May 2020

Many times you'll see me use the phrase "the harder you work the luckier you get".   Many years ago Jack Carroll (Partner with Century Office Products) use to tell me this every time I brought in a decent size order.  The first time I met Jack was way back in 1986 and that was the year I started my dealership Atlantic Office Systems in New Jersey.  After selling the business to my partners in 1998 (best thing I ever did) I took a sales position with Century Office Products in New Jersey.  I believe it was 2010 when Jack and his partners sold the business to Stratix Systems. 

What I could never figure out is why all the sales people did not stay on board. I was the only one that stayed and I guess you could say that I came with the deal (lol).  Anyway that phrase has stuck with me all of these years.  It was not until today that Coach told me what the "luck" part actually stands for, it's Labor Under Correct Knowledge.  Guess I've been ahead of my time all these years!

It's after 10PM here in Jersey and the memory of what happened today is fading fast.  I prepped for a 10AM meeting that never happened, after three phone calls and one email I moved on to bigger and better things.  One of my plans was to secure an existing order for $8.5K and get a meeting with a net new for the $11K opportunity.  

I was able to meet with the net new account, we went over the specifics of the offer and this was after the proposal was sent. I was told the DM was a numbers person, thus I was asked to simplify the quote for the three proposed copiers I was offering. I wasn't going to sell three but I made sure that I was quoting three different copiers that would meet their needs with the hope that there wouldn't be any shopping. I do hate to bring up the shopping bit in a conversation because if they we'rent shopping they might be after I made mention of it. 

I thought it was best to rely on what I do best and leave it at that.  I finished up the revised numbers and email with one caveat that the two extra items I put in had a expiration. I guess that's quid pro quo right?  You give me this and I'll give you that as long as we get it done by x date. Seems this might roll till the last day of the month.

I tried three times in the day to reach my existing client that was stated he would upgrade as long as they could save money. I had sent the closing email the other day and today was do or die.  Nothing on those three calls,  just about 4PM I dialed again and got my guy.  He was swamped with work and stated he didn't have time to review yet and stated maybe Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.  Oh frak Wednesday that's not going to work for me I thought.  With that I stated my month ends on Tuesday and can you at least review it then or we could do everything via email.  He came back with that's no fun, I'll look at this over the weekend and you plan to come in on Tuesday okay?  Did anyone think I was going to say NO.

That's a verbal in my book, and I'll be there with docs that need to be signed.  K, as long as this one goes I need another $10K to hit my goal.

The horse race is on!

-=Good Selling=-

I am so looking forward to having an extra day off next week!  The last 75 days have been extremely stressful.  It will be nice to have three days to wind down a bit. 

Does anyone feel like me that this year is taking forever to unfold? Most years it seems that the months and quarters fly by. So far this year seems like everything is going in slow motion.

I had a plan for today and it consisted of researching three possible existing clients for upgrades along with prospecting via the phone, email and Linkedin.  At one point I was doing a pretty good job with marking the calls, the emails and the appointments until I got side tracked from an existing account. 

In a Teams meeting (NJ) the other day I was roasted for still keeping a daily hand written journal of things to do and opportunities for the month.  A point was made that I have all this software and you're still hand writing stuff! MY response was that at any time I could glance down at see my opportunities and my things to do.  For me it's all about instant satisfaction that I can cross something off my list or put check next to a clients name that I touched.  Yes it may be old school but it works for me and it keeps me on track.

With one of the existing clients I sent out a closing email and I think we've all done it from time to time.  I bullet pointed all of the advantages to doing business now and then put the close at the end for "Is this something we can do this week".  Is it not right to ask for the order?  Many of those self proclaimed sales guru on Linkedin will say it is. I'm thinking many of those sales guru's don't have a monthly quota and most probably weren't decent at selling thus why they moved into writing and coaching.   Rant over

That closing email went out early in the AM and since I have three days left in the month I was okay with letting the ball travel with this client for a day. 

Out of the prospecting today I yielded no appointments,  and no new opportunities that could close in a few days.

Tomorrows plan is to call the one client with the closing email, and then call one of the net new opportunities and give the Ron Popiel offer.  That's where I review the existing proposal and add two additional items that will make the offer to good not to move on it now.  Using this strategy can only go two ways, one is you get the order and the other is the client backs off. I'm the camp right now of I don't have the order so I might as well go for the order.

In the AM tomorrow I'll be prepping for a 9:30AM with an existing client and then it's back to my favorite task of prospecting.

