Tagged With "Los Angeles Times"
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Re: A Couple of True & Not So True Humerous Copier Incidents
On a cold call I stopped in at a doctors office. The Office Manager was so glad to see me. She said that she was having fax issues and every time they received a fax it jammed. I told her I wasn't a tech but I would take a look. She escorted me to the fax and I looked down to see some questionably cheap paper. I simply asked if she had tried changing paper. She said "I don't have any control of the paper the hospital sends when they fax me." OooooK. She obviously didn't understand the...
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Re: The End Of The Day With Ray! Don’t Screw Up Your Defining Moment
I've got shut down customers asking how we can help them because they can't operate. It sucks for us but it sucks way more for them. I have "suspended" an MA for one because they asked" no cost no expense". I was lucky enough to get my PPP loan in on day one, approved and closed. I live to fight another day but I don't think things will change all that much. Americans are not going to change everything because of Covid 19, I may be wrong (wouldn't be the first time) but this is a major...
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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: 7 Deadly Topics from 7 Deadly Sinners at Top 100 Summit (Part One)
No, Art. You're spot on. I haven't had many jobs outside the industry, but the majority of the old guard is so proud of the way they've always done it & receives so much validation from other dealers with the same mentality (via BTA, CDA, SDG, et al) that they often refuse to admit the need to change until it's practically too late. There are ideas & concepts that I brought up 3-5 years ago that were considered to be "interesting but not really necessary" that we're suddenly latching...
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Re: Those Magnificent Men and Their Copy Machines
Hey Art, Really admire your efforts in our industry and with your blog. Its been a long time resource to keep me updated in our industry. I will be celebrating 14 years at Martin Group, and was happy to see us represented in the list above. We are as enthusiastic as ever in supporting our communities, and below is a quick write up we refreshed to be current. Martin Group in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: Is a regional power house in the office equipment community. With 35 years in the industry, and...
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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?
We were staying away from Toshiba for a long time until we had a friend who could sell us parts, supplies, and give us manuals etc. those 4 figure contracts certainly do help. Seems few and far between but I'll take them when I can get them.
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Re: When is Net New Business not Net New Business?
In my opinion, Net New is any revenue stream you did not previously have. Take over service of a competitor's equipment = Net New. Replace that machine purchased from a competitor with one of your own = Net New. Take over management of their print fleet or IT infrastructure = Net New. Replace those printers or computers, Net New. Time comes to renew those contracts at a lower or identical service payment= Upgrade. But, if their monthly payment increases, the difference between the old...
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Re: 3 Ways Sales Professionals Nail New Sales Opportunities Using LinkedIn
nice job Larry. One thing I'm finding is that many of my first level contacts will have no clue about some of their connections. I have called and asked about other first level connections and most know recognize the name. I guess it's some type of Linkedin failure. Another item I've found about Linkedin is that many "C" level execs don't post their own threads. Someone in marketing is doing that for them. Linkedin is a great source for knowing who may or may not be connected to someone.
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Re: Five Reasons Why I'm Stoked About the New Ricoh SP8400DN Printer
I guess he was just referring to the Epson C869R (25 ppm). We kept asking questions about the 100 ppm unit and I lost track which unit this information applied to. Sorry for the confusion. We have a launch on the 11th and he promised more info on the 100 ppm at that time.
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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: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
It seems the prospects of tariffs going away anytime soon are fading. Eventually the cost of most goods in the copier industry are going to increase because of President Trump. SSG I'm okay with this! This may help in the long run because more clients may opt for something off lease, or even release their existing devices. In both cases I'll probably make more than selling new. You keep calling it a TAX, it's not a tax it's a tariff. When I go to the store and pay for an item, a tariff is...
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Re: 57 Days of Selling Copiers "Day 10"
ty! I've had feasting for three months, now it's time for payback
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Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 16"
That helps and is a little painful at the same time. I've got some work to do.
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Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 16"
Never ever stop prospecting is the key. Always adding and subtracting. I would say on average I keep about $100K of deals I think can close in 30 days. I focus on 180 because 2/3rd of them will either roll, or lose. 90% of the time, I will wait until the first contact to determine if that appointment is an opportunity. Once it's in the funnel, I then determine when it may have a chance to close. If's it's more than 50% it's going in the 30 day close funnel
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Re: Is This the Beginning of the End for the Padding of Lease Rates?
If anything you should be bumping outright purchase prices and discounting leases. The customer who purchases their equipment outright keeps their equipment too long and may go elsewhere when the time comes to upgrade anyway.
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Re: Is This the Beginning of the End for the Padding of Lease Rates?
