MFP Copier Blog

In the past several years, the cybersecurity arena has been moving in the wrong direction, to say the least, and it does not really seem as though the story will change any time soon. Healthcare providers, retailers, payment processors, banks and government agencies have been frequently targeted by hackers of late, while insider threats and employee negligence have actually moved into the lead for the most common causes of data breach, and consumers are suffering as a result.

Identity theft has been the most economically damaging crime in the United States for years now, and this is largely the result of an increased prevalence of major data breaches that dump significant volumes of sensitive information onto the dark Web. Leaders in virtually every corner of the public and private sectors should seriously consider adopting more progressive defensive solutions, including secure cloud and email encryption services from a trusted provider.

Case in point
Regulators and law enforcement officials have begun to bring the hammer down on entities that do not do everything in their power to maintain security and compliance every step of the way, and one investigation turned up poor results this past week. California Healthline recently reported that state officials conducted an analysis of databases specifically used for patient information, and found that the vast majority of municipal departments were noncompliant with security standards.

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, as well as the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, hold all entities that handle medical information responsible for protecting that data at all times. When public-sector firms are struggling to keep themselves in compliance with the law, it is yet another sign of the shoddy state of affairs the medical sector finds itself in today.

According to California Healthline, one study found that 37 of 41 departments investigated in a more thorough portion of the research not only did not meet the standards for which they are responsible, but reported to the state that they were indeed aligned with statutes. All in all, 73 of the total 77 departments across California were found to have mild to extreme issues in their compliance programs.

Getting assistance
Big Market Research recently released the results of its latest study on the managed security services industry, and found that these firms are experiencing healthy growth in demand and revenues as the years pass on. Considering the fact that a managed service provider can quickly help to improve the security and compliance of any firm, it only makes sense that more firms are taking this approach to fortifying their systems.

According to the analysts, the market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 16 percent between 2014 and 2020, while the increasing complexity and threat level found within the average IT departments appear to be pushing leaders in this direction. By partnering with a trusted security services provider, organizations can begin to reduce their risk of experiencing a major breach.

LinkedIn is awesome right?  Connections, information, ideas, collaboration, are just a few of the benefits for those of us that use LinkedIn on a regular basis. 

Which leads me to Martin.  Martin connected with me on LinkedIn and is curious if there is a need for his products here in the US.  We posted a survey a few days ago on our survey page.

Martin makes a great case for some features that we don't even think about here in the US. Below is what Martin wrote from us, please keep in mind that he is from the Netherlands and I give great props to anyone that can write or speak more than one language.

‘Make a Difference’ or ‘Make a Profit’

Locking in Europe

5 years ago the total volume of ‘Paper-drawer Locks’ sold in Europe was nearly zero.

Nowadays it is an indispensable ‘sales-tool’ that adds value (and profit)!

These specific accessories (PaperClamps & PaperLocks) turned from a pull- to a push market with incredible potential.

Locking is Selling

It started with specific requirements of schools, libraries & other public environments.

In many cases they ‘demanded’ that paper drawers must be locked because of the large amount of paper that was stolen. In some cases up to 10% of the total paper volume!

The European Copier & Printer market only acted when these requirements were demanded, and then still without any ‘conviction’.

These requirements where seen as annoying, problematic, difficult to fulfil & opposing the progress of the sales-path. Only the persistent sales rep fought his way to the end by searching for a solution.

‘Make a Difference’ or ‘Make a Profit’

Today the market in Europe changed completely and all kind of accessories are used to ‘add value’ to a quotation, or distinguish from a competitor.

It is no longer the prospect asking for certain requirements, it is the sales rep offering solutions that customers haven’t thought about.

I have seen actual invoices were PaperClamps are sold to end-users for more than $ 250!

With a wholesale price far beneath $ 100 everybody can calculate how interesting this can be.

With a PaperClamp/PaperLock you can either ‘Make a Difference’ or ‘Make a Profit’ (or both).

