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10 Years in the Cloud

August 2017

A Short Sales Tip That Can Help You Close More Copier Business

You've demo'd that shiny new copier for your print shop Decision Maker, pricing is no longer the issue, maintenance pricing is fine, the copier operation was flawless, and you don't feel comfortable with using a drop close to secure the order.  Yet, you can move the deal forward.

You have a suspicion that if you could just add a little more value to the deal, that you might be able to close the order now.  Makes you think, what in the world can I add that would increase the value of my copier or services and it won't cost me anything?

With at least a half dozen print shop DM's, I was able to close the order with this value add. 

I offered to cold call once a week for one month at no cost.  I stated that the print shop would supply the their business cards, their flyers and or handouts.  I had asked for about one hundred hand outs and then dedicated one day a week for the next four weeks to cold call on behalf of the print shop. 

I asked  the owner to print a few hundred statement size note pads with the name of his print shop, address, and the phone number. In addition, I asked that owner go out and buy a large bag of hard candies.  The process was to put to two pads together with a 1/2 dozen candies and shrink wrap them together for the handout.  This made one neat handout and I didn't have one cold call that refused the handouts.

At the end of the day, I reported back to the DM, made copies of the business cards and reported on any hot prospects that I found. I left the original business cards with the owner and kept the copies for my self.  Can you guess what I di with those copies? 

I can remember finding one prospect who needed 5,000 color prints/copies.  The printer I was cold calling for was elated when he was able to secure the order and of course those 5,000 color pages were printed on one of my color devices.

What's the method to the madness here?  Well, in addition to cold calling for the Print Shop, I was also scouting and prospecting for net new clients for copiers. 

I didn't mind doing the cold calls  because I knew one of my weaknesses was cold calling. I have no probably doing it, but it always seemed that I would put it off for another day.  I was able to kill two birds with one stone.

Thus, there were no wasted selling days on my part, since I was working to jobs at the same time.  BTW, this is something you could use for almost any type of account, probably not enterprise, however this will work with most SMB accounts.

-=Good Selling=-

I'll be posting up more of these in the upcoming weeks

Five Reasons Why I'm Stoked About the New Ricoh SP8400DN Printer

It's been some time since I've blogged about a print device and there's a couple of reasons for that.  One is the fact that there has not been a device in recent months that has piqued my interest, and the second reason is that I've tried to enjoy more of my summer evenings and not be tied to a PC.  At my age, you're just not sure how many more summer evenings you're going to have.  Thus, it's time to start enjoying!

The new SP8400DN could prove to be a valuable asset while we're in the process of knocking out competitive devices in the field.  Below you'll find my top five talking points that I will point out to prospects.

1)  If there is no need to copy or scan, but there's a need to print at a high speed then the Ricoh SP8400DN would be an excellent choice.  The print speed rolls in at an astounding sixty pages per minute.  Thus, the SP8400DN can fill some print only workflows in the office.

2) The optional 4-bin mailbox also makes a lot of sense when there are multiple users that need to print to the device.  Just this AM, I grabbed a print job off our work group copier and I was surprised when I picked up another employees bank transactions.  Having your own dedicated print mailbox would eliminate the chance of picking up someone else's print job.

3) Black toner yield of 51,000 pages and the MSRP is $93 for the cartridge.  Thus, the cost per page for toner comes in at .00183 per page. The SP8400DN would be perfect under a "device billing" maintenance plan. Not sure what device billing is?  Post a comment in the reply section and I can tell you more about that.

4) Internal Multi-Folding Unit FD3000 allows for Z-Fold, Half-Fold & Tri-Folding with the options for folding the printed side in or out.  The FD3000 can be installed with or with out a finisher. In addition the device can fold letter, legal and tabloid size paper.  The folding settings can be viewed and changed from the SP8400DN printer properties settings or in the detailed settings page that is located on the tablet style interface of the device. 

5) Hybrid 1,000-sheet Staple/Stapleless Finisher is interesting to say the least.  In order for clients to take advantage of stapleless finishing, clients could only purchase a stapleless finishing device.  There was no option to have stapleless and staple finishing in the same device.  That's changed with the new Hybrid finisher.  Clients can now choose whether the want staples or to use the stapleless feature.  Please keep in mind that the stapleless option will only bind (stapleless) documents between 2-5 pages.

There you have, five really cool items to have a conversation with your client(s) for the new Ricoh SDP8400DN printer.

One more neat feature for you

The mandatory security information print can be a great selling feature also.  Especially for those administrators that want to control security for all of those printed pages.   With the mandatory security print turned on, the SP8400DN will lay down a security stamp on every printed page.  Data such as time, date, owner, IP address and serial number of the device can be stamped on every printed page.  Nice way to deter from distributing secure information.

-=Good Selling=

Are You Growing Your Competitors Next Great Client?

A massive challenge for anyone in sales is prospecting for net new business while trying to retain your current clients. Choosing where to spend your energy or how to divvy up your time can be challenging. I know how busy you all are running around doing "stuff"!

It costs businesses significantly more to acquire new customers than it does to retain them, as most successful businesses understand the importance of maintaining outstanding customer relationships.

Customers are bombarded with more attractive offers all the time and at lightning speed. They may see possible opportunities based on price, quality or service. Yet, I guarantee those are not the factors which cause them to switch from or encourage them to stay with you and your company.

Customers rely on their emotional experiences with salespeople more than any of the traditional factors, according to research by the Peppers & Rogers Group, which showed:

  • 60% of all customers stop dealing with a company because of what they perceive as indifference on the part of salespeople
  • 70% of customers leave a company because of poor service, which is usually attributed to a salesperson

What these statistics speak to and show is the important role that attitude and emotion play in determining whether your customers leave or stay. It’s mission critical for salespeople to understand customer attitudes and regularly collect their feedback.

I am confident most salespeople can answer the “who, what, when, where and how” of a business relationship. The single biggest missing element is “why.” Why do your customers do business with you? Is it because they feel valued and well taken care of? I guarantee the “why” factors will have monumental impact to you and the loyalty of your clients.

STOP TAKING RELATIONSHIPS FOR GRANTED

A picture speaks a thousand words...

Taking things for granted is an awful mistake we all make. A huge and unfortunate strategic error salespeople make is taking their customers for granted. When success sets in the "complacency syndrome" kicks in as most in sales start to develop a strong position and thought process revolving around their products and their services as being top-class, unique and something their customers can't live without.

Taking your customers for granted is equivalent to shutting down your business since it is your customers who call the shots now.

You as a sales reps and the offerings within your company are not indispensable given the fierce competition. Your customers have so many options that they do not need to stick with a company which takes them for granted. They would much rather jump ship and go to a company who respects them, understands their needs and treats them well.

Taking your customers for granted will permeate throughout your company. Remember your company exists because of your customers.

STOP GROWING YOUR COMPETITORS NEXT GREAT CLIENT

Chew on this for a moment...

How do you truly know you are delivering value to your clients?

Are you really giving them what they really value more effectively than your competitors?

How sure are you?

It’s not a good idea to take a customer’s loyalty for granted. Meeting their expectations is just not good enough. Your customers want to know you care. Develop a learning mindset and learn to help your customer get what they need, an outstanding experience.

Some tenured sales folk think because they’ve been around a long time, they’ll always be given top priority by their customers. I truly believe it’s more effective to act as if no one knows you or recognizes the value you bring as this makes you prove it every day.

When is the last time you went belly to belly, face to face with your customers and asked them, "What value do my services, products or solutions create for you?" I am waiting for your answer, still waiting, still waiting; this is what I thought - it has been awhile.

I encourage you all to think about this question "What does value add look like to your customers?" I bet all of your customers want to increase their sales and grow their customer base, correct?

