Join me for the first “Business and Bourbon with Greg” at Vino, Etc. in Oconomowoc, Wi. on January 8th, 2020. Sampling starts at 6:30 and intermixed business conversations until 7:30.
We’ll drink bourbon and casually converse about your business and the application of technology. Specifically, I will introduce my latest project, “ArcDrive for the SMB”. ArcDrive is a computer solution designed to help businesses cross the digital divide.
The first year of appointments presents many challenges to the new copier rep, not the least of which is building knowledge and confidence. There are many aspects of sales to remember when meeting prospects for the first time, including building rapport, qualifying, informing, establishing trust and moving to the next step. But beyond all the sales techniques and training, when you’re meeting across a desk, coffee table or board room the best thing you can do is have a conversation. A simple, human to human conversation.
By now you know a copier is more than a copier — and a connected copier is capable of doing so much more.
In the early days, copiers simply copied. Output was the name of the game — that was it! Today our machines capture, ingest and scan almost as much — and in some cases more — than they produce. For you, the new copier rep, this may seem obvious. Document management has represented the future of the industry for over two decades.
Document management is a big subject, and I’ll try to explain it in general terms to help you understand the overall landscape. If your dealer has an application for document management, you will be trained in some manner on how to use and sell that specific solution.
The assessment is a foundational piece of the sales process and all dealers, resellers, manufacturers have a method, even if it is ad-hoc. I am not suggesting you substitute my outline below for your dealer’s approach; I’m simply relaying some of the steps I’ve seen performed by successful selling professionals around the globe.
Needs assessment versus sales assessment
There are two broad types of assessments: An assessment determining solution requirements and an assessment geared to reveal the likelihood of a sale.
For as long as I can remember, I've played this video on 9/11. Super Bowl 2002, months after the attack, our country was numb and jumpy.
Well before self-loathing Americans started calling our movements in the middle-east "invasion" and "occupation", patriotism was on every street corner.
I remember that night; I remember seeing it live. I can't tell you the football teams playing, but I can say it was one of the deepest, moving TV moments, ever.
U2 - that Irish rock band, stood on the world stage, honoring the greatest country on earth and her fallen citizens. Names float to the sky, as the rousing "Where the Streets Have No Name" beats on. The song, second of the half-time set, was written about a place without class stigma, where the distinction between religions and income is no more; a World Without Sin?
Bono ends the tune exposing the Stars and Stripes - Triumph.
Here we are, 15 years later - The Twin Towers, replaced by that defiant Freedom Tower, slip deeper into the fog with each passing 911. The threat remains the same, if not more pronounced.
Do you honestly feel safer now than you did that faithful day of empty skies, September 12, 2001?
Day of cogitation: What have we learned?
On this day of reflection, consider not only the ones who've helped you see who you are, but remember the hearts you've "imprinted"; son's, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends, lovers and ex-lovers, customers and co-workers.
Be gratified knowing you've changed somebody's life for the better - we all have.
Take time to remember those on the 98th floor, at 8:47 AM, sipping a Starbucks, considering a sales forecast or the regret of not saying "I love you, I always will..." on that morning, 14 years ago.
"I want to run
I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls
That hold me inside
I wanna reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name..."
I recommend going to YouTube and watch, the stupid #NFL won't let it be viewed anywhere else. What a world we have become.
"The convergence of human and machine, the biological and mechanical, is the result of a confluence of innovation, technology, and social flows destined from the beginning. This motion is unstoppable. Unstoppable. In addition to the high-thinking, man/machine convergence, we’re starting to see the impact of all things converging.
Consider the way connectivity, manufacturing, software development, business, society, and, yes, even managed print have converged into a borderless, almost transparent solution."
I postulated this idea back in 2013 over at the Imaging Channel,
Today, I'm promoting the idea of "The Converged Professional. (CP)
In what can only be described as the greatest personal appearance in the history of mankind, the folks who bring you #ArcDrive will be attending the Grand Slam event in New York city. That’s right, live and in person.
See the latest #ArcDrive devices. Wonder at the marvel that is #ArcDrive - RTS. Be amazed and stupefied as our crack team of workflow experts demonstrate how #ArcDrive - SCN and #ArcDrive - SX solve real-world problems for you and your SMB clients. Revel in the simple sophistication that is the #ArcDrive managed print services platform.
