Ricoh MP6002, 7502, 9002 series "Scanner Reveal"

It seems about every 18 months Ricoh will refresh a series of multifunctional copier systems.  The latest refresh of the MP6001/7001/8001/9001 completes the entire line change to the new "istyle" series. 

The new Ricoh MP6002 (60 page per minute device), the MP7502 (75 page per minute device) and the MP9002 (90 page per minute device) will be the new models moving forward. The new MP 7502 will be the replacement for the MP6001 and MP7001. There will be six different models in all, MP6002/MP7502/MP9002 will not come from the factory with scan and print.  The MP6002SP/MP7502SP/MP9002SP will all come from the factory with color scan, network scan and black network print.

Scanning:

The speeds are awesome!  When scanning at 300 dpi with the single pass dual scan document feeder you'll be able to scan black at 88 ipm for single sided and 176 ipm for double sided originals.  Color scanning at 300dpi will run at 88 ipm for single sided and 120 ipm for double sided originals.  Thus if you are using document management programs like Doculex or Intellenetics you'll be able to breeze through those documents in seconds!

Scan2folder, Scan2email, Scan2ftp, Scan2url are all standard features and you'll be able to scan from 100dpi to 600dpi. Let's say you have ECM (Enterprise Content Management) software then you'll be able to take advantage of the Ricoh's  1200DPI TWAIN scan driver. 

But!  What I like best is that the new Ricoh MP6002/7502/9002 is that you can add a browser unit (the browser unit is an option and the unit allows the MFP to connect to the Internet)!  Thus if you're a Microsoft Sharepoint or MS365 user you'll be able to scan directly Sharepoint & MS 365 with the UDOCX Cloud solution.  With UDOCX there's no need to install software on the server, no maintenance, it's a true access & go solution! 

There's a few other items I like also, even if you don't have the browser unit, you'll be able to use two really cool FREE cloud storage solutions.  One is dropbox where you can get a free 2GB service, dropbox sets up as a simple scan2folder on your PC or notebook, you'll then set a path from the MFP to your folder. That's it!  Anything you scan will then be sync'd with the folder on your pc/notebook and replicated in on the Dropbox Cloud.  The other service is OfficeDrop, they'll offer you a free 5GB solution, sets up similar to dropbox, however with OfficeDrop you'll be able to label your files.  With the labeling feature you'll then be able to search those files.

Output formats for scanning on the Ricoh can be single and multi page  page TIFF, PDF, JPEG, high compression pdf, encrypt pdf, and PDF/A. If you're not familiar with PDF/A is a file format and also an ISO standard for long term archival of scanned pages.

Ricoh has also added as a standard feature a nifty scan2usb and scan2sdcard.  Users will be able to scan to a usb drive or sd card, along with that users will also be able to print from these devices.  I was able to test this on a Ricoh MPC4502 and not only can you print the files but you can also view the files from the USB drive or SD card right on the awesome 8.5 inch color display.

I'll be you thought I was done right?  Nope, there's one other noteworthy feature and that's JBIG2 compression support. In a nutshell JBIG2 compression for scanned black images will enhance compression and allow companies to make better use of their document storage solutions.  FYI, for you those of you that are dealers, I highly recommend this leasing company, truly a pleasure to do business with LCA.

Stay tuned for next week when I'll go over all of the cool new print and fax features!

-=Good Selling=-

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.

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.

Sharp "Should We Be Sticking a Fork in Them"?

Geesh where do I start with this one?  Years ago there was a thread on the Print4Pay Hotel forums named "Rumor Has It" (over 10,000 views) that Ricoh was going to buy Ikon.  I can tell you that most of the threads stated that it will never happen, comments ranged from IKON is bigger in the US than Ricoh Americas to the if anyone buys Ikon it would be Canon. As foolish as it sounded then, Ricoh did buy Ikon.

Let me take you for a trip of recent thread entries on the Print4Pay Hotel forums about Sharp in the last 18 months or so:

Analyst issues 'sell' recommendation for Sharp 2010

JOINT STATEMENT BY SHARP ELECTRONICS CORPORATION AND EDWARD MCLAUGHLIN   June 2011

Sharp Announces New B2B President December 2011

Sharp Forecasts Record $3.8 Billion Loss Feb 2012

Sharp Replaces President After Predicting Record Loss March 2012

Foxconn Buys 10% of Sharp Corp April 2012

Sharp Corp esitmated to lose $4.7 Billion Dollars!! April 2012

Sharp Drops to Lowest Since 1975 on Report of Loss: July 2012

Sharp's options narrowing to future as Hon Hai parts maker August 6th, 2012

Japan's Sharp Corp plans to sell its copiers and air conditioners businesses August 16th, 2012

In the last four days Print4Pay Hotel members from all over the world have posted replies and threads in reference to Reuters report that a Nikkei analyst reported that Sharp may sell it's copier division. 

