April 2024 Office Technology

FEATURE ARTICLES

10

Service Team Success

Dealerships share how they hire, train & motivate techs

by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

Are you fully satisfied with how your dealership hires, trains and motivates service techs? If not, the BTA member dealership profiles in this article will provide a look at some of their methods. Perhaps the comments they share will provide you with the guidance you are seeking.

Value-Building Proposals

Help customers see why your solutions are the best

by Derek Shebby Modern Sales Training

People will pay more for something they consider to be better. When the value and difference is obvious, there is an expected increase in price. This is the goal we aim to reach in our sales. We need to clearly show why our prospects should pay more when doing business with us. 16

Remote Versus In Person

The debate over which sales strategy is best continues

by David Aulisio Automated Business Solutions

While the COVID-19 pandemic is over, its impact certainly remains. This effect, combined with ongoing advancements in technology and changes in consumer behavior, continue to stimulate much debate on which sales strategy is better — remote or in person.

AI INSIGHT

23

Transformational Power

How Xerox is embracing artificial intelligence

by Steve Miller

Xerox

Corp.

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries. The print industry is no exception; AI technologies are increasingly integrated to optimize processes, enhance output quality and elevate client experiences.

COURTS & CAPITOLS

Your Employee Handbook

Ensure that all of your information is current by Greg

Goldberg

Incoming BTA General Counsel

New regulations and judicial decisions warrant a fresh look at employee handbooks.

THANK YOU, BOB

An Industry Patriarch

Thank you, Bob, for helping to lead our industry by John

Kuchta

All Copy Products

I salute you, Bob, as a patriarch of the office technology industry.

DEALERS HELPING DEALERS

Drop-Shipping Orders

Have dealers been able to reduce on-hand supplies?

Compiled by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

Here is a question and answers submitted to BTA’s Dealers Helping Dealers resource.

SELLING SOLUTIONS

Prospecting Today

It has changed & you must change with it

by Troy Harrison

Troy Harrison & Associates

It is time to redefine what cold-call prospecting really means.

Artificial Intelligence: How Are You Using It?

AExecutive Director/BTA Editor/Office Technology

Brent Hoskins brent@bta.org (816) 303-4040

Associate Editor Elizabeth Marvel elizabeth@bta.org (816) 303-4060

Contributing Writers

David Aulisio, Automated Business Solutions www.absne.com

Greg Goldberg, Incoming General Counsel Business Technology Association

s I’ve mentioned in past issues of Office Technology, I regularly host Business Technology Association (BTA) Dealers Helping Dealers Discussion Group calls via Zoom with noncompeting member dealers of BTA. The members simply submit topics or questions for their fellow dealers to address in our one-hour calls. Here are two questions asked by an attendee in a call I hosted yesterday: “How are teams using AI? What AI policies have they implemented?”

The dealer asking the questions said his dealership uses ChatGPT to help reps write thank-you letters, prepare scripts for calls and assist with email campaigns. Using AI to help with writing blog posts was also mentioned. One dealer warned against sharing any private data in uploads to ChatGPT. That same dealer said that instead of using ChatGPT, his dealership is using Microsoft Copilot (billed by Microsoft as “Your everyday AI companion”). In the call, I mentioned how a dealer panelist at this year’s Executive Connection Summit said his dealership uses ChatGPT to listen to recordings of reps’ calls and video conference calls. AI then recommends how the reps could have better handled objections that may have come up in the calls.

No one in yesterday’s call said they have implemented any AI policies to date. For me, that brought to mind the February 2024 column that Incoming BTA General Counsel Greg Goldberg wrote for Office Technology, “The Implications of AI.” In that column, he wrote, in part: “An effective AI policy should set forth guidelines to ensure AI is used ethically and responsibly, including complying with legal and regulatory standards, as well as protecting data privacy.” So, take heed.

There is a sample AI Policy available at www. bta.org/LegalDocuments.

I did sign up for the free version of ChatGPT. I have only used it twice. The first was to see how it would fine-tune some session descriptions for a then-upcoming BTA districthosted event. I also used it to take a stab at writing a two-word headline for my June 2023 cover story on water purification systems. The result: “Refreshing Expansion.” We went with ChatGPT’s suggestion. I should stop here and say this: I would never use ChatGPT — or any AI tool like it — to help write any article with my byline. It’s important to me that whatever I write is all mine. I have written bazillions of articles to date and have at least a bazillion more to go. In the end, they will all be mine.

If you are like me, you are wondering where this is all headed. The floodgate is open. There is no turning back. Much good will come from AI, but so will some things that are not so good. The ominous warnings do get your attention.

BTA is striving to educate its members on AI. At next week’s 2024 BTA National Conference in Orlando, I am looking forward to attending the session, “Welcome to the Future! AI Literacy for Professionals.” At the following BTA event, Capture the Magic, set for June 17-19 in Huntington Beach, California, there are four AI-specific sessions on the schedule. Visit www.bta. org/BTACalifornia to learn more.

Increasingly, you will see articles addressing AI within these pages. In this issue, on page 23 in our new “AI Insight” department, Xerox’s Steve Miller writes about the transformational power of AI. There was an AI article from Toshiba in our March issue. For our May issue, Ricoh is submitting an article. I ended the discussion on AI in the call yesterday with three words that seem appropriate for this column, too: To be continued. n — Brent Hoskins

Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates www.troyharrison.com

John Kuchta, All Copy Products www.allcopyproducts.com

Steve Miller, Xerox Corp. www.xerox.com

Derek Shebby, Modern Sales Training www.modernsalestraining.com

Business Technology Association

12411 Wornall Road Kansas City, MO 64145 (816) 941-3100 www.bta.org

Member Services: (800) 505-2821

BTA Legal Hotline: (312) 648-2300

Valerie Briseno Marketing Director valerie@bta.org

Brian Smith Membership Sales Representative brian@bta.org

Photo Credits: Adobe Stock. Cover created by Bruce Quade, Brand X Studio. ©2024 by the Business Technology Association. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of published material. However, the publisher assumes no liability for errors in articles nor are opinions expressed necessarily those of the publisher.

FLASHBACK

The association’s magazine cover 51 years ago this month — the NOMDA Spokesman, April 1973.

Capture the Magic in Huntington Beach

T2023-2024 Board of Directors

President

Don Risser DCS Technologies Corp. Franklin, Ohio don.risser@dcs-tech.com

President-Elect

Adam Gregory Advanced Business Solutions LLC St. Augustine, Florida adam@goabsinc.com

Vice President

Debra Dennis

his year’s Capture the Magic event, open to dealers from across the country, will be held June 17-19 at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach in Huntington Beach, California. The BTA Westhosted event will be exciting for a number of reasons. The event will include: a reception at BTA member Advanced Office; a keynote address by Mark King, former CEO of Taco Bell and TaylorMade, and former president of adidas North America; a special reception honoring BTA General Counsel Bob Goldberg, who is retiring on June 30; four main stage sessions led by industry leaders; six breakout sessions; and plenty of time to network with your peers and sponsors.

The event will kick off on Monday, June 17, with an opening night reception at BTA member Advanced Office. The evening will provide dealers a unique opportunity to tour the dealership and network with their peers. Transportation will be provided.

