Bloomberg Asks - "Is the #Office More Important than Ever Before?"

Bloomberg posted a veiled 'back to the office' commercial highlighting Accenture and the importance of a centrally located, geographically common area for workers to adhere to corporate policies.

Commonly known as the 'office' - albeit the office of the late 20th century.

A $19 billion, one-hundred-year-old, global real estate advisory and investment firm, recognizes we are "...no longer living in a 9 to 5, 40-hour week work profile..." and the "Omni-connected world is defined by being in an office..." 

They also question the productivity of hybrid meetings.   How does anyone know if"hybrid meetings are underperforming..."? Compared to what, pre-Covid meetings? 

This is a nicely produced, visually attractive piece that lost credibility and my attention at the mention of ESG. Mentioning ESG is like the President recommending a Covid shot in preparation for a hurricane. 

New to Copier Sales – Use Local Events to Share Your Expertise

The COVID impact is creating turbulence and waves of change moving through all facets of life. One of these waves is flowing through the ocean of business meetings and face to face appointments. You, as a new copier rep, can catch a wave to more success. We used to call them “networking groups.” 

Local Chambers of Commerce and small business groups would put together an after-hours event, inviting local businesses to connect with each other and prospects. They met once a month and ended up being full of real estate agents and insurance salespeople handing out business cards and trading stories over drinks. 

It seems almost old school, but I think these types of get-togethers are more important now than pre-COVID. But there is a difference and I’m suggesting you take...

Read the rest, here.

Unions at Amazon

I was reading how Amazon employees voted to unionize at one DC and it got me thinking about robots. Robots don't vote. Or strike. Or catch Covid...or even spread Covid.

Then I read about it will be another ten years before "fully automated shipping warehouses" are a thing.

I don't believe Amazon.

Read the article here.

#WFH. The Death of the "Work Spouse".

“…men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way…because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.” 

 - When Harry Met Sally

The "Work Wife", and "Work Spouse" has been around since the '30s.  The Pre-Covid office environment was a petri dish for interpersonal relationships - the label recognizes, if not legitimizes, a third-party 9-5 relationship.

The phrase, the idea, is an acceptable, even encouraged, practice of the work-in-a-cube(plantation) status quo.  When one stops to think about it, is having a work spouse and a home spouse a good thing?  I can't answer that one.

"Work From Home gives new meaning to the phrase, "Work Wife", and that's a good thing for 'committed' personal relationships, not so good for the solo runners."

Consider this, #WFH diminishes:

• 12 hours with somebody other than your wife, husband, or significant other.
• Latenight PowerPoint brainstorming meetings
• Working lunches
• Post-meeting cocktails

WFH also impacts:

• Business trips, out-of-town conferences.
• After-hour team-building events 
• Christmas parties
• Client dinners

The fear of Covid is changing everything from business to commerce, religion, politics, and personal relationships.

Could one benefit of #WFH be a decrease in the number of divorces?

Of course, this issue goes deeper than sharing space with the opposite sex.  Says one male worker regarding his work spouse, 

'I don't like showing vulnerabilities to my real wife in case it makes her respect me less.'

This base insecurity strikes at the core of most affairs; fear of being judged by the person one loves is a powerful motivator to keep "bad news" off the significant other's plate.  So the issue is shared with a non-romantic, third party, not the significant other leading to mistrust, and emotional connections outside the relationship.  

We all know this...

Regardless, we'll see how this all pans out over the next few years.

Interesting.

 

 Sources:

https://www.inverse.com/article/35392-work-spouse-wife-husband-office-psychology

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4665480/Why-work-wife-threat-marriage.html

https://www.glamour.com/story/career-advice-why-everyone-needs-a-work-wife

https://www.savvymom.ca/articleiframe/?url=http://www.jodyrobbins.com/work-wife/&id=105993

WFH: The Death of the 'Work Spouse'

The "Work Wife", and "Work Spouse" has been around since the '30s. The Pre-Covid office environment was a petri dish for interpersonal relationships - the label recognizes, if not legitimizes, a third-party 9-5 relationship.

