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My Corona Tales from Today

 

Yes, I went to the office today. Yes, traffic was light when it's normally jammed.

Cell phone disruptions were common today with many "failed calls" in or out. Thinking that's due to the higher band width usage with many peeps using phones for hot spots or just on social media. Emails from clients after sending on-line meeting requests is low, emails from a few clients stating they are not taking ANY visitors. I had four appointments on tap for this week, two cancelled altogether, two accepting on-line meeting requests. In addition I received three emails from clients stating they are not taking any meetings until Corona is cleared.

Peeps taking calls are nil next to none. Wife called and stated her Church has cancelled all masses for 30 days, and meetings by appointment only. In addition I'm concerned about her employment since they depend on donations.

Just about 4PM we had a team meeting and all reps were advised that they are to work from home until further notice.  That was probably the biggest shock for me because I do enjoy going to the office especially with orders!

Of course we were told not to refuse any orders but in these times we are all in uncharted waters.  My time will be spent updating my CRM and digging deep into the data to see if I can find additional opportunities.  In addition I will use my constant contact account to create a few emails that focus with business continuity.  I don't believe there are many businesses who adopted business continuity plans for a virus. Thus, I have a few ideas that I'm going to lay out on social media and see what happens. I'm sure it will be some trial and error but one thing I will never do is to throw in the towel.

I will admit that since I arrived back from Presidents Club in Aruba that I've been stressed to the max. Food shortages, water, veggies and and all are tough to get. Firearm and ammo sales are up 65%. New Jersey enacted a curfew that does from 8PM to 5AM until further notice.  Our National Guard may be brought out in upcoming days to help those that need assistance. In turn I will be knocking on a few neighbors doors to see if there is anything I can do.

After 8 grueling hours of work today I've come to the conclusion that the entire US needs to go on vacation for two weeks.  Essential businesses can stay open. For those that can't afford  the vacation, I would hope the feds will kick in for those peeps. It's the only way we're going to kick COVID 19s ass. We can't sustain two to four months of what's went on for the last week and half. I mention to the two to four months because that's what I'm hearing from the news. I agree maybe the news should be spreading some better stories of those recovering instead of spewing mostly gloom and doom.

In my forty years of selling I've seen nothing like this. Six or seven years ago my area went through Super Storm Sandy where there was great destruction at the Jersey Shore.  But for the most part people worked together to help rebuild, and now it's more like we're all being told to hide or self quarantine as best as we can.

I will continue to sell office technology, continue to write about what I do and what I see. Stay tuned it should be a wild ride that I hope will end in a few weeks.

-=Good Selling=-

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I had to park downtown today in the busy City core at midday. There was a string of empty parking meters right next to the building I wanted to enter.  Totally unheard of!

When I entered the building the Security guard stopped me to ask if I had recently returned from an outside the country trip in the last 14 days and if I had had any recent coughs or sniffles!

With Hurricane Sandy my sales got a much needed boost.  I had customers needing temporary offices set up, damaged equipment replaced and even had new businesses opening up to work on the clean-up and rebuilding efforts.  Had one customer alone that lost five A3 color copiers that needed to be replaced.  It created a mini-boom.  Unfortunately I don't foresee a bright side to this one.  I'm thinking more along the lines of dark days we saw from 2007 to 2011 when businesses were closing and struggling to stay in business and the last thing they wanted to spend money on was the office copier.  I hope I'm wrong.

Last edited by fisher
SalesServiceGuy posted:

Clearly, the dominant story in the Office Products business right now is the drive to help people work remotely from home.

Offices are now empty of people and there is little demand for work group copiers until the Corona Virus passes.

I am seeing a big uptick in laptop sales and dealers selling IT services that enables workers to work from home.

I did see this attached article.

Nice document I like it!  Thanx for posting!

People are buying cheap home office printers like low end Brother MFPs and inkjets with high operating costs.  Probably great business for places like Staples.

Office machine month to month rentals for key home office workers are on the rise as well.

Probably a great time to use advertising to sell lower cost A4 product with home office delivery and install.

Clearly, the dominant story in the Office Products business right now is the drive to help people work remotely from home.

Offices are now empty of people and there is little demand for work group copiers until the Corona Virus passes.

I am seeing a big uptick in laptop sales and dealers selling IT services that enables workers to work from home.

I did see this attached article.

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