Prospect Much? Tips

Prospecting in the office equipment industry is equal to putting your shoes on every day. It's just something you do all of the time!

Now that I'm a little older and little wiser, I've been able to hone some of my prospecting skills to get better results and qualified prospects. Here's a few tips for you.

1. Sometimes during the sales process, the customer will ask for a better price, and yes you can use the standard close, "If I can give you a better price can we do business today?", however I'll also add that in order to get the better price I'd like to get two to three names and contact information for friends or associates that are in business that may have a need for my services. This is probably the best references or leads that you can get, and you must follow up on them right away!

2. Vertical Market Prospecting, follow up with other businesses that are in the same business where you just made a sale. Mention that so, and so just upgrading to state of the art technology and also make the statement that there are many features designed for your type of business that will save time and money. It's just like the copier industry, when you come right down to it, its a small world and everyone pretty much knows someone else in their same line of work.

3. Prospect Around The Corner, when you have made a sale or have gained an appointment be sure to make a call to other businesses in the area and let them know you'll be meeting with so and so, and ask if you can stop buy. The same goes true for knocking on doors, whether before or at the end of the appointment take the time to stop at other businesses and tell them of your success or just drop a card and a brochure. It may take so time, however these cold calls will pay dividends down the road.

4. When going to a network event, GO ALONE!, this will force you into having conversations with other people and not yucking it up with ]your buddy from the office.

5. Develop and maintain a mailing list of all your cold calls whether phone or on-site calls. Then set a reminder on a calendar program for a monthly mailing to these clients. You can mail brochures, flyer's or my favorite a neat little one page newsletter that will keep them updated with your new products and services. If you are religious in sending this every month, you will start seeing great results in 3-6 months.

If you have anything else to add, please feel free to!

MFP WARS, Who Wins and Who Loses, Ricoh, Canon, Konica Minolta, Xerox or Sharp?

MFP Wars, basically I've never seen anything like the past year in the last 27 years of selling copiers. Direct Branches from KonicaMinolta, Ricoh, and Toshiba are basically selling MFP systems at cost or a few dollars above in order to acquire the aftermarket business. How long can this last? My bet is it will last as long as the deep pockets of the manufacturers will permit it.

All of the manufacturers have a dealer side of the business, recently a pricing issue was raised to one of the top three manufacturers in reference to the aggressive campaign that RBS is waging to acquire new business AT ANY COST, even if it means cutting into Ricoh Dealers business and profit margins. When the issue was raised to a senior level executive, they stated that they had no knowledge of this and that it could not be happening. The Senior Level exec then did some checking and found this out to be true and then escalated this issue to the VP of Sales (that's about where it sits right now). I seriously doubt that there will be any change in the SOP.

Now Ricoh is not the only manufacturer that has this problem, KonicaMinolta and Toshiba Direct branches are also in direct competition with their dealers and are looking to gain market share at any cost!

So, where does this leave dealers? For the dealers that are in the major market areas such as New York, Chicago, LA, Dallas, Boston etc, competition is fierce and dealers are taking a beating! Consider this, when the dealer loses a sale to its own manufacturers Direct Branch, who loses? The dealer loses because they did not get the sale and the clicks, the Direct Branch loses because they moved a box @ zero profit and in turn the parent company will lose because the dealers that buy at higher prices will not buy as many systems! So if everyone loses, what they heck are they doing? Preserving market share? At what cost?

Recently we have seen some new players in the market such as HP, Okidata, Samsung and even Lexmark has a full line of MFPs. Samsung has hit big with their 45ppm MFP that has an MSRP of $3,000 and due to launch a 55ppm system in the near future for under $8,000 MSRP. HPs foray with the Edgeline series will make an impact also.

I'll say it over and over there are too many managers @ Direct Branches that are teaching new reps to sell on price and price alone. I know they are under pressure to move boxes, however selling on price helps no one, especially the new reps that come and go. Basically thats the reason because they come and go, no one is their to teach them the skills of selling, such as FAB (feature, advantage and benefits), or Lock Out features that a certain system might have an most all the art of probing the customer and finding out the pain that they have or a solution that will allow them to sell at a profit. It seems to me that most Direct Branches are selling themselves into a hole they might never get out of.

I have a dear friend who works for RBS in New Jersey, we chatted the other day and he keeps stating that Dealers are the past and the Direct Branches are the future of the industry, I beg to differ, if that's the case then our industry is in a bad state of affairs.

As an industry we need to start from scratch, we need to hire energetic and dynamic people and teach then "How to Sell", educate them in prospecting, probing and customer relationship selling.

On the flip side I'm sure their are many fine reps out there that make a good living that are working at Direct Branches and Dealerships, however if the industry continues to "dump" boxes our way of life will could go downhill very fast.

Print4Pay Hotel Launches New Web Site!

It's done! We have launched the new site and you can get there via or.

The new website will allow for easy access to all to Ricoh Family Group, Kyocera, KonicaMinolta and Canon Message Boards. Also incorporated into the new site is my blog, which can be accessed by clicking "Selling MFP Solutions". Go ahead check out the blog there are awesome blogs that relate to Solution Selling and whats been happening in our industry.

New members will get three FREE documents that I have developed, "Top Ten Rules for New Salespeople", "14 Benefits of Leasing" and "Print Assessment Calculator".

