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June 2019
It's The End of The Day with Ray! The Retirement Malfunction (Video)
How Would You Feel If You Lost Your Largest Account?
“Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.”
Steve Jobs
How well do you really understand what your largest clients want? Do you understand what they really desire? Are you even relevant in their eyes? Do you even know?
How many of you can honestly answer these questions?
Gut check time, isn't it?
I would like for you to think about your largest client, got it? Think about how much they mean to you and your company.
What would it mean to you and your company if you lost your largest client?
If I had a dollar for every time I've heard these statements, “We service the heck out of our customers. They’ll never leave us.” "I own this account." "They love me, they're not going anywhere." All of a sudden a cold dose of reality sets in, a competitor walks away with one of your largest accounts and no one ever saw it coming.
I'm not here to throw ill-will on you or your company. I'm asking you to think. I know you work hard for your clients. You take them seriously. You provide great service and yet some still leave, why?
Let's get real for a moment... Your competitors are calling on your largest clients. They're ripe for the picking if you simply fail to take care of them, listen to them, love them, learn from them and even grow with them.
All of a sudden and it does happen, a long list of 'little things' develop, things begin to silently fester over time and before you know it, you’ve been replaced with a shiny new sales professional.
If you fail to continually enhance the client experience, don't be surprised if they look elsewhere for new experiences
THE DREADED MOMENT
There comes a time in every sales rep’s career when this conversation happens: “After careful consideration, we have chosen to buy from someone else.”
This stings even more when it's one of your largest clients.
If you start making excuses as to why you lost the deal, you’ll never correct the behavior. The sting of the loss will linger much longer than you want it to.
Michael Pedone
Mope. Cry. Complain. Point Fingers. Deflect. Do whatever you need to do allow yourself to feel bad! Yes, feel bad. It sucks! The initial wave of stress and anxiety is completely normal and probably inevitable. Let it happen and rightfully so.
Question becomes... Whose fault is it?
What I believe matters is how long you choose to dwell over it and more importantly, what you choose to do afterwards to recover (I bet now you wished you took prospecting serious).
Worrying a bit can fuel a positive change!
Losing a large client sucks. I get it. It's hard not to take it to heart. It happens but what can you do to prevent it from happening?
According to Tom Cates, founder and chief client officer of salesEQUITY, a client engagement platform that measures B2B relationships.
"Clients leave for all sorts of reasons," says Cates. "Occasionally it is for a product or service failure, sometimes for a breach of trust or contract. However, we find these situations to be in the minority. When clients leave, it is usually because the provider is not properly managing the relationship."
PERCEPTION IS REALITY
When's the last time you've asked one of your largest clients what they think of you? Are you ready to hear the truth? Or a better question would be, "Do you want to hear the truth?"
"Your perception may not be my reality"
Aporva Kala
No matter how excellent you think you are, your success depends first and foremost upon how good you are in your clients mind.
John Mackey (CEO, Whole Foods) nails it, “For us, our most important stakeholder is not our stockholders, it is our customers. We’re in business to serve the needs and desires of our core customer base.”
Question becomes...
Are you delivering on your promises to your largest clients?
Are you placing your largest clients on a pedestal, placing their needs above your very own?
A complacent mindset towards your largest clients is a death sentence, slow and painful
COLD HARD TRUTH
Do you really truly care about your largest clients? Do they know how much they mean to you?
Are you taking your largest clients for granted?
"If you truly care about your clients, then they’ll care about you!"
I would like for you to reflect on the following...
If you do very little to educate, engage and enhance your relationships inside your largest accounts then why on earth should they continue to do business with you?
If you do very little to help your largest clients do better business then why on earth should they continue to do business with you?
How would you feel if they went elsewhere?
When is the last time you looked your largest clients in the eyes, shook their hand and said, "I sincerely thank you for allowing me to serve you. You and your company mean a lot to me. I'm here to always help."
In today's environment that's becoming increasingly competitive, you must focus on building meaningful and credible relationships with your largest clients.
- Become genuinely interested in their business.
- Be on the lookout to help them do better business.
- Connect with meaning rather than just contacting them to sell them something or waiting for them to contact you.
You all have choices. The choice is yours but don't be surprised if **** happens. The only person you have to blame is yourself.
Yes, this is cold and in your face but I'm asking you to think...
What would happen if you lost your largest client?
Meaningful and credible relationships do matter! Discover the power of relational selling at Selling From the Heart. Be on the lookout for upcoming webinars, training workshops and coaching programs around how to prevent all of this from happening.
A Summer Night Chat With Greg Walters about ArcDrive
If you follow industry press releases like me then you're aware that the King of MPS aka Greg Walters recently released his Arc Drive. Yes, I was curious as to what is the Arc Drive and what does it do?
A few nights ago Greg and chatted about Arc Drive and below is how our chat went.
Art: Hey Greg, okay first question for you, where the heck is Oconomowoc, Wisconsin?
Greg: It’s in between Madison and Milwaukee in lake country. A quaint town, there are 12 bars within a square mile or so. I occasionally write about the town, https://ocondomowoc.com/
Art: Is an Indian word that’s used for your town?
Greg: Yes, that’s right.
Art: Do you know what that translates to in English, I’m betting it means land of managed print, right?
Greg: It means “falling waters” or something like that
Art: Cool, you never know what you’re going to learn from day to day. Your ArcDrive, would that be similar to a Datto box?
Greg: You’re on the right track if you see the similarities. ArcDrive provides hybrid storage of documents and Datto provides hybrid BDR services. Today’s ArcDrive convergences three disciplines; advance capture, managed print services & intelligent workflow.
Art: So could a dealership that’s a little challenged with MPS increase their footprint/market share with ArcDrive?
Greg: Yes I designed ArcDrive to help dealers defend the base, easily add income streams, and enhance monthly recurring revenue in MPS. ArcDrive is intended to bring in those devices most ‘down the street’ sales rep walk by everyday.
The idea is to embed managed print services with easy to use advance capture
Art: Okay, I hear workflow tossed around a lot, what do you mean workflow when it’s comes to the ArcDrive?
Greg: A great example is in Accounts Receivable. Imagine a local insurance agency, with five agents and one admin. As UPS delivers invoices, paper documents, etc., the admin will typically sort
Art: Is there a monthly subscription price for the client or the dealer?
Greg: Dealer cost is extremely affordable.
Art: Who is InkCycle?
Greg: US based toner manufacturer out of Kansas. I’ve known the company and Brad for years. They are obsessive about their customer experience, and eager to share a new story.
Art: Alright, the DCA tool that you use, will it have challenges with windows updates like the other tools?
Greg: For two reasons: The DCA does not utilize .net, so upgrades to Windows have no effect. More importantly, because the DCA resides on the ArcDRive, the risk of losing DCA connection due to inadvertently powering down, is reduced.
I thought this was awesome for Greg to do this for our members. Greg thanx for the time and hoping we can connect sometime in the near future. If you have additional questions you can visit Arc Drive here and I'm sure Greg would be more than happy to chat with you.
-=Good Selling=-
We All Can Agree Stories Sell... Is Your Story Inspiring Others To Take Action?
"We're telling a story. And the demands of that are different from the demands of a documentary. The audience must believe in order to keep faith in the story."