Thinking back about today and was there anything that I did that was unique or special?  Yes there was!  One of my clients needed help with printing from their wide format.  They couldn't figure out how to direct the prints to the front or rear exit tray.  It took me a few minutes and I created a video showing the process.  When finished the video I posted it my YouTube channel and sent the link to my client. Now I have the video archived and can create a blog around the feature and incorporate the video.  I still love what I do!

-=Good Selling=-

Yesterday I had my first appointment in the field in more than two months.  It was time to get back in business attire, that meant the dress shoes needed to be shined, the pressed slacks removed from the closet and of course that neatly pressed dressed shirt that's been on hiatus for the past 10 weeks.

Looking in the closed I spotted a nice blue shirt with very think white lines and thought that would do the trick for the day.  As I reached for the shirt I thought that this can't be my shirt, I never had one like this. I pulled the shirt off the hanger and looked at the tag.  The tag read a 2XXL, okay I never bought a dress shirt this large in my life and it dawned on me that my cleaners gave me another clients shirt.  Over the course of the last year I switched dry cleaners because my regular guy passed away (was with him for seven years) and I went back to the dry cleaner that I fired year ago.  I had left them seven years ago because they ruined a suit jacket on me.

Over the course of the last year I could swear I was missing shirts from time to time. I have so many dress shirts that I can't keep track of them. I thought it was me and the fact that I had some many that I couldn't keep track.  This blue shirt I pulled out was the proof that I needed that yes my dry cleaners was losing shirts on me.  I'll be going there tomorrow and will do my best to be calm and have a polite conversation, however the last time I had a polite conversation when it came time to admitted that the business owner had screwed up, suddenly his command of the English language wasn't quite as good as it used to be.      

I wanted to tell that story because at times many of our clients can get aggravated with something goes wrong.  Thus we as sales people need address the problem and diffuse the issue the best we can.  When we do that we'll get to earn the trust of the client and it will enhance the client experience.  We'll then have a client for life. I hoping my cleaner guy goes the extra distance tomorrow and does not have a timely memory loss for the English language again.

Today I gad the chance to do some real prospecting after our weekly sales meeting was over.  Our meeting starts at 11AM ends at Noon, by 1PM was busy with emails and phone calls.  In fact today produced more phone calls than emails.  The end result was four meetings scheduled for this week and I created two opportunities for about $9K each with existing clients.  One of those opportunities has a really good chance of closing this week or on the 26th which is the last day of the month for us.  Another appointment was scheduled for Friday of this week with an existing client with a $5K opportunity. There's a chance this can happen by the 26th also.  

Late in the day I had a call from one of my net new prospects in reference to the proposal I provided which turned into a short meeting.  The meeting went well but no commitment at this point in time.  However I go the feeling that this too could have a chance to close on or before the 26th.  End result of the day was three opportunities that have a shot at closing for a total of $25K.  Not a bad day right?

The work is not over though and the reason for that is many times I've been in this position before and everything that I thought would close did not.  In order to feel comfortable with 4 days left in the month (still 20% of the month left) I need to find another $15K -$20 to have a real shot of hitting my goal of $200K for the month.  Thinking by the end of this week I can be at $190 now.

Ah it's a horse race now and we're getting  down to the finish line.  Now it all becomes how bad do you want it?

Another day of prospecting tomorrow and this should get interesting. BTW Greg Walters and I have our lunch chat this Thursday and you're all invited to join the call.  I do love these calls!

-=Good Selling=-

Day Forty-Five and in no time it will be a full quarter since being optioned to the home office.  Our blessed Governor post this on Face-book today and the response was WILD!

Of course you can only guess at who captioned it with "The fool on the hill".  Within a few short hours there were more than 5,000 responses with 90% or more of them being negative.  Geesh I wonder why?

Monday was a good day since I was able to roll through my list of things to do pretty quickly.  In addition I also submitted my week forecast which was for $30K.  That $30K will be a stretch but when thinking about forecasting a little more what does it actually mean?  When weather people forecast the weather they are not always right and in many cases they can miss the mark.  The definition of forecast is to calculate or predict. Okay, I understand the calculate part but what about the predict part of it?  If I could predict the outcome of every opportunity I sure as **** would not be selling copiers and I'd be right up there with Nostradamus.  Maybe we should start calling it "what can you close" in a given time frame.  I'm just really really bad with forecasting and the term frustrates the crap out of me.

I had my first on-site appointment in more than two months today!  Here's a few takeaways that I pondered on.

Travel time back and forth along with appointment time ate up three hours of my day. Frak that's almost 50% of the day lost.  Maybe this entire gig with on-line meetings is the way to go.  Mind you I don't mid the driving bit but the time lost is gone forever.

