MFP & MPS Dealers Have Options in a Tough Economy

At a recent BTA event I was able to finally meet Chris Polek (CEO) of Polek and Polek.  Many years ago when I had my own dealership (13 years) we relied on Polek & Polek for imaging supplies.  Just this past fall when Hurricane Sandy devastated Highlands, NJ.  Polek & Polek and their employees sent boxes upon boxes of much needed supplies to my church (with out a call from me).  I urge you to include Polek & Polek as a valued vendor for your imaging supplies and I'm proud to have Polek & Polek as a long term sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel.

 Polek & Polek, a family owned wholesale distributor of parts and supplies for copiers, faxes, and printers in business since 1974. Take a good read of Dan's article, its quite good!

You Have Options in a Tough Economy

The headlines of today’s economic news are adding to the already challenging environment in the imaging industry. OEM’s, now more than ever, are operating in your territory. This is bringing concerns to dealer management all over the United States. Pricing pressure coming from CPC pricing in the .0029 vicinity is challenging even the best dealers to search for ways to compete and reduce costs. Here are some other forces that are creating serious headwinds for the dealer community.

 OEM quotas are demanding on your resources, stuffing warehouses all over the country to the benefit of the OEM and to the detriment of the dealer community.

 Cash flow is slowing down as a result of this and the slowing economic environment.

 OEM’s threaten cancellation or to open competing dealers down the street.

 Color printing and page coverage is squeezing the dealer between the customer and the OEM supplier more than anyone else in the supply chain.

 OEM direct competition is still going on at or below your lowest price with all discounts included at retail.

 Some dealers are seeing machine placements, copy counts and new business slowing to a trickle.

 Operating expenses are all going up.

 Tech salaries are being challenged and competed for from the IT industry.

 The burden of producing profit is on service and supplies.

There ARE ways to overcome these tough setbacks and situations.

Become part of a buying group or Industry organization ‐ IBPI, BTA, BPCA, CDA or SDG groups.

These groups provide buying

Polek & Polek Donates Supplies for Hurricane Sandy Relief

I live at the Jersey Shore in a small town known as Highlands. It's called Highlands because the eastern area has a high bluff (I live on the bluff), but most of the population of Highlands is located at sea level on Sandy Hook Bay.

Highlands was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, most of the town was without power for two weeks and the main section of Highlands had a surge of water anywhere from 6-15 feet.  Most of the homes in Highlands were flooded with sea water and everyone was evacuated in the low lying areas.

While I was without power I was helping with the relief effort at my church. Our town was in dire need of clothes, cleaning products, food, blankets and just the everyday items that you need to survive. 

I was able to post a message on linkedin that we were in need of those items, early this week I had a call from Polek & Polek they are one of my accounts that is a sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel forums.  They informed me that they wanted to help and asked what was needed.

When I got home from work yesterday, there were nine giant boxes on my front porch with cleaning supplies, batteries, personal hygiene supplies and new clothes!  Today, I delivered all of the supplies to the church.

I'd like to personally thank the employees and owners of Polek & Polek for donating these much needed supplies to our small town.  The donation is greatly appreciated and tells me a lot about the character of the employees and owners of Polek & Polek.

Kudos to Polek & Polek for their generous donation.

-=Good Selling=-

Top 5 (#2) Solutions/Products at BTA East Grand Slam Event

As many of you know I attended the BTA (Business Technology Association) BTA Grand Slam Event last week in White Plains, NY.  One of the bigger vibes from the show was the Yankee game that was scheduled for the last night of the show.  The Yankees were playing the last game of the season and still chasing the American League East Pennant, my what a difference a week and a half makes right?

So, I'm in sitting in the restaurant in the Doral Arrowwood Resort for lunch, a few minutes later two guys sit down in the next table, and they were talking about the Yankees. Mind you I'm a Yankee hater, ever since they traded Roger Maris back inb the 60's.  But one of the guys wasn't sure what time the game was on Wednesday night, so I chimed in with the time and to my surprise it was Chris Polek (CE0) of Polek & Polek.  I had never met Chris before and it was a pleasure to meet one of my long time sponsors of the Print4Pay Hotel forums.

