7 Tips to Help Win Net New Competitive Copier & MPS Deals

"My pipeline is always 100,000k+ and I'm required to do 12-15 appointments per week.  I'm finding the opportunities, but not winning competitive deals. (I have a small base list of 10 accounts)."

Was one of the statements that was emailed to me by a Print4Pay Hotel member in Canada this week.  I thought this would make a good topic for this week to see if I can help.

Ok, I'm thinking if you only have a base of 10 accounts and you're not winning competitive deals that means all of your business is net new.  Here's a few things that I try and do with net new business.

1) Find out what brand of equipment they have now and who is servicing the product.

2) Once you've found out what brand they have, ask them what brand they had before their current brand along with who was servicing the equipment. If they had a different brand and servicing dealer this can tell you that they have no brand or service loyalty. If they have the same brand and the same servicing dealer or direct branch, then you've got a tough road to hoe since they have brand and service loyalty.

3) I will dig deep with the customer to see if there is some type of lockout feature or software that will position my company at the top of the pack. I've often found that many reps are lazy and won't take the time to explain many of the features, advantages and benefits of their systems.  Thus you may mention something as simple as embedded scanning to create searchable .pdf's and this could swing the decision in your favor.  Try not to leave any stones unturned when you are in a competitive situation. If you're selling MPS, make it more about the service, the reporting tools, and your fleet software advantages.

4) Make sure you meet with the DM, if not you need to put your best foot forward with the quality of your presentation and proposal.  Many times the DM may leave the decision making up to the person you met with, in this case the cheapest/lowest price may not be the right choice for the person you met with and most likely they will not select the highest price, nor the lowest price.

5) Ask "When will you be making a decision on acquiring the system and what is the process for choosing one vendor over another", make this one of your first few questions.

6) ABC, Always be closing, if a closing opportunity comes up, don't pass it buy. The worst that can happen is you'll get additional info on how the process will transpire.

7) I'm not sure of your market, however in large markets you've got to be prepared and I hate to say this, is to "offer your best deal" in order to get the business.  If you're in this for the long haul and your company services the product well, you'll be able to have an upgrade or additional units in the future that you'll be able to hold margin.

These are just a few items that came to mind.  What I can also tell you is that you need to remove yourself from competitive situations, you need to find the prospects who are NOT in the market. Basically this means that with your skill set you've been able to secure an appointment, assess their pain or challenges and offer a solution that will help them NOW.  Hard to do, but the opportunities are out there, all you need to do is find them.

-=Good Selling=-

5 Tips on How to Sell More Without Really Trying

Last week we had a special training day for telemarketing, but the day brought back many memories about how I use to get additional business, find additional prospects and or make a new contact. 

Over the years we tend to forget about some of the basics that was taught us many years ago.  I'm thinking that many of these "ways" may have perished because I don't hear anyone speaking or teaching these tactics. 

While this will be one of my shorter blogs I hoping that it will bring back memories for us old timers and for those that are new to the industry some new ways of finding those new accounts.

1. When you're finished writing the order ask the DM if they might know of anyone else that may be interested in your services.  (If you don't ask you don't get)

2. While you're writing the order, ask if the DM would be interested in any additional smaller printers, scanners or a backup MFP. (ya never know right)

3. You're bogged down on price, the DM put it out there, "can I get the system for this ....(he states his price), well you know you can do that price but instead of just saying "if I can do that price can we write order"?  maybe spin it this way "I'm ok with that price as long as we can write the order today and you can give me three references that may need my services, will that work for you"?

4. If you're selling Managed Services along with selling imaging, after you write the imaging order close for another appointment to introduce your other services.

5. Ask the DM is they are involved with an Association for their industry, if so ask for the contact name of that person.  Call the Association and ask about sponsorship initiatives, speaking opportunities for educated the members, or showing your wares at one of their meetings.

Numbers 1, 2 & 3 seem to have been forgotten at least in my neck of the woods.  I just don't hear managers preaching these.  Hope this helps for everyone.

-=Good Selling=-

How to Add More Selling Days without Really Trying

How many sales days do you have in a year?  Betcha you don't know!  Sales aka Selling days or how many days per month, per quarter and per year has been something that I keep an eye on.  Try to take a sales day away from me because you want to close the month early drives me up a wall.  Let's face it I only have "x" amount of days each month and I need to make the best of them.

