Tagged With "A3 Line of the Year"
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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: All Ricoh A4 devices = no stapler
Hi Art, We once developed this for the IDEAL 8520 stapler but we can do that for every stapler of course.
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Re: All Ricoh A4 devices = no stapler
That's correct, it was discontinued in lieu of the new MP 501SP & 601SP
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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
The 501/601 are based on a Kyocera MFP without a stapler, so Ricoh didn't have much of a choice on that one. Agreed that its a disadvantage against other A4s, so with Ricoh you will either have to sell the C401 with a finisher or an A3 MFP for the foreseeable future.
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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: COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Twenty-One of Sales
An excellent webinar on how to virtually prospect. https://vimeo.com/407322860/7ef91c5b72 What to say, what to do from America's #1 Sales Outsourcing Provider of the Year. https://www.koppconsultingusa.com/
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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!
I have to dial back the 1/2 price payments for one year. Most SMB business will only get lease approved for a six month Step lease. So for those customers wanting to preserve cash flow, a six month 1/2 price lease cost followed by a 60 month regular cost lease would be the best offer. On a $5k lease this would add approx $139.00 to the total finance costs spread over 66 months ($2.00 month).
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Re: Canon Production Question
While our Canon dealership sells neither product line, I'm pretty sure they're open to dealers. Canon's website shows a few dealers in our area for both the varioprint and imagepress models you listed.
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Re: Need HELP! Kyocera Color A3 question
Top three points I make when against Kyocera. #1. Take them color samples from your device and any Kyocera because the color output is sub par on all units. If you don’t have access to one look in your crm for an account you co-exist with Kyocera in. Or the next time you have a knock out make some samples and keep them in a binder. If color quality is important to the customer it will be a win. Another point is showing them you get what you pay for, meaning 3 tier color is what they have...
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Re: Need HELP! Kyocera Color A3 question
This is great stuff, it's awesome to see input like this, please let me know if you need help with other manufacturers that I could help with
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Re: Need HELP! Kyocera Color A3 question
Copystar/Kyocera 7052ci and 8052ci are still current models as the 7353ci and 8353ci were just released. same goes the the 70/80ppm mono's. not sure when they will get discontinued but we can still order them as of today.
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Re: It’s The End Of The Day With Ray! 2020 Who Will Educate Endusers
HI Ray and Happy New Year! The A4 Revolution will not happen until those A4 manufacturers provide A4 print devices with the A3 cost per page model along with advanced scanning and finishing. You're right that's there's only a small percentage of users that need 11x17. However 11x17 is only part of the picture with end users needs. Larger document feeders, and stapling is still a requirement in many offices. As you know we could debate this until 2021 or longer, but the end game is advanced...
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Re: It’s The End Of The Day With Ray! 2020 Who Will Educate Endusers
Art, Thanks for comments it's conversation which starts change. There is way more applications for A4 MFPs than those few applications you suggest. The large disruption will be from those who can isolate the realities of the customers needs and sell based on those realities. Declining Marketplaces are disrupted when the old way continues delivering to all the market's customers the same way they did before the decline. The old way needs to focus on the realities of over 80% of the market...
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Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
Interesting thoughts, Thank you p4p. I have sold Canon for 20+ years. Many years ago they listed the imageClass line (MFP's under 2,500 dollars) and the entire scanning line and Wide Format line. As such I stopped selling those products as I have always been compensated on hardware gross profit and there was none. Todays buyer is much different and has already done homework before I even get to speak with them. The mfr uniqueness has been commoditized and they all provide the #1 buying...
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Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
@Old Glory I don't think they will walk away from servicing the car also. The service department will need the business. However the owner of the company can set the mark with giving "preferred service" to clients that buy from them. I don't know when it comes right down to it, I can spend hours researching cars, reviews and pricing before I buy on-line. How much could I really save? $1,000 or $2,000 could that really be worth it, if I spend 40 hours doing the research or would I pay a price...
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Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
In a way its already gone to the internet and away from the outside sales rep........at least for stand alone printers and A4 devices. If all someone needs is a printer or an A4 to be used for basic printing,scanning and copying.....face it, they really don't need us already. If you've been at this a long time you probably remember the days when you sold a lot of A4 machines to small offices. 20 years ago if you needed an A4 you called a copier dealer. Those days are gone for the most part.
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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?
In 10 years there WILL be outside sales reps, and many of them will be the committed, true professionals of today. The E-Commence platform have changed our business and how we do it. For example gone are the days when you could duck into a 15 story office building and cold call. But electronic format can still be your attention getter and facilitate your efforts in creating interest. I can buy anything on line and cut out the sales person. Try doing your own investing and getting the right...
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Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
I’m a little late to this party but had the thread open since it was posted. As a 35 year old i straddle the “millennial” and old school gap (in my opinion haha). There is value of ordering things online that can be commonly used or even basic electronics. But if it’s anything above basic, I still believe talking to someone even if on the phone, pays dividends. We recently bought a new vehicle for my wife and explored for weeks online our options, the new vehicles options, what the price...
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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: Print Copy Tool versus Plotworks
John, The PrintCopy Tool compares pretty favorably to Plotworks. I attached two documents to this post. The Product Support Guide lists differences between the two products. The PowerPoint has screen shots of all the settings in PrintCopy Tool. I hope this helps.
