January 2017 Office Technology

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CONTENTS Volume 23 • No. 7

FEATURE ARTICLES 10

The Year Ahead: Part One Dealers share strategies for success in 2017

COURTS & CAPITOLS Competing for Employees Government guidance has recently been issued

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by Robert C. Goldberg BTA General Counsel

Compiled by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

What do you believe will be the areas of greatest opportunity for office technology dealers in 2017?

What do you believe will be the best strategies for success in pursuing those opportunities? Recently, Office Technology magazine asked these questions of dealers via an email survey. Following are many of the responses received. (The February issue will feature additional responses.) Perhaps the comments shared by your fellow dealers mirror your plans — or provide some new ideas.

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It is well understood that dealers compete with each other for the sale of equipment, service, support and supplies. The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission recently issued written guidance on how the antitrust laws apply to employee hiring and compensation decisions.

P R I N C I PA L I S S U E S The Future of Office Printing Speed, color capability driving print device use

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The Silent Majority?

Taking steps to eliminate vulnerable accounts

by Christine Dunne InfoTrends

Dealers across the United States are seeking more strategies for growing their businesses. InfoTrends recently conducted a primary research study, “The Future of Office Printing,” to look at printing trends and expectations across company size categories, ages and job roles.

by Rick Reynolds AskForensics

When it comes to growing the business and increasing sales, most business owners look to new customers and accounts. However, did you know that your biggest account wins could be with the clients you already have? Strengthening your relationships with existing customers is the most cost-effective and efficient way to grow your business.

This process often starts with assessing whether your current accounts are strong, vulnerable or damaged.

While every business is unique, there are a number of common causes for lost sales and vulnerable accounts.

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The Interview Process Six steps to identifying the ‘great pretenders’

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by Troy Harrison Troy Harrison & Associates

What if you had to enter a business process that was mission critical to the success of your company, but you were outmanned and outgunned? Worse, what if you felt like you were flying blind most of the time? I have pretty much described the average hiring process.

Seven for Success Key concepts every sales rep should master

by Kate Kingston Kingston Training Group

The goal of prospecting is for the sales rep to deliver a unique proposition that creates enough perceived value so the prospect will want to meet with the rep. In this article, I will share seven key concepts (and how to identify them) that office technology dealership owners should expect their reps to fully understand and utilize when pitching to new prospects that will allow them to move the conversation from the introduction to the discovery phase.

First, you should know how your dealership is truly different from your competition.

D E PA R T M E N T S Business Technology Association

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• BTA Highlights

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Executive Director’s Page

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BTA President’s Message

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Advertiser Index

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S PAGE

Dealers Share 2017 Success Strategies

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hat do you believe will be the areas of greatest opportunity for office technology dealers in 2017? What do you believe will be the best strategies for success in pursuing those opportunities? Recently, I asked these questions of dealers via an email survey. My hope is that the responses will provide you new ideas that could help to guide you in your business. Below are eight of the responses received. For additional responses, see the cover story feature starting on page 10.

Opportunities: Our greatest challenges for 2017 will be in hiring, training and retention.

Strategies: Strategies will include repositioning people to utilize their strengths, helping them work on their weaknesses and fostering continued growth. We need to continue to help salespeople enhance their skills and strive for better account coverage.

— Michelle McManus, president, Benchmark Office Systems Inc., Londonderry, New Hampshire Opportunities: To become a full-service solution provider for your customers; to manage service, manage print and support solutions. You become the source for all their office equipment and technical needs.

Strategies: Hiring salespeople with computer and software knowledge; and training your sales and service staff members to identify the opportunities when they come.

Your team needs to be in constant training.

— Jose Lopez, president, Barlop Inc., Miami, Florida Opportunities: MPS continues to be a significant opportunity.

Strategies: The tools available to manage fleets have improved a lot in the last two years.

The key to effective management is instant access to information and the ability to proactively address customer issues and needs.

— Dave Strohman, president & managing partner, Executive Technologies Inc., Sioux City, Iowa Opportunities: Solution sales Strategies: (1) Leveraging the strength of existing client relationships. (2) Continuing to be a leader in true solutions for our clients’ needs.

— Matt Smith, president & CEO, AOS, Doylestown, Pennsylvania Opportunities: Managed services Strategies: Start small and with existing clients. Hire the best people to assist with industry knowledge. Don’t make it a race to the basement with pricing.

