Advice for New Copier Sales Reps: Evolving Into a Peer

A catchphrase you are going to hear a lot in the sales field is “trusted advisor.”

This cliché is thrown around like it is a simple thing to acquire; as if introducing yourself as a “trusted advisor” is enough. What does that mean and what does it take to be a trusted advisor? It takes time in front of as many prospects as possible.

I’ve seen the best salespeople establish themselves as a trusted advisor early in the relationship by standing shoulder to shoulder with each prospect. These professionals achieve a higher level in less than 10 minutes by illustrating three components:

1. Respect
2. Empathy
3. Wisdom

These are simple ideas with significant impact. Here are some pointers: Read the Rest Here.

Who Helps You Reduce Costs? Copier sales people, managed IT folks, or Advisors?

Who will give you a leg up?

"You will never print another document ever again.”

I know you still have printers and copiers. But I know you’re not printing or copying like you had three years ago. If you’ve made business process optimization an initiative, then you know what I mean. I’ve also found that companies with no ‘green’ or digitization plan, have naturally reduced print. Some telling me, ‘we just don’t print anymore’. I also know players like Xerox, Ricoh, and Lexmark are experiencing great consolidation, and paper plants have shuttered across country. Indeed, from the WSJ, 1/2018-

"One of Xerox’s problems is that it has been broken into two pieces. A year ago, Conduent Inc. (NYSE: CNDT) was spun out. It describes itself as a “business process services” company, which makes it more of a consultancy than a seller of hardware. Xerox retained the hardware business, which sells products that may have been useful to businesses a decade ago but are no longer.”

Customers around the world, are organically reducing devices, copies and prints needed to conduct business- this has been going on for years. For companies like Xerox and Ricoh, whose primary revenue stream is generated with each sheet of marked paper, this is a formidable challenge. And like every shrinking industry before it, the copier niche is not going quietly into the night. For those of you left looking for a copier, it might the best time to work your provider for better pricing - just wait until the 25th of the month - everyone is scrambling and competing for a slice of a shrinking pie.

In the face of this turbulence, photocopier manufacturers and independent dealers are responding in one of three ways -

1. Selling themselves as a "document consultant” and trusted advisor, promising to help you manage your decreased reliance on print.
2. Selling to a larger dealer or manufacturer in an effort to cash out and retire.
3. Shifting away from copiers and printers to markets like IT services, water or energy management.

As you explore new ways to eliminate cost, you may fall within one of these stages:

1. You’ve implemented cost reduction program successfully and want to expand
2. You’ve implemented a failed program
3. You have no visibility into total costs

In each case, starting a study, correcting a misaligned program or continuing to reduce costs, you have three sources of partners:

1. IT providers(including your internal IT)- primarily supporting IT infrastructure
2. Copier/Print supplier & MpS Providers - hardware and software vendor within the copier/printer industry either through direct or indirect channels
3. Professional IT advisors - organizations who derive revenue through sharing subject matter expertise and managing change

No matter who you choose to partner, you should consider three important aspects of each:

* Agenda vs. intent
* Knowledge vs. Wisdom
* Neutrality vs. Bias

Let’s take a look at each:

IT Provider -

Agenda: To support organizational technology infrastructure
Intent: To transform with as little negative impact to end user environment

Knowledge: Deep ‘specification’ knowledge.
Wisdom: Experience and a varied history of supporting IT infrastructure in different types of organizations may give rise to wisdom or business acumen, but this is rare.

Neutrality: Not very. Comfortable with manufacturers they have a history with; CISCO, IBM, DELL and HP, etc.
Bias: To what’s been proven in the past or passes a proof-of-concept.

Copier/Printer supplier -

Agenda: to move opportunities to a close and their intent is to sell more devices/clicks.
Intent: Transform with as little negative impact to end user environment.

Knowledge: Deep ‘specification/machine’ knowledge. May posses basic scanning and onboard application knowledge.
Wisdom: Very little business acumen. Fresh sales professionals lack experience in varied customer, business models. Seasoned profess

Neutrality: Claimed yet impossible, therefore a lie.
Bias: Toward a solution that include's hardware sold.