Win $50 Best Buy card! All you have to do is log in, post a question or post and answer and you'll have a chance to win every month. Another contest is "Sell the Solution", here reps have a chance to win a $1,000 Amex gift card.

So, whether you are a veteran or a newbie, the Print4Pay Hotel is a great resource for information that is gathered on the street, and a great way to stay focused on maintaining your knowledge while sharing it with others in the industry!

Good Selling!

How to Transform Yourself into A Solution Selling Guru!

With the industry rapidly changing and the on-set on Direct Branches just moving boxes to capture clicks, it is essential that we transform to solution selling.

So what is Solution Selling? Solution Selling can be a sale that incorporates a piece of hard with a software solution. It could be something as simple as a print driver setting that saves the customer time or something as elaborate as a Document Management Software application that is also have as piece of hardware attached to the sale.

How Do I Find Out If They Are in Need of A Solution?

There are many ways, it all starts with asking questions in reference to their workflow and "How" and "Why" they do what they do with a document or a piece of paper. Also to be on the lookout for certain situations of hardware and software. I'll take a few scenarios from situations that I saw in the field.

1. Side by Side Faxes: I was on an appointment with a referral from one of my clients in New Jersey, I asked him if I could "tour" his operation before we sat down. My client was very obliging and took me for a tour, while on the tour I saw two side by side faxes. Now, I know two side by side faxes are a dead give away that A: They have a heavy inbound and outbound traffic of faxes, B: They were probably not using LAN fax software and C: These faxes had a high cost per page.

I then asked about "How" they use these faxes for inbound and outbound, if I could pull a report from each fax and "Why" were they printing their faxes and where do the faxes go once they arrive?

After finding out the why and how, I offered to do an ROI Analysis Report on his fax workflow. By the time I was done with this particular department, I had on order for an MFP with Dual Fax lines, and a 5 user license of Ecopy Desktop Software, along with this they were now going to use LAN fax for all of their outbound documents with Ecopy. The end result was a piece of software and hardware sold at MSRP plus a customer who was elated with the paper/toner savings along with the increased productivity!

2. Printing, Gathering n Collating: I see this all of the time! People will print various document from different applications, and will then gather them together and manually collate the documents into a set and then place them in the copier for additional sets (whew), what a waste of time! On the other hand this customer was ripe for ECopy Desktop Software. If you don't know already Ecopy can act as a "virtual printer" and print copies a the documents to Ecopy software, from their the cleint can see all of their pages from all of the different applications, they can move any page to an position in the document and create a virtual document that has been electronically collated within the Ecopy software. From there the document can then be printed, faxed or emailed and then converted to a pdf document.

Once I see someone who is doing this I'll ask them this basic question, "what happens when you need another copy of this document?" Most will groan and state they have to spend hours remembering the file name from each application and then find those documents on their system. I'll then ask them that if there was a piece of software that could save them all of this anguish would they be interested? You know the answer.

So, in essence LAN Fax and ECopy are simple solutions that will help you become the "more knowledgeable" rep and can provide a relief of pain that is associated with the day to day activities of the document workflow in the office.

Becoming a solution seller means to be interactive with the customer, ask questions and probe into the "How" and "Why" they do what they do. Use your eyes, and ears whether you are cold calling or conducting an appointment. If you have an idea, let the customer know that you have an idea that may help them. Everyone is interested in hearing a better way of doing something.

Again, these are just a few of the "simple" solutions that will get you going, as you become more knowledgeable with software and hardware capabilities you will become more adept at offering advanced solutions, these simple and advanced solutions will make you stand out in the crowd and make the customer less likely to shop your price.

BuyerZone.com , Friend or Foe?

It seems everyone wants to move boxes. We've said this all along; more boxes generate more clicks for service and more clicks for supplies.

Lets face some hard facts, Internet Buying is here and it’s not going to go away! Margins continue erode for all aspects of our business, sales, service and supplies.

I’d like to tell you all about Buyzone.com www.buyerzone.com/copiers. Potential clients who search for copiers on the major Internet search engines will see buyerzone.com. The link basically states that you can receive FREE price quotes from multiple vendors!

That’s a fantastic idea for the client, no interaction with sales people, no coming to visit your office, no looking at systems and IT can still hide in their hole. Everything is usually done via email. You click on the link and then answer six or seven questions in reference to your copier needs, speed, volume, special features, maintenance etc.

Buyerzone is good for the Client and good for Buyerzone and what I think is a bad idea for the dealer.

Here’s Why:

We have been signed up with Buyerzone for the last year to receive copier leads. I have received over 50 leads. I have not closed one of those leads!! When you get a lead, you've got to keep in mind that there are five other vendors in your area also receiving these leads (especially if you are in a major market).

I have offered machines for as little as a 5% MU and still have not received the order. I have sent emails (that’s how you receive the leads) and have followed up with phone calls. Eighty percent of these people requesting quotes will not speak to you, even if you tell them you are calling on behalf of Buyerzone. Keep in mind that they are probably doing this because they do not want to talk to anyone and they are looking for the lowest price and may or may not want to do the research on their own.

