Tagged With "Eighty-Eight"

Yay it's Thursday and that means it's time for the Greg & Art lunch chat hour! Today was a great chat session and there were some chats about post recovery and how we can add our experiences to our value proposition. Another awesome question was posed as to how dealers are getting their PPE gear. I never even thought about the PPE thing. Drivers, techs, installers and maybe even sales people could be required to don PPE gear when entering an office now and in the future. In addition we...

Many times you'll see me use the phrase "the harder you work the luckier you get". Many years ago Jack Carroll (Partner with Century Office Products) use to tell me this every time I brought in a decent size order. The first time I met Jack was way back in 1986 and that was the year I started my dealership Atlantic Office Systems in New Jersey. After selling the business to my partners in 1998 (best thing I ever did) I took a sales position with Century Office Products in New Jersey. I...

So much went on today and I'm not sure where to start. I'm thinking I won't get back to full time prospecting until next week and that's because I've be digging to try and hit that magical number of 200K for May. As of today I have about 30K in opportunities that could close in the next 2 days. After that it's going to be a struggle, however after tomorrow there are still eleven selling days in the month for me. What's good about the eleven days is that I still have more than 50% of the...

Sales Journal Day 58 Yay, it's Friday and today was a good way to end the week, not the great way that I had hoped but we can't have everything our way. Not getting those things that we want will keep us on the path to the finish line. I had a bunch of items that needed to be completed before my 11AM appointment with a net new account. I was working by 7AM this morning working on developing a side by side comparison for the client. I took 6 key features that the client stated they had to...

Just a little heads up on a recent chat I had with my son a few days ago. My son went to Staples and Best Buy the other day to get a new printer. Since his wife is working from home as a para-legal she still needs to print. They had an older inkjet but even I couldn't get the heads unclogged. I recommended that he get a small black laser print. After visiting both Staples and Bet Buy neither of them had any laser printers under $500 in stock! Yes, standalone printers sales are up. That tells...

Only 5 more days for four full months of selling days that I've been working remote. You may have noticed that I've been skipping a couple of days here and there with blogging on this series. I had no idea that Covid19 would last in to the summer and usually my summers mean less posting of blogs and more time spent enjoying the great weather. Just a short recap for Friday. I was able to secure two orders for two net new companies. However the revenue fell short of what I was hoping for. With...

Always motivating to read your posts Art and to appreciate the grind. We're all in it together, the way things look now, for a while longer yet. 200 miles is a good bit of distance for two appointments, I bet you're wishing you had some time or it was socially acceptable for some cold/warm calls in between! Don't let the blog rule you, enjoy the weather and what helps keep you calm! Have a great rest of your week!

I had no intention of writing a blog tonight. Last I wrote on Wednesday was to look for another blog in this series for Wednesday night. This morning I received the email below from a long time Print4Pay Hotel member. Art, I love reading your stuff and sharing some with our 15 sales reps. You have inspired them and me many times. We are all working from home here in the Midwest at Sumnerone. We just finished up an $850,000 hardware June which was good and 75% were new accounts. We think July...

That magical day has arrived! Eighty-Eight business days since I was optioned to working remote. Four full months from the home office, four months with only four in-site appointments, and four months of stress. Four months and still no sign of when offices in New Jersey will be full staffed again. Even though the number of COVID illnesses and deaths are at the lowest point since the first week of March. At the end of each day I'm mentally exhausted, thus the reason for not posting on Friday...

COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Eighty-Nine of Sales My day started at 5AM with a short trip to my back yard to see the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean. I was attracted the hues of orange, purple and blue that was getting ever so bright to the east. After 45 minutes it was time to get ready for my 7am appointment. I arrived early and met with the decision maker as we both kept a six foot distance. I did the measuring, took the pictures, check the electric and it was time for a short chat on...

@TML thanx Mike OBX should be fun! It's been great beach weather in NJ. Inspections are really tough with COVIS luckily this was a one person shop and he could schedule the inspection

Art, wish I was as close to the beach as you! We're counting down the days until mid-August when we've got our OBX vaca planned. So soon, yet so far away! Today's post mentions your further qualification / inspection of the installation site. This is something that so many (myself included) sometimes fail to do. The manufacturers sometimes throw a kink into the works with the power. For example Canon's iRc5535/5540 require a 15 amp plug while the iRc5550/5560 require a 20 amp plug. Just...

COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Ninety-Eight of Selling Copiers One of my goals for Friday was to make sure that I reached my goal of contacting twenty-five businesses. The plan was to get them all done in the morning since I had I thought my afternoon would be spent with one appointment and the writing of the large net new order for $58K. Just about Noon I received an email from my VP about that potential order. I responded with "I'm being patient", he responded with "don't be patient after...

COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Forty-Eight of Selling Copiers It never ceases to amaze me how one day can be so great and the next day can be so challenging. The challenging part was the essence of my day today. I wasn't able to move any deals further along until the last 30 minutes of the day. My net new opportunity is having some issues with getting approved because they are "new" in business. I would have never guessed it the setup that they have and I missed the mark by not...

Appreciate you sharing your stories- with the good, the bad, and the ugly. Not too much different for us here in North Carolina. Grinding it out is still the best way to make things happen.

COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Eighty-Four of Selling Copiers The blog I wrote last week centered more about how I feel about the state of our industry. There's no getting around the fact that business is not what it used to be for copiers. But who the frak needs copiers when you can also offer up content solutions? Today I received a referral for a content opportunity and it's going to be a decent sized one. Thus in the last 30 day I have three content deals working. Yes, one of...