MFP Wars "The Final 5 Prophecy" Sharp is...

A couple of years ago I posted a few blogs in reference to what copier/mfp manufacturers would make up the "The Final Five".  There were many comments made when I left Sharp Corporation out of "The Final Five".  My guess is the people commenting were die hard Sharp enthusiasts and that's not a bad thing.

Back in the mid to late eighties, Sharp ruled the copier industry!  It seemed like I was always up against a sharp copier when I was competing for new business.  In the eighties Ikon (Alco) was buying up Sharp dealerships left and right.  Many dealer owners walked away with pockets full of cash.
However, in the copier business no manufacturer ever stays on top for more than a few years.  Thus in the nineties the beginning of the end for Sharp came one day as Ikon dropped Sharp from their portfolio in lieu of Canon and Ricoh.  Since that time Sharp has been playing catch up trying to regain double digit market share in the US.

In recent weeks, many Internet sources revealed that Sharp Corporation was in dire straits and they had limited cash reserves.  Today, saw a report from Reuters that Sharp Corporation is looking to sell the copier division in order to raise much needed cash. The report went on to state that Kyocera was interested in some type of acquisition.

So, you all thought copiers were bad right?

So, you all thought copiers were bad right?  Well at least with copiers you have solid, knowledgeable dealers that will support or replace a bad system.  When was the last time you had your copier company offer you unlimited everything?  We'll give you unlimited toner, paper, and go ahead make as many prints, copies and faxes as you like and we'll just never bill you an overage! 

All of the above get me to this, years ago when I got my first blackberry, I'll admit, I was cheap, and I would move from calling plan to calling plan to try and save a few bucks. Finally, it came time for another FREE Verizon upgrade. I opted to stay with the blackberry and finally gave in to the "unlimited" data plan. Woohoo I thought, unlimited emails, Internet, bring on the data!  I was a happy Verizon customer until......I got wind that Verizon was not going to offer the unlimited data plan anymore!

The next day I was on the phone with a Verizon rep and asked does this mean that I don't have unlimited data anymore?  I was told no that's not the case you'll be grandfathered in and as long as you stay with Verizon you'll get to keep your unlimited data package. Woohoo, I'm good to go again right?  It seems that was not the case, my current 2 year plan has lapsed, and I've been receiving emails about upgrading, newer smart phones, so finally I bit. Off I went to the Verizon store, has anyone in Jersey every been to one of these stores?  To put it plain and simple they suck, my worst nightmare is having to go to one of these stores and deal with their "sheep herder" mentality for processing customers.  I picked out the the smart phone that I wanted, and then while they are processing the plan, I see a red alert pop up on the customers service reps screen that needs I need to by additional data.  WTF, I stated that my plan was unlimited, the customer service rep stated well that's not what the computer is stating. With that, a huff and a puff and I was out the door with my old blackberry.

I then called Verizon customer service from outside the store and another customer service rep explained that I can keep my unlimited plan, however I would have to pay full price for the smart phone and still enter into another 2 year agreement.  I thought....typical BS from a company that thinks they he more than enough customers. There is no way I'm going to pay the full price and then commit to owing you $3,200 for the next two years.

If you google "How Verizon Screwed" me, I think the google count was almost two million matches. I know this doesn't have much to do with copiers, printers and solutions but I needed to get this rant out there.  I'll just find a hand me down or an older smart phone and the web and Verizon can Kiss My Ass.

-=Good Selling=-

10 Awesome Tips for a Great MFP/Copier Demo

Demo, what the heck is that?  In other posts I've mentioned that demo's were the way we used to sell copy machines many years ago. 

One of the requirements of a copier sales person is that you needed to have some type of station wagon, hatch back or enclosed pick up truck.  Why?  Because the salesperson, that would be me and all of us that have been around since the 80's or before had to use our vehicles to bring copiers to a customers office!  We also have to navigate steps, one of more flights of stairs, basements, muddy drive ways, sleet, snow and rain.  Almost kinda made me feel like the mailman, because Post delivers!  (anyone get that).

You got pumped for demo's because you knew that if you had a good demo, meaning that the copier performed without jamming, you didn't get some off the wall question from a smart ass, that you had a great shot at closing the deal on the spot and then negotiating to leave the demo so you didn't have to lug it back to the office!  Gosh, I miss those days.

