Takin Care of Business "MFP Homework"

Homework, I cringed when I heard "homework" from my high school teachers. I was a firm believer that homework should be done in school and when I'm home that's my time.  I had presented that scenario to a few of my HS teachers and all I can say is that I didn't win any brownie points.

Fast forward to my selling career in copiers/multifunctional devices and all I can tell you is that "homework" is now the name of the game. Go figure, something I hated to do is virtually all I do when it comes to selling!

Most nights will find me in the front of the pc searching for additional information for a product, service, researching a corporation or solution that I need to find an answer for. I’m a firm believer that anything can be accomplished and a canned answer of “it’s not possible” is not acceptable.

Last week I had meet with an existing client in reference to the possibilities of upgrading to a new Ricoh wide format system. The customer was an architect and they were still chugging along with the Ricoh 480W that I had sold them almost 5 years ago. For those of us selling in the Wide Format Market we all know the industry is down, lease approvals are interesting at best. This particular client’s volume had migrated down to less than half of what they were doing 5 years ago. The upgrade of the 480W was not an option due to price point, and the Ricoh w3600 seemed like a better fit since the volume was not there anymore. I presented, proposed and painted an excellent scenario for the W3600, however there were some underlying objections. I was able to answer those and then the last objection was brought to the table. My client showed me a brochure and a quote on the new KIP700M, this system with color scanning was priced $2,500 less than my Ricoh and I didn’t have color scanning! I was not worried and here’s why.

The night before I had done my homework on the KIP700M! I knew that sooner or later I’d have to answer questions about the KIP700M or need I’d to point out the differences between the KIP700M and the Ricoh W3600. So, when my client handed me the brochure and asked “why shouldn’t I get this?”. I was able to rattle off at key feature points of why the Ricoh would be better than the KIP! Ten minutes later we signed the order for the Ricoh.

There’s always a moral of every story and what hits home is the desire, dedication and determination to be proactive, consultative and be an asset to your client, means to do you “homework”, our job is not a 9-5 effort. There’s countless hours that are needed and the rewards are well worth it.

Need to do MFP homework, take a trip to the Print4Pay Hotel Forums.

“Good Selling=-