I believe that dealers subscribing to Buyerzone are hurting their own market. This market is price driven and that’s it! Most of these potential customers only want email quotes. All I can think of is that all of the supplies will also be bought from the Internet and service contracts will be ignored and customers will only get service when they need it. If you think you’re going to make money on service and supplies, then forgetaboutit! (Famous Jersey slang)

I went along with this for about a year, just replying to the emails and then making the calls. I figured all of these leads would be gravy and I kept on working my target accounts. After getting no response from my quotes, I set out to find out why systems were not being purchased from us (me). Yep!, the answer was price, price and price, someone was giving the equipment away for a few hundred dollars over cost on a large system and a few percent on the smaller systems! How can a commissioned rep compete with these tactics. WE CANNOT!

Most of the leads were for small machines Segment 1 or Segment 2. Here’s what worries me. Over the last three weeks, I have received three leads from Buyerzone for mid to large size accounts in my territory! Two were for 30ppm color systems and the other was for a 65ppm system. Times are changing and it looks like IT buyers are hitting the Internet more and more. They do not want to be bothered by "salespeople" or are we consultants?

What to do, what to do, hmmmmmmm……. Do you waste time on following up with the potential client to make an appointment so you can tell them why they should pay more (keep in mind that most of them will not want to see you), or do you just prepare a quote to meet their needs, send it email and hope they contact you, or do you just throw the lead in the garbage? The low end of the market has already eroded margins; do we need this on mid to large volume systems?

I’m a firm believer that doing business with Buyer Zone can degrade the dealers market for commanding prices that are essential to their well being and the well being of their industry. Why? News travels quick, good news travels quicker and IT buyers getting substantial savings travels at lightning speed! Can you image if 10% of the companies in your area just searched quotes through BuyerZone?

Do you need the IT buyer of one company talking to another or getting a job at “xyz” company telling others the only way to get quotes is though the BuyerZone?

I decided to test the waters and really see what is going on.

I filled out a BuyerZone prospect sheet, stating that the Print 4 Pay Hotel.com was looking for a copier. I got an email in an hour saying I was matched with six different dealers from my area (of course one of them was my dealership), and one was Konica/Minolta branch office! It’s been 24 hours and I haven’t received any phone calls and zero quotes via email. Now, I’m thinking what the heck is going on, maybe they all know me (Naw, not me, but wishful thinking)?? Maybe they can’t meet my needs for high-end color? Or am I just to impatient and expect a response ASAP!

Day 2, I have heard back from two companies ( well, I guess I was impatient), one represents OKI MFP (I clarified and they are a dealer) and the other is a dealer for Canon (or so they say). The company that represents the OKI called and asked me all of the right questions, volume, speed, feed, and stapling. However, I was taken back when he told me the system was very expensive. Anyway, he did not push for an appointment to delivery the quotes and said that he would email them. He seemed knowledgeable with his product and services.

With the second company I got a call from the “service manager” who stated he would sell the system at cost to get the maintenance revenue!! He also stated that his salespeople do not want to be bothered with these types of leads because they cannot make any money, however all he hopes is that I will take out a maintenance agreement. The “service manager” did ask for an appointment to sit down and deliver the quote, I reneged and said to please email it to me. He also stated that his ImageRunner 2620 was capable of doing 600,000 pages in six months with out a service call (why must people do this?). I told him I had quotes from other companies and he asked who they were; we spoke about speeds, feeds, etc. I then asked him what was the bit depth of color for the Canon, he seemed perplexed, and I then said it has to do with the depth of color. He then responded and I quote: “You mean DIP”, I said DIP?, and then I stated “don’t you mean DPI”? He said yes, at that point in time I just asked him to email me the quote as soon as you can.

I realize that I’m not be quite ethical in doing this, however I believe that dealers who are selling equipment at cost or a little over cost are jeopardizing my future. I need to find a way to get some of this business and what the competition is saying or doing.

Out of these two dealerships neither mentioned that they would like to see my operation or probe further to see if their system has a particular solution that may save me time and money. Neither representative talking about scan2email, print drivers, scan2folder, security, document management or software.

Hopefully, I will have a few more calls in a few days and will have the pricing I need.

On another note, I called my boss and told him about the competition and he stated that he knew the Konica/Minolta dealer that is associated with BuyerZone in our area and he confirmed that the owner takes the leads and looks to move the boxes at cost! I think he’s traveling down a slippery slope, we’ll have to wait and see. I do not have a quote from the Konica/Minolta dealer yet.

If you are subscribing to Buyerzone, maybe you should think about canceling your membership and do not give these companies that many choices and if you don’t want to cancel then you should change sales tactics when dealing with these customers. No appointment, no quote, if they do not answer your call, and then no quote!

With BuyerZone, I was hoping to move a few more boxes and thought it would be easy and that my expertise would come out with my quotes and follow up. Boy, was I wrong. Take it to the bank, the thought of aftermarket service and supplies are intriguing, however the thought of IT buyers buying from us instead of IngramMicro and CDW could be a big gamble.

BuyerZone also has a link for Document Imaging Systems, now this may be a horse of a different color! If Document Imaging is a popular as all the hype, I would then suggest that you sign up for this service to give it a try. We are going to sign up sometime this week. I am hoping that the Document Imaging may not be as cutthroat as someone just buying a copier. Selling to real pain, or having a customer that needs a hardware and software solution may be able to put more Gross Profit in our deals. (link: http://www.buyerzone.com/software/doc_man_software)

I am asking the owners of my company to cancel their subscription to BuyerZone.com for copiers.