The other day I had a demo set for a customer to come to our showroom, since it's been awhile since I did a demo, I had to write a list of what needed to be done prior to the account coming in.  Here goes.

1.  Check the system for print, and copy quality a day in advance, this way if there is an issue you can get someone to rectify the issue.

2.  Go to your system at least 90 minutes prior to the customer getting there to set up the applications that you would like to demo.

3.  Check the print and copy quality again, also if you're with a color system make sure you calibrate the system for the copy mode, and all of the print modes. In the Ricoh systems there are at least four different print calibrations, while you're at it is there is an "auto registration" perform that function also.

Doom and Gloom for the Printed Page or Hogwash!

We had an interesting thread debate on the Print4Pay Hotel forums this past week. 

I posted an article that was titled "Dead-tree format's demise is slow, steady", posted my reply and then asked to hear from other P4P'er for their thoughts in reference to the growth for the printed page or is it really dying a slow death.

The article went on to state that paper demand in 2006 and has declined each year by 3-10 percent year over year and is now down 20% or more since the 2006 peak.

This was my repsonse on the forums:

I read a report the other day that stated the US printed page volume will reach 1.2 trillion pages in 2014 for the FIRST TIME. I think this was from IDC which is well respected.

As I was driving to an appointment today I was thinking about all of these reports and thought that the paper sales would even be a better indicator of what is going on. Wallaa, I had the above article in an email today!

The gist of the report is that cut sheet paper sales continue to lose steam, and has not rebounded to the levels of 2006. The culprint, smart phones and ipads, but......maybe it's still the sign of the piss poor economy. The downturn for my sales (copier, mfp)  and I think others will agree started in 2007 and has continued to this day. So, I'm kinda blaming the world wide recession for the downturn in paper, yes people tell me that they are emailing more, not faxing as much but I'm not seeing the reduction in printed pages from my accounts, yet.  Maybe it's to early to blames the iphone, smartphones and ipads.

Would like to hear comments from others do you agree, disagree?

Response:

I think this can be very easily misleading. The proliferation of duplex printing over the last 5-10 years has increased significantly, even home printers ship with duplex now. This will impact paper sales at least 6% IMHO. Also a 6% revenue drop? I'm pretty sure the market price for cost per pages (on consumer and business alike) has dropped easily 5% per year. Even if you take into account increases through color it still doesn't add up.

So I'm still firmly in the camp that the increased volume and availability of digital content is actually increasing volumes in line with IDC's report - we are just all going to make less money providing each page.

I do however think users are smarter on how they print pages, I have seen a huge trend here of users going to a local store to get photo prints done rather than costly consumer inkjets.

Anyways that's my rant!

Response:

I just billed my largest printer sale ever this week.

People will always need and want paper. The economy has more to do with this than anything. Things are so tight people are squeezing not just pennies but even fractions of pennies.

There's additional responses to the thread, for those of us that sell machines that print on paper we're not sure if print is dead yet, and if it is dying a slow death then most of us are not seeing it yet.  I guess the we'll be able to figure this out if and when the economy picks up and if the economy never picks up then I would tend to think that the article was true that the printed page is declining but not due to the proliferation of ipads, iphones, and smart phones but due to a global recession.

Go here to view to the other comments.

-=Good Selling=-

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.

Dr. Print Offers to Cure Your Print Pain

Who says you can't have fun and offer up FREE print solutions?  We've just landed the guru of print to our Print4Pay Hotel forums!

Just about a week ago me and the wife paid a visit to the boardwalk at Seaside Heights, NJ aka Jersey Shore. The sweet smell of the salt water, the blistering sun, the throngs of people and who the heck do I run into?  The Doctor of Print....aka Dr. Pcl5, it was like old times again!

Geesh, I hadn't seen DP in almost 20 years!  So what do people from Jersey do when they're at the boardwalk, you guessed it we drank together, ate Italian hot dogs, clams, lobster, laughed together and reminisced about the glory days of selling copiers.

But there's more to this than you think,  I took the time to show Dr. Pcl5 the Print4Pay Hotel forums, and convinced him with about 5 beers and 5 shots of tequila (we poured the tequila in the beer) to come on board as our Print Doctor.  After the 5th beer and tequila we were in bad shape, Dr. Pcl5 decided it was time to pack it in the for the night and I had to be driven home by the wife. But, it was an eventful time with an old friend and a new member of the Print4Pay Hotel forums.
Here's a small sampling of Dr. Pcl5 knowledge. In the past has offered up customized print solutions for Fortune 500 companies and is experienced with almost every Operating System and applications being used by some of the largest companies in the world!  Both Dr. Pcl5 and I agree that print is NOT dead, it's just more of a moving target and niche print systems and solutions will continue to grow and provide print stream management opportunities that will increase click, revenue and professional services. 

