Skip to main content

10 Years in the Cloud

Copier Proposals

Don’t Be Like Everyone else When Presenting Copier MFP Proposals (part four)

Pictures With Your Clients Might Be Worth More Than a Thousand Words

Seems no one else is doing it, at least in proposals.  Why not add selfies of you and your client showing your beautiful smiles and excitement with their new acquisition.

"We’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. Is that true though? While new research from the University of California, San Diego makes no claims on quantifying just how many words a picture is really worth, it shows that a single picture has the power to sway people — changing how they behave — while a single word does not. Even a picture that’s barely seen, flashed on a screen for only 10 milliseconds, seems able to alter behavior." Posted on University of California in 2018

Follow the rule of six degrees of separation and include six selfies of you and your clients.  In fact you can place these on the reference page of your quote/proposal.

Odds are especially in your geo area that your prospect may know or heard of the company and the person that is your account.

Excitement is contagious and so are pictures of happy clients and salespeople.

  1. Take a picture with you and you client with their new MFP (add the company or persons name in your edit process)
  2. Take a picture of you and your client in front of their logo or company name.
  3. Take a group picture of the staff with your device or in front of their logo or company name.

Be different and be bold

-=Good Selling=-

Two Types of Office Equipment Leases

Thought I would put this together for our newbies. In addition I can direct my net new prospects to this blog so they can understand more about office equipment leases. There are three that I find the most popular.

Finance Equipment Lease:  Not the most popular lease in our industry but it's used for clients that want to own the equipment at the end of the term for a fixed price.  Often referred to as a $1.00 purchase option.  In addition the finance lease can also be used to take advantage of Section 179.  A finance lease aka dollar buyout will have have the highest interest rate.  Thus expect to pay more on the monthly payment but at the end of the term you'll own the equipment.

Beware: Even though your purchase option is $1.00 there are some companies that will renew the lease for 12 months if you do not notify them at the end of the original term

FMV Equipment Lease: The most popular lease in our industry because the FMV (Fair Market Value) gives the lowest interest rate and option to purchase at the end of the term.

There are four options at the end of the FMV lease.

  • upgrade to a new lease with new equipment
  • buy the equipment from the dealer or the leasing company
  • return the equipment and pay the freight back to the dealer or leasing company
  • auto renewal of lease
    • If the dealer or leasing company is not notified ( x amount of days prior to end of lease) or your intentions to return, buy or upgrade.  The lease will renew for "x" amount of month's dictated by the terms of one the lease.  Renewals can range from 30 days to one year.  I would say 50% are in the 30-60 days renewals with the rest at one year renewals.
  • Beware: In my opinion the 12 month renewal is a trap.  It's designed to hold you hostage if your company fails to notify them in time.  If your company wants to go elsewhere they will hold you to the letter of the law demanding that you pay the 12 payments.  In addition they have the upper hand when you fail to notify in time.  If you want out of the 12 months you will have to agree to their price.


FMV or Finance Lease That Includes Service and Supplies: Office equipment lease that has gained popularity in recent years.  These are leases that have x amount of pages for black and color (maintenance and supplies) that are included each month. 

The base monthly lease cost will usually include "x" amount of black and color pages each month. If you go over the pages there is an additional cost for "overages".  For example, the lease includes 10,000 black (minimum volume) and 1,000 color (minimum volume) in the base prices.  If you go over there is an overage per page cost stated on the lease. If the end monthly volume is 12K for black and 2K for color, the next invoice will reflect the overage billing for 2,000 pages of black and 1,000 color at the going rate. If you don't attain the minimum volumes there is no credit issue (most cases).

  • Beware: Most if not all of these leases have a built in escalation clause.  The wording of "we may" increase the cost on the annual renewal in most cases means they will.  It's important to know that the base monthly payment can increase each year.  I've seen and heard of double digit increases each year. My personal opinion is to stay away from these if you can, it not make sure the annual rates of escalation are in the t's and c's of the the agreement.

Special Notes:

  • I've never seen a regular FMV or Finance lease without maintenance and supplies with an auto escalation clause, however that does not mean they don't exist.
  • Do business with a reputable company
  • Read the T's and C's (understand the t's and c's if not ask questions)
  • Ask for references or visit their Linkedin page to view their references


Feel free to email me or post a response if you have questions apost@p4photel.com.  Please also keep in mind that if you're in an existing lease I may be able to help you lower those lease payments.