Polek & Polek is a supplier of generic toner for printers and copiers, I know first hand that they spend a lot of time to have the best quality aftermarket supplies in the business.  I used to do business with them when I had my own dealership back in the eighties, I never had a problem with any of the products that they sold. 

While at the BTA Event, after every speaker there was a 45 minute break that allowed dealers to go and meet the vendors (awesome), and after one of the breaks I went over to talk to Chris to catch up and to ask me to tell him more about the products he has available.  He mentioned staples, I said what? Staples... Polek & Polek carries aftermarket staples for all of the MFP manufactures, better yet they are manufactured by Swingline (who can ask for a better product manufacturer, right).  Chris explained the dealers can save up to 40-45% off th manufacturers wholesale price.  Chris told me that one of his largest dealers had told him that by just buying the staples from Polek & Polek that they had saved over $10K in one year! That's awesome.

Whether you're in need of aftermarket drums, toners, developers, staples and I'm sure a heck of a lot of other stuff maybe it's time to fatten your profits and give them a call and tell me the Print4Pay Hotel mentioned that they are one of the "go to" vendors in our industry!

BTW,  Polek & Polek is a sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel forums and I'd like to thank them for their years of support.

-=Good Selling=-

10 Tips for Recession Proofing Your Business

I emailed Chris Polek CEO @ Polek & Polek a few weeks ago to see if he would like to be one of our Guest Bloggers and Chris emailed me back with the article below. I can remember doing business with Polek & Polek back in the eighties when I had my own dealership. Polek & Polek is also a long time supporter for the Print4Pay Hotel forums and if you're not familar with them, just click on the banner ad for a trip to their web site.

1)            Always Run Your Company Leaner Than You Would Like Especially during the good times. When The Great Recession hit in 2008 most companies were forced to start running their companies leaner. Downsizing was painful, and as companies emerged from the recession they discovered they were able to still accomplish results with less. Many owners made remorseful comments such as: “I should have been running my company this lean even when times were good!”

 How do you know if you’re running your company too lean? When you start to hear your em-ployees complain (as long as they are focused on doing the right things), then you have probably

hit the point where you can run your company as lean as possible. If you are not hearing any of
your employees complain, that is good sign that you can run your company leaner; start looking
for what resources that you can live without.

What about areas that you don’t want to cut back? Any of the resources that help keep custom-

ers, and grow our customer base. We can grow the share of our customers, or add new ones; I
advocate doing both. Also, your top people who perform well, and are always there through
thick and thin, don’t cut back on that. Support those people, and give them plenty of recogni-
tion; even during the tough times. Everything outside of that should be considered discretionary
costs.

You need to relentlessly run your company lean, even during the good times. This will allow you

to be productive and efficient. You can build reserves to be prepared for the tough times.

2)            Customer Loyalty

Will they continue to do business with you, and do they (not will they) give referrals? If you can
answer yes and yes, that is the definition of a loyal customer, and you need to guard those cus-
tomers with your life! Do you keep track of the customers that you lose versus the ones that you
keep? If not, you need to take immediate action on doing that, and resolve to improve that
number in 2012 from where it is in 2011.

It is not just about finding customers, it is also about keeping them. The more customers that
you can keep improve your chances for overall growth!

3)            Identify Your Company’s Top 3 Goals/Objectives

If you want your people to be accountable, it will never happen unless they are measured against
goals. The goals need to be specific. Increase revenue in 2012 is not a goal. Grow revenue 10%
in 2012 versus 2011 is a goal. You need to identify the Top 3 Critical Goals in your business for
2012, make them specific, and everyone in the organization must know what they are. You want
to do that so your employees won’t spend time working on things that are less important. Al-
ways ask your employees: How is this project helping us achieve our critical objectives?”