Think about it, does anyone of your customers or potential customers experiencing pain with their printing? Do they have this pain every day or is it just once in awhile, does the pain subside on different days of the week and increase on other days?  Have you been avoiding your customer because you couldn't offer them a pain free solution or you just couldn't find the right Doctor to collaborate with? 

I say, the wait is over!  Dr. Pcl5 wants you to post your toughest print questions and he promises that he can offer up a customized solution that will cure your customer, earn your respect and win you additional business with new and existing accounts. It's starting to sound like Ron Popiel now right?

What's the cost........, well there is NO cost, all you have to do is be a member of the Print4Pay Hotel forums, post you thread about your print pain and Dr. Pcl5 will analyze and offer up a solution to cure the print pain! Click here to find your pain free print solution!

At this time, I can't tell you who Dr. Pcl5 is, all I can tell you is that Dr. Pcl5 is the Guru of print, the King of SAP, the Duke of ERP, and the Lord of Linux and residing somewhere at the Jersey Shore.
-=Good Selling=-

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=-

10 Hints on How to Be Successful Selling Wide Format MFP's

The other day I received and email from Dean over at Affordable Business Systems.  He had purchased my book titled "How to Be Successful Selling Digital Wide Format Systems", and was curious if I had a vertical market letter to go along with book.  I stated I did and I would post that letter on the Premium Print4Pay Hotel forums, so he could download for his rep.

When Ricoh first released the Aficio 240W, geesh I can't even remember what it was, however I can remember that the Ricoh 240W was a kick ass system.  It was one of those rare moments in the industry when I had the only small footprint, low volume digital wide format toner based system (print, scan, copy, collate, reduce, enlarge) on the market that was priced at under $20,000. 

We had the market for almost two years with no competition, it was not uncommon to make over $3,000 in commissions per system.  The key was to engage with potential clients that were outsourcing their wide format prints and scans.  There was an immediate ROI to the customer since most were outsourcing 3,000 square feet a month at .25 cents to .50 cents per month.  Sales were awesome! As always good things come to an end and every copier manufacturer thus released their own version of low volume digital wide format system.

I thought I would share some of my wide format tips that I've gathered over the years.  I have put together a list of my top 10, I'll post five of them here and the rest I'll post on the Premium Print4Pay Hotel forums along with my vertical marketing letter. If you order my book and send me an email I'll email you the entire 10 tips:

1. Join your local AIA Association
2. Sponsor events for you local AIA Association such dinners, awards, continuing education events and golf outing.
3. Join your local Professional Engineering Association
4. Sponsor events for you local Professional Engineering Association such dinners, awards, continuing education events and golf outing.
5. Speak their language, get familiar with terms like red line, blueline, ANSI, vector, raster, as-built
6. Find out.............................................
7. Focus on scan.....................................
8. Know what the break point for .................................
9. Know what the customer is paying..................................
10.  Know the disadvantages of ......................

Even though the AEC market has suffered from the economy there are still a ton of these systems in the field.  They will all need to be upgraded.

=Good Selling=-

1.2 Trillion Printed Pages Equals Good Times for all!

1,000,000,000,000, do what this number is?  If you guessed a billion, well you're wrong. It's one trillion and in 2015 IDC predicts the US printed page volume will reach 1.2 trillion pages! IDC also stated that growth is small at about 0.1%.

The IDC report also stated that MFP's are winning the print volume race, and total pages on MFP's are predicted to exceed 857 billion pages by 2015. 

Here's an paragraph with link so you can read the entire report:

Overall, printed page volume will remain steady despite a myriad of obstacles, including the introduction of green initiatives within a growing number of enterprise organisations; more widespread managed print services engagements; changing end-user behaviour patterns from young, digitally oriented workers; and a weak economy. The IDC report was published in September of 2011.

I've been one of those naysayers who don't think printed pages is going away anytime soon.  Especially not after I read a recent Press Release from Vista Partners stating that they had initiated coverage (have no clue what that means) Auxilio.  I know of Auxilio they are a public corporation that specializes in losing money with Managed Print Services for the health care industry.  I stated specializing in losing money because I had a short elevator talk with one of the execs of Auxilio.  A few months ago  I asked "When is Auxilio going to start turning a profit"?  He stated "We don't have to turn a profit because...", again it was a short elevator talk and all I can remember is the part "We don't have to turn a profit". WTF!