— Mark A. Van Den Hoek, owner, The Office Advantage, Mitchell, South Dakota Opportunities: MNS and solutions Strategies: Increase marketing efforts; make sure our marketing message is really relevant to our prospects and customers; and expand the sales force.

— Dean Boring, president & CEO, Boring Business Systems, Lakeland, Florida Opportunities: I believe it will still be selling and servicing color equipment.

Strategies: We need to utilize our salespeople better, and better understand social media and communications with customers.

— Mike Mitchell, owner, Office Equipment Source, Elmira, New York Opportunities: I believe continuing to bring complementing services to our current clients is one of the best areas for growth.

Strategies: Make the proper investments in the new services that you are rolling out and aggressively introduce them to your current clientele.

— John G. Frisch V, president, Higher Information Group, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania n — Brent Hoskins

Executive 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 Christine Dunne, InfoTrends www.keypointintelligence.com Robert C. Goldberg, General Counsel Business Technology Association Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates www.troyharrison.com Kate Kingston, Kingston Training Group www.kingstontraining.com Rick Reynolds, AskForensics www.askforensics.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: (800) 869-6688 Valerie Briseno Marketing Director valerie@bta.org Mary Hopkins Database Administrator mary@bta.org Teresa Leerar Bookkeeper teresa@bta.org Brian Smith Membership Sales Manager brian@bta.org Photo Credits: Bigstockphoto. Cover created by Bruce Quade, Brand X Studio. ©2017 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.

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BTA PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

BTA’s Winter Break Set for March 24-25

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his is my favorite event of the year,” wrote Jeffrey Glass of TPM Inc. in Greenville, South Carolina, on his evaluation form at the conclusion of the most recent BTA event held in Orlando, Florida. “I take more notes and hear more best practices that I actually implement than at any other show or conference I attend.”

If you are looking to experience the same high-quality learning opportunity that Jeffrey describes, then I encourage you to register for the Business Technology Association’s (BTA’s) first event of 2017 — Spring Break, hosted by BTA Southeast. The educational and networking event, planned and hosted by BTA dealer volunteers, will be held March 24-25 at the phenomenal Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in Orlando, Florida.

Spring Break will begin Friday, March 24, with breakfast sponsored by Supplies Network and opening comments, followed by the keynote address presented by a surprise special guest who will be announced onsite. Two educational sessions will follow: “Industry Update,” led by Bob Goldberg, BTA’s general counsel; and “Reducing Parts COGS,” led by Jack Duncan, director of the REACH Leadership Academy, BEI Services.

After lunch, sponsored by Panasonic Scanners, two more educational sessions will be held: “Turkeys & Eagles Both Have Feathers,” led by Gil Cargill, owner, Cargill Consulting Group Inc.; and “Building a Major Account Strategy,” led by Larry Levine, social sales strategist and co-founder, Social Sales Academy. The welcoming reception, sponsored by Xerox Corp., will follow.

The second day of Spring Break will begin with a continental breakfast, sponsored by Supplies Network, on Saturday, March 25. The final three educational sessions will be held that morning: “The Future of Mobile Printing,” led by Mark Hart, director of business development, Access Control Devices Inc. (ACDI); “Marketing & Sales — You Need Both to Compete Today,” led by Lindsay Kelley, president and cofounder, Prospect Builder; and “Adjacent Opportunities,” led by Ed McLaughlin, vice chairman, Innovolt, and CEO, Valderus.

The schedule also includes plenty of time to visit with the event’s 37 exhibiting sponsors, which will be showcasing their latest products and services. Breaks during the event will be sponsored by Gwentaa.

The educational portion of Spring Break will end with closing comments and prize drawings at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday. Starting at 2 p.m., attendees will enjoy an afternoon and evening at the Walt Disney World theme park of their choice: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom.

BTA member registration for Spring Break with a Disney theme park ticket is only $199; this price also includes a free second registration for another of the member dealership’s employees. Non-member dealer registration with a Disney ticket is $249.

In addition to the Disney ticket, registration includes the Friday and Saturday educational sessions; Friday breakfast, lunch and welcoming reception; and Saturday continental breakfast.

