February 2016
5 Steps I Followed To Build My Personal Brand As A Copier Sales Rep
In a previous post, I posed the question, "Should copier sales reps leverage the power of branding to differentiate themselves to rise above the noise?" My answer, an absolute yes!
I don't care if you sell Ricoh, Canon, Konica Minolta, Xerox, Toshiba, Sharp, Kyocera or the other multitude of manufacturers; they are all copiers which do virtually the same thing.
"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make", Jane Goodall
Dealer Principals, V.P of Sales and all copier sales reps welcome to the new sales currency...
"TRUST & VALUE"
How you sell it and how you offer it has become your competitive advantage.
Attention copier people! Do end users today really care about the name on the outside of the copier, NO!
Create your brand promise and your unique differentiation and rise above the "sea of copier masses"
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to a mentor of mine who impacted my life almost 10 years ago, Ryan Blair. He guided me to uncover my brand promise and uncover my unique differentiation inside the copier world.
I learned old school convince and convert sales calls were largely ineffective. For the most part the buyer has already learned what you’re telling them, they’ve formed their opinions, and shaped a positive or negative feeling about your brand (the copier you sell) for their potential purchase. If your buyer has not yet heard of you or your story, forging personal value in a cold first-in call or meeting is damn near impossible.
The 5 Steps I Followed To Build My Brand As A Copier Rep
- Commitment - I made a commitment to myself and crafted a personal mission statement. I internalized it as this became the start of my brand. "My commitment and dedication is to provide outstanding, personable, out of this world customer service and support. It is my goal to surpass your expectations and to create your loyalty." How committed are you?
- Competence - I made a commitment to myself to increase my sales competencies. This meant learning new communication methods, new self-marketing methods and new sets of social skills. I had to become competent in learning how to influence through storytelling. Are you adapting to a new set of sales competencies?
- Content - I committed to learning through consuming content. I wanted to know what other influencers were doing and how this could translate into my role as a copier sales rep. I realized very quickly, the impact of a well-crafted, strategically placed piece of content can have on the sales cycle. This had a huge impact to my sales funnel. Yes, content is king and so is self-education. What plans do you have to devour content?
- Consistency - Consistency is the difference between success and failure. I committed to crafting a business branding plan. It is all about follow through. From experience, consistency is a must as you build and grow your personal brand. You can measure consistency. Consistency creates accountability. It also allows establishes your reputation, your relevancy and helps to maintain your clear message to the business community. How diligent are you in communicating your brand message?
- Conversation - I shared with my clients, prospects, friends and family how I was embarking on building out my brand. This allowed them to share with their friends as well. Hey copier world, learn the power of your network! Nothing happens in sales without a conversation. Conversation has become different as this can start online before it ever gets face to face. I took a step back and said no more sales pitches! I was simply going to start conversations based on helping my prospects and clients solve their business problems. How many daily conversations are you having?
Attention to all in the Office Technology Space.... Time to stop bragging about response time, guarantees and all-inclusive service contracts! This isn't 1995!
To be effective today your sales reps inside your dealership need to acquire a whole new skill set: self-branding and content!
It is 2016, buyers today routinely conduct their own research online, ask their peers for advice, compare products side by side, get the pulse on social media, or Google results. This goes a long way towards shaping a decision before they ever connect with a sales rep. Buyers do not need to rely on single sources of information any longer. This means YOU!
Your sales reps are front and center of your dealership. As a representative of your brand; your dealership, copier sales reps must build their own personal brand, becoming the trusted go-to expert in their sales territory. Copier sales reps must take a position not of a sales guru, but as a help guru.
Bill Caskey, the host of the Advanced Selling Podcast nails it,
“The truly innovative sales people are writing ebooks, blogging, have podcasts, are owning their media, are speaking to groups and conferences. They are positioning themselves correctly….and in so doing, they have distinguished themselves from the ‘commodity masses’,”
If you want to be perceived as a commodity then continue to pursue being involved in the dog pile; continuing to go to war over cost per page and lease payments.
I challenge copier sales teams... time to set the egos aside. Start helping your clients and prospects solve their business problems and challenges. Rise above the copier noise! I know you can do it!
Don't pigeon hole yourself - brand yourself
This is a great time to be in copier the sales world! Be Social. Build relationships and watch what happens. To your future success!
If you enjoyed please share your comments. Look forward to connecting and starting a conversation.
Check out more at the Social Sales Academy blog site.
Please enjoy my other posts on LinkedIn Publisher and on SlideShare
I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my LinkedIn stories. Integrating the use of LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive copier world. With great pride I transform and coach copier sales professionals to grow net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. My commitment is to help independent office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, as well as at the Social Sales Academy
Sharp Corporation "What Happens Now?"
Well, it took long enough. I'm sure this brought a smile to Vince's face. I see that he's on the site right now.
What happens NOW?
Initial reports from a few days ago stated that Sharp Execs would kept on board. There was no mention of how long from recent reports, and I would those execs may have a year or so at most. If I were Terry Gou, I would offer them an additional severance package to leave early. You don't want them hanging around and mismanaging the company.