-=Good Selling=-

Top Ten Copier Proposals and Quotes for October 2022

Do you gather competitive copiers proposals?  If so, why do we want to see them?

In many cases it comes to down to why price did I win or lose to for hardware, and maintenance. It's also a good way to track where you're at compared with the competition.  In many cases clients aren't so easy to give up that information.

For ten years we've been posting copier proposals and quotes that are members can view and download.  Below is our most active views and downloads for October with links.

Top Ten Copier Proposals and Quotes for October 2022

Xerox B7030S pricing

Xerox AltaLink B8155 pricing

Xerox AltaLink B8145 pricing

Toshiba ES2018A pricing

HP MFP E82550DN pricing

HP MFP E82540DN pricing

Sharp MX-4051S pricing

Sharp M2651S pricing

Ricoh MP _6055_ pre-owned



-=Good Selling=-

Top Ten Copier & Wide Format Proposals & Quotes for June 2020

Top Five Copier & Wide Format Proposals & Quotes for June 2020

I'll admit I've fallen off the wagon with posting many of these, but in recent weeks we've having a flurry of quotes sent to us.  FYI for every quote we receive we're giving you a FREE Premium/VIP Membership.  Why not send us one or two to get started?

I always enjoy getting the chance to see quotes and proposals from others. It's not just always about the pricing of the hardware and the clicks.  In many cases it's about the presentation, the content used along with the graphics.  I'll admit over the years I've borrowed content and graphics to make my proposals stand out.

Top Five Copier Proposals & Quotes for June 2020

HP e87660dn + HP e77822dn. Proposal

Canon iPF TX3000MFP Wide Format Quote

Ricoh Pro_L5160_Quote

HP e77830z MFP Proposal (#2)

Canon fleet Proposals June 2020 (many mfp's)



-=Good Selling=-

Digging Deeper into Perfect Copier Web Quoting Tool

I'm a fan of Perfect Copier web quoting tool, because web based quoting tool saves me an incredible amount of time.

Over the last two months I've done about twenty proposals.  Out of the twenty, eight of those have closed, six are stalled, five are still open and I lost one. 

I want to dig a little deeper and explain how I use Perfect Copier.  If you're familiar with quoting tool you'l know there's a feature to email the proposal to the client or print the proposal.  To date I've never printed a proposal, not because I don't like it but rather the way I deliver the proposal. 

Okay, I'm pretty good at seeing the forest through the trees. What I saw was an extremely unique deliverable to the client that no one is using.  After finishing my first quote I went out to my Verizon store and purchased a new iPad with the cellular card. It was cheap. something like $40 a month for 2 years.

The Plan

I develop my proposals either at the office or at my office.  Matter of fact, I've developed proposals as late as 2AM in the morning.  Thus, I set the appointment with the client, I double check my web based quote and it's off the client I go.  In front of the client, I draw out the IPad, log in to Perfect Copier and then show the quote on the iPad and review with the client.  Right, one other item, I have all my my documents ready to write the order. It's impressive to say the least and that I'm the only one who is different from everyone else. There's a lot to being different, different gets you remembered. 

Thus, if no buying decision can be made at that time, I will email the proposal in front of the client and make sure they have received it. 

I'm not a fan of emailing proposals, however we all know that every now and then you have to do for several reasons.  First being that the client maybe to far away, secondly it's a one off small A4 device, there's no money in the deal and I still need to send them something.

Client Experience

I'm an avid reader of marketing and branding content. One of the topics that I keep reading about is the client experience with a brand. Did they enjoy doing business with you, did they find the process simple and easy, will they tell their family and friends?  Was the process painless for them? I hate to say this but our industry is still taking orders like it's 1986! Let's give our clients an experience that we're a really cool technology company that has a really awesome deliverable. 

Back Office Integration

Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men.  Too often a great program does not make things easy for the sales team. I had a client tell me last week that he spent a ton of money on SalesForce and it's been his biggest nightmare because of integration and costs. What was suppose to be simple was not. After his contract expires he is dumping SalesForce! 

I work with two systems.  I hate to mention names, but I'll say this I work with the Tibetan brand and Perfect Copier.  I use Perfect Copier for all of my proposals and the Tibetan software for the order docs.  When I get the order, I'll then finish up the order with the Tibetan software.  It's as easy as that. 

Closing

I'm not software pro, nor am I a youngster that grew up with computers, tablets or smart phones.  I believe in the product, I'm a user and I keep seeing improvements that can only help me be more productive.

-=Good Selling=-

BTW, if you'd like to join the next webinar to learn more please follow this link and register it's FREE!