Here is a personal exercise... Ask yourself these two questions and then write down your responses to:

How do I help my customer's gain a competitive advantage?

What is my customer's perception of value in working with me?

STAY TOP OF MIND OR BECOME AN AFTER THOUGHT

Sustaining value in the minds of your customers requires persistence and extreme focus. Avoid assumptions at all times with your customers as their needs change frequently.

Ask yourself the following:

  • What’s happening right now to my customers?
  • What changes if any may be happening to them right now?
  • What problems may they be facing?
  • What difficulties are they encountering in their marketplace?

How many of you can answer these questions? If you aren't spending quality time in getting to know your customers better than I guarantee someone else will be.

To understand the meaning of value, you must first put yourself in your customer's shoes and see the world through their eyes.

HOW WELL DO YOU UNDERSTAND THEIR BUSINESS?

Creating true, authentic and genuine relationships by spending informal time with your customers will help you to understand them and their businesses.

What’s important to them and their business; the return will far outweigh the investment. 

How well do you truly know your customers and how well do they know you? 

With all sincerity, when you get to know your customers inside and out, you can personalize the attention you give them.

In a previous blog, 3 Ways A Servant Led Mindset Helps Sales Reps Crush Quota, true leadership as a sales rep is the ability to affect change and influence people inside your current accounts.

The more you can lead with a servant led mindset the better you will be in the long run. The aim is to be seen as a trusted adviser. When your input is greatly appreciated by your customers, it’s less likely they will engage with your competition. Stop taking your customers for granted.

STOP TREATING THEM AS CUSTOMERS BUT AS CLIENTS

You may have noticed I have referred to customers as customers. How many have caught onto this?

To all the salespeople, sales managers and those in executive management, do you view your customers as customers or do you view them as clients? How many view them as clients but treat them as customers?

How do you know when a customer becomes a client, or the other way around? When a client becomes a customer this becomes a problem.

Are you building customers or are you building clients?

You can't expect to get Nordstrom's level of service at Target or Walmart!

Think long and hard about this one... Are you viewed as sales rep of products and services to your customers or do you enlighten, add value, inform, advise, counsel, nurture and become an advocate on behalf of your clients?

Is it your personal preference to be sold or served? When you’re in the marketplace as a consumer do you seek out professionals whom you can trust or sleaze-balls selling you and then moving on?

Your personal commitment should be to build sustainable relationships with clients who value your professional advice rather than to find customers who make a one-time purchase.

If you and your company fail to keep your clients as such, they could turn into customers

I realize there are quite a few salespeople and their companies who take great care of their clients' needs but this is just not enough in today's complex business environment. It’s the ideas, insight, information, help, and guidance you provide which earns the privilege of doing business with them.

Initiate discussions focusing on their future needs, upcoming projects or areas of potential growth. Truly get to know your clients and quit treating them as customers.

I will leave you all to think about this...

Are You Growing Your Competitors Next Great Client?

I understand, I get where you all are coming from. I have walked a day in a life of your shoes and still do on a daily basis.

I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and modern strategies into your current sales process to grow net-new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way!

In 2016, Larry was recognized by ENX Magazine, “The Difference Maker” as someone who is making a difference inside the copier channel. Larry is passionate about helping sales reps succeed in creating their online brand image

You can find more blog posts inside the Social Sales Academy website.

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, challenge, coach and inspire B2B Office Technology Sales Professionals to grow net-new business by helping them tell their story and communicate integrating the use of social. My commitment is to help office technology dealers thrive in a drastically changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedInTwitterSocial Sales Academy and on my podcast at Selling from the Heart.

The Intersection Where the Digital and Physical Worlds Meet

The Typewriter was still clicking away when the Word-Processor was invented; the word processor was a better experience. This better experience caused the collapse of the typewriter sales and service model

The camera was still taking pictures on film when the Digital Camera was invented; the digital camera was a better experience. This better experience caused the collapse of the camera and film sales and service model

The Copier/Printer will still be making copies/prints as its Customers continue printing less and less and reading more and more digitally, and soon the customers’ of this industry will obtain a better experience. This better experience will cause the collapse of the current sales and service model.

The examples above are about Innovation, Disruption, Change, and Destroyed industries. Those reading this article either defend why the industry they represent is safe or they admit their impending doom. Some will recognize the need for change and continue doing the same as they miscalculate the time remaining to continue capitalizing on the old way. 

It seems unbelievable that any logical business person living today would ever question the reality that all products and services are susceptible to obsolescence. Today’s business world lives in both a physical and Digital or Virtual World. We have gone so far past the place where ideas and imaginations were held hostage by the restraints of limited technology and our physical reality, with today’s technology one’s imagination can be fueled and nurtured in the realms of a virtual world and then completely disrupt the physical world.

“Innovative companies understand that Customer Experience lives at the intersection where the digital and physical worlds meet.” 

Organizations who continue making U-turns just before the intersection where the digital and physical worlds meet will soon find the Intersection blocked permanently. Blocked by a new competitor. In the past, the competitor was known today the competitor or disrupter is unknown and unimagined. Competition today hides in the virtual world waiting for the opportunity to catch off guard those who perceive that their physical world is safe and secure in its current circumstances.

Every business must have the capacity to live in the virtual world where they perfect their customers’ experience as they deliver in the physical world. Some organizations like our friends at Uber do quite well in the digital world; some would say they perfected it. However, Uber is struggling in the physical world they have had many collisions at the intersection where their digital and physical worlds meet. Their apparent leadership dilemmas and poor management strategies are well known. When innovators completely disrupt a physical worlds deliverable with an innovative solution from the digital world the disrupted will fight. The problem is they fight with the tools from the physical world they will highlight the benefits of their outdated deliverable by discrediting the innovators' inabilities to compete with them in the old way discounting the fact their customers’ want the new way. Uber is proving an excellent customer experience will win over a poor management experience and the loud complaining of those disrupted. An Innovator can learn how to manage better, but a customer won’t tolerate a bad customer experience. Today you can be the best-managed company in the world and lose to the new unknown competitor with terrible management who delivers a better experience.     

The success at Uber is strictly about their customer’s experience. Back in the early days of Amazon, Jeff Bezos apparently understood the importance of this intersection between digital and physical worlds. Amazon should have taught many that it is at this intersection where Customer Experience lives. Today many companies still believe their relationships of the past are what feeds their businesses. These beliefs will destroy many who think this way. Here’s my explanation. Relationships based on a push economy where for the most part built and maintained by the products' pushers. In this ever growing pull economy customers’ will look for, find and engage with, and trade in all old relationships for a better experience every time. In other words, the customer will form a relationship with an experience, and this experience could be void human interaction. People who like Uber like their APP, their great relationship is with the APP on their phone.

Today the most successful companies in the world live in the digital world, Jim Crammer calls these companies FANG, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google.

Any organization who believes they can avoid the intersection between the digital and physical world are mistaken and will see their old customers and relationships leaving for the new better experience.

The digital world has created a Pull Economy, the customer experience or a business’s remarkability becomes the most valuable asset the company has, and today more and more consumers will judge a company’s remarkability in the digital world first. What many are ignoring is this fast growing Pull Economy is a result of the continuous advances and capabilities of innovative technologies. How customers interact for commerce and trade will become more and more problematic for those industries created for a Push Economy. The questions are. Will the legacy product and service providers living in the Push Economy innovate themselves to a place where their future customer will pull from?

“Today’s technology allows anyone with a spark of curiosity to create flames of knowledge.”  

That quote applies to both companies and their customers.

In Closing: If you’re the leader that believes your current circumstances of continuing the practice of making U-turns back to the past instead of driving through the intersection where the Digital and the Physical worlds meet soon you will find yourself in the parking lot called obsolescence. 