What do you get when three 60plus year olds are gathered around a table with masks on?  I found out today, it was foggy glasses!  Something I didn't expect and neither did the other two people in the meeting. We had a good laugh about that.  Another item of note is that with masks on I can't see a frown, a grin or a smile.  Thus I had to focus more on the their facial expression from their eyes along with body language.  The end result was awesome and another signed order for $12K.  Brings me to $182K with five selling days left in the month. 

One of the issues for this week will be Friday since most clients get out of Dodge early.  Should be interesting to see what Friday brings.

$18K left for my goal with 5 selling days. I can make this happen with one net new wide format order and a preowned MFP.  Now I liking that the last day of the is the 26th and the day after the Holiday.  Time will tell

-=Good Selling=-

It was about three weeks ago when I saw the preview of the changes that Copier Solution Shop made to their web site.

If you're not familiar with Copier Solution Shop then it's time you should be.  My friends over at the shop manufacturer third party accessories for copiers and wide format printers.  The recent update now includes a dealer log in for their e-commerce site.  Once logged in dealers can view the dealer pricing for their products and make those purchases.  End users can only see and order accessories based on the MSRP.  On the dealer page we are welcomed with generous discounts so we can make a profit.  That's a good thing because our friends at the shop want you to be profitable.

What I love best about the products is that each product is well made, well engineered and will probably out last the copier. In addition I like that they offer products that you can't source anywhere else such as wide format exit trays, device brackets, mounting tables (keyboards), connectivity covers (security) and a wide arrangement of the best paper tray locks in the industry.

Having and knowing about these products can help dealers win bids, and win more deals.  In addition my friends are available to quote on customized solutions for fleets of copiers.  When you get down to it as a sales person we still need to perform discovery, find pain and give our clients options.  Having Copier Solution Shop offerings in your tool belt will help you close more orders.

I've used them quite a bit for their custom Ricoh exit tray solution and I feel confident when going up against the likes of KIP and OCE (Canon) that I have a complete devices outperforms the specs of those two.

On  the home page of the site they've also set up a mini-site for every manufacturer.   You can search HP, Canon, Develop, KonicaMinolta, Kyocera, Ricoh, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba and Xerox.  If that's not enough my friends at the shop also have "universal products",  here you can find additional specialty products.

I love this product "Assist Handle", specifically designed for wheelchair users to open and close the copier-top.  When we speak about bids and compliance this offering is genius!  Just imagine if you had this or other products spec'd in your bid. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts you might win a few more bids.

I've been doing business with them both as a dealer and one of my clients for more than three years.  The quality of the products are well made and it gives us options.

Please visit them here @ Copier Solution Shop

The times we are all navigating through are brutally devastating. The death toll across the globe is tragic, and the human suffering through this pandemic will remain long past its eradication. I am writing this article for the millions of business leaders who are being tested like never before. It is my effort to help them pass the test and prepare for the next one.

"Through candid conversations, new realities can blossom."  

Well, I guess Amazon is finally off the hook as the pandemic is now the blame for not only retail's downfall but all those who procrastinated their continuous relevance.  

In business, there must no longer be stubbornness to maintain status-quo, regardless of how temporally comfortable it is. Especially when logic has and continues screaming, the time for change is now.

We have all witnessed brink and mortar retailers, and others fade away over the last two decades. JC Penny's looming collapse and other retailers who find themselves struggling immensely during this lockdown are not victims of a virus any more than our friends at Sears were.

"Perceived stability is one of the greatest threats to an organization's willingness to innovate."

Yes, this bastard of a Pandemic will cause businesses to fail, and many without fault of their own outside the apparent lack of liquidity most companies today find themselves in. However, for many others, the prognosis of their failure was determined unconditional of the pandemic.

"Business disruptions are more about the innovators changing the means to the customer's desired outcome, rather than those creating new products for customers to desire." 

It seems some are suggesting this current pandemic is also the blame for holding leaders in the status quo over the last decade, prevented leaders from modifying as needed based on changing market realities, and caused business leaders to spend all their liquidity, ignoring any thoughts of a rainy day. 

Well, it's raining, and now business leaders must eliminate any indecisiveness or in-action to all they know needs modification to create a new relevance. This pandemic is, in fact, for many businesses, their Blockbuster/Netflix Moment.

Even now, with the apparent shifts in the marketplace, we are observing first-hand. Some organizations are still defying logic over a false sense of their pre-virus perceived relevance returning. The digitalization of the business world is now the greatest threat to many leaders, organizations, and entire industries. Those who ignore these digitalization threats to outdated processes will find themselves added to the list of fallen empires. 

"During disruptions, many will fight for comfort, leaving opportunities open for those who fight for relevance."

