Tagged With "Blast from the Past"
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Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
We definitely are not out chasing them but we are much more versed talking about them and the benefits of buying them from us rather than the big box store. It has led to some very nice MPS accounts for us this past year. I don’t have a final count but I believe we added about 3 million new clicks this year from printer sales. Not breaking any records by any means but adding an extra 50k or so of revenue never hurts. And thanks to brother for having a minimum advertised price online for the...
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Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
I'll chime in. Like TML I'm in my early 30's and have been selling copy hardware for nearly 10 years. I think good sales people as a whole are quickly becoming scarce. Millennials don't seem to like to interact with others if they don't have to and as most "print" decisions move to IT, online buying is already what they know. Overall it is a convenience factor, they don't have to submit a form to a website and wait a couple days for salesperson to try and up-sell them to an A3 MFP. They...
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Re: Samsung Copier Million Page Test "A Tree Massacre"
On average for every tree taken down in US for paper it is replaced by three new ones This is one of the reasons there are more trees in US than in past Dan Schmidt (sent from mobile device) > On Nov 23, 2015, at 6:19 PM, Print4Pay Hotel < alerts@hoop.la > wrote: >
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Re: Are Copier Sales Reps Asking the Right Questions
As you said, this blog wasn't meant to cover all the bases but your comments about brand loyalty and brand/service provider loyalty are only true if the decision maker has been the same for each decision. If you aren't talking to the owner, you may be talking to a totally different person than the one that made past decisions. You need to know that before you decide whether to pack your bags and walk away. Also, in a leased equipment environment, the decision to stay with the same brand and...
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Re: 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: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
I read past the "bill" description too fast. A bill is not law, it is, I think, just an expression of unanimous opinion by the Senate. Somewhere in the news this week, I read that Kyocera intends to increase production of A3 copiers in China by expanding a current factory. I am sure all copier manufacturers plan 10+ years into the foreseeable future and cannot worry about politicians who could come and go every four years.
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
The biggest challenge I see is that you have to sell so much more to make the same money you have in years past. It used to be that if someone needed duplexing, or stapling, or speed, etc. they had to pay for higher scale equipment. Now they can get for $3,000 what they used to have to pay $10,000 for. It used to be that everyone was a profitable prospect. Now only the upper 20-30% represent a potential revenue capable of earning over $1,000. Even solution sales are hard to build profit in...
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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: Another Ricoh Dealer Takes on Konica Minolta
Who will be next? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A & A Office Systems Now Offering Esteemed Konica Minolta Product Line 9/9/2009 New England-based Company to Offer Award-Winning Lines of Konica Minolta MFPs, Production Print Systems, Printers, and Software Solutions Middletown, CT and Ramsey, NJ – September 9, 2009 – John Sullivan, President & CEO of A&A Office Systems (A&A) and Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), a leading provider...
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Re: Color MFP Trends, Tactics, etc
I'm with Art. I think the A4 systems are in the market to stay and soon everyone will have them. Samsung will also have A3 systems within the next 18 months to be able to offer them with the A4's on bids and tenders. We shouldn't forget old HP when we have this discussion...they still collect more clicks in NA than any other manufacturer and they are seriously getting into the managed print business. It seems to me it is going to come down to who is going to gaurantee the client the toner on...
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Re: Color MFP Trends, Tactics, etc
I think this is the big change over the last 15-20 years. If you think back, there was a time that you could buy an "off-brand" (not Xerox, Canon or Ricoh) and be really disappointed. They just wouldn't do the job. That's not true anymore, at least for level of machine 90% of office users need. Sure, we may beat the other players on some specific uncommon features, but if they just need a MFP to copy/scan/print, you'd be hard pressed to find one that couldn't accomplish that.
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Re: UPDATE 3-Canon buys Dutch Oce for $1.1 bln, fights Ricoh
Tokyoamsterdam: Japan's Canon plans to buy Dutch copier and printer maker Oce for 730 million euros ($1.09 billion) as it tries to return to growth after the global downturn and fight rival Ricoh. Copier and digital camera maker Canon and Oce said in a joint statement on Monday that Canon intends to offer 8.60 euros per share, or 730 million euros, for Oce's outstanding shares. Canon's offer follows little over a year after Japan's Ricoh, the world''s largest copier maker, bought US office...