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

Ricoh MP C307 pricing

Ricoh Pro C5200s proposal

Ricoh MP 4055SP proposal

Multiple Canon MFP's with papercut 40 devices

Ricoh IM C2000 & Ricoh MP C307 pricing

Ricoh Pro C7200SL

Ricoh Pro C5210s

Ricoh Pro C7200e Graphic Arts Edition

-=Good Selling=-

The Benefit of Building a Copier Quoting Tool

Last month, due to P4P Hotel's generous offer, we did a few webinars and showed our quote making product, Perfect Copier.  It has been a great learning experience for me.  I haven't pitched a tool like this before, and the first round, I made the mistake of showing too much of the features and not focusing on the simplicity of the product.  We have used what we learned on the webinars to alter both our pitch and improve the product.  Since we had the webinar, here are some of the new features we added on our quote tool.
  • Wide Format has been added for dealers who do wide format.
  • 4 Tier billing for Kyocera dealers
  • Multiple photos are now allowed so the rep can choose pictures
  • A widget for websites has been completed - to show all your products
  • Making it so pricing can be hidden from web quotes was added to hide pricing from competitors
  • Adding price lists is getting completed as I write this (for government, big accounts, etc)
  • Having custom lease rates
  • Having rental options
My first instinct on some of these was people were being overly picky, but I can see the importance of each one of these if a quote tool is going to work well.  We also invested in displaying the tool at ITEX, so we may see many of you there (Art is also planning to stop by and visit us at the booth at some set times, we are excited for this too.)
If you haven't heard about Perfect Copier and the tool that can help you get a copier quote done in about a minute, we would love to chat with you.  We can chat at ITEX or if you want to before then, we are always happy to have a webinar showing how the tool works and how it can help your reps be extremely efficient when putting together their quotes.  We are excited to get this tool out to the marketplace and are confident any dealer who uses it will quickly find it a resource they can't do without.
Jesse Harwell

Why We Decided to Make Our Own Copier Quoting Tool

Why We Decided to Make Our Own Copier Quoting Tool

Getting clients good information is critical to a sales process and we have taken a lot of time and energy to create quotes that are easy for us to make, and give the client a good feeling about the options they are choosing.  I would not want to go to a car dealership and have them only want to show me one car, or to a realtor and only see one house.  We like to see options when we buy stuff, so I thought about how can it be easy for clients to also get options.
We had a new sales rep, let's call him Brett, because that was his name.  Anyway, Brett was driving me crazy because as a Millennial sales rep, he wanted to give every option on every quote so doing 1 quote became a process of doing 10 quotes.  Here were some of the items "Brett" wanted itemized.
  • The client wants to see 1,2,3,4 and 5 year rates, both FMV and $1 out.
  • The client wants to know how fax, staple, etc will affect the numbers, 1,2,3,4, and 5 years
  • The client changed their mind, they no longer need 11X17, now they just want Letter/Legal quotes.
  • The client changed their mind, they no longer think Letter/Legal works, they need 11 X 17
  • There is a lease buyout, how much do I need to add?
  • What do I add for install on this deal?
  • What specs does this copier have for paper handling?
  • etc...
For about a month or two, I tried to help him, then he quit and I had to hire another gal.  When that happened, I realized we are going through all the same issues, questions and numbers.  It seemed to be time to establish a goal.  Here is what I decided on: 
I want to be able to make a side by side quote in under 2 minutes that looks nice and that is easy to explain to a new rep or a new client.   
This is where my obsession with building a great system for our team was born.   When I am driving from client A to client B, can I create a quote on my cell phone that looks nice at a red light in Denver (as we do not suggest quoting copiers while you drive, though I cannot pass a lie detector that I have never done it...)
Anyway, that being said, it has made the number of mistakes reps have made way lower and the consistency much higher in terms of generating a quality looking quote.  Since we started, we have made dashboards and added some brands, and then making it so it can be used by any dealer in under a day where all their reps could make quotes in under 2 minutes as well.  It is constantly being improved, but I am proud of where we are and how flexible we have made the tool for our partners.  We would love to have a dealership or two in every city in the USA use this tool!  We hope you can attend a webinar, if not, we can call at a time that works for you.  We are here to help make the marketing of copiers super simple for your dealership!
-=Good Selling=-

Copier Quoting Tool Could Add Weeks of Selling Days Every Year

Usually I take Friday nights (yah I know it's Monday) off from writing a blog. My Friday's are usually spent relaxing with access to my iPhone or PC, and watching Gold Rush and ZNation. 