Accelerate Managed Print Services with the New Model

There is a bounce, a resurgence, a renaissance in managed print services. As the fear of Covid fades and offices around the world repopulate, albeit, by 40-60% of pre-Covid numbers, print and copy functions are grabbing temporary attention. But this uptick is fleeting and short-lived and not based on increased volumes or growing fleets of devices. Today's rekindled interest is based on managing the reduction of print and the increase of digital workflows.

Our traditional business theory of pivoting into managed IT or an adjacent niche was an idealistic idea in the MPS Model 2 (see below, Photizo) 

Today, expanding or diversifying services is less of an option and more of a survival tactic and a foundational plank of the continuing generation of Managed print Services (MpS).  

The circa 2012 model is still relevant, we just need to refocus and recognize new opportunities.

With this in mind, I've updated the model to include new innovations and directions for office technology.

New to Copier Sales: Experiential Selling

The plan was that, once COVID-19 receded, employees would return to the office, their printers, copiers, coffee machines, and cubicles.

But will they print? Will they copy? Will they return to habits of the past? It really doesn’t matter.  Print will happen and your clients are exploring cost-reducing processes and offerings – managed print services can be your vehicle for higher revenues.

Selling MPS and copiers is nothing new.  There are thousands of articles and dozens of tools in the market designed to help you find prospects, build a total cost of operation, generate proposals, and close deals.

I’m not going to regurgitate facts and processes a decade old.  However, in the new way of selling that is post-COVID-19, I point out one important view: now is the time to expand from transactional selling to experiential selling.

This is a big shift, and it starts between your ears.

The Remote Work Revolution: A New Frontier for B2B Office Technology

From Virtual Meetings to Virtual Reality: The Workforce Enters the Matrix

Greg's Words

The fear of Covid left offices, cubicles, and yesterday's management style in the dustpan of history, for most.

How can an office technology provider continue to work with clients and solve business problems?  In the old ways, concentrating on a piece of machinery will not sustain the business.  We've known for decades that the device is not the answer, what the device does is a component of a well-designed solution to a problem.

In the post cubicle life, we professional sales people have the opportunity to do what we always said we would, but never did.  "Help our customers solve business problems"

Harvard came out with a deep dive, albeit academic, the view is worth reviewing.

Cheers!

gw

_________

New to Copier Sales: Four Tips on Selling During COVID-19

2020 has been a rough one, but if you’re reading this you’re still in the business – in the fight.

Schools, bars, buses, trains, planes, manufacturers, retail shops, and even copier businesses are frozen in time. The fear created by COVID-19 has paralyzed everyone. We’ve all gone from thinking five years in advance to crossing our fingers and looking 60 days ahead.

The landscape has completely changed. Your newly learned skills: phone work, value proposition, bond and rapport, open-ended questioning, presentation, and demonstration talent are not nearly as important as your resolve.

And forget product knowledge. Speeds and feed, for now, are irrelevant.

#WorkFromHome or #WorkInACube: The Choice is Yours

Do you know how much the corporate BBQ, Christmas parties, and other events cost your company?  

Sure, it's nice to go see a baseball game or get to sit in the corporate suite for a basketball game...yet...consider this: 

Would you rather get dressed up, hear a band, eat good food and listen to an executive pontificate with a bunch of co-workers or receive a check for the amount your company paid for the event? (divided among employees) Maybe use that money to take your significant other out on a date.

Does your company sponsor a minor league baseball team? Why?  

Do you see your company's logo all over your "free" swag? How many copiers do you need to sell, in order to buy 14,000 logo'd coffee mugs?  Sure, vendors kick down funds in support - what's in it for them?

We've been trained to believe these events are acts of kindness or perks from our benevolent employers, and for the most part, we're all appreciative.  