It’s now Sunday night and I have been working on this off and on for three days. I’m going to post this and then do a follow up reply when I hear from the other dealers in reference to their quotes.

Do you agree or disagree? Would you like to add anything? If so, please post a reply with your thoughts.

Need a job in the copier industry?

Over the years I have received many calls from head hunters, and on some occassions I have succumbed to setting up an appointment to "test the waters", on every occassion these interviews were fruitless and the out come was that I'll stay at my current position. Gee, I thought that some of these guys or gals knew my industry!


I've finally found the right guy! His name is Bill Diminno and he is the CEO of Innovative Performance Group Bill is a former copy guy, having worked for Imagistics, Panasonic and Ricoh. Bill knows his stuff, so whether you are the "down the steet" sales rep, Major Accounts, or Top Level Exec, Bill is the right guy to call.

Give IPG a call before you think about taking an interview with someone who is not from our industry! http://www.ipg-usa.net

Who's Afraid of HP Edgeline CM8000 Series?

Well here goes, these are statements that were reported to me from members of the Print4Pay Hotel.

1. No Offset Stacking: I can't believe they made this big of a machine with offset!
2. No 3 Hole Punch: Again WOW!
3. Limited Card Stock: Only through the by-pass (I think this unit is rated for max 58lb only)
4. 11x17: The trays are very slow on 11x17 and the by-pass seems faster!
5. Misfeeds: While it doesn't misfeed much at all, if a user leaves a misfeed in over the weekend it will dry out the print heads (ouch!)
6. Weight (725lbs): Can not use a stairclimber because there are no stress points!
7. Black cpc: It's not the ink price that will get you but the cost of the maintenance kits!
8. Availability for the next six months: slim enough that we are looking to pick up another line!
9. CPP for color: Business .05 and Professional .06 cents per page!
10. Strangely enough, the letter paper only runs thru the machine in landscape orientation from the LCT (can't even load portrait/speed).
11. Standard 1,500 sheet paper supply only!
12. VERY slow FCOT (First Copy Out Time) 12 seconds.
13. Ink cartridges load from the bottom of the device (Oh my Back!)
14. To protect the print heads from electrostatic discharge, be sure to touch the
horizontal metal bar to ground yourself before clearing jams that are near the print heads. The print heads are above the print-drum area.
15. HP recommends that you do not use this device for printing on sequential paper, such as pre-numbered checks or invoices.


So, where does this lead us? First thoughts is that all of these issues will be corrected in a next generation model, whenever that comes about. Also their foray into the MFP marketplace with this system will leave a lot to be desired. The retail cost per page is impressive, however the system lacks the meat and potato features that High Volume MFP users are used to such as: Heavy Stock 110lb - 160lb, duplex of thick stock, Bookletmaker, Paper Punch Device, envelopes, transparencies and offset stacking!

Based on an average monthly volume of 50,000 pages the system will need print head replacement at 38 months (What is the cost for this?), plus I'll bet the ranch that the best print and copy quality is on "inkjet paper".

So when we get right down to it there are many deficiencies when compared to the standard laser MFP made by Ricoh, Xerox, Canon and Konica Minolta. Take a test drive you can download the manuals from HP, you can download the printer driver also.

One other note I found and I interpreted like this, when you are printing or copying pages with mized coverage, the system will slow down for high coverage areas, if this is the case, I believe this system is not much more than hype and will be easy to beat.

Ricoh Americas Corporation "Unfair to Dealers"?

I'm not one to whine and cry about missed sales, competition and saturated distribution. However, when I run across a quote from Ricoh Business Solutions that is simply outrageous it really gets my hair up.

The potential customer is in New Jersey (massive RBS stomping grounds), we always run into them and some times we win and most times we lose. Due to quotes like the one I'm going to tell you about!

This was not a competitive situation, the customer only had one quote on the table. I found out about the potential purchase through my Brother In Law who does business with this client for other services. When I arrived, the client handed the entire folder, in it were all of the previous bills for service and a copy of the current lease. There was also a quote from RBS for a C3500 with a cabinet. The cost per month for 60 months is $354.76.

Taking a deeper look at this. 354.75 brings back $18,380.08 based on a 60 month rate of .0193. We must then deduct the buy out of $4,754.10 and the cost to return, lets give the cost to return $300, so we have a total of $5054.10. Deducting this from the $18,380.08 leaves a sale for $13,325.90 (THIS i CAN LIVE WITH).

However the quote also includes 552,000 black prints with toner and all service. Let's give the cpp cost .01 (and that is on the lower end for this unit). We then have to deduct another $5,520 from the $13,325.90, this will then leave a sale price of $7,805.90. This is $543 over DMAP level one cost and also includes, delivery, training, cabinet and installation!

Now, I do not mind seeing this in a competitive quote, however with this deal this is the first quote the customer received! RBS was not the incumbent, and seems to be trying to buy business and hope that the customer will may color prints and or copies.

This is not the first quote nor the last that I will see like this, however does MSRP mean anything anymore, especially to RBS? What is the benefit of selling systems at DMAP Level One cost. Who wins (the customer & Ricoh Americas Corporation), who loses RBS? If they are buying at DMAP level 6, that leaves a 10% MU or a profit of $658, or are they buying less than DMAP Level 6. More and more it seems like dealers are subsidizing Direct Sales Operations.