Some dealerships or direct branches will close on the calendar end of the month. Others will close the month early so their "bean counters" can get a better handle of closing all of the sales by the end of the calendar month.

Some months have more selling days and some less, your job is to get a handle on how many days you have each month to attain your quota.  There are ways to add to your selling days, and the first would be to stop doing

10 Ways to Increase Your Copier and MFP Sales

I dug this up from the past and made a few minor changes, something that stuck out right away was that I was mentioning "workflow" three years ago.  Workflow is now the buzz word for the industry.  Just thought I would share that.

Whats made me successful in the field for so many years? I given this much thought and would like to share my top ten from my 32 years in down the street sales.

1. Be a consultant and not a sales person. Dig deep for their workflow and volume.
2. Always try to meet with the buyer/decision maker and not the gate keeper.
3. Be a professional at your job. Be on time, Courteous, Clean, speak their language.
4. Find out what your potential client does, what do they sell or manufacturer.
5. Position your self as the expert. Testimonials, Recommendations, Certificates..etc
6. Find out who they do business with. You may have common ground.
7. What is their buying time and why? (do they have pain)

I Stink as a Salesperson

I really didn't want to use "I Suck as a Salesperson" in the title, so I'll use it here. Even though I had a OK month when it comes to revenue, it seemed that every sale or opportunity I touched had issues.

Personally, I had too much on my plate, February had me at 22 or 23 opportunities that could close, most of them came down the wire and a lot of them rolled to March.  In January of this year I asked for a higher quota to push my self.

I found the opportunities,  however with so many open opportunities I was overwhelmed and fell short of hitting quota by about 3K.  The good thing, I should have a super March, the bad thing, poor planning on my part on some of the deals and just not enough time in the day. Gee, if I only had another me! Yeah and I forgot I took two vacation days in a short month, that didn't help either.

Selling Days

Moving into March, I'll also be short on selling days due to our Presidents Club Trip. I will lose 22% of my selling days this month.  How many of you actually look at the calendar every month and count how many selling days you have?   I have the selling days mapped out for each month of the year in advance and it helps with knowing when we have a longer and shorter sales cycle.

What Will I Do Different This Month?

The "Art" of the Copier & MFP Demo

When was the last time you packed a copier on a sales cart, wheeled it into the customers office, performed the on-site demonstration and left with an empty sales cart and a check?

For those of you that have never had this experience, I can tell you this was the zenith of the sales cycle!

In days gone by I can remember practicing demo's a few times a week.  We would practice with fellow sales reps, sales managers or the District Sales Manager of the manufacturer.  Usually every year there was some type of demo contest either run by the dealership or the manufacturer.  It's really a shame that our industry has moved away from the demonstration.   I'm still a big fan of the demonstration and will push for one when I can't get the DM to move forward or is the sales cycle is stalled.

So, what makes a good demonstration?  Here's a few tips that I've put together for everyone.

A Potential Customer Lost is a Prospect Gained!

How long have you been in the business, five years, ten, fifteen, 20 or more years? The cliches never stop do they, one that comes too mind is "what comes around goes around". For those of us who have been in the business a long time, we've seen it all, new tactics get old and old tactics get new again.

Do you remember the name of the prospect of the name of the company for your first sale? How bout the first deal you lost? sorry to say, I can't remember any of them!

How did you first schedule your appointments? I can remember getting a Doctors appointment book to write down the locations, appointment times, directions, things to do and phone numbers. As the days turned into months and the months turned to years I would find myself getting another appointment book for every year. After about four years I realized that could go back and review the accounts that I didn't sell and contact them again for the potential upgrade, gee wasn't that smart of me to keep those books.

These days most of us keep our

I'm Listening, Are You Listening to Your Prospect?

How well do you listen to your customer?

Really, are you listening and have an understanding of what they want and how they want you to get them there?  Over the years of selling "down the street", I've learned to let the client do most of the talking and I'll do most of the listening.

Of course I'll ask a few key questions like "why are you considering a new solution", or "how much is that costing you", and even "do you have any pains in your day to day business that involve your printing or copying hardware". It took many years to understanding that listening is the key to consultative selling and the key to success in being a top producer.