Another report stated that the business units would be kept intact. That may be true and may not be true, we'll find out in short time. I would tend to think that a covenant was put in place with a time factor, you can bet your bottom dollar Terry Gou did not sign an agreement that would keep the business units intact forever.
From what you may hear from others in the industry in subsequent days, ask yourself, why did Foxconn buy Sharp? Was it for the Imaging Business Unit? No fracking way!
There's a number a reasons and you can read them here. Keep in mind, there is no mention of copiers or the Imaging Business Unit.
It's my gut feeling that Terry Gou has already called Samsung, and if not, I lay odds that Samsung will be on the phone with Foxconn tomorrow. Gou needs to get back some of his $6.2 billion in short order. Pitching the copier division to Samsung is a smart move.
Keep in mind that Sharp Corp turned down an offer from Samsung back in March of 2013.
Change, there is always change, nothing is constant. Next up on the block is Lexmark and then possibly Xerox.
Comments???
Sharp Accepts Foxconn’s $6.24 Billion Takeover Offer
Sharp Corp.’s board approved a plan Thursday for Apple Inc. assembler Foxconn Technology Group to take over the company for ¥700 billion ($6.24 billion), people familiar with the situation said, in a rare case of Japan Inc. relinquishing a venerated brand to a foreign buyer. read the rest here
The Immense Challenges of IT Management in Health Care
The health care sector has been under constant pressure to shore up its cybersecurity defenses in the past few years, as data breaches continue to plague the sector in the United States and abroad. At the same time, though, legislation has actively pushed medical firms to more aggressively adopt and deploy modern technologies and solutions, which has made management a very difficult prospect for many leaders in the field.
In spite of the constant stream of news stories regarding major data breaches in health care, it would be misleading to say that the medical sector has failed in its latest technological endeavors, as hospitals and other entities have indeed progressed from an operational standpoint. Some of the latest and greatest technologies in the world have been specifically targeted at patient care, and medical firms have overcome a wealth of obstacles to get them in use.
However, security and risk management need to become more prominent priorities among medical firms in the coming years, as the cost of breach has hit much higher numbers than ever before, and the frequency with which health care providers are struck by events is rising. Simple adjustments to strategy and the inclusion of more progressive solutions such as secure cloud and email encryption services can go a long way toward bolstering the resilience of each healthcare organization in the face of attacks.
Balancing speedy deployment, optimal IT performance, proactive mitigation of threats and constant compliance with federal regulations is no easy task, but managed service providers are increasingly used as a means to overcome these challenges. Now, analytics and other intelligence solutions, along with a proverbial universe of new best practices being released by various types of advocates and government agencies, are helping to reduce the strain on the sector.
A look inside
TechCrunch recently explained some of the ways in which healthcare operations are being disrupted by new trends, as well as what medical firms can and should be doing to reduce outages and setbacks when transformations come to pass. Remember, virtually ever industry out there is facing a wide range of novel threats, opportunities and demands, but the health care sector might be the most weighed down by changes given how complex the evolution has been thus far.
According to the news provider, a clear indication that digitization is spreading quickly across the sector can be found in some of the research released over the past two years, with one study estimating a 200 percent increase in investments between 2010 and 2014. The level of investment in new technologies among health care providers is expected to continue rising for years to come, especially with novel trends such as the Internet of Things heating up.
The source noted that health care organizations and the technology firms they use will need to ensure that strong standards and practices are being followed every step of the way to mitigate risk, but these entities are already excelling with more robust innovation to improve patient experiences.
The applications of more advanced technology are virtually boundless, as evidenced by plenty of new services and strategies gaining traction in the medical field.
"Traditionally, our health care system has left consumers to discover and engage with the services they need during the moments when they have the least amount of time and support: when they're sick and in need of help," Collective Health Director of Design Susan Dybbs told TechCrunch. "Collective Health upends this paradigm with a people-centered design framework. By using data and real-time triggers, we deliver our members the information and tools they need, right when they need it - no matter the use case."
At the end of the day, healthcare providers and their patients will continue to become more digitally interactive, and this will continue to intensify some of the privacy and security risks that have prevailed throughout the past several years.
Intelligence in high demand
Risk analysis and intelligence solutions have become highly popular in health care and other sectors given the immense improvements that can be made to decision-making, which in turn better protects medical firms from disruption and security failures. MarketsandMarkets recently released the results of its Risk Analytics Market by Solutions - Forecast and Analysis to 2020 report, which found that firms will spend roughly $13.8 billion globally this year on the technology.
What's more, that number is set to rise to $26.3 billion in global annual spending by the end of this decade, representing a compound annual growth rate of more than 13.8 percent through the next five years. Alongside effective security solutions, risk analytics tools and proper data management can help to fuel significant performance improvements in health care, and likely will more commonly in the coming years.
