My Top 4 Office Sales Traditions

There was a recent Print Audit thread on linkedin that asked "What are your Office Traditions"? 

I responded with one that we have a sales genie, in fact we just started the sales genie thing when I came back from the Photizo Transform Conference in May of this year.  While at the airport waiting on another delayed flight, I visited one of the Southwest themed gift shops at Sky Harbor.  I was able to pick up something for the wife and then I caught size of a neat looking handcrafted Native Indian Hopi Doll.

I bought the doll and brought it back to the office, and not one to believe in superstitions I'm named it our Sales Genie. 

We have it sitting on the front counter and for the last few weeks we would give it a rub or two before we went on appointments.  When I get into the office on Monday I'm going to burn the son of bitch because sales have been horrible for the last 30 days or since I got back from Phoenix. 

Another tradition around the office centers on some of the new hires for sales.  In our office we have eight cubicles, but doesn't it always seem like there is one of two cubicles that just can't seem to hold onto a salesperson.  With any new hire we'll make sure they don't take up residence in that cubicle.  

I've been told by others that some offices will actually have a cash pool for how long the new sales person will last.  Every one picks out how many weeks the new rep will last, if the new rep goes beyond the weeks that were picked the cash pool stays in effect for the next sales person hired and then the pool doubles. Dang, I wish I could in on some of that action.

We have another tradition to break in the new reps, we'll make up a phoney lead, but not just any lead.  We'll make up a legit lead sheet and give the phone number and address of the local zoo. From there we'll have them call for Mr. Gee Raft or Mrs. Ele Phant. 

I tell you, if you haven't done this you've got to do it.  We do it when we're all in the office, and it's a riot, on one occasion we had the rep ask for Mr. Gee Raft (Giraffe), you can here the person on the other end (cause they don't get it either) state, there is no Gee Raft that works here, and then our rep stated, "well Mr. Gee Raft called our office and left a message that he was interested in a copier and to call", with that the secretary gets it and blurts out "very funny", our rep went with, "I'm not trying to be funny but just asking to speak to Mr. Gee Raft", the secretary then states to the rep, "do you realize who you are calling, it's a zoo"  and "don't you get it"?  With that the rep finally got it and hung up.  We had a great laugh all afternoon that day!  Who says you can't make work fun!

-=Good Selling=-

100 calls a day, 240 minutes talk time a day, 4 opps per day equals NO job

I was alarmed when I received and email from a very valued print4pay hotel member. I just spoke with him tonight and I'm hoping I can him connected with another job in his area. I also had his permission to post this and he may or may not want to remain anonymous. But I think this is a great topic of discussion and to see if any of us can help him. Below is the email to me:

Well...

A couple months ago they brought in a new sales manager and started changing our pay structure. Goals went to a 30% monthly incline and if you don't hit goal you don't get commission. Also, in order to hit goal you have to average 100 calls per day with an average talk time of 250 minutes per day and enter a minimum of 4 new business opportunities per day. If we miss any of these points we don't get paid.

On top of that the CEO has a very disrespectful and degrading management style to the point where he pretty much bullies the employees every day. He required that we call the office before and after every stop in the field and would call and email during meetings just to check up. He recently called the client's office because I wasn't answering. He had tracking devices on the work vans, which was fine, it let him know where we were but if I'm with a client I can't take calls for no reason.

Last week we had a total of 7 sales reps. He let 3 go early last week as well as the only accounting employee and 1 of the 3 customer service reps. Tuesday they called me out of the field to fire me along with 1 other sales person.

They now have 0 accounting employees, 2 customer service reps, 2 service techs and 2 sales reps that have only been in the industry for 4 months.

So...as hard as I work at hitting these sales goals I was let go with no notice, explanation or severance pay. They only thing I'm left with is a 4 page non-compete and bills to pay.

I've sent the non-compete to two different attorneys and they say it's solid. Since I saw this coming a head of time I tried to get a sales position with a local company, they really wanted me to work for them, but then had to turn it down once they read the non-compete.

As far as future plans, I sent a resume to xyz company  yesterday and didn't mention the non compete. We'll see how that goes...