Talk with the creator of #ArcDrive as he shares his vision of the industry, OEMs, software conglomerates, the death of the copier, the rise of managed services and why ‘edge’ and ‘fog’ computing and the IoT is the future.
Caution: You will not find ‘booth-babes’, raffles, pens, beer-coozies, #ArcDrive frisbees, stress balls or swag of any type - I doubt we’ll even dole out ‘slicks’. Just relevant conversations and low-pressure, attraction-selling.
I remember one of the first MPS training sessions I sat in on, back in 2007. It was conducted by Steven Power. He admitted to taking his “how to sell copiers” material and molding the curriculum into “how to sell MPS.” Truthfully— and to his credit — the class could have been applied to ANY industry and type of B2B sales.
Which is why I paid attention and remember it to this day.
Since then, I’ve been a party to hundreds of different sales classes, seminars, and symposiums.
Something has been on my mind for a week or so regarding sales. (go figure)
The Free Trial.
Do you send a fully configured copier to a prospect as a trial? The practice was common back in the day and carried a close rate in the high nineties. I don't hear about trials all that much anymore - I mean, who hasn't seen how a copier works?
The other day, we had a request for a 'trial version' of #ArcDrive.
We won't do trials, we don't do trials. Why would you ask for one when the investment is less than 0.001 percent of your total revenue - why are you hesitating?
There are probably a few terms you hear thrown around these days in the copier industry: “Transformation,” “digitization” and “disruption” are common ones. Another one you’re probably starting to hear a lot more of is “convergence.”
Convergence has a few definitions, but the one most applicable to our industry is “the merging of distinct technologies, industries, or devices into a unified whole.”
August 1, 2019
Contact Greg Walters
262-370-4193 or greg@grwalters.com
Greg Walters, Inc. announces ArcDrive – RTS
Easily manage stand-alone output devices and support paper to digital workflows in a remote office/retail locations.
Oconomowoc, Wi. – Adding to the ArcDrive armada, Greg Walters, Inc. announces ArcDrive – RTS.
ArcDrive – RTS is a small device that connects, non-networked devices that support remote indexing and scanning.
Many organizations have remote offices or retail locations that may not be connected to a wide area network. Managing output devices and converting local documents into indexed, digital files from these locations can be costly and hardware intense.
The ArcDrive - RTS payload carries three components:
1. ArcDrive Browser Based Indexing (BBI) allows indexing with barcodes prior to scanning
2. ArcDrive On Demand Sync Folder (ODSF)
3. ArcDrive Data Collection Agent (DCA)
“ArcDrive - RTS brings innovation to the imaging channel by making it easier to monitor remote, stand-alone locations,” said Greg Walters, “ArcDrive - RTS is a front end for document capture and indexing. This is a great solution for remote office or retail locations.”
The ArcDrive models:
ArcDrive
Precision designed appliance supporting advance capture, and managed print services.
ArcDrive – SX
Precision designed appliance with advance capture, on-prem or cloud repository intelligent document workflow, and managed print services.
ArcDrive - RTS
Manage satellite offices, printers, and provide remote capture and indexing.
ArcDrive is easy to use, affordable and establishes providers as an integral part of their customers' business process.
Visit TheArcDrive.com or reach out directly at greg@grwalters.com.
I just attended the MPSA webinar, "MPS What Went Wrong?"
Gleaned Tidbits:
1. Comp plans helped kill MpS. It is more difficult to sell MpS when working within a copier-based comp plan. Why don't reps receive residuals on MpS contracts? If you say, "they'll stop selling..." you've got a hiring problem as well as an ineffective compensation plan.
2. Although there is a global decline in output, the panelists, are not seeing a big decrease in the SMB. Actually, some SMBs increase output with new MpS engagements.
3. Not much has changed since 2011. This is my personal observation. Although the panel consisted of some of the brightest minds in MpS, the subject matter was a product of some sort of time loop. We could have and may have, hosted an identical webinar back in 2012. What does this mean? It could reflect new players in the MpS realm or it could mean that few folks jumped on the MpS train back in 2009, or MpS is still elusive.