I had a call from my buddy Jesse with Pahoda Imaging while on my way back to the office from an appointment.  Jesse is the smartest dude when it comes to marketing copiers on line. He's got his stuff down!

Jesse sends me this link to check out one of his copier sites that he's just built.  He told me that it took over a year to develop.  The site I was visited was AWESOME! It's a quoting tool for copier sales people. Whether you're a beginner, novice or and expert this Jesse's software can save a tremendous amount of time.

Where I work, we have some automation with quotes, but even I struggle when I need to present multiple quotes and or options. I had always wished there was a better way.

Time for me to generate pricing and a proposal is probably about 20 minutes for a finished product (ms word doc with company info, and graphics).  With Jesse's web based quoting tool, I can cut that time by 70% and also offer multiple options. 

On average I will produce 15 proposals/quotes each month.  With using Jesse's quoting tool I can save countless hours per month.  Using that software for a year would save me almost 48 hours and give me back a week of selling time.

Jesse's site is developed to make quoting copiers simple and easy. In addition the site delivers a high quality visual experience for the reps and the clients. I was amazed that I was able to develop a quote for three different copiers in a matter of minutes and not hours. I could then pick and choose options (options are good) and have the purchase price and or lease price (any term) pop up next to the option.

I was also excited that the quote could be sent directly to the client or downloaded for a hard copy.  The web version also allows the client to see a video of the product along access a link for the brochure and even an acceptance button to order the copier. 

I asked Jesse if he would be willing to show his copier quoting tool via webinar. Jesse agreed thus we have set three dates on our Print4Pay Hotel calendar. Time frame is going to be about 20 minutes and I'm guessing this will be one of the best 20 minute webinars of the year.  Keep in mind that the time we save on quoting/proposals allows us to spend more time prospecting and closing.

Here's the link for the Perfect Copier Webinar dates

-=Good Selling=-

Why I Spend Time on Linkedin Everyday

Just a short blog for everyone tonight. I'm doing updates to the site, listening to the Yankee game.  Thought this would be a neat short story about Linkedin.

I've always stated that as long as you work hard you never know what tomorrow will bring you.

For years and years I've spent at least 30-45 minutes a day on Linkedin. Whether it's giving congrats for a new job/position, posting links to this site, posting interesting links to other sites, sharing threads, and making sure I send everyone a "happy birthday" note.

It's just something I do. Recently, I heard a statement that it takes 21-28 days of doing something to make it a habit.  Guessing that's the same for athletes when they practice over and over to get that muscle memory.  Linkedin has become a daily part of my selling day, whether it's for the copiers that I sell or promoting the Print4Pay Hotel.  Yup, it's a habit now.

Today was kinda busy, I was on the phone (hands free) when I received a call from outside of my area code. I thought it was just another telemarketer (did I just write that!), I answered the call and was pleasantly surprised.  It was one of my Linkedin contacts, and that person was in the market for a copier ASAP.

It was a few hours later when we did the call and defined their needs. The only covenant was that the copier was needed ASAP. Traditionally I don't send proposals, I will send the other docs because it can speed up the order process. Sending the order docs rather than a proposal allows the client to read the Ts & Cs and develop questions.

About thirty minutes later I had the signed order docs in my email. WooHoo!

It wasn't a large order and wasn't a small one either.  But it was a net new account that directly came from Linkedin.

Just thought that was neat story that hard work does pay-off and as long as you work hard you never know what tomorrow will bring you.

-=Good Selling=-

Top Ten Copier Proposals for December 2017

Yesterday I posted Top Ten Copier Proposals for January 2018. I don't have much time tonight, however please click that link and you'll read why I think seeing competitive proposals is key for keeping up with the latest pricing for hardware and cost per page maintenance agreements.

In addition to the pricing, the structure of the proposal is just as important as the pricing.  I've seen some proposals that I thought "WOW, that's a killer format". Thus I copied that format for my own quotes. Like I said you just never know what nuggets you can find.

To view these quotes you'll need a Premium/VIP membership.  We're running a special right now and we have four Premium/VIP membership left for $99.  Our regular price is $119 annual cost.  The special for $99 is for a Lifetime Premium/VIP membership. We only have four left, so first come first serve. Send me an email if you're interested apost@p4photel.com

-=Good Selling=-

Top Ten Copier Proposals for January 2018

Proposals and quotes for end users. 