I have a phone interview this morning with one of my clients, they're a large processing company. Since I'm going to school for a degree in network security I figured this could be a good option to get the experience since security is a major concern in the credit card processing industry.

I'm not sure where I'll end up but it seems like I've been kicked out of the industry with no explanation at all.

Would like to hear from others as to how we can help.

=-=Good Selling=-

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=-

8 Tips from Selling Copy Machines in the 80's

When you've been in the business as long as I've been there always seems to be that little something that you can write about.

I was taught that after every order/sale I would then ask Mr. or Mrs. Right for three referrals that I could call on.  Seems back in the 80's everyone needed a plain paper copier. Wait! Let me stop right there, I'll go out on limb and bet that at least 60% of today's reps that are selling copiers probably always thought that copiers always printed on plain paper! Yes, the 80's, everyone needed a plain paper copier, and at the end of every sale we asked "Would it be possible to get the name of two or three businesses that may be interested in our services"?   That was then, and to tell you the truth the last time I used that is when a prospect asked for a better price and I tied in, "If I give you a better price will you sign the order today and I'll need two or three businesses that may be interested in my services".

But, it does bring back memories of things we used to do. Here's a short list of how we did things in the 80's:

1) Send a Thank You card for every sale you made.
2) Send a check for $25 or an in house credit to a customer that gave us as a reference and we made the sale.
3) Ask for referrals after every sale you made.
4) Knock on the doors of the businesses next to the customer you just made the sale to.
5) Give a check to the technicians for leads (they loved this, and I was very generous to many, now it seems that most dealers are controlling this, because too many sales people never paid up).
6) Send Christmas cards (I sent them with my name and the dealership name).
7) Call an existing customer and ask them if they know of anyone who is interested in my services (offer them free toner if a sale goes down).
8) Call and ask for a letter of reference (now you can still call them and maybe email them and ask them to post a referral for you on linkedin. I include my linkedin signature link on my emails)

I'm sure that some of are still doing a few of these today, but I plan to pick up my game with mailing Thank You cards again, asking for referrals after the sale, calling an existing customer to see if they know of anyone they could refer me to along with adding more referrals on linkedin.

-=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=-

7 Way to Help You Cold Call for Copiers and MPS Prospects

This is the third time I've revised this blog, the original was posted almost three years ago, the last update was two years ago and just today I added some new content for cold calling. ENJOY!

Some of us enjoy it and most of us would rather have a bad day at the office instead of doing this. 

It’s the COLD CALL, I like to call it GOLD CALLING!  It's usually the day from hell or the day to find some GOLDEN accounts. If you've been doing it as long as I have, you've had success and have found some of your best accounts this way!

I must say the most daunting task is to open a door where you can’t see what is on the other side, will there be rejection or jubilation! Most times it will be rejection. Get use to it, its part of the job and comes with the territory. Attitude, Attitude and more tude will help you overcome the rejection and plow ahead. You always must keep in mind that you are there to give them a better solution or a better way of doing things, and if they are not interested then that’s their loss!

What, I hate most is a NO SOLICITING sign on the door. Full speed ahead right? You may want to think twice about this and send the owner or CEO a fedex letter or package. That will get their attention.
Here are a few tips to get you going.

Tip: If someone won't provide you with a business card, get out your phone and take a picture of the company name on the business directory.

Make Quality Cold Calls

How Do You Feel About the Copier Industry?

How Do You Feel About the Copier Industry? This is the title of a recent thread on the Print4Pay Hotel forums that was posted a little more than a month a go.  I thought I would share some of the comments from our members.  If you'd like to read the entire threads please go here and register for a free membership.

I still believe there are many more pages to capture. I'm not thrilled with the shrinking margins, however I gotten used to picking my battles and knowing when I can make GP and when I can't. I think our industry needs to be more creative with new products also..... Member from NJ

We have one dealer in our territory with the sell at all cost mentality, low ball service, low ball the sale just to get the deal..... Member from WI

I'm in favor of a contraction of the industry as a whole.... Member from NJ

Anyway it seems you have to work harder and harder every year, I'm not opposed to working hard but will be interesting to see when the industry bottoms out. Member from New Zealand

Society does not seem to be producing people who want to be in outside sales or think that they can earn an income other than by sitting behind a computer..... Member from Canada

I think it is easy (30 years of thinking a warped way) but when you get a

Has The Time Come for Sales People to be Paid on Click Revenue?