Eliminate Copier Overage Charges Once & For All
Most every company owns and or leases a copy machine. In most cases these copiers are covered under a maintenance/supply agreement. The billing model that is most prevalent is where a company charges a fee for "x" amount of pages for black and color prints/copies. Those contracts are be billed annually, quarterly or monthly. In addition to the base charges (annual, quarterly or month), there is also a charge for prints/copies that were made in excess of the agreement. For example. Annual Cost for 60K black pages is $900, annual cost for 10K color pages is $800, thus the annual base cost for both is $1,700. Our example user made 70,000 black and 15,000 in color, these overages generated an additional bill to the client. In this case 10,000 black billed for an additional $150 and the color billed for an addition $400.
Cost Per Page Overages
Just like I can't predict what orders I'll get each month, most businesses can't predict the amount of overages that they will generate in overages. Years ago, overage billing really wasn't an issue, the main reason for that was because the overages was only for black prints/copies. Now, with such a large percentage of the copier population being able to produce color prints/copies, a mere 10,000 page overage could cost a company an additional $800 for the year, quarter or month.
I would say on average most maintenance/supply agreements are billed quarterly, thus that $800 overage for color pages ends up costing a company an additional $3,200 for the year.
How Eliminate You Overage Cost
I'm a huge fan of print rules software because of these reasons;
- Who prints documents from the web? If so, you're printing those pages in color an increasing your costs. We can set a rule that all web pages print as black.
- Email, believe it or not, there are many of us that still print emails, it's the CYA thing. I'm all for CYA, but do we need to have that little color logo print at the cost of full color? Across a large corporation, I could only guess the tens of thousands of emails printed off each month
- Duplex two sided printing, why not institute a print rule for auto two sided printing, you could set a rule for "any document more than 10 pages"
- How about those ink jet printers in the office? Another useful rule can be one that states all text or word documents print as black and print jobs are directed to the lower cost copier
- The hammer and the feature approach, you could also set up "pop ups", that can help users move documents to lower cost devices. The feather approach is to enable a pop up that could state , "please send your documents to the lower cost copier", as where the hammer approach would enable a pop up that states, "your print job has been redirected to XYZ copier"
Print rules software is also device agnostic, no matter what brand networked printer of copier that you have your company can benefit from eliminating overages on those copiers.
The list of rules is too long to list, however if you're serious about eliminating overages then I highly recommend adding print rules software.
Print Habits
Thus, how can companies get an insight to their printing habits? How many emails are we printing, how many internet pages are we printing, who is printing to what devices, and what's the cost per device.
The answer is Insight. The Insight software has the ability to gather data on your companies printing habits. Once enabled, we can gather that data and help your company and team better understand your printing habits.
Cut your overages, lower your costs, meet green initiatives, reduce paper, and control abusive print behaviors.
Comments are always welcome!
-=Good Selling=-
This Week in the Copier/Office Equipment Industry 10 Years Ago The Last Week of February 2006
I had a good chuckle from one of the threads from ten years ago. The thread stated, "Envelopes should be a four letter word". Boy oh boy, do I remember when we couldn't print envelopes with our copiers and our printers. The frustration through the roof, because we knew that little crappy HP could print envelopes all day long! Enjoy the threads from ten years ago this week!!
New features on Sharp MFP's
Toshiba-Designed Segment 1 Digital
Xerox DocuColor 8000 w/Creo 8000 RIP
FINALISTS FOR “RICOH AND SUN JAVA™ SOLUTIONS
Savin AC205 scanning
Savin SDC555 cost
Ricoh Introduction of the PrintStation 5560R MicroPress Connectivity
Katana, Katana MP135/135 PPM from Ricoh
Re: Xerox C2424
Re: Aficio 3045 user quotas
March Article "Computers, Software & Copier Sales People"
Re: Envelope should be a four letter word
Re: Savin SDC555 cost
Re: Aficio League
Re: Aficio League
Re: Digital Document Management Statistics
Re: NEW products from Ricoh!!!
Re: KONICA/MINOLTA CPP 500 COLOR UNIT
Re: Xerox C2424
"Down the Steet"
Service Rep NE.
If An Old School Copier Rep Can Build His Brand, So Can You!
"A brand is no longer what we tell the customer it is - it is what customers tell each other it is" Scott Cook
Should copier sales reps leverage the power of branding to differentiate themselves to rise above the noise? My answer, an absolute yes!
Branding is powerful. When you think of brands, most turn to large brands such as Google, Amazon, Starbucks and McDonalds, just to name a few. Why is establishing a world-class business brand invaluable? Besides the distinct value it brings, branding provides business leverage. In sales we know commodity competes only on price. As for a great sales brand, price is not the single issue.
We are all too familiar with the age old saying, "People love to buy, but hate to be sold."
As a recovering copier sales rep, nowhere is this more epitomized than the stereotypical copier salesperson - close, close and close - all about them - knight in shining armor during the sale but turns into the "frog" after the sale- last week of the month closes. The horror stories of copier sales reps exist; not all bad but do exist.
Top of mind words to describe the copier industry, "tough", "dog eat dog", "price driven", "all talk no action". I am here to tell you it doesn't have to be this way.
