Tagged With "Yelp and Twitter"
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Re: My Top 5 Secrets About Using Linkedin for Prospecting
Czech: I have a P4P facebook, just don't use it. I have too much to on my plate with the site, LinkedIn and Twitter. I agree we should chat sometime!
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Re: Inbound Marketing For Sales Reps (and Sales Vets)
Hey Greg, Absolutely. My only rebuttal is that the word content is so subjective. Do you write lengthy, 1000+ word articles, or do you focus on writing shorter articles you can post 2-3 times per day? For SEO purposes, either can boost your ranking in Google. The golden rule of SEO is that Google rewards good, original content. Black hat SEO will boost your rankings in the short term, but eventually Google's algorithms will catch on and punish your ranking. On the flip side of content,...
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Re: Inbound Marketing For Sales Reps (and Sales Vets)
Originally Posted by gwalters2009: Interesting and an awesome amount of work for the standard copier dealer. Additionally, it is and always has been my belief that CONTENT maintains sustainability - so in your Step 5, most organizations fall short. Don't you think? Greg, It is a lot of work! That's why many dealers hire us to do it for them. However, sales reps play a huge part by: 1. Sharing relevant blog articles their dealerships post 2. Actively participating in LinkedIn 3. Following...
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Re: BYOB... It is Not What you are Thinking...
Larry makes some excellent points and don't I know it. For the last ten years I've grown the P4P brand and my own brand through writing at least two blogs a week, sharing content on LinkedIn, sharing on Twitter, and answering any questions related to our industry that I can find on the web. If you can't blog for your own company then blog for yourself on LinkedIn, it's a great venue to get started! Someone will say, well, uh, I don't know what to write (Denver just gets turnover on Panthers...
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3 Things Sales Reps Need to Do To Help Smash Their Sales In 2019
To everyone in sales, you can perform much better and become more successful, if you just learn to master with consistency the basics. Vince Lombardi , the great Green Bay Packers coach, once said that football comes down to only two things: Blocking on offense and tackling on defense, and those are the basics his teams spent 80% of their time on in practice. Many analogies have been made between sales and sports. It’s often been said the one key fundamental principle in sports is to focus...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago, The Third Week in January 2014
Enjoy the threads from 5 years a go this week! Topic Five Vendors Earn Winter 2014 BLI “Picks” in the A3 Color Category Art Post · 1/23/145:35 PM buyers. Konica Minolta Business Solutions, U .S.A., Inc. Konica Minolta bizhub C 364e Outstanding 31- to 40-ppm A3 Color MFP Konica Minolta bizhub C 454e Outstanding 41- to 50-ppm A3 Color MFP KYOCERA Document Solutions America, Inc. KYOCERA TASKalfa 5551ci (Also sold under the Copystar brand) Outstanding 51- to 60-ppm A3 Color MFP Ricoh Americas...
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How Well Are You Creating Visibility? My Journey To Outbound 2019!
Those close to me, who know the real me, know I have no problem asking for help. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. It's an opportunity to expand your horizons. I'm simply amazed by the amount of people who simply fail to ask for help. I've made it my mission to educate, engage and excite all those inside the sales world. Sales leaders and their sales teams must stand up, unite and transform how they go to market in a world full of sales mediocrity (I'm being nice). I believe every...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago, The Last Week in January 2014
Dang, there's a ton of content here! Check out the blog series for 31 Ways to Close More Copier Sales #25 of 31 , there are 31 in total and I'm trying to get them all in a collection for us. Enjoy these threads from 5 years ago this week! This Week in the Copier/Office Equipment Industry 10 Years Ago 4thWeek of January 2004 Art Post · 1/26/142:19 PM the new product.http://support. ricoh .com/bb/html/dr_ut_e/rc2/model/ c 32_38/ c 32_38en.htmJG Toshiba America Business Solutions Introduces The...
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Sales Professionals Get To The Heart Of What Matters
Heart is greatly misunderstood. Heart is relevant in sales, culture, and in leadership yet so many get it wrong. Getting to the heart of the matter, if sales reps are unable to uncover a personal or emotional need for the prospect to make a change, then they might consider breaking off the meeting, thanking them for their time and move on to the next prospect. Yes, I know it may be harsh BUT all too often many sales reps will continue down the journey without finding what motivates the...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago, The First Week in December 2013
Okay, we're back to doing three of these a wee. Where we look back on the threads from, 5, 10 & 15 years ago Enjoy these threads from 5 years ago this week! Canon U.S.A. Unveils Océ VarioPrint 6000+ Series of High-Speed, High-Volume Digital Production Printers Art Post · 12/5/139:45 PM deliver critical savings to print providers. This black-and-white printer is ideal for burgeoning industries -- such as on-demand, digital book printing -- due to its registration accuracy, outstanding...
