Tagged With "Analog Sales Skills"
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Re: What's the weirdest place you've sold a copier to?
Lol, those were two good ones! I can't remember if I've ever had weird sale.
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Re: All Ricoh A4 devices = no stapler
If it helps, Canon A4 staplers are usually around $900 whole sale.
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Re: All Ricoh A4 devices = no stapler
$650 on a B&W A4, $615 on a color A4. Ricoh is missing the boat one this one...
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Re: Post-Virus We Must Defeat The Zombie Companies!
Although I am 60% on board with your move to A4 strategy, most of the rest of the stuff you are posting is "knocking it out of the park"! I would like to see a poll. As a business owner, during COVID-19 would you prefer? 1). No lease payments for 90 days 2). 1/2 price lease payments for one year The auto industry is pushing no payments for 90 days but I think business owners are more concerned about cash flow for the next year. I think the correct strategy is to offer as part of your...
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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: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
@Monte I hope/think that even though buyers will research online that they will still want some interaction with a salesperson. If in fact the manufacturers allow the sale of high end MFP's online then the dealers will have to change a lot of how they do business. My hope though is that it does not come down to this. I buy a lot online and my wife grocery shops online and has them delivered to the house, BUT I don't look at most things like groceries. I want to go talk to my insurance agent.
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Re: When is Net New Business not Net New Business?
Interesting perspective. We constantly have the talks about competitive machines we took on service, especially brands we don't carry. I tend to consider is taking a Konica on service and then a year or two later upgrading it to our equipment net new business from the sales side. Obviously we had net new business on the service side but not net new for "x" with the equipment sale. I'd be interested to hear how others see this. I hear a lot of people say it doesn't matter but if I bring a...
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Re: When is Net New Business not Net New Business?
I was wondering if the subject of those customers who were acquired through service was going to come up, & Jason's comment is certainly "food for thought"... In his example, he brought on the service customer (with the obvious intention of upgrading them at the first opportunity) & the dealer gets a contract & machine sale that they otherwise wouldn't have. Sounds like net new to me. In my experience, though, most of these service to machine sale conversions are from customers...
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Re: Charge for IT support
We had never charged for it after the sale until about 6 months ago due to people calling all the time for driver installs, scanning issues related to their internet etc. We used to offer an optional network/it yearly agreement and people would decline and then start calling for help. We decided to send out, initially an opt-out to ever customer who had current devices, and after every sale send one out. We did it as an opt out due to the fact that customers would decline the option and...
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Re: up against the Xerox Phaser 7800 with a SP C831dn
Thanks and congrats on your sale and the others. Also thank you for the link and your advice. The company is a small design firm and I don't think they go all out with the Pantone matching and that calibration tool. I will let you know if I sell it.
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Re: The Death Of The B2B Salesperson [Infographic]
Art, I call Bull ****! At least for our industry, the copier industry! This may be true of a commodity (like envelopes, or coffee, or even a PC) but copiers, really MFDs require a lot of attention, both before and after a customer buys it. This article seems to be written by an old brick & mortar company that successfully transitioned to internet sales. This will work for any company that drop ships their products. And I agree that the MFD manufacturers would LOVE for this to be, or...
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Re: Top Ten "Why Copiers Should Have Warning Labels"
Ty Jason! Had fun with this!! Ty for the email about your rep, that was very humorous sale!! Maybe post in on the forums?
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Re: The A4 Challenge or Opportunity
In my experience A4 machines are as much or even more hassle than an A3 machine to install and train which I do myself for the customer but my income off of the sale of the A4 device is a fraction of what it would have been had I sold an A3. Beyond that most A4 machines lack a document feeder built to handle the page volumes of walk up copying and scanning my customers do. At the end of the day I have to make a living so I spend my time on A3 opportunities.
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Re: Is selling at cost the future for print hardware?
Without a value statement that goes beyond copiers and even mps at this point --- people will be selling at cost, because they are transient, non-professional, and either don't have or have confidence in their skill set. The Trick is to work with companies that aren't in the market to buy copiers---I guarantee that their are other challenges that they are facing and trying to overcome...When you do this you can sell at retail, because there is no competition and you earned that commission.
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Re: Is selling at cost the future for print hardware?