Now is the time to cast aside all that is status quo to yesterday's comfort, it's time to stare into the new future, and create a new normal from what you see. Otherwise, it will prove to be your time to fall victim to a new normal others created.

Over the last couple of decades, many industries have held stubbornly to their past. During that time, innovative organizations such as Amazon were creating a new normal for retail. As Amazon challenged the status quo with what could be, the status quo ignored, those new realities Amazon created. 

"Market-shifts always start as arguments between the old and the innovative way; survivors are the aftermath of the customer's choice." 

During this pandemic, some are still arguing the merits of their outdated relevance. Customers decide what's relevant; customers determine the price they will pay for one's added value. Unfortunately, many organizations are out of alignment in the perception of their added value with those they serve.

Some organizations still seem convinced that their need to provide customers access through a digital means is not warranted. This lack of digital intelligence defies logic, and those who maintain this belief are their own worse enemies.  

Today, "One's digital intelligence, is quickly becoming the measurement of common sense."

Over the last few years, I have been vocal about the need for all those organizations that provide products and services to get themselves in sync with digital market realities and align their expectations of value with those they serve around those realities.

Many organizations and industries have wasted a decade arguing the merits of outdated value adds. It seems for some their belief that relationships and in-person engagement would always be preferred over digital disruptors, even as Amazon and other digital disruptors continued to destroy those stuck in the status quo. 

It appears people think that digitalization omits relationships. I would say it complements relationships by delivering better experiences. As people receive great experiences in reaching their desired outcomes through digital platforms, they will create a relationship with the digital process.

Most legacy organizations cannot accept that customer experience is a greater value than customer relationships. This misunderstanding continues to defeat these legacy organizations as they continue to believe their outdated relationship will win against the innovator's better experience.

As I witnessed organizations and industries losing their battle for continued relevance, I realized these three things.

1)"You can be the organization with the greatest relationships in the world and lose to the innovator who delivers a better experience." 

 2)"Customer experience is being measured more and more in the intersection between the digital and physical worlds."

3)"A company becomes obsolete when it focuses on delivering the past to the future instead of delivering the future to the present."

As businesses begin opening again post-virus, they must pay attention to the customers they serve. All pre-virus stubbornness must be left in quarantine. In the post virus world, it is no longer feasible to disregard the realities of the advances in technologies. Those who do this, please don't blame Amazon or other innovators for your failure; instead, blame your stubbornness.

For many industries the time is now to modify your deliverable to meet the new market realities. Nearly all business models will be challenged as they create their new normal. Those who accept the challenge of a new relevance will prevail.

Caution! Status Quo will fight for survival! 

Don't be fooled by a temporary success in sameness as the quarantine ends; customers may temporally proceed as they did pre-virus. However, this will not last as the new disruptors will align to offer the old way's customers a better experience. Innovators watched and noted the many outdated processes the pandemic brought to life.

As you vision your business post-pandemic, you must imagine from the new realities observed what could be based on what should be—keeping in mind that your per-virus customers are also re-imaging their visions. Most importantly, don't discount a competitor educating your customers' in a better way.    

"As a business insists on selling based on yesterday's outdated value, they will lose the customers who bought based on today's realities."

Today's new realities are being observed and continuously created, and that was also true yesterday and the weeks, months, and years before the pandemic. Everyone in business and even as individuals must use the shock of this pandemic to cause a motivation, a motivation to ensure we maintain enough liquidity, and never again defy, misinterpret, or take for granted the tenure and comfort of current circumstances. In business and life, ongoing relevancy takes both the ability to compromise and sacrifice.

"Status Quo is the Killer of all that will be Invented; don't get stuck in Status Quo."

If not already Let's connect here on Linkedin and I welcome everyone to subscribe to my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channe...A?view_as=subscriber

Sunday and tomorrow starts the last 5 days before the end of the month.  It can be bad or good, all depends on how you look at it. I see that I still have 20% of the month left to finish my goal.  How do you look at it?  Half full or half empty?

Below were the most popular threads about copiers from 15 years ago this week!

“A great person defines himself; an average person defines others.”

Debasish Mridha

Getting to know yourself allows you to tap into the road of happiness as this is critical to your success.

How would you define yourself?

What makes you tick?

How are you continually evaluating yourself to improve your results and become better at what you do?

You live in highly competitive sales world. You're living through some chaotic and crisis filled moments. You must be able to clearly differentiate yourself from all the other empty suits.

If you don't know yourself then how can you help your clients?

This may sound a bit harsh, no one cares about you, at least not at first. You must make them care about you, and you accomplish this with the how you define yourself.