If you enjoyed this article send me a LinkedIn request and let’s continue the conversation, or e-mail me at raystasieczko@gmail.com

R.J.Stasieczko  

This Week in the Copier Industry 10 Years Ago (Last Week of August 2007)

This week, there's an excellent sales tip that we posted ten years ago.  The tip goes on to explain that you have the believe in what you're selling.  You also need to believe in yourself and your abilities.  We all have slumps from time to time, some just happen for no reason and others are self created (not prospecting).   So, when the going gets tough, get back to prospecting, it's jut good medicine.

Enjoy the threads from ten years ago this week.  Only on the P4P forums!

c411DN Ricoh Printer ON SALE!

It is our fiscal year end in August and I have been pushing hard for the last two weeks, not much time on the P4P sorry. However I had to do some research and competitive price checking on the c411dn. Guess who the $%#$ now is selling the printer? HOME DEPOT ?????? http://www.homedepot.com/webap...srccode=cii_13736960 NOW, IV'E SEEN SOME CRAZY STUFF BUT THIS TOPS IT!!!!
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Bizhub C550 from KonicaMinolta

The bizhub™ C550 is fast, compact and affordable, providing spectacular color output at up to 45 ppm -- plus cost-effective B&W prints and copies at up to 55 ppm for everyday document needs. Its bold new design looks great anywhere, even in the center of your office. And the built-in Emperon™ Print System provides integrated print/scan control right out of the box, with lightning-fast scanning at up to 70 originals per minute. Enhanced security, modular finishing options, high-speed optional
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RICOH HONORS MODERN OFFICE METHODS FOR 50 YEARS OF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Lanier Web Site: www.lanier.com CONTACT: Russell Marchetta Brian Gawron Lanier Peppercom (973) 882-2075 (212) 931-6167 russell.marchetta@ricoh-usa.com bgawron@peppercom.com RICOH HONORS MODERN OFFICE METHODS FOR 50 YEARS OF DEDICATED SERVICE AND SALES CINCINNATI, August 31, 2007 – Ricoh Americas Corporation recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of one of its Lanier dealers, Modern Office Methods (MOM), based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1957, MOM is dedicated to
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New From Xerox: Digital Print Shop In A Box

business. The sales and marketing guide is a simple start-up plan that addresses how to train a sales staff for developing a consultative sale that helps build revenue for both offset and digital applications. The operations guide walks a commercial printer through the initial implementation of a unified offset and digital environment. It also pulls together tips that address pricing and personnel, and how to choose the right Xerox FreeFlow™ Digital Workflow Collection tools. The guides direct users
Reply

Re: Sales Tips

The very first rule about selling anything is you have to believe in what you are selling. How many sales people do you meet and you know straight away that they don't believe in what they are selling because you can feel it when people are lying to you. I have quite often got that feeling from used car sales people because they often know they are selling you something that you will be having trouble with later. Most of the time people sell cars because they are having trouble with them or
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Ricoh 2232c fax forwarding format ?

·
On the Ricoh 2232c copier when setting up fax forwarding to email can the attachment file format be selected from Tiff format to PDF format.
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Canon Scanfront 220 Network Scanner

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leading provider of digital imaging solutions, today announced the new Canon ScanFront 220* network scanning solution to complement the Company's award-winning line of scanning solutionsi. The ScanFront 220 is a sleek, simple-to-use network scanner delivering diverse imaging functionality in a compact networked console. The ScanFront 220 device provides the ability to preview captured images on its large touch panel, scan-to -email, -folder, -FTP and -USB memory; and
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Sharp And DocuLex: Secure, Instant Document

Sharp And DocuLex: Secure, Instant Document Access DocuLex Archive Studio 4 Automated Electronic Document Management Software Validated for Use with Sharp MFPs via Sharp OSA. Winter Haven, FL, August 28, 2007 - DocuLex, creators of electronic document management software, announces the validation by Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA) of DocuLex Archive Studio 4 seamless integration with Sharp® MFPs via Sharp OSA support. Capture and Index Documents This joint collaboration
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Sharp Touts New Series of Copiers With Simple Tag

August 22, 2007 By Steve Miller DETROIT -- Can you say “multifunctional peripherals” in ad copy and make it work? Doubt it. Sharp’s campaign for its new MX series of copiers skirts the office-geek speak with a simple tagline, “Work without limits,” in order to let the buyer know that, well, this thing can surf the Web and deliver copies of that important report from any network to which it is connected. The campaign, via DentsuNext, New York, formerly Colby & Partners, breaks Friday with
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Re: c411DN Ricoh Printer ON SALE!

Maybe Ricoh will start selling hammers!
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IS760D

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The scanner must be able to do batch scanning and each scanned document must be sent to its OWN PDF FILE. The scanners that we are currently using are Konica Minolta 7145 and they can do batch scanning but they scan the entire batch into 1 PDF file. We need a scanner that can scan each document in a batch to a PDF file of its own. So if we scan a batch of 50 documents then 50 different PDF files containing 1 scanned document must be sent to our FTP server AND NOT 1 PDF file containing all
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Re: IS760D

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Which Ricoh scanner can handle this...
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Re: scan to folder windows vista

You might also want to see if there is a firmware upgrade for that machine. But I would wait until after you tried what MOTech says. Thats what I needed to do with the Savin C2525.
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Always Dial a "9"

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I thought I had figured out how to have my customer's Savin 816mf always dial a 9 before the fax number, but it didn't work. I tried every combination I could think of using the attached document. Can anyone tell me what I'm missing or has anyone had luck doing this? I'm not sure what a PABX or a PSTN is, but my customer says they have a private phone system if that means anything.
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What's the deal

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What's the deal with the "new" Savin 816mf and 9021d series systems and sorting?!?! When trying to sort larger quantity sets (not that large) the memory is exceeded. This seems to be a step backwards in R&D. I can understand the need to make products less expensive, but there's not even a memory upgrade for these machines. I've seen the memory exceeded when sorting on these with less than 20 originals! Why make a machine with a 30/50 sheet feeder and not make sure it can sort? Now I have to ask
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scan to folder windows vista

i need info on how to set scan to folder on a ricoh mp2510 with windows vista
-=Good Selling=-

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to The Copier Demonstration

This is a repost from our old blogspot site from back in 2010.  Just thought it would be a good share for everyone. 

If you have some funny story to share, please feel free to add!

A few months ago I was driving to South Jersey for an appointment, hence I started to think about all of the copier demo's I did in the old days and some of the funniest things that happened with either the demo and or an appointment.

With that I thought, let me put this out to the Print4Pay Hotel Members and see what they came up with! Well, our Print4Pay Members came up with some awesome content. Hence a collection of Great Copier Humor!

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Copier Demo!

A customer was demo'ing a canon color copier with fiery in their office. I stopped by on the second day to check to see how everything was going. The office manager asked me if there was any way that images or pictures would just randomly print off the hard drive of the system. Apparently, some very explicit images had been printed on the copier right before I got there. Rightfully so she was absolutely furious. I explained that the pictures had to have been printed by someone in the office. We checked the print log on the system and sure enough she was able to identify the culprit. I ended up closing the deal and the same office manager admitted to me that she loved the image quality on the system, even the explicit pictures looked great!

from kdbyrum in Myrtle Beach

Rep: What's your copier volume?

Client: Well, uh, everyone in the office uses it.

from JW in LA

I customer once called me to ask for the "White Toner" for their copier.