For information on the sessions, additional pricing information or to register for the Spring Break event, visit www.bta.org/ BTAOrlando. You will find the event to be very worthwhile and enjoyable. I look forward to seeing you in Orlando. n — Rob Richardson

2016-2017 Board of Directors President Rob Richardson Allied Document Solutions & Services Inc. Swedesboro, New Jersey robr@ads-s.com President-Elect Dan Castaneda International Copy Machine Center El Paso, Texas dan@icmc-elp.com Vice President John Eckstrom Carolina Business Equipment Inc. Columbia, South Carolina johne@cbesc.com BTA East Jim Donnellon ABS Business Products Inc. Cincinnati, Ohio j.donnellon@absproducts.com Greg Gondek ACT Group Cromwell, Connecticut greg@advancedcopy.com BTA Mid-America Erik Crane Copy Products Inc. Springfield, Missouri ecrane@copyproductsinc.net Bob Evans Function4 Sugar Land, Texas bobevans@digiteconline.com BTA Southeast Brian Snow Tallahassee, Florida Advanced Business Systems bsnow@a-b-s.com Tim Renegar Kelly Office Solutions Winston-Salem, North Carolina trenegar@kellyofficesolutions.com BTA West John Hines Copiers Northwest Inc. Seattle, Washington jhines@copiersnw.com Cathy Dimon Northern Business Systems Fairbanks, Alaska cdimon@acsalaska.net Immediate Past President Dave Quint Advanced Systems Inc. Waterloo, Iowa dquint@asiowa.com Ex-Officio/General Counsel Robert C. Goldberg Schoenberg Finkel Newman & Rosenberg LLC Chicago, Illinois robert.goldberg@sfnr.com

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The Year Ahead: Part One Dealers share strategies for success in 2017 Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

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hat do you believe will be the areas of greatest opportunity for office technology dealers in 2017? What do you believe will be the best strategies for success in pursuing those opportunities? Recently, Office Technology magazine asked these questions of dealers via an email survey. Following are many of the responses received. (The February issue will feature additional responses.) Perhaps the comments shared by your fellow dealers mirror your plans — or provide some new ideas.

Opportunities: In the traditional office technology space, we feel that production print has the greatest opportunity for growth in 2017. We have seen more demand than ever in the production space and are finding that our own economies of scale are making it an evermore attractive space. In the emerging office technology areas, managed IT is clearly our future for growth. It is a lot of work to get the customer experience, communications and strategic support right — but that work is paying off for us and is creating the largest growth area in our business. And, finally, we are actually enjoying significant success in our document automation group Strategies: For us, the best strategy for success in any of our opportunities is hiring and supporting amazing people.

Period. Creating a healthy culture focused on customer happiness is the core of our belief system. Second to that, our success in production print has been a commitment to growth and unit placement — giving us scale to create efficiencies that can accommodate the more aggressive service pricing. For managed IT, our strategy is to have relentless commitment to quality user communications and a laser focus on doing what we do and nothing else. For document automation, our key strategy is to view software sales like we do copier sales — a vehicle for subsequent services. We have built a value-add professional services organization

around our software business, not only increasing the revenue opportunity, but also differentiating our value by delivering solutions that actually improve our clients’ businesses.

Christopher Taylor, CEO Fisher’s Technology, Boise, Idaho Opportunities: Customers are looking for office solutions. Mobile device printing is on the rise and we have to prepare ourselves to meet this customerdriven demand. We are seeing more and more customers looking for mobile printing as a requirement for their printing needs. Along with the ease of printing from mobile devices, our customers are looking for ways to streamline processes.

Strategies: Training our staff on business workflow processes is crucial to success. Diving deeper into the business workflow, we have to focus our sales team on documents and how they move within an organization. Training on vertical markets will have to be at the forefront of training, because documents flow differently depending on the type of business (education, legal, health care, etc.). Within each of these vertical markets there are security concerns as well; we can use the embedded security features within our MFPs to add value to our offerings. We have to be true business process consultants, working in partnership with our customers to help them find ways to utilize the technology that our industry provides.

Debra Dennis, vice president of support services CopyPro Inc., Greenville, North Carolina Opportunities: I believe the greatest opportunity for growth for office technology dealers in 2017 remains in the managed IT services area. As dealers, we have developed relationships with our clients based on trust and our performance. We need to bring that level of service to the managed IT arena. The largest question is: How do we do that?

