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10 Years in the Cloud

Memoirs of a Copier Sales Person

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=-

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

Ditch the abbreviations in your proposal

  1. IPM should be listed as image per minute
  2. PPM should per pages per minute
  3. CPP should be cost per page
  4. CPC should be cost per click
  5. DSPF should be listed as Duplex Single Feeder
  6. MPS should read managed print service(s)


An acronym is a kind of abbreviation. Abbreviations can be shortened forms of any kind. For example, appt is an abbreviation of appointment, and ASAP is an abbreviation of as soon as possible. ASAP, however, also qualifies as an acronym because it is made up of the initial letters of the phrase it comes from: as soon as possible.

Keep in mind that clients and prospects do not understand our language.  Make it clear for those reading the proposal.  Many will not comprehend nor take the time to research what acronyms and abbreviations are for our industry.

Many clients and prospects will also view the use of acronyms as being lazy.  No one wants to do business with a lazy sales person.

-=Good Selling=-

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

Dos anyone in their right mind want to be like someone else?  Is life about being unique and different?  Is there no creative juice left in our industry? Thus why do so many sales people quote the same way time after time?

Stay away from quoting traditional lease terms of 36, 48 or 60 month leases

  • Rather quote 12-, 24- or 39-month leases
  • Quoting a shorter-term lease has two major advantages
    • If the client comes back and asks you for a 36, 48 60 or-month lease terms then the client is probably shopping your quote to compare with others. If the client or prospect asks you to change the quote 36, 48 or 60 months, then ask why?  In most cases this question will flush out the real reason for change.  That real reason is to compare apples to apples or quote to quote.  Once you know this you can amend your numbers if needed with quoting the additional terms.
    • If the objection becomes the monthly cost (meaning your cost is too high).  Instead of dropping your price you can quote a longer-term lease which gives the client the lower cost they want.
  • In some cases clients or prospects may want a short term lease because they would pay less interest. No one likes to pay interest!
  • A 39 month lease works in your favor for upgrades because lease upgrades will be more frequent. With a 39 month lease you can start planting the seed for upgrade at 30 months.  With 60 moths you'll be waiting 51 months and 63 month leases (OMG) will be 54 months.
  • Your doing your client a favor because you'll be saving them money on the maintenance and supply escalation clause.  With a 39 month lease there will only be 2 escalations. with 60 and 63 month leases there will be four escalations.


-=Good Selling=-

Don’t be Like Everyone else When Presenting Copier MFP Proposals (part one)

Mini Ten Part Blog Series (1 of 10)

Don't quote the print/copy speed of your MFP,  rather quote the scan speed and features of your scanning because almost no one copies any more!

  • Quote your duplex and simple scan speeds first/highlight them
  • List features aka knock out features such a
    • Blank page scan detection (makes smaller files and uses less band width when scanning)
    • Batch scanning (you can scan many pages to a pdf even if you have a small document feeder)
    • Scan to thumb/USB drive (make those paper based documents portable for out of office use)
    • Scan2SDcard (look for a copy that may need this application)
    • Scan to url (reduces band width for scanning, can eliminate the need for a scan server)
    • Scan to cloud services (log in and scan to your preferred cloud host)
    • Browse to folders for scanning (select your scan destination folders from your MFP, saves mega time rather than scanning to email and moving to folders)
    • OCR (make each scanned page searchable)
    • Convert paper documents to Excel or Word docs (your gateway to workflow automation)
    • Paper based translation (scan your document in and print it out in the language of your choice)
    • Integration with MS Sharepoint (on premise or cloud to enhance business intelligence or business automation)

Why I Like to Quote Like This

  • Scanning, most end users are not interested in copy/print speeds anymore. More clients and prospects are now looking for faster scan speeds and having some type of document automation (what I listed above).
  • Give your clients and prospects reasons why your device is better when scanning. The reason for that is because most reps quote like this.
    1. Black and Color scan
    2. Scan to folder & email
    3. Price per month

BORING!