The educational portion of the event will begin at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 18, with breakfast, followed by opening comments and King’s keynote address, “Market Conditions Don’t Determine Growth ... You Do!” After the keynote, a break will be held, giving attendees the opportunity to visit with peers and exhibiting sponsors.

After the break, attendees can choose between one of three breakout sessions: “Revolutionizing Sales With Automation & AI,” with Shawn Peterson, Quantum Business Solutions; “Practical AI for the Office Technology Channel In 2024,” with West McDonald, GoWest.ai; and “Elevating Your Business Results With the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS),” with Sally Brause, GreatAmerica Financial Services.

Lunch will be held after the breakouts.

After lunch, attendees will have more time to visit with the exhibitors, followed by the first main stage session, “Benchmarking for Office Technology Dealerships in the Post-COVID Era,” with Todd Johnson, Strategic Business Associates. Another break will follow. The second main stage session, “An Industry in Transition,” with BTA’s Bob Goldberg and Greg Goldberg, will wrap up the first day’s education. From 7 to 9 p.m., a reception honoring Bob will be held. This special event will allow dealers and vendors to pay tribute to and thank him for his many years of loyal service to the industry.

The second day will begin at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 19, with breakfast, followed by opening comments and the third main stage session, “Evaluating Hardcopy OEM Partner Programs,” with Robert Palmer, IDC. A break and the second set of breakouts will follow. The breakouts will be: “Optimizing Your Sales Machine,” with Peterson; “Creating Your Own GPTs: No Coding Required,” with McDonald; and a dealer panel, “Strategic Business Results: Office Technology Providers Talk EOS,” moderated by Brause. After the breakouts, the final main stage session, “Intelligent Printing: How AI is Revolutionizing MPS,” with Anne Valaitis, Keypoint Intelligence, will wrap up the educational portion of the event. Capture the Magic will conclude with closing comments and exhibitor prize drawings until 12:15 p.m.

BTA member dealers receive two-for-one registration to Capture the Magic for $199. This price includes the Monday reception, Tuesday and Wednesday educational sessions, Tuesday breakfast, lunch and reception, and Wednesday breakfast. To learn more about the event, see pages two and three or visit www.bta.org/BTACalifornia. I’m looking forward to seeing you in June. n

— Don Risser

CopyPro Inc. Greenville, North Carolina ddennis@copypro.net

Immediate Past President David Polimeni RITE Technology Sarasota, Florida dpolimeni@ritefl.com

BTA East Mike Boyle BASE Technologies Inc. Bethel, Connecticut mboyle@baseinc.com

Joe Dellaposta Doing Better Business Hagerstown, Maryland jvd@doingbetterbusiness.com

BTA Mid-America

Brantly Fowler Zeno Office Solutions Inc. Midland, Texas bfowler@zenotx.com

Greg Quirk JQ Office Equipment Omaha, Nebraska gquirk@jqoffice.com

BTA Southeast Jim Buck Carolina Business Equipment Inc. Columbia, South Carolina jimb@cbesc.com

Mike Hicks Electronic Business Machines Inc. Lexington, Kentucky mhicks@ebmky.com

BTA West Mike McGuirk ProCopy Office Solutions Inc. Mesa, Arizona mmcguirk@procopyoffice.com

Kevin Marshall

Copy Link Inc. Chula Vista, California kevin@copylink.net

Ex-Officio/General Counsel

Robert C. Goldberg

Schoenberg Finkel Beederman Bell & Glazer LLC Chicago, Illinois robert.goldberg@sfbbg.com

Service Team Success

Dealerships share how they hire, train & motivate techs

by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

Are you fully satisfied with how your dealership hires, trains and motivates service techs? If not, the following BTA member dealership profiles provide a brief look at some of their methods in these areas. Perhaps the comments they share will provide you with the guidance you are seeking.

Adams Remco Inc.

Rex Carlile had been a service technician at Remington Rand, later purchased the South Bend, Indiana, office of the company and, ultimately, acquired Adams Typewriters, another Remington Rand office. The result was Adams Remco Inc. (ARI), established in 1977. Today, the dealership has approximately 120 employees — including around 40 service personnel — across five locations in Indiana, three in Michigan and two in Florida. The dealership’s imaging products lineup: Ricoh, Toshiba, Brother, HP, Lexmark and KIP.

Mark Marshall serves as service manager at ARI. Each branch location also has a service team leader. The shared philosophy in hiring, retaining and motivating service department personnel has served the company well, he says. “It’s about ‘team,’” he says. “That’s the driving factor at Adams Remco and the reason we keep people here for 40 years; we value ‘team.’”

New hires joining the service team are most often found via Indeed, Marshall says; ARI has hired several new techs in the past year. New techs do not necessarily come from within the industry, he says. “I would hire the right experienced person, but our focus is primarily on hiring someone who has good, solid customer skills and some mechanical aptitude,” Marshall says. “We can teach them anything else.”

Where does Marshall find new hires? “I try to find people who are accustomed to going from one customer account to another,” he says. “That could be somebody installing cable or doing appliance delivery. I even had a fire extinguisher service tech come in for an interview the other day.”

Marshall offers additional insight into the type of person

he seeks to hire. “We want people who have highquality expectations of themselves, rather than people driven by money and outside things,” he says. “We want people we can see are going to be good employees, able to follow directions and work on their own; we empower that and feed that. That’s been our style for the 40 years I’ve been at the company.”

Part of what feeds ARI’s style is the way it treats its employees, Marshall says. “I never missed any of my kids’ activities and programs in school; the company always worked with me so that I could attend,” he says. “My vision with all of our service team members is that they be good parents and spouses. If they can make their families happy, then they are happy. Our culture here isn’t negative; I don’t like drama. We don’t need any of that. We just take care of our people so they can be the best they can be.”

In terms of the hiring process, Marshall conducts the first screening interview and a service team leader conducts the second, more in-depth interview. Candidates also take a Wonderlic assessment test to gauge their decision-making abilities. “Having given that test many times, I know where the score needs to come back,” he says. “A poor score shows me there is going to be a problem down the road.”

Once hired, new techs attend product training with ARI’s manufacturer-certified trainer and are “under heavy mentoring for 90 days,” Marshall says. “That helps them get to know the people they are going to be working with and understand that focus on ‘team.’ They will learn that everybody ‘has their back’ — that they’ve got all the rest of the team, company-wide, there for them. They learn, for example, that they can be in Indiana and call a guy in Michigan or Florida and ask for advice about a problem with a machine.”

That team focus is grown, in part, through monthly company-wide service meetings and weekly local team meetings, Marshall says, noting that there is also a fair amount of team building through such activities as baseball game outings. “It’s all about building them up so that

RISO Inkjet completes the puzzle in your print shop.

everybody understands we all need each other.”

Eakes Office Solutions

With nearly 300 employees working from 14 locations across the state of Nebraska, it comes as no surprise that Eakes Office Solutions, a Sharp and Ricoh dealership headquartered in Grand Island, has 54 employees on the service team. That includes management, office equipment field techs (37 of them), dedicated setup techs, installation techs, a remote support desk tech, a used parts program tech, and service personnel working in the dealership’s technology services and janitorial divisions.