But that was the old model, the pre-Fear of Covid way. Today is different.  Today, you are different.

I dare you to ask for the company's internal "entertainment" budget.

The point is this: you are a 'Resource'(go ask Human Resources) and resources are meant to be used to the maximum for minimum cost.  

There is nothing wrong with this model, it is revenue-cost=profit and what we sign up for when we work to support somebody else's dream. (No shame)

It's just that now we can recognize the manipulation - this is a "Red Pill, Blue Pill" situation. 

Blue Pill: Buying into the dogma and believing the narrative you’ve been lead to believe is the truth.

The Red Pill: The Truth

The choice is yours.

Ricoh Speaks with Andy - October, 2022.

I RARELY do this. But this video is good. 

Nuggets - 

1. Chips are freeing up (A3 devices only?). 
2. They've found a West/East passage through the Panama Canal. 
3. The numbers are Good and the future of Ricoh includes output devices. 

Caveat One - 

Ricoh is comparing THEIR pre-covid numbers to current...which is like saying, "Last year I had one hit, this year I had 3, so I increased by 300%." Meanwhile, the competition went from 300 hits to 250, showing a decrease and still leagues ahead of you... 

Caveat Two- 

Listen to the narrative in the attached video(8:46) and tell me it wouldn't fly pre-Covid or even in 1999. 

 I like Ricoh. 

 

"Number Two always tries harder."

 

The Future of Our Business – This is the Way

In February 2020, COVID-19 crept into the United States, bringing with it lockdowns and work from home; the mood was cautious yet a bit giddy. Months later, the business landscape had shifted underneath us like never before and the copy and printing industry was getting kicked in the shins, gut-punched and was taking uppercuts to the jaw. What was before COVID — shrinking volumes, lower unit sales and layoffs — moved five to 10 years into the future in just two quarters. Some say the overall rate of change was 15 years in 30 days.

Today, print volumes are facing unbearable contractions in recurring monthly volume. Sure, the gears of sales are slowly grinding forward, helping some businesses hang on – but nothing like 2019, let alone 1999. Indeed, like a bad memory, “price” is the biggest obstacle and “transactional” sales are the norm — and those are words nobody in this industry likes to hear. 

Some dealers have jumped on the personal protection equipment bandwagon. While not a bad stopgap approach, it’s not a long-term solution. Hope for things getting back to normal is fading. 

 What is “normalcy”? It refers to the return of a status quo, and if there is anything the past 10 years have shown us, the status quo is a slow death. Yesterday’s ideas restrict growth and innovation. Still, some believe in a return to normalcy in copier and printer usage. This is not going to happen. 

We are entering a variance of the “long tail” period.  Demand approaches, but never reaches, zero. A smaller set of providers can sell on the curve to a smaller set of customers at a profit.  

 It goes without saying that predicting anything nowadays is nearly impossible.  But here are my prognostications based on the last eight months.

Read the rest, here.

New to Sales: The Pandemic Paradox

 

Here’s the big paradox of the COVID-19 pandemic — the lockdowns and remote get-togethers have made us more connected. Online sessions reveal more humanity than big, important meetings around the oak table in the executive conference room. Even with all the challenges, bad audio, odd camera angles, and clumsy mute buttons, we’ve seen more of our prospects and customers than ever before. 

Think about it. 

How many kitchens, dens, and home offices have you seen since March of 2020? Have you met clients’ and coworkers’ pets and children? Of course. Have you seen paintings, books, sports memorabilia, and messy desks? 

Yes, you have. We all have. Web meetings, with cameras on, give us the chance to be vulnerable and connect with prospects and customers on a deeper level than before COVID-19. 

Vulnerability is foundational to building a bond, establishing rapport, and creating a solid relationship. And what can be more vulnerable than inviting the CEO of your biggest prospect into your home? One of the many “silver linings” of the pandemic is the ability to see more of our customers’ lives. Who would have thought that physical separation could bring us closer? 