In the world of MPS (Managed Print Service), commission for clicks is the common method pay compensation for reps.  Most time commissions are paid off the monthly revenue click from systems that our under a MPS agreement and in some cases commissions are paid one time for the first months worth of billing.

The copier commission world is a completely different story, reps are paid either paid on the percentage of gross profit or a percentage of the revenue for each copier that is sold.

Traditionally copier reps can also make commissions on the maintenance or cost per page agreement, the commissions range from 5%-10% of the annual agreement. In recent months I've heard some grumblings that dealers are pulling back and not offering commissions on maintenance agreements or cost per page programs.  Which I find surprising since maintenance and cost per page agreements are the life blood of the dealership.

If I were not getting a commission to sell a cost per page agreement or a maintenance agreement I would hard pressed to sell an agreement at the time of the sale.  Matter of fact, if I thought the break and fix model was better for the customer I would make the recommendation to go that way, my thought process is why muddy the waters and fight the battle with pricing on the maintenance or cost per page agreement if I'm not getting paid on that.

Personally, I would like to see some kind of ongoing

Top Ten Copier Proposals for November 2012

In my last blog I spoke about a recent sale that I secured and after the sale I was able to get a copy of the quote.

Each month on the Print4Pay Hotel forums we'll upload "Pricing on the Street" quotes, these quotes are certified as accurate since the pricing information is emailed to us from other Print4Pay Hotel members in the field.

We'll also receive and upload quotes and proposals from other Print4Pay Hotel members and these quotes will be "the proposal or quote" that was emailed to the end user.

Each month I'll list those proposals/quotes and "Pricing on the Street" here with the associated links.  You need to be a Premium Member in order to download the documents.  So without further ado here's the top quotes from November 2012.  Enjoy!

• "Pricing on the Street" for ricoh mp7502sp
• "Pricing on the Street" for ricoh mp301spf
• "Pricing on the Street" for ricoh mp5002sp
• "Pricing on the Street" for ricoh mp4002sp
• Proposal for canon ir2525
• Proposal for canon 1740i
• "Pricing on the Street" for Ricoh mp1357EX PRO
• "Pricing on the Street" for Savin W3406
• "Pricing on the Street" for ricoh 240W
• Ricoh W3601 Proposal

-=Good Selling=-

Ricoh Americas is now Soliciting Dealer Accounts?

WTF, was my first reaction when my wife told me she received a letter from Ricoh Americas Corporation at the church where she works. I then asked my wife are you sure it was from Ricoh, she stated that she would bring me home a copy of the letter.  Yesterday she bought the letter home and sure enough it was from Ricoh Americas Corp. 

This letter raised a few questions:

1) How did Ricoh know that my church has a new Ricoh Copier?

2) Where did they get that information from?

3) Is this going to happen with all of my accounts?

So, I'm thinking this through trying to figure out where Ricoh got the data from, I thought it couldn't be Aficio League because we black out the customer name and address on the invoice and we don't give them the customer name.  Ok, so I remembered that I used NCPG (national church buying group) pricing for this account. 

Muratec MFX-2590 MFP "The Hottest Little MFP from Texas"

On October 2nd & 3rd of this month I was able to travel to White Plains, NY to take part in the BTA East Region "Grand Slam Event".  FYI, I had an awesome time!

I was delighted to see my guys from Muratec at the BTA event.  If you're not familiar with Muratec..., then you haven't been in the copier/printer industry that long. Muratec is based out of Plano, Texas and when it comes to support from a copier/mfp manufacturer...no one does it better than Muratec!

Below I'll touch on some of the knockout/lockout features that the MFX-2590 that makes this system tops on my list of A4 MFPs.