I'm under the impression that printed pages are moving, less pages may (I'm not so sure of this, due to I'm still a sales guy on the street and I'm in tune with my customers page volumes and I'm just not seeing any significant drops) be printed in the corporate office however more pages may come from print production systems, smaller MFP's in smaller offices and home offices and the recent introduction of some niche printing systems.  10 years ago it was almost impossible to find a copier/mfp or laser printer that could print on 80lb cover, gloss, coated or even textured stock.  Today most higher end MFP's can do this with ease, so you tend to think where did the pages come from.  Most likely they came from the decreasing page volumes of off-set presses. More companies are producing a print a wider variety of media than they ever did before!

What got me onto this kinda rant, is that I read an article today from the MFP report that stated "We’re seeing a new reality emerge in office imaging. There’s no need to agree on the exact downward slope of the curve or to highlight all the component trends beneath the surface. The bottom line is that office print volumes are fall- ing and will continue to do so. What matters now is how the MFP industry responds".

I'm thinking the reality is most people have no clue about page volumes, even the end users, talk to them at a meeting and ask them how many pages they print on their MFP's and laser printers on an annual basis and they'll shrug their shoulders and admit that they have no clue. 

Printed pages are not going away, they may be moving and your job is to find where they are moving and to provide the right solution.  To boot I could think of several cool features on MFP's that would actually increase page volumes (maybe someone needs to call me one time, right).  Seriously, we need to remember that the Apple or the IPAD WILL NOT BE responsible for the extinction of paper.

-=Good Selling=-

Managed Network Services "The New Holy Grail for Office Equipment Dealers"?

A few months we had a thread started on the Print4Pay Hotel forums titled "Managed Services Are You In or Out".  Since then we've had 15 replies and over 150 page views with many different opinions.  I'd like to back up a step and state that most of the Print4Pay Hotel members that actively post responses, ask questions and see answers are probably some of the most knowledgeable reps and work for some of the more progressive dealers that I know in the industry.  All of the threads stated that in some way, shape or form, these reps and dealers are embracing Managed Network Services.

I'll post some of the replies here and then give a few of my own points at the end of the blog.  I encourage you to go here or go here if you need to register (it's free), view the threads and to add your perspective of how you or your company is either moving forward, or already selling Managed Network Services.  It's a good discussion for all of us since this is something new  and we could all learn from each other.

Here's a few of the responses:

We just partnered with an IT services company as another addition to our portfolio. Managing the network is very critical moving forward. We are just in the infancy stage but can see the opportunity and growth opportunities. from Larry

I believe this is the future of our industry. Forget MPS, that's a failure. In the near future a single vendor will manage all of an office's computer hardware. From switches, routers, PCs, printers and MFPs. Its already heading that way. At the very least we all need to partner up with the best IT companies in our territories and work together and share leads. Remember the IT guy's opinion will almost always carry a ton of weight when the customer is choosing an MFP or vendor to connect hardware to the network. from fisher

We have had good results selling IT services to small to medium companies that "dedicated" IT companies don't want to mess with. I'm talking about something in the neighborhood of 3-15 stations. Unfortunately, we now have a problem...customer IT issues are often urgent where getting our MFP's connected seldom is so us copier reps have become less of a priority. We might have to wait a week sometimes to get IT install support from our own people. They see our request as being non-revenue generating even though our dept pays their dept for every install but that is just a revenue shuffle and not net new incremental revenue. However, I'm a firm believer that "A rising tide lifts all boats" Any profitable revenue coming into this company helps us all. from Old Glory

Yes from Jason R

I agree with 'fisher' that "this is the future of our industry" and Managed IT Services would be a logical step for Independent Dealers to take as soon as possible. In fact, it could be necessary in the future, to help protect your base and gain net new business, with this offering. from GMAN

The route where we are finding a lot of interest is speaking to our ability to provide complementary services (remote monitoring, endpoint security, data recovery, etc.) to their current I.T. offerings, whether internal or outsourced. Our goal isn't to replace their existing I.T. (unless they're looking for that) but rather to help them do more with less. A lot of companies that had multiple I.T. people a few years ago are now rolling with a single individual who is overwhelmed. Adding MNS to that equation for $2k-$4k per month is substantially less than adding another full-time person, and you get much more than you would get just by adding another body. from txeagle

These are just a few of the responses that were posted.  Again you can read the rest on the Print4Pay Hotel forums.