Bradley Whitford
We all love a great story. If you want to successfully sell your products, your vision, or your ideas, you must recognize the power and importance of storytelling.
You must become an expert in telling your own story! You do have a story and it deserves to be told.
Here lies the question, how well do you know your own story and how well are you sharing your story?
If you want to sell, you have to make people want to listen to you AND storytelling is a must have sales skill.
Reflect on this for a moment... Many of you tell stories just to tell them. However, when you start asking people why they listen to and then share, there's always a reason. It might be to encourage or inspire you to think differently.
Do you believe stories help you sell?
If we agree stories help you to sell then what makes up your sales story? Sit for a moment and self-reflect upon your sales story.
Why should you do this?
- People retain more through stories
- Stories appeal to our emotional side
- Stories create visualization
- Stories encourage action and inspire
So... if we're in agreement that stories sell...
- Is your story real, relevant and relatable?
- Is there a point to your story?
- What's the message behind your story?
PEOPLE BUY STORIES
Stories are all about people and the relationships between them. Is your sales story worth telling? Can it influence your clients and prospects in some way? Can it inspire them on a journey to better business?
Michael Margolis is one of the world's leading experts in Narrative Strategy. A 2x TEDx speaker. A strategic advisor to Silicon Valley's biggest brands.
- People don’t buy a product, service, or idea; they buy the story that’s attached to it.
- Storytelling is our most basic technology, turbocharged through 21st century innovation.
- Storytelling is like fortune-telling. The act of choosing a certain story determines the probability of the outcomes.
Stories are memorable, but more importantly are your stories tugging on the heartstrings? Let’s move our focus away from B2C or B2B. Let's realize that every business interaction is H2H, Human to Human and Heart to Heart.
MY HEART, MY BREAK THROUGH, MY STORY
Allow me to take you back to spring time 2007. I found myself amongst hundreds of middle school aged kids, my son being one of them, listening to someone pour their heart out as they shared their rags to riches story.
I didn't realize it but this event would trigger my a-ha moment. I love sales. I'm a sales nerd. I love everything about sales. So you all know, I was 20 years into my career inside what many call a crazy sales channel (I'm being nice), the copier channel.
MY A-HA MOMENT
Weeks later I found myself in a conference room. I was in yet another boring sales training with a bunch of unmotivated reps where management attempted to drill scripts into our heads urging us to regurgitate it back word for word. I know you get what I'm cooking up!
Sitting bored to death in the middle of this training, the lights came on. I realized that my best clients didn't really care that much about the specific brand of the product they used.
What they cared about was me:
- Was I trustworthy?
- Did they get the sense that I cared for them or was I reeking of commission breath?
- Did I seem like someone that could truly help them, not just an empty suit with a blank sales order?
- Would I be there for them to take care of issues?
I realized that the key to my success was not spitting out scripts but being authentic. It was about being me.
In fact, if you boil it all down, most of the corporate sales training you experience is people asking you to be fake. It's all about fitting into the corporate mould: say what we want you to say, act like someone you aren't, become a sales robot as you puke out corporate fodder.
Guess what? This old school crap just doesn't work. Sure, we need to know our product. I ask all of you to set this aside, our clients need to know we care about them and their business.
I needed to do SOMETHING different, otherwise I might just explode!
REMEMBERING THE MIDDLE SCHOOL MOMENT
Before my head exploded, I reflected back and replayed in my mind what I listened to weeks prior at my son's middle school. If someone in my community can go from drugs and gangs to becoming a multi-millionaire by the time they were 21 then what was preventing me from getting to the next level in my career? The answer... it was me. I was holding myself back.
I reached out to the individual who spoke at my son's middle school and asked if he would speak at my company. He obliged and I soon found myself again listening to his story.
Fascinated once more, I asked him if I could speak with him in my office. I didn't know it but it was at this moment, my life would forever change. I poured my heart out to him, became vulnerable and asked for help. I simply asked him, "Would you ever considering coaching me?"
A COACHING MARRIAGE
It was at the point I took my own money ($10,000) and hired my coach and everything changed.
- My coach showed me things that I couldn't see on my own. He exposed me to blind spots.
- He brought out the best in me.
- He challenged me to take action. He encouraged me.
- I was able to be vulnerable with him in ways I simply couldn't be with my manager.
What are you thinking right now?
What's holding you back?
Can you relate?
BECOMING THE BEST VERSION OF YOU
In my heart, I know I wouldn't be where I'm at today without becoming vulnerable with myself and allowing a coach to step into my life.
I encourage all of you to follow your dreams. Becoming the best version of you does matter. New opportunities sit right in front of you. I understand what you're going through. I've walked a day in the life in your sales shoes. I'm here to help.
"Every story you tell is your own story."
Joseph Campbell
ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY
Once I accepted responsibility and it was up to me to make it happen. My coach helped me to uncover it was not all my fault. I became a product of my environment, the culture of my company was holding me back. New opportunities lie ahead.
We must set aside our fears, our egos and our bravado. I get it what you're thinking. I've been there.
What are you afraid of?
OWN YOU
Let's face it, you live in a sales world where people don't trust you, they're skeptical of you and their B.S. radars are constantly on. I get what you may be thinking right now as your suspicious mind is thinking the same thing.
I overcame my suspicious mind by succumbing to vulnerability. I am asking you to get vulnerable. Get to know you. Become the best version you. I'm here to help.
I took a stance against poor, inconsistent training and support. I did something about it. I stood up to me. I said to myself, "enough is enough". I hired a coach and threw mental rocks at bad sales training.
I get it. Some of you understand what I'm sharing with you and some will understand but fail to do something about it. Failing to work on you and you're throwing away golden opportunities to catapult your sales career.
CARING: DO YOU CARE?
If you fail to take care of yourself then how can you take care of your clients?
If you take yourself for granted, sit back, become complacent, fail to continually educate yourself and build upon the relationship with you, you’ll lose you.
Today, your clients are asking so much more of you than they ever have before. They're holding you to a higher degree of accountability. If you fail to nourish yourself and continually bring value, I flat guarantee somebody else will eagerly step right in.
One of the best ways to ensure your clients feel valued and appreciated is to show them you care.
Caring for your clients is not that hard. It's looking them in eye and saying, "I'll be here for you at all times. I have your best interest at heart."
I care about you. I care about your success.
Having a coach who cared changed everything for me. I'd like to coach you to get to the next level in your sales career. I'm going to ask and encourage you to invest in yourself.
Thank you Ryan Blair. I love you! I wouldn't be where I'm at today without you doing what you did for me and stepping into my life.
I understand and I get it. I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I'm fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects through the eyes of a practitioner 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 and Kindle. You can click on the book image below and this will take you to Amazon.
I encourage you to find out more about 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 and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.
This Week in the Copier Industry 5 Years Ago (Third Week of June 2014)
Oh how I miss "bandit", taught me so much about wide format. Hoping "bandit" can get back in the industry one day!
I posted "Selling Copiers (A week in my life) 5 years ago. This thread starts off with Monday and what we do on Sunday. Because any good sales person needs prep and plan going into Monday AM. Check it out.
Enjoy these threads from 5 years ago this week!