#ArcDrive has been alive for a month, launching June 6, 2019.
We planned on measuring interest after the first 30 days to gauge moving forward or if nobody responded, scraping the idea completely.
We did not expect to sell any units in the first 30 days for two reasons:
We didn't know if the concept of #ArcDrive would resonate
We did not have logo-plates designed or manufactured(no, really. We didn't want any #ArcDrives to go out without proper logo's)
The good news is, interest is going through the roof. But as you all know, 'interest' doesn't pay the internet bill, does it?
Some interesting process innovations, realizations, and milestones in the first 30 days of existence:
We've sold units.
Team ArcDrive is solidified and growing.
Thirty days ago, our innovation path included adding to the #ArcDrive payload in Q1, 2020. Instead, we're adding to the solution stack in Q4, 2019.
Interested dealers are nudging us into "up-scoping" #ArcDrive - so we've added an entire EDM module while maintaining affordability.
We've come to realize that our offering is a new category in the internet of things realm in both the 'fog' and 'edge' computing layer. (Google it)
Validation of #ArcDrive's supporting belief that "the big are getting bigger, pricing the independent dealers out of SMB advance capture/EDM solutions.' (Ricoh/DocuWare)
Validation that dealers and their sales team are comfortable talking about business solutions that reside on the physical plane, not the ethereal.
#ImagingChannel, wanna talk about sales training? I know you do...
#ArcDrive sales training is not about the product, our sales training is about solving business problems. Yes, I know that's what you tell the new copier salespeople but you still expect 2-15 units sales a month.
I know you've heard about solution selling for years; your OEM wants you to sell his equipment so he trains you about his embedded apps and calls it a 'solution' - but the great, big machine with tiny app's is not a solution, it is a boat anchor.
When the big document management companies train your sales team, is it a product show? - "this is how you index a document...this is how a workflow is designed...see how easy it is for us to read a hot folder..." or a "how to solve business problems" show?
Don't get me started on Managed print Services sales training - the mission and vision were lost back in 2010. ( https://lnkd.in/gaByXsG )
Because #ArcDrive converges multiple disciplines, our sales training process is not about "keystrokes" it is about selling answers to real business problems.
Owners, do you understand? Do you have the eyes to see the #ArcDrive difference?
I've been kicking around ideas for a response to the Ricoh/DocuWare situation which is similar to the DEX/Staples maneuver, which is like the PrintFleet/FMAudit/PrintAudit/ECi thing, which smells like the Kyocera/DataBank(OnBase) that reminds me of the Ricoh/Ikon and HP/Samsung spectacles.
Lot's of copiers dying out there.
I know dealers that sell DocuWare, but are HUGE KM providers. Huh, how's it feel knowing your DocuWare clients woke up one morning as Ricoh customers? Yeah, hurry up and become a Ricoh reseller. Really?
Is your prospect an OnBase candidate? No problem, just forward the company name, and contact information over to your OEM, they'll qualify, design a solution, present, close and send your pittance. Congratulations, you are now a sales force for your OEM. Resistance is futile.
Do you like your DCA? How are those Windows updates working for you? And didn't somebody, somewhere say, "nothing will change". How's that rate increase feel? No biggie, just switch to one of the other DCA's. Oh...yeah...nevermind.
Art Post was one of the first people out on the internet, writing and posting content around copiers and copier sales. His site, P4P Hotel is an industry standard. It is always fun to catch up with Art and talk about the old days. I am thankful for his friendship over the years and honored by his interest and this interview.
###
If you follow industry press releases like me then you're aware that the King of MPS aka Greg Walters recently released his Arc Drive. Yes, I was curious as to what is the Arc Drive and what does it do?
A few nights ago Greg and chatted about Arc Drive and below is how our chat went.
Art: Hey Greg, okay first question for you, where the heck is Oconomowoc, Wisconsin?
Greg: It’s in between Madison and Milwaukee in lake country. A quaint town, there are 12 bars within a square mile or so. I occasionally write about the town, https://ocondomowoc.com/
Art: Is an Indian word that’s used for your town?
Greg: Yes, that’s right.
