Tagged With "Eastern Time"
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Re: A Couple of True & Not So True Humerous Copier Incidents
On a cold call I stopped in at a doctors office. The Office Manager was so glad to see me. She said that she was having fax issues and every time they received a fax it jammed. I told her I wasn't a tech but I would take a look. She escorted me to the fax and I looked down to see some questionably cheap paper. I simply asked if she had tried changing paper. She said "I don't have any control of the paper the hospital sends when they fax me." OooooK. She obviously didn't understand the...
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Re: What's the weirdest place you've sold a copier to?
About to hit 17 years in the industry now so seen a few.. Sold a scanner to a strip club, I was new to the industry and just a teenager at the time - made the mistake of asking what they wanted to scan Had a "serviced" copier in a massage parlour (inherited the install base so I cant take credit for this) Sold/installed copiers/MFD's to both of the last two Prime Ministers offices/houses Installed a fax machine INSIDE a jail, there was a very dusty gap and some cables on the desk so I asked...
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Re: Canon and Konica Minolta Reps
Depends on the need for card stock. The 75xx would be a good replacement if the card stock needs are low or time limits are not a concern. I think most smaller machines ( in the light production) move slowly while printing on stock.
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Re: OKC-based company IMAGENET wants to keep employees’ $1,200 stimulus payments….
I have some time to read through the link and it seems they bowed to pressure and have changed their policy. Thank goodness for that
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Re: What's it Like at Your Dealership?
I guess I will add some. Our dealership has not furloughed anyone at this point in time. Of course all sales and admin are working remote. We've had a few orders trickling in and my hat goes off to those that have been able to secure those orders.
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Re: The End Of The Day With Ray! Don’t Screw Up Your Defining Moment
I've got shut down customers asking how we can help them because they can't operate. It sucks for us but it sucks way more for them. I have "suspended" an MA for one because they asked" no cost no expense". I was lucky enough to get my PPP loan in on day one, approved and closed. I live to fight another day but I don't think things will change all that much. Americans are not going to change everything because of Covid 19, I may be wrong (wouldn't be the first time) but this is a major...
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Re: Leasing Company Changes and Funding Disruption
We only use Great America but i have not seen any disruption. All seems normal with them other than the little caveat that the business must be open and operational at the time of funding. I haven’t seen credit tighten up from them or feel they are any more strict than usual.
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Re: Post-Virus We Must Defeat The Zombie Companies!
We generally do not build in prepaid copy/ print blocks into our leases. We do give away free copy prints up front but only intended as a short term bonus. We do normally charge a $25.00 minimum monthly maintenance fee but have waived that until the economy rebuilds momentum. I am in Canada, lease vendors are currently offering 90 day payment deferrals added back on at the end of term for those customers who request them. Leases expire every month and customers are happy with the equipment...
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Re: Need HELP! Kyocera Color A3 question
Top three points I make when against Kyocera. #1. Take them color samples from your device and any Kyocera because the color output is sub par on all units. If you don’t have access to one look in your crm for an account you co-exist with Kyocera in. Or the next time you have a knock out make some samples and keep them in a binder. If color quality is important to the customer it will be a win. Another point is showing them you get what you pay for, meaning 3 tier color is what they have...
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Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
ImageClass?? If so that’s throw away junk just like the HP’s etc. I believe that stuff has been sold online for some time now. We don’t sell that series due to the extremely high cpc’s
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Re: Will outside Sales Rep's go away?
In a way its already gone to the internet and away from the outside sales rep........at least for stand alone printers and A4 devices. If all someone needs is a printer or an A4 to be used for basic printing,scanning and copying.....face it, they really don't need us already. If you've been at this a long time you probably remember the days when you sold a lot of A4 machines to small offices. 20 years ago if you needed an A4 you called a copier dealer. Those days are gone for the most part.
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Re: Print Copy Tool versus Plotworks
John, The PrintCopy Tool compares pretty favorably to Plotworks. I attached two documents to this post. The Product Support Guide lists differences between the two products. The PowerPoint has screen shots of all the settings in PrintCopy Tool. I hope this helps.