Ask yourself which proposal would you lean to when reviewing a proposal. A proposal that lists the benefits of scanning like I outlined above or a proposal that just mentioned the MFPs scan speed at “x” amount per images per minute?

BE DIFFERENT BE BOLD

-=Good Selling=-

Can Your Copy Machine Be Hacked?

Sometimes clients look at me like I'm daft when I tell then that five plus year old copier has a higher risk to be hacked.  Thus that's what happened today at an account and I didn't have any back up information.  Thus, that will never happen again because I'm going to post a collection of comments on this blog that I or we can use.

You can explain this with ease to the client with using a smart phone analogy. Just ask the client if they have a smart phone? Well, 99.9 percent will answer as YES.  Then ask them if they've see notifications from their iphone or android to update their phone?  This answer will be another BIG yes.  Your next step is to tell than what the updates do.  In most cases the updates are to modify the software (new features, firmware) and update security software).  Now you're back to telling the client that most NEW MFPs now incorporate those updates automatically.  You've now set the stage.

I've been told that seeing something in writing will resonant more than speaking the words. I was not sure thus I gave this to Chat GBT.

Is reading something in writing more powerful than hearing it?

Reflection and Comprehension: Reading allows individuals to go at their own pace, reflect on the material, and reread if necessary. This can lead to a deeper understanding and better retention of information, especially complex or abstract concepts.

I'm guessing the key word is "can".  In any case below are some of the comments I've collected from various sources which I will list below.

I like the last one the best!  Why in world are you hanging on to a copier that plus five years old? That old copier can be the gateway to additional risk.

-=Good Selling=-

ChatGBT, Govtec.com, Visual Edge, Spiceworks, Quocirca

What I Like About Discovery in the Sales Process

Just an FYI, going through my worst drought in the last 13 months.  Nothing on the books, a crap load of opportunities and 3 days left in the month.  What does one do?  Go out and find more opportunities.  Fill the bucket t0 the brim and then some more.  Sooner or later the bucket will explode.

Tonight's blog is not about my crappy month, but about the steps that are required to get your self to final step of winning or losing.

Some Tough Years

In a two months I'll start my 43rd year of down the street sales with office equipment aka copiers.  The first couple years were tough and at times I thought I could relax when I thought there was nothing to do.  In our industry there is never nothing to do. When I've made all my calls, set the appointments for the week and prepared the quotes you may think what's next?

I made mention today to a friend in the industry that many reps do not read the brochures of the products that they sell. In fact I would bet dollars to doughnuts that 80% of the reps in the industry can't explain how the print process works with our laser print devices.  Is the print process something they need to know? Probably not, but most can't speak to the client about FAB (features, advantage and benefit) of the device they are selling. I'm sorry to say FAB is almost a lost art in our industry.

Discovery

Discovery is one of the keys that you need to prefect to win the order.  If you perform a great list of questions for the client, the answers and comments from the client will get you to the closing table.  Using discovery and getting to the closing table means you're a sales person whether you win or lose. If you're the type of sales person that has a poor discovery process or you assume the client needs the same type of device that they have, then you're nothing more than an order taker even if you get to the closing table.

Discovery is more about building your case to put your product in the best light for the client.  Of course discovery is all about asking the right questions.

Wide Format Discovery Questions

Since wide format is my forte I'll put some down some questions that I'll ask when I'm in for the appointment.

  • How long has you had your present device?
    • Do you own or lease your device?
    • If lease, how many months are left on your lease
      • Who is the leasing company
      • Can I see a copy of the lease
    • Do you pay insurance on your current lease
    • Is there anything you don't like or like about your current device
    • Prior to your current device that what was the device you had before this one
  • Do you have a maintenance/supply agreement in place?
    • What is the name if your vendor that provides support
      • Can I get a copy of your current maintenance agreement
    • Are you happy with their support/service
    • Is there anything you like or dislike with your current vendor
    • With your previous device, did you do business with the same support vendor
  • Are you the decision maker?
    • If not can you tell me how the process works for choosing the right vendor
    • When are you looking to make a decision
    • Where you looking to lease or buy
  • Besides paper is there anything else you have to purchase for your device?
    • Do you use any special media/substrates
    • Do you outsource any prints/drawings
      • if so, tell me more about what you outsource
    • If so, do you know what your average cost per month is
    • If so, do you know how many square feet is outsourced each month



Build a Strong Case

These are just a few of the questions I'll ask for wide format discovery and the most important in my book.  Once I have this information I can build a strong case for my devices and services.

