Tagged With "opportunity"
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Re: The A4 Challenge or Opportunity
Nice job Ray I've been touting A4 for many years, give the client what they want and educate them that A3 is not way to go. "If I'm not selling A4, then my competition is". Funny, when I mentioned this to a DSM, that DSM replied that we'll subsidize the A3's so you can place them
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Re: The A4 Challenge or Opportunity
Most are missing this great opportunity to shift dollars. The satellite channels are starting to tell end-users to shift print spend to IT Security, and other more pressing issues. It won't be long before the buyer starts circumventing the sales engine of yesterday. Thanks for posting Art
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Re: The A4 Challenge or Opportunity
In my experience A4 machines are as much or even more hassle than an A3 machine to install and train which I do myself for the customer but my income off of the sale of the A4 device is a fraction of what it would have been had I sold an A3. Beyond that most A4 machines lack a document feeder built to handle the page volumes of walk up copying and scanning my customers do. At the end of the day I have to make a living so I spend my time on A3 opportunities.
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Re: The A4 Challenge or Opportunity
Does Ricoh have an A4 that will shift sort or rotate sort?
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Re: The A4 Challenge or Opportunity
The Ricoh color A4 devices have a one bin tray, they may do what you are looking for.
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Re: The A4 Challenge or Opportunity
No, they do not The one bin is only an extra output tray, originally ment for seperating faxes
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Re: The Quest for $200K "When I bit off more than I could chew"
I’m with you. In July i surpassed my yearly quota and set a goal of 1,000,000. I knew it was a stretch but thought “what the hell, let’s give it the best shot.” December has not been terribly kind. I’ve helped our reps get some deals closed and while doing that had moved things to other dates etc. had about 60,000 orders that look like they will go to January unless something happens before weeks end. I think I’ll finish up around 830,000 - 860,000. 140k to 170k Short but it’s been a...
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Re: The Quest for $200K "When I bit off more than I could chew"
Jason WOW, congrats on the excellent year! You're right about the time thing, no matter how hard we try, there's no telling of forecasting the future. Unless you have an obscene pipeline, and that's what I'm planning for in 2018. BTW, Jersey just seems to be getting worse and worse, do you think a Jersey accent would work well in North Carolina?
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Re: The Quest for $200K "When I bit off more than I could chew"
@Art Post i think with your work ethic you’d be successful anywhere. Are you ready to come down this way yet?!
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Re: The Quest for $200K "When I bit off more than I could chew"
ty, the hardest part is to convince the wife! I'm thinking if we get a grandchild soon, I'll be stuck in New Jersey forever!
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Re: The Quest for $200K "When I bit off more than I could chew"
Yes if you get a grandchild soon you will most definitely be there for a while lol
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Re: The Quest for $200K "When I bit off more than I could chew"
Great effort Art! I like your MOXY!
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Re: The Quest for $200K "When I bit off more than I could chew"
As usual, it was a pleasure reading your 'end of the year' adventures again!
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Re: I Don't Walk Away from Many Opportunities, But this One was Crazy
Good for you Art! There are pond scum dealerships in every town. Let them have that business. You would think that the customer would learn...
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Re: I Don't Walk Away from Many Opportunities, But this One was Crazy
Czech is right. You'd think the customer would learn. I've seen those customers who have been hosed and know it do business with the same crook again because they promised to make it right. Dealt with one recently who had two large canon devices and got hosed by the rep and turned around and bought two more from the guy again. Blows my mind. ive walked away from a few deals with ridiculous demands (nothing as bad as the story) and usually the customer has said ok no problem. It's like they...
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Re: I Don't Walk Away from Many Opportunities, But this One was Crazy
Yes, I had an account who had TWO Xerox down for over two months and would NEVER do business with them again. I had been renting to this contractor for years and really made a great proposal and pretty much expected that sale. They stayed with Xerox!! You just wonder what their thought process is on these kind of deals. They will end up in the exact same boat in 5 years and go through the motions and get absolutely nowhere. Good Luck!!
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The A4 Challenge or Opportunity
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COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Forty-Seven of Sales
I am so looking forward to having an extra day off next week! The last 75 days have been extremely stressful. It will be nice to have three days to wind down a bit. Does anyone feel like me that this year is taking forever to unfold? Most years it seems that the months and quarters fly by. So far this year seems like everything is going in slow motion. I had a plan for today and it consisted of researching three possible existing clients for upgrades along with prospecting via the phone,...