“We want people who have high-quality expectations of themselves, rather than people driven by money and outside things. We want people we can see are going to be good employees ... “

— Mark Marshall Adams Remco Inc.

Once hired, the onboarding process for techs is multifaceted, Nierman says. “We go over policies and procedures in the first couple of days,” he says. “After that, a new tech spends about half of each day doing online training provided by manufacturers and the other half of each day riding along with a senior tech. Often, after a couple of weeks, the tech will switch to riding with another senior tech, who may have a slightly different way of working. Our goal here is to give the new techs resources they can call on once they are in the field.”

How does Eakes find its service personnel? “We use online job boards like Indeed to start the process,” says Kevin Fries, director of human resources. “If we don’t get any hits, then we start reaching out to recruiters; we’ve identified a couple that really have a good pulse on our industry. We also spend time going to job fairs at technical colleges.”

In addition, says Mike Nierman, general manager of corporate service, Eakes provides referral bonuses to its employees. “With nearly 300 employees, that’s a lot of people who know a lot of people,” he says. “That’s been an amazing resource for us.”

Even with its many hiring successes, Fries acknowledges that attracting new techs into the workforce can be difficult. “Over the past three or four years, we have started to see that become a challenge,” he says. “The new generation is different. Some want to be IT ‘techy’ people and a lot of them don’t want to have — or don’t have — mechanical break/fix ability. So, in hiring, we may find some have just one skill that we are seeking; we have to teach them the rest. It’s definitely been a challenge over the last few years.”’

Nierman is quick to express appreciation for the efforts Fries has made to make jobs at Eakes more appealing to all generations of workers. “On the HR side, Kevin has been very proactive in keeping our benefits up to date,” he says. “For example, we now offer pet insurance, flex hours and charity hours, where you can work up to four hours a month for a local charity and get paid for it. These are great benefits.”

In terms of the hiring process for techs, once they are screened by Eakes’ staff recruiter, service management conducts two interviews, Nierman says. “We then conduct a mechanical aptitude test and do a DiSC analysis,” he says. “We also have a test called SOLVE, which is more customized, where we can define what we’re looking for in a service tech. It analyzes personalities based on exactly what we are seeking.”

Noting that one member of the service team is a manufacturer-certified on-site trainer, Nierman emphasizes that service training is ongoing for Eakes’ techs. “Our goal — and we’re pretty successful at it — is to always have some training in front of every single service tech,” he says. “If you’re not continuing to learn in the service industry, then you’re going backwards.”

While Eakes’ techs are assigned individual geographic territories, there is a strong team focus within the service department, Nierman says. “We have made a part of our bonus program a team bonus for techs based on things like parts expense and response times,” he says. “So, for example, if one tech is busy, the team can keep that response time down by having another step in to help.”

Finally, Nierman says, the service team members meet often. “We have in-person branch meetings quarterly,” he says. “The entire Eakes service team meets virtually at 7:30 a.m. every Wednesday. Two meetings each month are focused on some kind of product training; the other two meetings focus on technical knowledge-sharing.”

Imagine Technology Group

Founded in 2011, Imagine Technology Group (ITG) is based in Chandler, Arizona (a Phoenix suburb), with additional locations in Tucson and Flagstaff. Currently, it employs 52 people, including — within the equipment service department — a director of service, a service manager and nine service techs. ITG’s imaging offerings: Sharp, Toshiba, Xerox, Epson, Brother, HP and Lexmark.

Wendy Hagerstrand, ITG’s director of service, joined the dealership in June 2021. Her previous office technology dealership experience was primarily in service, but also in sales. In fact, she also serves as ITG’s sales manager. On the service side, her strategy for success is simple — listen to

techs rather than micromanaging them, she says. “I like to take what I call a ‘whiteboard approach’ to service,” she says. “I want feedback from our team members in terms of what’s happening in the field. Together, we work to address opportunities and take corrective measures.”

“Our goal — and we’re pretty successful at it — is to always have some training in front of every single service tech. If you’re not continuing to learn in the service industry,

ITG’s most recent service team hire arrived a little over a year ago. “He is current mil itary, serving in the Army Re serve, and has a background working on power generators,” Hagerstrand says, encouraging other dealers to consider hiring techs with military backgrounds as well. “He came to us with the ability to easily learn the equipment and with impeccable attention to detail; both have to do with his mil itary background. We use him as an example all the time with our technicians: ‘Look at the remarks he put into the

system.’ If anyone follows behind him, they’re going to know exactly what he did on the service call.”

Whenever possible, Hagerstrand likes to have a tech candidate “do a ride day with a senior tech as part of

“You need to make it exciting for somebody new to the industry ... In addition, talking about the ability for growth within your organization is really big.”

— Wendy Hagerstrand Imagine Technology Group

does. We then start the training schedule. This includes training courses through our HR company on topics such as customer service and training with our manufacturers. Sharp, in particular, has some phenomenal training for service techs, not just on imaging devices, but on software, Fiery controllers and whatnot.”

After the initial training “we do a lot with mentorship,” Hagerstrand says. “We have the tech ride with a senior tech the first few months; so, kind of buddied up with somebody. When the new tech is out in the field those first few months, he is working and getting his feet wet, but has somebody to support him during that time.”

Hagerstrand emphasizes the importance of dealerships ensuring service tech candidates see the hiring company as a desirable place to work. “You need to make it exciting for somebody new to the industry,” she says. “You don’t want to talk about how ‘we’re a copier repair company.’ We are so much more than that. In addition, talking about the ability for growth within your organization is really big. The new hire may start as a service tech, but needs to see the opportunity to move up through IT, solutions, production, etc.”

As a part of the ITG service team, techs: have the opportunity for performance bonuses; receive $3,000 a year for car maintenance (beyond mileage); and participate in contests and team-building events. A recent contest “paired sales and service together,” Hagerstrand says. “We put some prize money toward the lowest callbacks and the lowest hold-forparts for techs. We also had prize money for activity driven by sales reps. So, we paired sales reps and service techs to drive one another to reach their goals in order to win the prize money. On the service side, one tech won $100 the first week; in the second week, another won $150.” n

Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine. He can be reached at (816) 303-4040 or brent@bta.org.

Value-Building Proposals

Help customers see why your solutions are the best

by: Derek Shebby, Modern Sales Training

People will pay more for something they consider to be better. That is a given. Think about it. Have you paid more for a product or service because you believed it to be better in some way? Would you ever expect to pay the same price for a Kia as a Tesla? Have you witnessed the difference between a Hoover vacuum cleaner and a Dyson? Have you had cheap food compared to quality food? You have and you know what I mean. People pay for better. You do it. I do it. We all do it. When the value and difference is obvious, there is an expected increase in price. This is the goal we aim to reach in our sales. We need to clearly show why our prospects should pay more when doing business with us.

ambassador. He would be on Team Nike, get his own shoe and make millions of dollars in endorsements. That dream changed right after his proposal meeting with Nike’s ambassador team.