There's another secret to my madness

You have to be the guru of your device!

You have to know what your device can and can't do.  If you don't know the closing table is not yours to go to.  In addition you'll also need to know as much about their current device like you do for yours.  In fact you'll also need to know your competitions devices as well.  Sales is not an easy job and sales is not 9AM-5PM.  For those that have the desire to learn and do the research are those that will also be at the closing table.

-=Good Selling=-

Leasing Copiers and the Covid19 Trap

Many of the office equipment leases that were in place prior to Covid19 will be coming to term shortly.  Those were leases that would have started from 2017-2019 and were termed for 60 months.

We're all familiar with the Evergreen Clause and those of us that are pro's in the business understand why we ask for a copy of the original lease.  We're looking for the language for the return of the equipment to the leasing company.

Evergreen Clause

There is an Evergreen Clause on most office equipment leases. The Evergreen clause can be different for each lease, however what I see most is that the lessee needs to contact the lessor not less than 90 days and not more than 120 days prior to the end of the lease.  In addition if the lessor is not notified the lease will renew for 12 months.  Egads!, can you image a client being held hostage because they did not notify in time?

COVID19 Trap

What I call the Covid19 trap is not intentional from the lessor or the dealer that help procure the language of the lease.  The trap was created when COVID19 reared it's ugly head.  With businesses closed and funds were not flowing many leasing company offered a furlough of the lease payments.  Those furloughs were usually two to three months where the lessee did not have to make a payment(s).  Of course the payment did not go away but was added to extend the lease by additional months.

Thus with reps asking a copy of the lease, there are many of us (including me) that are may not have asked the client if they accepted a furlough of the lease during COVID19.  The furlough really comes into play when we're attempting to upgrade a competitors devices.  Thus when we are advising the client for the terms and notification of the Evergreen clause we could be off by two to three months of when the client needs to send the lease return notification to the lessor.

Avoid the Trap

A few helpful tips for upgrading those leases

  • Ask the client/lessee if they had a COVID19 furlough of the lease
    • If they did, you need to ask for documentation of the furlough
    • If they did not, you may want to add a covenant to the order doc that they stated there was no furlough in place
  • Ask the client/lessee to call the leasing company an verify the dates for lease return notification.  Of course get this in writing via email or document to cover your ass
  • I believe it's always a best practice with all leases to always get the notification (furloughed or not) to get documentation from the leasing company for the dates that the return letter will be accepted

Notification of Lease Return

While I was doing my research I spoke to a rep in the leasing business and two tenured sales reps. Everyone gave me a different interpretation of the notification date.  Of course we were not talking about a lease that had a COVID19 furlough applied.

  • Was it 90 days prior to the date that the lease was signed?
  • Was it 90 days prior to the date the lease delivery and acceptance was signed?
  • Was it 90 days prior to the date the the leasing company counter signed the lease (this usually happens when the lease is counter signed by the lessor)?

I want to believe the date we need is when the lessor counter signed the lease. Of course I would like to hears from others to verify.

One interested note was brought up by a Print4Pay Hotel member.  He stated that the leasing companies do not tell the client how to notify them.  Whether by fax, in writing (snail mail), or certified mail.

Hope this helps others, pleas hit the reply section for comments!

-=Good Selling=-

Listening Between the Lines

While it's on my mind, because in a few days I forget how I was able to add some in-site with a rep today.

We met (virtual appointment) with an existing account.  I was called in since I'm the resident guru of wide format.  The client was looking to replace a very old HP plotter because they see the writing on the wall. In addition,  days with out a plotter will put the entire company at a standstill.  Yes, prints still that important in their workflow.