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COVID19 "Remote Working" Day Thirty-Three of Sales
Yippee! Tomorrow is Friday woohoo! Seems like Sunday will be the best day of the week and finally a day in the seventies. Can you guess what I'll be doing? Nope, not the beach since Sandy Hook National Recreation Area is still closed. Give up yet? My day will be spent pulling weeds and not the weed you smoke. From about 5PM till about 9PM tonight I was thinking about what the frak am I going to write about tonight? It's not an easy task to write every day let alone find that one thing you...
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I Don't Walk Away from Many Opportunities, But this One was Crazy
I need to make a long story short, a few years ago there was a slug of a copier sales person/owner running around NJ selling equipment, doctoring leases, not returning equipment, not paying buy-outs on the equipment and who knows what else may...
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5 Tips for newbie Copier MFP Sales Reps
In one week I had two emails from reps asking for help. I thought I would do a blog on it, FYI the "Distance Yourself from the Pack" (I can't believe that I wrote this almost four years ago), the last resource is reserved for Print4Pay Hotel members....
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This Week in the Copier Industry 10 Years Ago (3rd Week of January 2007)
It's been while since I posted the last one. Now that I have a little more time, I'll be back to posting this series one a week. There's a thread below titled "Who Needs 11x17?". It's been ten years now for A4 devices and I feel that most manufacturers have held back from developing advanced A4 devices. When it comes down to it, it's all about profit and the manufacturers don't want to ruin there A3 business. Come to think of it, none of the manufacturers are really killing it with A4.
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57 Days of Selling Copiers "Day One"
Had a bit of extra time this AM, since my first appointment was at 9AM. No sense in leaving the house at 7AM to get to the office at 8AM and then travel an hour to my 9AM appointment. I scheduled the 9AM appointment (net new) last week, it was more of a follow up appointment to make sure I'm in play for 100 plus units. Still many months away, but I already know the players, it's gonna be tough to knock out the incumbent. Appointment went well, I squeezed some additional info out of them.
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57 Days of Selling "Day 15"
Guess who woke up on time this AM? After yesterday's fiasco I made sure that my phone alarm was set for AM & not PM like the night before. If I tend to ramble some on this blog, it's because I'm also paying attention the Cubs vs Indians. I'm a fan of neither team, but I am a fan of baseball. There's a term in baseball called, "let the ball travel", or some people may say, "let the ball get deeper", in any case the term is generally used when a hitter is out in front and fouling balls...
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57 Days of Selling "Day 30"
Another miserable morning here in NJ. That typical forty five minute drive took me more than ninety minutes!!! Once I arrived at the office, I had to gather up a few documents and head off to my first and only appointment of the day. The appointment was scheduled because I needed an additional document signed from one of the orders I received the other day. However, I had another plan in mind for this appointment. Not only was I going to get that document signed, but I was going to develop...
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57 Days of Selling "Day 33"
It's Friday!! Even better, it's the Friday before Thanksgiving! Since I closed a decent order yesterday, my goal for today was to "wait for the ball to come to me". That's a term that I use to sit back and see what develops with the existing opportunities that I have working. It does not mean that I would stop prospecting. First order of the day was to process the order I received yesterday that had each device going to different locations. The next order was to update all of my...
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Five Reasons Why I'll Be Attending Muratec Label University While @ ITEX 2017
Just last night I was developing a power point for some rookies to help them sell more wide format MFP's. My opening slide and comment revolves around the how many competitors could be in involved for a copier/MFP opportunity. I counted twelve different manufacturers that could be involved in the opportunity. Thus, that slide showed all twelve potential suppliers. My next slide was to show how many toner based wide format suppliers you could run up against on a wide format opportunity. That...
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The Quest for $200K "When I bit off more than I could chew"
I thought that I would borrow a line from "My Way" that was sung by Frank Sinatra. Many of the lyrics pretty much summed up with many of my thoughts during my Quest for $200K. It's Tuesday evening and the day after Christmas. Today marked the end of selling days for 2017 for me and the rest of the sales gang at Stratix. The morning ride to the office produced zero traffic, and zero hand gestures that I was number one. On November 22nd which was the day before Thanksgiving, I set a goal for...