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What Does It Mean To Sell From The Heart?
Selling From the Heart goes against everything that standard sales training teaches you. The world has changed and yet, how we sell seems to be stuck in past decades. No longer are the old-school or hard-nosed tactics working, it’s time for a change. So how do you sell in this current environment? From the heart!!! You put the needs of your clients first. You place them up on a silver business platter. You intently listen to their every word, what they need and how you can best fill it. You...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago, The Second Week in January 2014
One of my goals for this year is to garner more leads. You can do that with generating educational documents. I wrote this blog a few years ago, hope this helps. 31 Ways to Garner Net New Copier & Managed IT Business (2 of 31) Enjoy the threads from 5 years ago this week! This Week in the Copier/Office Equipment Industry 10 Years Ago (2nd Week of January 2004) Art Post · 1/12/143:32 PM it... Ricoh Dealer Meeting 1/8/04 9:48 AM Topic by Boston Mike Ricoh Dealer Meeting - Las Vegas, NV...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago, The First Week in September 2013
Konica Minolta and Komori Debut World's First 23"x29" Digital Inkjet Press at PRINT 13 Art Post · 9/5/137:08 AM today's highly competitive printing marketplace. Delivering a high level in print quality coupled with impressively fast make-ready and open systems architecture, Komori presses help printers achieve the higher productivity and efficiency levels essential for increased margins and business growth. Komori America Corporation headquarters are in Rolling Meadows, IL with sales and...
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Sales Professionals: Develop The Courage To Ask YOUR Clients For Feedback!
The consummate sales professional, runs their own business. They do their best to appease their clients, satisfy their needs and keep them loyal to their brand. How can you be sure your efforts bring about the desired results? If you fail to continually find out what your clients actually think about you and your service, you'll never be able to give them the best customer experience they deserve. It's their opinions about the experience they have with you that is helpful information to use...
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A Selling From The Heart Professional Is Not A Sales Settler!
I applaud DirecTV with their bold and 'direct' ads on TV. They continue to make an impact within the cable TV wars; but they've also made a substantial impact within the sales world (more in a bit). In a sales campaign from a few years ago, they play on one single phrase which showcased a frontier-era family in a suburban neighborhood stuck in antiquated ways such as a horse-and-buggy and, by the way, cable. “We’re settler's son, we settle for things,” explained the father in “Neighbors”...
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A Selling From The Heart Professional Engages With Their Network!
Highly successful sales professionals have highly valuable networks. They've developed them, nurtured them and cultivated them over many years. They invest considerable time in maintaining them. Engaging with your community of connections will help build upon your personal brand on social sites such as LinkedIn. If you build a large and smart network and never engage with conversation, it is the equivalent of compiling a massive rolodex and never reaching out to anyone. REQUIRES PEOPLE...
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A True Sales Professional Knows Their Value And How To Use It
One of the most drastic changes in selling over the past decade has been the rapid evolution in customers’ overall sophistication and knowledge (courtesy of Father Google). Many of the issues salespeople encounter comes from their short-term, transaction-oriented sales mentality. This transactional approach means they go from deal to deal and from order to order. Customers made to feel like a means to an end. A TRANSACTIONAL MINDSET A transactional sales mindset runs rampant in today's sales...
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Attention Sales Leaders... What Type Of Experience Are Your Sales Reps Providing?
Quite often, we hear, toss around and intermix the word 'customer' and 'client',” but what exactly does it mean? When it comes to the experience they receive the same can be said. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a customer is someone who buys goods or services from a store or business. The word client can also mean customer but it has a separate definition as someone who receives professional services. In a business context, the two terms are often applied differently based on...
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How Authenticity Can Maximize Your Prospecting Results
Authenticity is one of the biggest challenges for salespeople in a profession riddled with scrupulous, fake and disingenuous sales reps; that quite frankly many buyers despise them. However, authenticity separates sales reps from sales professionals and this is what buyers want! It may sound a bit touchy-feely but set aside some alone time, take a look inside yourself as sales is all about building credible, genuine and real relationships. In order to build relationships and change the way...
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The 3 P's A Sales Professional Takes To Heart To Help Them Crush Sales!
As humans we're wired to seek out meaning and purpose in our lives. Nowhere is this ever so important than in sales, as this is where we spend much of our waking hours. I'm a firm believer that having a purpose matters more now than ever before. A sales professional thrives on being a part of a purpose. They live for becoming part of something that really matters, something that really makes a difference to the lives of their clients and prospects. In chapter 6 of my new book, Selling from...