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Re: Ricoh Pro C5300
Not that I know of however I will check on my end. It's about time for an upgrade also. IN addition I'm changing the title of this thread to Ricoh Pro C5300 so it can be found a little easier if someone is searching on the site
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Re: 7 Deadly Topics from 7 Deadly Sinners at Top 100 Summit (Part One)
No, Art. You're spot on. I haven't had many jobs outside the industry, but the majority of the old guard is so proud of the way they've always done it & receives so much validation from other dealers with the same mentality (via BTA, CDA, SDG, et al) that they often refuse to admit the need to change until it's practically too late. There are ideas & concepts that I brought up 3-5 years ago that were considered to be "interesting but not really necessary" that we're suddenly latching...
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Re: Those Magnificent Men and Their Copy Machines
Hey Art, Really admire your efforts in our industry and with your blog. Its been a long time resource to keep me updated in our industry. I will be celebrating 14 years at Martin Group, and was happy to see us represented in the list above. We are as enthusiastic as ever in supporting our communities, and below is a quick write up we refreshed to be current. Martin Group in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: Is a regional power house in the office equipment community. With 35 years in the industry, and...
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Re: When is Net New Business not Net New Business?
Interesting perspective. We constantly have the talks about competitive machines we took on service, especially brands we don't carry. I tend to consider is taking a Konica on service and then a year or two later upgrading it to our equipment net new business from the sales side. Obviously we had net new business on the service side but not net new for "x" with the equipment sale. I'd be interested to hear how others see this. I hear a lot of people say it doesn't matter but if I bring a...
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Re: When is Net New Business not Net New Business?
We were staying away from Toshiba for a long time until we had a friend who could sell us parts, supplies, and give us manuals etc. those 4 figure contracts certainly do help. Seems few and far between but I'll take them when I can get them.
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Re: When is Net New Business not Net New Business?
In my opinion, Net New is any revenue stream you did not previously have. Take over service of a competitor's equipment = Net New. Replace that machine purchased from a competitor with one of your own = Net New. Take over management of their print fleet or IT infrastructure = Net New. Replace those printers or computers, Net New. Time comes to renew those contracts at a lower or identical service payment= Upgrade. But, if their monthly payment increases, the difference between the old...
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Re: Target GP Margins
Czech, I got nothing for you, well, may have something. Every opportunity is different, all depends on the time of the month, we're I'm at with revenue for the quarter or the month, if I can hold MSRP with a certain account. I taken the position (Commercial), that all my A4 devices will be priced at MSRP. A3 devices 21-40ppm would be 1,500 to 2,500, and 3,500 or more on everything else. Just a guide line that I try and follow. I'm not in the Major account business, maybe some other P4P'ers...
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Re: Target GP Margins
Jason: Take a look at the RBS quote that posted yesterday! It states, their "best" price the first time. In essence they are teaching their people to be just "order takers". Even the Ricoh web site is no listing MSRP with lines drawn through the MSRP to indicate they are discounting. I have no problem with discounting, however there is no reason to put the MSRP on the site and then draw a line through it, the only reason that is done is to initiate a call to their in-line order taking ...
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Re: Target GP Margins
TX; I heard the same is true for the NY Metro area. Looking back, I've probably had about 6 transactional orders this year. Where I've sold the device while on the phone with the client the first time.
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Re: Canon SPIN Training
not here, although a friend of mine has. I can question him on it, the next time I speak with him. Mine is probably better thou
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Re: When did you first learn about the industry
Honestly, it was when I walked in the door for my first interview. I remember the individual interviewing me mentioning that they sold Ricoh equipment, & the only frame of reference I had is that Ricoh sponsored the "Call to the Bullpen" on MLB games at the time. Before I got into the industry, I could not make a straight copy on the first try if you paid me, because I never thought to use the document feeder & could never get the original lined up on the glass. I knew about all of...