The only challenge here is how a dealership can take its products and services — which many view as commodities — and build enough value to have a prospect see its offerings as superior and worth the price increase. Sound difficult? It does not have to be. This is why having a process around building value is essential to any growing sales organization.

In the Value Building 101 series, we have focused on three main parts:

(1) Criteria Discovery: How we go about understanding what matters to your customer

(2) Sales Process: How we incorporate value-building steps into our sales cycle

(3) Proposals: How we present our business case for differentiation

I covered part one — criteria discovery — in the February 2024 Office Technology article, “Value Building 101.” I covered part two — how to create a sales process that fosters value building — in the March 21, 2024, BTA Building My Business webinar, “How to Include Value Building In Your Sales Process.” This month, I will finish up the three-part series with proposals and how we present our business case for differentiation.

Steph Curry & Nike

Steph Curry had always dreamed of becoming a Nike

The story goes (and you can look this up) like this: On the day of Steph Curry’s meeting with Nike, the company’s normal pitch guy who was supposed to present the proposal was not there for some unknown reason. The team members standing in for that individual proceeded to refer to Steph as “Steve” and also showed him a proposal that still had one of his previous colleagues’ names on it, Kevin Durant. As you can imagine, this offended Curry, which led him to choose not to sign with Nike and instead sign on with Under Armour. Nike blundered its chance to sign a basketball legend and it occurred 100% inside of the proposal part of the process.

What can we learn from the Nike team members’ mistakes here? They failed to make Steph Curry feel special in their proposal presentation and didn’t make him feel like he was the winner in the end. It was more about Nike than Steph. They didn’t show appreciation for the opportunity.

Shocking right? Although I want to believe our dealerships do things differently, this situation is more common than you think. The proposals I see across the nation are terrible. They mirror Nike’s laziness. A sales leader or president would only need to perform a surprise inspection of the proposals being presented by their sales teams to come away feeling disgusted and embarrassed.

Many dealers across the country have implemented proposal templates to ensure the right information is shared with customers. However, we cannot forget that proposals should be tailored to each customer’s individual needs. You knew that when you created the templates. The proposal should be about the customer’s company, not yours. Without customization, you just have a shallow template that does not do anything except talk about your company — and your customers know it.

A Proposal Template Versus a Proposal That Builds Value

A proposal template is about you and your company, while a proposal that builds value is about the customer’s company and how your solution can help it achieve its goals. One of these is interesting for the customer to engage with and the other is boring. Everything is more interesting when we can see ourselves inside of it.

The proposal should have a ... comparison table that reminds the customer which options are unique and how those contribute to a better-fit solution ...

Think about those personality tests you have taken over the years (DiSC, StrengthsFinder, Myers Briggs) — the ones where you had to answer all those questions and then the system gave you custom-tailored, written responses about who you are and your areas of opportunity. I bet you read through every single line of those responses. Why? Because they were about you! Your proposals should aim to get to the same place of interest with your customers.

Making a Proposal More About Your Customer

How much do we know about our customer? That is when we go back to the beginning of value building (see part one on criteria discovery). How did we prepare for that first appointment? How did we bring expertise, what did we learn about our customer from our research and what criteria did we discover in our meeting? What opportunities did we find and what next steps did we choose to explore further? How did we diagnose (see the recording of my March 21 webinar at www. bta.org/BMBArchives) the customer’s challenges, and what solutions did we both find and prove out to our customer?

When you follow a value-building process, you learn more about the customer’s company. You become its advocate and you go on a quest to find a better solution for what it is doing today. Everything you do is about the customer.

When you follow a sales process of building value, you have an open dialog of communication throughout the process. When you get to the proposal stage, what is left is for you to take the time to connect all the dots in your final summary proposal. I have found that proposal templates that do this well include, at a minimum, the following pages:

(1) Relevant cover page — The cover page is the customer’s first impression of your proposal. You should aim for him (or her) to look at it and think, “Wow. This is really made for us.” Think about how you could use the company’s images, logo and terminology.

(2) Criteria/challenge page — The criteria page is where you answer the customer’s question: “Why are we looking at this solution again?” This could be a legitimate question from a decision-maker hiding somewhere in the shadows.

The best proposals I have seen show this criteria page in

the form of quotes heard from the customer throughout the sales process. These quotes should highlight the challenges the customer’s company has been facing, how critical they are and the importance of solving them. When you show your solution as being more expensive than what the customer has today, this page should really emphasize: “You get what you pay for. You need to invest in a better solution so you don’t continue to have the same problems.”

(3) Technology face-off comparison page — It is normal for the customer to wonder, “What makes the product/solution different from what we are using today?” We are used to comparing solutions. Amazon built a business around this concept of comparisons and it is proof that consumers like it.

Our products and solutions are not an easy thing to compare for our customers. In fact, our customers will not want to go down that rabbit hole. They will more often jump to the conclusion that if no one is comparing the solutions then they must all be comparable, which is not the truth. That is why we need to do this for them.

The best salespeople showcase those improvements inside of a proof of concept or a tailored demo for the customer that brings to life how easily its challenges can be removed forever. The proposal should have a spreadsheet-like comparison table that reminds the customer which options are unique and how those contribute to a better-fit solution for his company.

(4) Vendor face-off comparison page — No vendor is the same. I have seen it firsthand working with dealers across the country. Every company has its own unique advantages that, in many cases, are not being clearly explained to prospects.

The worst proposals I have seen showcase pages that focus just on sales reps’ companies. They are proud of what those pages say, but the problem is they do not help the customer compare those attributes to other vendors in the area. Just like with the technology face-off above, the vendor comparison should be retooled to challenge the customer to ask other vendors if they have the same credentials, offerings and support. Remember, it is normal for us to ask him to compare. We are looking for his company’s business in the long term. Shouldn’t it be obvious that he should go with you after he does that due diligence?

(5) Financial TCO comparison page — What is the business case for your solution? Does it cost justify with how much the company is spending today from its direct and indirect costs? If you have taken the time during the sales process to diagnose the company’s challenges, you should have the costs of how much it is spending today and the costs that come as a result of the inefficiencies it has today. You should have gotten these costs from the customer and even had

conversations about this prior to presenting your proposal. All of this should be captured inside of a total-cost-ofownership (TCO) page that highlights how much the company is spending today, keeping in mind all of the costs associated with those areas compared to how your recommended solution will solve it all. Remember, people will pay for better. They do it every single day.

Remember that people will pay more for better ... Make sure you are applying a process that helps your customers see why your solutions are the best for their companies.

(6) Executive unique-offer page — Everyone wants to get a special deal before they buy something. It is human nature. Your customer is no different. You have a choice here. Do you want to present something and then be stuck waiting for an answer, hoping that it will come in? Or do you want to set up this deal with a reason, on top of everything else, to do it now — on your time frame? That is why you do an executive unique offer. Build that special gift into your price so you are not discounting after the fact.

(7) Agreements/DocuSign — If you have done everything right and it is all there for the customer, there is only one question remaining: “Are we ready to move forward?”

Whether you have the contracts printed out for the customer or sent over via a digital signature solution like DocuSign, it should be a statement from you saying, “We have been through a lot in this process and I know this is the best solution for your company. Let’s move forward to the next step.”

