Tagged With "reps"
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Re: Are Copier Sales Reps Asking the Right Questions
As you said, this blog wasn't meant to cover all the bases but your comments about brand loyalty and brand/service provider loyalty are only true if the decision maker has been the same for each decision. If you aren't talking to the owner, you may be talking to a totally different person than the one that made past decisions. You need to know that before you decide whether to pack your bags and walk away. Also, in a leased equipment environment, the decision to stay with the same brand and...
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Re: Why Social Selling Stinks for Most Copier Sales Reps
Very interesting point of view. Always informative. Old adage. The more activity the greater the results. Plan your work. Work your plan. Have a great day.
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Re: Why Social Selling Stinks for Most Copier Sales Reps
Art, love this! You know my take on the integration of social into the sales process. Sales requires hard work as most will not put forth the effort. The reason why ones social anything stinks is their effort, plain and simple. Operating with an analig mindset in a digital world = death blow to a sales rep.
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Re: Why Social Selling Stinks for Most Copier Sales Reps
Who else has a marketing team write their blogs?
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Re: Why Social Selling Stinks for Most Copier Sales Reps
My dealership does, we use DealerMarketing for our blog posts.
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
I just added a poll to this question, please take the time to vote!
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
In a lot of organizations, I'm sure it is a challenge to overcome the old-school "copier dealer" mentality of slinging boxes. Week 1-3: Sell services & solutions. Week 4: How many units are you going to sell?
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
Management is now to the point that they are asking me weekly to update my forecast, it's getting to be a real drag going over every account on the opportunity list and what happened with them on a weekly basis. Isn't that the reason why I keep my CRM updated on a daily basis?
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
Keeping the forecast updated is part of our job; they need to know what that looks like on a regular basis. If you're a proven producer (which you are), they shouldn't feel the need to ask for updates on every account. That's nitpicking.
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
Agreed forecasting is a part of the job, nitpicking is not.
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
The biggest obstacle and it isn't on your list is time! If we are honest with ourselves the amount of time we are actually selling versus so called non selling activities creates my biggest limiting factor to increasing my success.
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
Bend: Nice one, I guess you are referring to slacking off and not doing the work right?
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
I do block out some time for my fantasy football team but I don't count that
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
I have my moments also... although I do like to make the dough!
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
The biggest challenge I see is that you have to sell so much more to make the same money you have in years past. It used to be that if someone needed duplexing, or stapling, or speed, etc. they had to pay for higher scale equipment. Now they can get for $3,000 what they used to have to pay $10,000 for. It used to be that everyone was a profitable prospect. Now only the upper 20-30% represent a potential revenue capable of earning over $1,000. Even solution sales are hard to build profit in...
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
Old Glory I agree!! Solutions take longer, I've been working on a secure print solution for almost 4 months. I'm lucky if the deal will top 40K and even luckier if I get the deal. I've tried to focus on higher end hardware and multiple units. The multiple units is tough because everyone is involved and margins are so so at best. MY only saving grace has been the wide format stuff.
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
The Obama Economy is the biggest obstacle any of us face........He fixed it all right.
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
One of the biggest obstacles up until recently, was having to answer to a Sales Manager, who was totally incompetent, and the micro management he adopted in trying to gain kudos with management for his failure to produce a winning team formula was ridiculous. Fortunately, they have since given him the boot, and life is starting to get back to normal.
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
Wow. No poll answer regarding the rep’s activity…interesting. Over the years I have learned that if you work hard and SMART, you’ll hit your numbers. I also think that there is a condition that affects a lot of sales reps in virtually all industries. It is a type of an iron deficiency disorder. It is when iron in your blood is transformed into lead that forms in your rear end. If someone bounces from dealership to dealership and never finds success it is most likely them. If they’ve had...
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Re: top challenges faced by sales reps on a day to day basis
I did not put an option for reps activity, because I believe most of the members here are true professionals and we understand how important it is to complete those activity goals for the week, month or quarter. You are correct, there are no short cuts, you need to work!! Originally Posted by dimaxusa: Wow. No poll answer regarding the rep’s activity…interesting. Over the years I have learned that if you work hard and SMART, you’ll hit your numbers. I also think that there is a condition...
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Re: Copier Sales Reps, Presidents Club & The Grind
Well said Art, spoken like a true Jedi-Master. Do or not Do, there is no try ! Congrats on 36 years of selling copiers. I think ! LOL. I don't know whether to feel good or bad for you. There must be something wrong with all of us to stay in this crazy game that long. Keep the articles coming.
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Re: Copier Sales Reps, Presidents Club & The Grind
TY, Jackson. Feel good for me, because I'm a guru and I still love what I'm doing!!
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Re: The Day After The Last Selling Day of the Quarter for Copier Reps
I just did the same thing myself. Thursday I sat and cleaned my office, purged a bunch of old junk I didn't need and reorganized some files etc. Friday I had two meetings, one to write up an order, and the second for a large format and an MFP. After that I decided I was going to go sit by the pool, relax and recharge. And of course since we aren't 9-5 people I am now back to doing work on Saturday morning. Happy 4th everyone!
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Perfect Copier Quoting Tool Could Save Your Reps upto 100 hours a Year
On the 19th, 29th and 21st of this month, there is a webinar about quoting tools for copier dealers. It is interesting when you consider how long it takes for most of us to put together quotes. It gets even more important when there are 5, 10, 20 or 50 reps selling for a company. We were working out how expensive doing quotes can be. 1 rep doing 15 quotes per month Each quote takes 30 minutes 7.5 Hours per month (basically 1 selling day per month) - We expect most reps will save this much...