Can you image having 20 year old print technology?  I'm not going to write about the model that we offered nor the workflow that we recommended.

What I do want to share is the listening between the lines.  The art of being a great listener can help all of us in the sale process.

Points that we uncovered

  1. Fan of purchasing rather than leasing

Between the Lines

  • This usually means the company carries a great margin on their books
  • They may take advantage of cash discount

2. It's been a good year from them in 2023

Between the Lines

  • Which means the tax man will come to tax their profits in 2024
  • They may entertain a large purchase or finance lease before the end of the year (Section 179)

3.  They focus on their core delivery and look to others to help them managed technology

Between the Lines

  • For them time is money
  • Showing them how your product or service saves them time can win the day

Conclusion

In our sales life we were also told to listen to the client. However it's kinda of hard to listen when you're not asking the right questions.  Ask your clients business questions that start with who, when, how, where and what.

Understanding the "between the lines" with their answers will allow you to build or craft a proposal where they will see the value.

-=Good Selling=-

My Two Favorite Email Responses When I'm Ghosted

I'm writing this and I have no clue what the name of this blog will be.  I'm sure it will come to be as I can continue to tell today's short story.

Suspect/Prospect

I have a prospect for both wide format and color A3s that I've been tracking off and on for some years.  What's unique and sticks in my mind is that their fiscal year starts in October. Right, this is September and it's time to **** or get off the pot.

I should be calling this account a suspect and not a prospect because I haven't submitted a proposal.  I'll call them a prospect when they committed to me that they are in the market for my services.  The suspect in question has an ten year old A3 color and an ten year old wide format.  I inherited this account about five years ago and it was about three years ago when I was able to put a pre-owned A3 color in one of the offices.

Follow ups

Dropping back to the fiscal start of the new year. I've been on top of this with at least one call and one email for the last five months because this client told me that they need to do something with the one office. In addition they only have funds available with the new year.  However the last five months have been nothing but crickets......, no return emails, not return calls, just a big fat nothing.

Today,  I got tired of the nice emails and phone calls.  I mean this account/suspect is the one who told me to that something needs to happen.  I thought about sending a stern email (like stop jerking my chain) because this is not the first time the DM has ignored my efforts to help.

Today's Touch

Today's email was short and sweet.

"Did I do something wrong?"

I know there's a couple of emails that will raise the bar to get a response.  One of them is the one I used and the other, "is everything okay?"

Wouldn't you know it, not more than 5 minutes passed and I had an email from that suspect.  Our suspect told me about another device that was needed for another office which I was okay with, however what about the two machines that are ten years old? I did not bring up the point that two devices were needed in October and I addressed the current need for the one device.

Tomorrow I'll send an email asking for a chat to talk about my two options (always good to give options).  Once I've given the specs on the options I'll lead into the two devices that should be replaced in October.

Tomorrows Thoughts

If after many emails and phone calls and you've got nothing.  You need to pull out the phone call or the email that asks these two simple questions and one email change.

1. Did I do something wrong?

2. Is everything okay?

3. Start a new email chain and use the subject line of "Sorry I Missed You".  Of course make sure you call them one more time because odds are you'll get voice mail again and if you don't then you've done your job well.

-=Good Selling=-

Selling Office Technology "First Contact"

I posted this blog ten year ago, thus I thought it would be a good re-post going into the long weekend!  For those of us in the USA, have  a great Labor Day Weekend!

Selling Office Technology "First Contact"

A Star Trek flick from 1996 had the crew of the Enterprise travel back in time to undermine the Borg attempt to stop Earthlings from making "First Contact" with the Vulcans.

The last few days I've been busy on the phone prospecting for net new accounts, new opportunities, new upgrades and what else but initiating "first contact".

It seems every year it gets somewhat tougher to get a hold of our decision makers.  For those of us that consider ourselves Professional Prospectors we get used to these types of responses when we know who the decision maker is.