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Re: UPDATE 3-Canon buys Dutch Oce for $1.1 bln, fights Ricoh
KM has strengthened itself dramatically in the past 5 years and while losing this distribution channel is a kick in the rear, the biggest impact will be losing the high end Oce'. Would tend to think that will lead to KM getting deeper in bed with Kodak. I worked for Oce' for two years and frankly they are going to have to learn how NOT to sell on the lowest price now that they are being directed by Canon.
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Re: Ricoh Pro C720
Ricoh Americas Corporation announced today the official launch of the Ricoh Pro C720/C720s, a production class multi-functional color system and the latest addition to Ricoh’s Pro series of products, designed specifically for the production environment. This flexible system targets corporate and commercial professional print environments with demanding application needs. The Pro C720/C720s has a robust duty cycle of 320,000 images per month, and runs at 72 pages-per-minute (PPM) regardless...
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Re: Matt Espe named CEO of Ricoh Americas Corp
To: All Ricoh Americas and IKON Employees From: Matt Espe Date: March 30, 2010 Subject: Ricoh Americas Leadership Structure and Integration Planning I am excited and energized to lead Ricoh Americas into the future. Since joining IKON eight years ago, I have worked very closely with Ricoh, first as an independent dealer and even more closely over the past 18 months as a Ricoh company................
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Re: Ricoh Ikon Letter
Email I sent to the email address referenced above: How will the changes that were announced today affect the RFG Dealer Channel? I work for a Lanier Dealer that was formerly a Gestetner Dealer. One of our primary concerns over the past several years is that RBS & IKON consistently undercut us on price, not only for hardware but also for service & supplies, which is where we make our profit. Additionally, there are currently 9 other entities (including RBS & IKON) in the...
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Re: #2 Riso Poll
I voted Pitney Bowes due to their business relationship during the past two years.
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Re: #2 Riso Poll
I've made a lot of money off of Risos over the past 15 years but not much lately. I don't think Riso will get sold because I don't see anyone wanting them. Kind of like buying a typewriter company...what's the point? The niche has become way too small, at least in the U.S. which I agree is a pretty myopic view.
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Re: Time in business requirements
More likely, teleported to the past... However, I think our success (in the short term) is guaranteed, and eventually we'll simply be "Too Big to Fail"! I want a bonus either way though
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Re: Time in business requirements
Cash Gap: Going back to the past and seems like you've been in the biz for a long time. There was a time when: If you were over 2 years in biz, 90% of the time no PG was required. The leasing companies that you did business with would not "cream" the apps, they would take the good, the bad and the ugly (well, sometimes with the ugly) Problem now, is that all leasing companies want the cream, and that's where I have an issue, if you want first dibs to our portfolio, don't cream the apps, and...
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Re: Time in business requirements
I can agree that they leasing companies (and all lenders) acted foolishly in the past. Now the banks are acting like banks. That's not bad, though it may make it tougher to provide people with equipment you, I and they all know they have no business leasing. [If you were over 2 years in biz, 90% of the time no PG was required.] And now we know that two years in business is not adequate assurance of the company's ability to make the payments, so more assurance is required in the form of a PG.
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Re: Why in 2010 have we still not seen Solid State Drives (SSD) in copiers?
Much faster access time, 100% reliable, no moving parts, can't crash the drive head with sudden loss of power corrupting drive. Much smaller, lighter, much lower power consumption. Much less heat generated. Much less headaches for Service Dept compared to HDD as there is virtually no service required. An SSD can fit mechanically into the same hardware slot as a HDD. Just started showing up in laptops last year. MFP Copier vendors are always jostling to say they were first to market with some...
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Re: Colortrac Inc. Distributes its SmartLF Wide Format Scanners via Promark Technology
Colortrac Announces Financial Results and Growth in Scanner Sales Colortrac Inc. Colortrac has achieved record unit sales, revenue, and profit in their financial year ending April 30th 2010. Not including new business from OEM agreements, worldwide unit sales of Colortrac brand SmartLF large-format scanners increased by 24 percent over the previous year. Colortrac's consolidated result (unaudited) shows that group revenues increased by 42 percent to GBP £7.3 million, with a corresponding...
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Re: Industrial Label Printers
what type of printers? production printers? Riso? I've been dealing with a dealer who sells nothing but production printers in Michigan he told me there has been no drop in sales for him over the past couple of years. now he's looking and becoming a Riso dealer to increase his fleet offerings
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Re: How are Sales Going for 2010?