Professional Advisor -

Agenda: Help client achieve business goals.
Intent: Establish an ongoing relationship.

Knowledge: Business acumen and technical prowess beyond the scope of the project.
Wisdom: Experience over time with many environments and business models.

Neutrality: Completely neutral and open to continuous evaluation of new solutions.
Bias: Toward a solution that supports the client business goals.

Conclusion -

Economic pressures on providers of equipment is severe. Machines are becoming more self-sufficient and easier to manage remotely, business requirements are changing from paper flow to digital flow. Even if your printing less than 500 images a week, you are a prime prospect for the remaining copier vendors - your company is guaranteed to be on some copier rep’s cold call list. There is no shortage of cost reducing value propositions, white papers and marketing material.

Continuously reducing costs associated with output is an internal function - asking teams of folks motivated to sell more devices to help you reduce the number of devices is counter intuitive - a provider with show rooms full of equipment pitching themselves as an “agnostic, trusted advisor” is disingenuous.

So who do you turn to? There are a thousand copier dealerships, hundreds of MSP’s and maybe a dozen proven, reliable and seasoned advisors. Of course, if you can find a good advisor, with an open calendar, I recommend engaging - but the odds are forever in the copier companies favor - it is simply math.

Here’s a quick recommendation:

If you currently support 1-20 devices, copier dealer and MSP
If you currently support 50-100 devices, MSP with Advisor
If you currently support over 100 devices, exclusively work with an Advisor who manages an optimized portfolio of suppliers and software providers.

New to Copier Sales: Evolving Into an Advisor

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:

Read the rest here.

New to Copier Sales: The No. 1 Characteristic You Must Own to Thrive Post COVID-19

For decades, salespeople have been told to sell strategically, become a consultant and trusted advisors, and stand with the prospect, establishing a bond and building rapport. 

We were told to ask open-ended questions and probe to find the pain — and once the pain is agreed upon, monetize and magnify that pain. We’re guiding the prospect through the sales cycle, we were told – if by “guiding,” you mean prodding, cajoling, removing obstacles, and ultimately getting money to move from your prospect’s pocket into yours. 

Those were the days. Back in 2019, prospects began to walk the sales journey solo, at their pace. Some studies show prospects completing 80% of the decision-making process without a “salesperson/trusted advisor/consultant/solutionist.” Salespeople are no longer the keepers of information. Indeed, product knowledge is blasé. 

Today, in the era of COVID-19, it is easier than ever to purchase solutions without a selling professional’s assistance – we do not hold dominion over information. We can no longer be a walking, talking spec sheet. 

So how do we proceed? 

Face-to-face meetings are a rarity, fear, uncertainty, and doubt are the norm and the internet...

Read the rest, here.

The #SalesRevolutionRebellion Is a Farce

The fake "sales revolution" attacks symptoms, not the cause.

"Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell. They're all just spokes on a wheel. This one's on top, then that one's on top. And on and on it spins, crushing those on the ground."

Rebels and Revolutions - 

When individuals declare independence from tyranny, they put their lives, and the lives of their families on the line, risking everything for revolution, for future generations' independence.

For freedom.

Today, there's talk of a "Sales Revolution". Insurgents take to the nearest pulpit espousing "changing the way sales is done..." by being open, real, authentic, a trusted advisor, partnering to solve client problems - not a con man.  Noble efforts.

For them, it's not nine to five; it's always too always, elevator pitches, value propositions, and increasing effort 10 fold.

There are literally THOUSANDS of sales coaches and trainers in the world today.

Here are a few of the folks I respect and follow. Some are calling for sales a "revolution".  A few pitch themselves as 'rebels', "Leading the Sales Revolution":

• Copier guy turned trainer, Rick Lambert
• Marketer and builder of websites, Darrell Amy
• H8r of the empty leisure suit, Larry Levin
• That 10x dude,  Grant Cardone
• The Warrior of Copiers, Dale Dupree
• Passionate sales pontificator, Keenan

All are passionate and committed to their specialty contributing great content to the realm.

But -

EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF SELLING ADVICE IS MISSING THE POINT.