Interesting approach to the sales process. Strikes me the next promo is for 10% below sticker price...of course unlike cars, manufacturers don't put a sticker price on MFP's to advise the public what the price is supposed to be. At this point we find the margin we are able to obtain on most sales of hardware barely covers the cost of sales for the product...any business profits come from services bundled around the hardware, either connectivity plans, support plans, supplies for colour etc.
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Re: A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Copier Demo/Appointment
Had a demo years ago on a fax machine. Had a big wheel from corporate wanting to do a ride along with a rep for the day. Customer wanted to see quality and asked one of their customers to send a test fax. As all the admin complained about the speed, the corp guy explained that a very detailed fax would take more time because of memory issues. As everyone crowded aroud the fax to innspect, a very vivid porn image was reproduced with striking detail. We made the sale
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Re: Is selling at cost the future for print hardware?
Not true. But car dealers routinely "train" using whatever version of the truth they think will make a sale.
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Re: Scan in One City, Print in Another
The mind boggles! So the customer has the software applications that you reference and you are trying to find them a 'cheap' 'solution'......? Why? They have spent tens of thousands of dollars on those applications..all of which enhance their productivity as a law firm. You have a comprehensive solution to leverage (i.e. make work better!) each of their committed software applications and you think it might be 'expensive'? Come on, you have done more than most competitors simply by the fact...
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Re: Matt Espe named CEO of Ricoh Americas Corp
Not only that if you look back on posts from the P4P Hotel, Ikon was buying back stock 6-8 months prior to the sale, insider trading at it's best!
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Re: Ricoh Ikon Letter
Old Glory, you are way off-base regarding profitability to Ricoh on an $8,000 sale through the dealer or through their direct channel. When Ricoh sells to the dealer, the dealer is responsible for all ofthe end-marketing expenses related to the brick-and-mortar + sales rep expenses. When Ricoh (or other mfrs) run their own branches, there is a tremendous amount of overhead associated with that operation. Hence, this is one reason why Ricoh's dealer division, while smaller, was the only part...
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Re: When was the last time you did a demo in your demo room?
When you say you take a copier to a customer for a demo... Is it a Conditonal Sale? I will do this but only on the terms of if the MFP works as described you agree to buy/ lease that same unit without any further demos. I have seen too many potential customers do the Vendor merry go round with six copier vendors to get free copiers for several months. I have seen too many RFQs where a customer has to get three quotes and you are unexpected lowest bid. They ask you in for demo but never...
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Re: When was the last time you did a demo in your demo room?
Re: When was the last time you did a demo in your demo room?
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Re: Top 9 Blunders that B2B Sales Reps Make
Blunder #2: They ask obvious questions. What they do: They ask lots of questions that could have easily have been answered by searching the Internet. Why they do it: They figure they can wing it, usually because they’re over-confident in their ability to make the sale. What happens: They end up wasting valuable one-on-one time with a busy customer who has other things to do that provide a free education. Your Action Plan: To avoid this blunder, always research the customer thoroughly before...
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Re: Top 9 Blunders that B2B Sales Reps Make
Blunder #7: They avoid closing the deal. What they do: They spend so much effort into building the opportunity that they never quite get to the business of closing it. Why they do it: They’ve invested in the opportunity that they’re afraid that the answer will be “NO”, which will mean that all that effort was a waste of time and that the prospect doesn’t really “like” the sales rep. What happens: The opportunity dies on the vine or goes to the competition. Your Action Plan: To avoid this...
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Re: Top 9 Blunders that B2B Sales Reps Make
What they do: They give in to last minute demands from the prospect, usually for extra discounts, “or else the deal is off.” Why they do it: They’re deathly afraid of losing the deal at the end of the sale cycle, so they crumple when the prospect pushes. What happens: The customer rightfully concludes that 1) the rep didn’t offer the best deal from the start and 2) the rep lacks a backbone. The customer thus no longer trusts the rep and will constantly push for more and more and more and...
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Re: How will the earth quake in Japan affect...
Most of the copiers we sell are assembled in Europe, but the parts come from China, Japan etc. So if the quake is going to have an impact on our sale then it probably won’t happen until (maybe) this summer... MP C toner is produced in Japan and bottled in US (according to the package) That could be an issue if the toner factories are affected
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Re: Should you ever sell something for nothing?