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Re: Large scan jobs
ok, our DF holds 220 pages at one time. If one of my accounts wanted to do this I would program in a batch feed mode. First fill the document feeder, when the document feeder empties the system will them prompt you to put the rest of the originals in the feeder and then continue the scan job until all of the documents have been scanned. Does this help?
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Re: Ricoh & Epson = "perfect together" NOT!
We were talking with KIP but my father did not want to order 2 or 3 machines at one time for inventory like they wanted us to. I talked with Oce' and the guy was pretty much like talking to a wall and said he didn't need anymore dealers in his territory and pretty much hung up. I would like to have an alternative and not be at Ricoh's mercy. I have tried to upgrade 3406's with 3406's and it doesn't go over that well.
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Re: Nsi Autostore
Personally, I have not been successful in selling Auto Store so I'm probably not much help. However, I would ask why it would be necessary to bundle these things. If I was fortunate enough to be in a situation where the customer sees the value of the software and this criteria is necessary, I would propose a basic workflow and 3rd party DMS integration and Sharepoint integration would be professional services at a billable rate or discounted block of time.
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Re: Nsi Autostore
Maven , What I tell my customers and when I'm out with sales reps is it's all about getting things done in less steps. I'm in the legal vertical so time is money and everyone has an hourly billable. Right now here's the average user scan: 1.) User walks up to MFP and logs in 2.) Finds their name via LDAP or enters manually and then enters client and matter 3.) Selects Scan to email 4.) Sends PDF to their email 5.) Walks back to their desk 6.) Finds Canon Scan 00034789* (or doesn't because...
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Re: Nsi Autostore
Art, the big thing is for Nuance/Copitrak do this you need external tablets, and people are pretty sick of ecopy. We embed right in the MFP for Ricoh, Konica, Canon and Xerox so even if there's too many months left in the current lease we can embed the software in the current equipment and then just move the license to your MFPS when it's time to change hardware. I just did that with a POA rep in Denver, the customer had Canons and when they're ready switch we'll move it for a very small...
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Re: Cold Calling today
I have scheduled quite a few meetings via LinkedIn. Sometimes, it has been through InMail, but more times it has been the result of a client or prospect seeing something of interest that I posted and asking to schedule a time to discuss whatever that is.
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Re: Charge for IT support
Art, We charge an hourly rate for onsite, 1/2 that rate for remote support. We offer it as part of the Service Contract, as well as a separate block time (5, 10, or 20 Hours). Vince
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Re: Charge for IT support
We charge for IT support, we sell it in block time agreements. For hardware, we'll take care of anything that is related to the mfp device, if we find that the fix was not related to an issue with the mfp device, we will charge time and material for the fix.
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Re: Charge for IT support
We had never charged for it after the sale until about 6 months ago due to people calling all the time for driver installs, scanning issues related to their internet etc. We used to offer an optional network/it yearly agreement and people would decline and then start calling for help. We decided to send out, initially an opt-out to ever customer who had current devices, and after every sale send one out. We did it as an opt out due to the fact that customers would decline the option and...
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Re: The Death Of The B2B Salesperson [Infographic]
Vince: Well stated! I'm having a hard time with this also. We've seen Ricoh on-line now, they are pushing the envelope with direct vs dealer. I agree with you, what happens once the box arrives, what they thought they were getting because product marketing for all manufacturers have a tendency to over state what they systems can and can't do. I'm hoping we are right and Forrester is just pushing BS
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Re: 3 Ways Sales Professionals Nail New Sales Opportunities Using LinkedIn
nice job Larry. One thing I'm finding is that many of my first level contacts will have no clue about some of their connections. I have called and asked about other first level connections and most know recognize the name. I guess it's some type of Linkedin failure. Another item I've found about Linkedin is that many "C" level execs don't post their own threads. Someone in marketing is doing that for them. Linkedin is a great source for knowing who may or may not be connected to someone.