Value-Building Series Summary

In every organization, there are salespeople who are having incredible success and making good money. It becomes our mission to replicate that type of success and performance, as it is necessary for our growth. As leaders, we may look at these salespeople and think the answer is solely in recruiting more of these talented individuals.

The solution, however, is inside of how we teach value building at our organizations. It starts with the process of uncovering criteria that we use inside of our first appointments. It continues with how we set up sales processes for our teams to follow that foster becoming more like technology consultants, and build trust and confidence around our solutions. Ultimately, it finishes with how we bring it all together by connecting those dots in the proposal.

Remember that people will pay more for better. We all do it every day. Make sure you are applying a process that helps your customers see why your solutions are the best for their companies. n

Derek Shebby, founder of Modern Sales Training, spent 17 years as a top sales executive and sales director with Mr. Copy (MRC)/ Xerox in San Diego, California. MRC was the largest Xerox agent in the nation before being acquired by Global Imaging Systems

in 2009. During his tenure, Shebby oversaw the performance and development of hundreds of salespeople and sales leaders across the state. Specializing in the entire sales process, he helped grow MRC from $40 million to more than $100 million in annual revenue (30 to 500 employees).

Since 2020, Shebby has coached dealership sales managers, vice presidents and presidents to sales growth and profitability by implementing proven industry strategies and modern sales leadership processes. Be sure to check out his new Value Building Workshop starting this month. Shebby also runs a sales boot camp that is being utilized by the top dealers in the country, has an MPS workshop (sponsored by Clover) and a sales community called OUTLIERS. He can be reached at derek@modernsalestraining.com and has exclusive sales trainings for BTA members at www.modernsalestraining.com/BTA. Visit www.modernsalestraining.com.

Remote Versus In Person

The debate

over

which sales strategy is best continues

by: David Aulisio, Automated Business Solutions

While the COVID-19 pandemic is over, its impact certainly remains. This effect, combined with ongoing advancements in technology and changes in consumer behavior, continue to stimulate much debate on which sales strategy is better — remote or in person. Are sales executives thriving today where “remote selling” has become a very effective tool?

Do the most successful sales executives (including those of us within the independent dealer channel) seek ongoing “face-to-face” interaction with customers?

As successful sales executives evolve within our industry, I strongly believe that those who overachieve are successful because they have strong work ethics and create habits for themselves that generate ongoing sales prospects. Some are stronger when selling remotely. Others prefer face-to-face contact. Many effectively deploy both strategies. So, is one strategy better than the other? Honestly, I don’t know. As sales leaders, do we really care what approach is deployed as long as we effectively support our customers, grow the sales pipeline and close business?

Many of us encourage our sales executives to constantly be in front of people. I fully support that, especially if a sales rep’s skill set and account types support live interaction. If you prefer reps to be in the field and demand live interaction, just make sure it is really happening and that you hold people accountable for that specific (live meeting) activity. Ask yourself: Are my sales reps’ activities “running the business” or are they “growing the business”? Are they flipping a base or getting you the organic growth you seek?

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have also seen many situations where successful sales executives are able to use tools like Microsoft Teams, effective phone calls and creative business writing to shorten sales cycles and build high-level relationships. My employer, Automated Business Solutions, covers all of New England and many accounts nationally. As a team, we would not be successful in many

accounts if we were not effective in supporting, providing strategy for and growing accounts remotely. Having a strong remote strategy provides for improved time and account management.

We also need to think about our customers’ needs and have a better understanding of what drives consumer behavior. Today, customers have access to resources where they may already know what you offer before you walk in the door. Conducting effective account reviews via webinars has been a great tool to reinforce relationships and create new selling opportunities. This is a bit of a mixed message, but throughout my career some of my highest-grossing accounts have been those I see (in person) the least.

Which works best, a remote or an in-person selling strategy? I think it is a debate that will continue. Whatever strategy is deployed, I do think we need to be careful about painting a “broad-brush” approach for all sales reps. Times have changed and it is a reality we need to embrace. People today are coming to us with a variety of skill sets and personal (work/life balance) needs. I think it is important that we focus on their strengths instead of trying to force behaviors and tasks that might not work.

There are certainly some accounts where live interaction is likely best. In our business, being visible can no doubt create opportunities just by walking around an office and asking questions. However, there are other times when a planned, remote strategy could work best to create value over a period of time. I do think the main goal is to always have live interaction, but if you can effectively move sales cycles forward in other ways, why not?

Whether it is the account or the sales rep, I think this is not a one-size-fits-all mentality. Obviously, smaller deals usually have shorter sales cycles, so it might be easier to “pop in” to an account given its size. Larger accounts likely come with longer sales cycles, with more influencers and stakeholders involved in final decisions. Larger accounts

might require using LinkedIn, webinars, ongoing email correspondence and conferencing solutions to bring multiple people together to move opportunities along over an extended period of time.

As I considered the remote versus inperson debate in writing this article, I did what my teenage son does with a lot of his homework assignments — I Googled it. I simply Googled “remote versus in-person selling” and the following result was provided: “One of the advantages of face-to-face interactions is that sales reps can read a prospect’s body language and facial expressions. These are often missing in remote sales, especially via phone and email. Virtual interaction doesn’t have that intangible connection people make when talking face to face.”

As sales leaders, let’s continue to build on the strengths of our people to grow the pipeline and keep our customers happy.

No doubt, this statement generated by Google will resonate with those embracing a face-to-face strategy. Many who prefer face-to-face interaction may say that virtual interaction does not have the same “connection.” I cannot argue with that. But, again, some who successfully deploy

remote strategies may think otherwise.

As sales leaders, let’s continue to build on the strengths of our people to grow the pipeline and keep our customers happy. Depending on the account and the sales rep’s capabilities, if that requires more face-to-face interaction, I support it. If you have sales executives who have proven to grow their business and support their customers by deploying remote strategies, I see nothing wrong with that either. n With a successful career in both the direct manufacturer and independent dealer communities, David Aulisio has been vice president of business development for Automated Business Solutions (ABS), based in Warwick, Rhode Island, since 2019. He has helped ABS find success throughout New England by focusing on employee development, solutions selling and new business partnerships. Aulisio can be reached at daulisio@absne.com. Visit www.absne.com.

Transformational Power

How Xerox is embracing artificial intelligence

by: Steve Miller, Xerox Corp.

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries at an unprecedented pace. From health care to finance, AIdriven innovations are revolutionizing traditional practices and redefining standards of efficiency and effectiveness. Within this dynamic milieu, the print industry is no exception; AI technologies are increasingly integrated to optimize processes, enhance output quality and elevate client experiences.

At Xerox, we are introducing innovative AI-powered solutions to enhance client service, streamline workflows and drive workplace productivity, focusing on realizing high value in generative AI and other AI use cases as part of our digital services growth strategy.

Recognizing the promising potential of AI in enhancing our offerings, Xerox and its partners prioritize security within the realm of AI, addressing multifaceted concerns such as data privacy, ethical considerations and regulatory compliance. This commitment is demonstrated through our AI Center of Excellence (COE), which develops comprehensive guidelines and provides ongoing training to ensure ethical AI practices. Positioned at the forefront of AI evolution in the print industry, Xerox is ready to shape its trajectory with a focus on security and responsible utilization.