Attention to all in the Office Technology Space.... Time to start building your BRAND IMAGE!
Top performing copier sales reps can build their own brand by the way they sell and position themselves in the marketplace. Copier sales reps can differentiate themselves by helping buyers think through problems differently than the competition. This leaves the prospect with a more informed view of the problem, and a clearer picture of the issues and consequences of taking action.
Are you delivering the promise of your brand?
As a copier sales rep in one of the most crowded marketplaces in the United States, I was able to rise above the noise by building out my brand. I set aside my sales ego, set aside my fears and learned how to build out my online brand. Why you ask, this is why... the Internet and Google.
I learned how to play in the online sandbox. I came to grips the buying process changed. Your clients and prospects are forming opinions, learning technical specifications, building prerequisite checklists, narrowing down their options, searching for answers to their problems all on their own, all with minimal influence from you.
I share this with you because what we sell as copier sales reps increasingly look more like what our competition sells. The days of competitive advantages on products alone are not as sustainable as they used to be.
A great personal brand can be achieved. As a copier sales rep you must become the competitive advantage versus just selling the competitive advantage.
In order to achieve success in this hyper-connected business world copier sales reps must learn how to build out their online presence.
Copier Sales Reps this may be your first handshake
Build your online reputation just as hard as you build your offline reputation.
Attention to all Copier Dealer Principal's, V.P. of Sales and Sales Managers... your sales team and their LinkedIn profiles do matter
Effective use of the LinkedIn platform allows a sales rep to build out their professional image, tell their story and generate awareness in the highly competitive sales environment. 9 out of 10 times, LinkedIn is still being used as a resume showcase or as a self-promotion site to tout sales accolades. Why is this? In my opinion, it all starts with getting out of our comfort zone, set aside the sales ego and learn new methods of engaging with business professionals. Change is difficult especially for adults. As the executive buyer is changing so should we as copier sales reps.
Your sales team and their LinkedIn profiles are their professional profile to the business world. Is your sales team being seen as subject matter experts within the Office Technology space? How are they positioning themselves as thought leaders and educators?
A professional online image starts with a LinkedIn profile
It all starts with your professional headline. Check out mine. Think of creating a value centric message. On a daily basis sales reps meet with clients and prospects listening to their business problems and challenges. I encourage you to think of this as the "digital elevator pitch" If someone asks, "What do you do?" Then be prepared to recite your headline. Own it, speak to it, live it! Your professional headline travels with you everywhere you go on LinkedIn. Every comment, every published post and every group discussion your headline follows you. You have seconds to bring someone in who in turn will spend the time to canvass your LinkedIn page. With 120 precious characters you have to promote value, create your call to action and compel the visitor to continue reading your profile. If you want to be stereotyped as a sales rep then call yourself a sales rep underneath your name. Do you really think people care about your title?
How are you storytelling with your LinkedIn profile?
After drawing followers in with a value centric headline, pay close attention to the summary section. In 2000 characters or less this becomes storytime. A great read is Simon Sinek's Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. I encourage all copier sales reps to use the summary section as your why. Why would someone do business with you? What do they get when they engage with you? What makes you who you are? How you can help them solve business problems and challenges. This is your personal story-telling time. Draw in your visitor by sharing with them what they can expect by engaging with you along with your unique promise of value. Folks, this the game-changer section.
You must speak your clients and prospects language not your language.
"People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it." Simon Sinek
Building out a completely prospect facing, optimized profile takes patience, diligence and time. You can learn more by visiting and engaging with me at the Social Sales Academy. With a completely optimized LinkedIn profile sales reps are now ready to nurture, grow and build those relationships. It is about Cleverly Capturing, Conversing, Collaborating, Connecting and Converting online relationships to offline meetings. It is about driving more top of funnel activities to convert to conversations to drive more sales opportunities.
Here are few steps to incorporate to generate awareness:
1. Curate and develop relevant industry content and ideas to share with your followers.
2. Share this content with your social network to help start conversations.
3. Look at who has been reviewing your profile and engage in conversation.
4. Create personal invitations and convert these people to 1st level connections.
5. Review your content engagement/notification section for comments to your posts.
6. Mine your 1st level connections by reviewing 2nd level connections. Put your 1st degree relationships to work to have them bridge introductions to their connections. This is the pot of gold in warming up digital prospecting efforts.
7. Think of driving daily conversations online. Comment on someone posts, engage in a group discussion, post content to drive engagement; become disruptive a bit and get your followers engaged with you.
Conversations lead to an increase in sales opportunities! Sales funnels look like Swiss-Cheese because a lack of engagement around top of the sales funnel activities.
I encourage copier sales reps to start having conversations with your LinkedIn connections. LinkedIn is about building relationships. Be authentic, add value, listen, build trust and be yourself.
Copier sales reps must position themselves to be viewed as go-to resources for thought leadership and industry news within their marketplace. Incorporating LinkedIn, I firmly believe you will have less competition for the executive buyer’s attention, you will create a positive personal brand image, you will position yourself as a subject matter expert but most importantly you will consistently keep the sales funnel full of prospects.