I'm not recommending the current sales training and consulting efforts are not valid.  I'm just saying there is so much more that can be done to 'save the industry'.

Of Smoke and Ice -

"Speeds, Feeds, Quota's, Commissions, Solutions. They're all just spokes on a wheel. This one's on top, then that one's on top. And on and on it spins, crushing those on the ground."

The sales revolution is an insidious movement because it is based on truth. Bad sales skills, low motivation, poor relationship building, aggressive attitudes, boring pitches, tedious corporate introductions, and unoriginal talk tracks, are real, yet each a  SYMPTOM of the sickness, not the cause -  - indeed, going to war against "bad selling practices" amounts to self-hate.

We're revolting against the wrong enemy.

The Real Monster -

"Xerox, Canon, Ricoh, HP, Lexmark. They're all just spokes on a wheel. This one's on top, then that one's on top. And on and on it spins, crushing those on the ground."

The idea is simple, the mission tragic - manufacturers' selling models must be taken down, defeated.  While we fight among ourselves over who can save selling, the real archenemy plods forward, assimilating more and more into its ranks.

Break The Wheel

WE DON'T NEED A SALES TRAINING REVOLUTION, WE NEED A REVOLUTION AGAINST THE ESTABLISHMENT.

It's the OEMs who push equipment quotas down the channel, and not just copier OEMs - every manufacturer has the same, Materials Resource Planning (MRP) based systems.

The model utilizes the following:

• MRP based quotas
• "Fear Uncertainty and Doubt"
• Purposely confusing and ever-shifting, commission plans
• "Kill it and Grill it" mentality
• Adversarial Selling construct 
• "Where there is a mystery, there is margin"
• "67% of salespeople do not reach quota"
• Features and benefits of training
• Solution Selling
• Sales Techniques...

A real Revolution(with a capital R) doesn't attack the symptoms, it takes on the creators of the Wheel. The hierarchies are organically crumbling, digitally transforming - gravity is drawing the towers down, but they fight.

As long as we continue to harp on old-fashioned ideas, as long as we concentrate on "new", non-standard training topics, we keep the chaos going - and that's just fine with the zombie kings. The dusted-off,  selling retreads are like 'opiates for the masses' keeping the "little people" hypnotized in their insecurities.

Do you want to lead a true revolution?  Then revolt against:

• Stodgy commission structures
• Outdated quota schemes
• Product-based, solution selling
• OEM dogma

Are you a self-proclaimed leader of the revolution?  Then:

• Produce videos telling the establishment to stop pushing old-fashioned ideas and programs.
• Write articles outlining the challenges of terrible infrastructure and processes.
• Establish standard, salary influencing, and sales training certifications.

Embark on the battle between independent selling professionals and corporate structures - it is time.

Unfortunately,  this two-dimensional skirmish is nothing compared to what's coming.  The next titan of turbulence holds enough power to wash away 50% of the sales universe.

Over Complicating Workflow… Again.

2013, Workflow

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...

Read the rest, here.

The Resurgence of Managed Print Services: A New Dawn?

I've been asking this for over a year now, "Is MpS is back?"

Surprisingly, dealers and salespeople have been telling me their Prospects are asking for managed print services. Prospects have a definition of managed print services, see a need and are actively seeking out providers.  

Not like the old days.

MPS is not merely surviving; it's thriving and adapting in ways that promise a brighter, more efficient future for businesses worldwide.

#SolutionSelling is Dead

“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.”

It’s all standard sales jargon — beware the cliché.

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.

AI Will Replace Millions of Sales Professionals: "Anyone Telling You Different, Is Selling Something"*

Sidebar: AI will first eliminate Purchasing Agents.

Greg's Words:

One day, much sooner than you can imagine, your past prospects will incorporate an AI Agent to help them, "...optimize their existing business processes and workflows..."

One day, much sooner than you can imagine, your past prospects will build their own "...trusted advisor..."

One day, much sooner than you can imagine, your prospects will revel in experiencing sales without ever speaking to or meeting with You.