At the core of Xerox’s digital transformation is robotic process automation (RPA), orchestrating efficiency across departments. More than 600 live bots integrated into our applications navigate data, automating repetitive processes, which allows employees to focus on higher-value work. RPA illuminates pathways in our supply chain, amplifying troubleshooting precision. This internal success highlights automation’s transformative power and efficiency.

Building on this experience, we launched an external offering dedicated to providing RPA as a service. Through RPA, clients optimize operations, boost efficiency and elevate satisfaction. Our journey from internal RPA utilization to external service reflects our dedication to excellence and understanding of automation’s potential. AI tools automate manual tasks, benefiting partners with increased productivity, lower costs and enhanced competitiveness.

Xerox prioritizes AI integration to elevate client services, evident in our diverse range of AI-driven solutions. Leveraging internal technology, we develop innovative external offerings. We have placed significant emphasis on utilizing AI to enhance service delivery for our clients. For instance, our

Xerox Quick Resolve app employs predictive AI models to enhance remote solve rates and first-time-fix rates for field service technicians. Furthermore, the CareAR platform utilizes AI and augmented reality (AR), providing live visual remote assistance to field technicians, minimizing dispatches and improving diagnostic accuracy.

In managed print services, AI analytics drive deeper insights, simplifying processes and enabling predictive support, reducing downtime and enhancing security. Our Intelligent Document Processing automates workflows, while Xerox ConnectKey AI apps cater to paper-reliant industries, translating documents and converting handwritten notes into digital files. Finally, in the production printing market, our FreeFlow Core streamlines prepress tasks, saving time and costs.

Moreover, in today’s fast-paced business environment, downtime for production presses or multifunction printers (MFPs) can lead to significant revenue losses and erode client trust. Recognizing the impact of unplanned device downtime, Xerox has developed a proactive solution harnessing AI to revolutionize maintenance strategies. Through our predictive AI offering, Xerox empowers businesses to shift from reactive to proactive maintenance, minimizing or eliminating unplanned downtime. Our web-based dashboard, driven by AI, enables users to monitor devices, access actionable predictive insights, enhance service performance and leverage real-time critical data. This enables businesses to maximize printer uptime, ensuring uninterrupted operations and maintaining client satisfaction.

With the implementation of seamless services, our priority of sustainability is evident. Xerox’s MFPs exemplify this commitment by reducing their carbon footprints. By consolidating multiple functions into one machine, Xerox MFPs significantly decrease energy consumption, using approximately 50% less energy than the combined annual consumption of the individual products they replace. Furthermore, Xerox prioritizes energy efficiency in product design, ensuring optimal energy usage for image capture or projection. Additionally, Xerox Managed Print Services streamline print environments and processes, enhancing energy efficiency and minimizing environmental impact, aligning with our dedication to sustainability and responsible business practices.

AI has and will continue to have a profound impact on the office technology industry’s future ... Embracing continuous learning is key to staying ahead ...

all sectors. Embracing continuous learning is key to staying ahead in this rapidly evolving landscape. n

AI has and will continue to have a profound impact on the office technology industry’s future. Through its vast suite of solutions, Xerox envisions a landscape where routine tasks in the workplace are automated, AI-powered chatbots are ubiquitous and critical business decisions are augmented across

Shipping Insurance

One of the biggest frustrations

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As Xerox’s chief digital officer, Steve Miller is responsible for developing and executing Xerox’s global digital strategy, focusing on analytics, data, AI, robotic process automation and related commercial services to enable Xerox to be at the forefront of digital technologies. He works closely with internal teams, enterprise and SMB customers, and partners to generate innovative digital solutions for products, services, customer experiences, marketing channels and business models. Miller has more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry. Before joining Xerox, he held leadership roles at HP and DXC, gaining expertise in transformation, shared services, IT, major accounts and finance. Miller can be reached at stephen.miller@xerox.com. Visit www.xerox.com.

Your Employee Handbook

Ensure that all of your information is current

My March column focused on the U.S. Department of Labor’s new legal test for classifying employees versus independent contractors. This month continues the theme of employment law issues with a commonly neglected, but critically important, topic: employee handbooks. Though many dealers understandably prefer not to bear the expense of updating their onboarding materials, new regulations and judicial decisions from 2023 — in part, in reaction to dramatic increases in remote and hybrid work arrangements resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic — warrant a fresh look at employee handbooks to ensure legal compliance. You should prioritize the following issues:

n Workplace Accommodations — Generally speaking, a workplace accommodation is an adjustment to a job or a work environment that enables an employee to perform in his (or her) role. Historically, workplace accommodation policies primarily covered individuals with disabilities or chronic medical conditions. Following developments from 2023, employers should expand the scope of their workplace accommodation policies to include explicit language addressing accommodations related to pregnancy and religious beliefs.

Under a new 2023 law, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), private-sector businesses with at least 15 employees (i.e., “covered employers”) are required to provide “reasonable accommodations” for workers with limitations resulting from pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions. Some examples of reasonable accommodation requests under the PWFA include parking spaces located closer to an employer’s facility, appropriately sized uniforms for pregnancy or additional break time to combat fatigue.

Similarly, in a recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Groff v. DeJoy, all nine justices unanimously agreed that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from denying employees’ accommodation requests based on their religious beliefs or practices. Religious commitments are wide ranging. For instance, they may preclude observant employees from working on certain holidays or require them to pray at specific times throughout the workday. As long as an employee’s request does not substantially increase the cost basis of the employer, it is likely to be considered legally valid.

Updated workplace accommodation policies that incorporate recent changes in the law should not require employees to make accommodation requests in writing. Instead, a better

by: Greg Goldberg, incoming BTA General Counsel

practice is to designate a point person to handle employee accommodation requests and ensure he recognizes the types of specific requests that invoke legal protections.

n At-Will Employment — Terminating underperforming employees always poses a risk to employers because defending against a wrongful termination lawsuit may be prohibitively costly, even if the employer prevails. Fortunately, at-will employment arrangements allow employers to terminate employees for any lawful reason — or no reason at all.

Employee handbook terms outlining the parameters of at-will employment should be clear and unequivocal. For instance, an effective policy may read: “Neither this handbook nor any other representation made to an employee creates an express or implied contract of employment.” Employee handbook or policy language that potentially creates a contract of employment should be avoided. Common examples of language to be avoided include references to future dates or future obligations placed on the employer.

n Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) — Some companies are implementing DEI policies to foster more diverse and inclusive workplaces. Because DEI policies have become a politically charged topic, the focus here is strictly limited to legal compliance for employee handbook policies. Last year, in Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-conscious affirmative action considerations in the higher education admissions process. Unlike colleges and universities, U.S. employers have never been permitted to consider an applicant’s race, gender, ethnicity or other protected class status in making hiring decisions. Along these lines, DEI initiatives should be mindful of overstepping the threshold between encouragement and requirement. For instance, where an employer may make efforts to attract a more diverse applicant pool, equalize employment practices (including compensation) or recognize certain groups or individuals, the employer should not adopt hard and fast rules, such as hiring quotas.