We were told at Vision 2007 that there will be level playing fields for all, how the heck is this a level playing field, when the system is sold under our cost? And where the heck did salesmanship go, and the ability to provide a fair price along with great support.

For those that are interested I have a "Dealer Principal" only Forum now on the RFG P4P Hotel. I suggest you all band together and talk about strategies to help combat the direct channels in your market place.

If Copiers Could Talk?

Some of the stuff I have seen and heard over the years leads me to having these audio phrases loaded in copiers.

Here's a few that I would like to have.

1. Could you please get your butt off of me!

2. Everyone step away, whadda think I am, the water cooler!

3. Go ahead, kick me again and I'll send a virus to everyone in your LDAP directory!

4. Hello Cutie!

5. Hey You El Cheapo, how about give me the real stuff instead of this crappy generic toner!

6. I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so!

7. I really, really hope when you came outta there you washed your hand before you touch me!

8. Of course I'm jammed! You may want to think about reading the manual ONE TIME!!

9. I'm not feeling that well today and I will be taking the day off!

10. Psst! You the technician, can you convince the owners to let me retire!

Ah yes, the Multi-Functional Copiers seems to be the water cooler of the future.

I'm Listening, Are You?

How well do you listen to your customer?

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

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

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

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

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

What to Do?

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

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

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

-= Good Selling=-

Ricoh Agenda "What Happened"?

"A Driving Force" was the theme for Ricohs National Sales Meeting in Dallas, Texas.

First things first...my take on the meeting...curious, Ricoh was making every attempt to assure their dealers that they are their main concern and that there will be no more "new points" of distribution. They spoke about the consolidation of Lanier Direct to Ricoh Direct and also the merger of Lanier and Gestetner Dealers to for a new National Network that will distribute Lanier Branded Systems and Solutions.

I had the opportunity to speak to many dealer principals and sales people, some are not affected with the direct operations and most are, still the biggest complaint is how can Direct Branches sell for less than what Dealers are buying for!

Sam Ichioka called for a "Balance among all our Channels and Brands", I felt that he was referring to a level field of pricing for all. Tom Salierno, then explained about the dropping of the Gestetner brand name in lieu of Lanier and stated that Lanier had more than double the brand name of Lanier (Gee, wonder if I can buy the brand name of Gestetner and import MFP's from China and start my own business). At this point Tom then dropped the bombshell than Effective May 31st, 2007 that Global is no longer an Authorized Dealer for Ricoh and they are to be considered a competitor! Also stressed from Tom was equitable support for all brands and channels.

However, some of the scuttlebutt on the floor was that dealers that are affected by direct branches may band together to find out why dealers are losing business to direct branches. I agree, as a dealer rep, I see systems being sold for less than our max dealer cost, how is that and why is that? Maybe it's time Ricoh made the branches accountable for profit, seems to be dealers are subsidizing the Direct Branches. I could be wrong, however something is not right with the ship.

Moving on, I was very impressed with some of the new products to be delivered some time in the near future. A new C2000SPF, 20 ppm in color and monochrome, this will allow us to have a lower cost color mfp under the C2500spf (killer box). The new line of wide formats, a new 4ppm, new 6ppm and a printer only version (it's about time), all of the units will be equipped with an embedded control that will lower cost and improved print and copy quality that will improve halftones. A new 55ppm & 70ppm color MFP is coming to a location near you in the near future! I must have dozed off, because I can't remember the when this will be introduced (stayed out late the night before and had a few too many sarsaparilla's!)

Steve Berger's group will be launching two new websites, one called the "Jagged Edge" in reference to HP's Edgeline technology. I'm sure we'll have all of the guts and glory of this unit in the near future. Another site is "X marks the spot", you got it direct info to cut Big X down a notch or two.

Moving on there were three seminars: Differtiating Your Business in a New Era: The MFP as a Document Portal, New Products and Strategies: Expand your business....Grow MIF, Revenue and Profit, plus a seminar with @ Remote that seeing is believing.

In reference to the @ Remote seminar, a few people that I spoke to are still very skeptical of allowing all of the information to go to Ricoh servers first and then to the Dealers, Jayson just wanted to know who owns the information if you are getting @ Remote for FREE! My thoughts and his were it is our information, however he thought the idea of Ricoh knowing IP addresses and volume information was not the ideal situation.

All in all if I were to rate the show from start to finish on a scale of one to ten, I would have to rate this as a 4 (Hey, did I miss breakfast Friday morning!, where was it?). I have been at five agendas in the last eight years, and thought that Dallas was ok, the event at Cowboys Stadium was a wash out with he weather however we did get to meet Drew Pearson (#88) and the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, food was ok, however the event was cut short by early severe thunderstorm that rolled through about 7:30PM and delayed the transportation to the stadium. Once we got there, we had about two hours and then back to the Hotel. I was also disappointed that there were no regional meetings where we could all get together and review the regional awards and meet some of the other dealers in the region. Golf, Botanical Gardens, JFK Tour and Skeet shooting was the order of the day for Thursday afternoon, I opted out and took a ride to Plano, Texas to look at the new Samsung 45ppm box (I'll have more on that in a few days). The food was terrific and the accommodations were first class at the Hyatt. I guess I was hoping for a few more in depth seminars on how to develop some new sales strategies.