I was able to speak with Greg, Lou and Jim about this really cool Muratec MFX-2590 A4 (does not print/copy 11x17) that will copy (black), network print (black), network color scan, walkup and network fax (black). At first it looked like any other A4 MFP that's on the market today, however the first feature that stood out was the huge color LCD display. I'm thinking it was about as big as the display on my kindle fire, the size of the screen was 8.5 inches and that's awesome for an A4 MFP!  The comparable Ricoh that I sell has a color LCD screen that is so small that you'll need binoculars to see (just a little joke)!  But most important,  it is the size of the screen that matters because a larger LCD color screen will promote ease of use and users will find the system a pleasure to work with.

Ok, so I'm impressed with the size of the screen right, I then start looking at the extended features like scan2email, scan2folder and what do I see?  Scan2print....it's all about the sizzle and the Muratec MFX-2590 is loaded! Scan2print is something that I thought every MFP system should have, think of it like this, you've got a color document in your hand, located on the 1st floor is the MFX-2590, you need to make a color copy but you don't have a color copier, all you got is a color laser printer and it's on the third floor.  The scan2print feature will allow you to scan the color document and send it to color print on your networked color printer (you scan program up to 5 networked print devices)!  Not only that, but you could send the document to print to another printer or MFP on your WAN (wide area network).  Features like scan2print, allows end users to tap into existing hardware resources without the need to get a color printer or MFP for each department or each floor.  When it comes to dealers and sales people the Muratec MFX-2590 allows us to be more creative with our solutions approach and gives us knockout features that aren't available on other similar devices!

Right, at this point I'm thinking I'd really like to be able to sell the Muratec MFX-2590, Greg and I start talking about scanning and again the MFX-2590 was sizzling with a one pass dual scan document feeder! I stated WTF, you're telling me this A4 MFP will scan both sides of document in one pass?  Yup....so when your working with two sided documents the MFX-2590 will scan 40 images per minute for color and a blazing 62 images per minute for black!  Woo Hoo!

So, we've got the awesome 8.5 color screen, the scan2print, the single pass duplex scan, the 80 page document feeder, scan2usb, scan2hardrive on the copier (enables a document library right on the copier), print from USB (awesome for vistors that have to print),  PC faxing (LAN fax), Walkupfax, Shift/Sort output (each set printed or copied set if offset from each other), ID card copy (means you save a lot of aggravation when you copy a health card or license), scan confirmation stamp (puts a little stamp on every scanned document) and this box is screaming with "sizzle" and value!

But we're not done! Now I'm sounding like Ron Popeil.  There was another touch screen button for "Scan Tag", ok well what is that I asked.  Scan Tag is a document imaging tool that enables users to input meta data at the MFP control panel and then automatically scan and index the document without having to return to their PC.  Scan Tag has been integrated to work with document management software applications like Doculex, Docuware, Idatix, SmartSearch, Sentryfile, Rebus, Intact and Computhink.

I've seen a lot of the new A4 devices from the likes of Ricoh, Canon, Xerox, Kyocera, and Sharp and in my opinion the MFX-2590 has awesome features for the end user and for resellers you have a combination lockout features that no other manufacturer can bring to the table.

Kudos to Muratec and the MFX-2590, btw the way I'll be posting on video of the MFX-2590 in action on the Print4Pay Hotel forums, pay us a visit, get registered, it's free!

-=Good Selling=-

PS  Muratec is not a sponsor or advertiser with the Print4Pay Hotel, however the Muratec MFX-2590 is "The Hottest Little MFP from Texas".

Bucks County "A Case for a Managed Print Services Detective"

Amazing, it simply is....I picked up this press release for Bucks County today titled "Commissioner calls for copy paper investigation". 

Bucks County, PA just approved a bid for copy paper in the amount of $167,000 dollars.  I'm going to go out on a limb and figure this was all for letter size paper and the each case of paper has 5,000 sheets of paper. I'm also going to make an assumption that the cost per case was $20 per case, since I've seen it on sale for that low a few times and this was a rather large bid.

At $20 per case the County of Bucks would have received 8,350 cases of paper. Cases of paper have 5,000 sheets of paper, thus we can figure that the total of sheets is 41.75 million sheets of paper! 