4)            Managing Employee Performance

I believe if we were all honest, we would agree that we have a few employees that just can’t
seem to get it done. It is not the most popular problem to deal with, but you have to deal with it
head on. If you don’t, you end up increasing your cost structure because you have people work-
ing for you that are not getting done what you need to get done. When times get tough, you
look at potentially downsizing your work force, and you may not have needed to do that if the
people working for you produced the results that you need. Be tough on performance, and
make sure that you take care of your people along the way.

5)            Sales Productivity

When you break it down, sales is all about the numbers, and you want to be as productive as you
can be. You need to know at a moment’s notice which people on your team are on target for
their quota or not, so that you can work to consistently hit those quotas. Get senior manage-
ment involved to help close important new business. Also, make sure that your people are only
pursuing business that they can win.

MFP & Copier Industry Weekend Notes 3/4/2012

I'm working on a new book titled 101 Ways to Close MFP Sales. it should be completed within three weeks and it will be posted on the Premium Forums and Amazon.  If you've got a favorite close, please send it to me and we'll give you kudos and a free copy of the book!

This week Ricoh Europe announced that they will launch a color wide format gelsprinter in 3rd quarter of this year, read the threads that have been posted so far, they are not.... Canon will finally refresh the 2008 monochrome products 2500 & 3200 series, the thread is below check it out and Sharp announces price increase for April 1st.

Yours truly will be interviewed by The Week in Imaging this week about reaching the 1,000th blog!

I've started a new forum for posting our "best sale of the month", I think it would be educational for all of us to hear you brag about the sale, how you nailed it, how you found the customer, did a solution deal the deal, how much GP of revenue you gained, and or clicks that you captured.  There's also a $25 gift card incentive for one P4P'er each from from one of our advertisers. Tell us About Your Best Sale this Month!

On another note we've posted "Effective emails for obtaining appointments", and they are great!  They are not from me, but from your peers, check em out in the P4P Document Library!
Please take advantage of the sales documents, quotes, proposals, rfp's, rfq's, uploads, p4p library, downloads and all of the additional forum features that are enabled with a Premium Membership!
Please support our Advertisers by clicking their links and giving them a call! LCA Leasing Corp, Stethos USA, Jetmobile,  Polek & Polek, UDOCX, Print Audit, & Cybercon Dealer Services, sfSCAN

Recent Blogs of NoteSelling MFP's & Copiers "Positioning yourself as an MFP/Copier Expert"
Canon & Oce "Was this a good deal or a not so good deal?"
Ricoh Adds Wide Format Color "OMG not the gel"
SMART MFP's 2the Cloud
I dare you...
Managed Documents "The Next Big Thing"?

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum ThreadsOKI "MPS" series MFPs
Canon ImageRunner Advance 4025...
C651EX/C751EX Toner Shortage
W3601 Scan Software
Can a Kyocera 3640mfp copy mixed originals
Re: new C4502/5502
Profit Breakdown Question
New Samsung 11 x 17" Colour MFPs due Oct 01 USA
NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document LibraryOKI MC361 vs HP color MFP M475
OKI C330 vs HP color M451
Customer Expectations 770 Digital Color Press v1-03 For Launch
"Unlocked" Winning Proposal Generator for MPS & MFP's
Production Print Study Excel Guide
Effective emails for obtaining appointments

News & Press Releases
 Sharp Price Increase
Oce Varioprint DP Line (Oce & Canon integration)
Kyocera launches four new MFPs
Ricoh Adds Colour to Its Wide Format Portfolio (10 replies already)
NSi AutoStore 6.0 Earns Konica Minolta bEST Certification

P4P Poll QuestionsJanuary 2012 Sales Quota Poll
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 60 ppm plus
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 30-44 ppm COLOR
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 45 - 59 ppm COLOR

New Leads, RFP's & RFQ's Uploaded!Illinois
Georgia
Colorado
South Africa
West Virginia
Southern California for KIP700

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & QuotesEnd User Report for Xerox 700 vs KonicaMinolta
xerox workcentre 5325 proposal
Toshiba estudio 2040c proposal
Copystar (Kyo) CS255C
Savin C9145 MFP Proposal/Quote
Ricoh C751 proposal

Go here and register for a FREE Print4Pay Hotel Membership or go here for our Premium Membership!
The Staff at the Print4Pay Hotel

MFP & Copier Industry Weekend Notes 2/26/2012

March will see the end of the first quarter of 2012 and I hope we're all doing well! I'll be off to Cabo San Lucas in 10 days for our companies Presidents Club Trip. I'm looking forward to relaxing with no web, no phone, no calls!