Implement Locking in your Security Program

I have no idea how many of you actively use the ‘security programs’ of the brands you sell, like ‘Ricoh Data Protection’; ‘Konica Minolta bizhub Secure’; ‘Kyocera’s Data Security Kit’; ‘Sharp Security’; etc. etc., but I do know that Physical Security Devices like PaperClamps & PaperLocks are very easy to implement in the existing security programs.

As soon as your customer is aware of the security risks of having his Lawyer-, Notary, Hospital, MD-, Pharmacist-, Insurance- or Bank letterhead paper ‘free to grab’, he is in for protection!

If you can offer, and your competitor can’t……………….

Locking in US

It is my expectation that the US market will adopt these security items the coming years, and it will become a similar sales-tool as it is in Europe.

Please check the survey on P4Photel and share your opinion about this.

Martin Hofman

When digital copiers first arrived on the scene, we were ecstatic that copiers were now capable of network printing, network scanning, and faxing. 

In the early days of digital copiers the largest benefit to end users,  was that if the copier jammed (and they all did) during a copy or print job you could clear the jam, then reset the system and the copier remembered what page was not copied or printed and you would be able to continue with the job.   When this scenario happened with analog copier systems,  you pretty much had to trash the entire copy job and start all over,  what a drag that was, especially if it happened with a demonstration!!!!

For those of us in the industry during the emergence of digital copiers, we saw the benefit of having one system that would replace three systems—the existing analog copier, the printer, and the fax machine. The cost per page of those  standalone fax machines and printers will always had a higher cost per page than our copiers.

Figuring Cost Per Page

I remember in the late nineties compiling my own cost-per analysis for each device in the office.   That my friends was no easy task.  You had to access specs from brochures, get cartridge prices and yields from industry published copier, printer and fax spec check books. After you had all of that data, you then need to crunch the numbers for yield, cost and image coverage.

Once we crunched the numbers and presented the cost per page analysis of the three existing systems compared to one new system, most DM's stated this was a no brainer. 

I’m thinking copier dealers started the managed print/copy trend by offering an all-inclusive, cost- per-page contracts with the digital systems and we didn’t even know it, someone just got creative, brought it to printers and gave it a name.

We did have our issues!

We were copier service and sales companies that really had no clue about printing on the network.   Most of the early networked copies never printed as fast as they were advertised, print drivers were awkward, and it seemed we always had some issue installing print drivers and addressing print problems

Most dealers were forced to stay ahead of the curve and to offer support and solutions for print/fax and scan environments. The learning process was somewhat slow, more than painful with many clients, however, we persevered, adapted, and changed to meet the needs of our clients and the market.  What comes around goes around and it seems many of us are in the cycle again with Managed IT Services aka MSP (Managed Service Provider).

Sometime in the late nineties and early 2,000’s we started to see third-party hardware and software solutions from companies like eCopy, and Equitrac. I’m sure there were more, however I can’t remember any of the other players.

Companies like eCopy and Equitrac allowed copier dealers to move into selling software, supporting software and also presented opportunities for professional services. Within a few years there were many other companies that emerged with additional solutions. All of these third-party providers added value to the digital copier. Thus salespeople had more opportunities to sell solutions in many different vertical markets and larger companies as well. The once ridiculed copier that took the butt of all the office jokes emerged as the central hub in the office for processing information on paper.

The digital copier industry of today is changing again and companies like Xerox, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, and Canon are making the transition to service-led companies. These companies will be the sole provider for documents whether they are created electronically or printed. They want to help customers with print stream management, forms, e-mail, archiving of documents (electronic and paper) and provide consulting to help businesses increase efficiencies and create easier work flows and reduce costs.

I’ll be back next week with Part 3.

Good selling!

I absolutely love the personal relationship building aspect of sales. Based on building these personal business relationships, I discovered the secret power behind LinkedIn.

It’s the personal connection which makes the difference. Bottom line... you can't consistently become successful in the sales world without building personal, authentic and meaningful relationships.

It is amazing how 80 years later, Dale Carnegie and his infamous book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" still resonates today. The two key successes in sales today, building relationships and changing the way people think. This can be still accomplished by integrating "social" into the sales process.