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Would You Be Interested in Making a $90K Commission for Selling One Imaging Device?
I'm raising my hand, can you see it! I'm interested! One of the main reasons that I'm still in sales is that I still have the desire to write my own pay check. Unexpected expense, no problem, just grind the gears a little harder and a little longer and you can make the cash that you need. I'm sure that's the same for many of my peers that are in the copier business. Twenty or so years ago, I had visions of grandeur that maybe just maybe one day I might be selling a really high end product...
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The Quest for $200K "Prospecting is Good Medicine"
Yes, it's Thanksgiving here in the United States and yes, after eating my fill of turkey, mashed potato's, cranberry's, stuffing, turnips and small piece of cherry pie, I felt the need to get back to work. Many years ago, when I would bring in an awesome order, my former dealer principal would state, "the harder you work, the luckier you get". That statement is so true! Today, I had a text from a friend to go fishing this Saturday on a head boat about of Belmar. Now, I like fishing, I like...
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Critical User Business Intelligence Data Provides New Opportunities for Copier Dealers and MSPs
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I'm not sure that was a quote from the Bible but was something that I learned in Sunday School. While growing up in Iselin, NJ., my family and I attended Episcopal Church every Sunday, following the Mass was Sunday School. Can't remember if that happened a certain time of year or not and I don't believe it was all year long. However I understood that phrase to mean that t reat other people with the concern and kindness you would like them to...
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Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 15"
Thank you for your e-mail.I will be out of the office and have limited access to my e-mail from October 21st through October 27th.. I will review your message upon my return. In my absence please feel free to contact Jim Singer ( jim@kopi.ws ) or Cynthia Wankum ( cynthia@kopi.ws ) for immediate assistance during this time. Have a great day! Sherri Wilbers President KOPI 518 Cheyenne Drive Jefferson City, MO 65109 573-893-4545 (ext. 203) www.kopi.ws sherri@kopi.ws
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Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 33"
Art, we've seen some scuttle lately about maintenance agreement increases. As usual, the account is reviewed annually with some kind of increase if the clicks weren't locked in. This customer contacted me because they're clicks went from $.01 to $.011 and with their volume, equated to an $8 a month increase on just one unit. This was the 5th or 6th customer with older gear that has made comment about it in the last few months. Always a fun conversation to have, but most definitely an...
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Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 33"
We just cancel them. We give plenty of advanced warning. First, sales reps are tasked with informing them what it means when parts are no longer guaranteed available and they try to get the upgrade. Then, 6 months to a year later they inform that a cancellation letter is forthcoming. We make sure that they know that it does not mean we will not provide service, it will just be on a time and parts basis now. Mr. Customer, "It would actually be disengenous of us to continue to take your money...
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Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 33"
Year ago we never included consumables with the maintenance agreement. You were offer a labor and parts agreement or labor only agreement. You're testing my memory , and I'm losing, can't remember how we priced those up. I do remember that the rule of thumb for labor only was to charge 10% of the MSRP. Thus, if the equipment had a $9,000 MSRP, the cost of the agreement (labor) would be $900. Sorry, I can't give you more detail.
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Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 30"
Pipeline growing. Always helpful. Keep up the good work and positive attitude...
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The Week in Copiers 15 Years Ago This Week
For me 15 years ago was the start of the Golden Age of Color Copiers. Almost everyone wanted one and the talk track was more about how people retain information better when the content is presented on color. It was also kind of easy betting up on those old, slow and expensive color laser printers. My what a run it was. Enjoy these threads from 15 years ago this week: BLI Announces Its Spring 2005 "Picks" For Guest · 6/22/056:41 PM the award. For those who don't require duplexing, the Sharp...
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The Week in Copiers Fifteen Years Ago This Week In 2005
The Week in Copiers Fifteen Years Ago This Week In 2005, the Second Week of August Lately it's been a little bit of a struggle to get focused for prospecting. After 5 months the wear and tear of COVID19 is rearing it's ugly head. It's days like these when I need to press the reset button and think about what sales would be like if I was not prospecting. That's not a pretty world for me and I need to self motivate. One of my favorite ways to self motivate is to schedule time for happy up beat...