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Re: Around the World with Ricoh
Ricoh Selects Juniper Networks to Modernize its Group-Wide Network Infrastructure TOKYO, Aug. 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR ), an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks, today announced that Ricoh Group has successfully implemented Juniper Networks' high-performing solutions to modernize and simplify the operations of its core networking and security infrastructure that supports approximately 500 locations and 34,000 users in Japan. Ricoh Group...
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Re: Five Reasons Why I'm Stoked About the New Ricoh SP8400DN Printer
I guess he was just referring to the Epson C869R (25 ppm). We kept asking questions about the 100 ppm unit and I lost track which unit this information applied to. Sorry for the confusion. We have a launch on the 11th and he promised more info on the 100 ppm at that time.
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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: Toshiba e-Studio Erasable Toner 4508LP Questions
There is an all inclusive cpc charge for the Erasable Blue toner. The cost per copy analysis suggests that if on a 60 month lease you do not expect the the customer to erase more than 210,000 pages (3,500 pages per month) you can forget the parts cost and charge the same cpc as for Black at around $0.010 per page with a decent profit. There is no charge other than the users effort to recycle pages printed with erasable blue. If a sheet of paper costs $0.010 and Erasable Blue costs $0.010 you...
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Re: Copier Parts & Accessories China Tariff Starts in 9 Working Days
It seems the prospects of tariffs going away anytime soon are fading. Eventually the cost of most goods in the copier industry are going to increase because of President Trump. SSG I'm okay with this! This may help in the long run because more clients may opt for something off lease, or even release their existing devices. In both cases I'll probably make more than selling new. You keep calling it a TAX, it's not a tax it's a tariff. When I go to the store and pay for an item, a tariff is...
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Re: 57 Days of Selling Copiers "Day 10"
ty! I've had feasting for three months, now it's time for payback
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Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 16"
That helps and is a little painful at the same time. I've got some work to do.
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Re: 57 Days of Selling "Day 16"
Never ever stop prospecting is the key. Always adding and subtracting. I would say on average I keep about $100K of deals I think can close in 30 days. I focus on 180 because 2/3rd of them will either roll, or lose. 90% of the time, I will wait until the first contact to determine if that appointment is an opportunity. Once it's in the funnel, I then determine when it may have a chance to close. If's it's more than 50% it's going in the 30 day close funnel
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Re: Canon's new 75PPM A4 MFP series
CPP is very low for the AIO unit. This is a new engine, so overall service costs are estimates only at this time. Canon looks to have a winning combo on their hands. Where's Ricoh and KM in this segment?
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Re: Manufacturer Support on Bids
As far as I know, Ricoh still draws the line at $100,000. The amount of support may vary based on the equipment mix and time of year.
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Re: Manufacturer Support on Bids
Been ages since I posted anything on here! Jason, back in the day for me Canon didn't do anything unless it was minimum $50k wholesale. KM on the other hand was extremely aggressive with doing whatever was needed to get our wholesale price down. We also had a fantastic dealer account manager though who would go to bat for us every time. In a RFP situation, you would think they would understand that you are dropping your margins or more than you expect the manufacturer to. "Where there's a...
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Re: Is This the Beginning of the End for the Padding of Lease Rates?
If anything you should be bumping outright purchase prices and discounting leases. The customer who purchases their equipment outright keeps their equipment too long and may go elsewhere when the time comes to upgrade anyway.
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Re: Is This the Beginning of the End for the Padding of Lease Rates?
Part Two: Leasing News Exclusive: The Opposition and How Senator Steven Glazer Got SB 1235 Passed (Part 2 of 3) By Tom McCurnin Leasing News Legal Editor The bill was "Engrossed and Enrolled" and presented to the Governor at 5 p.m., September 12th, awaiting his decision to sign or veto. How He Pushed It Through the Legislature What are the takeaways from this interview and SB 1235? ▪ First , I Was Surprised at the Overwhelming Support of Trade Groups for the Bill. When he rattled off the...