I told them that their copier only had black toner, but they wanted white toner to print on black construction paper.

from JasonR in Tennessee

In downtown Princeton, NJ (right across the street from Princeton University). Had just demo'd a small Adler Royal 209 (boy was that unit a piece of garbage). Well, rolled the copier gurney into the back of the car. Pulled out and into traffic, stopped at the light, and being young and foolish, I gunned the gas pedal with the green light. The car went forward the copier gurney and copier wne backwards and landed on the street, seems like I forgot to close the hatch!!

from AP in NJ

Had a demo years ago on a fax machine. Had a big wheel from corporate wanting to do a ride along with a rep for the day. Customer wanted to see quality and asked one of their customers to send a test fax. As all the admin complained about the speed, the corp guy explained that a very detailed fax would take more time because of memory issues. As everyone crowded around the fax to inspect, a very vivid porn image was reproduced with striking detail. We made the sale!

from BillW in NJ

Several years back we had a demo in a pastor's home office for a couple of days when he called in because the machine was misfeeding. We had been selling him on the reliability of this model, so he wasn't very pleased with the performance. When our technician went out he opened the side of the copier and found that one of the Pastor's kids poured cornflakes into the copier. We got it cleaned up and he bought the demo.

from Btrammell in Salem, OR

I had an appointment with a drug rehab medical center. I asked her how many users she had....oops. She said marijuana or cocaine? I still don't know if she was kidding or not. They didn't buy anything from me. They renewed their lease and paid on the used machine for 2 more years that I know of. And thought it was a very good decision. Perhaps they were users. Did that ruin the story?

Berniedsc in Cincinnati, Ohio

I received a telephone help call from one of our clients who had a malfunction code on their new copier. To clear these malfunction codes it’s usually a case of opening the front door for a few seconds and then closing it again. I asked the client to do this and then come back to the telephone. He returned a few moments later and asked “now what”? I asked what happened when he opened and shut the front door, did it clear the code?, “no’ was the reply, “it just got colder in here” He’d opened and closed his main office front door!
It takes allsorts…….

from Taminol in London, England

These were just some of the threads from Print4Pay Hotel members, if you'd like to read more or become a member click our link! www.p4photel.com

-=Good Selling=-

Would You Be Interested in Making a $90K Commission for Selling One Imaging Device?

I'm raising my hand, can you see it!  I'm interested!

One of the main reasons that I'm still in sales is that I still have the desire to write my own pay check.  Unexpected expense, no problem, just grind the gears a little harder and a little longer and you can make the cash that you need. I'm sure that's the same for many of my peers that are in the copier business.

Twenty or so years ago, I had visions of grandeur that maybe just maybe one day I might be selling a really high end product (jets, yachts) and make some serious cash.  But, those weeks fell into months, then years and twenty years later I'm still in the same industry (that's not a bad thing).  My chance never came or maybe it did come and I didn't see it. 

About five or so years ago, I thought that Production Print devices would pan out to be a source of larger commissions. However, the manufacturers direct operations put the kibosh on that idea years ago when most decided that they'll drop their drawers on price just to get the box moved.

$90K Commission Check

Can you imagine getting a $90K commission check for selling one imaging device?  That would be awesome!  I also understand that in order to make the full $90K, a lot of things would have to go right, along with being in the right place at the right time.  

Ok, right time, right place, everything to fall just right so that we could secure the order.  Seems to me, that's something that we (salespeople) are experiencing every day of the week.  When was the last time you had an opportunity to bring home a $90K commission check?   I think about the margins that I have to work with.  In order to make $90K on one device for one sale I'd have to have $300K of GP built it.  Ah, that's not going to happen with selling just one copier or even a few production systems.

But, what I can tell you is that YOU can have these types of 90K commission opportunities.  Dang, I can have these types of 90K commission opportunities. 

Times are changing, hardware is changing and I'm all for it.  Recently I was able to secure a copy of the pricing and commission structure for Muratec  America a Konica Minolta Company complete line of Color Label & Packaging devices.  I was blown away with the commission structure that is being offered for sales agents!

Did I mention the sales agent part? 

Muratec is looking for sales agents in specific markets to sell their entire line of Color Label Press Series. 

PKG-675-banners_300x150Let me get back to the opportunity to make that $90K commission check.  Earning that $90K would mean that you would have sold their high end PKG-675i PKG & PKG-675L system. Now, I understand that opportunities like this are not an every day occurrence, however I also understand that every day beings a new opportunity.  Sooner or later you will run into one of these opportunities and wouldn't it be grand that you're at least in the running to garner and order like this?

There are also five other models of Color Label Presses that Sales Agents can sell.  Those commissions start at $7,000 and runs up to $82,000, depending on what model you sold.  In addition one of the best points of the program is that Sales Agents only sell.  All of the supplies, support, setup and training is handled by Muratec America.  

I'm not writing this because Muratec America

I'm not writing this because Muratec America asked me to, nor am I getting paid to write this blog. I'm writing this because I'm exciting that finally I could have the opportunity to make some serious commissions.   I can finally have leave that dream of having the opportunity to sell some big ticket items that are in my wheelhouse of knowledge.  Imaging is imaging, we're just using a different process to the image on the substrate.

The other reason for writing this is because I believe there are many of us that are not happy with what has happened to the copier business in the last seven years.  Margins shrinking, longer sales cycles, tons of competition, and let's face it all of our devices from all manufacturers perform well and are almost identical in what they do.

Am I stepping out on this new adventure?

I'd like to, but there are many things I need to address on a personal, financial and business level before I make the jump.  I may never make that jump, but I believe that there may be others who are reading this blog that may be ready for something new, something different, something exciting and something that can pay some big bucks. 

What I can tell you is that I want to have opportunities like these.

-=Good Selling=-

Brent Gleeson, Navy SEAL Combat Veteran to Give Keynote Address @BTAPhilly Grand Slam Event

BTA Grand Slam start time is 3PM at the Philadelphia Marriot Downtown on Wednesday the 13th of September and completes about 4PM on the 14th. During the evening of the 14th attendees can also travel to Citizens Bank Park at 7PM to see the Phillies host the Miami Marlins and Giancarlo Stanton's MLB League Leading forty-six home runs. 

Brent Gleeson, Navy SEAL Combat Veteran will deliver the keynote address. Not sure if I've ever heard Brent speak before, I thought I might have however I may have not, thus I thought I it would be appropriate to take a paragraph from his LinkedIn page and post it here for everyone.

TakingPoint Leadership offers motivational keynote presentation on topics ranging from leadership to building high performance cultures that get winning results. TakingPoint Leadership also offers executive coaching, team building experiences and workshops. As the founder and lead speaker at TakingPoint Leadership, Gleeson has brought his business leadership expertise to clients all over the world. Learn more at www.BrentGleesonSpeaker.com

Over the years, I've enjoyed how these events are formatted.  If you've never attended one a BTA  event, you'll be quite satisfied with how the event is laid out.  BTA starts with one large conference room,  then to the  middle of the room are tables and chairs. This is were all of the attendees can sit and view the Keynote Address and the Educational Sessions.  In the same room, and along the outside walls are tables that house the BTA sponsors.  It's pretty cool because everything takes place in that one room.  In addition at the end of every Educational Session there's about a 45 minute break so that you can network and or visit those BTA sponsors. 

Educational Sessions

Wednesday starts at 3PM with the keynote address from Brent Gleeson. After Gleeson we'll see West McDonald, vice president of business development, Print Audit deliver the educational session for Seat-Based Billing vs. Device-Based Billing. 

Our next session will see Kim Ward, director of training & development, Learning Outsource Group talk on Sales Management: Leadership & Skills Necessary for Maximum Impact

As soon as 6PM rolls around attendees can then attend the welcoming reception in the Hotel.