Most customers have a round about way of telling you what they want from you and your company. Like telling a story about a previous experience and or a bad rep that they had to deal with (listen to this carefully, they are telling you what they want from you when they tell you about their past experiences). I hear many complaints from clients about the pushy reps, the ones who only want to sell what they thing they should have and not what the customer really needs. Heck, we had one guy at the office and 90% of his sales has been a 35ppm box, how is that? Customers will appreciate that you listened and comprehended their needs, in return they will shower you with references down the road.

Today, I was at a clients account and would have liked to pitched a 25ppm color system to them, this customer has an 18ppm digital system that scans, prints, copies and faxes, plus they also a have a color laser printer that prints up to 11x17. They printed more than 100,000 pages on the printer and only copied, faxed or printed 36,000 pages on their 18ppm digital system, plus they get service as they need it (break & fix) for both units.

I would have loved to sell them a 25 page per minute color device to replace both of the units, however the customer stated that business was slow and that they may look to buy the 18ppm from the leasing company. I listened..... and then asked to schedule another appointment to discuss their needs for the next three years.

What to Do?

From listening to the customer and finding out that they were at least in favor of getting a price from the leasing company for the 18ppm system, I knew that in order for them to lease or buy that I would need to present and cost analysis for them.  That's right put the time and effort into figuring out their existing costs for both devices.  Then cross your fingers and hope that you'll be able to save them "x" amount of dollars per year with a new system. If the cost analysis was not presented, then the customer would have bought the 18ppm from the leasing company and continued to do business the same way.

The key to listening in this case was that their current business is slow (lower revenues, profit, etc).  Most companies when presented with a cost analysis that presents the existing costs and proposed cost will move forward with the new proposal as long as they have a savings!  Another tip to keep in mind is that is the monthly savings is low 20-30 per month, then show the yearly and term of lease savings.  When the monthly savings is high per month, show the month and not the yearly or term of lease savings.

Listening is some you develop over time, and in some cases prospects will close themselves and hand you the order if you let them talk enough.

-= Good Selling=-

Natural Born Salesperson

One of my first jobs was that of a paper boy when I was growing up in Jersey.  I'm thinking I started my first paper route at 13 and finally ended somewhere at 15.  At a young age I had to collect money, work for tips and also face complaints. Thinking back the best part of the job was that I was able to hop on my bike pedal about 2 miles to my first customer. It gave me freedom, I was on my own and I learned to interact with good people and rude people at a young age.

Somewhere in the age of 18 (in the seventies) or so, I took my first real sales job (kinda) selling Kirby vacuum cleaners.  All in the course of one day I and others were trained on the features, advantages and benefits. The manager made demo'd the Kirby as the state of the art in technology for vacuum cleaners, and I was impressed.  At the end of the day he told us that in order to stay with Kirby we were to take a demonstrator home with us and sell a minimum of 3 Kirby's to our family members at a price of over $300 each.  Three hundred bucks in the seventies....was a lot of money. I bought my first car for $150, to the say the least the last thing I wanted to do was squeeze  my parents for $300 bucks, I didn't take the demonstrator home and pretty much didn't go back.

I'm sure we've all had an experience or two in our sales careers like the ones I had.  To tell you all the truth the last thing job I ever wanted was to be a salesperson, and look out that panned out.  At 23 years old I backed in to copier sales in the eighties. Prior to the copier sales I was trained for a good 12 weeks to be a copier technician. At the end of the 12 weeks I got my first copier tech gig and in three months I was brought for a review. The review kinda went like this,

Take Advantage of Recent Copier Proposals & Knockout the Competitor

For those of you that read my blog often, I don't want to sound like a broken record with why I believe it's a good thing to review proposals see street pricing from other dealers, and direct branches.

Let me take a recent A4 sale that I secured.  The account was an incumbent, and excellent service and support was issued through out the last three years. However, this account (small account) always wants to check pricing (think of all the time they would save if they did not get additional quotes and focused on their core business) from other vendors.  After many phone calls and a visit to the account I was able to keep the business for another three years.  But this time, I asked for copies of the quotes that he had received from other vendors. Some people tend to be a little wishy washy about this and not give them to you and then others will hand them over without a second thought.  Believe it or not I still get a rush when a customer gives me the quotes from the other vendors. Hey, if you're really in this business to stay you need to see all of the quotes and proposals you can even if they are not from a direct competitor.  There's a lot to learn from each and every one of them.