No B.S. people, in 2009, I started integrating LinkedIn with my legacy sales skills to help build out my professional brand. In 2014, this resulted in securing almost $1.3 million in hardware sales with over $650,000 in NEW business in a NET NEW major account position. If an "old school" "baby boomer" sales rep can adapt so can you! Set aside the sales egos, set aside resisting change; change is eminent. Stop the excuses!
We know what happened to dinosaurs!
This is a great time to be in copier the sales world! Be Social. Build relationships and watch what happens. To your future success!
If you enjoyed please share your comments. Look forward to connecting and starting a conversation.
Check out more at the Social Sales Academy blog site.
Please enjoy my other posts on LinkedIn Publisher and on SlideShare
I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my LinkedIn stories. Integrating the use of LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive copier world. With great pride I transform and coach copier sales professionals to grow net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. My commitment is to help independent office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, as well as at the Social Sales Academy
DUDE! Where's my Copier?
I've seen this scenario come true all to often.
Really? Dude, where's the copier you took outta here three months ago! The leasing company is still billing me because they stating that they don't have the copier you took outta here, plus since you didn't get them the copier in time, they renewed my lease and told me I have to make another year of payments!! DUDE...Where's My COPIER!
I can imagine there's been many conversations like this between customer and manufacturer over the years. It's no secret that at the end of an FMV (Fair Market Value) Lease someone has to step up and make sure the copier goes back to the leasing company ON TIME!
So, who's to blame the copier rep, the copier company, the leasing company or the customer (lessee). Well, if it doesn't go back in time it's everyones fault except for the leasing company. Remember this, "the thought of a cheap price is long forgotten after poor service".
Good work with no screw ups does not come cheap! If you've received a quote for a new copier, and they are the cheapest (I hate that word), plus they are promising to get the copier back on time, probably means you've got a problem.
Don't get me wrong I've seen many screw ups from the lessee side also, such as these wonderful quotes, "we can't find a copy of the original lease", "what do you mean we have to ship it back", "we have to pay to ship it back", "we didn't realize our lease ended two months ago and now we have to keep the copier for another year?".
"Dude where's my copier", should never have to be a phone call that you'll have to make in the future. Copiers companies that are on the ball will present you with an iron clad SOW (Scope of Work) on how and when it will be done and what's expected on your end and their end to make this happen. If the company you're dealing with does not present you with the SOW for the return then you'll need to move on to the next vendor. Just an FYI, all of this should be discussed when meeting with the copier companies reps, it will quickly narrow the field of vendors!
BTW, if you want to do business with Professional Expert Copier Companies and not the cheapest (I hate that word) then contact me and I can out you in touch with some awesome dealers!
-=Good Selling=-
Healthcare's Next Step with Secure Cloud Demands
Cloud computing has remained one of the most important trends to ever have surfaced in corporate IT, as it quickly overhauled the ways in which organizations provision, use, maintain and optimize their technological assets. Although cloud markets were first very heavy on software, the industry has evolved rapidly to offer infrastructure, platform and other options necessary to have a fully functional and optimally enabled IT department.
Still, security has been a touchy subject for cloud providers and users since the technology first began to gain traction in the market, and this has been especially true for organizations working in regulation-heavy industries. The obvious example is healthcare, which accelerated its deployment of new technologies, including those based in cloud computing, but faced an increasingly complex cybersecurity situation and has been widely on the losing end of the battle to protect patient information.
At the same time, vendors and managed service providers have made an exceptional amount of progress when it comes to cloud security improvements, especially given the fact that security is one of the only obstacles standing in the way of more prolific adoption. As long as healthcare organizations are using secure cloud services, taking the next step in the evolution of the market's capabilities and transformation will be a bit safer and more efficient.
What comes next?
Gartner recently argued that the personal cloud is one of the more prominent trends in the cloud computing market today, and that this is not only relevant to individual users outside of the workplace. Rather, similarly to enterprise mobility's BYOD trend, personal cloud services are likely to grow in adoption among staff members in the coming years, perhaps translating more simply to "bring your own cloud" programs that allow users to leverage the tools they prefer for their various tasks.
"The personal cloud is the collection of content, services and tools that users assemble to fulfill their personal digital lifestyle needs across any device," Gartner Research Vice President Stephen Kleynhans explained. "Each user's personal cloud is unique and evolving, as the user's daily needs change and as vendors and products come and go. Looking forward, we see continued upheaval and challenges from the blending of personal and corporate digital tools and information within each user's life."
Now, this does not mean that businesses will begin to move away from corporate provisioning cycles for cloud assets, but that they will likely need to boost the elasticity of their management and security strategies to embrace this novel trend. According to Gartner, roughly half of managed service providers and "IT support organizations" will begin to handle personal clouds and other items that do not fall within the normal boundaries of their portfolios within the next few years.
Furthermore, the analysts noted that some of the more prominent trends in IT today, most notably the Internet of Things, will require companies to handle more robust personal clouds, and preparation will be key to get this right.