Our next day starts at 7AM for Breakfast and we'll see four more Educational Sessions from:

Compensation Plans: Getting the Biggest Bang for Your Buck
Luis Gonzalez, president & owner, SalesScoreKeeper.com

Going After the Big Fish
Kate Kingston, founder & president, Kingston Training Group

Is Your Marketing Program Taking You to the Danger Zone?
Aaron Dyck, vice president of solutions, & Matthew McGuire, director of solutions, Clover Imaging Group

Digital & Social Media Marketing Tips for Time-Strapped Dealers
Harry Hecht, business coach

At the end of the day, it's off to Citizens Bank Park for the ball game!

You can never stop learning right?  Come to think of it why would you ever want to stop learning? These BTA events allows us to connect and collaborate with our peers.  In addition, we get to hear different strategies from different vendors that may help us increase out profits, sales and or efficiencies. I've always been a fan of these events, and if you can wrangle two days out of your schedule, you'll be glad you did. 

BTW, you can register here

-=Good Selling=-

While you’re marketing to your Customers, Someone is stealing them with their Remarkability

While you’re marketing to your Customers, Someone is stealing them with their Remarkability.

Marketing has no power over Remarkability. Why do so many organizations fall victim to the new competitor who through their remarkability delivered a better experience? And why do so many organizations spend more on Marketing, than their remarkability? Or why do all organizations have marketing departments and hardly any have Remarkability departments? Today too many organizations are buying marketing campaigns instead they should be investing to increase their remarkability.

A simple answer is most of these organizations believed that great marketing would sell anything to their great relationships. Today, however, the new unknown competitor hunts for these organizations they listen for those who cheer the loudest “WE HAVE THE GREATEST RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR CUSTOMERS.” Then they attack with a weapon called “A REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE.” Well it is 2017, and Great Relationships might get you invited to lunch, but it won’t guarantee a continuing business relationship. Today customers will trade in a relationship for a better experience like one would dump an old car. Customers today want a remarkable experience, they do not care about your slogans and marketing propaganda. And if you are in fact remarkable your customers can tell the world in seconds. 

Every business must agree that their Remarkability must come before their Marketing. So every business must ask this.

Does this marketing expense make me more Remarkable, or just tell people how remarkable I am?

For many marketing is telling their story as they believe it. Many organizations look at their marketing as merit badges, badges they award themselves. Why do businesses not understand that their customers should be their marketing departments? Especially with today’s technologies for communicating.

A slick marketing campaign might temporarily fool one of your value, however, sooner or later your remarkability is what determines a continuation or a referral of your services. No business buys a beautiful but broken brochure twice. Today customers want an experience which they define as remarkable. Therefore companies that focus on their remarkability will always invest towards its constant improvement, and companies who don’t focus on their remarkability will continue turning over their check books to marketers. Remarkable businesses get the reward of customers buying them; unremarkable businesses will always be buying customers.

“Today businesses must remember, your customers will always be yours and your competitors’ prospects, so businesses must always treat their customers as prospects and continuously deliver them a remarkable experience.”     

Today organizations must understand that customers are not for life because your marketing says so, customers are only for the life of your Remarketability, which is always threatened by someone else more remarkable. Those who yell from their roof top how great they are, should silence their noise and listen for the cheers from their customers yelling we want more. Those organizations marketing to their external customers with sayings like “Customers for Life,” must educate their internal customers that this translates to "Prospects for life." Thinking our customers’ relationships will last forever confuses the importance of customer experience, over customer relationship.

” Your Marketing is about you cheering you; your Remarkability is about your customers cheering you.” 

R.J. Stasieczko

Using Cloud Office Automation to Align Business and IT

Cloud Office Automation Fits With Your BusinessCloud office automation is the core building block for both departmental process improvement initiatives and for broader, organization-wide transformation. Without automation of core office processes, most digital transformation efforts rest on a foundation of sand.

Of course, an employee’s view of office automation varies depending on their role. Organizations need to incorporate these different perspectives in their change management strategies when “selling” a new enterprise software solution.

The Worker Perspective

For example, when I speak with individual knowledge workers, I hear things like, “Stop wasting my time on the same thing over and over” and “I just need the right document at the right time -- how can I tell whether this is the latest version?”

They don’t care HOW this is done. If the organization can’t provide a way to do it, they’ll find their own consumer solutions.

The Line-of-Business Manager Perspective

Line-of-business manager or process owners want to improve the speed, clarity and accuracy of decision making. They want to eliminate manual shuffling and disorganized storage of documents. They want to assume ownership of improving their own processes.

Most importantly, they don’t want to wait in a long IT development queue laden with complex policies and delayed decision-making. If they can’t get what they want from IT, they’ll likely go find a single process SaaS solution.

IT Leadership Perspective

IT leaders don’t want to be left holding the bag for a bunch of disconnected consumer solutions adopted by individual knowledge workers. They don’t want LOB executives to grab single purpose SaaS solutions without regard to how these solutions fit together across departments.

They want to build and extend corporate technology stacks with fewer integration challenges and more predictability.

Cloud Office Automation Brings Them Together

Cloud office automation is central to addressing all three sets of expectations. It works best in document-centric business workflows where time spent by knowledge workers needs to shift from tedious, manual tasks to more strategic “deep work” that provides meaningful value to your organization.

These workflows are often found in the business office of an organization. Departments like human resources, accounting, legal, procurement and others use repeatable processes that break down into steps, assignments and decisions.

At the heart of these processes are documents, and cloud office automation is key to bringing together knowledge workers, process owners, and IT into a single information management strategy.

Solve five business and IT requirements with cloud based document manageent

 “Visit http://blog.docuware.com/document-management for more office automation content.”

 

This Week in the Copier Industry 10 Years Ago (Third Week of August 2007)

Not much here this week.  However, I dug these dates up and stuff that happened ten years ago this week! Enjoy!

  • Aug 14 Coordinated bombings in Yazidi communities in Iraq kill at least 500 people, the second-deadliest terror attack of all time
  • Aug 15 An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates Ica and various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring 1,090.
  • Aug 21 Hurricane Dean makes its first landfall in Costa Maya, Mexico with winds at 165 mph. Dean is the first storm since Hurricane Andrew to make landfall as a Category 5.
  • Aug 22 The Texas Rangers rout the Baltimore Orioles 30-3, the most runs scored by a team in modern MLB history.
  • Aug 22 The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails in one day


'Best Image Quality' Award To Konica Minolta bizhub

interviews with hundreds of customers. After a thorough validation process, we were left with 207 locations representing a device population of 237 MFPs.” “This year Konica Minolta MFPs were ranked the highest overall with respect to Image Quality, beating out rivals such as Canon, HP, Ricoh, Xerox and others,” added Slawetsky. “Konica Minolta also was rated highest in Printer Capability, Scanning Capability and more. Based on feedback from end users, anyone with stringent image quality requirements
Topic

Ricoh Gelsprinter Promo

Buy 5 Get One FREE!see attached file
Topic

RICOH ANNOUNCES RELATIONSHIP WITH NASBA

its presence and further its commitment to the channel community. NASBA will help Ricoh connect to more than 15,000 of NASBA’s reseller members and 45 vendor partners. NASBA has the single largest IT sales channel of its kind and Ricoh will be able to utilize its relationship to recruit more resellers, increase sales with existing resellers and create broader exposure of Ricoh’s brand, channel reseller programs and product offerings. Ricoh is committed to supporting NASBA’s reseller members and
Topic

Weekend notes 8/19

across the southwestern U.S., which sold out to DANKA. He started Documation after his departure from DANKA. o POA has locations throughout the states of Oregon and Washington, including Seattle, Portland, etc. In addition, the company also has a location in Phoenix & Tucson. o Carries Konica Minolta, Sharp, Ricoh, Toshiba, Hewlett Packard, and Xerox printers. o Owned by Terry Newsom o Founded in 1976
Reply

Re: Bates Stamping MP4500sp

·
IPro is one of Ricoh's new 3rd party solution providers and they have a product that has a built in "bates" solution. I have not had time to research it yet but I will see it in September at the Ricoh Developers Conference. Here is a small brochure i found.
Topic

Xerox Pricing!