One day, much sooner than you can imagine, organizations that build technology solutions, hardware, software, consulting and advisory services will incorporate an AI Agent to communicate and manage, "...the customer experience and selling journey..."

One day, much sooner than you can imagine, providers of IT and Office Technology will have a team of AI Selling Professionals who work 24/7, never get sick, never get emotional, and exceed quota, every single month.  

Over time, quotas will go the way of the typewriter.

Can We Get Rid of Quotas?

The selling profession after Covid19: 

"We have to start doing what was said we were doing but never did."

We're all talking about the "new" ways to sell.  

Covid19 is forcing galactic shifts in the way we do business; from the back-office to the sales trenches. What I find striking is the more we talk about what needs to be done in a post Covid19 sales engagement, the more we find the basic selling skills apply more than ever.

Here are a few of the concepts and skills presented over the decades regarding sales and selling:

• Build Trust
• Attract Like-Minded Prospects
• Consult
• Be the Trusted advisor
• Increase Your Business Acumen

The books, lectures, and classes of the past decades all told us to be more a consultant and experts in our industry. Lately, in the last decade, salespeople have been told to become thought leaders, create content, find a 'good match', and help the prospect in their purchasing journey.

We've been saying it for decades.  These are basic skills. Now is the time to ACTUALLY do what we have been saying we do.  Engage the basics, and get to the root of the art of selling.  Once we do this, virtual selling will return to 'Selling'.

Three Tips on Moving From Transactional to Value Add

My niece, Ft. Meyers, FL. Greg Walters, Director.

Moving from transactional to value-add, isn't all that impressive, but it is a start.  Also, for some business models, transactional selling is perfect - think paperclips, pencils and lightbulbs.

"Value Add" is not that much more evolved than "Transactional.  In the beginning, "value-add"  referred to adding services for 'free'.  The theory at the time was that the gross profit in each equipment sale was healthy enough to support the costs involved with adding value.

It starts with you, three things:

Try to forget about price, just for a second
This is difficult, but disconnecting from the price is your first move.

Don't tell your prospect you want to be more of a value add, trusted advisor, partner.  
They've heard it all before, show through action.

Consider moving to a different level of contact
Another challenging aspect, if you've been speaking with a decision maker whose only criteria is price and delivery (the first column), shifting to a different influencer is risky - but necessary.

If you'd like to learn how to move around the spectrum, email me at greg@grwalters.com.

Reflect upon your movement along the spectrum while enjoying some old-skool, sweet jams from Blackstreet, "No Diggity".

The Great Divide in Copier Sales

The other day I was speaking with a few dealers and salespeople about the current state of sales and selling. We talked about regional differences, slow change, and what it takes to be successful today in copier sales. 

It was déjà vu all over again. 

I’ve been preaching about change for over a decade, telling dealers and OEMs alike how the future is not about marks on a page or even software. 

The future of selling is in the statements of the past: 

“I want to be your trusted advisor.” 

“We must sell solutions.” 

“We need to listen to the prospect.” 

 We’ve all been there.  As soon as we walk through...read the rest here.

"The Things We Think And Do Not Say. The Future of Our Business..."

"I began writing what's known as a Mission Statement...Fewer Clients, Less Money..."

During the 2011 MPS Conference, at the end of the MPS Expert Panel session titled, The Best MPS Program, I gave a little bit of what I like to call, the Jerry Maguire Experience.

Some of these panels end up being all 'doom and gloom'. You know, people get to say "I did it this way, so you should too" and "change or die", "the sky is falling".

Ken was wrapping up, the urge was there, I couldn't help it.

I wanted - no,  I felt, words were needed. Good words, positive energy let out for the world.

I have no idea if anybody heard what I said or if anyone remembers - and that's okay.  It was about the moment, a chance criss-cross of time and place.

An opportunity like that doesn't come along very often. I seized it.

"So much to say, and no one to listen..."

The words stumbled out and into the air, drifting.

I said,  "Now is the time.  This is the place.  An opportunity to remember.  To remember why you got in this crazy industry in the first place. Those times, the way it felt to get that first sale, install those devices...

To remember what it was like to NOT know. To guess, to make it up as you went along.