I often refer to myself as an old school sales guy with a modern twist. Yes, the old school foundation of selling is still alive and well. The foundation is simple, never lose sight of the two P's... prospecting and the phone.

Using my personal connection philosophy, I put to use a daily dose of the 5 Vitamin C’s. These are Cleverly Capture, Converse, Collaborate, Connect and Convert. This allows me to start connecting with key people and decision makers--the same people who often times ignore my countless voice mail and email messages. Yes, I still use the phone and I still leverage email; however, the calls and emails take on a whole new meaning. These have now become warmer and a bit more personable based upon the relationships built with my LinkedIn connections. Within the business community, LinkedIn has become my best social business development friend.

Life as a copier rep is challenging and I get it. I thrive and embrace personal and business challenges. No risk no reward!

"Choices, Chances, Changes... You must make a choice to take a chance or your life  will never change"

Fast forward with me to the summer of 2013. After spending almost 20 years of my sales career with the same dealership I decided it was time for a change. I set the ego and fear aside to embrace the next chapter of my copier sales career. This opportunity was a "net new" sales position within the Corporate Major Account team for a global office technology manufacturer. I was handed zero current clients and had to build out a target account list to call on. This didn’t bother me as I knew LinkedIn was my best business friend.

I ask you all, how many tenured sales reps would leave 20 years of business behind them to venture off into new horizons without a single account to feed off of. The answer my friends is zero!

The $1.3 Million Sales Story

The first 90 days was humbling as I threw up goose eggs; big fat zeros! I was beginning to build my relationship funnel. I strongly believe in order to have a healthy sales funnel you have to engage and commit to building up your relationship funnel while managing your network funnel as well. From my relationship funnel, I soon started to convert these relationships into net new meetings. These net new meetings took on an entirely different meaning as I already had developed the personal connection on LinkedIn.

I need to confess as I used the FREE version of LinkedIn to do my sales damage in 2014! I poured years and years of self-education to create the mindset and skill set around effectively integrating the use of LinkedIn into socially developing business. 

Folks, you can build your brand for free on LinkedIn. You can post content for free on LinkedIn. You can engage in conversation for free on LinkedIn. You can search for prospects for free on LinkedIn though with some restrictions now. You see where I am going with this... lay the foundation and build the framework to incorporate the use of LinkedIn to enhance your prospecting efforts. The cost to start is zero my friends, the rewards are priceless.

LinkedIn is just a vehicle to enhance your business development. It does not replace old fashion hard work, dedication and commitment to be your very best.

In the span of 12 months, I leveraged these LinkedIn relationships to bring in over $650, 000 of net new business in conjunction with $1,300,000 in sales revenue in calendar year 2014! Yes, this is correct 50% of my sales revenue was directly attributed to how I leveraged LinkedIn. LinkedIn became the cog in the wheel of my prospecting strategy and success.

It's about building your credibility and leveraging your network!

LinkedIn offers more context into not only what we can share about our professional accolades, but also learn about new sales opportunities, companies, and the people we want to be connected with. LinkedIn provides sales professionals the tools to have their own personal website to promote their personal brand and share their professional story. The single best branding platform for copier reps I have ever seen!

“49% of buyers research vendors through their LinkedIn profiles” – LinkedIn Research

Successfully integrating LinkedIn allowed me to build out my professional image, helped me to tell my story and to generate awareness in a highly competitive sales environment, Los Angeles. In many cases LinkedIn is being used as a resume to showcase or to use as a self-promotion site touting sales accolades. Why is this? In my opinion, it all starts with getting out of our comfort zone to learn new methods of engaging with business professionals. Change is difficult especially for adults. As the executive buyer is changing so should we as salespeople.

Your LinkedIn profile is your professional image to the business world. Are you seen as a subject matter expert? How are you positioning yourself as a thought leader? You are creating your personal brand via what you promote within LinkedIn. LinkedIn has become the largest use of a database in the world.