Security implications
If a company is struggling to protect its information today, chances are these issues will only intensify as the IT landscape becomes more complex, which is a certain future to be sure. Think about how quickly enterprise mobility, for example, grew from a novel trend that many believed would pass just as quickly as it came in, but then spread to the vast majority of organizations in only a few years' time.
The same goes for the IoT and cloud computing, and business leaders must ensure that they are using secure cloud services to shore up defenses in the modern era of cybersecurity management.
Losing is the Key to Winning!
Special thanx to Larry and Jason who gave me a few ideas with this next blog!
We hate to lose right? Nothing grinds my gears more, than losing a prospect.
I expect that I should be able to secure an order from all of my prospects. I expect to bat 1.000, however the reality is far from that. I definitely lose more deals than I win.
In fact, I lose about 65% of the time.
Is losing 65% of the time a bad thing? I don't think so, because I know that every lost deal moves me close a to obtaining an order, in addition there is so much to be learned from the deals you don't get.
Just today, I had a prospect contact me to tell me that they were not moving forward with my proposal, and that they are going to stay with their current vendor.
At first I thought it was awesome that I was contacted right away, because I wouldn't have to place countless calls or emails with no answers. Secondly, I thanked them for their time and asked why we were not able to secure their business. In a response email, I was told that pricing was similar for both systems, and they were happy with the present dealer and their level of service.
Hey, that's okay by me, I don't mind losing, because I was able to keep the door open for Managed IT and BDR, which they expressed interest in. The dealer that I lost to does not offer those services, thus I'll be able to schedule an appointment down the road and an opportunity to "own" the network. Once I own the network, I'll have a better shot at upgrading the copier sometime down the road.
The prospect emailed this back to me:
We were impressed with you and your presentation.
As I mentioned, it just came down to who we were familiar with since both your pricings ran neck-and-neck.
Here's what I learned from losing today
- The prospect values service and support because price was not the issue, this will be helpful when having a conversation about our IT offerings
- I was able to keep a high level of margin and was told pricing was neck and neck, thus on future deals against that competitor, I may have a leg up with pricing
- The prospect is loyal, because they stayed with the current provider. We're all in need of more loyal accounts.
- I found a prospect for Managed IT, yes sir, because I asked additional qualifying questions about their current IT status and initiatives.
- I found a prospect for Backup Disaster Recovery, could not help to see the dozens of backup tapes when they showed me their current copier system, which lead to, "what happens if there is catastrophic loss and when was the last time you tested your backup"
- They will be a prospect again for a copier in 30 months or so, and what comes around goes around since they decided for a 36 month lease.
All of the above then gets logged into my CRM, along with a call in two weeks to schedule an appointment about Managed IT services.
With baseball, not getting a hit in 7 out 10 plate appearances over your career will land you into the Hall of Fame. In sales that means for every 3.3 opportunities I will have a sale, I'll take it any day of the week!
-=Good Selling=-
This Week in the Copier/Office Equipment Industry 10 Years Ago Third Week of February 2006
Did anyone just catch that last episode of Walking Dead? WOW, right, just when you thought it was over for..........., then just the oppo. Not sure how they can top any of new episodes from here on it.
RICOH/SAVIN 3515 fax forward ?
Canon, GBC Launch Professional Puncher A-1
Gartner names Canon copier market leader in the U.S.
Xerox DocuColor 250 Paper Stock
Savin 2400wd vs. HP Designjet 5500
NEW G7500 from Ricoh
Ricoh GEL Print Technology!
Katana, Katana MP135/135 PPM from Ricoh
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Are Your Salespeople Good Losers? Ask Cam Newton...
"Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser" Vince Lombardi
Well... "Here is looking at you kid!
I admit I have Bronco Nation running through my blood, albeit Boise State Orange. Was I happy the Broncos won, of course. Peyton Manning, whether winning or losing is a class act.
Peyton Manning and Cam Newton two phenomenal athletes at polar opposite spectrums of their careers. By now who hasn't watched the video clip of Cam walking out on the media, I laughed to myself as I watched. Watching the video a few more times I wondered, "Is this how a leader is supposed to act?"
The chatter is everywhere calling him a "poor sport" and a "sore loser". Through winning and losing there are lessons to be learned from Cam Newton. We all have dealt with some form of competition whether it be when we were in school, in our own household, within our friendships or even within the sales environment.
Watching Cam Newton had me thinking... Lose with grace and win with dignity.
As a society, are we really encouraging our young performers to thrive when they bear witness to immature, selfish and thoughtless actions from their adult leaders?
This got me thinking... as the Cam Newton wake-up call to losing.
- Is your sales team committed to winning consistently? Why or why not?
- What are you doing about it?
- How much are you influencing and coaching your sales team to win or lose?
As sales reps we all have the capacity to be loser's. We have the loser's voice and the winner's voice. The loser's voice is often the strongest because it’s so easy to fall under its seduction, its lure. The winner’s voice continually needs strengthening, it needs discipline, focus and action.
