As Sales and Service professionals in the copier industry what should we be doing to protect ourselves against the Corona Virus?

Sorry, just saw this. I am not walking around with a face mask!  There are 11.1 million people in Wuhan, China. Eighty K has contracting COVID 19, lets do the math. 10% is 1.1 million people, 1% is 110,000 people.  Thus the 80K infected is less than one percent.  Of those 80K, 3,800 poor souls have perished.  Today China only reported 44 new cases.

China may be on the down curve while other countries like Italy, and Iran are still increasing.

As far as interacting with clients, handshaking should be a no no, but carry on with your regular meeting. I keep Purel in the car and a few extra before I went to Aruba (just in case).  Funny today, I left my ezpass in my wife's car by accident.  Thus I had to pay with cash for the tolls. Thus after every exchange of cash I cleaned my hands with Purel.

Things not to do anymore:

• Handle cash
• Pick up nose
• Put your hands in your face
• Shake hands

Take the same precautions as you would with the Flu.  I did hear today that one client refused to meet with a rep because of COVID19.  @Jason H

I'm thinking there will be more of those in the future and especially those that are watching MSDNC and CNN. 

Other than that I'm going to do what I always do and it GOD wants me he can have me, but I will take precautions so I don't give it to anyone else.

Art

I would not believe anything that China says as far as Corona Virus statistics go.

New York State today quarantined and entire one square mile of the State over Corona Virus fears.

A Purel bottle (if you can find it) needs to be in your pocket.  Too much Purel actually weakens your skin's ability to defend against germs.

More and more companies, like Google, are asking employees to telecommute work from home. This may make it more difficult to get in front of  some decision makers.

I was at a Chinese English language school today for about an hour on copier issues.  Everybody seemed calm with lots of hand sanitizer everywhere.

Just some facts on the quarantine. I live in NJ, they are calling a "containment" zone. People can come and go as they please, they want to limit social gatherings and for those that need to self quarantine they are using the NY National Guard to distribute services along with food for those that need it

I have zero fear of getting sick from this virus but I have a very real fear that my income over the next 12 months will drop from 25-45%.  I'm pretty resigned to that at this stage.  Batten down the hatches.

Chances are you will get sick from with symptoms like the common flu that will pass in about two weeks.  Corona Virus or not who knows, for most people, symptoms and recovery are similar.

The large dent to our incomes through to Sept seems inevitable.

The industry still needs highly skilled and motivated salespeople to get us through the next six months.  We know these people "do not fall off trees" in abundance.

I see the traditional in-person/cold calling sales strategy shifting over the next few months. My company has instituted a work-from-home policy for at least the next few weeks (as are most businesses across the country).  The front door is open b/c our CEO is still there answering the phones, but all employees are working remote.  We also have a no guest policy and will not let any visitors inside the building.  This isn't representative of all companies, but something to consider.  That said, it will be challenging for sales reps to conduct meetings for the foreseeable future even with hand sanitizer.

For what it's worth, there seems to be a lot of sales opportunities in the lower-end consumer/home/small office print segments right now. Retailers are advertising work-from-home office bundles (printer/PC/headset/camera) to help companies that are scrambling to support remote employees. I could see dealers doing something similar by selling more low-end desktops to existing accounts or possibly adding on other products (monitors/PCs). 

Good luck all!