But, I'd like to add this. In the last response from txeagle he stated "Adding MNS to that equation for $2K - $4k per month is substantially less than adding another full-time person, and you get much more than you would get just by adding another body".  Wow, that was an awesome response I never thought of it that way. 

But, here's a few thoughts of my own, let's say that the cost cover each PC each month is $30, and the cost to cover a server is $150 per month. How many PC's and Servers would need to be covered to generate a monthly MNS contract in the $2-$4K monthly cost?  One hundred PC's would be $3k per month and maybe 70 PC's and 10 servers would be $3,600 per month.  Let's just say that to generate this type of revenue off of one account it would have to be a size able account.

I'm aware of my own comp plan and the commissions for selling MNS, I've had the opportunity to reach out to a few Print4Pay Hotel members to discuss what their commission (pay) is when they sell and MNS plan.  Pretty much the numbers are all over the place, some dealerships offer as a commission the first two months of billing, while other will pay a percentage of the billing on a quarterly or monthly basis.  The lowest comp plan I saw was for a rep to make 6% per month of the billing.

Now 6% for one account that is averaging $3K per month would net a commission of $180 per month and $2,160 per year.  Based on the yearly that's very acceptable, however you'll also have to figure how long did it take to close that deal.  You see the problem that I see with this is what happens with the smaller accounts like  the 5-25 employees range with anywhere from 5 pc's and a server to 25 pc's and maybe a couple of servers.  Is this really going to pay off for the time that it takes to prospect, research, quote and close the deal, especially of the MNS contract is for 10 pc's and a one server?  A monthly billing of $450 and a commission based on the lowest monthly rate of 6% would generate $27 in commission to the rep per month and $324 per year! BTW, I did ask about the contract term for MNS and no one was locking in contracts for more than one year.

You can also look at this another way, lets say we found and imaging deal (selling an MFP) and the monthly lease rate was $450 per month.  That sale would generate $22,727 in hardware and a good estimate of commission would be about $1,600 and I'm thinking this might be on the low side. 

Right away, I'm thinking that it would be practical to not offer MNS for companies that have less than 25 employees or less than 15 networked PC's and servers. 

There's so much more to MNS, you could also generate additional billing hours for professional services, of course you would "own" the network, but as a rep who will be selling these services we need to find out where our time is best spent.  Please fell free to comment!

-=Good Selling=-

My 5 Step BOX Approach for MFP Prospecting

I think this sometime this year; I’ll be starting my 34th year in the copier business. If we want to be technical I guess you could say that I’m now selling imaging hardware and solutions.
 
Over those years I’ve seen many sales people, managers, DSM’s and owners come and go.  I guess at this point in my career I can state that I’m one of the constants in the industry and I’ll be working in this industry in some fashion until I retire, or get hit by a bus.

At this point in my career I’ve seen the good times in the industry, there’s been quite a few of those and some bad times.  Never, ever have I seen a period of time where more business owners are either buying systems, opting for $1 out leases, accepting an automatic lease renewal or suffering without dated technology.  A CEO once told me that he doesn’t invest in people he invests in technology. I forgot the CEO’s name however I do remember that he ran one of the largest chemical factories in New Jersey at one time. For many years I used his statement as one of my value added statements and in most cases the statement hit the mark and helped me close sales. Over the last four years and I might even push for 5 years the economy has had a direct effect on my sales efforts.

In the last three years I’ve seen two sales managers and nine sales reps come and go at our dealership.  One rep has been able to make it past two years and from my perspective he looks like he will do well in the industry. 

As I was driving to my second appointment today I had some thoughts as to why I’ve been successful through the good times and bad times.  What made me different from all of those reps that never stayed in the industry?  My wife tells me that I’m gluten for rejection, but she also stated that I have an awesome work ethic.  I’m in agreement on the work ethic, but I think the real reason is the enjoyment I get when someone orders from me, along with the fact that I can make extra money whenever I want. 

Which brings me to

Copier Dealerships Use of Tablet Technology Saves the Day!

Rick Backus is a genuine genius when it comes to implementing time saving solutions for Copier & Managed Print Dealers.  We're also proud to have Rick as a member and sponsor of the Print4Pay Hotel forums, many times Rick has stepped up and offered a solution when most of thought there was not one.  This blog from Rick is a great example of how Rick's knowledge and expertise can help your company improve it's business processes.

Support revenue using mobile devices to capture signatures and data from the field

One of my clients was recently looking to refresh their field service technician's hardware and was considering whether they might be able to roll out tablets rather than upgrade the existing laptops.