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could be the game changer we have been Do we acquire successful IT services talking about for the last decade. companies, hire people to build our IT “If office technology Michael Ardry, managing member offerings or develop strategic alliances dealers effectively focus Office Equipment Center LLC with others? on what makes them Plantsville, Connecticut Strategies: At OEC, we decided to different and better ... build from within. We now have people there are unlimited Opportunities: I believe the greatest on staff who are dedicated to the IT side opportunity for 2017 to be managed serof the business. We have been moving opportunities available vices.

The MFP has become a commodfrom the previous break/fix model to the to them in 2017 ... ” ity and we must differentiate ourselves managed services model. This has infrom the competition. Our clients are creased our monthly recurring revenue, which allows for easier budgeting and increased profitabil- looking for help with cloud services and asking for help with security more and more every day. ity. The opportunities seem to be endless.

Strategies: I believe there are two ways to do this — acThe downside to all this is that it is also bringing greater competition into our traditional office technology area. quisition or partnering with local IT companies. We have Many IT services companies are now offering printers, scan- partnered with multiple IT companies and have found great ners and MFPs, along with document management systems. success in doing so, but the real opportunity is acquiring Many small to mid-size companies are not used to same- the right IT business with good people in place. I feel that if day service from their IT services companies, which is why you can find this, you will grow your business from both the we need to bring our level of service to this market. We managed services side and the MFP side.

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Opportunities: We believe there is significant opportunity in the office technology space in 2017. In our opinion, these opportunities are less reliant on the next “killer product” and more tied to continuously focusing on the fundamentals and building the best, highest-quality company and team possible. Our strategy and plan is fundamentally based on delivering the “best customer experience in the industry.” If office technology dealers effectively focus on what makes them different and better, specifically delivering unmatched customer experiences through really good selling and service, there are unlimited opportunities available to them in 2017 and beyond.

Specific areas of opportunity for 2017 include: n Always focus on priority number one — your customers and the experience your entire company is delivering to them. n Continue to take market share and grow the core office equipment business through sales and service excellence. n Ensure your sales strategy drives effective net-new logo sales and aggressive expansion of new offerings into existing customers. n Continue to diversify your portfolio by growing and strengthening your presence in technology services. n Make targeted, strategic acquisitions that strengthen your market presence and advance your portfolio strategy.

Implement/integrate them really well. n Streamline, simplify and automate administrative functions to allow you to scale up the business without adding an army of people and negatively affecting the customer experience.

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as-a-service” (XaaS). Although it looks n Focus obsessively on your team and “Build a culture of like alphabet soup, many of these rising your culture. Get this right and everytechnologies provide profitable opporthing else gets a lot easier. performance, customer tunities for office technology dealers to Strategies: We believe strategies to focus, fun and provide customers new, complementary deliver success include: celebration.

Do not services. Many of them can be delivered n Have a simple, one-page plan that compromise on results as white-label services and provide new, clearly articulates your purpose, values, and recognize great recurring revenue models for the dealer mission and plan for 2017. Ensure ev— with minimal investment. This is eseryone in the company understands the performance ... ” pecially true for solutions like hosted plan and how they effect it every day. voice (hosted VoIP). It’s a natural pron Execute your plan with a cadence gression for dealers who already are accustomed to monthly that helps break down silos, and gets everyone involved and subscription-based pricing and inventory devices. communicating. We use a series of daily huddles, weekly Strategies: One of the most strategic moves office techmeetings and monthly/quarterly off-sites to drive alignnology dealers can make is the application of hosted voice. ment and execution of the plan.

Dealers can think of each phone the same as they do for any n Ensure your daily/weekly/monthly metrics capture other device on a lease or rental program. Each phone can performance around the key elements of the plan. Post be sold as a per-user fee, including local and long-distance these everywhere. minutes.

This solution moves the “brains” off premise and n Make sure you have good control and performance of provides customers enhanced call management and reportyour operations and financial results before adding addiing.

Customers appreciate the ability to scale the resources tional acquisitions. When you do, leverage M&A to compleas needed, budget more easily and build in redundancy. ment and accelerate your growth plan. n Build a culture of performance, customer focus, fun Hosted voice is more than a phone without the strings and is and celebration. Do not compromise on results and recog- different from traditional on-premise VoIP. To an observer, hosted voice phones look and work the same as traditional nize great performance constantly in fun/energizing ways. phones — with a handset, cradle and buttons. The difference Ben Russert, chairman is that instead of relying on a phone system in your office ProSource, Cincinnati, Ohio and a standard phone line to reach the outside world, these Opportunities: Go deep in current accounts with adja- phones use an internet connection to carry phone calls over your data network and, ultimately, to the cloud. The PBX or cent opportunities.

