Canon Business Systems Pulling a Ricoh
Art, Yes, Ricoh's ROE is serious business. If you're not seeing that in your territory, you need to contact their MVP, or even Mr. Brodigan himself, immediately. I've seen him take the matters into his hands personally. When you are moving half our gear a year, you hold more cards then you think. How Canon can afford not to is beyond me. I guess that's why we're seeing more Canon dealerships starting to carry our product.
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Re: Canon Business Systems Pulling a Ricoh
Originally Posted by Christi: Art, Yes, Ricoh's ROE is serious business. If you're not seeing that in your territory, you need to contact their MVP, or even Mr. Brodigan himself, immediately. I've seen him take the matters into his hands personally. When you are moving half our gear a year, you hold more cards then you think. How Canon can afford not to is beyond me. I guess that's why we're seeing more Canon dealerships starting to carry our product. I too have seen personally very high...
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Re: 10 Ways to Close Net New Business
I am looking forward to it too. Interested in the strategy of getting to the point where the prospect is ready to decide outside of their current vendor.
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Re: Ten plus Tips for Cold Calling in the Field
My thoughts, some of which repeat what others have said, maybe in a different way: I cold call for information, phone call for appointments to a large degree. What I would add to Czech's 4 point list is to ask who they call for maintenance. That usually tells you, not only the company, but the brand, and if the receptionist doesn't know, then they likely don't have many problems. I almost always separate fact find from presentation. Too many reps "get an answer" then "do some selling", "get...
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Re: HP should Buy Xerox
I am deeply concerned about the race to the bottom with A4 product. A4 product certainly gets better everyday and some salespeople say it is just as good as A3...maybe true... except for your commissions. If you like Kraft dinner or Ramen noodles, downgrade your customers from A3 to A4. Let us not forget one of the largest A4 players out there is Lexmark. Lexmark is a 100% Chinese owned company called NineStar based in Guangdong, China. If you cheer MAGA, you cannot cheer Lexmark. God knows...
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Re: HP should Buy Xerox
Appreciate the comments. However, your arguments regarding A4 vs. A3 pertain to what’s good for you. Industries which are going through disruption or when an industry’s particular product or its services become less valuable to those once dependent on them. The disease of Product-Centric thinking will infect those with a stubbornness to modify. It is not up to those who sell a product or service to determine its value. Its value is determined by those who buy the product or service.