So, what's big for this week? Well Ricoh launched new C4502/5502 and what's really cool is that we now have the ability to connect to cloud services. I'm looking forward to getting our first one and setting it up with UDOCX, can't wait!!!

I've started a new forum for posting our "best sale of the month", I think it would be educational for all of us to hear you brag about the sale, how you nailed it, how you found the customer, did a solution deal the deal, how much GP of revenue you gained, and or clicks that you captured. There's also a $25 gift card incentive for one P4P'er each from from one of our advertisers. Tell us About Your Best Sale this Month!

You've heard it before, we need your help in clicking on the banner ads, these banner ads support the P4P and keep the basic membership FREE, give them a click to see what's new, you maybe surprised at what you find.

On another note we've posted "Effective emails for obtaining appointments", and they are great! They are not from me, but from your peers, check em out in the P4P Document Library!

Please take advantage of the sales documents, quotes, proposals, rfp's, rfq's, uploads, p4p library, downloads and all of the additional forum features that are enabled with a Premium Membership!

Please support our Advertisers by clicking their links and giving them a call! LCA Leasing Corp, Stethos USA, Jetmobile, Polek & Polek, UDOCX, Print Audit, & Cybercon Dealer Services, sfSCAN, Pahoda Imaging, Dealer Marketing Systems, Industry Analysts, The Week in Imaging

Recent Blogs of Note
SMART MFP's 2the Cloud
 I dare you...
Managed Documents "The Next Big Thing"?
7 Tips When Competing with the Direct Channel
Chip Crunk Talks About RJ Young’s Acquisition of Ricoh Direct Branches

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum Threads

New from Ricoh the C4502/5502
Profit Breakdown Question
New Samsung 11 x 17" Colour MFPs due Oct 01 USA
Can you trust the Cloud?
Oce cutting my throat in every deal!!!
Charging for computer related calls
Integrated cloud environment
RBS Takedown
New Ricoh 4410SPF "brainshark" review
Tell us About Your Best Sale this Month!

NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document Library
Customer Expectations 770 Digital Color Press v1-03 For Launch
Oki MPS files
"Unlocked" Winning Proposal Generator for MPS & MFP's
Production Print Study Excel Guide
Effective emails for obtaining appointments
5 Tips 4 Using the Web4Prospecting the “First Contact

Press Releases
Top North American School Districts Choose Print Audit®
Industry analysts from BERTL, Inc. award Canon for "Best Wide Format Product Line of
Research shows decision making swing toward individuals, says Ricoh
Konica Minolta to Exhibit Healthcare Solutions and Managed IT Services at HIMSS 2012
Paper-Intensive Businesses Use New Xerox DocuMate 4760 to Easily Scan Piles of

P4P Poll Questions
January 2012 Sales Quota Poll
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 60 ppm plus
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 30-44 ppm COLOR
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 45 - 59 ppm COLOR

New Leads, RFP's & RFQ's Uploaded!
Illinois
Georgia
Colorado
South Africa
West Virginia
Ohio
Texas

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & Quotes
End User Report for Xerox 700 vs KonicaMinolta
konicaminolta bizhub c360
Copystar (Kyo) CS255C
Ricoh S5200 proposal
Ricoh C751 proposal

The Staff at the Print4Pay Hotel

Weekend Copier & MFP Updates for 2/12/2012

Seems Kycoera now has a cost per page billing model based on coverage, similar to Xerox's Cube. Plus, could there really be a move by Direct to start selling off Direct Banches that are Losers? You can read more on this in the forums and the blog.