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COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Thirteen of Selling
COVID19 "Remote Working" Day One Hundred and Thirteen of Selling Copiers Today marked the last selling day of August for me. I wanted to finish somewhere close to $100K but only managed to get to $82K. There was one last client that had a shot on Friday for two orders. I was able to receive the smaller of the two orders. Not what I was hoping for but I'm happy with the $82K. Closing early has a couple of bright spots for me as I see it. For instance there's a little more urgency earlier in...
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COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Eighteen of Selling
COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Eighteen of Selling Copiers From earlier in the AM I knew today was going to be one of those tough days. Kathy and I attended our grand daughters baptism on Saturday we then hosted a small get together at our house. Sunday was more of the main event with more family members and friends to make a great celebration. Kathy and I finally arrived home about 9PM last night. It was a very long day but was one of those days that you never want to miss.
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COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Fifty-Six of Selling
COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Fifty-Six of Selling Copiers Monday sometimes the best and worst day of the week. I'm in the camp of "I Don't Like Mondays", because I truly love my weekends and anytime off is a good time. However today was a Monday unlike many other Mondays and that's because I was sick as a dog last night. Not the COVID but more or less a 24 hour bug that was horrid. It was about 3AM on Monday went I finally drifted off. Yes, I woke up late and yes I had a...
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COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Seventy-Seven of Selling
COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Seventy-Seven of Selling Copiers Off to the races! I'm now in the last month of the selling year. Just like any other year I find myself behind the eight ball again. After some research today I need to secure about $80K in orders for December in order to meet my annual quota. I have that content/hardware appointment tomorrow at 11AM. I believe this is the 7th meeting we've had in the last 30 days. I'm hoping tomorrows meeting will be the last and we...
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COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Eighty of Selling
COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Eighty of Selling Copiers Last time I blogged on this series was last Tuesday. Of course Wednesday was the day before Thanksgiving and I was off on Friday. Thinking back the Thanksgiving break is always the same, it's always four days off. Having off that many days in a row, especially moving into the last month of the year is great to reset for the final countdown. It's also a tradition of sorts that I take a weeks vacation after Christmas to...
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COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Eighty-Four of Selling
COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Eighty-Four of Selling Copiers The blog I wrote last week centered more about how I feel about the state of our industry. There's no getting around the fact that business is not what it used to be for copiers. But who the frak needs copiers when you can also offer up content solutions? Today I received a referral for a content opportunity and it's going to be a decent sized one. Thus in the last 30 day I have three content deals working. Yes, one of...
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Re: COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Eighty-Seven of Selling
Hey Art, Thanks for sharing as always. Question: could you elaborate what you mean when selling content? Is your company providing digital marketing?
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COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Eighty-Seven of Selling
COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Eighty-Seven of Selling Copiers It took me ten months but I was finally able to complete my first in office demo. It was one of those most interesting days in quite sometime. I received notice last night that I needed to get to the office early in order to have our wide format ready for a demonstration. COVID19 had reared it's ugly head an one of my team members is quarantined and I was able to pick up the slack. Initially my plans were to arrive at...
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COVID19 Remote Working Day One Hundred and Ninety of Selling
As of right now I have five selling days left in the month, quarter and year. Over the last three days I've been able to acquire zero orders. Yes it's been somewhat disappointing however I still have one week or 25% of the month left to work some magic. For a quick update, my content deal for $53K is still there and still has a decent shot of closing for the month. I have to re-do the proposal one more time and put it into an easier format. In addition the client asked me to list the pros...
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COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Nine of Selling
COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Nine of Selling Copiers In 40 some odd business days it will be one year since I was optioned to working remotely here in New Jersey. Two days after returning from our Presidents Club Trip to Aruba everything went to crap. Just hard to believe it's going to be a full year. Also hard to believe that I've been writing this blog series for almost one year. Maybe it's time to write that book? Today's positive cases for COVID19 reached an all time high...
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COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Thirteen of Selling
COVID19 Remote Working Day Two Hundred and Thirteen of Selling Copiers Not much has changed since I wrote my last blog on the thirteen from last week. One opportunity is in and still looking to see if I can land two net news by the 25th of this month. Seems like every opportunity has some sort of hoop that needs to be jumped through. One opportunity is solid for $35K as long as I can get the lease approval and the other potential client is extremely price conscious. At my meeting today with...