This Week in the Copier/Office Equipment Industry 10 Years Ago Second Week of June 2004
Cathedral) Canon U.S.A. and eCopy Honored 6/14/04 5:19 PM Topic by Guest News Alert Print Story Sponsor Results Fuser Oil Online Store - Canon Printers Fuser oil and toner for Canon printers as well as Minolta , Ricoh , Sharp , Savin, Kyocera - Mita , Toshiba , Konica , Danka, Kodak. Low prices. fuseroil.com Smart Savings - Canon Ricoh 2035/2045 v.s. Canon 6/11/04 12:32 PM Topic by jswinberlin any advice on how the Ricoh 2035/2045 might be superior to the Canon machines I may see
Blog Post
Top 10 Copier & Printer Proposals for May 2014
someone sent me 37 quotes! I've posted 5 already and will be posting the rest throughout this month. Without further ado, here's our list of the Top Ten Copier Print Proposals for May 2014. Sharp MX-4110N KonicaMinolta Bizhub C452 Xerox WorkCentre 7545 Canon imageRUNNER Advance C5045 Proposal Five (Muliple Xerox Proposed Systems) Proposal Four (xerox) WC 5855 x1 _ WC 5855 x2 Xerox BID Xerox WC3615_W5355_WC5355_WC5855APT_WC7835PT_WC7855PT HUge Samsung _ Ricoh Deal.pdf Canon imageRunner
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Sharp Expands A4 Product Line With New Color Desktop Printer
also offers convenient printing from popular mobile devices with Sharpdesk® mobile, a free downloadable app. The MX-C300P is built on Sharp's newest compact color engine and is designed to fit into tight office spaces without compromising performance or reliability. "The new MX-C300P is a powerful color desktop printer that is big on features and small on size," said Mike Marusic, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Operations. "Sharp's space-saving design enables this device to be placed in
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Ricoh selected by Agilisys Document Solutions as print supplier to offer high quality and secure services
Ricoh selected by Agilisys Document Solutions as print supplier to offer high quality and secure services London, June 9, 2014 - Ricoh today announced that it has been selected by innovative IT and business software and services provider Agilisys as the supplier of production print services to Agilisys Document Solutions. The Ricoh approach will deliver greater efficiency and value for money, as well as lowering environmental impacts across the entire organisation. With the objective of
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Ricoh Canada Inc. signs agreement to acquire Commonwealth Legal Inc.
a springboard for growth. It's the proverbial win-win." Once the acquisition is complete, Commonwealth Legal will formally move forward as a division of Ricoh Canada Inc. About Ricoh Canada Inc.Ricoh is a global technology company specializing in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems and IT services. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in about 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ending March 2014, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales
Blog Post
Selling Copiers "A Week in the Life" Monday
account list to see if there any viable upgrades coming soon Rewriting your list of things to do Catching up with any updates on the Print4Pay Hotel Whew, after all of that is done, it's MONDAY, yeah!!! Time to make some sales!! The dreaded drive to the office For someone like me, a late owl, I always find myself in a rush on Monday morning. Can you believe my wife picks out here clothes the night before? Well, not me, I'm a man and can figure that out in an instant, so off I go to work with two
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Direct scanning to OneDrive with Udocx
OneDrive are both cloud based you do not need to install any software on the MFP or servers. We provide'out of the box' integration with desktop scanners and multifunctionals from HP, Sharp, Xerox, Ricoh and Canon. Therefore, you can scan directly to any OneDrive folder of your choice no matter where you are, including OCR. Read more about Udocx for Microsoft OneDrive
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Kodak Alaris' i3000 and i4000 Series Scanners Win Better Buys for Business Editor's Choice Award
kodakalaris.com/go/dinews . Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/kodakdi and visit our blog at infooverdrive.com/ . Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/libr...er-1367507267766.jpg Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/libr...ft-1247430184987.jpg Jonathan Ghent Kodak Alaris +1 585-722-4671 Jonathan.Ghent@kodakalaris.com Keith Hevenor Eric Mower + Associates +1 315-413-4225 KodakAlaris@mower.com
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Mobile Printing?
Does anyone know of good third party printing apps. Xerox seems to charge for all of their mobile print solutions unless maybe I am missing a key part of what I am seeing. I have a client who is buying some MFP's and they are going to need a mobile print solution and I am having trouble finding a good one. Jesse
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When Does Your IT Provider Start to Care About Your Cost Per Page?
In the last month, I've had to visit the same Doctors office about six times. Seems I developed cataracts in both eyes. I opted for the surgery and everything went very well. Not being a frequent visitor to Doctors offices, these trips to the same Eye Center piqued my interest about how much paper they use. This particular Eye Center had three separate print devices (all A4). One was an older HP that was just used for printing, the other was an older Canon fax, and last but not least was an
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All Covered Named to CRN's 2014 Solution Provider 500 List
sales and marketing solutions for the technology channel. The Channel Company provides Communication, Recruitment, Engagement, Enablement, Demand Generation and Intelligence services to drive technology partnerships. Learn more at www.thechannelcompany.com . About Konica Minolta Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. is a leader in information management focused on enterprise content, technology optimization and cloud services. Our solutions help organizations improve their speed to
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How fast will the first HP PageWide technology wide-format printer be? How productive will it be? Let's speculate!
Hi Art, I suspect you've heard of this by now, but, just in case not, visit my blog and read the three most recent posts http://reprographics.blogspot.com Because of my blog, I was invited to attend HP's Premiere Event, where they introduced their new "PageWide" technology for wide-format printers At the Premiere Event on Monday this past week, where HP introduced its first high-speed, high-volume, PageWide technology, wide-format printer (which will not be available until the 2 nd half of
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Stratasys 3D Printing and Legacy Effects Suit Robocop
currently available beyond that provided by Stratasys that affords us this level of intricate detail, together with the hard surface modeling of the shells all together in one print." In addition to creating the Robocop suit, Legacy Effects was also involved in 3D printing both master molds and prototype parts for the 'Exo-suit' featured in the movie. These prototype pieces included fully-functional spring-operated fingers that were printed in a single build using multi-materials on the company
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OKI Develops Printing Application for Android(TM) Operating System
TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 11, 2014-- OKI Data Corporation, an OKI Group company specializing in the printer business, today announced the launch of a "Mobile Print" application developed by OKI and available in Japanese and English that allows direct printing from mobile devices running the Android(TM) operating system. Available from today via Google Play(TM) , "Mobile Print" is compatible with an extensive range of OKI's LED single function and multifunction (MFP) printers available in the
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Cintas Leverages TIS' eFLOW(R) to Meet Market Demand for Subscription-Based BPO Services
-ready applications and flexible business model. The BPO services will be delivered using TIS' recently launched eFLOW®5 technology driving best practice automated business process optimization solutions such as eFLOW Digital Mailroom , eFLOW INVOICE for AP Automation and other scan-to-process solutions. These services will bring significant benefits to businesses, including reducing manual labor and human errors, saving time and resources and lowering costs by expediting work-intensive
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EFI and AMSP/NAPL/NAQP Join Events to Create the Industry’s Ultimate Thought Leadership Conference
Quick Printers (NAQP). The associations merged on Jan. 1, 2014. AMSP/NAPL/NAQP maintains joint headquarters at One Meadowlands Plaza, Suite 1511, East Rutherford, N.J., 07073 (800-642-6275 ) and 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 320, Alexandria, Va., 22314 (800-333-6272 ). For more information, visit www.napl.org or www.amsp.org . Follow EFI Online: Follow us on Twitter: @EFI_Print_Tech Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/EFI.Digital.Print.Technology View us on YouTube: www.youtube.com
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DocuWare and Access Announce Partnership
across the enterprise — onboarding personnel forms, expense reports, contracts, sales orders, invoices, and hundreds of other document types. “This alliance provides the DocuWare resellers with a strong combination of data security and an enhanced mobile solution for easier electronic form processing with greater accessibility,” added Steve Behm, DocuWare Vice President for Sales in the Americas. “When working together, these two document management solutions provide the important features the
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Samsung Announces New Executive Appointments Across Strategic Growth Areas
., Ltd. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in technology, opening new possibilities for people everywhere. Through relentless innovation and discovery, we are transforming the worlds of televisions, smartphones, personal computers, printers, cameras, home appliances, LTEsystems, medical devices, semiconductors and LED solutions. We employ 270,000 people across 79 countries with annual sales of US$187.8billion. To discover more, please visit www.samsung.com . SOURCE: Samsung
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Nuvotera Launches NuvoSync for Autotask Integration at Autotask Community Live!