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3 Confidence Building Tips To Become The Best Sales Version Of You!
Sales is hard . It’s not for the weak at heart. It requires the right mindset to really be successful. One massively overlooked factor to becoming a great sales professional is the confidence you have in yourself. If you fail to build sales confidence, you’ll consistently struggle to effectively sell. By 'confidence' per say, I'm not referring to fake it until you make it. I'm talking a deep, down inside of you confidence to become the best version of YOU. CONFIDENCE IS CRITICAL Did you know...
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3 Core Attributes Of A Selling From The Heart Professional
Getting to the heart of the matter, if sales people are unable to uncover a personal or emotional need for the prospect to make a change, then they might consider breaking off the meeting, thanking them for their time and move on to the next prospect. Yes, I know it may be harsh BUT all too often many sales people will continue down the journey without finding what motivates the prospect to buy, and then they wonder why they can't close the sale. No question about it, emotions play a part in...
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Consistency... It's At The Core Of Every Sales Professional
When it comes to sales performance, consistency separates the good from the great. How often have you observed a sales rep having a series of record quarters or a banner year, only to follow it up with spats of mediocrity and below average performance? Consistency, especially in the sales world is an enormous word. This differentiates the successful from the unsuccessful and the professionals from the reps. Consistency will change the course of your sales life! Consistency allows you to...
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Attention Sales Leaders... These 3 Blind Spots Could Be Holding Back Your Sales Team!
Blind spots, we all have them and they have the potential to be damaging. Unfortunately, everyone but ourselves can see these as clear as day. For sales leaders, these blind spots create unwelcome consequences. They interfere with decision-making, reduce our scope of awareness, and sabotage sales results. A blind spot could be an unrecognized weakness. Within this context, it has the potential to undermine sales growth. The most dangerous blind spots affect those sales leaders who are...
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Attention Sales Leaders... Are Your Sales Reps Invested?
The single biggest piece of investment advice: Invest in Yourself! Let's face it, it’s almost impossible to increase your income without first becoming a better sales professional. In order to obtain better investment results, one must first become a better investor. This means some of your investment must be diversified. How many on your sales team invest in themselves? YOUR sales team is the most important thing you can place your time and money on. Are you teaching them to invest? THEIR...
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To Ricoh "What I Want for Christmas 2018"
I always like to start these Christmas blogs with a small story about Christmas tradition in other countries. In Ireland, people celebrate Christmas in much the same way as people in the UK and the USA , but they also have many of their own Christmas traditions and customs. Christmas for Irish people, who are Catholics, lasts from Christmas Eve to the feast of Epiphany on January 6th, which some Irish people call 'Little Christmas'. Epiphany isn't now widely celebrated in Ireland. There is...
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The 3 V's A Sales Professional Takes To Heart To Help Them Crush Sales!
Chew on this one for a moment... How much value are you creating for your clients and prospects to help grow your sales? All too often, I hear sales reps, sales management and those in executive management sing praise to the importance of creating value for their customers and prospects. Inside a sea of sales sameness, VALUE; irrefutably becomes the single biggest aspect within the sales process. However, in order build value, how many know the true meaning of value? Why is this so...
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3 Strategies Sales Professionals Use To Decline Being Invited To The Pity Party Of Discouragement
Sales professionals constantly face the temptation to give into discouragement. Bad news and rejection are inevitable in sales. What's important is how you handle it. Let's be honest, we all get discouraged. It’s just one of those potholes we face as we navigate down the road called sales. When we get discouraged our attitude, belief and emotions turn negative. When this happens our productivity plummets, we tend to retreat, withdraw and bitch about everything. The risk of giving up on...
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3 Ways Sales Professionals Nail New Sales Opportunities Using LinkedIn
Inside Hubspot's State of Inbound 201 8, Salespeople cite prospecting as their #1 challenge when ranking the most difficult parts of the sales process. Sales people, it's no secret, you must make prospecting for NET NEW business a priority. This is the fuel that keeps your funnel consistently full of opportunities. Think about this quote for a moment and let it sink in... A consistent, systematic approach around prospecting for new business is a priority in order to maintain a healthy sales...
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Attention Sales Leaders... How Well Are Your Sales Reps Opening Up New Conversations?
Conversations are the strongest sales tool that sales reps have in order to effectively build credible relationships between their clients, their brand and their company. Unfortunately, many in sales believe their customers enjoy working with them because they have the best products and best customer service. You kidding me! The way sales reps open up new conversations has a direct bearing on the close. They way sales reps open up conversations, the direction they take those conversations...