Part Two: Leasing News Exclusive: The Opposition and How Senator Steven Glazer Got SB 1235 Passed (Part 2 of 3) By Tom McCurnin Leasing News Legal Editor The bill was "Engrossed and Enrolled" and presented to the Governor at 5 p.m., September 12th, awaiting his decision to sign or veto. How He Pushed It Through the Legislature What are the takeaways from this interview and SB 1235? ▪ First , I Was Surprised at the Overwhelming Support of Trade Groups for the Bill. When he rattled off the...
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Re: Is This the Beginning of the End for the Padding of Lease Rates?
Part Three Leasing News Exclusive: Is the Disclosure Too Complicated? State Senator Steven Glazer Position on CA SB 1235 (Part 3 of 3) By Tom McCurnin Leasing News Legal Editor The bill to require full disclosure of interest rates is awaiting Governor Jerry Brown's signature. It was reviewed to be recorded and sent to his office late last week. It seems unlikely he will not sign it as it passed the State Assembly 72-3 and in the Senate 28-6 .It then will be up to the California Department of...
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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: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
China retaliated this AM by placing a matching 25% tariff on $16B of US goods. We will see if the US escalates the trade war again putting copiers/printers manufactured in China imported into the USA back at risk for a 3rd time.
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Re: Assume My Copier Lease....What?
Tried this recently but haven't found anyone to take it up, issue I have had is often the remaining lease is above the market rates at the time. But its a fantastic concept.
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Re: Assume My Copier Lease....What?
Originally Posted by Kiwispike: Tried this recently but haven't found anyone to take it up, issue I have had is often the remaining lease is above the market rates at the time. But its a fantastic concept. I agree when the market rate is above what you can buy it for, however, but you just never know. Recently we had the Sandy disaster here in NJ. Many companies moved in for one or two years to help with the rebuilding process. They would be viable candidates to assume a lease that may have...
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Re: Assume My Copier Lease....What?
Originally Posted by fisher: How does this square with the fine print on every lease doc I've ever read regarding assignment or transferring the lease by the lessee??? Who goes to jail if the lease doesn't get satisfied???? Fisher: The assumption process is one that I've seen leasing companies do from time to time. You have to get the blessing of the leasing company first, and credit approval for the new leasee.
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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: MFP & Copier Stream of Payments Calculator
There may be some confusion here. I am giving the file out to "new" members that will register on the site. Existing members need to purchase a Premium Membership. I will send the file to those members that requested it here and to me via email. I will post a dropbox link some time later today, please make sure you check back later for the link. Art
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Re: Selling Copiers "Ten Tips to Keep the Pipeline Flowing"
Well said Art....especially the comment about offering a "low end" MFP... works about 40% of the time from deals I have tracked in my 21 year career!
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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"?
Even if the contract with the supplying dealer specifically has a clause that says the dealer will NOT buy the kit back, the lease co don't want it. I have never heard of a leasing company actually asking for the kit back at the end of a lease, they aren't interested. It's not part of their business plan. What is required as a condition on every lease is that the lessee is responsible for returning the equipment to a destination of the lease co's choice. If it does come to that it will go to...
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Re: Copier Scams Part Deux "Dude Where's my Copier"?
It's easy to work out where the lease co's make their money. Every time a deal is upgraded early the early settlement discount is a paltry sum (3%). The effective interest rates are therefore huge. This settlement is then more often added to a new lease and interested lumped on top of that. There's no factoring in of a residual kit value for the lease companies, too little money for too much effort and management. That's why they don't handle the kit and insist the customer or dealer does...
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Re: Smart Scanning with Scan2Cloud Apps
Ricoh will have their ICE version soon, will try to write more on that. I've found over time that most apps from the manufacturers are so so at best and developing a direct relationship with companies like UDOCX and Print Audit is more beneficial to the end user and to the dealer that is selling the solution. Thanx for the comment!!!
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Re: Our Best Friends Name is Darby and He's a Dog!
As a fellow pet steward I feel your loss. We had a similar discussion with a vet several weeks ago. She said If your pet can no longer do the activities it most enjoys that is when you know the difficult time has arrived. Your family pictures show a sofa that is now empty, but full of a life time of happy memories.
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Re: Can I Copy Mixed Sized Documents on a Copier?
A3 (11 x 17) and A4 (8 1/2 x 11) can be run at the same time with auto paper select making what you put in what you get out using mixed-originals and the mixed originals setting. The sizes you mention are European, but I'm sure they will work. As long as it's a standard document size it should work.
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Re: Lease Maestro Checks into Print4Pay Hotel
Hello Garrett - The dreaded "Evergreen" clause. This clause has caused many problems customer and dealers over the years. Depending on your situation, it may be tough for you to get the customer out of the contract early without some significant work on yours and the customers part. Based on your comment of "win the business", I am assuming that you are not the original dealer that put the customer into the lease with the an "Evergreen" renewal clause. If this is the case, there is a good...