"Sorry so and so just left for lunch", "He or She just stepped out", "So and so is on the phone right now", "He or she is busy", "We're not interested", "So and so just stepped into a meeting", "she just went to lunch (it's 4PM!!!)" and the list goes on and on.


So what are we to do, well as one Print4Pay Hotel member stated many years ago, that we need to be "smarter than the average bear". We've all heard these before but here's a few bullets for a refresher:



  • Vary the time that you call on that account
  • Call from your cell phone
  • Call early in the AM before 8AM
  • Call late in the afternoon 4-6PM
  • Call on a Saturday
  • Call on another employee in the company and ask to be transferred to the person that takes care of the office equipment
  • Send an in-mail via Linkedin
  • Tag the decision maker in an article that you posted on a social media (Linkedin is best)
  • Spend a few bucks and ship them a small gift (coffee, tea, gift certificate, Masters Gold Pin Flags (special thanks to @Larry Kirsch for this one)
    • With this one, make sure you research the DM and find that special something that will grab their attention


It used to be that on-site cold calling to work well, however at least here in the NY metro area it's hard to gain access to buildings since 9/11.  Doors are locked, security cameras are in place and sales people are left other means to find out who the DM is.  By the way, why is it that when you make the call and ask who the DM is, it's seems like you're sentencing that person to ten or twenty lashes??


One such person got so nasty with me when I asked for the name of the DM.  I really was on my best behavior, however I ended up telling her that I wished a camel would walk through her bed at night. It just came out....I should have been more professional, yup... however sometimes you get so fed up.  We're just trying to do our job and feed our families. I also understand that the gatekeepers are also doing their job.  But, can't we be nice about it?


The web is a wonderful place and I've found creative ways to seek out those first contacts when the gatekeeper does not want to give any information.

Below is a few of resources I use on the web, if you'd like to know how I use each one to my advantage then send me an email, become a member of the p4photel.


Manta

Linkedin

Contact Us

Box Approach

Google

Avention


-=Good Selling=-

Couple of Ideas on How to Move Prospects Closer to the Finish Line

More this year than any other year, I'm finding more prospects that are slow to pull the trigger for the purchase or lease.  The slow down with pulling the trigger balloons your pipeline because you aren't winning or losing.  With the larger pipeline there's also more time spent on managing the prospects that are in the sales cycle vacuum.

Promos and Specials

The question then becomes is how to get these clients to move?  Many of our dealerships have promotions and specials on any given month,  but what happens when the prospects don't take the offer?  In most cases the promotion or special is not perceived as value from the prospect. It is not something that will help the prospect make a BIN (Buy it Now) decision.

Take for instance the current promo for knocking out Toshiba devices,  where the sales person can earn extra trade in dollars for knocking out that Toshiba.  The sales person can use this promotion in various ways.

  • Lower the cost to the client for the purchase or the lease
  • Don't offer the incentive and pocket the extra if and when you get the order

But what happens when the promotion does not align with the prospect?  For example, you have a promotion for knocking out a Toshiba device, however your client has a Xerox.  Thus, there is no promotion that you could offer that may enable the client to make the BIN.

Make Your Own BIN Promos

When it comes to selling you need to be creative to turn nothing into something.  For years I've developed my own promotions to help prospect with BIN.

Something I've been using with recent success to to create my own promotions by using some of my Gross Profit to add value to for the prospect. Thus I'm creating my own promotions and putting a short time limit on that promotion to help facilitate the BIN.

I'll come up with a promotion that I know the prospect will understand the value of the offer for the BIN.  Keep in mind I hate to lower the price but rather offer that perceived value. You also have to tell the story of the reason for the promotion. I go back to our weekly meeting and tell the client that there is a new promotion that was released (yes, it is a promo, it may not be the companies but it is MY promo)

  • With a recent client I created my own promo that gave the client a free PDF license that was available until the 23rd of the month.  48 hours later this order closed.
  • Another client was in that sales vacuum for 90 days from the initial proposal.  They were an existing client with an existing lease.  Three months of the lease paid down,  thus I took those dollars and offered them the first quarter of the maintenance agreement at no cost.  Of course as long as the order by the 23rd of the month.
  • A net new prospect did not align with our Toshiba promo, thus I made one for their Xerox devices that my client has
  • (always keep in mind that in order to make your own promo's you have to have decent GP in your offering, sometimes it takes giving up a little to get a lot)

Closing

The days of the pushy salesperson and the hard close are long gone.   As sales people we need to better understand our prospects needs, and what they value.   Is your service or product perceived as an expense or value?