It is counterintuitive, ... read the rest here.

The Unintended Consequences of Remote Work: A Tectonic Shift in Office Technology and Urban Landscapes

Remote working - the love child of technological advancements and pajamas.

Greg's Words

The times are crazy and there seem to be no boundaries; we've left hyperbole in the rearview.  I've seen a few revolutions in my time, so there are familiar threads, flavors, and hints but nothing has been so accelerated and universally impactful as the current run on artificial intelligence.  AI has been brought down, landing squarely on our frontal lobes.

Like never before in time.  The Wheel. The Discovery of Fire.  The first tool.

People smarter than me are using the same words and phrases I am - this is the Big One.

Of course, all is not roses and bubble gum on the road to digital enlightenment.  There are risks; Mary Shelly's Modern Prometheus and the story of Colossus come to mind.  Some see AI as destroying mankind, ridding the planet of its cancerous inhabitants. My thoughts on this?  If were to happen, it would have by now.

But how is The Convergence going to help you sell more widgets?

"I don't know, I'm making this up as I go..."

What I do know, is the fear of covid changed the way we work(and print) the way we move information, and the way we finally see management.  Management is redundant.

What I do know is that AI duplicates all our manual processes faster and better because it accumulates every iteration of a plan and all the possible impacts, predicting outcomes on what it has seen and processed. AI scares us.

What I do know is office buildings are vacant, and cities are begging if not screaming, for a return to the office, to the subway, speeding tickets, inspection fees, parking violations, taxes, 45 minutes on the road, and crime.  They blame those who work outside their reach.

What I do know is that the last 36 months have not eroded but disintegrated almost every level of trust in once-thought-of timeless establishments and structures.  UFOs are real.

Heady stuff.

We've put together a piece about all this and more.  It's dry but includes a few tidbits of knowledge.

Enjoy.

_________

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.

What did CIOs Read in 2022?

Inspired by the WSJ article, here.  Paywall.

Patton said it best, "...I read your book!"

Relevance, shared experience, and trust are currencies of the Post-Fear-of-Covid Age so knowing what your prospects view as important enough to spend time-consuming is a step in identifying with prospects and improving your worldly knowledge.

Walt's Weekly Words, Week 10, June 17

Walt's Spin

It is almost deja vu, all over again as the conference and corporate meetings season kicks in across the fruited plain. It's great to get together face to face, I just hope everything doesn't go back to what it was: An Echo Chamber of back-slapping, hand-gladding, and gibberish.

Reports lead me to believe that indeed we are being guided to 'the way things used to be' but as always, the conversation between and after sessions is more enlightening. Other than becoming a 'super-spreader', the get-togethers ring nostalgic.

Speaking of nostalgia, a Xerox retiree regales us with legends of early color copiers - a reverse engineered, 3M knock-off. Back then, as you can imagine, color copiers were a thing of the future.

Elon is at it again, mouthing off against work from home. To be fair, his environment is perfect for all employees to be under one roof. Tesla fights for survival every single day, and when in the foxhole, one doe not want to look right and see a smiling face on a screen.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft reflects on a just-published study in Nature Human Behavior analyzing communications data of 61,000 Microsoft employees.

"Based on previous research, we believe that the shift to less 'rich' communication media may have made it more difficult for workers to convey and process complex information."

You can guess where this is going, can't you?

New to Copier Sales – Use Local Events to Share Your Expertise

We used to call them “networking groups.” Local Chambers of Commerce and small business groups would put together an after-hours event, inviting local businesses to connect with each other and prospects. They met once a month and ended up being full of real estate agents and insurance salespeople handing out business cards and trading stories over drinks. It seems almost old school, but I think these types of get-togethers are more important now than pre-COVID. 

But there is a difference and I’m suggesting you take advantage of the subtle shift in connecting with prospects. Hosting a small group in a casual, off-site meeting over coffee or adult beverages is a great venue for high-quality meetings.