The expo was filled with almost 20 different vendors and count em, three different leasing companies. I saw the new 1180 fax, the new 45ppm and 55ppm AIO dedicated laser printers along with MONSTER MAYHEM! Steve Berger's group rocks and they have pulse of the competition! The info and they way they present it to reps is the best! Plus, get this we're going to "podcasts" for most of the products and the Mayhems in the future. My son, has and IPOD, and I guess I either be grabbing his or buying my own. Can't wait for the "podcasts" this will be the ultimate sales tool.

Well it's late still have to upload pictures to the RFG site, not tonight however.

Ricoh Vision 2007 "First Night"

What a town! The Hyatt Regency is my kinda place! Some interested items heard among dealers is that Global Dealers were univited from the show. I also had the chance to hook up with Drew (Mid South Digital), Jayson and Jason from A&B Business Systems. The National address is slated for 8:30AM and then followed by three break iout sessions and then the tech expo.

Again, Global has dominated most of the talks and what steps Ricoh is taking to counteract. Will report more tommorow.

Ricoh Vision 2007 @ Dallas, Texas

Well, I'll be on my way in the morning for Ricoh's Vision meeting for Ricoh Dealers, will try to get access every night to give a short report on what I heard and saw. Say tuned, and be sure to check in the next few days! Ricoh is Ichiban!

MFP Dealers "Seasons of Change"

The last eighteen months in the New York Metro Area has truly been a "Season of Changes" to remember!

Some of the acquisitions Connecticut Business Systems (Ricoh & Konica Minolta)bought by Global, Carr Business Systems (Canon, Ricoh & Konica Minolta)bought by Global, Stewart Industries (Savins largest Dealer in US) bought by Global, Copy Dynamics (Canon) bought by Stewart Industries (Global Owned), Northern Business Systems (Ricoh)bought by Toshiba, Lanier US now Ricoh Business Solutions and then all of Global purchased by Xerox WHEW!!!! All of these dealers have territories with in 100 miles of each other, it's the megalopolis of the NE and the greatest NOPA numbers in the US.

So, I'm sitting at my home office the other night and started to ponder on how the competition has changed. We'll it seems that most of the competition now is a "Direct Sales Force", as much as Global will say they are not direct how are they going to compete against a Xerox Direct Sales Force and on the other hand how am I going to compete against all of these organizations? Ricoh Direct Branch, Toshiba Direct Branch, Konica Minolta Direct Branch, Sharp Direct Branch, Xerox, hey what the heck happened to all of the Dealers?

I was on the phone today with a friend that is the Sales Manager at Sharp Investment Dealer today and we counted the dealers that were left that were doing about 5 million in sales volumes and not less 1 million, we could only think of 5! Just a few years ago there were 15 Dealers.

So, how do you compete? It's the basics, cold calling, mailing and the casual dropping to say hello to let the account know that you are available for them at any time and anywhere. Remembering that the customer is always right and as long as you believe and treat the customer that they are always right they will always buy from you again and again.

Thank God that Manufacturers Direct Branches have not found away to compensate the best sales people, if so we would all be working for them. Direct Sales Branches are too rigid in structure, too many layers of management, and takes months to implement changes. Guess that's why I like working for a smaller dealer, it is easy to make changes, and decisions can be made in minutes. If I had worked for a Direct Branch I would have not been able to watch all of my sons baseball games from Little League through college, would not have been able to take those long weekends and GOD bless cell phones take a couple of extra weeks of vacation each year (gee, hope my boss does not reads this, however I think he will, just kidding Jack!).

Well, it's off to Ricohs National Convention in Dallas, we see many friends there and will have a few things to say when I get back!

Why are MFP manufacturers not GREEN!

You've hear it over and over, it's all about capturing pages, especially in the SMB market place. So, why do MFP manufacturers like Canon, Xerox, Ricoh and Konica Minolta continue to manufacture stand alone laser printers that have a high per page cost with thier AIO cartdiges (All In One) and are not good for the environment?

Since I have sold Ricoh for so long, I'll start with a Ricoh MFP161, this unit can be purchased as just a copier, or fax/copier or a copier/printer/scanner/fax. This system also prints at 16 page per minute and can up to three paper source trays. Whats great about the MP161? The low cost of toner! The toner cost is .004 per page at retail. An Image Drum for the Ricoh MP161 is around $160 and has a yield of 45,000 pages which has a per page cost of .00355. Total per page cost at retail is around .00755. Oh, and by the way the toner cartridge is rated at 6% coverage.

Ricoh also sells the BP20 laser printer, which prints at 22 pages per minute, and can also have upto three paper sources. The Ricoh BP20 uses a AIO (All In One) cartridge that houses the toner and the drum. Retail cost for the cartridge is $124 and the yield is 5,000 pages based on 5% coverage. The retail cost per page is .0248 per page.

These numbers represent a savings of .01725 per page.

I realize that these per page costs do not include the fuser units, however I am going to give them a bye, because I think each one will negate the other. If the BP20 needs a fuser most customers will throw it (this really helps us GO GREEN) out because of the price and buy another printer, representing an increased cost to almost as much as the cost of the fuser replacement on the MP161.