For a few of us at my company, sales have been at about the same levels as previous years, but many of our reps are barely treading water. 2011 is going to be an interesting year due to economic uncertainty and the fact that we will have to win more new business than in years past in order to hit our sales goals. We're counting on some hardware to start to "pull-through" in our MPS engagements as we begin the Optimize phase in the MPS accounts we've won this year.
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Re: Competitive Copier Vendors
I looked this over and found many falsehoods in this document in selling against the "national vendors". Specifically, to say that we have no ties to the local community couldn't be further from the truth. Also, firmware updates are provided at no charge. Also, we do not charge shipping and handling for toner. Perhaps in the past, but since I've been with Konica Minolta, it is included. I'd like to add a more detailed rebuttal to some of these "sell points" that are most likely outdated.
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Re: MP201
At one time I would have said this series was the best built tabletop on the market. Three incarnations later this design is way past its prime. We need a completely new tabletop with speed and a touch screen. Ricoh is blowing it on A4. They took a hard line stance against A4 machines a few years back and now its biting them in the bottom. Ricoh is our main line but we are selling another manufacturers A4 probably 3 to 1 because Ricoh's product has fallen behind.
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Re: C900 - DocuCopy Reinforced Papers
I've had good results in the past with Xerox Nuvera, 4095, & 4110. Also runs well on Konica-Minolta 92/950 & 1050 series. I know of a customer who ran almost a million sheets on the KM 1050, without a single jam.
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Re: Xerox Launches eConcierge Tool To Increase Print Supply Sales
I will be interested to see where this program comes in on price for the consumables. Past programs, such as PagePack, were not competitive enough for us to make a real go of it.
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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: Ricoh Loses another Top Exec
Today we are announcing a change in our direct field sales leadership as Mark Bottini has decided to resign his position as Vice President of Direct Sales for Ricoh U.S. to accept a senior leadership position at an outside company. I want to thank Mark for his many contributions to Ricoh and IKON. He started his career in sales with IKON over 20 years ago and has held many leadership positions at the Area, Region and national level. His leadership, commitment and enthusiasm have been...
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Re: Stuxnet Lives!
A COMPUTER virus created to sabotage Iran's nuclear programme and stop Tehran developing an atomic bomb was designed by American and Israeli experts, it was claimed yesterday. The Stuxnet computer worm, the most sophisticated cyber weapon ever made, crippled uranium enrichment facilities across Iran last year and set the country back five years in the nuclear arms race. US military and intelligence sources have told The New York Times that a simulation of Iran's uranium enrichment facility...
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Re: Dell Power Server Power Supply
Montecore: Thanx for this, I worked on this server before just for software. I got a call that the server is making a noise, when I stopped in I heard a well....best described as a continuos whine coming from the power supply. With your information I think I'll go back and make sure the noise is not coming from the hard drive. BTW what is MB?? nevermind got it "motherboard", once you get past the big 50 it gets a little tougher to recall somethings. Thanx for the help. If the whine is coming...
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Re: SP5200 Series. What's your plan???
Old Glory....do you have matrix you follow for volumes and cpc costs which may or may not include base charges? You mentioned $90/qtr min but how what is the volume band? Wow I am very surprised that they ship with a starter cartridge in a commercial system. The Canon 1700 series comes with 15,100 high yield toner out of the box. The drum yields 116,000. Very tough box to compete against. I have sold 3 in the past 2 weeks.
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Re: RISO AR9100 Envelope Feeder Demonstration For ComColor High-Speed Inkjet Printers
Is anyone actually selling ComColors. Our original order is still all still sitting in their boxes in the rafters a year later with the exception of the one we have set up for demo and one that we took out for a short rental. Freaking white elephants. Can't get past the price and poor image quality. Customers either think its too expensive or they don't find the quality to be acceptable. Quality is ok if you use the special paper but people don't want to hear that either.
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Re: PaperCut
We have at least a couple customers that originated with PaperCut and have "evolved" past them. One had PaperCut for a year but never got it implemented because there wasn't someone pushing to make it happen. Another learned from their experience with PaperCut how little they knew about their own environment and how much they could improve if they had behavior modification (pop-up boxes from the PA Rules Module) and cost recovery from the PA Cost Recovery Module. PaperCut is only as good as...