This is not a huge production, so there’s no need for big planning meetings or marketing pieces. You’re just Jane/John getting together for an informal chat with peers.

You can host these small gatherings.  It’s easy when you consider the following:

Read the article here.

How Will Work From Anywhere Affect Copier Sales?

I've been a work-from-anywhere person since 2009ish - I've presented from Sydney, Starbucks' parking lots, and poolside in Vegas.  I've evangelized the lifestyle from Detroit to LA to Charlotte to Oconomowoc, Wi. and points between and beyond.

So when the fear of Covid sent everybody home to work, my environment didn't skip a beat.  Remote selling, online marketing, virtual meetings, and Zoom sessions became second nature to the rest of the world. 

Welcome to my world.

As #WFH becomes standard, the powers that be will attempt to define, moderate, and ultimately fashion the model into their likeness.  That will not work.

This concept is bigger than this small tome.  Today, we'll talk about selling copiers(or anything else) in this new land of  "work from anywhere". - GW

###

"Nobody Wants To Work."

Maybe, if you treated employees better when they were working for you, they'd come back to you today.

"We can't find any good employees and we're just starting to come back."

"People do not want to work and who blames them? They can stay at home and make just as much as I would pay them!"

Well then, maybe you should pay them more.  Maybe you should have valued them more when they did work for you.  Maybe, you shouldn't have demanded they stay late, and miss their kid's soccer game.  

"Our employees don't want to come back to the office.  They are the least engaged."

Could it be that after nearly 100 years of office work, everyone is recognizing that engagement with a corporation is a one-way escapade?  

That corner office, 401k, and 12 days of vacation are all part of the trap.

Companies have convinced employees that long commutes, cube farms, terrible co-workers, hostile working environments, company policies that defy logic, 2.5% pay raises, overtime, water coolers, ping-pong tables, and company half-barrels are worth the cold dinners, missed little league games,  red-eye flights, brainless managers, and corporate disloyalty.

They've convinced you that your worth is determined by who you work for, how many hours you put in, and how loudly you tow the company line.  They had you believing that if you worked anywhere but under the florescent sting of an open floor plan, you wouldn't get anything done.

Remember the companies who just 12 months ago were saying, "We're all in this together.  We want what's best for all our employees." and are now treating the same employees like nothing happened you are shameful.  They worked in a completely unfamiliar environment and learned more about technology, human-to-human communications, and getting things done than a dozen of your "corporate training sessions" could ever muster.

Your revenues went through the roof.  Company travel costs approached zero - no client visits, no hotel, dinner, or drinks on the expense reports - FOR A YEAR.  Sure, bigger companies still paid rent - but utility costs tumbled, and what about all those government loans?

Every one of your employees who worked at home deserves a HUGE increase in salary, a bonus, or both and you know it. 

Additionally, the mantra, "Everything has changed because of the fear of COVID-19." is true - so why are you going to manage your workforce the same way you did in 2019?

But if we let our employees work from anywhere, we'll lose that personal touch and will kill our corporate culture."

Personal connection in the business world is a fallacy - it does not and can not exist.  Any bond established under the influence of business transactions is by definition, impersonal.  All the relationship-building, all the dinners, lunches, and drinks spent with a client or prospect are designed with one goal in mind, get their money into your pocket. 

Don't play the "personal touch" card in an effort to force employees back to the cages. 

By the way, working from anywhere doesn't kill the corporate culture, it IS corporate culture.

The argument for returning office workers back to the office revolves around:

1. A need for centralized management is built on mistrust and insecurities.
2. The Luddite view of "getting back to normal".
3. An effort to bolster commercial office space return on investments.

We are witnessing the struggle between indenture and freedom; between value and being unvalued.

The good news is that your skills are transferrable to organizations that want to be part of the future and understand monolithic structures of management are part of a bygone era.  Find those companies and go work for them - from anywhere on the planet.

Cheers!