Practice being a sales winner, practice getting up earlier, focusing for longer periods on your work without getting distracted (excuse me do you have a few minutes?). Practice hustling and working your ass off. Practice taking the right risk, as you may surprise yourself with what you can accomplish. Practice being in the "sales" moment rather than constantly worrying about capturing yourself and hypnotizing yourself of being in the moment.
"Don't Let the Fear of Losing be Greater than the Excitement of Winning" Robert Kiyosaki
Stop Being a Good Loser and Learn to Win More...
1. It is a decision - Every important decision begins with commitment to a course of action leading to the desired outcome. We live in a technology driven, hyper-connected society. Therefore, as sales reps we must make a pledge to become voracious learners with a huge appetite for self-improvement. The daily game plan consists of expanding your mindset and skill set. Choices, you decide.
2. Closely examine what is working and not working - Critique yourself as to what went wrong by pinpointing what went wrong. Top-performing sales teams routinely spend time strategizing with their managers, finding innovative ways to overcome client and prospect objections while tackling obstacles which may be preventing sales deals from closing.
3. Reinforce, augment and enhance selling methodologies - A good defense is sometimes the best offense. What may have worked years ago may not work today. No better analogy than in sports. Look to baseball, basketball and even football... can you imagine where these sports would be without augmenting, enhancing and changing with the times? The B2B journey has been turned upside down. What matters to your clients and prospects has changed. The resources as to how they obtain their information has changed. Learn to accept and quit resisting.
"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment" Buddha
What worked for sales teams in the past may no longer be relevant in the present, resulting in lackluster and spotty sales results.
Why is this happening?
Very simple, people are buying in different ways than they did five or ten years ago, largely due to the internet. Because of this sales teams must adopt and adapt new sales methodologies to evolve like never before.
Help turn your sales team into winners and not second place finishers (no Cam Newton syndrome)
"The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example" John Wooden
Three Simple Ideas to Coach your Sales Team to become Winners
1. Coach your sales team to connect with the buyer - sales reps who win connect with people. They bridge the gap while connecting the dots between needs and solutions. In the August 2012, Harvard Business Review; Corporate Executive Board proclaimed The End of Solution Sales. The concept of solution selling has worked because clients and prospects didn’t know how to solve their own problems, even though often times they had a good understanding of what their problems were. Fast-forward to the present, sophisticated buying teams are armed with mass quantities of data and can readily define solutions by themselves without speaking with sales reps.
Coach sales reps to become change creators. Create practice sessions to inspire your sales reps to improve not how they currently sell but change how they sell.
"Most reps rely on a customer to coach them through a sale; star reps coach the customer." Corporate Executive Board
2. Coach your sales team to collaborate with the buyer - Sales reps who are winning bring creative insights when given the opportunity to sit at the business table. When it's all said and done, how the potential client feels about the sales rep is the final deciding factor. Prospects today will ask themselves what they are getting over and above just the product and or service. Sales reps must offer additional value through collaborative efforts. They must bring with them and be able to deliver fresh perspectives along with new sets of ideas; as this will ultimately become their prospects preferred choice.
3. Coach your sales team to convince the buyer - Sales reps who win convince their prospects their recommendation maximizes return and minimizes the risk associated in doing business with them. As long as sales reps have built the relationship, established trust and credibility then they have earned the right to convince. Sales reps often times feel uncomfortable in doing too much convincing with prospects as they worry people will doubt their intent. They are afraid it will hurt their “trusted advisor” positioning. Help them solve their business problems or challenges and you have earned the right to convince.
Your prospect and clients are looking to learn something new and useful. They expect sales reps to come to the executive table with some real insight about their business. Sales reps who are aligned with their prospects in a strategic-partnership approach and get involved long before the ball crosses the 50 yard line can increase sales revenue, improve interactions not only with prospects but with their key clients as well.
In sales there is no prize for finishing second. All you need to do is ask Cam Newton.
If you enjoyed please share your comments. Look forward to connecting and starting a conversation.
Check out more at the Social Sales Academy blog site.
Please enjoy my other posts on LinkedIn Publisher and on SlideShare
I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my LinkedIn stories. Integrating the use of LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive copier world. With great pride I transform and coach copier sales professionals to grow net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. My commitment is to help independent office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, as well as at the Social Sales Academy
A Few Reasons Why We Still Need to be a Closers "Part II"
Years ago, many of us old timers carried testimonial letters from current customers. Most of the time these testimonials were used when we encountered an objection. For example, the prospect may state, "How soon can I expect to see a service engineer?". What's the standard response every rep states? "Mr. or Mrs. prospect we'll be in there in less than four hours". Maybe we change to, "Mr. or Mrs. Prospect if we can deliver on-site service in four hours or less, would that help us move forward with the order?" You never know the answer could be, "ok let's do this now". However, most times, this will smoke out an objection and that's where the testimonials came in. Yeah it's korny, yeah it's old school, but it works!
Couple of things you can do to help move the process forward, print off some of the references that you've received on LinkedIn to show the prospect, and or dial up Linkedin on your smart phone of tablet and show them to the prospect.