I started with promoting my professional image

It all starts with your professional headline. This is not the ideal position for your job title. Do you honestly think anyone cares about your job title? Along with your name, your professional headline travels with you everywhere you go on LinkedIn. Every comment, every published post and every group discussion your headline follows you. You have seconds to bring someone in who in turn will spend the time to canvass your LinkedIn page. With 120 precious characters you have to promote value, create your call to action and compel the visitor to continue reading your profile.

"Think of the challenges your prospects have and how you can help solve them"

Align to your prospect with your story

After drawing executives in with your headline, pay close attention to the summary section. In 2000 characters or less this is your story. A great read is Simon Sinek's Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. I used the summary section as my why. Why would someone do business with you? What do they get when they engage with you? What makes you who you are? This is your personal story-telling time. I drew in my visitors by sharing with them what they can expect by engaging with me. It was my promise of value which catapulted the start of many real conversations.

  “People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”,

Simon Sinek

Generate awareness and attract executives to your LinkedIn profile

Completely optimizing your LinkedIn profile is a must. No excuses! The time is now! Resuscitating your sales funnel through social business development is a must for copier reps. Commit to nurture, grow and build those business relationships.

The 7 free steps I used on LinkedIn to build my sales funnel

1. Crafted and curated educational, relevant content to share
2. Shared the content with my social network to help kick start start conversations
3. Became a frequent visitor of who viewed my profile
4. Converted these viewers to 1st level connections through personal invitations to connect
5. Reviewed the content engagement section for comments to my posts leading to further conversations
6. Mined my network by reviewing 2nd level connections and then asking for help
7. Turned my online conversations to offline meetings

It all starts with making this a daily habit. Nothing happens until you make the commitment to drive change in your life.

If an old school, baby boomer copier guy can adapt so can you!

I encourage you to start having conversations with your LinkedIn connections. LinkedIn is about building relationships. Be authentic, add value, listen, build trust and be yourself.

Salespeople today must position themselves to be viewed as go-to resources for thought leadership and industry news. Incorporating LinkedIn, I firmly believe you will have less competition for the executive buyer’s attention, you will create a positive personal brand image, you will position yourself as a subject matter expert but most importantly you will consistently keep the sales funnel full of prospects. It is all about the top of the sales funnel. Nothing going in means nothing is coming out!

If you enjoyed please share your comments. Look forward to connecting and starting a conversation.

Check out more at the Social Sales Academy blog site.

Please enjoy my other posts on LinkedIn Publisher and on SlideShare

I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my LinkedIn stories. Integrating the use of LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive copier world. With great pride I transform and coach copier sales professionals to grow net new business by helping them tell their story and communicate on LinkedIn. My commitment is to help independent office technology dealers thrive in a changing marketplace. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, as well as at the Social Sales Academy 

Konica Minolta bizhub C351

What a day it was today. I am typically very  skeptical of consultants in our industry. Most of the time I just steer clear of them. After several months of trying to connect with me, I had a conversation with Larry Levine of Social Sales Academy. Unlike most consultants who call on us, Larry simply wanted to chat. Never once did he try to sell anything to us nor did he even mention the Road Show. After talking to him I researched his company and his history and decided I would give his approach a shot. I registered for the Copier Sales Road Show in Chicago still with some skepticism on how a class on LinkedIn could help my team and I. 

I arrived in Chicago yesterday, caught the Cubs game, and settled in my hotel room. This morning I arrived to the training and was surprised to see a fairly large group settling in. There was a nice mix of people. Older, Younger, Sales Rep, Sales Managers and so forth.

I took a seat, had some small talk with some people, and then got ready to listen to Larry speak. 

I have always thought my LinkedIn profile was good until I started through the course work/manual. Boy was I wrong. I've always thought of LinkedIn as something that could boost business, but not to the level that Larry has done. I realized very quickly my profile page was lacking in a lot of areas. 

I won't give away all his secrets here but what I learned in 6 hours today will almost certainly be the groundwork to closing Net New Business through Social Selling. There are so many little tweaks that can be done that I had never thought about. 

I hope to be able to get my team involved with the Social Sales Academy in the near future so they can fully understand and utilize the power of LinkedIn. I would have loved to been able to sit through tomorrow session in New York but  have to get back home and start working on my new and improved LinkedIn profile. 