I agree with you. Unfortunately many sales reps don't have the long term approach to realize that they are developing a territory almost like their own business. A sale is not just valued by the commission you make, it is also a seed you are planting. or as my first sales manager always told me, "copiers have babies"
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Re: Ask Art "Email from MFP Solutions Blog Reader"
I love it! Truth be told, if he makes his offices more efficient for everyone, he will attract more agents, buyers, and sellers and will pay for his copiers many times over and over.
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Re: PPDM from Ricoh, Questions
I don't know what Ricoh's opinion would be on this (don't really care) but we accumulate licenses and then distribute them strategically. I sold a single license last week for $350 and charged an additional $150 for client PC install and limited training. Since we have no cost, my company counts it all as GP. I quoted a C300 and said we would include a PPDM license for free if they bought two C300's. I am able to provide a value-add at no cost to me. C300 doesn't come with PPDM but it can if...
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Re: Ricoh Launches New Aficio MFPs With App2Me Solution
I have been playing with app2me recently and can see some advanatages like when a mobile worker goes office to office they won't have to install drivers to print. If they have app2me installed and we have app2me enabled they will be able to print easily. I'm interested to see if anyone has taken this to market and how it has been recieved. Also at this time we include initial connectivity with the sale of our MFP products. I could see customers also wanted app2me manager installed on all...
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Re: Ricoh Launches New Aficio MFPs With App2Me Solution
Without limits? If you sold a 171 and the customer had 50 workstations, you would install the print driver (and then the fax driver) on every one of them? My suggestion is to incorporate a reasonable limit to the installs. The customer needs to learn how to install the driver anyway since I doubt you would come back out in six months to install a driver on their new PC. Five workstations per device seems to work well. That's enough to make sure everything is working and train the customer...
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Re: Q. How does your company handle networking charges?
Dealer network install for scan, print, fax upto four workstations included in the sale, sales person is charged back in the deal for it. After the sale, customer can buy block time for network services or be charged $150 per hour. Pretty much is a user goes to win7 and needs new drivers it's 100% billable or they can buy block time.
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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: Would You Loan this company Money?
Currency in Millions of U.S. Dollars As of: Mar 31 2008 USD Mar 31 2009 USD Mar 31 2010 USD Mar 31 2011 USD 4-Year Trend NET INCOME 16.0 1.9 -21.6 -32.6 Depreciation & Amortization 6.3 6.5 4.7 9.0 DEPRECIATION & AMORTIZATION, TOTAL 6.3 6.5 4.7 9.0 (Gain) Loss from Sale of Asset -0.1 0.2 0.1 4.9 (Gain) Loss on Sale of Investment 0.9 0.1 0.0 -- (Income) Loss on Equity Investments -0.3 -0.2 -0.3 -- Change in Accounts Receivable 12.0 5.6 8.7 -6.1 Change in Inventories 0.3 -16.3 25.8 -4.0...
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Re: New Ricoh 4410SPF "brainshark" review
What margin??? I think the spread between dealer cost and MSRP is about $400. For me to be comfortable giving the customer the level of support I give them on an MFP after the sale I would need to walk away with at least $350 in my commission check on the deal. That means I would need to charge at least $2,100 for the sale and installation of this product. That's why I don't pay much attention to small machines. Just can't make enough on them. I wind up giving more support after the sale on...
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Re: New Ricoh 4410SPF "brainshark" review
These require significantly less service/support than the Ricoh table-top machines. The opportunity to make money on these is by selling them to replace printers as part of an MPS engagement & making your money on the aftermarket. Also, if you're replacing an MP2000 machine, and the customer doesn't need 11 x 17, they would be thrilled with this machine, and you could make solid margin because of the price spread between the MP2000 and this unit. I'll be curious to see how the Ricoh...
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Re: Proximity Card Reader
Good job! If they are using MIFARE cards you should be good to go. Just make sure you get a sample to test. Remember just because it reads the card does not mean it will track for bill back purposes. That is where a software solution comes in. I forgot to ask what Canon model are you considering? Make sure it is an advance series. Do you have access to Canon ISG Central? They is an entire presentation on AAProx that you should definitely know the in's and out's BEFORE you meet with the GM.
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Re: PaperCut
I just sold my first PaperCut installation. While I haven't been involved in a physical installation yet, I've seen PaperCut's WebEx presentation several times and I've yet to see any real differences in PaperCut vs. Print Audit (other than price). I'm not saying they don't exist, just saying I was fairly impressed with the features touted in the presentation (and obviously, so was the client that purchased the software). JasonR's comments regarding PaperCut's inability to track...