What does Buck County do with all  of this paper? 

Well it seems it's all used in the copiers, printers and fax machines.  Forty Two Million sheets of paper is...well... a whole heck of a lot of paper. I can only think of how many useless and out of date print devices they have!

Since we know how many sheets of paper they have, we can take and educated guess at what Bucks County is paying to put ink and toner on paper.  Since the average cost per page is for a decent size multifunctional copier/printer is around a penny and the cost for most stand alone printers and fax can range from 3 cents to 12 cents per page (and I'm not even thinking about color, just black). I would say the average cost per page printed/copier and faxed would be .03 cents.

Do the math and lets round it off to 42 million pages, 42 million times .03 cents is $1,260,000 dollars!  That's a cool $1.26 million dollars is spent every year for output!  Again this does not factor the cost of the hardware, nor does it assume that there are any color devices and I'll bet dollars to doughnuts there are many color devices.

So, what can Bucks County do to lower their costs? 

Well for starters they could call me to do a print assessment of all of their output devices.  I could be their Managed Print/Copy Detective and find out where there is waste, find the obsolete printers/copiers, evaluate the high cost printer/copiers, and recommend print management software, toner reduction algorithms and A4 MFP hardware that will lower the amount of prints and paper, redirect prints to lower cost devices and recommend a better security system than walk up users inputting a four or six digit code in the copier. I'm thinking there could be as much as a 25% savings to the county when it's all said and done. 

Of course this would be a huge assessment and take quite of bit of time to map and record every print device and of course someone with my ability does not work for free.  Consultants are people who tell other people how to do something that they don't know how to do.

So, Commissioner Martin, I'm here at your service, give me call and let' see how much we can save the Bucks County!

BTW, I already sent Commissioner Martin and email on this, and I hope he enjoys it!  the investigation has been launched!


-=Good Selling=-

The Transition of the Copier Industry "According to Art"

Part One:

Once upon a time we sold just a copier, that machine only made copies and nothing else.

There was no stapling, no two sided copying, no document feeders, one paper tray and a single sheet by pass tray was the norm.  You also had to make sure you didn't place a cup of coffee on top of the copier since most of these devices incorporated a moving top (platen).  

As the industry evolved we saw the emergence of companies that developed sorters (remember Gradco), key counters (remember Hecon), coin op units (can't remember one of these), copier cabinets, and even a company that sold custom covers for the devices. Yey, back in the day every new copier came with a cover and yes when asked "do ya think I should cover the copier at night"?, we stated yes, but please make sure you turned it off!

I can distinctly remember one company back in the eighties that manufactured a foil overlay for plain paper copiers. It was a novel idea that allowed users to make a copy of a document and then you could either slide the copy underneath the foil sheet (which was sealed on one side) and then run both the foil and the copy through the by-pass of the copier in one pass.  Presto chango... all of the black image on the page was changed to the color of the foil.  The foil would only stick to the black toner once the media passed through the fusing section.  These foils came in many different colors and the most dramatic was the GOLD foil, we used to tell potential customers that you could turn your copies into GOLD!(pretty lame)  You could even get fancy and with the use of removable tape and scissors cut strips of foil to get different colors on the copy.  This was probably the inexpensive and easy way to get a color copy, the foil media was primarily used for certificates and proposals.  It was awesome, walking in with a proposal that had the look of gold print. Check it out, you can still get this stuff, I just may buy a pack just to mess with some of the younger reps in the office.

Someones novel idea added some sizzle to copiers at a time when the analog copier market had matured. That was also true for companies like Gradco, Hecon, and it's been so long I can't remembers the rest. Point is new products and new services not only helped us with hardware but we provided solutions for our customers.

How about the key counters, can you remember how popular they were?  It seemed that every school had one.  The concept was that you had to have a little box that had a mechanical counter (called the key counter) in into the connected the copier. If the key counter was not in the copier, the copier would not operate.  This is was used as a way to control copy usage. 