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Attention Sales Leaders... Your Sales Reps Must Get Valuable Before They Get Visible!
In my previous blog, "Attention Sales Leaders... How Well Are Your Sales Reps Opening New Conversations?" I shared, the way sales reps open up new conversations has a direct bearing on the close. The way sales reps open up conversations, the direction they take those conversations along with the strategy behind those conversations; all will have a direct bearing on the close of the sale. Let's dive into this a bit deeper as we uncover the next layer in effectively opening up new...
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Attention Sales Leaders... Are Your Sales Reps Sales Enabled Or Self-Enabled?
Sales enablement, a catch-all phrase with many meanings. What is sales enablement and what purpose does it serve to those in sales? Sirius Decisions says, “The purpose of sales enablement is to ensure sales teams have the skills, knowledge, behavior, and tools needed to engage buyers in rich conversations.” Question to all sales leaders... One of the biggest buzzwords in sales these days is "sales enablement." While we all appreciate the new platforms and content that our companies provide,...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago, The Last Week in August 2013
I thought it would be time for something new. Each week we post threads from the last 10 year and 15 years on the Print4Pay Hotel. So we're going to give you another one. This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago. Enjoy these most excellent threads from just 5 years ago! Who Makes the Best Multifunctional Copy Machine? Art Post · 8/28/1310:23 PM manufacturers for multifunctional copiers. Here they are in the tiers. Tier I: Canon (includes Oce), Ricoh (includes Savin and Lanier), Xerox and...
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Slumps Happen... 3 Tips To Beat the Sales Funk
Just keep swinging... It’s happened to all of us: One month, we're hitting home runs out of the sales ball park; the next, we're swinging and missing on every sales opportunity. We've all been aboard the sales train wreck before. You fail to secure an important sale. You have a series of bad days. Worse, you struggle to sell to your own clients. You can't seem to disentangle yourself from its deadly grip. You're in a sales slump. Even heavy sales hitters have bad days, bad months and even...
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Behind Every Great Sales Professional You'll Find A Coach... Who's Your Coach?
Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan had Phil Jackson. Tom Brady has Bill Belichick. What's the common denominator? Coaching benefits professional athletes, so why don't more in sales leadership, sales management and in sales have coaches? Tom Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback credits much of his passing success to Tom Martinez his former quarterback coach. He worked with Brady to refine his release and improve his throwing technique. Atul Gawande a surgeon and writer for the New Yorker...
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Hey Sales Leaders: Is Your Sales Team Still Partying Like It Is 1999?
This blog isn't meant to cause you any sorrow. This blog isn't meant not to cause you any pain. Allow me to take you back a few decades, the Thomas Guide was a sales reps best friend. It was the spiral-bound version of what our present day smartphone GPS accomplishes. Remember carrying around both a pager and a cell phone? How about taking photos and having no clue how they'd turn out? All of this got me thinking... STOP LIVING IN THE PAST Many sales leaders are still guiding their sales...
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Attention Sales Leaders: What Could Your Team Do With $7.2 Million Of Sales Opportunties?
Observe those successful in sales, and you'll soon notice they're good at the art of conversation. If you think this sounds easy, think twice. Having engaging sales conversations takes a tremendous amount of skill, practice and patience. With so many leaning heavily on social media for their interactions, the less face to face communication is practiced, the less skilled your team becomes in having business conversations. If your business relies on your sales team to win clients, the better...
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Sales Stories Sell... How Well Are Your Stories Being Heard?
Everybody loves a good story, if you want to sell your products, your vision, or your ideas to the business world, you must recognize the power and importance of great storytelling. You must become an expert in telling your own story! We all have a story and it deserves to be told. The question becomes, how well do you know your story? Reflect on this for a moment... Most seem to tell stories just to tell them. However, when you start asking why people listen to and then share stories, often...
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3 Things Sales Reps Need To Ditch To Smash Their Sales In 2019
New Year... New exercise plan, new diet, and new sales plans. The New Year is also a time to break bad habits. Habits, they're behaviors that impact the decisions we make about how to spend our time, our sales activities and resources. Think of sales habits in the same way. You accumulate experiences and knowledge over time which influences your outlook as well as your ability to effectively manage what you do on a daily basis. From the most tenured sales reps to the sales newbies,...
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Another Sales Tragedy Caused By Leaky Bucket Syndrome
What's your focus on keeping and growing your existing clients? A smart sales team doesn't chase new clients at the expense of keeping and growing existing clients. 80% of future revenue will come from just 20% of your existing clients– Gartner Group It’s 50% easier to sell to existing clients than to new clients– Marketing Metrics Repeat clients spend 33% more compared to new clients– CMO.com What do you think is required to move your client relationships from good to great? GOOD TO GREAT...