A variety of employment resources, including sample forms and documents, is available at www.bta.org/LegalDocuments. n

Greg Goldberg, partner at Barta | Goldberg, is incoming general counsel for the Business Technology Association. He can be reached at ggoldberg@bartagoldberg.com or (310) 479-1454.

BTA HIGHLIGHTS

BTA would like to welcome the following new members to the association:

Dealer Members

Advanced Integrated Systems Ltd., Kingston, Jamaica

ClearView Business Solutions, Tampa, FL

DRP Solutions, Hauppauge, NY

MRA International Inc., Long Branch, NJ

PBP Tech, Sofia, WV

Vendor Member

Color Imaging, Norcross, GA

For full contact information of these new members, visit www.bta.org.

BTA Scholarship Program

Each year, BTA awards one $3,000, one $2,000, and a number of $1,500 and $1,000 scholarships to qualifying applicants.

To qualify, applicants must be (at the time of the evaluation and the award): A full-time employee, or the son or daughter of a fulltime employee, of a current BTA member dealership AND a full-time student maintaining a class schedule of at least 12 hours (nine hours for graduate students) of college credits per semester throughout the school year covered by the scholarship.

Scholarship applications must be postmarked by May 1, 2024. To download an application, visit www.bta.org/Scholarships. For more information, visit www.bta.org/Scholarships.

For information on BTA member benefits, visit www.bta.org/MemberBenefits.

For the benefit of its dealer members, each month BTA features two of its vendor members.

Since 2009, 3manager has redefined printer management. Designed by skilled consultants, its platform facilitates online collaboration with end users, enhancing loyalty and streamlining time-consuming tasks, while enabling sales consultants to assist their customers in achieving peak printing efficiency. Around the globe, more than 21,000 companies have placed their trust in 3manager for efficient multibrand printer management. These businesses are expertly serviced by hundreds of dedicated printer dealerships, ensuring top-notch support and streamlined operations, no matter where they are.

www.3manager.com

For more than 30 years, Static Control has continued to provide everything needed to succeed in the printer cartridge aftermarket. A relationship with Static Control gives you more than just products; it develops unique solutions to meet your challenges. In-house toner and component manufacturing ensures repeatable performance. Static Control knows the importance of intellectual property in this industry and never stops providing the safest aftermarket solutions. Its engineers review each of its system solutions, and the company protects its innovations with patents.

www.scc-inc.com

A full list of BTA vendor members can be found online at www.bta.org.

THANK YOU, BOB

An Industry Patriarch

Thank you, Bob, for helping to lead our industry

by: John Kuchta, All Copy Products

Editor’s Note: On June 30, 2024, Bob Goldberg will retire from his service as general counsel for the Business Technology Association (BTA). He has served in that role since 1977. On July 1, his son, Greg Goldberg, will become the association’s new general counsel. The two have worked together for many months preparing for the transition. This article is the third of several to pay tribute to Bob, thanking him for his many years of service to the association and the office technology industry.

In 1977, I met Bob Goldberg. That was the year he became general counsel for what was then the National Office Machine Dealers Association (NOMDA), now the Business Technology Association (BTA). I was a member of a governing body of the association at the time, the NOMDA Board of Regents. We immediately became friends. At the time, we were the “young guns” at NOMDA.

During the 1970s and 1980s, there was a persistent adversarial relationship between manufacturers and dealers. Bob worked daily on improving life for the NOMDA member dealer. He did this in a variety of ways — by reviewing dealer contracts, providing legal support to dealers and working to settle disputes. He also developed relationships with the manufacturers. These relationships were critical in negotiating agreements that were fair and equitable to the dealer channel.

In 1983, NOMDA was instrumental in the introduction of federal legislation known as the Office Machine and Equipment Dealers Act. During this time, dealer agreements were not fair and could be canceled without cause. The act was designed to set a standard of good faith in all dealings between manufacturers/ distributors/suppliers and independent dealers. Bob immediately took the lead in lobbying Congress. His passion for and support of the independent dealer channel led to the industry we enjoy today.

Bob spent weeks in Washington, D.C., promoting this bill. He spent four years on the bill, advocating for the dealer, but also educating the industry that fair business practices were good for everyone, including the end-user customer. While the bill never became law, Bob’s efforts led to improvements in industry practices regarding fair and equitable relationships between dealers and manufacturers.

It is my observation that we are a much-improved industry today because of Bob’s efforts to promote fair business practices. He has worked daily for this industry for 40-plus years. If you have ever had to call Bob, then you know he personally calls you back and works until the job gets done. He is always seeking truth and fairness for all sides of an issue.

Bob taught me much in my career. Thank you, Bob, for being a mentor. I think the most important thing he taught me is to be available and humble. Bob is the first to thank and acknowledge everyone else for what they do. It is now time for us to thank Bob. We live in the greatest country in the world and work in the best industry. Thank you, Bob, for helping to lead our industry.

Bob may be retiring as general counsel for BTA, but he will not be leaving the industry. I know he will continue to support our industry in any way he can. I would also like to thank Bob’s wife, Carol, for giving us Bob for more than 40 years. You both are the best! I salute you, Bob, as a patriarch of the office technology industry. n

John Kuchta served as 1983-84 president of the National Office Machine Dealers Association (NOMDA; now BTA). In 1993, he was elected to serve as president of the Copier Dealers Association (CDA). Kuchta has served in a variety of industry dealer councils as well. He has been in the industry since 1970, serving as president and owner of Lincoln Office Equipment (dba SolutionOne) until 2019, when he sold the business to All Copy Products Inc. (ACP), Aurora, Colorado. Today, Kuchta serves as the Nebraska/ Iowa branch manager for ACP. He can be reached at jkuchta@allcopyproducts.com. Visit www.allcopyproducts.com.

Above: An article (two of eight pages shown) from the October 1983 NOMDA Spokesman about the Office Machine and Equipment Dealers Act featuring Kuchta and Goldberg. Left: Goldberg and Kuchta.

Drop-Shipping Orders

Have dealers been able to reduce on-hand supplies?

Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

Following are two related questions submitted by a dealer member as part of BTA’s Dealers Helping Dealers resource and many of the answers received. These answers and many others can be found in the members-only section of the BTA website. Visit www.bta.org/Dealers HelpingDealers. You will need your username and password to access this member resource.

expensive in-stock items. Naturally, we have seen an increase in shipping costs, but try to find vendors that have a flat fee or do not charge shipping over a certain amount. You may also see an increase in overnight shipping fees in emergency situations. You do lose the ability to control the products that are going out to the customer, prices may fluctuate and you won’t necessarily be notified of items on backorder.”

Casey Milligan, senior vice president of operations

Has any dealer successfully reduced his (or her) on-hand supply inventory by drop-shipping more than 80% of sales orders in support of his clients/ devices? What has that process been like?

“Yes, we drop-ship more than 90% of supplies to our office customers through Distribution Management. They tie in nicely to our DCA (Printanista). Production customers are handled from our inventory, as proactive supplies replenishment is not feasible due to the short print windows and large volume.”