Art: Do you know what that translates to in English, I’m betting it means land of managed print, right?
We’ve conducted multiple demonstrations (an average of three per day since the rollout).
We’ve had interest from all over the country and across the globe (Dublin, South Africa, and Namibia).
Although not all meetings and discussions were perfect, overall feedback is very impressive. Just like you, I ask a few assessment questions at the beginning of a discussion.
This is a sample of what dealers are saying at the very beginning of our meetings:
"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them -- because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, -- are the ones who do."
Oconomowoc, Wi. – Greg Walters Inc. today launched a new entry into the office technology channel that will revolutionize the MPS market for the independent dealer channel. ArcDrive is a self-contained, converged solution stack that will allow vendors to initiate or build out managed print services (MPS) engagements.
A cutting-edge appliance embedded with advanced capture, intelligent workflow, data collection, remote monitoring and automatic supplies fulfillment software, ArcDrive is a small box that can be attached to a network or used as a standalone workstation and provides SharePoint or hybrid storage on the device or through the cloud.
“Since 2009, I’ve promoted managed print services as a bridge to managed IT and, ultimately, managing the Internet of Things,” said Greg Walters, the creator of ArcDrive. “I believe MPS, electronic document management (EDM) and IT asset management should be under one umbrella. ArcDrive is the realization of this concept. All the tools that you typically think of with an entry-level document management system and MPS program are embedded on this device.”
"Today, our industry is transforming like never before. Independent dealers are joining together to form large networks, OEMs are shifting go-to-market strategies, software companies are converging,” said Walters. “ArcDrive will help independent dealers protect their base, establish new income streams and increase monthly recurring revenue.”
ArcDrive is available today with MPS, advanced capture and intelligent workflow software. Future releases will incorporate network probe, RFID, ITIL real-time asset management and a single-pane interface.
Greg Walters is available for media interviews. He can be reached at greg@grwalters.com For more information, visit TheArcDrive.com.
"Why did you choose June 6th as your announcement day?" "Because without D-Day, there would be no ArcDrive."
I mean it.
D-Day turned the tide. From that day till the end of the war, the Nazi's were in retreat, receding across Europe, all the way back to the heart of Germany.
Easy Company, Eagle's Nest.
If Hitler had defeated US and allied forces, the world would have gone off the rails into a completely different direction - we wouldn't be who we are today.
To some, 75 years seems so far away. Times change, technology marches, but people never really change - good and bad.
Remember configuring the first #copier, late at night for a morning delivery? Staying up past midnight, attaching the finisher, paper drawers, ADF, and large capacity paper tray?
Remember the first time you forgot to order a stair climber or tile protection? How about the time you used the forklift to deliver an Oce up to the second floor?
Did your heart sink when that toner spilled out on the floor during your demo?
You fell in love with it, all of it. You fell in love with watching your employees and customers evolve. Memories of the small office Christmas parties, new babies, and hiring your nephew, still warms your heart.
Your vision, your idea, your business. Partnering with hardware vendors who worked with and valued your relationship.
It's easy to say those days are long gone - one time partners are wily competitors, rivals have turned into arch enemies and the elusive client doesn't fall for stunts, techniques or bloated copier deals.
It's tough.
"The first rule of flying? Love. Love keeps her in the air when she outta fall down..."
Love what you do, again. Love bringing your customers something new, shiny, again.
It's called #ArcDrive and it's new, fun, easy, familiar, sophisticated and for you.
There is this place, a special place, a man-made nexus in Southern California called The Wedge.
Locals know. Tourists rarely get there. A point where waves come in two directions and converge with outgoing flows to create large waves very close to shore.
Bodyboards are the safest, but surfer dudes can't pass up storm-induced sets. People have died here. For a summer, I lived on Balboa, the Wedge was within walking distance away. #Turbulance and #Convergence are natural and man-influenced phenomena. At the time, I didn't realize the significance; only today do I recognize the simile:
The dealer channel is in the middle of the maelstrom and has always surfed the Wedge. 55-degree saltwater, ears full of sand, and the possibility of ultimate elimination do not stop you.
You hit the sets every, single morning. Who is there with you? Does your body-board manufacturer tell you how to set up for a wave? Are your board shorts too tight or heaven forbid, too loose?