For example, I noticed on my competitors proposal these points:

One Awesome Sales Experience from the Seventies

Is it just me or does every Thanksgiving always bring back memories from times gone by?

Today while running errands I remembered a few of my first introductions into sales, at the time I didn't think it was anything more than doing my job.

While working at Green Farms produce company in Iselin, NJ in the mid seventies I distinctly remember waiting on one of our wholesale accounts.  One day I was waiting on Larry and he asked for something like 40 bags of corn.  In order to get the corn, I had to go to the reefer and unload them by hand and put them on a pallet.  When I was done getting the forty bags of corn, Larry pulled off the top bag tore it open and then pulled out 6 or so ears of corn.  He then ripped off the husk and stated "What are you trying to do, this corn is all dried out, I don't want this crap, go get Sonny (Sonny was my boss and the owner)".  Larry was pissed (but Larry was playing his own game) and I thought, dam this all I needed that I know had to get Sonny involved. 

I told Sonny how mad Larry was and

Looking for MFP & Copier Leads in All The Right Places

I've borrowed a few lines from a blog I did about three years ago in reference to finding leads and then updated with a few new ones for everyone. 

Have you ever heard of the "three foot rule"?  It means that whenever you get within three feet of someone you should be talk solutions/MFP's or even how do you do this or that.  It sounds kind of lame, but you need to sneak it in somewhere.  I could have the worst week, month or even quarter however I always look at it that I never know what tomorrow will bring me, it's inevitable that continued prospecting will always generate new opportunities that you were not counting on.

Over the years, I found leads I've generated opportunities because I always ask myself how did they print this or make it look this way.  Here are 5 opportunities that came my way over the years.

1) The first one was a paper store; I had to buy specialty paper to run some print samples for a client. As I was making my purchase, the clerk printed a sales order/sales receipt on a dot matrix printer with pre-printed three part carbon less paper.

It clicked; I asked the clerk why do you print these like this? He just gave me a dumb look and stated "cause that's the way the boss does it", okay I thought. I then asked for the owners name and the best time to contact him. Done, it's a lead and a solutions lead at that. Pre-printed carbon less forms can run as high as .25 cents each or higher. Now it's just a case of finding out how many forms are printed each and every month to make a viable ROI presentation.

10 Awesome Tips to Keep Your Best Sales Producers

Seems to me like this would be just the opposite of "10 Tips on How to Lose Your Top Sales Producers"   blog I wrote....., well, not entirely.

1.  Don't lie to them, if you do and you're found out to be a liar, the rep will have no respect for you or your company.
2.  Double and triple check commissions to make sure they are correct, who knows maybe you'll find and error in your favor and you didn't see in on the first pass.
3. Check and approve the commission form before the new system or service is installed, this way if there is a discrepancy it can be resolved before the pay period or the install.  This will also help the sales person too see exactly what they are getting paid and they can then "count" x amount of funds in order to pay their bills.  Side Note:  Over the years I've been amazed at the amount of people who think our commission money is extra money, mad money or our slush fund.  Get a grip people we use our commission money to pay or bills and support our family.

Ricoh A4 Envelope Printer to the Rescue

I may be rehashing some information here, however I was ecstatic on how a Ricoh SPC431DN Color printer performed a few weeks ago.

Ever since I saw the first envelope press from Xante, I've wanted to be able to sell these.  For those of us in the know the Okidata C9800 is the engine of choice for Xante, PSI and Oki themselves. To make a long story short, these systems will print up to A3 (11x17), take super thick stock and have an EFI Fiery built into the system for color matching.  Pricing, well anywhere from $17K-$22K, a few years back I knew a print shop that picked up one up at a show for about $14.8  The claim to fame is that you'll print full color envelopes at 36 per minute, the cost for toner (color) would be about .02 cents (since you are print a small logo) and you could have a customer envelope feeder and conveyor.  Each of these companies also added a few other tweaks to the system.