Here's my spin for all of the MFP manufacturers, lets assume they all have the technology to implement a World Wide "GO GREEN" strategy. Take the existing MPF engine of the MP161 and sell it with out the scanning attachment (top part of the unit). Increase the print speed to 20 pages per minute or better. Hey, I'll be the first one to admit I have no clue what it costs to manufacture the MP161 engine or the BP20 laser printer. However if all of the manufacturers took the time to educate the buyers on Total Document Volume, Total Life Cycle Cost and the detrement to the enviroment from laser printers and AIO cartridges being discarded, they may have something.

I don't mean to rip one manufacturer with this, they all have the same philosphy in place when it comes to stand alone printers. I choose Ricoh products, becuase Ricoh is what I know best and believe they have excellent products. Canon, Xerox, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, anyone that is using AIO cartridges in stand alone laser printers is not helping us "Go GREEN", yes they all have recycling for the AIO cartidges, however at this time I do not believe any of them have a recycling for the laser printers nor their MFP's.

Will MFP's ever outsell standalone printers in this market?

On Demand "Boston" 2007 Review

Noreaster Steals the Show in Boston for On Demand 2007

Wind, Rain, Dreary and Damp weather cuts attendance at the show.



This was my fifth year attending the On Demand Show, twice in Phili and twice in New York City, the attendance is Boston was poor compared to having the shows in New York City. Get this...next year they are going to have the show the first week of March in Boston!! Who the heck wants to be in Boston the first week of March? I'll be in sunny Florida next year at that time and I will not have any regrets about not attending the show!

Most Interesting TechnologyThe worlds first duplexing duplicator from.... Ricoh, the DX 4640PD! Seeing is believing, the DX 4640PD was producing double sided (letter size) pages at 120 pages per minute! The technology is pretty interesting, both pages are scanned onto the 11x17 master, the paper then contacts one side of the master for the first image and then turns to make contact with the master again for the second image on the reverse side. The technology is the patented turn around system and roller that Ricoh developed. Great applications for church, associations and maybe Print4Pay market. The engine that they are using is the HQ7000, which is only capable of 400dpi printing, I would have rather seen this available at 600dpi for the Print4Pay market, however I think Ricoh can get more pages out of the association and churches markets than Print4Pay with the 400 dpi device. Print4Pay really needs a 600 dpi machine and the ability to produce 11x17 two sided.

Best Looking MFP KonicaMinolta's bixhub C550, 45 ppm color, 55 ppm mono, Biometric Authentic Technology that reads your finger vien to authenticate! Plus a snazy color swivel screen that seems easy to navigate. The KM rep told me that system is rated for 30% business color usage, plus I liked the idea of having large indicator lights when the paper trays were empty. Konica Minolta also showed a perfect binging system for their high end Pro series.

MX-M1100 from Sharp Hi speed digital MPF from Sharp, looked very similar to Ricoh's MP1350 and even had 11x17 large paper deck just like the Ricoh, the more I looked at it the more it looked like a direct copy of Ricohs MP1350, however it was not. One neat feature was the ability to plug in a usb drive for printing documents. The system was demoed to me, copy and print quality was very good, however one thing I noticed is that there was hardly anyone looking at this system.

Neat Stuff Panasonic showed a desktop scanner that was able to scan checks, documents and credit cards all in the same pass! NEAT!

Panasonic "Eye Candy" line of color MFP's the colors were cool, they had the yellow one on display and when looking at it I had the urge to build something. I think it reminded me of Stanley Tape measures. This system also had a usb port for file printing and image viewing, now that was pretty cool, I was able to plug my usb in, then all of my pictures were displayed on the color screen, from their I was able to select what I wanted to print and print them in a collated order. Very Nice!

What was Missing! HP EdgeLine, was no where to be found! They had brochures and that's about it. That was the biggest disappointment of the show, did you all know that the HP EdgeLine not have a "stress plate" for moving the system? How the heck are you going to get this up or down a flight of stairs? Since there is no "stress plate", you can not use a "stairclimber" Can you image trying to install or remove this system up and down a few flights of stairs!

Hey why don't they have this show in Orlando or Vegas in January! I'm sure the attendance would go way up!

SCOTTI, I NEED MORE SPEED!

I can remember Captian Kirk from Star Trek, always tell Scotti (Chief Engineer) that they always needed more speed to get out of a jam. Well, beleive or not RAM Logic, Inc., has the technology to increase speeds copy and prints speeds for multi functional copiers for the Ricoh Family Group.

Ram Logic offers two chips one that is compatible with Ricoh Aficio 1060, Gestetner 6002, Savin 2560, Lanier LD 160 (including sp versions)and the other is compatible with Ricoh Aficio 2051/2060, Gestetner Dsm651/660, Savin 4051/4060, Lanier LD151/160 (including sp versions).

I was at a meeting the other day for Ricoh and we were speaking about the MP9000, MP1100 and the MP1350 and how all these units are identical, except for the software (chip) that controls the spacing of sheets when running through the copier, if you decrease the gap or space between sheets the result would be a faster copier/printer.

Think of the upgrade possibilities for some of your existing accounts. You could call or visit and ask if they would like to increase the speed and productivy of their unit for only one dollar a day, turn all of the 55's to 75ppm devices. That's a 37% increase in speed!