Essentially the techs only needed storage for technical and part manuals, Internet access and email for communication. Tablets are certainly capable of fulfilling these requirements and are considerably less expensive which is always a powerful motivator.

During this same time period another dilemma was confronting the service department. They were losing a significant amount of revenue from chargeable, time and material calls where the customer was disputing the invoice and service could not produce a signed copy of the service call report to substantiate their invoice to the customer. It seems the existing procedure for processing the call reports no tracking ability to insure the techs a) Actually filled out and returned a signed copy of the report and b) once it was returned that it was properly filed and retrievable.

Many months ago I had setup a SharePoint site for them for a sales related project but at the time we also created a document library to scan date-batched service call reports to for archiving. You know, eliminate the paper and all... Well this process fell by the wayside and the department was losing revenue. A new solution was desperately needed.

Electronic forms would foot the bill but since they were using SharePoint Foundation they did not have access to InfoPath forms. After some research and testing on our in-house SharePoint Enterprise instance we came up with a solution to the problem. With a new mail-enabled, document library in the service department's sub-site we installed a new application to create electronic PDF forms. Using the original pdf file from the paper version as an underlay we inserted all the necessary data fields in the form including mapping specific fields to document library columns as metadata. The parts sales prices and final totals were setup to automatically calculate as well.

After some testing and training we rolled the solution out to the techs. It was a tremendous success. They have nearly 100% compliance, the completed forms are emailed back to the SharePoint document library and indexed automatically. Using views and/or filtering we can identify the chargeable reports, compare form count to tech closed calls as a cross check and we have all the customers emails for marketing purposes. The customers are impressed by the use of technology including using their finger to sign the forms which are emailed to them immediately. It was a huge win all the way around.

This technology opened up a whole variety of other opportunities with this client. The next step is to tackle the delivery and acceptance forms.

If this is something you think your organization could benefit from contact me here.

-=Good Selling=-


 

Oce is to CBS as Ikon is to RBS. True or not True

After 300 plus reads in a week, seems like Vince McHugh hit the nail on the head!  For those who have not read Vince's blog here's a snippet with a link and then don't pass up on the responses from our Print4Pay Hotel Members!  They are classic!

You gotta love the insight from Vince McHugh about Canon and OCE. He's dead on with the Ricoh/Ikon thing and dead on with the coming merge of Canon/Oce. Read and enjoy especially you Ricoh folks that have been slamming me for years, seems you're not the only dog on the block looking for a new fire hydrant! Vince....great stuff!!
Oce:CBS::Ikon:RBS Simple Math

In case your math skills are a little rusty the equation reads Oce is to CBS as Ikon is to RBS. True or not True. Here is my argument for True:

The carnage at Ricoh Business Solutions continues as the Ikon takeover of RBS moves into it’s final stages. Ikon’s management is firmly ensconced in upper and middle management of RBS. And guess who they are bringing along for the ride? All their Ikon friends. The loyal RBS employees are being squeezed out!

(Please feel free to skip the rant in red below. I will not feel offended if you do).

I need to digress here and say I long for the days when the company who BOUGHT

Bad Copier Quote Equals Dishonest Copier Rep

I got a call the other day from an existing customer who leased a color 35 page per minute color system from us two years ago almost to the day. Initially the customer and I had estimated that their color volume would be about 3,000 pages per month.  The call kinda went like this "we're spending too much money on color and we'd like to meet with you and btw, we're entertaining other vendors".

I knew that the customer had leased the system for 60 months and they still had 36 months left on the old lease agreement.  I did not want to go on this call, I thought that maybe Kyo or Xerox were in on it, and it would be agonizing to sell against the tiered color billing systems that they may be offering.

When I arrived at the account, by the way I like people with this account and this can't be said about all of my accounts.  I was prepared with the last four quarters of billing and pretty much instead of the estimated 3,000 pages per month they were pushing twice that.

What I really wanted to write about was the quote I saw from a competitor, most professionals in our industry will do a Total Cost of Analysis for the customer. In most cases I will look at the last year of usage and billing, just because it is indicative of their present volume.

The quote from the competitor just took a sampling of one quarter of the customers usage for  the year.  They based the ROI to move forward on just three months usage!

Covering the Copier & MFP Industry One Click at a Time

I thought this would be a great interview for everyone.  Scott Cullen has followed the copier industry since 1986 and has interviewed the who's who of industry professionals through out the years. He's a stand up guy and I've always enjoyed reading his articles. I thought it was time that someone would turn the tables an interview Scott. With out further ado, my interview with Scott Cullen.