There is always a reason why the sales process has stalled.  I'm offering up some ideas that have worked for to get the two of us to the finish line.

Always feel free to post a comment or reach out to me if you have any questions.

-=Good Selling=-

New Certification Resource for Members

Recently I've ben uploading my certifications to Linkedin.  The only problem is Linkedin does not offer a place for you to upload your pdf document. I could be wrong, however in the mean time I added a Certifications tab to our site.

This is for our members to use to upload their certifications and then link the url to Linkedin.  See below

There are many potential prospects or suspects that lurk behind the scenes. Uploading your certifications can make you stand out in the ocean of sameness with all of the other reps.  I ask you, who the frak wants to be the same!

The link for adding is here for our site, then make sure to check certifications on the right side of the page and then save.

-=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=-

Thus What Does One Due When You Want to Win?

"Any man can learn anything he will, but no man can teach except to those who want to learn." by Henry Ford

Yes, one of my favorite quotes. After all of these years I enjoy helping and teaching others and without a doubt I still have that desire to learn more.

Today,  I tried something new with an MFP proposal.  From my discover process the potential net new client was going to be a power user of print.  The annual volume will be around 150K of color per year.  After taking a trip to their web site I knew that speed would be one of their needs. In addition a little birdy told me that they are very price conscious. I was being nice with the price conscious line, they are CHEAP.

Thus what does one due when you want to win?

Well, it's time to change up the rules like Kirk did with the Kobayashi Maru exercise with Starfleet.

I took a piece of wide format print speeds and applied that to the 60PPM A3 color that I quoted.  If you're read wide format brochures most will state prints per hour rather than prints per minute.  I really know now why that's done unless it's to make the devices look like they print faster.  A typical toner based wide format will have a print speed of 6"D" per minute. The hourly print speed works about to 360 "D" size per minute.  Yup, it does sound faster.

Thus I quoted the speed of the my 60PPM A3 color at 3,600 pages per hour!  I felt like I needed to be different.  Rather than quote pages per minute, I went to the extreme because in a sea of quotes (which there will be) I believe the 3,600 will stand out.

Additional changes

If I'm going to quote print speeds per hour I might as well go all the way and do that for scanning as well.  At my standard speed of 300 per minute (duplex), I quoted 18,000 pages per hour.  Yes, another stat that will stand out.  Again, I just need my quote to stand out amongst the other.

Will it work?

I'm no soothsayer, but I feel that by changing the rules I've given my self a better change to win.  In addition I'm not floating in a sea a sameness with all of the other players.

-=Good Selling=-

Would love to hear from others how they have changed the rules with your quotes an proposals! I would love to know

A Few Copier Vignettes from the Late Eighties & Nineties

Re-post from 2018

The picture in the header showed our demo room back in either 1989 or 1990, might have even been 1991.  As you can see by the photo Atlantic Office Systems (the first one in NJ) was Authorized for Adler Royal, Brother, and Tele VaxaFax (facsimile).  Sometime later Adler Royal was purchased by Mita and the Adler Royal brand was changed to Copystar. I thoroughly hated the name Copystar because there was no brand recognition, at least with Adler Royal, our clients knew about Royal typewriters.

We were never a big dealer, I did most of the sales while my other partner handled the technical work.  From time to time I had to dig in and do a few service calls when we were swamped.  Not being a large dealer enabled us to make timely decisions and offer products that were in high demand. Back in the early nineties we were still selling analog copiers and improvements came at a much slower pace than today's digital copiers.