When talking with Ram Logic, I understand that they are developing the technology for other RFG units as well. I would love to see one for the MP series of devices.

I love the idea and the marketing potential can be enormous, of course you'll have to get approval from Dealer Management and of course the manufacturer will not like it, there's a lot of smart people out their always thinking and it's people like RAM Logic that enable us to sell more solutions for the customer.

Just wish there was a way to beam the "off lease copiers" back to the leasing companies, now that would really be awesome! Here is Ram Logic web address www.ram-logic.com

Off to the SHOW at AIIM/On Demand

For the fifth year in a row, I will be attending the AIIM/On Demand Show. This years show is in Boston, MA. Products I looking to evaluate, HP's Edgeline CM8050/8060, Samsung's 6345N, a Ricoh Digital Duplicator (with duplexer), and then what ever tickles my fancy. I'm sure the buzz on the floor is going to be awesome with the recent bombshells that were launched this week and last week! I've hear that Konica Minolta may have been hit the hardest in the Xerox Buy of Global!

Will give you all a run down when I'm back in town

HP's Touted Edgeline MFP's "Ready to Rock"?

Information sure has been limited prior to the US launch of HP's CM8050 and CM8060, however isn't the Internet fantastic? I was able to download a brochure on the CM8050/8060 from HP's site in Singapore.

Truly, State of the Art Technology from HP......when it comes to ink technology! HP is claiming speeds of 71ppm for the 8060 and 57 ppm for the 8050. One phrase that always concerns me is this one "up to" , that's how the CM series is being marketing, with this phrase "delivers speeds at up to 71ppm for less complex documents". This sounds to me that this is a "draft mode" and in order to have better quality you will need to sacrifice speed, how much speed? I have no clue at this time. I will say if I am spending $15K plus on a machine, I do need to know what speed it will print my color documents at. Also, what constitutes a "complex document"? Is it MS Word, MS Publisher, Quark, Pagemaker, give me a little help when I'm reading the brochure.

I truly love the idea of a print head that does not move and the paper does, this is awesome technology. But, if HP is gonna play in the big boys back yard, why would they develop a system that can only handle a max 58lb stock? Canon has proved over the years that customers who buy color MFP's want thick media flexibility, plus the ability to duplex the thick media. Plus, how often do I have to replace the ink cartridges? Am I putting a gallon of ink in at a time, ya and you all thought gas was expensive!

When trying to get an idea of the cost per page on the CM series all I read is that the cost is "around" 25% less than color printers and then this disclaimer at the bottom of the document reads IDC Insight, “HP’s Edgeline Technology: HP Edges Ink into the Office”, 2006—”IDC estimates the colour cost per page of the Edgeline technology-based MFP will be about 25% less than the average colour cost per page of similarly featured colour laser MFPs from competing manufacturers”. Hey, I'm ok with this also as long as you can tell me what the average cost is, just seems like to much mumbo jumbo to me.

Some other items that I found is a 12 second FCOT (first copy), 1,500 Sheet of standard paper supply with three paper trays, an 80 sheet by-pass paper tray, plus a choice of three output devices. Oh, forgot this one, the CM8060/CM8050 weighs in at hefty 725LBS!!, with out accessories. It also seems that no booklet maker was designed for this system.

So, what does this mean for the other MFP manufacturers, Xerox, Ricoh, Canon, Kyocera Mita, Sharp and the others? I'm not sure.... I tend to think that HP will stay at home in the markets they already own, some aggressive dealers will branch out and take some business from the their rivals. To date I have not seen any prints from these units, nor the type of paper that it's printed on. I've heard that the color cpc will be at .03 cents and black at .01, that's very inexpensive for color and average for black. Good reps will put their heads together and find a way to sell against it for awhile, however it seems like ink technology is the future for hi speed color I will be in Boston later this month for the "On Demand Show" and hope HP will have the unit there.

See you in Boston!

Personal Desktop Scanners "Wave of the Future"?

A few months ago I was in a clients office doing an analysis for their printing needs in New Jersey. As I was going from office to office, I noticed that everyone had their own personal desktop scanners. This particular client had 12 Fugitsu ScanSnap S500's ($495 Retail)and all were connected locally via USB. As I made the rounds with the owner to each office, I was curious why the desktop scanners and not scanning from the MFP's, he stated that scanning at an MFP wastes time and productivity and for $500 each, he figured he was saving almost 20 hours a month of productivity! He also stated that all documents are scanned locally and then distributed or archived. I thought this was pretty neat idea and tucked it away in the ole memory banks. Just a few weeks ago doing another print analysis I again encountered 15 of the these scanners at another location, hmmmmmmm is this coincidence or a new fad.

Just yesterday one of my clients called me and asked me to quote on 6 desktop scanners similar to the Fugitsu, although he mentioned that he had seen the Canon DR2050c (Retail $695) and liked what he saw. Now this got my attention!

The Fugitsu Scan Snap S500 comes with a 50 page feeder, ABBY Fine Reader, USB 2.0, and scans at 36ppm in mono chrome and 18 ppm in color (150 dpi). Nice little box plus it is an upright scanner, the foot print is just under the size of a letter size piece of paper.

When comparing prices on the Internet, this are no margins, maybe $50 per box, however an solution like this may get you the MFP sales over someone else where scanning is an issue.

Keep it in your back pocket, I surely will.