Art, thanks for your reply. A lot of GREAT points in there. I literally spent this weekend relaxing (much needed) and thinking about what you said. Here is what I've been thinking about:
- 12-18 months ago, I could win competitive deals quite easily with $2000 GP. Now, I'm losing with $1500 in a 45-ppm colour box. That means American pricing has flooded the rest of North America, where $1000-$1500 in GP in a commercial street deal seems to be the norm. To increase my closing ratio in competitive deals, I need to cut my margins. Simple as.
- Working on learning where I can add in additional GP and where I can't is something I definitely need to work on during the discovery phase. It's more about reading people and the situation than anything.
- If the market is dictating that $1000-$1500 GP is the norm, and price is the greatest determining factor, how are we any different from car salesmen? The more I research and stay abreast of industry news, the more I realize that all copier brands are the same. So if we are finding situations where we can "add" additional GP in, doesn't that mean we are just overcharging our customers because we are abusing the trust/relationship we've established? To me, this is like a car salesman selling a car at a higher price to an elderly person because he knows he can get away with it. I used to sell solutions to peoples' problems, but now all of the products can do the same thing. I literally feel knots in my stomach when I sell one copier model to a competitive customer for $4000, and the same copier to a base customer for $6000. What justifies the additional $2000? There is absolutely none when the service and product are the same wherever you go.
- I've completely lost faith in Canon when they recently revealed they spent $100 mil on R&D for their new Canon IR 5500 and 6500 series. It's FULL of bells and whistles, none of which I see have any true benefit to the customer. Why would they throw that kind of cash into improving a commodity? Much like Apple, they better invent some new products soon because you can only improve a copier/tablet/laptop/smartphone so much before every product looks and functions exactly the same.
- Based on everything above, I'm not quite sure how to hit quota anymore. Are quotas even realistic? Will copier sales reps start to get paid like car salesmen and telecom reps?
- This industry is what it is, and I've had a 9-year goal that is 4-years away from completion. Momma didn't raise no quitter, so I'm going to stick out this industry for the next 4 years and then GTFO. Greg "Nostradamus" Walters has been talking about the death of the copier for a decade. But for the first time, I actually see it, feel it and believe it. I just feel amazingly blessed to work for such a great dealer that understands the life of a copier rep and is extremely lenient. I've sold $44,000 GP YTD (Jan to Present) -- any other dealer principle would've fired my a$$ by now!!
- Thanks again for the responses and even more so that we have a forum like where we can reach out to for advice/venting/etc!!
- Final thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsSC2vx7zFQ -- I watch a motivational video every morning while drinking my coffee. Sometimes it's just grit that gets me through the day!!