See attached Xerox document
Reply

Re: B2C defined

·
Correct. B2C means "Black to Color." This term was created about 5 years ago to designate the "next big thing" in the industry, which was the move from black & white output to color output in the office. Sort of along the lines of "A-to-D" for the Analog to Digital transition. I think the results of the last few years are proof that this revolution has happened (and is still happening). And to re-iterate what Eddie 2 Times said, Ricoh color MFPs can be used in a B2C environment (traditionally
Reply

Re: Stewart Letter to Customers in North East!

·
or comparison! Oh, and do not waste your toner to give your competitor free advertising! BTW, JasonR, you had it right the first time. See good plain English explanation at http://www.dancingwithlawyers....freeinfo/libel.shtml (ignore the sales pitch at the end). "Defamation is written or spoken injury to a person or organization's reputation. Libel is the written act of defamation, vs. slander, the oral act of defamation." Does the letter (written distributed document) libel the former
Reply

Re: B2C defined

·
Allow me to comment on this for a moment. Ricoh B2C is a strategy, not a product. The conecpt of B2C came about as an effort to transform B&W customers into color. The B2C strategy was to offer a system that was equivalent to B&W systems in every feature and function, with comparable B&W CPC. Most importantly, systems like this did not need a color specialist to sell as typical customers were just looking to make sure reference colors were in place (ie red apples, blue sky, and green grass
Reply

Re: SP4110N Envelope Crinkling

·
I have never seen a Ricoh printer (or any other laser printer) consistently produce printed envelopes without creasing the paper. 3 "flaps" of paper going thru pressure and heat - like ironing shirt collar. Humidity seems to affect this more than anything else. GelSprinters won't wrinkle your envelopes. It doesn't appear you can select number 10 size envelopes. I think you will have to input the length and width as a custom size.
-=Good Selling=-

Las Vegas Technology Sales Team Amps Up Their Social Sales Strategy

Buying habits have changed. Social networks have forever disrupted the way people buy:

The good news is forward-thinking B2B Technology Sales Teams know how to capitalize on trends. To take full advantage of a trend, you need to do things the right way.

Doing things the right way, this is what drives me as I am wholly committed to helping sales teams weave and integrate social selling within their business development efforts to grow net new business. I want you to get results. I am passionate about doing this the right way.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

First things first, it is buying into one word... TRANSFORMATION. Transformation according to BusinessDictionary.com is "a process of profound and radical change that orients an organization in a new direction and takes it to an entirely different level of effectiveness. Unlike 'turnaround' (which implies incremental progress on the same plane) transformation implies a basic change of character and little or no resemblance with the past configuration or structure."

The second thing I have learned, transformation occurs when the culture created inside the company is that of accepting the fact change is required in order to grow and flourish. You can’t take an old dog and teach it new tricks overnight. Neither can you take a sales force which has been doing things one way for years and have them change in 30 days. It is a cultural shift requiring time and leadership. It won’t happen overnight, but if you do it correctly, the results will be long-lasting.

The third thing I have learned, the transformation of a sales team requires management support. Any successful initiative requires management support. When management engages in the training and embraces social networking the initiative succeeds.

ALL ABOUT THE LEADERSHIP

True leaders like Gary Harouff of AIS in Las Vegas have embraced the continuous transformation mindset. Led by Dave Clark, V.P. of Sales; they are driving the next gen sales mindset within their company.

"We are keeping our foot on the gas pedal of change"
Gary Harouff, President of AIS

Gary and Dave realize trying to sell digital solutions with analog sales tactics just doesn't work inside the modern business world? They have embraced the fact Google and LinkedIn have forever changed the sales process as buyers do online research before, during, and after meeting with their sales team. They understand how their company and their sales team positions themselves online can make or break their success.

AIS blends the best of traditional sales skills with the tools of today to synchronize with today’s buyer.

Amping up their Social Sales Transformation began with the repositioning of AISonline. Their partnership with ProspectBuilder was step one as the team at AIS realized and accepted the fact buying habits have changed. Technology facilitated the change as their clients and prospects demanded answers quickly. They became fully aware value advice, education advice and insights must be provided online.

"For vendor companies, this transformation may be difficult and will take time; however, new competencies will amplify the value that buyers seek from social networks. This will create an echo effect, making social networks even more valuable to buyers.”
Study done by IDC

AIS ANSWERED THE 64 MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

What are you doing to insure your sales reps have great websites and good online marketing?

Acknowledging their sales reps websites are their LinkedIn profiles, AIS management is now taking their sales team on the social sales transformation journey. Through the proactive marketing of their sales teams online and how they use relevant, educational content to draw in prospects and yes, their clients in wanting to know more. They are realizing the social proof, social visibility and yes the credibility of their sales team is mission critical online as they represent their company.

PHASE ONE - ENGAGE TO EDUCATE THE SALES TEAM

Transforming the sales culture takes more than rah-rah events or the use of outdated management tactics. It takes reinvigorating old tenured sales dogs, changing mindset, learning new skill sets with new levels of business acumen.

In a phased in approach which started with a live launch, the Social Sales Academy is coming alongside their sales team to coach them in how to integrate LinkedIn into the sales process. The AIS sales reps are encouraged to make a big deal about leveraging their profile to create their unique differentiation.

The concepts around social selling are rolled out over three key phases

Phase one is an important first step. AIS is making sure every one of their sales reps and managers have a professional LinkedIn profile which enhances the brand of both the sales rep and AIS.

The transformation then kicks into two more phases.

PHASE TWO - FILL THE RELATIONSHIP FUNNEL

As their LinkedIn profiles and online presence develops, the sales team will learn how to digitally and intelligently prospect incorporating the use of LinkedIn as a sales tactic. They will learn how to proactively prospect integrating the use of their current network (referrals). Through the art of the invite and social detective work, the sales team will learn strategies to get decision makers and influencers to connect with them as this is step one in building the relationship funnel.

PHASE THREE - INTEGRATE DAILY HABITS

With a professional profile and fundamental sales skills in place, the AIS sales team will learn to develop daily and weekly habits to maximize the integration of social inside the sales process. It is about learning how to effectively prospect inside a digital business world, to a digitally savvy buyer leveraging digital sales skills to drive more conversations. As conversations are the kick starter to the sales process thus enhancing the sales funnel.

ONGOING INITIATIVE

The use of social media will not go away. It is already deeply woven into the fabric of our society. Social will be a part of selling skills going forward. Social selling requires regular interaction on platforms such as LinkedIn. Any successful initiative requires management support. This is why as the AIS management team engages in the training riding alongside their sales team and embraces social networking as the initiative will succeed in helping them grow their sales revenue and net new business.

I understand, I get where you all are coming from. I have walked a day in a life of your shoes and still do on a daily basis.

I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and modern strategies into your current sales process to grow net-new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way!

In 2016, Larry was recognized by ENX Magazine, “The Difference Maker” as someone who is making a difference inside the copier channel. Larry is passionate about helping sales reps succeed in creating their online brand image

You can find more blog posts inside the Social Sales Academy website.

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, challenge, coach and inspire B2B Office Technology Sales Professionals to grow net-new business by helping them tell their story and communicate integrating the use of social. My commitment is to help office technology dealers thrive in a drastically changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedInTwitterSocial Sales Academy and on my podcast at Selling from the Heart.