I'd never heard of Keap.com but the video caught my eye.
Whoever produced this hit the nail on the head for the SMB. The Keap offering is a #Converged solution stack of services on one platform. Designed to help businesses stay in business, the accompanying script is full of doubter cliches.
QUOTES WE'VE ALL HEARD:
"Hey, listen. Maybe owning a business is too much to handle right now."
"You gave up a steady paycheck to chase this dream. Maybe it's not worth it."
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find new clients these days?"
"It's great that you took the risk but it's time to admit it's not working."
"I know you're passionate about this...I know you gave it your best shot but maybe it's time...to get a real job."
Once, long ago, “managed print services” (MPS) was considered an outlier, something in which only the fringe of our industry would participate. Today, you’ll see an MPS offering on every website and run into clients who know all about the various programs. What’s more, the realm is chock full of managed print content and training sessions, so, for now, I’ll just give an elementary description of today’s managed print services sales.
Let’s start with a quick definition of managed print services from the Managed Print Services Association:
“The active management and optimization of business processes related to documents and information, including input and output devices.”
I was digging around some old stuff when I ran across this interview. This was written and aired back in 2011 on the old "The Imaging Channel" website. Cracks me up! ###
Most of us know Greg Walters … or at least we know a little bit about him. We’re familiar with his blog, The Death of the Copier (DOTC), and the scantily clad ladies of said blog. We recognize his bandana and Harley Davidson. We know he’s opinionated and passionate about MPS. But we here at TIC Talk wanted to know more …
TIC: Do you have a “real” job? If so, what is it?
Greg: Yes, I have a “real” job as the MPS Practice Manager at SIGMAnet, a 25-year-old, West Coast VAR.
The viticultural libation is as timeless as love and life. The Romans did it. Indeed, Roman soldiers were required to drink a minimum of one liter of wine per day. The Greeks invented the god of wine, Dionysus and Jesus made wine from water.
Like water, wine is a global constant and the altered consciousness achieved by consumption has been considered religious since its origin. I think the mass consumption of wine traces back to medieval urban areas and the lack of clean water.
Managed services is referred to by various names — managed IT services, managed network services, MNS, etc. But no matter what you know it as, managed services is the hottest thing since managed print services.
As a new copier rep, you may not initially hear much about managed services, but it is the next evolutionary step in the copier industry. The industry has developed repeatable revenue models around hardware, and for those who wish to survive, we’ll shift this model into different areas, or “anything as a service” (XaaS). Down the street copier reps should get familiar with MS basics.
Let’s start with a definition of managed services. According to Wikipedia, managed services is “the practice of outsourcing on a proactive basis certain processes and functions intended to improve operations and cut expenses. It is an alternative to the break/fix or on-demand outsourcing model where the service provider performs on-demand services and bills the customer only for the work done.”
Back in my IKON daze (pun intended), one of the best sales managers I ever worked with told me, “Sometimes we overcomplicate things. It’s just copiers.” He was referring to an inability to close any deal that included EDM in less than 90 days.
He was right. We often did overcomplicate transactions beyond lease payments and cost per image in an effort to branch out into more “sophisticated” imaging subject matter, adding value and becoming a “trusted advisor.”
"Reversing deforestation is complicated; planting a tree is simple."
- Martin O'Malley
Did the discussion of document management enhance our ability to close a five-person church? No.
Did talking about moving from printed pick-lists to digital images elevate the discussion, enhance our position and add 120 days to the selling cycle? You betcha.
But the point still holds. Overcomplicating transactions by...
To be aged in bourbon barrels is the ‘hot’ thing in libation. From tequila to Worcestershire sauce, the finishing qualities of used bourbon barrels permeate a plethora of consumables.
But why and how did this ‘fad’ take off?
First, aging in used barrels is not new. Indeed, the practice of reusing casks goes back millennia.
Contemporary usage owes to these basic influences:
Thousands of small satellites, circling the globe maintaining geosynchronous orbit. Quarter sized thrusters hold these nano-boxes in place. Engineered like microchips, one thruster contains a grid of 500 needles — each a solar powered, custom-built nozzle generating ion sprays.
Not science fiction.