As I stated in the previous blog post, I don't believe we can be complacent and wait for the return call, and the return email. You need to set the next course of action before you leave the clients office.
Reason We Always Need to be Closing
Just recently with an existing account, I was on them 8 months prior to the end of the term of the lease. We had numerous conversations to upgrade early, all of those conversations died on the vine. Finally in November I had an email from the Director stating we're moving forward give us the revised proposal and the documents to move forward. Those documents then had to be sent to the corporate office for signatures. About a week later I received an email with the docs, I opened the docs and there was only one page, that page was a signed sales order, missing was the lease and the maintenance/supply agreement.
I called, then emailed the Director and was told (via email) that the person at corporate was in and out around the Holiday's and they were hoping to have the documents to us soon. One week went by and I called (no response) and then sent an email. Another no response, over the course of the next two months, none of my phone calls or emails had a response. I even stopped in a few times but was told the Director was not there. Just yesterday after another email I received a return email with "thank you for following up, however we decided to go with another vendor".
I knew it, I knew something was wrong, but, what can you do if all of your attempts to reconnect go unanswered. I did send a reply that asked, "what happened that we were not able to secure your business?" I'm still waiting on that reply.
The only thing I can guess is that someone with an EDS list called, got an appointment and dumped a few machines on price.
-=Good Selling=-
As Mobility Spreads, Healthcare IT Security Must Be Enhanced
The healthcare industry has become a bit more mobile-centric in the past few years, driven by the need for agile, always-on operations that fit the preferences of both employees and clientele. When watching trends in the IT manufacturing sector, it has become clear that personal computers are likely to continue falling in shipments and investments, replaced by the adoption of and rising expenditures related to smartphones, tablets and portable computers.
What's more, the mobility arena has not stopped evolving rapidly, as the Internet of Things has clear implications for the average organization's relevant strategies, with wearables falling into similar categories as smartphones. Unfortunately, mobile devices and apps are among the greatest threats to data security in the health care, financial services, manufacturing and legal sectors, as well as those that fall under the government umbrella.
The most troubling aspect of mobility thus far has been the relatively slow-moving push to better manage and secure all of the assets involved, with reports indicating that entities in virtually every industry have simply not struck the right chord quite yet. There has been some progress made in the hardware department, with companies finally beginning to introduce network and infrastructure controls built for mobile-related risk management and deploying device protection solutions.
Leaving apps out of the equation will almost certainly spell disaster for an organization, though, as every type of IT security is reliant upon comprehensive strategies that leave no stone unturned or vulnerability unchecked for long periods of time. A new report indicated that the world's organizations will be spending a monumental amount of budget on mobile technologies within the next few years, meaning that leaders need to get their security programs in order as soon as possible.
A major landmark
International Data Corporation recently estimated that businesses, public-sector agencies and other organizations will spend $1.2 trillion annually on mobile technologies by 2019, and this does not account for consumer expenditures in the market. Suffice it to say that this type of growth will be paramount in the private sector, as other types of IT investments - including those related to the cloud - have not broken the $1 trillion mark yet and are not expected to for at least a decade.
"More than ever, mobile technologies are empowering workers across industries to connect, collaborate and create new ways to operate and do business," IDC's Global Technology and Industry Research Organization Program Director Jessica Goepfert explained. "It goes beyond providing a smartphone to liberate the deskbound worker. Instead, it's about utilizing mobile technology to increase sales, improve productivity and raise customer and employee satisfaction."
Breaking it down a bit, the analysts believe that the manufacturing and professional services industries will have the biggest role in these investments, accounting for 17 percent of all dollars spent among organizations in 2019. However, virtually every sector is expected to spend more on these assets in the coming years, including telecommunications, health care, human resources and government.
Furthermore, the market stood at a size of $901 billion in total annual global investments from organizations in 2014, meaning that an additional $101 billion will be tacked on over the course of the next three and a half years. Although this might not be all that surprising to the average business leader, it should make it clear that a lack of persistence in planning and strategic security creations will be a major risk moving forward, as the workplace continues to become more mobilized.
Again, progress has been made with devices, but the onus has been decisively placed on application management and security of late.
A legitimate concern
AppsTechNews recently explained some of the reasons why companies need to become a bit more aggressive in their creation of mobile software management, support and security strategies. First and foremost, the source pointed out that fewer than 25 percent of organizations are currently believed to have actually deployed a mobile app that comes with substantive rewards to operations, and this is likely because of the fears involved.
Another hindrance standing in the way of more progressive app strategies is the lack of budget currently allocated to enterprise mobility at large, as the news provider cited an Intel study finding that revealed more than two-thirds of all chief information officers are granted no funding for these ventures. Without investment power, CIOs will simply not be able to get effective and secure mobility strategies into motion in the coming years.
However, money will not fix everything. Rather, decision-makers need to ensure that they are putting diligent effort into researching their internal risk and external threats, as well as observing the best practices of shoring up defenses specifically for mobile assets. Industries that are more at risk of experiencing data breaches, including health care, will need to be especially active in these overhauls.