portfolio (including McAfee SaaS ) and service automation. NuvoSync for Autotask gives Nuvotera partners the ability to quickly provision products, manage customers and report on activity. When implemented, Autotask administrators can customize the synchronization schedule for billing purposes, tracking purchases and audit usage. "At Autotask, we recognize the importance of strong partnerships," said Len DiCostanzo, SVP of Community and Business Development, Autotask. "Nuvotera's new Autotask
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Parascript Announces Key Partnerships for its Document Capture Technology in IT, Document & Content Management Industries
document format and text type (handprint, machine print, cursive, marks and more), providing fast, reliable access to information and transactions. Fortune 500 companies, postal operators (including the U.S. Postal Service), major government and financial institutions rely on Parascript software, which is distributed through its OEM and value added reseller networks, including partners such as IBM, EMC, Bell and Howell, Fiserv, Selex Elsag, Lockheed Martin, NCR, Siemens, and Burroughs. http://www
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marcciv
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richj
Reply
Re: ECM and DM solutions
We are using SharePoint, Print Audit, Planet Press, PaperCut, MS365, NSI. I'm not a fan of SharePoint, but then again I don't have to be.NSI, is awesome for capture and with the recent purchase of Barr Systems, they have a lot to offer. I'm in love with UDOCX, I believe there is no better way to move documents from the MFP to MS365 or SharePoint. It's inexpensive, it's SaaS, and it works from the browser. NSI..., I just hate dealing with need to have additional software on the server. This is a
Comment
Re: When Does Your IT Provider Start to Care About Your Cost Per Page?
Suggestion - electronic forms and store - workflow setup to email patient their copy (no paper) - print copy for patient if needed. Doug Gruver - Business Analyst Stratix Systems Cell 215-622-7270
Comment
Re: Selling Copiers "What Would You Do"?
alright, it's the same as networking with your current customers. Over time I've been able to establish relationships with other dealer owners. In particular, one is Pahoda Imaging in Colorado. Working with Pahoda allows me an avenue to still get the order and I don't have to walk away. In fact Pahoda is een on accepting these types of orders from salespeople like you and me
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Cost Per Page Discussion "Has the time come for one cost per page"
One P4P member recently brought up the point that it seems that cost per page is being low balled on black and the difference made up in color. I'm pretty sure it was that, just checkedand it was.. here's the link https://www.p4photel.com/clip/p...three-multiple-Xerox By viewing the quote, it seems that would be the case. But, what about this scenario. Color Black at the same price? Great marketing potential, could we get people to buy in .03 per page for black color? Thoughts?
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Curious about how everyone verfies Cost Per Page
Today, I was in a new medical account that had 5 different A4 devices Low and behold the volume across all of the devices was about 20K per month. Lately, on other cpp analysis I got burned because I took the meter reads, and then looked up the cost per page through our Ricoh Aficio TCO site. I then presented to the customer. The customer was not swayed and questioned the math. This go round, I sat with the accounts payable person and verified how many cartridges they are ordering, how often
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Docurated Furthers Growth, Adds Former ExactTarget EVP as Chief Revenue Officer
leading Docurated’scommercial organization and go to market. Bleczinski has also served as EVP of Sales at Compendium, VP of Salesand Marketing at Inforonics, President of Zmags, Board Member atShoutlet, and as an advisor in TinderBox. Acquisitions have littered Bleczinski's career, with ExactTarget acquired by Salesforce.com and Compendium acquired by Oracle. “I'm extremely excited to join the world-class team at Docurated,” said Bleczinski. “Just like ExactTarget, Docurated has a massive market
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DocuWare Group – Nearly 25 Percent Growth in 2013
fluctuations. For DocuWare’s Authorized Partners (ADPs), this resulted in project revenues of approximately 100 million euros. The largest growth for the DocuWare Group was witnessed in the US market with a jump of 38.3% and together with Westbrook accounted for 47.1% of the company’s total revenue. Germany had growth of 15.9%, which represents 32.6% of total revenue. The remaining revenue, approximately 20%, came from sales in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Positive Market Development
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MakerBot Launches MakerBot Mobile
from a mobile device. The freeMakerBot Mobile app uses the power of cloud computing to access your personal 3D printing library and Thingiverse, and to print files onFifth Generation MakerBot Replicator® 3D Printers, which include theMakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer, the MakerBot Replicator MiniCompact 3D Printer and the soon to be released MakerBot Replicator Z183D Printer. To download MakerBot Mobile, visit the appstore on iTunes. MakerBot believes MakerBot Mobile will enhance convenience
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One Source Networks Acquires the Business of StarView Solutions
while maintaining the simplicity of one contract and one invoice." OSN is also gaining key staff, including Chris Griffin, who has been named executive vice president of Wholesale Sales. Formerly president and co-founder of StarView, Mr. Griffin has over 20 years of telecommunications sales experience, including senior roles at Qwest Communications (now CenturyLink) and MCI (now Verizon). "I am thrilled to be joining the OSN team," said Chris Griffin. "The synergy of our two companies allows
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Re: Curious about how everyone verfies Cost Per Page
If you can sit with accounts, or get invoices, best way to go. However, if they push back on that, I fall back to "industry standards" from a TCO site like FM audit or LDI. When they question my numbers, I then use that to ask for their actual invoices so we can verify.
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Re: Mobile Printing?
Apple AirPrint is really popular, as is the HotSpot solution that Ricoh uses. Both can work with any vendor.
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Re: Mobile Printing?
A couple of things I understand about mobile print Everybody has it, nobody does it "Well"
This Week in the Copier Industry 10 Years Ago (Third Week of June 2009)
Let's see ten tear ago Polek & Polek was celebrating 35 years in business. Thus in 5 more years Polek & Polek will be celebrating an amazing 50 years of giving excellent support. Polek & Polek is a fantastic sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel and I urge all members to click on their site and see what they have to offer. Back in 86' I was buying 50% of my generic Mita toner from them. Please check them out Polek & Polek.