At a time when the analog copier industry was maturing. These products and solutions allowed copier dealers to sell more machines and capture additional clicks (back then toner was not included in any of the maintenance agreements).  The copier manufacturers saw the success of these companies and thus started adding their own sorters, their own counters and expanded the offering for accessories for copiers. 

Dealers and Manufacturers have always been on the front lines to introduce new technology that will help customers increase efficiencies, and reduce costs. In my 33 years in this business it's more about how we can improve our customers work flow and reduce your costs, whether it's imaging with copiers, printers, duplicators, managed print, or document management.

I'll have part two of this ready in a few days........

-=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=-

11 Great Ways to Kick Start Your Copier Career!

Below is a recent thread on the Print4Pay Hotel forums.  A new rep took a position seling copiers/mfps/printers etc and asked for advise on the forums. Enjoy!

Well. I accepted their offer. Off to the races.

I've seen some great stuff on here (Print4Pay Hotel forums) already, are there any topics on the forum that would be recomended I check out?

From what I know of sales already it's important I have the answers for the kinds of questions people will be asking, perhaps ya'll can post lists of the most common questions your clients ask?

Perhaps ideas on some topics I should have general knowledge of when it comes too my competitors?

Any topics that I should focus on for the geographical area I am trying to reach?

I hope none of this is to invasive, I hope I can be a resource for all of you when the time comes.

Thanks!

Thread reply from Art:

Welcome, become a sponge, the rep who can pinpoint pain in a process and then offer a viable solution whether hardware, software, feature or IT will win the day.
1) An MFP sale can go much quicker than an IT sale, be prepared to close early and often.

150 Calls a Week RU Serious "Selling Copiers & MFPs"

Last week was a bonanza for emails from new reps.  This latest thread came from a newbie member of the Print4Pay Hotel forums.
Art:

I am new to P4PHotel. I am curious, I saw you make 150 calls(with contact to DM I am assuming) a week. I want to improve my effectiveness. I am curious with both customers and non-customers what some of those calls sound like. I am programmed to set appointments. With that many calls I would have many appointments with accounts that are nowhere near buying and I would run out of time to make calls. I am really curious what some of the talk tracks you use? I appreciate your help.
Response:

You make a good point, however I was under that same assumption that with making 150 calls a week, that I would set too many appointments and then not have enough time to make the 150 calls every week.

However that is not the case! I make calls all day on Monday and Tuesday and half of Wednesday. I average about 120 calls per week, some are follow ups, but most are appointment calls, or just trying to get the right information that I need to make the appointment call.

5 Tips for newbie Copier MFP Sales Reps

In one week I had two emails from reps asking for help. I thought I would do a blog on it, FYI the "Distance Yourself from the Pack" (I can't believe that I wrote this almost four years ago) and the last resource is reserved for Print4Pay Hotel members. Go here and join for free, and then send me and email and I'll send you the last resource.

Hello Art,

I recently stumbled upon your blog and think it's great. I'm brand new to the industry and have been given a sales territory with no existing customer base and have been asked to grow it. I'm about 3 months in the field and have had few wins so far. I was wondering if you had any tips for me that could help me get set on the path to success.

I'd also like to know that last resource from the article "Distance Yourself From the Pack".
Thanks!

Jon:

First things first in order to get more wins you need to have countless opportunities that can be closed in any given month!  Let me give you an example.  Our month ended on the 23rd of July (dam bean counters), moving into August 6th, I've already closed four deals and have two closes scheduled of this coming week.  But, I have another 10 accounts listed that I feel will order/close (with me or someone else) and then another 8 accounts that I consider are long shots to order/close this month. In total I have 22 opportunities that I have a shot at closing. 

It's all about prospecting, more potential buyers in sales funnel will equal additional sales per month.  The really tough part to get to this point is that you need to prospect your ass off.  Someone once stated that 50 calls a week is a "hobby", and that's true you'll need to make at least 120 cold calls per week  (since you're new and have no book of accounts), plus you'll have to get out in your territory and do a few meet and greets. 