Look, I've added BLI reports for FREE, get the full report, these are limited to what I found and they are in the Competition Lounge & Street Pricing II forums.

You've heard it before, we need your help in clicking on the banner ads, these banner ads support the P4P and keep the basic membership FREE, give them a click to see what's new, you maybe surprised at what you find.

On another note we've posted "Effective emails for obtaining appointments", and they are great! They are not from me, but from your peers, check em out in the P4P Document Library!

Please take advantage of the sales documents, quotes, proposals, rfp's, rfq's, uploads, p4p library, downloads and all of the additional forum features that are enabled with a Premium Membership!
Please support our Advertisers by clicking their links and giving them a call! LCA Leasing Corp, Stethos USA, Jetmobile, Polek & Polek, UDOCX, Print Audit, & Cybercon Dealer Services, sfSCAN

Click the headline link to access the log in page, if you're not a member please register while it;s still FREE!

Recent Blogs of Note
Death of the Direct Copier Channel? "part two"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "Color Cost Page for 2 Cents"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "From Rags to Riches for 20 cents a Day"
The Death of The Direct Copier Channel?
Selling Copiers & MFP's "P4P Hotel Members Are Quota Busters"

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum Threads
ITEX 2012 OFFERS COMPREHENSIVE DEALER EDUCATION INCLUDING
... and you thought copiers were boring!
RICOH/IKON sales merge
Canon shaking up the great white north
Konica Minolta 10% Price Increase April 01/12
Using email to set appointments
Ricoh 2352 & 2852?
Print4Pay Hotel TV
ELP New Product Video

NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document Library
Effective emails for obtaining appointments
5 Tips 4 Using the Web4Prospecting the “First Contact
FREE Xerox® Phaser® 6280DN vs. Lexmark C544dn
FREE KonicaMinolta bizhub PRESS C8000 BLI Production Print ReviewFREE
FREE Kyocera TASKalfa 7550C BLI Test Reports

Press Releases
Canon U.S.A. Receives Seven Winter "Pick" Awards from Buyers Laboratory LLC
Fuji Xeroes in on rivals with 'revolutionary' new printer
Japan's Ricoh & group companies downgraded to 'A'
Konica Minolta Launches bizhub C754/C654 Color MFP Series Featuring New INFO-Palette
Print Audit® Welcomes INNATO to its New Premier Subscription Program

P4P Poll Questions
January 2012 Sales Quota Poll
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 60 ppm plus
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 30-44 ppm COLOR
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 45 - 59 ppm COLOR

New Leads, RFP's & RFQ's Uploaded!
GENERAL OFFICE EQUIPMENT (MFD’S) FOR THE CITY OF
REQUEST FOR COPIER PROPOSALS The School District of University
12 MFp's in Illinois
MFP & MPS RFP in California
17 MFP's in Michigan

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & Quoteskonicaminolta bizhub c360
Copystar (Kyo) CS255C
Ricoh S5200 proposal
Ricoh C751 proposal
Kyocera 3500 Quote

-=Good Selling=-
The Staff at the Print4Pay Hotel

Weekend MFP & Copier Industry Updates

Just a few notes for everyone this week.

I wanted to put this out there for all members, if you're looking for a way to make any additional revenue for next year, please contact me.  I'm looking for a few good people to see if they would be interested in selling banner ads for the P4P Hotel.  It's a good way to pick up some extra cash and you may have some contacts that I don't have.  We can give a nice commission rate also and just think it would be a renewable income!

Take the time to set your goals for the new year, make a few that are short term and a couple of long term.  What I did last year was to super impose a picture of the number one rep in our office in a bullseye. Had it hanging up all year! I'll have all the numbers in a few days, point of the matter is that we all need to have something to drive us. For me after 32 years even I need to do this, and I'm making a point of setting my goals again for this year!

P4P Hotel's Production Print Certification Testing!  That's right now posted on P4P U Certifications & Testing are the first five tests in a total of ten tests. There will be a new test posted each month for the next five months!