"CubeSats" are small ( 4 in × 4 in × 4 in) satellites, launched in space, in a low-Earth orbit - as of January, 2019, there have been 1,000 cubesats launched.
These devices are cheap and with newly developed 'fusion engines', they have the ability to remain in place or move to a different location. Applications range from communications to giant, space-born, billboard signs.
The copier industry was the vanguard of connected devices(M2M) and we should be looking for future avenues of growth.
Imagine 5 or 6 or 7G connectivity speeds running on a mesh of cubesats. Imagine all things connected; plants, paint, elevators, RFID, CCTV, and yes, even one or two remaining photocopiers.
Perhaps the Internet of Space is hyperbole.
I'm sure there were doubters and naysayers when the first copier connected to a thing called the "network". Either way, is connectivity the 'manifest destiny' of our time?
"Manifest Destiny held that the United States was destined—by God, its advocates believed—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent." - History Channel
Today, every dealer is looking for a way to deal with a declining industry by offering new services, or through merger or acquisition, and when it comes to attracting outside funding or merger candidates, the window is closing.
And that’s OK; it is the way of things.
Here are some ideas for a newbie to copier sales:
“Ignorance is bliss”
I’m not recommending you shove your head in the sand and ignore the reality that is the copier industry circa 2019 — we are ALL experiencing external pressures on our everyday lives. Focusing on what we can influence, like cold calls and presentations, has always been the best approach. Go about your routines and keep an ear to the ground. Establish a network of contacts inside and outside the industry and always be improving your personal business acumen. If you are working for a family-owned dealership but are not in the family, keep your options open.
“Business as usual”
Staff reductions and reduced real-estate footprints are frequent. Smaller dealers are being gobbled up by bigger organizations every day. Still, the standard press release after a merger or acquisition relates something along the lines of, “We look forward to offering our clients exceptional service during this transition,” which is a true statement. But looking back in time, it’s easy to find examples of mergers and acquisitions initially removing redundant functions, then ultimately reducing costs through staff write-downs; it is a consistent formula.
Concentrate on your 30-day cycle — that’s the best thing to do. Keep the sales coming in, and maintain your personal standing. But don’t stop there. Build out your LinkedIn presence and be more than just a lurker.
Contribute on social media without being a sycophant, and crystalize your personal brand, not your current employer.
“Will I have a job 12 months from now?”
In copier sales there is a magical milestone: to see if you can make it through the first 12 months of your copier sales career. So make it through. Sell stuff while learning your business processes and client digital transformation experiences. Work with your...
One of the milestones of moving from a newbie to a seasoned veteran is your ability to present yourself as a colleague to your prospects. One catchphrase I’m sure you’re hearing is “consultative selling.” The phrase is a bit disingenuous as it refers to giving prospects advice on how to best utilize your offering when solving business problems.
Indeed, consultants (i.e. advisors) receive compensation for knowledge shared, not the number of devices placed. The word “consultant” infers an air of neutrality without bias. You are advising. A sales manager, on the other hand, is extremely biased — there’s no neutrality in sales.
The best way to gain your prospect’s trust is to offer advice without expectations. For instance, when a prospect has an issue with their fleet of trucks, selling them a 50 ppm device isn’t going to help them get the oil changed.
On the other hand, because you’ve been asking all your other clients and prospects about their businesses, and you know one of your contacts repairs trucks for a living — and is good at it— you can simply forward their contact information to the prospect in need. Do things like this without expecting a payback, and you’ll be on your way to being seen as a trusted advisor in no time.
The concept is simple, but there are many characteristics to consider when becoming an advisor. Here are three of the most important:
Every show or conference is a logistics nightmare - from booth set-up and break-down to hotel rooms, flights and presentation equipment, wether you're speaking, attending or managing the show - the undertaking is huge.
Cudo's out to the conference management team; I'm sure the show will be everything expected, and more.