What can you find out by viewing your competitors proposals and quotes? 

• I can gain insight about how professional that dealership of branch is, meaning a well put together proposal usually means that the dealership of direct branch is professional in everything they do

• Cost per page,  is there something new?  Have I missed some new marketing gimmick?  How low can they go?
• Pricing, when I see proposals & quotes that have some GP in them, that actually helps me in my sales.  Others are getting decent GP and so should I
• Who is dumping devices, who is giving away the ranch, and I can also figure out the lease rates with enough information.
• All great reasons to take a peek at these top ten copier proposals & quotes

Ricoh C7100s & Ricoh MP C5110s proposal pricing.pdf

Samsung SL-X4250 color MFP.pdf

Samsung CLX-8640 Color _ Xerox WC6605.pdf

Xerox workcentre 7845 color.pdf

Ricoh MP C5100s Proposal.pdf

Mutoh ValueJet 1324X.pdf

Ricoh MP C2503SP proposal.pdf

Konica Minolta bizHub Pro 951.pdf

Konica Minolta C224e VABS Quote.pdf

Ricoh MP C2503SP proposal Feb 2016.pdf

-=Good Selling=-

Signage is often something taken for granted by customers, but it is a key component in an overall business marketing plan. The right signs, banners and posters – both inside and outside your business – effectively attract new customers and direct current clients to the products and services they need. We have tips to help you make the most of the signage you use.

Use the Right Materials

There are many different types of materials that can be used for your signage today, including metal, plastic, paper, wood and vinyl. When you choose a material for your signage, consider the location and use of the sign. For example, signage located outdoors needs to be crafted of a weatherproof material that will hold up over a period of time.

Consider Branding in Your Design

As you are choosing colors, graphics and fonts, make sure your signage coordinates with the rest of your company branding. Signs should make it easy to identify your business at a glance, with a consistent color scheme and logo prominently displayed somewhere on the signage. Professional appearance is another must if you want your signage to help your business put its best foot forward.

Make it Easy to Read

Signage posted outside the business needs to feature much larger lettering than signs inside your business directing customers or advertising new services. A good rule of thumb is for signs 100 away from the customer; letters should be at least three inches. Signs meant to attract passing cars should also sport fewer words – 7 or less – to advertise your business. Dark lettering on a lighter background is also easier on the eyes for quick reading.

Consider Local Regulations

This is an especially important point for exterior signage. Most cities have regulations regarding the size, height and design of signs displayed outdoors. Become familiar with the regulations for your community, so you don’t make a costly mistake that requires you to replace a sign after it has been hung.

Signage is an effective way to promote your business when it is used properly. These tips will help you make the most of the signage you choose for your company.

Click here is see our line of large format products

In 2006, at least for me, wide format was the product to sell!  I couldn't have cared less about selling a copier, I wanted to dig under every rock and find those wide format opportunities.  On a recent presentation I gave in Texas, I was asked, "why focus on wide format?".  My answer was simple, higher revenue, higher GP, DM is usually accessible, AEC market values IT, and I get the chances to sell them a copier somewhere down the road also.  It's the two for one thing!

Report Validates Standards-Based Digital Print

The Transition of the Copier Industry "According to Art"

Part One:

I can only start from the early eighties.  Six months after graduating a copier tech training school, I had sold my first copier. I'm pretty sure I remember the building, but not the name of the company. On a recent drive by that company was no longer in that building, I was kinda bummed because I would have enjoyed to cold call them again

If you bought or leased a copier in 1981, the only function of that copier was to copy. There were no sorters/staplers, no automatic document feeders, and very few of them had multiple paper trays.  Most copiers of that time period also had a moving platen (that's where the glass went back and forth for each copy).  Placing a cup of coffee on top of the copier was not a good idea.   

Sorter/Staplers

 As the industry evolved we saw the emergence of companies that developed sorters (remember Gradco).  In the day, if you wanted a copy machine to sort you had to buy a third party sorter that came with a special bracket.  You could purchase a sorter that either had ten bins or 20 bins.  Those sorters had a series of micro switches that would sense the paper entering the sorter and would then slide the paper into the correct bin. Back then, this was state of the art technology!  For all of you newbies, do you know what the "group" function is used for?  That "group" feature is still a function with today's copiers.