Here's a few things that may help you:

1. Join the local Chamber of Commerce and get involved with being on a committee or an officer and make sure when you go the the meeting you go alone, this forces you to talk to others.
2. Join a local network group if you have any in your area.
3. Chart how many calls you make every day, how many DM's you get on the phone and how many appointments you make, at the very minimum you will need 6 appointments per week.
4. Set a goal of 15 points each week. Use one point for appointments, 2 points for a demo and 3 points for an opportunity. An opportunity is a prospect that you've generated a quote/proposal and may order/close in the next 90 days.
5. Join the Premium Print4Pay Hotel forums, and collaborate with other industry sales professionals and see what they are doing on a daily basis to keep their sales funnel full! If you're a cheapskate you can get a basic FREE membership here.

I also use my 5 Step Box approach, all of this works, even if it sounds corny, hard work will get results.  Always keep this in mind, "the harder I work, the luckier I get".

-=Good Selling=-

Should She Resign or Just Quit Selling Copiers "Ask Art"

A few days ago I had an email from a P4P'er (Print4Pay Hotel member) in respect to her quitting the industry or just resigning and moving to another company.  Here's a snippet of the message that was emailed to me.

Arthur, I've been in the copier industry for more than ten years with my current company, I've always hit my quotas and have been a student of the industry. Today I found out that there are several new reps in the company that have a higher salary than me, in fact it's almost 24% higher!  There are a couple of other differences however I'm pretty annoyed that my years of experience are of no value to the company I work for.  These new reps have ZERO experience in the business.  I have no one to turn to and would like some advice as to.........  from Andover, Maryland

Dam, girl....I'm not sure what to tell you!  I would tend to think that someone with your experience would be worth more.  First things first, I would not rely on hearsay, this could get your fired if you confront your manager or dealer owner. If its hearsay always remember this saying "believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see" and leave it alone!  On the other hand if you have proof (documentation) then I would recommend a meeting with your manager, be prepared because depending on how you got the proof could get you fired also.  Maybe you need to address it like this to your manager, "with all due respect I've heard that there are new reps that have a higher salary than mine, why is that"? If it's true most likely you'll see uneasiness in their voice, a cold stare, and a few seconds of silence, most likely whatever is stated by your manager other than "yes you're right", will be a load of BS.

Since you've been in the business this long I think it would be foolish to leave the industry.  I would get your ducks in line before you talk with your manager and if you don't like what you're hearing then maybe the only recourse is to resign.  There also might be a good reason for the other reps having a higher base, maybe that have a lower commission scale. Make sure you have all of the facts first.  I do tend think that with someone of your tenure you also have more responsibilities with managing existing accounts and I can't see the logic why a new hire would be paid more especially when they do not have to manage that many accounts or more importantly they don't have the knowledge to manage the accounts.

If what you say is correct then I pity the management team that you work for and maybe it's time to find a new team.

One other item I found  on the web:

"Do you have enough savings or other income to manage on? Even if your employment situation isn't the best, you might want to consider hanging on to the job you have, as well as your paycheck, and starting your job search before you resign. That old saying that "it's easier to find a job, when you have a job" does hold true".

-=Good Selling=-

Top 5 WTF Issues with Copier & MFP Salespeople

This topic has been on my mind for awhile and I wanted to share with others the time that it takes each week to complete sales activities.   Salespeople  have many metrics that we need to meet on a weekly basis, but I wanted to focus more on the time that it take to complete the basic set of metrics. Here I'll focus on my metrics cause I'm not sure of those who emailed me.