Enjoy these threads from ten years ago this week!
Weekend Copier Notes from 06/14/09
of $1220 Buyers Labs Inc.(BLI) gave out a “Outstanding Document Management Solution” award to docSTAR. BLI gave out its spring 2009, “Pick” awards for MFPs. Winners included: - Sharp MX-2600N - Sharp MX-3100N - Xerox WorkCentre 7425, 7428 & 7435 - Canon imageRUNNER 5050N - Konica Minolta bizhub 601 & 751 - Sharp MX-4101N & MX-5001N - Toshiba eSTUDIO 6530CT Katun of Minneapolis, MN announced it now offers lower cost, generic color toners for the Canon imageRUNNER C3200, C2880 and C
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Polek & Polek Celebrates 35 Years in Imaging Supplies Business
be impossible without them!" Polek & Polek is a distributor of parts and supplies for copiers, faxes, and printers for brands including Canon*, Copystar*, Kyocera*, Konica Minolta*, Panasonic*, Sharp*, Ricoh*, Savin*, Toshiba*, HP*, Lexmark*, Panafax*, Brother*, Xerox*, Lanier*, Muratec*, Okidata*, Riso*, Samsung*, and Imagistics*. Contact Polek & Polek at (800) 526-1360, e-mail sales@polek.com or visit www.polek.com . *Trademarks are property of respective owners and are used for descriptive
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Weekend Copier Notes from 06/07/09
sales are down 15% - 80% report decline in output Kodak announced it will partner with Xeikon. Xeikon, which makes production color systems, will now offer Kodak web-to-print solutions as an option to drive the output. EFI announced it received three “BEST” awards from BERTL: - EFI Fiery XF won for color management for wide format color inkjet printers - EFI Fiery Central - EFI SendMe Ricoh made a $50 million cash offer to buy Carl Lamm Holding AD, its largest dealer in Sweden with
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RICOH CORPORATION ANNOUNCES PRINT COPY SCAN DIRECTOR: UPGRADE TO ITS POPULAR PRINT DI
copying/printing/scanning/faxing for certain criteria. For more information on Ricoh products and solutions, please visit www.ricoh-usa.com . About Print Audit Print Audit has been developing print tracking and copy auditing solutions since 1998 and its products are in use around the world. Print Audit’s products enable their customers to analyze, reduce and recover their printing and photocopying costs. The market for Print Audit’s products continues to grow as many diverse organizations realize the
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Someone Sold a RICOH Pro C900!
You knew who it would be... IKON Delivers RICOH Pro C900 Digital Color Printer for Print & Letter Company of San Diego 6/10/2009 High-quality color production printer allows commercial printing company to better meet customer needs MALVERN, Pa. -- IKON Office Solutions, Inc., a Ricoh company, today announced that Print & Letter Company has installed a RICOH Pro C900 digital color printer, giving them greater capacity and enhanced flexibility in meeting their customers’ wide range of printing
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RICOH AFICIO MP C2550 PRESENTED WITH FIVE STAR RATING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE F
. The Aficio MP C2550’s recovery time from sleep mode was considerably faster than average, resulting in more energy savings with less waiting time, earning it a 5-star rating in this aspect of testing along with its 5-star rating for energy consumption. Thanks to quick recovery technologies such as a compact, heat responsive fusing unit and new PxP color toner with a low melting point, more energy savings is possible with less waiting time. “For over 30 years, Ricoh has placed environmental
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Pearson-Kelly picks up most of office equipment company's customers and employees
ceased operations of Robinett Copiers & Printers on June 1 after nearly three decades as Springfield's "Minolta Man," a nickname he picked up as carrier of Konica Minolta copiers. Robinett, who in September 2006 voluntarily filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for his company, cited short-term financing troubles, declining business and a desire for a career change as reasons for shutting down. Until recently, the company was following the terms of a court-ordered debt reorganization plan in
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FIVE RICOH FACILITIES EARN ISO 14001 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Ricoh Web Site: www.ricoh-usa.com CONTACT: Linda Montefusco Alyson Buck Ricoh Americas Corporation Peppercom (973) 882-2172 (212) 931-6122 linda.montefusco@ricoh-usa.com abuck@peppercom.com FIVE RICOH FACILITIES EARN ISO 14001 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS CERTIFICATION West Caldwell, N.J., June 9, 2009 – Ricoh Americas Corporation, a leading provider of digital office equipment, today announced that five of its sales, service and training facilities
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Re: Weekend Copier Notes from 06/14/09
quote: Originally posted by Neal: Ricoh sent out a press release announced that its IKON San Diego branch sold a PRO C900 production color system to a print shop named; “Print & Letter Company”. (is this device such a poor seller that they have to send out a press release every time they sell one to boost interest?) Well, Canon did that for a while on its ImagePress product, and even sent out press releases when dealers bought a demo unit. This is not to say that your supposition is incorrect
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Re: What's the Next...
From Weekend Copier Notes: "IDC announced that in the first quarter of 2009, the new Sharp Frontier series of color laser A4 MFPs were the most popular product in the 31ppm to 44ppm category of color MFPs. Unknown if this means more company were downgrading from A3 (ledger size) to A4 (letter/legal size), or if they were replacing desktop color laser printers and bringing more sales into the MFP market." Looks as if this surely is having an impact out there, at least for SHARP.
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Xerox ColorQube "Poll Results"
Thursday, June 11, 2009 Xerox ColorQube "Poll Results" To say the least, the Qube is hot, depending how you look at it. A little over a week ago we posted a poll on the blog, we asked "What do you think about "Xerox unveils breakthrough color technology?" In almost three weeks we've had 278 votes, this poll is hot and may top our all time poll in ...... go here
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ricoh C900 (Video)
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Re: Someone Sold a RICOH Pro C900!
From Weekend Copier Notes, "Ricoh announced a new promo to increase sales of its new Ricoh PRO C900 production color system: - End user gets 300,000 clicks/pages for free (color or b/w) - Offers ends 7/31/09 - Customer must sign up for a minimum of a 2 year service/supply contract" I wonder what the IKON deal looks like!
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Re: Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On
Another Lanier East Digital Solutions Specialist who supported all three brands (Ricoh, Savin, Lanier) just resigned. Word on the street is that this person is on their way to RISO.
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Re: Hot Spot Printers
thanx, I found this late last night on the ricoh-usa site: Support for third party billing systems — Ricoh is partnering with PrinterOn and WebPay Services Aps (WPS) to enable hosted billing solutions so that the system can count the number of pages, calculate the job cost, and initiate a credit card billing sequence. When sending a job from a PC the service is called WebPay. When sending from a handheld device it is called MobilePay.
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Agreement will save city $50,000
EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - Mayor Weinzapfel announced a new agreement to reduce the cost of printing and copying within the different city departments. Right now, the city leases or owns almost 200 copiers and printers from 16 different manufacturers. Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel said under the new agreement, the machines will be replaced with units that combine copying, printing and faxing, saving the city nearly $50,000 a year, and reducing the use of paper and ink. ©2009 WFIE. All rights reserved
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Re: Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On
Chuck, I did some checking. While the "Lanier name isn't quite as strong and Savin is" out West, the Lanier brand produces more revenue for the West Region than Savin.