Please take advantage of the sales documents, quotes, proposals, rfp's, rfq's, uploads, p4p library, downloads and all of the additional forum features that are enabled with a Premium Membership!
Please support our Advertisers by clicking their links and giving them a call! LCA Leasing Corp, Stethos USA, Jetmobile,  Polek & Polek, UDOCX, Print Audit, & Cybercon Dealer Services, sfSCAN

Recent Blogs of NoteWhy is single clicking an 11×17 on a “copier” legal?
Selling Copiers & MFP's "Add Value to You Web Site"
Selling Copiers & MFP's "3 Short Follow Up Stories"
Top Ten Copier & MFP Industry Predictions for 2012
Selling Copiers & MFPs "1 Awesome Way to Increase Profit through Knowledge"

Uploaded Pricing Proposals & QuotesX700XV Xerox
X700i Digital Color Press"Pricing on the Street"
Canon 3245i"Pricing on the Street"
KonicaMinolta bizhub423"Pricing on the Street"
Xerox WorkCentre 5150PTQ.pdf

Interesting & Most Viewed P4P Forum ThreadsCompetitive Info Xerox Workcentre 7500 Series
End of 2011 Sales Quota Poll, End of Month, End of Quarter
Both HP and Lexmark increase prices Jan 01 2012
kyocera taskalfa 3050ci - What can you tell me about it?
Big Shake Up at XEROX!!!
Awesome FREE Widget for laser printer TCO
Ricoh MP2550B Shortage from Thai Floods
Got A Situation! What would ou do? (10 responses)

Press ReleasesCanon to build new MFP/Copier factory in Thailand
ACS, A Xerox Company, Helps Iowa Modernize the Way Physicians Share Patient Information
Mergers and Acquisitions: 7 MSPs Acquired Since New Year 2012
Minuteman Press Printing of Lansing, Ill., Grows Business With Help of Ricoh Pro C651

NEW! Uploaded MFP Docs in P4P Document Library
Ricoh Full Line Sell Brochures
New Ricoh SP 5210SR A4 MFP Brochure "New 15 additional threads!"
New Ricoh MP 2352_2852_3352_Brochure
research-managed-print-service-for-government-agencies

P4P Poll QuestionsNew Color Cost Per Page Poll for 60 ppm plus
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 30-44 ppm COLOR
New Color Cost Per Page Poll for 45 - 59 ppm COLOR

New Leads, RFP's & RFQ's Uploaded!Health Strm / Lease Color Copier
Printers/Projectors/Shredders/Plotters/Copiers
Countywide Multifunction Device Copiers/DUE DATE CHANGED TO 1/26/12/ADDENDUM
Lease of 389 copiers for.......
716 Copiers needed for.........

The Staff at the Print4Pay Hotel

Polek & Polek Celebrates 35 Years in Imaging Supplies Business

June 1, 2009

Fairfield, N.J. – Polek & Polek is celebrating its 35th anniversary in the imaging supplies business this year. Established in 1974, Polek & Polek has grown from a small home office to one of the leading distributors of parts and supplies for copiers, faxes and printers worldwide.

Founder John Polek’s core beliefs when he started Polek & Polek are still its foundation today – providing the highest quality products; developing and maintaining long-term employee, vendor, and customer relationships; and absolute, 100 percent unconditionally guaranteed customer satisfaction. Polek & Polek has always been committed to helping office equipment dealers improve their profits.

"This is what our customers experienced with Polek & Polek back in 1974," said Chris Polek, CEO. "In 2009 and beyond, our customers can count on the same experience. Every Polek & Polek employee is committed to these values, and these beliefs are the core to Polek & Polek’s success. As I look toward our future in the next 35 years, I know that these beliefs will not change."
Our commitment to saving dealers money has become even more evident to the dealer community as they struggle with the current economic conditions. Polek provides a profit relief valve that helps dealers maintain their profitability, even if revenue declines. Dealers who are still loyal to OEM find they need to make profits at the end of the day for their company. Using an exclusive OEM strategy does not maximize that profit opportunity. Polek & Polek has been through all of the downturns since 1974, and they have navigated them successfully to support the industry.