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Re: Marlin Does Not Disclose Possible Loss Of Evergreen Payments
Anybody who uses Marlin or buys their stock deserves what they get. My past experiences with tese scum suckers are chronicled in old p4photel posts if you care to get the details. However, this article comes from a blogger site called Seeking Alpha which is also known for holding short positions in public company stock and then exagerating or outright falsifying information so as to cause a downturn of the stock value thus creating a profit for those who have short positions. This article...
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Re: Marlin Does Not Disclose Possible Loss Of Evergreen Payments
I’m surprised that there isn’t more leasing chatter because there seems to be a growing awareness of how most leasing companies make their money. The member who correctly analyzed Marlin’s profits was right on the mark. Not many leasing companies are public entities but when they are one can glean a lot of info from their 10Q’s and 10K’s. The leasing industry vigorously defends evergreen to its detriment. Whenever a state bill is introduced to restrict or outlaw evergreens they send someone...
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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: MP9000 vs Pro 907EX
(1) Mainframes require purchase of SR5000, SR5020, or SK5010 I'm pretty sure you are correct, the new SR5020 has an MSRP of 11,800. I can also remember in the past the the SR5000 was needed in order to connect the BK5000 because I got burned on this when I did not read the release notes. There are no release notes next to the SR5020, so I would have to assume that all you need is the SR5020.
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Re: Japan's Sharp Corp plans to sell its copiers and air conditioners businesses
Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America Sharp Electronics Corporation One Sharp Plaza • Mahwah, New Jersey 07495-1163 • e-mail: SIICAmktg@sharpsec.com • www.sharp-pc.com EXECUTIVE BULLETIN August 16, 2012 Dear SIICA Dealers: As many of you have recently read, Sharp Corporation is in the process of revitalizing our operations in order to be more competitive. While this process takes time, we are moving aggressively to position ourselves for future growth. However, during this period,...
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Re: Ricoh C751EX Duplex 300gsm
The C751 is only spec'd to auto-duplex 256gsm. In my experience, the 300gsm will NOT auto-duplex. Interestingly, I've run heavier weights (up to 350gsm) will few issues, but forget about trying to auto-duplex anything heavier than 256, at all, doesn't work, even a little. The C751 actually WILL do second-side registration, because unlike non-production machines (even those Ricoh has called production in the past), it has a separate registration unit to make sure the paper registers. This...
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Re: Aficio MP C305SPF
We are selling more of the MPC305SPF, it's a good box if you can get past the small screen. Can't remember the last time I sold a C300/C400
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Re: Padded Lease Rates
Yoda you bring up a good point here, after being with the same dealership for 13 years much of my time is spent with helping customers with questions, emails, and onsite follow ups for product questions, advanced training, billing questions, lease billing questions, moves, and many more. So, I don't agree that if I had a bad month I would volunteer to give back part of my meager salary. New reps on the other hand have all the time in the world to prospect and traditionaly I would say that 1...
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Re: Leasing Company Copiers are Underwater
It wasn't that long ago that GA's home office was flooded and people were displaced...it maybe that they have a soft spot in their heart for unfortunate situations. I am sure if you look around for the news articles, it was within the past 3-5 years.
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Re: Leasing Company Copiers are Underwater
It was in summer 2008. GA press release: GA Press Release
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Re: The Worst Copier Web Sites in the World!
Wow, a couple of blasts from the past. Nothing like having 15 year old copiers as the home page pictures on your website. Sharp SF7900 on the one website and a Pre Konica Minolta....Minolta on the other site.
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Re: Sharp Announces New High Performance Workgroup Document Systems With Second Generatio
SSG that is good info....thanks for sharing but this is really not that hard. You can use google print to send a print job to workstation that is running google chrome and configured with the local printer. I have done this from my living room as a test to 3 different printers and walked into the showroom when I got to the office and went around a retrieved all the print jobs. This is a FREE solution once configured properly. I have not heard of Breezy before so will have to research that to...
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Re: CW2200SP
It is more expensive than similar HP or Cannon products BUT BIG BUT those products will not have our user interface and scanning capabilities. We have one sold so far and myself and another rep already have customers that are very interested. I've sold a lot of Ricoh wide format systems over the years and I've got to say this product is a better fit for at least half of the customers I've sold to in the past. Most of my wide format customers are small to mid sized contractors doing less than...