To remember when your existence wasn't dictated by the beliefs and dogma of the few.

Do you remember? Do you remember that blind jump, that a Leap of Faith?

To be young, to be amazed, to just...be.

It's here.  It's here for us now.  This very second.  How happy are you with your place in the world? The World is moving."

As much as I love having the mic, I know that the Global 2011 MPS Conference does not approach the scale and gravity of a major motion picture, arguably one of the best American films ever released.

Or does it?

"Breakdown. Breakthrough."

What are we here to discover?  What are the simple pleasures we look for and endeavor to find?

Direction? Validation?  Yes.

It's okay to sell copiers.  It's okay to sell MPS.  It's okay to sell.   It's okay to try and fail.  To tumble.  Get up, do it again.

MPS isn't the end-all, it isn't the only reason to exist - it never has been.  Still, with everybody getting in and as many as 50% failing, what now?

With all the OEMs defining MPS as S1/S2 and reclassifying direct accounts how can we continue?

Touch More.

More Human Touch.  Less PowerPoint.  No more WebEx meetings, toss the 50 slide business summaries.  Instead, press the flesh.  Draw on a napkin.

Do that thing we do as sales professionals, look him in the eye and say "thank you, what more can we do, today?"

"Oddest, most unexpected thing..."

Success and change are hardly the results of design.  Innovation encroaches from another direction; from the left as we look right, from behind as we look ahead. Few ever see it coming.

So it is today.  As some deny the paperless revolution is near, companies like Alaska Air outfit their 1,400 pilots with iPads.  Apple is making the textbook obsolete and banks now accept pictures of checks for deposits.  Your kids, don't call each other anymore, they use their thumbs.

From social media to MpS, everything is new and scarcely predicted - there are no experts - the world is moving faster.  No benchmarks, no 'metrics', no comparison, no rules.

Waiting for the revolution?  It's already here.

"The Me I always wanted to be" - Trust

Trust. It is a very big word and one of the first MPS Conference keynote speaker attempted to rally behind stating, "...Trust is something this industry has got to reclaim."

He is new.  He doesn't see that to reclaim something, one must have first possessed it.

Again, now is the time.  This Great Financial Crisis is secular, not cyclical - everything is changed and in flux. Now is the time to get out and see your clients re-establishing yourself as a trusted advisor, a Business Partner.

Be you.

"I had lost the ability to bullshit, ..."

Our journey continues.

The path is less bumpy when we build partnerships. Partnerships are easier to forge over a foundation of truth.  Can you be true?

Can you lose the ability to bullshit? If not to your prospects, at least with yourself.  Or are you just another shark in a suit?

Can you see the entire ecosystem?

How about instead of optimizing a smidgen of hardware and some toner, you envision Optimizing Everything.

That's right, everything.   Managed Optimization Services. 

"That's how you become great, man. Hang your balls out there."

GET MORE LIKE THIS, IN THE BOOK - HERE.

One of the absolute best reviews of Jerry Maguire.  Started, 4/30/2011

Originally, 5/16/11

Click to email me.

"Space, The Final Frontier of Copier Sales"

 

- by James T. Kirk, Captain of Starship Enterprise

Navigate the Universe of Copier Sales - Propel Your Sales Career to Stellar Heights

Stardate 9678.3. 

Over a glass of Saurian brandy in the lounge of the starship Enterprise, I found myself engaged in lively discourse with a few dealers and sales personnel about the current trajectory of sales and trading across this vast quadrant of space.

"...they(your prospects) entrusted me with the responsibility to generate a scope document, examine vendor proposals, participate in sales conferences, provide feedback on candidates, and oversee the implementation of the chosen solution..."

It was like a temporal loop - similar conversations had taken place light years before.

For more than a decade, I have been heralding change, echoing through the cosmos to dealers and original equipment manufacturers about the course ahead. It isn't about creating patterns of light on a page, or the latest software from the Daystrom Institute. The route to successful selling lies in the wisdom of our ancestors:

• "I seek to be your trusted counselor."
• "We must trade solutions."
• "We need to heed the needs of our customers."

________