With 2009 being an anniversary year, Polek admits that he’s reflecting on Polek & Polek’s past more than usual. “It is interesting that when Polek & Polek was born, the U.S. Economy was facing its most difficult times since the Great Depression,” Polek said. “Now we fast forward 35 years later where Polek & Polek has significantly more experience, knowledge, and resources to help our customers survive and thrive through these unprecedented economic times.”

"I believe the future for our industry is a very bright one, and the recovery of corporate technology spending will help the growth of our industry move even faster," Polek said. "I would like to thank all Polek & Polek customers, vendors, and employees for their support. Whether it be the past, present, or future, our success would be impossible without them!"

Polek & Polek is a distributor of parts and supplies for copiers, faxes, and printers for brands including Canon*, Copystar*, Kyocera*, Konica Minolta*, Panasonic*, Sharp*, Ricoh*, Savin*, Toshiba*, HP*, Lexmark*, Panafax*, Brother*, Xerox*, Lanier*, Muratec*, Okidata*, Riso*, Samsung*, and Imagistics*.

Contact Polek & Polek at (800) 526-1360, e-mail sales@polek.com or visit http://www.polek.com.

-=Good Selling=-

Five Tips for Collecting in Today’s Economic Times

Dan Donahue from Polek and Polek sent this to me today and thought it would be valuable info for all of P4P Hotel Dealer Principal members. ENJOY!

By Alicia Leary, Credit Manager

Are you having trouble collecting from your customers? Do they say their customers aren’t paying them and they can’t pay you?

It’s a vicious cycle I know. I know it’s a tough time and you have probably heard every excuse in the book, but I am here to tell you, don’t give up. You may not get paid as quickly as you’d like but ,you can get paid. The best thing you can do right now is WORK with your customers. They will remember that you did and when this bad economy is over, who do you think they will remember helped them out during their rough time? YOU! That’s right.

Here are some strategies that have worked for Polek & Polek that I would like to share with you as they may be helpful:

1. Make calling your customers your TOP priority.

Cash is the most important asset of your business. Go through your Aging report at least once a week. If you need it, request help with your other duties so you can get on the phone. Your customers are most likely going to pay those vendors who call them first as opposed to those who don’t call at all. You will be at the top of the list.

2. Be nice and courteous.

Don’t call with a bad attitude because no one likes that, and you will only hurt yourself in the process. The nicer you are the further you will get.

3. Constantly Calling?

If you are constantly calling a customer who doesn’t return your phone calls, try sending them a letter or an email.

4. For those customers that you have had for years and who normally pay you well, but have gotten into a little financial trouble, work with them.

Offer a solution and a helping hand. For example, suggest a weekly payment plan; $50, $100, $500 a week until they catch up. In the meantime, keep selling to them, but do it on a COD or credit card basis. This way, you are getting paid for your product/services and they can continue doing business as well. They will be very happy you helped them through their difficult financial period and they will remember in the future.

*Some studies show the following statistics: You have a 90% chance of collection within the first 60 days. After that, this drops to

50% after an account gets to 90 days and 20% on accounts over 180 days.

5. If customers are very past due, and you have exhausted every possible avenue in collecting money, then send them a collections letter.

Once an account is over 60 days your probability of collecting your money gets less and less. The longer you wait the worse chance you will have of collecting what is owed you. I suggest you send a collections letter if you have exhausted every possible avenue and the customer has not responded. When you send this letter, include a deadline for payment or to set up a weekly payment plan, and a date that you will put them in collections if this deadline is not met. In my experience this letter, gets the customer to contact you before the deadline 90% of the time. If you do not hear from them, put them in collections on the date you said you would. Once this letter is sent out, you MUST follow through on your end.

*information provided by http://www.crfonline.org

Since 1992, Alicia Leary has been the Credit Manager at Polek and Polek, a family owned wholesale distributor of parts and supplies for copiers, faxes, and printers in business since 1974. To learn more visit http://www.polek.com