You must be able help them answer these questions:

• Who are you?
• Why should I care?

Uncovering what does define you is your own personal journey, not anyone else's.

DEFINE YOURSELF THROUGH YOUR STORY?

Stories are powerful. They give you a narrative to live by and lessons to pass on that shape the person you are and will become. Your story calls out your best self. It calls upon you to bring your full attention, strength and personality, creating a life of significance and career full of abundance.

This requires you acknowledge the good and the bad of your story. A big part of this is learning how to let go of past guilt, failure and regret as you start living your life with conviction.

We all have baggage in the closet. The sooner you come to grips with it the better.

Make a concerted effort to stop defining yourself by what you are not. Stop beating yourself up (lord knows I have learned this the hard way). Every day starts a day filled with new opportunities, so start living a better story.

I encourage you to grab a sheet of paper and a pen, start rewriting the story of yourself. Redefine yourself as the hero and set aside the cast members. Focus on defining you.

How many of you know your story?

DEFINE YOURSELF THROUGH SELF-AWARENESS

Quite simple, self-awareness means you know yourself so well that you become amazingly happy which in turn allows you to live a wonderfully balanced life.

• Are you living as the real you and not someone else?
• Do your thoughts match your actions?
• Does your walk match your talk?
• Are you emphasizing the positive aspects of your personality?

Living a lie comes out sooner or later. Living a sales lies is even worse as this will ultimately screw with your career.

Knowing yourself is the process of understanding you. What makes you tick? Knowing yourself brings you face-to-face with self-doubts and insecurities. Self-reflecting upon this allows you to take a serious look into just how you are living your life and sales life.

“How much we know and understand ourselves is critically important, but there is something that is even more essential to living a Wholehearted life: loving ourselves.”

Brené Brown

Knowing yourself is a conscious effort; you must do it with intention and purpose. This is the same approach you must take with your career. You must lead your sales career with intent and purpose.

DEFINE YOURSELF THROUGH "I AM" STATEMENTS

"I Am" statements are a direct way to tell the story of yourself.

Every single day, saying to yourself and out loud, “I am this” or “I am that” you give a specific and direct instruction about how it is for you.

Creating "I Am" statements does you no good if you don’t put it to regular use.

Speaking your "I Am" statements every day, now this is a game changer.

You are solely responsible for the thoughts your mind produces.

One of my favorite quotes is by a near and dear friend of mine, Kody Bateman.

In his book, "Promptings, Your inner Guide To Making A Difference" He states,

"You learned that the stories in your mind become the stories of your life and that you have control over the stories you put in your mind."

How will you ever breakthrough when you play mental gymnastics with your mind?

How will you ever breakthrough if you struggle to clearly define you?

Rewrite, reframe and rewire the story you tell yourself.

"When you create an 'I AM' statement, visualize it, and state your compelling 'why,' your subconscious mind goes into action delivers exactly what you tell it."

Kody Bateman

HOW CLEARLY CAN YOU DEFINE YOU?

What makes your heart sing?

I encourage you to become your own Sherlock Holmes. Become interested in what grabs your attention and tugs on your heartstrings.

Stop looking it the dictionary for words that define you.

Getting to know yourself allows you to tap into the road of happiness as this is critical to your success as a sales professional. Your beliefs, your attitude and your daily routines are mission critical.

Understanding yourself can mean recognizing your shortcomings. It's about putting them on display for others to judge.

Yes, this means getting extremely vulnerable. This starts with looking in the mirror and saying to yourself, "This is me. This is the real me"

Brene Brown says it best when she refers to self-love,

"It means learning how to trust ourselves, to treat ourselves with respect, and to be kind and affectionate toward ourselves."

Get used to it. The road you take to define yourself will be filled with roadblocks and potholes.

At this very moment, how would you define you?

I understand, I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and heartfelt strategies into your current sales process to grow 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! It's about understanding value before visibility.

Selling From the Heart is making a difference! I poured my heart into every page of this book and I think you're going to love it. You can find it on Amazon in paperback, kindle and in audio. You can click on the book image below and this will take you to Amazon.

You can find more material inside Selling From The Heart.

In a world full of empty suits, I'm passionate about helping sales reps succeed by getting valuable before they get visible. I help sales teams understand the true value they bring to the market. 

I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my stories. Integrating the use of social and sharing my story on LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive office technology world. With great pride I transform, challenge, coach and inspire sales teams to grow new business by helping them share their story and how they communicate it out by integrating the use of social inside the sales process. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.

Saturday night here is Jersey.  Was a great day to get things done around the house.  Enjoy these awesome threads from 10 years ago this week in the copier industry!