• Minimum of 120 phone calls a week:  Over the years it seems if I want to make quality calls, I average about 15 calls per hour, keep in mind that making the call is only part of the equation I still have to enter every call, close every call, post a follow up call and then enter the notes into our sales CRM program.  This takes 8 hours
• Minimum of 30 emails each week (new net business):  Whew!  This can take some time to set up the campaign, schedule the email, create the email,  send the email, log in to the CRM program, schedule the client for a return call, and research the email address if you don't have it.   I can spend up to 2 hours here per week.
• Sales Paper Work for the month:  For some reason we are not automated with our support paperwork for each sale, thus when I finally get the lease doc, sales order and maintenance agreement I could have another 10 or so forms to process.  On the average this can take 45 minutes for each sale.  I average about 7 sales per month.  This process alone takes about 1.3 hours each week.
• Appointments by the Week:  Schedule 8-10 appointments per week an usually schedule these for Thursday and Friday, easier for me and easier for the customer.  I will spend both days in the field for a total of 16 hours.
• In house Weekly Meetings: Usually around 4 of these per week and done with our call days. Takes 15 minutes each and 1 hour per week.
• Email Follow Up:  These can consist of customer follow up emails and internal emails and I'm guessing here with about 2 hours per week.
• Helping others with Product & Sales Questions:  I guess since I've been there the longest when I'm in the office I can get many questions about products, services, support of follow up sales. I'm going to give this 2 hours per week.
• Proposals: 7 sales per month would equal 7 proposals, we present quality proposals, from start to finish I'll give these 45 minutes each or another 1.3 hours per week.
• Mailers:  I try to send at least ten mailers a week, letters of introduction, brochures etc. 2 hours per week
• Enter Sales Appointments in CRM:  Enter notes, close appointments, schedule follow up, about 30 minutes.
• Research: Includes looking up specs for hardware, software, talking with our support people and going to any resource I have to find additional information so I can move the dealer or solutions forward. I'm putting 4 hours on this per week.
• Follow up Reports:  Especially commission reports, deliveries, installations, and can include getting additional paper work from the customer.  1 hour per week.
• Close Sales: If I did not close the sale during the week this would be all of those follow up phone calls and work to either close of get a fix on where we are in the ordering process.  5 Hours per week.

10 Phone Cold Calling Tips for Copiers & MFP's

It's getting late and I need to get though this for everyone.  After 30 years of calling for appointments some would say I'm an expert and just like in the other blog I wrote, naw I'm no expert I've just gotten beat up so many times that I've learned well.... a lot.  Below are the tips and I hope they work for everyone too.

1. Don't slouch when you're on the phone,  keep a good posture and good position to the phone so your voice is clean.

2. Have a great attitude even if your dog got run over in the morning by a bus, just kidding attitude is so important, enthusiasm is contagious and by being upbeat you'll come across as a pro.

3.  Get rid of the ums and ahs, have planned script and memorize it so you don't studder.

4. Always be prepared to talk to Mr. or Mrs. Right, it's not often that we get through however if you do, you'll want to put your best foot forward!

5.  Break the ice with the gate keeper, remember you're not the only one making sales calls, and the gate keepers job is not to let you through, however you can break the ice by mentione what a nice or lousy day it is and make sure you get the name of the gate keeper for future calls. If the company has a long name you can also state "Wow, that's a lot to get through and it was a great job".  More often than not over time you maybe able to develop a rapport with the gate keeper.

6. We all know this one, calling before the gate keeper gets in the office (meaning before 8AM or after 5PM).

7. If you're stuck in address book and you're tried to get to Mr. or Mrs. Right and it's gotten you no where, then dial any extension and when someone picks up tell them you dialed the wring extension and ask to be transferred to the Mr. or Mrs. Right, in some cases the call looks like an internal call and can get answered by you know who!

8. Pick up the phone on Saturday (OMG, did I say Saturday), yup Saturday and sometimes you'll get lucky and have Mr. or Mrs Right answer the phone. Remember "The hardier you work the luckier you get".

9. In some cases I will send a mailer first, and then an email (if I can get it) and then I'll make the call.  Kinda prepares Mr. or Mrs. Right and if interested they will take your call.

10. Making 50 calls a week is a hobby (wonder where I hear that), we need to make as many as we can. This is not easy but we need to remember that ours is a numbers game and we need to roll through the dials. If you can get em done 100 calls a week or more should be the norm.

Bonus! 11. Don't BS the gate keeper always remain courteous and thoughtful of their job, on a few occasions gate keepers have actually stated that my call was the most polite sales call they have had in awhile!

It's not easy, but it's not that hard either, yes there is a lot rejection, voice mail, not interested, hang ups, LMTFA but it's part of what we do.  Above all have fun with the calls!! 

-=Good Selling=-