Commercial Trade Printer Helps Me Out

Since we've got that out of the way, a few years ago I met a commercial printer who just prints envelopes for the trade. He has at least three of the OKI C9800's with the feeders.  I wasn't able to sell him anything however we hit it off since I was intrigued with envelope presses and how you could take an ordinary color laser printer and tweak it so the system could run envelopes all of the time.

Just about a year ago I asked this commercial printer if he would test a Ricoh SPC431DN for me, I was curious if this system could print envelopes without wrinkles and not misfeed.  We ran the test with a envelope feeder he had, we disconnected the by-pass tray and the Ricoh C431DN ran all of the envelopes without misfeeding and without wrinkles.  I then asked about the percentages of sizes of envelopes that he prints, I wanted to know what was the most common.  He replied that just about 75% of his work is with DL10's and smaller.

Existing Customer Emails Me

Fast forward to about a month ago, one of my clients emailed me and asked if I could supply a system that would print envelopes for this mailings. he had been in touch with Pitney Bowes, however Pitney wanted him to sign a ridiculous 69 month lease for something like $250 for a Pitney Bowes envelope printer.  Since I had the previous experience with the Ricoh SPC431DN, I figured it was worth the time to investigate.  I researched the Pitney Bowes Envelope printer (sorry I forget the model number) and it seems the printer was nothing more than a noisy (saw a video of the system on youtube) inkjet system.  The out put speed was fast, however it was inkjet and the cost was over $17K!

My Testing

I went back to my customer asked for any appointment and found out that his needs are to print 2,000-2,500 envelopes at a time and they would be doing a mail merge from an excel database and a database in PB smartmailer (was not made aware of this until later). I asked for a file from the customer and they emailed me an excel database. Luckily we had a Ricoh SPC431DN in the showroom, but it was only equipped with one paper tray.  In the next 90 minutes I printed off 200 or so envelopes without a hitch, no wrinkles no misfeeds, and the quality was awesome.

Sales Issues

In order to put together a viable solution for the customer, I had to configure the system with three additional paper trays.  However I was not able to test the system with the additional paper trays.  From past experience I knew that I could set each paper tray to due a "roll over", meaning that when one tray was empty, the envelopes would then pull from tray two, then three and four.  I made an assumption that if the system was capable of printing from one tray without issues then all of the other trays would work also (I crossed my fingers). So when I was ready for the install, I knew that I had to change all of the paper tray sizes to DL 10, change the media setting for each tray to envelope #1 and then set the auto "roll over" for each tray. I would also present a 36 month lease and also add in a maintenance agreement for the system with no toner. As far as the quantity of envelopes. I figured that each tray could hold about 100 envelopes since and envelop is three sheets of paper.  Thus with four trays we could load 400 envelopes.

The Presentation

Probably the best thing

BPO, MFP, MPS, MNS, MBS, MDS = WTF

Geesh, were do we go from here. 

In recent weeks I've heard more about BPO (Business Process Optimization), MNS (Managed Network Service) and MBS (Managed Backup Service) that I care to know.  However, it is the flavor of the year and the company I work for is excited about bringing these services to our customers.  The company I work for is somewhat unique in that we've been selling MFP's (Multifunctional Products), along with MPS (Managed Print Service)  for many years with MPS coming on board a few years ago. The uniqueness is that we have our own full staff IT division, we've been installing servers, pc, and networks for some time.   That uniqueness now allows us to offer additional services to existing and new customers.

So, not all copier dealerships are created equal.  Thus I would tend to thing there are many more copier dealerships that don't have an IT division compared to ones that do. Many industry pundits are stating the copier dealers need to diversify and offer additional services.   I know of a few dealers who have already added mailing equipment (folders, inserters, tabbers), other dealers that have added 3D printers, Managed Network Services, Business Process Optimization, Managed Document Services (MDS) an Managed Backup Services (MBS).

But can Dealerships and Direct Branches be everything to everyone? Really, what else is left in the office besides the phone system, security and the cleaning service. 

Do you let your existing reps sell these new services?

