Communist Red China & #Lexmark

Chinese and American

"State Governments' Failure to Scrutinize the Purchase of Lenovo and Lexmark Equipment Jeopardizes Data Security"

A report released from embargo on February 24, 2020, "Stealing From States: China's Power Play in IT Contracts" unearths scathing facts around Lexmark, the US military, Communist Red China, and state/federal contracts.

Lexmark doesn't want you reading the report - and for good reason.  You will be shocked to learn the degree to which Lexmark has been challenged in the past over security issues, and why being connected to or owned by a Chinese company is worthy of high concern. For instance, in 2016 the Chinese Communist Party passed the China Internet Security Law. This law requires any company headquartered in China, to keep data in-country and allow Chinese authorities to 'spot-check' on the data at any time.

"A Chinese military unit has been inserting tiny microchips into computer servers used by companies including Apple and Amazon that give China unprecedented backdoor access to computers and data, according to a new Bloomberg report."

So much for data security.

New to Copier Sales: B2B People Still Use Email. No, Really. They Do.

Instant message and chat are some of the most common modes of communication today. It’s true. Back in the old days, we had a phone, the Yellow Pages and the U.S. Postal Service to reach out to prospects. Sending out around 10 letters a week, each letter was typed on a typewriter and mailed. When we graduated to PCs and laser printers, we doubled our letters per week to 20! And for important prospects, we would FedEx an approach letter.

When we sent out a bulk mailing — which was hundreds of pieces — a good response rate was 1%, with an almost incalculable close rate. Today, with the proper software, marketing departments reach thousands of email boxes an hour and achieve a “click-through” rate of 3%.

Unfortunately, the saturation of marketing email has led many to either ignore their inbox or become experts at filtering out spam. Yet, everyone uses...read the rest here.

New to Copier Sales: How to Conduct a Meeting

If there is one constant in the copier world, it is the long, unending string of meetings you’ll attend, plan and conduct.

More than once I’ve heard it said: “If our company could sell meetings, we’d never run out.”

As experienced as we all are with attending and conducting meetings, it amazes me how often customer-facing get-togethers are unguided and formless.

I’m not sure why more time isn’t given to instruction on basic meeting structure and etiquette.

As a new copier rep, you’re expected to conduct sales appointments and closing meetings. All meetings have unique goals and objectives, and your dealership may have a standard meeting format. I’ve been on the receiving end of many copier, document management and managed print services sales presentations, and all have the same the broad structure of introduction(s), discussion, proposal, then close.

But the same structure doesn’t necessarily equal the same quality. The following...

Read the rest here.