Thomas Fimian, CEO

Levifi, Charleston, South Carolina

“Yes, and it’s working very well. You have to make sure you have a reliable partner.”

Chip Miceli, CEO

Pulse Technology, Schaumburg, Illinois

“Yes. It’s very easy. We changed our min/max on stock items to lower quantities and have been drop-shipping as much as we can.”

Stephen Valenta, owner Offix LC, Gainesville, Virginia

“I cannot say that we’re drop-shipping 80% of our supplies, however, we have significantly decreased the amount of toner that we store in inventory by drop-shipping to the majority of our end users. Along with minimizing inventory, we were able to mitigate the number of orders we ship out of our warehouse and are now able to handle shipping, on average, 60 orders per day with one part-time employee. It also takes less time to take inventory and place restock orders. The PO process to send out to vendors takes a little more time, as we price shop based on availability of several vendors to make sure we procure the least

Higher Information Group, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

“I don’t know if we hit 80%, but we are trying. FMAudit has been difficult to manage, forcing us to keep product on hand. Some people get too much toner and others are calling in for emergency toner. It’s not a problem that can be fixed and needs dedicated people to manage it.”

Nick Lioce, president

The Lioce Group, Huntsville, Alabama

“We drop-ship when it makes sense for ABS and the client, but not more than 80%. Our goal is to make certain we maximize the client experience, as sales reps are encouraged to be at every delivery. At times, drop-shipping may not always be the best solution. We are, however, doing more of this on lower-end deals.”

David Aulisio, vice president of business development

Automated Business Solutions (ABS), Warwick, Rhode Island

“Yes. We changed to drop-shipping any supply orders we originally would send from our stock by UPS. We now only ship from our stock in emergency situations or when our stock levels are too high.”

Jeffrey Taylor, systems engineer

Kingsport Imaging Systems Inc., Kingsport, Tennessee

“We are working to be at 80%; we are probably at 60% now. I am very hands-on and like the control of having inventory, but saving on shipping from my location has been a nice bump. PO Processor makes it really smooth.”

Clay Turner, owner

CSRA Document Solutions, North Augusta, South Carolina n Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine. He can be reached at brent@bta.org or (816) 303-4040.

Prospecting Today

It has changed & you must change with it

by: Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates

Are your salespeople seeing their prospecting numbers and ratios decrease? If so, you — and they — are not alone. Sales is evolving and we have to evolve with it. It is time to redefine what cold-call prospecting really means — and, along with that redefinition, we can realize that prospecting might be even more important now.

Thirty years ago, if you were calling from a good database, doing the “person who” call and using a strong introduction, you would generally get a contact (speaking to the person you wanted to talk to) about one out of every three times you dialed the phone. Then, if your introduction was strong, you would get an appointment on one out of every two to three contacts. Hence, if you were doing it right, you would get an appointment on one out of every six to nine dials. That is a pretty good number.

Most of the time, salespeople working from a good database could average 20 dials per hour; so, an hour of focused cold calling got you two to three appointments. There was a very linear relationship between calling one week and appointments the following week. For most of us, that has changed.

Now (in most B2B industries), you are lucky if you get a contact on one out of every 10 dials. From what I see, the contact-to-appointment ratio has dropped as well, but not as drastically; now it is more like four contacts yields one appointment, most likely because one-size-fits-all messaging is not as effective. What this means is that, now, doing it the old way takes about two hours of focused cold calling to get one appointment.

However, when I have done cold-calling training with my clients, I have noticed a curious phenomenon. When a salesperson leaves strong voicemails (more on that in a minute), his (or her) LinkedIn profile views go up in the next couple of days. Who is viewing his profile? You guessed it — some of the people he tried to call. This means that whatever the salesperson said on the prospects’ voicemails interested them enough to check the salesperson out, even if they didn’t return his calls. Even 30 years ago, only about 10% to 20% of voicemails were returned, so that’s never been a strong lead generator. Right now, I am seeing about 25% to 30% of voicemails result in LinkedIn profile views.

The purpose of cold calling is simple: We want to find people who can buy from us but do not know we exist and spark their interest so they might buy from us now or in the future. If prospects are interested enough in what you said that they

typed your name into LinkedIn and looked you up, you have sparked at least some interest in them.

Next, of course, you should request a connection on LinkedIn. The idea is to get on the prospect’s radar and stay there. And, if you can pick up three to four new LinkedIn connections from an hour’s worth of prospecting, you have won.

In redefining prospecting, we need to think of creating awareness that you exist as someone who can solve problems for your customers. The old cold-calling strategy held that any call that did not result in an appointment was a failure. In fact, I used to teach salespeople to make three attempts to reach a prospect by phone before leaving a voicemail. That is obsolete; the voicemail should now be considered a messaging medium, just like social media or LinkedIn, with the objective of creating awareness.

With that in mind, here is my recommended new prospecting process:

(1) Start with a good database — The data you begin with still matters. You should have a database of targeted prospects using whatever demographics work for you. I normally recommend searching by geography, type of business and size of company. This database should include contact names and titles. Most quality databases do.

(2) Three minutes of research — I used to discourage this, because in the old “only-an-appointment-is-success” model, extensive research slowed down the process and cut into the number of quality dials. Now? Your message — whether delivered voice to voice in the case of a contact, or by voicemail if not — must be personalized. It should speak directly to your

prospect, his position and the company’s anticipated needs; two to three minutes on the prospect’s website and his LinkedIn page should get you there.

(3) Call — When you call, be prepared to deliver a great, short and impactful introduction about how you can help the prospect with a possible need that you spotted. Remember: Attention spans are short; your introduction should be, too. The numbers say that you might get a contact in only one out of 10 calls, but you had better be well prepared for that call.

When you call, be prepared to deliver a great, short and impactful introduction about how you can help the prospect with a possible need that you spotted.

(4) Leave a voicemail — Again, this is a departure from the past. Leave a short, impactful voicemail about how you can help, with multiple ways to contact you. Invite your prospect to call, text or look you up on LinkedIn. Leaving an email address is fine if it is simple and comes across well in a message. Remember, the first sentence must hit hard. You want to capture interest before the prospect hits the delete key.

(5) Watch your LinkedIn views — As I said before, you are likely to get LinkedIn views from those you prospect. When you do, reach out, connect and take a long-play approach to messaging them.

(6) Repeat — If nothing happens, wait a couple of weeks and call again, changing your message.

The management of prospecting activity is even more critical than it was in the past; prospecting is more of a slow play now, so salespeople get that immediate dopamine hit of an appointment less frequently than they did a decade or more ago. However, if they execute this process consistently, diligently and skillfully, their sales funnels can be as full as they have ever been. That is where your leadership comes in. Remind salespeople that, although prospecting is a delayed gratification strategy now, it is still vital and will build results in the long run. Prospecting has changed. Change with it and lead your team in the change. n Troy Harrison is the author of “Sell Like You Mean It” and “The Pocket Sales Manager.”

He helps companies navigate the elements of sales on their journeys to success.

To schedule a free 45-minute Sales Strategy Review, call (913) 645-3603 or email troy@troyharrison.com. Visit www.troyharrison.com.

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