These are my thoughts,  HELL NO! There are still more than enough additional pages that are available (see my blog on Bucks County "A Case for a Managed Print Service Detective).  Let your imaging reps concentrate on your imaging portfolio for MFP and MPS, you're most senior and advanced reps will probably shine with BPO because they will have the imaging (MFP) knowledge to combine and create new work flows with existing software that your dealership or direct branch maybe selling.  Your new reps should be recruited from local colleges and they should go through an intensive training for MNS, MBS, MDS and MBS and then unleashed into vertical markets such as manufacturing, health care, law, construction etc. As long as you are hiring reps that have a back ground with pc's and servers you should be able to train them rather quickly with your IOP, your pricing, and phone scripts.  In turn,  if you need imaging (MFP) reps than hire for that purpose only.

We want all of my reps to sell the same services?

Well, you maybe in a heep of trouble with your most experienced and senior imaging reps.  From what I've seen the sales cycle for MNS, BPO, MBS and MDS is much longer than imaging, adding to the fact that you need multiple meetings with multiple people from both sides. A sales cycle of 90 days is not out of the ordinary here. Since these services are billed monthly I would expect that commissions are paid monthly, in a previous Blog I had stated that I heard from a rep that told me her commission percentage was 6.5% of the monthly billing.  Selling an MNS and MBS to an SMB account with 10 computers and one server could result in a monthly fee of $700 per month.  Commissions would be around $42 per month.  Take your best rep and let's say he or she gives you an average of $14k per month in GP, that rep is only good for "x" amount of sales per month.  So, lets say there were 7 sales that had $2K of GP for each (hey we're keeping it simple), now we ask that same rep to start selling MNS and MBS.  We could then see 5 imaging sales for a total of $12k GP and then two sales for MNS/MBS, thus the GP would be lowered along with lower commissions (along with $84 commission for the MNS/MBS portion, but the dealership or direct branch picked up $1,400 in monthly billing.  How about this one, the rep only sells 3 imaging units for a total of $6K GP and MNS/MBS, are you and the rep ready to bite the bullet?

My point is that the tenured reps unless they are going after huge accounts and they have a huge draw they will see no money in the MNS/MBS SMB business. WIFM?  Not much..., thus the need to train new reps that are dedicated the new services.

Quota for MNS/MBS:

If you plan on having a dedicated sales team for the new services, YES, by all means. Of course if you want to add to yur imaging reps quota, then NO!

The main gist of "services" is that you can control the network, with that comes the imaging, the BPO and everything else.  I agree that dealers need to diversify but Managed Network Services, Business Process Optimization, Managed Backup Service may not right for every dealership.

-=Good Selling=-

Selling Copiers & MFPs "The Quarter Aint Over Till It's Over"

The end of the third quarter draws closer and closer.  My end for the quarter will be September 24th, since the 23rd is on the weekend. I'm surprised that I haven't received an email yet that we'll be closing the month on the 21st because the bean counters can't keep up with the orders! hehe

Sales is always what you make of it, if you have to have the Desire to be the best.  After 33 years in down the street sales I'm still  not satisfied with just making quota, not just satisfied with eeking out a living.  For some reason I need to BE THE BEST, all of the time and if I'm not then watch out because I'll outwork the other person to BE THE BEST.

As I move into the last quarter of the third quarter, I've got a lock on Presidents Club again (the wife will be happy) and I find myself in need of 30K (to make the top tier of 166% of quota) in sales for the final 7 selling days of the quarter. Some may look at the final 7 days and say oh my gosh, how am I going to do this I have only 7 days left!  To me 7 selling days means that there is still 33% of the month left and it should be more than enough time to get the numbers I want.

In my bucket for the month I believe I have almost 90K of opportunities that have a shot (even the slightest chance of closing) of closing before the end of the quarter.  Out of this list I have a target of six accounts that have more than a 50% chance of closing. That 50% chance equals some $50k of business, the business is there I just need a little bit of luck (the harder you work the luckier you get), and some pre-planning to get what I want.

I prepare in advance a plan to close the sale, most of my sales can center around ROI (return on investment) and or lower costs, this can make it a no brainer to move forward NOW. So, lets take an appointment that I have tomorrow with an incumbent account.