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Re: Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On
I agree, I stated this over two years ago,Ricoh will hold onto performing dealers (maybe) and then Ricoh will only be a direct Brand, thus enabling them to slowly come back from the brink. We'll see right?
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Re: Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On
But those Ricoh employees sure are going somewhere (anywhere) FAST!
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Re: Hot Spot Printers
Jason: Do you know what service companies that would handle the internet billing for these HOT spot printers?
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Re: Hot Spot Printers
Not sure I understand your question. As far as billing a charge for prints, there is only 1 company. That's the service fee you are paying, to have the printer have an account at that company. I have no idea what company that is, but it doesn't really matter since it's not like you can switch to a different company.
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Re: Polek & Polek Celebrates 35 Years in Imaging Supplies Business
During those 12 years, were you using Polek & Polek for Ricoh-manufactured equipment?
-=Good Selling=-
This Week in the Copier Industry 15 Years Ago (Third Week of June 2004)
Each week I try to go back and pick out an interesting thread from many years ago. The one I reread for this week was "Sell Solution - Not Price". Dang it's been fifteen years since that thread. There are many excellent responses from Steve, Scott, Neil, JSWin & Old Glory. What's old becomes new you can view that thread here "Sell Solution Not Price".
Enjoy these most excellent threads from 15 years ago this week!
Canon U.S.A. and eCopy Honored
printers as well as Minolta, Ricoh, Sharp, Savin, Kyocera-Mita, Toshiba, Konica, Danka, Kodak. Low prices. fuseroil.com Smart Savings - Canon Printer Ink InkSell.com has prices discounted 70-80%. Same-day shipping and FedEx 2-day service for only $4.95. We also offer 5-star customer service. Click here to save on Canon printer ink. www.inksell.com Canon Printers - CDW Shop CDW.com for desktops, notebooks, printers, electronics and more. Check out CDW Smartbuys for great savings on the technology you
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Ricoh Printers Make Desktop Color More Affordable
Aficio® CL1000N, Aficio CL2000/CL2000N and the Aficio CL3000e. This new suite of color printers expands Ricoh's printer offerings to meet user's needs. In today's work environment, users are printing all types of documents such as e-mails, information from the Internet, reference materials, internal documents, among others. These documents are often printed in black and white to save on the cost of printing. However, when it comes time to print special projects, presentation materials, or critical
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Konica-Minolta Bizhub C350
Does anyone have any competitive info. about this machine. I have a 1224 proposed and I'm wondering how they compare and what the MSRP is on the Konica. Thanks
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Ricoh 2035/2045 v.s. Canon
I'm putting together a proposal for a prospect who is loyal to their Canon rep. Basically, I will have to low ball on the price and hope to at least put some friction in the love affair. The prospect is mostly interested in scanning. Can anyone give me any advice on how the Ricoh 2035/2045 might be superior to the Canon machines I may see? Thanks for any help. Jerry
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Ricoh Plans To Triple IT
Ricoh Plans To Triple IT Service Sales In Five Years Nozomi Toyama, 06.04.04, 1:10 PM ET Ricoh, a major maker of office equipment, plans to more than triple its sales from information technology and communications services over the next five years to 100 billion yen, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, citing company sources. The sales goal was set in tandem with the firm's launch of services ranging from planning and building IT and communications systems to installing and managing them, the
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INTRODUCES THE AFICIO 1515
a leading provider of multifunctional document systems, including color and black & white digital imaging systems, facsimile products, printers, scanners, digital duplicators and wide format engineering systems. Additionally, Ricoh offers a wide variety of document and printing solutions directly and through partners that enhance office productivity and document workflow. Ricoh Corporation directly or through its subsidiaries markets and distributes products under the Ricoh, Savin, Gestetner
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Minolta Di520
Customer has 4 year old Minolta Di520 running 360k per year. Would I be okay replacing with 45cpm ricoh or do I need to move up to 60cpm. Customer really interested in document server so I want to stay away from 55cpm ricoh because that document server is pretty limited. Thanks for any insight especially any weaknesses of this Di520.
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Lock In Your Customer by Bundling Value-Added Benefit and Sell More Copiers
. Sales reps who make the transition from hardware sales to solution sales will prosper in this rapidly emerging industry. Digital scanning devices have a technological lead over printers and other devices that you can leverage. EPM enables the copier sales force to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of the new breed of machines and helps sell more hardware at higher margins. Steve Breault Virtual Copier Software
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Sell Solution - Not Price
Today's digital copiers are the gateway for a company to manage paper, whether it is physical or electronic. With the proper electronic paper management software solution that integrates with your digital copier you can be selling a total value that far exceeds just the value of photocopying. By bundling electronic paper management software with your copier you can offer companies the ability to scan, store, retrieve, and manage paper electronically; saving companies many times the cost of the
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Re: Sell Solution - Not Price
We are trying to beat our competition in this arena. Locally it is primarily Xerox and Konica-Minolta. What is the most basic software you would recommend for OCRing with the ability to manipulate and maintain layout? What does it retail for? Thanks for the help.
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Re: Konica-Minolta Bizhub C350
I am a Konica & Ricoh dealer. The two units do not compare at all!! The MSRP is a little higher on the bizhub C350, but the quality and reliability is VERY superior to the 1224. I have sold (2) C350's in my market directly from an in-house demo. The C350's MSRP is below the new 2232/2238 from Ricoh and is still better in quality (in my opinion). The only negative is the C350 does not have a fax option available. Hopefully your Konica/Minolta competition isn't up to speed and doesn't sell it
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For All the Sales Gurus
I was wondering if their is an opportune time to contact certain vertical markets during the calendar year. What made me think of it was several situations with Accounting firms we have at this time. Tax season is over for them now and they are more...
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Has anyone hear of this....?
publication called Digital Press Digest or a company that goes by KACOX. They promote Minolta/Konica machines
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Several Best-in-Class Awards from BERTL
Press Release Source: Canon U.S.A., Inc. Canon imageRUNNER and NetSpot Software Receive Several Best-in-Class Awards from BERTL Monday June 14, 8:30 am ET New Color-Enabled imageRUNNER C3100 Series and C6800, imageRUNNER Pro150+ and NetSpot Suite Are Best-in-Class in Color, High-End Monochrome and Cost-Management Categories LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 14, 2004-- Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ - News) and the nation's market share brand leader in black-and
Member
GMAN
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Re: Leads in California
: 408-517-3399 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Preventsys, Inc. http://www.preventsys.com WHAT IT DOES It provides a scalable automated system for network audits to measure compliance with security and regulatory requirements. (number of employees: 50) EVENT 06-02-2004--Announced the appointment of a new Vice President of Sales and a new Vice President of Marketing OPPORTUNITIES potential opportunity to provide… - sales training programs - software and systems specific to the sales function - recruiting for sales
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Re: Sell Solution - Not Price
The basics you need to provide a solution are these: Web based access (no cost of deployment and low cost for training. Ease of operation ( no IT needed) Cost effective. Jim, I suggest you go to sentryfile.com and download a brochure. They have done a very good job of explaining edms and why it is needed and what to requir and what to avoid. A good starting point to begin your education. Thsi is the subjuect matter that has gotten Ricoh to require all of it's sales people to get CompTia's CDIA
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Re: Sell Solution - Not Price
Scott...... Hear! Hear! You are right on target! Those of us who live & breath solution selling welcome all inquiries. Hopefully this site will become a major resource base. Perhaps, with everyone working, sharing information and success stories, we can archive enough information to excite and motivate sales reps to dig in and take this rapidly emerging industry by the horns. The opportunity is enormous. Anyone who wants to talk "solutions", please feel free to give me a call 703.385.0101, send
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Re: Minolta Di520
Di520 is digital (I believe it was Minolta's first 50CPM/ppm digital). Most initial digital offerings from any of the manyufacturers that had a print controller were very slow and never came close to the advertised print speed! reps were reluctant or did not know enought to add the hard drive or increase the memory. There is a good chance that the Minolta prints very slow. If that is the case you will have a very strong position when you explain the state of the art technology, the standard HDD
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Re: Minolta Di520
the 520 may have been the first of Minolta's digital systems but it was a workhorse. Th finishing unit woule do folding. I'd go with the 60...the capabilities of the doc server as well as printing speed, duplexing speed, the scanning all are value added vs. the 520
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Re: Minolta Di520
Thanks for the input everyone, this is for a small private school. Their minolta isn't even connected for printing. They just want a basic workhorse machine.