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3 Dead Giveaways That You Are An Empty Suit
A true sales professional thinks before they act. They plan, prepare and practice as they build a structure of success. They lead with intention, and become the example. A great sales professional is precise with their decisions by aligning their vision and values to earn the respect of their clients. With purposeful intent, they engage in heartfelt activities benefitting those around them. And this is what your clients and prospects crave, right? They deserve a sales professional who is...
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3 Ingredients To Custom Fit The Empty Sales Suit
A custom fitted suit has a unique, empowering feel as it sits comfortably against your body. It's the statement you make about who you are and what you value regarding your appearance. Anyone can stroll into their local department store and pull a suit off the rack, but to truly “pull off” the suited look, one visits a tailor. A custom tailor is able to enhance all of the best features through the fit of the suit. Off-the-rack department store suits don't offer much in a variety of style,...
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3 Keys To Help Sales Professionals Unlock The Digital Business Door
Technology and sales enablement tools are not only helping sales professional's gain momentum in their marketplace, they're also changing the way they sell their services. Selling successfully in a digitally driven, highly networked and socially empowered business world takes a new mindset and skill set. Inside many sales departments there's a tug-of-war happening, a generational change and shift in sales thinking. Tenured, well-seasoned sales reps are watching tech savvy young professionals...
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3 Tips To Avoid Sounding Like Another Sales Monkey On The Phone
Paper shuffling, sweaty palms, time to go to the bathroom, nobody answers the phone, surfing the internet; the excuses run rampant inside sales bullpens. Sales monkey business has run amuck inside sales teams of all sizes. Isn’t the ability to pick up the phone to potential clients supposed to be one of the defining features of a sales rep? Then why do so many do almost anything but pick up the phone to potential new clients. Successful sales professionals do not make excuses! They...
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Sales Professionals Chase Excellence, Not Shiny Objects
Look into my eyes, you're getting sleepy, you're getting real sleepy, your eyelids are getting droopy, are you hypnotized yet by all the social noise? I encourage all of you, please take off the dark sun glasses and stop chasing shiny "social" objects! In Hey Sales Leaders... 3 Reasons Why Your Sales Teams "Social" ROI Sucks! I shared my opinion that social has always been a part of sales. It is about building relationships and changing the way people think as now we have more tools to build...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago (Third Week of March 2014)
Wow! Hard to believe that the end of the first quarter is a mere two weeks away. Twenty five gone and Seventy five percent of the year left. How is your first quarter going? Would love to hear from you in the reply section of this blog! These were the top threads from 5 years ago this week. Enjoy Konica Minolta Honors Pacific Office Automation of Beaverton, Oregon with 2014 Pro-Tech Service Award for Service Excellence Art Post · 3/19/1410:16 PM Colorado. The company is also one of the...
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This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago (Second Week of April 2014)
When I started in the business I was told all you have to get through is the first five years and then the rest is gravy. Meaning you could live off your lease renewals. I'm thinking that was a BIG fat lie! Enjoy these threads from ten years ago this week! Ricoh's Streamline NX can help organizations improve document management productivity and reduce costs Art Post · 4/15/148:32 PM printers giving them the same user experience they have on Ricoh MFPs. Mobile printing with Hotspot Enterprise...
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Are You Building Relationships Or Burning Bridges?
You can be credible, reliable and loving but if it’s painfully obvious you only have your own interests at heart people will see through your charade. They will call you out for what you are, an empty suit. Whatever the position you have in sales, you’re the face of the company. You're the living testament of the corporate brand and its values. This places you in a unique position whether you believe or not. I encourage everyone in sales to think about the following... all of you have blind...
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3 Key Ingredients To Bring To The Business Table
If you wish to sit with executive leaders at the decision-making table, you need to learn, consume and mirror their characteristics. Now granted, not all sales require C-level or executive access. However; engaging at this level is critical if your goals are to build strategic client relationships, be perceived as a trusted professional and to differentiate yourself from the competition. Do you have what it takes to gain a seat at the table? EARN THE RIGHT TO SIT AT THE TABLE Business...
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Attention Sales Leaders... Take A Look At Your Sales Team, And Then Make A Change!
The late great Michael Jackson, "If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change" Your clients and prospects are using digital content to make their purchasing decisions, and what are you doing about it? The ironic thing, you and your sales team use digital content to make purchasing decisions. An overwhelming majority (89%) of B2B researchers use the internet in their research process. Selling in today’s ultra-connected, fast paced business...