With the lack of dialogue in the Imaging Channel regarding the situation, Clover finds itself. I wanted to share more thoughts and concerns for the Imaging Channel. I also believe the Imaging Channel is not alone, and other technology reseller verticals will face challenges of their own as Private Equity reexamines what they thought they knew. Private Equity will begin auditing market realities amid Clover (4L Holdings) apparent troubles. The Investments in the declining industry of print...

Each week we'll be giving you a round up of MSP activity. This is my first attempt and this and as time marches forward we'll expand and get better. Thus for the next month the content will be open for all to view, read and comment. PDF is available for Premium Members MSP Industry Notes July 15 th , 2019 CGI is awarded major managed and IT contract for Public Transportation Administration in Stockholm. The value of the contract is about 900 million Swedish Krona ($900 million US Dollars)...

What a fantastic quote which reminds me of a past blog... Can You Imagine A Professional Athlete Operating With A Sales Reps Mindset? The roadmap to success for elite athletes is based upon hard work, dedication, personal ownership and how it's all applied. Athletes understand they must commit themselves to all facets of training. They take extreme ownership, holding themselves accountable to the process. A growth mindset is such a critical component to the success of an elite athlete and a...

Thursday had me in the field with 2 appointments and ten or so planned stop ins and cold calls. I also mentioned that I would be on the lookout for other opportunities for prospects. Many times reps will ask, "where are the prospects?". Ah, grasshopper the prospects are all around you. All you have to do is use your eyes. Many of you know that I sell my fair share of wide format, and with wide format prospecting all you have to do is use your eyes for prospects. When you're out driving,...

In yesterdays post This Week in the Copier Industry 5 years Ago I wrote about the end of the month for me along with still have 25% of the month left. Well, tonight there's still 20% of the month left. I had two appointments, both where buying decisions will be made for August. Thus they count as two added opportunities. The rest of the day was spend with pre-planned stop ins, along with anything else that looked interesting. I had ten on the list, made all then and added two accounts that...

Just a thought for everyone today. Today marks the last week of the month. I'm had sitting on some 25 plus opportunities and for many reasons (not losing) most have moved to August and September. I'm still short to get to my quota, but I look at this like this. I still have 25% of the month left, and when I don't see the movement then it's time to do some additional prospecting. Thus an old dog like me will be knocking on doors in between two appointments tomorrow. BTW, it's suppose to be...

At my age sometimes it gets interesting to remember where you went on the weekends. What I do remember is that I accompanied my wife to one of our local food stores. I'm thinking it was a Wegmans, could have been something else, but it was one of the higher end food stores. I was not impressed with was the prices! Frak, let me stick to making money so the wife can spend it. Please don't tell me how much that steak cost. If you're a professional in the imaging channel then you're always...

Today's MSP must deliver "Stellar Customer Experiences." Especially in this fast-approaching commoditization of the market. Master Service Providers strive to build a commonality they intend to scale. This commonality is destroying the originality of the MSP's they service. In enhance making them a commodity. "Commonality is the road to commodity." My experience in outsourcing the help desk with two different Master Service Providers I conclude the better option for the MSP's is to build and...

Love it or hate it, paper is still one of the main go to sources for communication and archiving. Living and selling copiers so close to the ocean all of these years has made me almost and expert with copier paper. Image quality issues, maybe your copy paper is damp. Yup, copier paper soaks up the moisture in the air. When paper is damp the image quality will suffer. In most cases you'll see white splotches where toner should be. If you need to confirm that the paper is damp, then take that...

In a 2017 speech at the RT Media Summit in Zhuhai China, I warned the group of cartridge remanufacturers and those who manufacture non-infringing new compatibles. There is a more significant threat to both their business models than the threats from each other. That threat would be from the OEM’s as they would naturally attempt to get back their annuity business in a declining market. I suggested the OEM’s would compete like never before. The market is consolidating and most definitely there...

Your clients... their needs are constantly evolving. Are you keeping up with what they need? They hold the keys to your success. They're no longer at the mercy of you or your company. In fact, they're more interested in the experience than your products or fancy wares. I bet what they really crave from you is clarity, transparency, realness and caring; not vagueness, insincerity or fakeness. In a few short words, how would your clients describe their service experience with you? Come on, I'm...

Fifteen years ago, hmmm, I was 47 years old and was with Century for 5 years. That time was something special since it was what I call the digital age of copiers. There were still analog copiers to be upgraded and the we attacked new business was to educate the client on how much that fax and printer cost per page was. Faxing was still big and most fax machines had a cost of 3 cents per page or higher. For companies that were receiving a couple of thousand pages a month the cost...

It has been about 20 months since I told the crowd I was speaking to at the RemaxWorld Summit in Zhuhai China that HP would buy Xerox. Soon after, another speaker would educate the audience on how that was never going to happen. I believe anyone who says “that will never happen” is void of the ability to imagine. I also spoke of the bigger threat for the remanufacturers. I stated it would not be the non-patent infringing new builds. It will be the OEMs as they fight to capture the...

It was ten years ago this week for the Ricoh "cleansing". These times were the months after Ricoh had acquired Ikon. Many great long time Ricoh peeps lost their jobs and were replaced by many Ikon peeps. GMAN paints an accurate picture of the "cleansing" in the thread titled "Cleansing". That is below or you can read it here. It's still my belief that when Ricoh cut the deal for Ikon, one of the covenants of the deal was that many Ikon Execs had to stay on for x amount of time. Enjoy these...

We had an interesting debate in the office today that was centered around Ricoh and the purchase of DocuWare. What document management company would be acquired next? Ricoh is giving DocuWare full autonomy to keep doing what they do best. You can find that survey here. Enjoy these threads from 5 years ago this week? Konica Minolta Honors M&M Sales Company for 25 Years as Pro-Tech Service Award Recipient Art Post · 7/14/1410:34 PM RAMSEY, NJ, Jul 14, 2014 (Marketwired via COMTEX) --...

Usually I'll post one of Ray's blogs first and then the comments can come in the reply section. However, this time I'll start off with my reply to an excellent blog post from @Ray Stasiezcko that's also on Linkedin My response The tales of overselling A3 devices. I blame on manufacturers. Manufacturers that are willing to subsidize pricing for A3 along with neglecting A4 cost per page. The perfect A4 devices would have the A3 cost per page model with all speed ranges. No...