Here are my Seven Reasons to attend ITEX 2019:
Ray Stasieczko - pitching his transformation group
Greg VanDeWalker - from MPS to MS, this guy knows how to finance in both niches
David Ramos - opinionated, seasoned industry sage, David has the data
Patricia Ames - from the very beginning, Patricia has been there, seen that, wrote the article
Randy Dazo - another data-miner, and industry pundit
Kevin DeYoung - real-world, MPS first adapter, Kevin burns the ships on the beach
Jerry Newberry - cost data from the beginning of time, presented for easy consumption
Seven speakers I am familiar, have heard speak and regard highly. If you're going, make sure to catch their sessions.
The other day, I was speaking with a few colleagues when one asked, "Greg, are you going to ITEX this year?"
Another theme in the recent "sales revolution" is "differentiation".
I remember back in the olden days of sales, whenever a trainer would ask a new sales rep, "What makes your company different from your competitors?" undoubtably, the newbie would spit out, "My company has me as your sales person. The biggest difference between my company and my competitors is Me!"
Back then, this response was a major Fail.
Irony -
Today, building your personal brand is more important than building your employer's brand. Today, when you become an "expert in your field" YOU add value to your employer.
So, if every other sales rep become more authentic, more serving, and less speeds and feeds oriented, one day, everyone will still be saying the same thing in the same manner.
For the ultimate diversification, I go back to acquiring Business Acumen. Acumen cannot be commoditized - your specific history, the path you've traveled while acquiring knowledge is yours and yours alone.
Do this:
Learn from all your prospects
Read general business books
Study impact of technology on your dealership
If you haven't started acquiring knowledge, get to it, today.
I've been a party to a few discussions regarding the consolidation currently underway in our little niche and the mention of Managed Print Services surprised me. Specifically, how MPS is so attractive when it comes to outside money and the future.
HP mentioned MPS as a foundational pillar in their future - as a matter of fact - HP is looking to transition transactional supplies into contractual relationships; Managed Print Services.(Who woulda thunk?)
Staples undoubtedly understands the value of acquiring an entity transformed from transactional to contractual.
“Business acumen” (BA) selling is what your prospects want today.
You’ve heard them all:
“Tell a story.”
“Use LinkedIn.”
“Sell the sizzle.”
“Sell our solutions.”
“Cold calling works.”
“It’s a numbers game.”
“Put that coffee down.”
“Email follow-up works.”
“Sell on social networks.”
“Research your prospects.”
“Reach the decision maker.”
“Present like a professional.”
“Increase your efforts by 10.”
“Become the trusted advisor.”
“Develop your personal brand.”
“Learn how to demo your devices.”
“Enhance the customer experience.”
“Probe for weaknesses, confirm, trial close, handle objections and present our solution.”
As a new copier rep, you’ll be forced to endure hours of being taught every selling technique ever created. You may find them new, but these schemes are timeless; repeated through the eons. And that is the problem. These standards are not nostalgic or even proven — they are old-fashioned. Prospects today learn product details without attending manufacturer-sponsored classes. The basic elements of a sale remain the same: We exchange value for the value given. This will never change. What has transformed is the volume of relevant information available to your prospects.
Sure, to be successful you’ve got to understand your product. But viewing your clients’ businesses holistically and effectively communicating your real-world understanding of them is the way forward. The future is business acumen selling.
This is a high-end concept, and it becomes more relevant every day. As prospects gain knowledge, the typical salesperson degrades in value.
So don’t be typical.
Knowing good business practices, basic operational procedures and... read the rest here.
Visit Vino Etc., in downtown Oconomowoc(a.k.a, The Five O’s, O to the 5th, Ocondomowoc) and you’ll find more than an unpretentious selection of wine.
You’ll discover over 45 different bourbons.
Whiskey picks up more flavor from the wood, and the salt air is breathed in by the barrel, giving a slightly salty taste. Additionally, each voyage turns out a unique taste profile - imagine the difference in weather, ocean motion, and overall environmental influence from one trip to a trip.
Top left is Jefferson Ocean - bourbon aged at sea. I know you might be thinking, ‘aging bourbon on a ship is a marketing ploy.' But it's not, it isn’t even original.
U2 - that Irish rock band, stood on the world stage, honoring the greatest country on earth and her fallen citizens. Names float to the sky, as the rousing "Where the Streets Have No Name" beats on. The song, second of the half-time set, was written about a place without class stigma, where the distinction between religions and income is no more; a World Without Sin?