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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: Global Imaging aquires Conestoga Business Solution
Global Acquires Pennsylvania-based Conestoga Business Solutions - Tuesday, July 07, 2015 Global Imaging Systems Acquires Pennsylvania-based Conestoga Business Solutions; Bolsters Xerox’s Presence in SMB Market LANCASTER, Pa., July 6, 2015 – Global Imaging Systems (GIS), A Xerox Company, has acquired Conestoga Business Solutions, an award winning, independent office equipment dealer in the Pennsylvania region. The company will offer the full range of Xerox office and printing technology, and...
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Re: Target GP Margins
Czech, I got nothing for you, well, may have something. Every opportunity is different, all depends on the time of the month, we're I'm at with revenue for the quarter or the month, if I can hold MSRP with a certain account. I taken the position (Commercial), that all my A4 devices will be priced at MSRP. A3 devices 21-40ppm would be 1,500 to 2,500, and 3,500 or more on everything else. Just a guide line that I try and follow. I'm not in the Major account business, maybe some other P4P'ers...
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Re: Target GP Margins
I know everyone is just ball-parking it here but these questions are really hard to get dependable answers for. Most sales reps do not know what the dealership markup is prior to establishing sales cost so a 20% markup might actually be 40% from cost. The other is the compensation package. If there is compensation based on clicks or a click incentive, GP becomes less important. My payplan changed this year from being GP based to being revenue based. Consequently, I just sold a 22 unit deal...
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Re: Target GP Margins
Jason: Take a look at the RBS quote that posted yesterday! It states, their "best" price the first time. In essence they are teaching their people to be just "order takers". Even the Ricoh web site is no listing MSRP with lines drawn through the MSRP to indicate they are discounting. I have no problem with discounting, however there is no reason to put the MSRP on the site and then draw a line through it, the only reason that is done is to initiate a call to their in-line order taking ...
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Re: Target GP Margins
TX; I heard the same is true for the NY Metro area. Looking back, I've probably had about 6 transactional orders this year. Where I've sold the device while on the phone with the client the first time.
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Re: Target GP Margins
tx I agree. Our owner, who happens to be my father, is still trying to do things like its the 80's. We hold our own in a major market but we do not have the growth I want. It is tough to get him on board with anything new age as this is an industry he has made truck loads of money on doing it the same old way year after year.
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Re: When did you first learn about the industry
Thank you. They are a handful. 13 weeks old. My 3 year old does like to go into our showroom and play with the machines so she is getting a little exposure haha
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Re: Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!
The Epson thing is a joke. You can buy it on-line for less than you can buy it from Ricoh and so can your customer. I've got a customer right now who is at end of term on a 48 month lease on a LW426 and I have no choice but to go back to them with the exact same machine......oh and my cost is now higher for that same machine thanks to Plotworks (which gets thrown in the garbage). Would love to have KIP now.
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Re: Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!
Only 16% of W3601 users turned on Plotworks!!! (from PLP) Originally Posted by fisher: The Epson thing is a joke. You can buy it on-line for less than you can buy it from Ricoh and so can your customer. I've got a customer right now who is at end of term on a 48 month lease on a LW426 and I have no choice but to go back to them with the exact same machine......oh and my cost is now higher for that same machine thanks to Plotworks (which gets thrown in the garbage). Would love to have KIP now.
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Re: Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!
Originally Posted by Art Post: Only 16% of W3601 users turned on Plotworks!!! (from PLP) Originally Posted by fisher: The Epson thing is a joke. You can buy it on-line for less than you can buy it from Ricoh and so can your customer. I've got a customer right now who is at end of term on a 48 month lease on a LW426 and I have no choice but to go back to them with the exact same machine......oh and my cost is now higher for that same machine thanks to Plotworks (which gets thrown in the...
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Re: Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!
I'm wondering how the new KIP 800 series are doing. Many of my existing base w/ 5 year old + Ricoh's are asking if Ricoh will have something similar soon. Sounds like they won't? I can't believe that they aren't doing any R&D on it !!
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Re: Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!
We don't sell the Epson, I do hear that many Ricoh wide format dealers are looking to change. The W3602 is due out something this spring, Ricoh is waiting to exhaust inventories on the W3601. I have not sold a W3601 yet this year and believe I only sold a handful last year, I used to sell at least a dozen a year. The W3602 will have the GUI as the color systems and many of the same features, sad but the GUI and the MFP features will still put us way behind with the likes of KIP & Oce
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Re: Sharp bond risk jumps as losses over 4½ years top $10 billion
WOW! Some take ways from the article above: Sharp does not have core business that it can look to in the future 510 billion syndicated loan payment due March of 2016. That's almost 4.2 billion US dollars! Ouch! "The chances of banks calling the 103-year-old company’s loans are therefore low", seems to me like there are more cuts to come, more business units to sell. Banks accepted shares in the company earlier this year after it defaulted on debt payments
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Re: Kyocera SWOT
Jake, First the positives. The apps are the differentiator hopefully they will keep rolling these out and updating the ones they have. The lines they are putting out are strong and reliable. Support from our local Kyocera reps is great both presales and and service support. On the other hand our techs do get somewhat frustrated with the help line. I've been with a Kyocera dealer for 8 years now and we just picked up Xerox as a second line. One of the weaknesses we saw with Kyocera is lack of...
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Re: The Death Of The B2B Salesperson [Infographic]
Vince: Well stated! I'm having a hard time with this also. We've seen Ricoh on-line now, they are pushing the envelope with direct vs dealer. I agree with you, what happens once the box arrives, what they thought they were getting because product marketing for all manufacturers have a tendency to over state what they systems can and can't do. I'm hoping we are right and Forrester is just pushing BS
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Re: Leasing, Insurance, Padded Rates, Buy Out Price
I've had the question come up a few times over the year and I simply give them full MSRP for the machine and all accessories as the amount.