Strategies: Focus on targeted and consistent account re- “brains” is somewhere else, hosted in the cloud.

The desire for hosted solutions continues to grow across views. Augment your data to focus your team’s efforts while all industries and hosted voice has been an easy move for staying true to your core business. organizations to make once they understand how it works Chelsey Bode, vice president and the benefits.

Take the time to evaluate partnering with Pearson-Kelly Office Products, Spring field, Missouri a white-label provider of the technology that you believe Opportunities: MNS continues to be the best differen- your sales and service staff can support. Most of these ventiator and method to go deeper and wider into our custom- dors provide training for your staff. The result could be a new — and growing — recurring revenue stream for your ers’ businesses.

Strategies: You need a dedicated MNS staff to truly be organization in 2017.

Steve Knutson, CIO able to deliver the goods after the contract is signed. You Marco Inc., St. Cloud, Minnesota also can’t try to be all things to all customers. A good copier customer is not necessarily a good MNS customer. In fact, Opportunities: I believe all the normal business opporonly a minority of your equipment customers will be a good tunities are in play: managed services, managed print serfit for the MNS business. vices, document management and security. There is a big John Hines, CFO opportunity in professional services, if you look at this as its Copiers Northwest Inc., Seattle, Washington own profit center — like managed services, managed print Opportunities: We have all heard the overused technolo- services, etc. — actually focusing on labor as a product.

Strategies: The first strategy was to create a culture gy acronyms and jargon by now, from IoT (internet of things), within our organization that “labor is not free.” This has cloud and MNS to hosted this, hosted that and “anything14 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ja nua r y 2 0 1 7

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been an ongoing education for all sales, investing in people who allow them to “Being a true presales and solutions specialists. The expand their offerings will pay divinext thing we did was we created a pricdends in the form of more profitable ‘solutions provider’ ing desk that priced all opportunities deals and stronger long-term partnercomes from having and added professional service fees to ships with their clientele. expertise in-house that the project. This cost was then given to Strategies: The best strategy for dealcan support more than the sales rep to bundle into the copier ers to expand in this area initially will turning wrenches and transaction. By doing it this way, we be finding the hidden gems within their were able to measure the amount of proown customers in the form of a deeper connecting printers.” fessional services we were selling and understanding of their clients’ business not get it mixed up in the gross margin processes, and what can be done by the of the copier sale. Today, approximately 25 to 30 percent of dealer partner to improve those processes through their all (viable) proposals have some form of advanced scanning, technology offerings and the people expertise they provide. rules-based printing, security and accounting capabilities Most dealers take their current base for granted and overas part of the sale. If we can increase these percentages, we look opportunities to strengthen those relationships by addwill increase the amount of labor and professional services ing value to the clients that already trust them. These are (labor) and software solutions. also the seeds that lead to more ZBA [zero business account] Larry Weiss, president opportunities, because the sales, support and service teams Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office, New York, New York get more comfortable with every experience. They gain confidence to go out into the “cruel world” of net-new business Opportunities: I believe there are a couple of big areas and are unafraid to ask questions, uncover real problems where dealers can and must impact their businesses and, and build real solutions. Perception takes time to change, ultimately, grow their marketplace status: (1) understand- but office technology dealers in 2017 must transform theming customers and (2) implementing change. Understand- selves into strategic partners for their current and prospecing customers is moving the perception of the dealer’s tive clients. The game is changing and becoming a true busibusiness from “equipment seller” to “solutions provider.” ness process consultant is the best way to win in today’s Dealers need to change how they are viewed by customers. business climate.

The term “solutions” has been thrown around for years, but Scott Whitt, vice president of sales most dealers are clunky, at best, in providing solutions and Hendrix Business Systems Inc., Matthews, North Carolina solving real problems in their customers’ environments.