When was your first Office Equipment Industry article and what was it about?

In 1986, an article on BIS CAP (Now Info Trends) conference I covered in Boston on small business for Office Systems magazine.

How the heck did a rock n roller like yourself get connected with the Office Equipment Industry?

I had just lost my dream job the previous November where I was writing for a cable TV magazine in Connecticut. The magazine was sold to a competitor and they shut us down. I spent most of November and early December helping a friend in his landscaping business and in January worked as a freelance proofreader for a book publisher. Around that time I saw an ad in the paper from Office Systems magazine looking for an associate editor. I applied, got called for an interview and within in a week was offered the job. Turns out that was the only job I ever had in my life that I didn't get through some sort of networking. I did get a great reference from Peter Funt (Son of Candid Camera's Allen Funt) who was the publisher of the cable TV magazine.

You've been to a lot of dealers events over the years, what two events stands out more than the others?

First is a Canon dealer meeting in Scottdale, Arizona in the eighties. It was my second dealer meeting and even though I was still learning my way around the industry, it was a great time. That's the only dealer meeting where I go to go horseback riding.

The second had to be a NOMDA dealer meeting Las Vegas in the mid nineties. What made that great was the camaraderie I had with my colleagues in the press when there were many more publications covering the industry as well as many PR people for the various manufacturers who to this day remain my friends. What made this one memorable was we all went to dinner at Hugo's Cellar in the Four Queens and then to a show with 60s pop star Johnny Tillotson ("Poetry in Motion"). It was an amazing evening, and yes, a fair amount of alcohol was involved.

What was the worst dealer event you ever covered?

Can Your Dealership Profit through the Click Charge ECM?

Darn tootin!  I wrote about the Intellenetics Enterprise Content Management solution a few weeks ago during Photizo's Global Transform show in Orlando this year.  BTW, I recommend that all MFP dealers try and make this show next year in Scottsdale, and don't rely on the data and information your MFP manufacturer is feeding you is the right solution for making a profit.

A few days ago I was treated to a Mano-a-mano webinar with the folks at Intellenetics about their "Click Charge" ECM solution that is designed for the MFP and MPS dealer channel.  Here's a few interesting items I picked up. Hmmm.....

All right seems these notes will be from memory because I misplaced the note pad that had the notes! 

• Branding is available
• Dealer Billing per month and then Dealer bills end user with MU
• Direct Billing to customer and royalties paid back to dealer
• Public portion of ECM allows users to search on their documents

And that's about all I can remember with my notes, not a big deal because Intellenetics will conduct a private webinar on July 19th for Print4Pay Hotel Members.  After I viewed the webinar a few days ago I asked them to tweak a few things and that will tell your more about the billing, and branding options along with the revenue stream royalties and the up charge for billing. 

If I had my own dealership (which I don't), I would be rolling this out to all of my SMB accounts.  First I would call them and ask them for a short 15 minutes about a new product and service we are launching. I would schedule this for one day of the week, like a Thursday and set 4-5 appointments each day.  I would then have a power point presentation set-up.  I would then guide them through the FAB (remember FAB, Feature, Advantage and Benefit),  and of course at the end when they ask how much this will this cost I will have TWO plans available.  A Premium Plan where we charge a base monthly fee and scan click charge (could be quarterly), where we (dealer) controls the uploading to the Cloud, and the indexing, and we would then train the end user on how to retrieve the documents.  The second plan would be Basic Plan, where we charge a monthly (could be quarterly) base fee and scan click charge, we would train the customer on how to index, upload and retrieve the files.

Remember it's not about the big sale, it's about the click and the ongoing annuity stream.  Most SMB accounts are scanning to a wndows based file folder and then placing documents (that are not OCR'd or in  indexed) in nested folders. If you can find the pain, which there is with this type of format you can bring home the bacon and have the best of both worlds by capturing the scans and the print clicks.  Keep in mind that Dealers have been reluctant to charge for scans because they were afraid that they would lose print clicks to the competitors who did not charge for scans. But in this scenario  you are presenting value of the ECM system and the benefit of accessing those files from the cloud.

Recently, I've been scheduling appointments for our new services, and with every appointment each customer either asked for a quote or additional information about a pain that we discovered on the appointment.  The moral of the story is to keep introducing new products and services to your existing accounts, they are a gold mine of they have pain in their business process.  

Please go here for the exclusive P4P Hotel webinar for Intellenetics "Can Your Dealership Profit through Click Charge ECM.

=-Good Selling=-