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Re: PaperCut
You would be correct in the difference from the Papercut NG version vs. the MF version. We have sold about a dozen variations and it is a great product that makes a lot of sense. We have implemented it with MPS and MF solutions and it helps us keep the competition out. It's also great with swipe cards (HID/Kastle, etc...). Good luck.
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Re: OKI Data and Toshiba Tec Agree to Joint Development of Multifunction Printers
I cannot comment with authority but I suspect Toshiba has a larger global distribution and sales than Okidata. Toshiba has been looking for a way into the A4 market for years other than simply reselling HP and Lexmark product. Toshiba TEC just spent a $900M to buy IBM's Point of Sale division so another purchase is likely not in the works.
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Re: OKI Data and Toshiba Tec Agree to Joint Development of Multifunction Printers
Rumors have swirled for years on Toshiba's exit of the MFP industry. Inspite..... of their recent and aggressive dealer acquisitions. Neither entity is strong enough to stand on its on. Especially due to the consolidation the industry has already seen. Ricoh/Ikon, Canon/OCE, Konica/Minolta, etc. I agree that both have been low price leaders in the US market as well, and the marriage is a good one. This is the start of Toshiba's exit, and eventual sale to Oki Data. Oki Data just didnt have...
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Re: 0% Copier Financing
0% Interest financing is a popular financing tool across the board - you see it in the auto industry, furniture, IT (such as your apple example). It has never been a big seller in the Office Equipment industry business due to the business model that the dealers/manufacturers sell with. Many dealers are selling FMV leases (we like the upgrades)and not highlighting to the customer the actual cash purchase price of the equipment. 0% works best when a customer see's a purchase price (let's say...
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Re: Japan's Sharp Corp plans to sell its copiers and air conditioners businesses
DAIWA HOUSE INDUSTRY CO., LTD. is a Japan-based construction company engaged in eight business segments. The Housing segment is involved in the contract work and sale of houses. The Leasing Housing segment develops, constructs and manages leasing houses, and provides agency services. The Condominium Building segment develops, sells and manages condominium buildings. The Housing Stock segment is engaged in the contract work of building reconstruction and the agency of real estate trading. The...
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Re: Japan's Sharp Corp plans to sell its copiers and air conditioners businesses
Somewhere near last.... However, I just picked up this press release from Rueters also: Sharp seeking over $1.2 bln for plant and other assets -Yomiuri * Sharp also in talks to sell some Tokyo offices -Yomiuri * Sharp will struggle to find buyer for solar business-source By Reiji Murai and Tim Kelly TOKYO, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Cash-strapped Sharp Corp is in talks to sell its key solar panel plant in Japan as part of an asset sale seeking more than $1.2 billion, local media said on Thursday,...
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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: Japan's Sharp Corp plans to sell its copiers and air conditioners businesses
So, what can we take from this? 1. They are worried that current Sharp USA Dealers will jump ship and accelerate Sharp's demise home and abroad. 2. Sharp is not currently negotiating the sale of businesses, well usually when you hear of something this big you can bet your bottom dollar that indeed there is something going on. I'm sure Nikkei would not report or speculate and then state that "Sharp plans to sell......" For years on the forums, we've heard and found out that most of the...
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Re: I have a buyer in South America
Should also be VERY FAMILIAR with export rules and regulations, i.e. who is responsible for collection of duties, certifications, quality, insurance, etc and be clear if YOUR SUPPLIER permits sale for foreign resale. Cash is good thing but just the start.
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Re: Use of LinkedIn as a sales tool
I'm now experimenting with my own personal blog, you'll see the links this week when reading one of my P4P Blogs. In it each blog I'll be using keywords an links that describes a recent sale (of course I'll be leaving out the customer name), but I will be addressing the vertical market, and the solution or the reason why I was picked as the vendor of choice. This is too also address the lack of leads that I get my Ricoh and from the ealership I work for. I have not have a real lead in my...
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Re: Toshiba America Business Solutions Launches a Dedicated Services Organization
The timing is right. 1st day of a new half. At the same time, a lot of effort, energy and resources are being made to accomodate the new IBM/ Toshiba TEC Point of Sale acquisition.