Canon ir5535iOur Print4Pay Hotel members contribute proposals and quotes that they've found in the field.  Many of you might say, "why do I need to see these"?  There are many reasons why viewing these proposals and quotes can be a treasure trove of information.

For starters the cost per page for black and color is always moving. Why didn't you get that last order? Was your maintenance and supply price to high?  Were you too low? Often clients take a back seat when your price is too low and opt in for a higher pricing because the believe they will have better support.

It's good to know to know as much as you can about your competition, in addition to knowing the T & C's on their contracts. It's also important to see how the competition is pricing their proposals and quotes.  Enjoy!

bizhub C3351 Konica Minolta Proposal

Ricoh MP W6700SP Pricing Proposal

Recent Konica Minolta Bid Pricing 2017

In addition to the pricing, the structure of the proposal is just as important as the pricing.  I've seen some proposals that I thought "WOW, that's a killer format". Thus I copied that format for my own quotes. Like I said you just never know what nuggets you can find.

To view these quotes you'll need a Premium/VIP membership.  We're running a special right now and we have four Premium/VIP membership left for $99.  Our regular price is $119 annual cost.  The special for $99 is for a Lifetime Premium/VIP membership. We only have four left, so first come first serve. Send me an email if you're interested apost@p4photel.com

-=Good Selling=-

Konica Minolta Bizhub 951Pricing Proposal Award

Just thought I would put a few points out there with a recent State of Florida contract award for the Konica Minolta Bixhub 951.

For starters, I have no clue how many copiers are included in this award. It may be one or one hundred.  However, what we do have is the purchase/award price for the KonicaMinolta Bixhub 951 and a few accessories.

Those accessories include:

Paper feed unit

100 Sheet Stapler Finisher

ESP Power Filter

Professional Service Unit (not sure what that is)

Amazing

I still can't get my head around how service and supply pricing can be that low.  This quote for service and supply cost per page is the lowest I've seen in the last year.  As some say, the race to the bottom is here and I guess there's still a lot you can get for under a penny.

Oops, just saw it on the quote, it was for four devices on a 36 month lease. Almost two million pages over that time frame. 

If you're interested in seeing how low they can go, you can view the KonicaMinolta Bixhub 951 Award here.

Keep in mind that it might be a good idea to purchase a Premium Print4Pay Hotel Membership. BTW the pricing is ridiculous.

-=Good Selling=-

Top Ten Copier Quotes & Proposals for August 2017

Special thanx to all of those Print4Pay Hotel members that emailed me these quotes and proposals! 

I lost a potential order the other day.  I lost because I was not aware of what my competitors practices were with escalating service rates.  You know what I'm talking about, we all have them, we all don't speak about them unless the topic is brought up.  In this case, the topic was brought up and I answered with the appropriate response.  After obtaining a copy of the proposal, I found out why I lost.  Having that proposal will save my butt next time, because I will not forget and will be ready when I run up against the same competitor.

This is why you need to keep tabs on what others are doing in our industry. One little tidbit of data can save your ass and or get you the next deal.

Enjoy!

Samsung SL-X75002017-09-10_0-35-022017-09-10_0-51-54Sharp MX 4070 p4p

2017-09-11_8-42-352017-09-10_0-46-392017-09-10_1-01-39Samsung CLX8640

2017-09-10_0-56-262017-09-11_8-49-46

You can access a Premium/VIP Membership here.



-=Good Selling=-

Nine Butt Kicking Copier Proposals for January 2017

HP LaserJet Enterprise flow MFP M830zWe had some really generous Print4Pay Hotel members send us some awesome copier proposals/quotes for the month of January. 

My Fav has to be the one for the Xerox Nuvera.

At times I will send these off to my VP of Sales.  Since he's really not in the field on a day to day basis, I feel it's my duty to let him know what's going on out there.  He can then make strategic decision with our sales efforts.  Believe me, having the ability to see these quotes and to get a sense of where the market is invaluable data.

Canon imageRUNNER 6500

Ricoh MP-C4504SP Proposal

KM Bizhub C368 proposal

Ricoh_USA MP CW2200SP Proposal

Canon C6555I pricing_lease docs

Oce ColorWave 500 Proposal

Pricing_HP Pagewide Proposal

Ricoh MP C5503SP Commercial

At this time we have five LIFETIME Premium Memberships available for $99.  The regular price Lifetime cost is $299.  May want to act now before they are all gone.  If interested, please email me apost@p4photel.com

-=Good Selling=-

Post
×
×
×
×
×