This particular account can be a problem account, they have more than two years left on a lease for a color MFP, but they are blowing out their color prints to the tune of overages each quarter that are exceeding $3,000.  From the review that I've done is that their color volume has exploded.  So tomorrow I'll be there with a report analysis for the last 12 months for the lease cost and the service/supply costs. I'll also have a projected solution to upgrade the current system to another that has a much lower per page cost.  Thus, I'll be able to present the customer with an immediate savings proposal, however what I'll also have is all of the paperwork ready to sign the deal on the spot (the lease, the ma and the sales order). Why wait and make another trip, right?  If they agree then off we go with the order. 

My point is that we should always be prepared to close, you nor I can tell the future nor the outcome of any meeting.  Sales is not a 9-5 job, I'll be doing the paper work after I finish this blog tonight for this particular customer. Why? Because I want the darn sale tomorrow!

-=Good Selling=-

Church Leasing a Copy Machine in Central New Jersey

Just this week I was able to help a New Jersey Bayshore Church that was shopping for a Ricoh Copier (multifunctional system).  As with many churches the economy has taken it's toll with lower donations, and higher operating costs. 

The current scenario found the Church with an outdated PC (which they owned), that was slow, and working with an outdated Operating System along with outdated Microsoft Office Applications.  The Church also had an existing copier lease that had nine payments remaining, the copier at the New Jersey Church was performing ok but it was evident that they could benefit from a new system that would offer them color scanning, scan2dropbox, scan2officedrop, scan2email, OCR and fillable forms. Th fillable forms turned out to be a BIG thing, each year the church would upload the new CCD forms to their web site, from there the parishioners would be able to download the forms, fill them out and then return them to the church.  When the office staff reviewed these forms they had to muddle through the handwriting on the forms, granted that 80% of the forms were legible but there were many forms that required a phone call to the parishioner to validate a name, phone number and or birth date.

A great feature that came with the Ricoh copier was the ability for the Church to create a .pdf fillable form from a word document and then upload that document to the web site. Thus when the parishioner opened the document they were able to type the required information on the form, then print the form for delivery or even email the form to the Church staff.  The end result was neater forms, and less call backs for unreadable information.

Even though the software that came with the Ricoh copier was helpful,  the Church had also expressed that they could not pay anymore than what they were already paying on a monthly basis.  I had my homework cut out for me.

After reviewing their maintenance and supply costs, and the monthly lease cost we were able to put a package together that include a new DellOptiex PC, Mircrosoft Office Professional, and a new Ricoh SP5210SR multifunctional copier that included delivery, installation of the Ricoh copier, and installation of the Dell OptiPlex PC.  The cost?  The cost per month was the same as the current copier lease (zero increase in cost), the benefit was new equipment, time saving software and a new PC with all of the extras that they were hoping for.

If you're shopping for a new Ricoh copier in New Jersey, or you may need some new PC's, IT support or Managed Network Services. We'd like to speak to with you to present our award winning New Jersey support and to see if we can lower your total cost of operation.

-=Century Office Products-

1 of 3 Nice Sales I had from Last Week

Last week I had the chance to visit one of my favorite Architects in New Jersey.  It was that time again and he was interested in upgrading his present leased Ricoh Color Copier/Printer/Scanner for something newer.

I don't like to release the names of my accounts so we'll use Bill for the name of the Architect.

Bill had some unique needs for a new color multifunctional copier.  For years Ricoh has had a feature in their multifunctional copiers called the "Document Server".  The Document Server is a partition on the hard drive of the multifunctional copier that allows users to scan and print documents to that portion of the hard drive.  You also have the ability to name the document, name the user and password protect the document.  The main benefit to the end user is that these documents now reside at the copier for easy re-print access, plus you can embed features like folding, stapling and magazine.

Bill has this unique need that most his documents were hand created renderings of visual concepts that he as working on.  Thus, the ability for the Ricoh multifunctional copiers to store and reprint these at any time enabled Bill to reprint the documents with the correct finishing applications for each visual concept.

Bill was also a MAC user, thus he was excited to hear that he would be able to print from his network to his iPhone and iPad without any additional cost.  The icing on the cake was the new booklet feature for MAC users, yes now MAC users are can print booklets to the Ricoh Color Multifunctional Copier for the first time! Before, Bill had to scan his hand created visual renderings to the document server and then have them print in a booklet format. 