We had two PC's in the office.  One was used for accounting (peach tree) and the other was used for sales.  The computer that we used in account was connected to a dot matrix printer and we were running carbonless forms for our invoices.

Back then, I thought we were on top of technology when we sold our first fax machine (Tele Vaxafax).  The MSRP was $2,495 and the auto feeder was an option.  Once we added the document feeder, and delivery/installation we were able to get to $3,000.  Three thousand dollars was the  magic number to offer leasing to our clients.  We got a little creative and placed a display ad in our local county newspaper for the Teli's.  We advertised them at $1.99 a day to lease.  Probably one of the best ideas we had.  We were selling more faxes than copiers.  At one point we were at one every day (we were also open on Saturday mornings till 1PM).  What we didn't realize is the volume of thermal roll paper that followed. Every month we were ordering full skids of thermal paper along with a skid of fax machines.  Yes, those were some great times.

As the fax market matured and pricing eroded we found ourselves placing more of the Brother fax machines over the Teli's.

It was about 1993 or so when we purchased our first color copier.  That copier was manufacturer by Brother, was very slow and used some type of ribbon transfer technology (no toner or ink).  I think we were selling color copies (singles) for $5.00 each.  At one point we hooked up with a sales rep for Gillette, he had to make copies of his presentation in color for his clients.  He was in a three of four times a month and needed almost 100 copies every time (we discounted to $3.00 each for his volume).  Back then Hulk Hogan was hired for their advertising campaign back then.  My son was so excited the day that client brought in a signed Hulk Hogan press photo.  I believe my son still has that pic.  Yes, great times to be selling.

Another client that I remember was some guy who came in on a regular basis to send faxes during the late eighties.  His faxing pattern was quite unique because he was always sending faxes to places like Panama, Afghanistan, San Salvador, Iran & Iraq.   I thought he was kinda screwy also because he always had to send his own faxes.  He would not let us see them.   After maybe a year ago or so he opened up and told us he was an arms dealer. All of those faxes turned out to be purchase orders and invoices for his business. WOW, I would have never guessed it!

I do remember that he invited me to go with him on a trip to Afghanistan when the Russians were departing. He told me about the riches that could be gathered such as rugs, gold, and antiquities.  He stated that we would be away for three weeks and he would give me training on how to use a weapon.  Well, that sealed the deal for me, there was no fracking way I'm going to a war torn country and having this butt head leave me there or get shot. I had the great sense to opt out.  I never saw that guy again, I'm guessing he went and never came back.  One of my better decisions in the copier industry I guess.

Another neat story from back then came from another guy who frequently visited our office in 1993 & 1994.  He was the President of a chemical plant in NJ (we got a crap load of those).  He stated he had closed his plant and was looking for someone to sell everything in the place.  Whoa, that was right up my alley.  The site was like a time capsule, one day they just locked the doors with everything in it.  There were copiers, desks, chairs, printers, fax machines, tables, file cabinets, paper,  high end furniture and all of the hardware that used to produce the chemicals they made.

Every Saturday and Sunday I was there four about six months. I sold almost everything, even brought in a large fork lift to remove a huge Xerox copier from the second floor. If I remember correctly I got $5K for that son of a gun.  It was not until late in the six months that I began exploring the chemical part of the plant.  There was copper, aluminum, steel, vats, filters, the place was loaded.  I admit I was kind of naïve about chemicals plants.  I later found many puddles of a silver liquid substance on the concrete floors, the substance proved to be Mercury.  I asked the owner about it and he told me Mercury was used to make chlorine. Frak, the place made chlorine?   It was not until I finished (made a ton of cash) that I found out I was selling crap from a site that labeled as a NJ Superfund site (toxic dumping went on their for years).  I later investigated the owner and found that he was indicted for some pollution thing.  Seems he needed to raise additional funds for his defense.  I believe he was found guilty many years later, however, at that time he was probably in his late seventies.   Never heard from him again either.

There you have it, a few vignettes from my early days in the copier industry.

Special thanx to Polek & Polek for sponsoring this blog!

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