Key counters (remember Hecon, ), were used to combat abuse and track copies made by individual users or workgroups.   The key counter was a mechanical meter that was housed in a plastic cover.  In order to use the copier, users would have to insert the key counter into the copier receptacle.  Once the copier sensed the key counter, the copier then allowed the user to produce copies.  Every copy they made was metered on the key counter.  At the end of the month, and administrator would gather up the key counters and bill back the workgroup or the individual users for the amount of copies that were produced.  The key counters were also used a deterrent to curb abuse.   They were a good after sale product also, since many were misplaced or lost. 

Back in the day every new copier came with a cover and yes when asked "do ya think I should cover the copier at night"?, we stated yes, but please make sure you turned it off!  Guess, that may have been one of the reason that copier companies did away with supplying covers for the copy machines.

First Color Copies

 I can distinctly remember one company back in the eighties that manufactured a foil overlay for plain paper copiers. It was a novel idea that allowed users to make a copy of a document and then you could slide the copy underneath the foil sheet (which was sealed on one side) and then run both the foil and the copy through the by-pass of the copier in one pass.  Presto chango... all of the black image on the page was changed to the color of the foil.  The foil would only stick to the black toner once the media passed through the fusing section.  These foils came in many different colors and the most dramatic was the GOLD foil, we used to tell potential customers that you could turn your copies into GOLD! (pretty lame)  You could even get fancy and with the use of removable tape and scissors cut strips of foil to get different colors on the copy.  Thinking back, this was probably one of the first creative ideas to get a color copy. 

The foil media was primarily used for certificates and proposals.  It was awesome, walking in with a proposal that had the look of gold print. Check it out, you can still get this stuff, I just may buy a pack just to mess with some of the younger reps in the office.

Please welcome Jason Madden, even though I haven't been able to sell him anything, he's become one of my favorite guru's when I need to answers to questions. Not only is he a great resource but a great person also. 

TANGIBLE TRENDS: HOW TO ‘WOW’ WITH DIRECT MAIL

There’s no denying that we live in a digital world; maybe that’s why there’s still something so unique about receiving snail mail. Sure, mail doesn’t have all of the functionality that a website can provide, or an email—but it does provide a refreshing marketing approach that has stood the test of time.

Check out these tips to make sure your direct mail piece gets noticed and, more importantly, acted on.

A Pop of Color
First impressions are everything. It’s a fact that our eyes are drawn to the unusual. Normal envelopes come in white, but your direct mail piece can be any color under the rainbow. If it sticks out, it has a better chance of being picked up and examined.

But be warned—you should pick your colors with a purpose. Don’t simply choose the most obnoxious color because you can. Pick a color that makes sense, yet also stands out from the crowd.

Not Your Average Size
The wonderful thing about direct mail pieces are that they can come in all different shapes and sizes. Sure, you can send out a normal-sized postcard. There’s a time and place for beautifully executed and timeless mail pieces. But if you’re going for a wow-factor, try a size that sticks out from the rest of the mail, or a cutout shape that makes sense.

Added bonus—if your direct mail piece can double as something with functionality, like a magnet, it’ll have added staying power. That’s just one idea. Be creative!

Copy Tips and Tricks
In the fast-paced world we live in, people don’t take the time to read long blocks of text. That’s why your direct mail piece should use the least amount of words as possible to convey your information. You can always add a URL to get people from your direct mail piece to a page on your website that has more information.

Always include a next-step for your audience somewhere on the direct mail piece. Tell them exactly where to go to make the next-steps happen. Think of your direct mail as a vessel to get your audience to your desired next-step.

Things to Note
Direct mail does cost money to create, print and mail. As with every marketing effort, you should make sure that the return on investment is worth it. Simply put, if you think the direct mail piece will get you more business or provide more worth than it costs to create, keep moving full-steam ahead.

Jason Madden

check out his LinkedIn profile here