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Re: Leads in Virgina
Advance Auto Parts http://www.advanceautoparts.com NYSE:AAP WHAT IT DOES It operates specialty retail stores selling automotive parts and accessories. (number of employees: 22393) EVENT 06-11-2004--Announced intent to purchase and expand a new distribution center in the Lehigh Valley of Eastern Pennsylvania OPPORTUNITIES potential opportunity to provide… - products and services to support its technical infrastructure - products and services to support regional expansion. This may include
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Re: Leads in Ohio
SamePage Solutions http://www.samepagesolutions.com WHAT IT DOES It provides Web-hosted scalable applications for customer relationship management, sales force automation and help desk management. EVENT 06-08-2004-- Announced the appointment of a new Vice President of Sales and Marketing OPPORTUNITIES potential opportunity to provide… - products and services to support increased sales activities - products and services to support increased marketing activities; services may include PR
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E-Reader Automates Meter Readings
E-Reader Automates Meter Readings Smart New Software Solution Now Available Ricoh is pleased to announce the availability of their proprietry e-Reader software. This small program takes a matter of minutes to install and set up on your network. The program records each Ricoh devices meter reading at a predetermined time each month and forwards it to Ricoh as an e-mail. This simple solution is proving extremely popular with businesses and organisations across the country who are no longer
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Question with plotbase w/240W
When jobs are sent to be printed, they are stored on the print server (plotbase software) in numeric sequence. Looks like in the order that they were sent. Question: Is there a way to sort these jobs by document names afterwards? Customer is using AutoCAD LT 2002 Thanx
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Re: Leads in Maryland
Bluefire Security Technologies http://www.bluefiresecurity.com WHAT IT DOES It develops security software to protect wireless handheld devices, data and networks. EVENT 06-01-2004--$10 million in a second round of funding OPPORTUNITIES company expected to make purchases to support... - new product development - expanding domestic and international sales initiatives potential opportunity to provide… - sales training programs - software and systems specific to the sales function - products and
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Re: Leads in New Hampshire
material development, advertising, and direct marketing services PARTNERS none stated PEOPLE Richie Faubert President and Chief Executive Officer Mayank Bulsara, Ph.D. Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer C. Wade Sheen, Ph.D. Vice President of Business Development Mark Lombardi Vice President of Sales Bryan Lord Vice President of Corporate Development and Administration 603-870-8774 Nicole Gerrish Director of Device Marketing OFFICE(S) AmberWave Systems Corporation 13 Garabedian Drive Salem, NH
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Re: Leads in Texas
Infraworks Corporation http://www.infraworks.com WHAT IT DOES It develops and markets digital file security software for enterprise. (number of employees: 65) EVENT 06-02-2004--$7.45 million in a Series B round of financing led by SpaceVest OPPORTUNITIES company expected to make purchases to support... - sales - marketing potential opportunity to provide… - software and systems specific to the sales function - products and services to support a field sales force - sales training programs
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Re: Sell Solution - Not Price
One of the hardest transitions that most companies face is that one which takes us from "boxes" to solutions sales. How easy it is at the end of a slow month to revert back to the slam mentality. and Scott, you are right. We simply have to keep our focus on talking points that lead the client toward a solution to producing and managing of their document.
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Re: Sell Solution - Not Price
I for one, when cold calling am never going to drop off a hardware brochure. Unless it is for a duplicator or wide format. I will drop off an document solution brochure, whether from Ricoh, Virtual, Doculex or Sentry. I believe I can cover all of the bases with these products. I have to focus on becoming an expert on managing the flow of paper. I do not need to concentrate on as much speeds and feeds.
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Re: Sell Solution - Not Price
Art, you said, "I will drop off an document solution brochure, whether from Ricoh, Virtual, Doculex or Sentry. I believe I can cover all of the bases with these products." What separates Virtual Copier, Doculex, and SentryFile? Why all three? What criteria determines which of these is best? I'm just getting into this stuff and would appreciate some direction.
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Re: screen resolution for aficio 240 plotbase
We had a problem yesterday when we scanned and image to plotbase. We set the scan DPI higher than 200 dpi, we then scanned and saved as a pdf file. We then were able to view the file in Adobe. However when we printed all we got was a blank page. We have to back down the scan dpi to 200 and all worked fine. We have submitted an alert and we are waiting for a response.
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Re: For All the Sales Gurus
Yes it is. Vertical market prospecting and selling. Churches (Christian) A couple to three weeks after Christmas: I have had more activity with churches at that time of year. Schools: In NJ, the new year budget year starts in June (I believe), we try to make most of our calls during the first three months (June, July, August) and then follow up with Feb, March & April. Art
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Re: For All the Sales Gurus
Hi Bill: After 28 years in the sales and marketing business, I believe that NOW is always a great time to contact a prospect. Let them tell you the NOW is not the time. Present a powerful enhancement to their bottomline and NOW becomes a priority more often than some reps think. You did not specify a "product" you had in mind. That said, each of the vertical markets you mentioned is a PRIME candidate for electronic paper management EPM). For CPA firms just coming out of tax season; their
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Re: screen resolution for aficio 240 plotbase
The same problem happened with plotbase,RW470. A winprint 300 DPI print driver solved the problem there with Adobe. I tried using the driver for the RW240, but didn’t work.
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Re: Has anyone hear of this....?
I used to get all of those publications when I was at MBS. I always thought it was part of Minolta.
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Re: E-Reader Automates Meter Readings
We tested this and it only sends the meter reads to Ricoh. Why would they go to all this trouble and not make it where it would work for the dealer community????? Has anyone else tested this?
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Re: Kyocera vs. Ricoh
I believe that when the day is done you get what you pay for and the Ricoh products are superior. We only sell the 18ppm machine at this point.