Innovative Technology Improves Higher Education Staff and Student Experience

docuWareTillamook Bay Community College rolled out DocuWare to the entire college in order to provide faculty and staff with easy access to information to facilitate advising and streamline the registration process for students. The higher ed institution was also able to utilize DocuWare to collaborate with instructors and develop standardized curriculum and teaching guidelines.

Tillamook Bay Community College (TBCC) is a small college serving students on Oregon’s rural coast for over 30 years. In 2015, the college was accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities and offers its students eight different degrees and programs.

TBCC is committed to continuous improvement through the Lean process, which works to minimize wasted time and resources, define what is valuable, and focuses on improving the processes that provide value. Each department has at least one trained person who can facilitate Lean methods which has resulted in a culture embracing positive change.

The college received a $2.5 million Title III grant from the US Department of Education to be used in-part to improve business processes and to increase efficiency and resource utilization. The grant also has an emphasis on strengthening the institution through technology and resource development. Overall, TBCC wanted to use this grant to enhance the student, faculty and administration experience, by providing easy access to information to facilitate advising and streamline the registration process for students. The college was equally focused on strengthening teaching and learning technologies and providing instructors with standardized curriculum and guidelines.

Requirements

As part of these big-picture improvements, they knew they needed to efficiently share information. They wanted to implement a document management system that was reasonably priced, had a manageable annual maintenance fee, could integrate with their ERP and Student Information System (Jenzabar), while also able to be customized to meet the needs of each department.

Solution

The college worked with their IT vendor and Authorized DocuWare Partner to evaluate, select, and install DocuWare. Before implementing the solution, the college did a Lean analysis to determine how much of an impact electronic document management could have on the college. The results showed a significant time and organizational savings were waiting to be realized. Additionally, DocuWare could also be customized to serve as a curriculum development software instead of buying a separate, much more expensive solution.

TBCC decided to move forward and implement the solution to most of their departments. They worked with their IT vendor to set up digital workflows, create customized electronic filing cabinets for each department, and develop an implementation schedule that would work for the college’s unique needs. They rolled out the solution to 4 departments over a 12 week period. Each department went through a two hour Skype training class and then started scanning, importing, and automatically indexing their documents. Every three weeks another department came on board. Most historical documents brought into the system were paper-based and needed to be scanned and indexed. New records are typically electronic and can be easily imported into DocuWare. One of the staff members in the Student Services department had prior experience using DocuWare at a previous employer and was onsite and available to help each department get up and running.

DocuWare was first piloted in the Human Resource department for personnel files and training records. The HR department’s experience was used to fine tune the DocuWare training and help get the next department off the ground.

The Business Services department digitized all payroll files which provide the basis for many reports, all annual budgets, annual auditor reports, and general ledger reports. The college’s foundation is now managing donation records, financial reports, and endowment agreements with DocuWare. DocuWare was rolled out to the Student Services department to handle student transcripts, transcript requests, all secure documents and documents that have retention guidelines, as well as all financial aid documents, and recently, all veteran’s documents.

“As each department came on board, we discovered we were building a DocuWare user’s group that was willing and able to assist as more departments came online,” said Ray Hoyt, Title III Project Director for Tillamook Bay Community College.

Benefits

“One of the big reasons our DocuWare roll out was such a success was because our IT vendor worked with us to develop a customized training and implementation ‘ramp-up’ approach that allowed us to continually roll out the solution to our departments. The process reinforced TBCC’s development of a learning community around documents and DocuWare. DocuWare has saved us weeks of time, in terms of finding needed information,” said Hoyt.

Once the college had developed their community of DocuWare users and felt very comfortable with the solution, they were ready to tackle their curriculum development needs with DocuWare. The Instructional department started digitizing all their curriculum documents including; syllabi, course outcomes, guidelines and other documents and standardized their curriculum in accordance with college accreditation standards and guidelines. DocuWare allowed the department to preserve the integrity of a document’s original native format, allowing for easy review and editing of materials. The department chose to archive both current and out-of-date curriculum in order to maintain the connection between past student records and past curriculum records. Additionally, using DocuWare for curriculum development allowed the college to avoid spending $40,000 or more on a stand-alone curriculum management system.

Conclusion

DocuWare gives Tillamook Bay Community College the ability to improve the student, faculty and administration experience. Meeting the new college-wide initiative of enhanced advising is now possible because the college has the ability to share appropriate student information between Student Services, Financial Aid, Registration and Faculty Advisors.

With curriculum securely stored in a central repository, the college reaps the benefits of having accredited, standardized and accessible curriculum documents. The administration and business side of the college continues to streamline and enjoy more efficient operations.

“We thought moving our documents into DocuWare would be a long process, but with the ability to customize our approach thanks to our vendor and DocuWare being flexible and patient, we’ve exceeded our 5 year Title III grant goal of number of documents digitized at year 3. This means we’ve made a 332% improvement in digitizing our documents. Which makes us all very happy,” said Hoyt.

DocuWare Corporation | 4 Crotty Lane, Suite 200 | New Windsor, NY 12553    (888) 565-5907 | www.docuware.com

Attention Sales World: Somebody Is Marketing Your Company Who's Marketing You?

Marketing is more than just advertising and selling products, solutions or services. Marketing addresses all aspects of growing a business's client base as well as attracting new clients to their business.

Highly effective marketing is a necessity, a make or break for some businesses. It's really impossible for businesses to be successful without good marketing and sales techniques. This is what brings dollars through the business door.

Marketing is more than simply letting people know about your products or services. First, you need to know who your customers are. Then you need to get so close to them that you can anticipate their needs and their desires. Businesses must be able to communicate to them the WHY and what your business can provide in order to help.

SALES & MARKETING HARMONY

How many times have we all heard, "Marketing and sales must work simultaneously in a cohesive and harmonious environment." After all, they have the same goal which is to contribute to the overall success of the company by growing pipeline and closing more deals.

While your marketing department has likely invested much around researching the buyer, creating unique selling points and strategically positioning your product, solutions or services in the market; isn't it left to the sales team to successfully communicate this in real-world relatable terms?

I get it, a cooperative relationship between sales and marketing is crucial, however; let's face the facts and get real for a moment, most sales people don't have the luxury of a finely tuned marketing department. Therefore, of equal importance is how are sales people today marketing to their clients and prospects directly?

SALES PEOPLE ARE ENTREPRENUERS, CEOs OF THEIR BUSINESS

Whether you work for a fortune 500 company or inside a small business, as a sales professional you are running your own business. In essence, aren't you independent contractors who happen to receive a paycheck from a larger entity? The companies you all work for provide training, resource and support. Therefore, it's your responsibility to develop new business opportunities, manage existing client relationships and drive sales revenue. Remember, you are running your own business so you must approach each day with the mindset of a CEO.

Being a sales professional is the ultimate form of entrepreneurship. We all know entrepreneurs wear many hats for their business. Today’s entrepreneurial world of sales is multifaceted and fast-moving. Arguably sales’ most crucial role, in addition to closing deals, is maintaining a healthy and abundant sales pipeline. To do this, sales professionals must act as their own marketers, even as their marketing department creates leads. 

True sales professionals take action and promote themselves

THE MARKETING OF YOU

Marketing a company or a company’s products isn’t the only type of marketing sales professionals do. Equally important is how they build out, maintain and market their unique personal brand to build trust and credibility with their clients and prospects.

Your potential clients expect a certain set of quality traits from sales professionals. If you have a recognizable brand and reputation then the effectiveness of client retention, upselling or cross-selling greatly increases.