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Re: 8 Talking Points for Selecting an Imaging/Copier Vendor
Art Some very good points here, for both a buyer and seller. So often a seller is focused on one aspect of the deal with others being and economic time bomb. I think offering the professional "bowing out" of a price deal is necessary to consider, as just when you think prices couldn't get lower, they do. Taking an approach towards a true, mutually beneficial deal will either get appreciated, or get your on your way towards finding one.
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Re: The Death of Linkedin?
LinkedIn is becoming the new Facebook. Useless posts by people and political crap all over it. When you do anything business related you are inundated with requests to connect followed 20 seconds later with some sales script about setting up a meeting. I still use it all the time but get annoyed by it daily.
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Re: The Transition of the Copier Industry "Part III"
This type process is archaic Yes, for sure it is!!! And time consuming... PrintAnalyze will have something to say in this matter very soon...
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Re: 3 Ways Getting Involved In Community Service Can Help Copier Sales Reps Enhance Their Sales Success
If you want to sell $500K per year, then join your local chamber of commerce, however if you really want to sell one million or more, the join those high profile charities in your geo area. Get involved, donate time and knowledge, within a year or less you'll be rubbing elbows with the most influential "C" level execs in your area. TY Larry, you took the words right outta my mouth on this one!
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Re: You're In Sales Your Brand Does Matter... 5 Creative Ways Sales Reps Can Become Brand Magnets
Thank you for your e-mail.I will be out of the office and have limited access to my e-mail from August 15th through August 30th.. I will review your message upon my return. In my absence please feel free to contact Jim Singer ( jim@kopi.ws ) or Cynthia Wankum ( cynthia@kopi.ws ) for immediate assistance during this time. Have a great day! Sherri Wilbers President KOPI 518 Cheyenne Drive Jefferson City, MO 65109 573-893-4545 (ext. 203) www.kopi.ws sherri@kopi.ws
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Re: 5 Questions for HP about the Acquisition of Samsung Printer Business Unit
I had the time at lunch today to listen to a recorded webex meeting from Photizo that offered up speculation on why HP bought Samsung. Here's my takeaways: Patents, more than 6,500 of them 1,500 world class engineers The eventual replacement of all canon marking engines with Samsung Thus, as there was much hype about the purchase of Samsung, I don't think was for the laser based engines, but more for the patents, the engineers, and the laser engines for HP printers. In addition, HP will now...
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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: 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: Six Reasons Why Copiers Leases Can Cost You More Than You Signed For
I received the below message via email yesterday. It's from Kevin Clune (President of Clune & Company LLC). I've known Kevin for years and appreciate his insight with leasing. Art, we haven’t talked in years but I still follow p4p. I liked your article about copier leasing but I thought I’d show you the attached marketing piece which shines a spotlight on some of the leasing industry’s most effective/injurious revenue enhancers. It’s a constantly evolving landscape as our industry is...
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Re: The Quest for $200K "When I bit off more than I could chew"
I’m with you. In July i surpassed my yearly quota and set a goal of 1,000,000. I knew it was a stretch but thought “what the hell, let’s give it the best shot.” December has not been terribly kind. I’ve helped our reps get some deals closed and while doing that had moved things to other dates etc. had about 60,000 orders that look like they will go to January unless something happens before weeks end. I think I’ll finish up around 830,000 - 860,000. 140k to 170k Short but it’s been a...
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Re: The Quest for $200K "When I bit off more than I could chew"
Jason WOW, congrats on the excellent year! You're right about the time thing, no matter how hard we try, there's no telling of forecasting the future. Unless you have an obscene pipeline, and that's what I'm planning for in 2018. BTW, Jersey just seems to be getting worse and worse, do you think a Jersey accent would work well in North Carolina?
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Re: MY Top Ten Copy Machines of All Time
Gotta go back a REALLY long time in the industry, so many won't even know this: the Kodak 100 & 150. Really reliable machines that heavily created industry disruption with Xerox having dominant market share and IBM climbing fast in the mid-70's and then a new player, Kodak, opened the door for many other later players to enter.
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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: Little Story About a Man Named Jed
I can't stand dealing with people like that. Such a pain in the ass. I recently had a lady who refused to see me when I came by, return my calls and return my emails. She went and bought a new machine from someone else but her lease had already renewed. She immediately started calling and emailing me about how to fix it. When I explained to her she didn't provide notice to the leasing company she said the lease wasn't valid because the person who signed it didn't work there anymore.... I...
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Re: Little Story About a Man Named Jed
I hate situations like this when you spend your time working a deal and then everything goes silent and you get the we went the stupid route call. Over and over again I've found that IT guys are total email monsters. You can call 10 times...nothing. Throw out an email and bang they are back online. If you can get their I try to get their attention with the subject line with a problem statement included like "Current (Ricoh, Xerox, Kyocera) Copier Lease Due With Issues Pending" for example...