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Re: Haven't seen the rep in 5 years.....
I believe in the "Rule of Six" You should touch a customer 6 times a year with a mix of personal visit, emails, mailers,Phone calls, shows, lunch & learns, or webinars. That comes down to every other month in different ways so it doesn't seem overwhelming to the customer, but they know who to call if they have an issue or need new equipment. If you don't add value to your customer over the course of the lease why do you think you are worth more when they upgrade the lease?
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Re: Haven't seen the rep in 5 years.....
At our dealership, we are required to do Reviews with our clients. The frequency is based on the number of devices they have and/or their potential. The highest level client we see every quarter with a Business Review. Our clients love them and we win ZBO business by selling the Review. Ultimately, we leave it up to the client, because some don't want that many touches.
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Re: Haven't seen the rep in 5 years.....
Originally Posted by Dcallahan4: and we win ZBO business What is ZBO business?
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Re: Haven't seen the rep in 5 years.....
Production Accounts, once per quarter unless issues arise. Major Accounts, I reach out to SOMEONE once per month at least and always reference my last communication with the next person.
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Re: MFP & Copier Leads "The Bain of My Existence"
The fact that the website lead generator doesn't work is crazy, Wow! But my gut feeling is if any do leads come in to the Mfr, regardless of the source, the lead gets sent to a direct op. Independent Dlrs are left to find their own leads.
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Re: MFP & Copier Leads "The Bain of My Existence"
We used to get some via the website as well, but the ineptitude of Ricoh can be astounding! Brand new series '03 machines are not available now. WHAAA??? MPC2003 - 3003. They have also begun to contract packing with UPS so everything is coming is HUGE boxes with hardly anything in them, and we're getting charged for it!!
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Re: MFP & Copier Leads "The Bain of My Existence"
Kathie: Thanx for the comment! OMG, no machines.....well I guess that's part of the cyce of doing business. Is anyone else seeing the change over the UPS thing. Art
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Re: MFP & Copier Leads "The Bain of My Existence"
Showing our age here - fax machines? Leads? Neither has happened in a few years...
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If An Old School Copier Rep Can Build His Brand, So Can You!
"A brand is no longer what we tell the customer it is - it is what customers tell each other it is" Scott Cook Should copier sales reps leverage the power of branding to differentiate themselves to rise above the noise? My answer, an absolute yes! Branding is powerful. When you think of brands, most turn to large brands such as Google, Amazon, Starbucks and McDonalds, just to name a few. Why is establishing a world-class business brand invaluable? Besides the distinct value it brings,...
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I Tried LinkedIn As A Copier Rep, It Doesn't Work!
Inside the copier industry, the generational gap conversations run rampant. Let's face it, it is tough inside the copier world. Baby boomer dealer principals aligning growth strategies with Gen Xers who in turn are leading and coaching Millennials. Meshing business philosophies, sales strategies and even marketing strategies; yes it is challenging. The opportunity for copier dealers to expand and grow their business beyond hardware in this hyper-connected, fast paced office environment is...
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The Top 10 Sales Blog Posts of 2015
Note from Art: Some awesome info below: As 2015 draws to a close, it's a good time to reflect back on the past 365 days. Maybe you crushed quota by the biggest margin yet ... or maybe you didn't even come close. Either way, 2016 represents a clean slate to replicate your success or correct your shortcomings. Want to double down on your winning streak or flip your fortune in the new year? Make reading a part of your reflection process. A helpful sales email tip, prospecting hack, or...
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Rep Needs a Job
Just received an email from a P4P'er and I can vouch for this person as an excellent person, way above average rep and extremely knowledge in our industry. Looking for a sales position in North Central Florida. Please email me at...
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MFP & Copier Leads "The Bain of My Existence"
Do you remember... when leads were a weekly occurrence? Many years ago, it was not uncommon to get a few leads a week. Back in the Eighties they would come via fax from the manufacturer. Advertising was done through various media...
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Copier Reps Can Pay it Forward Also
Just a few days ago, I attended a webinar from GE. The theme of the webinar was to inform GE partners more about social selling techniques. Since I'm an avid fan of social media, I thought the time would be well spent to hear what Mike...
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Why Do Copier Reps Want to Push Document Management to My Company?
Document management is becoming a bit more popular as some systems have come down in price enough for smaller businesses to be able to afford. With every technology, there is a push to get new clients. Document management is no...
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Reps: Start using the ‘F-word’
Note from Art : in the past few months, I've been pushing our sponsors to get more involved with blogging on the site with informative information that will help us SELL MORE and understand new technologies. Right now, UDOCX (Fenestra), ...
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5 Reasons Why Managed IT Makes Sense To New Copier Reps
So, the first one everyone knows, hey we're already in the office servicing the account for copiers. Our service and support is excellent and we are a valued service provider. The second reason is also a no brainer for most companies. One...
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Haven't seen the rep in 5 years.....
was a response when I cold called an production print account today. Needless to say that vendor who is the incumbent will not be in the mix when they are ready for a new system (so the dm stated). Just curious on how often...
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9 Tips to Keep Your Best Copier & IT Sales Producers
I wrote this back in 2012 and thought this would be a good blog to re-post. I've also freshened it up in order to keep up with the changing conditions of our industry. Please feel free to reply with comments. 1. I had the unique experience of catching a dealer principal back in '98 with many un truths. It didn't take long for me to have no respect for the dealer principal nor the company. Within nine months I was outta there along with more than nine million dollars in revenue that I...