Conversely, word of a great sales professional spreads like wildfire throughout your client's networks and greatly improves your ability to develop relationships with new prospects, as well.

DEVELOP YOUR IDENTITY AND MARKET YOURSELF

As sales professionals, you work for companies that have a brand, mission, and values. While you represent their company, you have your own brand. Sales professionals must go beyond their company brand to develop their own identities and then proactively market themselves. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What value do YOU bring to your clients and prospects as a person?
  • What relevant experience do you have that could benefit your clients and prospects?
  • Who are you? What do you enjoy? What are you passionate about?
  • What can clients and prospects expect from you?

Check out my podcast on creating your identity on Selling from the Heart podcast.

Set aside some alone time to self-reflect. Give thought to how you can communicate and market your meaningful difference to those who matter most. What is unique about you?

What is your positioning message and how do you want to communicate it to your target market? What is your value proposition and how will you use it to open up new conversations.

How do you plan on getting noticed in your marketplace when nobody knows you exist?

MARKET YOUR UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION

In order to successfully market you, every sales professional needs to focus on what makes them special and different. The best way to do this is to express your uniqueness in a single statement. If you can't clearly, concisely and with conviction describe the uniqueness around you then how can you successfully go out and grow your business?

What is unique about you versus your competition? What sets you apart from everybody else? How can you drive this message out into the marketplace?

Think of what social platforms you can use to communicate this message to your clients and prospects?

MARKET YOUR VALUE AND UNIQUENESS

This is a tough one for sales people. It is hard to market yourself and grow your business if you are not clear of the value and your uniqueness you bring to the marketplace. A tenured sales professional, I urge you to go back to your clients who know, like and trust you and ask them, "What is the value I bring to your business?"A true gut check time in testing just how well you know your client and they know you.

A young sales professional who may not have the client base formed yet, go back to your friends, family or centers of influence and ask them the same question. You can phrase it slightly different, "What is the value you think I bring out into the marketplace based on what you know of me?"

Broadcast out into the business community your value. Become the difference maker!

Communicate your promise this is your brand identity.

Sales professionals must clearly communicate and proactively market how they will help to implement a solution and ultimately solve business problems and challenges problem.

Salespeople must be empowered with the tools and resources to market themselves and their company’s offerings. This enables sales people to help create and maintain a sales pipeline that is flowing, growing and constantly evolving which leads to higher conversion rates and greater customer retention.

I will leave you with one of the all-time classic rock band's The Who... As you self-reflect think about Who Are You?

 

I understand, I get where you all are coming from. I have walked a day in a life of your shoes and still do on a daily basis.

I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and modern strategies into your current sales process to grow net-new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way!

In 2016, Larry was recognized by ENX Magazine, “The Difference Maker” as someone who is making a difference inside the copier channel. Larry is passionate about helping sales reps succeed in creating their online brand image

You can find more blog posts inside the Social Sales Academy website.

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, challenge, coach and inspire B2B Office Technology Sales Professionals to grow net-new business by helping them tell their story and communicate integrating the use of social. My commitment is to help office technology dealers thrive in a drastically changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedInTwitterSocial Sales Academy and on my podcast at Selling from the Heart.

It takes Determination to move a Rock or change a Business

Over the last few months, I have been talking with some Technology Channel leaders regarding my Vision of future Channel Distribution. A Vision I named “The Innovation Channel.” As these discussions take place, I am reminded of how determination lessens in value as some age. This thinking brought me to the creek which ran through the neighborhood I lived in years ago as a child. 

That creek we played in had a Big Rock; this Rock was obstructing the way the creek flowed down to the pond at the bottom of the hill, this Rock would cause the creek to dam. All of us kids knew that in-order for the creek to run free the Rock must be moved. We were all determined this Rock would be moved by summers end

The Rock, was huge, the size of a car and weighted surely as much. It took most of a summer for us kids to pry Big Bertha, free (of course we named the Rock). None of us who took turns digging around it ever considered for one minute our mission would fail. In our minds, we saw the creek flowing uninterrupted we saw Big Bertha rolling down the creek freeing the water. We didn’t think about how heavy the rock was, or how long it had been there buried in the mud of the past, or how many, or if any snakes would be freed to bite us, as the Rock came loose. We didn’t’ care that the older wiser kids would laugh as they watched our determined efforts fail over and over. Well, our determination and fortitude paid off. We had our victory after around seven weeks when the Rock broke loose and found its way down the creek where it sunk to the bottom of the pond, our mission was complete, and our summer was over.

Whether it’s a Rock or a mindset, the flow of water, or the flow of ideas, neither will flow when block. In the physical world it’s easy to remove obstacles, we see them clearly in front of us, and with determination, we move them. However, in the world of one’s mind these dam's, we create of past thoughts and current thinking, block the flow of visionary thinking. We can’t participate in the future when our minds are stuck in the mud of the past, or can’t break free from the prison of the present.

Leaders, we all need to be determined to clear the past from our minds like the Kids in the Creek cleared the Rock. Just because we don’t see what’s ahead doesn’t mean we should not proceed. The highway of business does not have any stop signs in the fast lane to the future. There our yield, and caution signs but never stop signs. Like those physical obstacles we see and move, we must also remove the mental barriers of the past and present.

“When we stop looking for absolutes is when we discover the excitement of the unknown.”

The flow of ideas builds its energy from the collaborating efforts of open minds, minds which have the capability to imagine. It’s from this collaboration that new ideas give birth to something amazing. Nothing is ever created from individualism. Without collaboration, nothing happens. So if your focus is collaborating with like minds, you will build more of the same you may improve something but will never create something entirely new. Relevancy knows when something new is a better solution than improving something which is obsolete or heading there.

Today many with-in the Technology Industries will see seismic shifts in not only technology itself but in the way it’s Used, Purchased, Serviced, and Delivered. End-users of technology will have more ways to absorb the benefits of technology than ever before. Technology is the one sure thing that continuously changes. Today’s biggest challenge for legacy technology reseller is keeping up with what new innovative technology companies reinvent, and how those reinventions will effect technology resellers and their deliverables.

 “Jeff Bezos, did not beat Barns & Nobel because he was richer or bigger he wasn’t, he beat them because he bet they would never focus on the future while they lived in the past, he obviously won. Many organizations could learn from this, of course Jeff, is betting they didn’t.”

More and more we are witnessing the fall of many once great companies and industries. Today most of these failures were a cause of a failed Technology Program. The outdated systems of the past will destroy those who refuse to innovate. Many companies will continue with outdated ERP System, outdated sales tactics, outdated CRM’s and outdated management strategies. These outdated companies will see new competitors. Competitors who find and acquire their customer by utilizing tools and technologies unimaginable to those companies stuck in the past and think their present is the future, companies who refuse to invite imagination to their decision tables. Legacy organizations will continue looking in the same places for new answers while their new unknown and unimagined competitor looks in new places, places where they find these legacy organizations stubbornly stuck in the past and denying the challenges of the present. These new disruptors have the advantage of creativeness an advantage which is compounded by technology like never before. Ironically there are a lot of technology resellers who still believe that technology is about selling things. If these resellers understood that end-users don’t care about the things, they care about the results they need from things, and both things and desired results change at quicker speeds than ever in history. Today’s business landscape is the disrupters’ Playground, and can easily become the legacy players’ Graveyard.

So like the kids in the Creek, get determined and just move the Big Rock, so the water of ideas will run smoothly to the pond of collaboration.

In Closing: as I say repeatedly

 “A company becomes obsolete when they focus on bringing the Past to the Future Instead of bringing The Future to the Present.”

If you like this article send me a LinkedIn Invite or send me, an e-mail raystasieczko@gmail.com Collaboration starts with conversation.

R.J.Stasieczko     

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