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Re: Ricoh 2035/2045 v.s. Canon
Jerry: You said they are primarily interested in scanning. May I assume that they are interested in electronic paper management as well? If so, Canon may propose their fine eCopy solution as well. Virtual Copier is a powerful very cost effective solution and may help you jusify a premium rather than having to resort to price cutting. Give me a call and lets discuss what the customer is looking for. Steve 703.385.0101
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Re: Z-Fold Unit Type 2105 Option !!!!!!!!
I found out the answer after much searching. The Z-fold option is an accessory that is between 4 and 6 inches wide that fits between the print engine and the SR841. The SR90 is still able to be attached to the SR841. You can run Z-fold or booklet jobs through this set up. Of course, you can not do both in one print job. They would have to be separated. The bad news is that this option does not "C" fold. This is a requirement for my customer. My solution is to offer an offline folder from
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Re: Ricoh 2035/2045 v.s. Canon
The Canon units I have seen all do TWAIN interface scanning. This means that you go to the copier, put the documents in the adf, go back to your pc and open the TWAIN interface and click on the scan button. Keep in mind this means no one can use the copier while you have your documents in the adf. As you know we can scan to the desktop, to a file folder on the network or an ftp folder. The other thing you need to know is where is this scan to be stored and why. How often will it need to be
-=Good Selling=-
It's The End of The Day with Ray! Thanks Art Post
I was surprised when I saw this video on my facebook feed early today. As you know I'm a big fan of @Ray Stasiezcko, and post his content on a regular basis. My main reason for that is Ray preaches change and gives is insights on a regular basis that we can't become irrelevant in our industry!
Ray thanx so much for posting this it makes all of hard work worth it!
Top Ten Copier Quotes & Proposals for May 2019
Thanx to those Print4Pay Hotel members for email me these quotes and proposals. I really enjoy evaluated these because they can give me a picture of what the competition may be doing with hardware and service pricing. I'll even go as far calculating what the average cost per page is for black and color.
In most cases there's not that much I can do with my the published cost per page. However if you think out of the box and add some creativity you can alter your cost per page in competitive cost per page opportunities.
One of the ways to lower the cost per page would be to buy it down. If you'd like to know more about buying down the service cost per page shoot me an email and I can explain.
One other item, if you have any proposals and quotes that you would like to share I can comp you a one month Premium/VIP for each one. Of course all of the information would be redacted (if you want). Believe it or not some don't want it redacted because it's more like a badge of honor when you win the order and get a copy of the other quote. Shoot me an email if interested apost@p4photel.com
Enjoy
Ricoh IM C2000 & Ricoh MP C307 pricing additional
Ricoh IM C3500 pricing proposal
Multiple Canon MFP's with papercut 40 devices
Ricoh IM C2000 & Ricoh MP C307 pricing
Ricoh Pro C7200e Graphic Arts Edition
-=Good Selling=-
Selling Copiers in the Eighties with Ray Stasiezko
I caught one of Ray's video last week and I was surprised when Ray made mention of his copier career. Yup, Ray also slung copiers just like most of us. I reached out to Ray a few days ago and asked if he'd like to be give us some insight as to what it was like to sell copiers in the eighties.
Selling Copiers in the Eighties
Ray, what year did you start in the industry, what company and what position did you start out with? 1989
Did you work for a dealer or direct ? I worked for Lanier Worldwide Tampa Office.
What was the percentage of copier sales people that made it past two years? 10-15%
What did you like the most about your job in the eighties? Really the 90’s but still 30 years ago. It was a great experience learning how to sell. Lanier was a world class operation and had the industry’s best training in those days. The comradery and the fun of business was awesome.
What did you dislike the most about your job in the eighties? I really liked the job, as all jobs sometimes the people can be challenging to one’s happiness. One of the greatest things in those days was that many prospects did not have copiers. I remember selling a lot of gas stations copiers with coin ops.
What was the compensation plan like, was there a salary, what is just commissions or was there a mix of salary and commissions? $2,000.00 a month all draw and if you went two months in the hole your draw was eliminated until recovered.
How did you go about finding new business, and what was your favorite of those methods and why? Knocked on doors and looked through newspaper for new business licenses. I loved cold calling that’s what we did most of the time in those days.
What was the first sales book that you read that and what did you take away from it? Tom Hopkins “How to Master the Art of Selling.” Lanier made that book part of their training on day one.
What type of car did you use for your demonstrations and how many demonstrations would you perform in a week? A Chevy mini cargo van it held two coffin carts so I could leave the office with two machines and come back with none.
The demo! Yes, we did Demos and lots of them. Every successful sales rep knew that it took twenty cold calls a day and ten demos a week just to survive. It was the copier industry that came up with the saying “if you show it, you will sell it.” With a loaded van, you headed out to your geographical territory, and keep in mind we used paper maps to navigate around neighborhoods, looking for that lonely church. We all knew churches ran tons of bulletins. Every time you drove by church, you could practically hear the sounds of clicks. More clicks equaled more money. Once we found a prospect (basically was everyone in the world), we would sell the demo.
Can you tell us a couple of funny story about selling copiers?
The craziest demo I ever did… Tony the Crab salesman had a van on a street corner. The kind of street corner where you wouldn’t want to even think about buying a crap from the back of a van. Although buying crab wasn’t the goal. Selling Tony a miniature Crab Flyer printing press was.
Remember, before you could sell Tony the copier, you had to show Tony the copier. This is the sole reason all successful copier reps carried long extension cords. Yes, Tony may have had no power in the crab van, but the gas station parking lot Tony called his storefront did. Once the cord was plugged into the lonely outlet in the men’s room with no door, it was time to start making copies.
I know everyone is asking themselves - what the hell does a Crab Sales Guy makes copies of? You may have guessed, of course - it would be one of the crabs. So as I began my pitch that included explaining how every crab vendor should have flyers, and why outsource that, I quickly grabbed a big blue crab from the cooler in Tony’s van (it smelled like shrimp to me), and I immediately set the crab on the glass and hit the big green button. Out came a picture of the blue crab, well it wasn’t blue - color capabilities were not available yet - but once Tony saw the crab printed on that sheet of paper he was sold.
What happened next is something all copier reps face occasionally. You may have guessed, he couldn’t get approved for the 5 year lease. He was able to muster up enough cash and of course a few crabs for trade, so Tony quickly became the proud owner of a slightly used machine, the one that had been rolling around in the back of my van for months.
So when I think back on those good old days, I ask myself what Tony would think today. He more than likely went paperless, has a Facebook page, his van is probably in a junk yard, and Uber drivers deliver his crabs. Yes, I am also quite sure Tony has a crab app.
What is the biggest problem you seeing facing the industry today? The reality that over 80% of the market is vulnerable to innovative disruption. A4, lowering volumes, and new challengers will cause disruption.
If you had to would you do it all over again, if so, what would you change? I would say that doing it all over again in these times would not replicate anything of the past. However, I would do it all over again regarding the education, and excitement of an evolving industry.
What’s the one piece of knowledge that you’d like to share with reps entering our industry? The advice a district manager told me. Gary Moore, said “When you are successful selling copiers in your future you will not need to interview for a job, you will interview a company and decide if you will work there.” Rest in Peace Gary.
If you'd like to know more about Ray, you can get his bio on Linkedin. I would also suggest that you follow Ray because he posts excellent content and is also a regular posted on our site. Thanx for this Ray!
-=Good Selling=-