Thus the new Ricoh MPC3502SPF was quite the buy for him,  with architects TIME is money, and the new Ricoh MPC3502 will save him many hours per month to work on additional projects and or create additional visuals renderings that may help him get additional projects this year.

If you're an architect and you're shopping for a new copier in New Jersey or if you're looking to lease or buy a new copier in New Jersey.  Please feel free to give m a call 732.977.1211 and see if I maybe able to help you increase your efficiencies, lower your total cost of operation or help with a placing a new wide format copier system for your architectural firm in New Jersey.

If you're looking for a copy machine in New Jersey please give me a call or fill out this handy form.

=Greetings from Art=-

Selling Copiers and MFP's "What Would You Do"?

I had a rep email me today about a certain scenario and asked for my help.

He gave the scenario that the system he was looking to replace was an older Ricoh MPC4500 (45 page per minute color) with print/scan and fax.  He had suggested that the end user get an Ricoh MP3002 (30 page per minute color) with print/scan and fax.  He then stated that the customer did not want to get a slower device than what they already had, they were doing abut 6,000 pages per month in black and 400 pages per month in color.  I was also told that the color volume was much higher in the past however the end user had either moved a certain job or was not doing that job anymore.

Let's back up a little, the end user is currently doing business with a Direct branch, they have a few payments on the lease and are very happy with the support and service they have received during the term of the current lease.

The current lease price with service is high at almost $500 per month considering that the monthly volume is so low. 

Here's a few of the questions I asked him;

1. What were you trying to accomplish by recommending a 30 page per minute color when they have a 45 page per minute color?  He then stated that the incumbent was a Direct location and he saw an opportunity to try and "right size" the end user and also thought that he would be able to position the monthly price lower with a new lease.
2. How much are they current lease payments and how many months are left on the lease?  There are two payments.
3. Where any service and supplies built into the lease?  Yes, 9,000 per month for black, color is billable. However moving forward they want 6K per month and color billable.
4. Are they happy with their current vendor (meaning the Direct branch), Yes, there are no issues.
5. Is there anything unique in their work flow for scanning, printing, copying, faxing or saving of documents?  Here I got a no, just looking to replace an existing system with a new system.
6. Is there a desire to enable mobile printing? No

Please keep in mind that I was not on this appointment and I am getting all of this from the rep. 

What did I get from all of this?  

Selling Copiers and MFPs "Earning Mental Toughness"

For those of us that have been selling copiers for 20-30 plus years (yes there's still a few of us around) the month to month and then quarter to quarter grinding quota cycles can take their toll on your mental toughness. 

Yes, there was once a time even for me when I hesitated to make the next cold call on the phone, then praying that someone did not answer the phone when I called, and even turned tail performing an in person cold call because I was afraid that I would be rejected when I opened the door.  I'm sure if I had these feeling that there are many of us that have struggled with rejection in our sales career. 

You can't buy mental toughness, and someone can't teach you mental toughness.  Mental toughness is something you earn, and you can earn it in a variety of ways.  In my teens I worked for a "family" produce company in NJ, I was the only employee who was not related to "the family".  At 16 years old it was a learning experience that I'll never forget.  I was hired to lift, sort and stack trailers and produce racks with produce.   Since I was not in "the family" whenever I thought about doing it my way, it turned out to be the "wrong way".  When I was asked what happened with this or that, I replied "I thought....blah blah", I was reminded by screaming family members that I was not paid to think. I was paid to do what I was told. At 16-19 (I did that job for 3 years) years old it was my introduction into the world of business. It seemed I was always making mistakes, fouling things up , dropping things or trying to do something that I thought was a better way.  However, I hung in and took my lumps, I learned that I was not going to get fired, and after sometime the screaming was something that I got use to. I learned not to take it personally and and to let things go.   I earned the mental toughness to stay with the job, because I went on with my work after a screaming episode and went back to work the next day.

When I started in copier sales, let me back up a minute I was actually hired as a technician first.  After six months I had my review and the owner of the company gave me outstanding marks on my ability to take copiers apart, to say the least he was not impressed with the way I put them back together and wanted to lay me off.  He did state, that if I wanted to stay on, I could try my hand at sales.  I took the sales job and never looked back.