Being a true “solutions provider” comes from having experOpportunities: Our best opportunities reside in a “backtise in-house that can support more than turning wrenches to-the-basics” approach of ensuring that we are on top of our and connecting printers. The sales team members have to game in both sales and service — ensuring we have the right be able to listen to their customers’ problems and find real relationships with the right customers for the right reasons. solutions that match the business initiatives their clients Strategies: Work hard on ensuring that our sales team present. They must be aligned with their clients in common “gets a ticket to the dance” on every opportunity in the logoals. They also have to work with the support team (in the cal area by developing quality relationships with customers form of specialists, IT techs and the service department) to that can generate the best ongoing service revenue; attack find and implement solutions that encompass more than our opposition and “fence” our MIF. And, ensuring that our just faster copiers and printers. Solutions can be and should tech work quality and tech supervision follow-through is albe encompassed in every aspect of the dealer’s business: ways maintained to a high level. multifunction, production, output software, managed print Dale Robbins, general manager (sales) services and document management. It takes intertwining Downs Office Equipment & Supplies Pty. Ltd. the hardware with the many software offerings available Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia to create an end-to-end solution that changes the way the dealer’s client currently does its business in a positive way.

Opportunities: I believe IT services has to be on the top Implementing change is as equally important as convinc- of the list as an opportunity for BTA dealers. It’s as big as going the client to do so. If the dealer makes the investment to ing from a typewriter company to becoming a copier comprovide this level of consulting expertise, the client will stop pany, except the copier industry is here to stay. Providing IT looking at five different companies for the lowest-priced services is an exciting and realistic way to double or triple provider. Dealers must spend money to make money, and your business from your own customer base.

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Strategies: The best strategies for we are here and who pays our salaries.

“The best strategy for pursuing IT services are to build a strong Give them a great customer experience, infrastructure within the organization; every time. success for us is to not keep on educating our salespeople and Sam Stone, president lose sight of why we are convince them that the customers they Stone’s Office Equipment here and who pays our don’t talk to about IT services today are Richmond, Virginia salaries. Give them talking to someone else and, most likely, a great customer they will end up losing those customers; Opportunities: We believe, as we and whoever services the server controls always have, that further development experience, every time.“ all that is connected to the server. So, lisof our relationships with our clients ten to customer needs and provide open represents our greatest opportunity to communication. By conveying to the customer that they can expand within their businesses. We also have taken a deepexpect the same great service they get with their copiers, the ened approach to capturing new business at the same time. customer will feel confident with the new offerings.

For us, the focus is on finding and solving problems for our Tarek Hafiz, president clients. The findings continue to change as technology beCBE Office Solutions, Irvine, California comes a more important component to their businesses.

Our core offerings have changed some, but from an industry Opportunities: The greatest opportunities are what- perspective, not greatly. A few new apps may come along to ever we can do for our current customers and some of the load on an MFP but, largely, the print products are very simnon-customers that we are not doing already, such as MNS. ilar to earlier models. Our managed services business conWe have not gotten into MNS yet because we have not been tinues to grow and is becoming a more important piece of ready and our market hasn’t even been tapped to the poten- the business, the relationship and the P&L. We will continue tial of what it could do for the technology of today. But the to look for new ways to capture more business in this area future is MNS and maximizing the opportunity to help each and believe that, overall, it truly represents the greatest opoffice have an efficient workflow. portunity for growth and strengthening our relationships Strategies: The best way to do this is to partner with with clients. The shift is definitely taking place and more those who know what they are doing so we can partner with resources are being provisioned in that area than any other. our customers and future customers to help them be the As we continue to expand our IT offerings and our support most efficient they can be. levels to manage the growth, it is opening other doors for us Tyler Best, president in our existing clients that were once closed, as well as asAbadan Tri-Cities, Richland, Washington sisting with capturing new business.

Strategies: The strategies for capitalizing on this piece Opportunities: We believe it’s a great time to be in our of the business are very similar to, really, the MFP business. industry. I still think the copier industry works and opens You can’t close if you don’t propose. Activity is the key, and doors to other services like managed print services, which then filtering out the clients that don’t really represent true still has a lot of life in it. While many feel like their dealer- opportunities or don’t fit within our target. We have a conship has been there and done that, we’re talking to compa- sistent technology stack that we bring to the table and try nies every day that don’t know about MPS or haven’t had to stay within that stack. This is a challenge, as there are a meaningful conversation on the topic in years. Products so many variations of technology present in the field. Somelike document storage are continuing to gain ground be- times it’s best for everyone if you just say no and move on. cause many companies don’t have a plan. If you can work Security is the number-one concern in the market right with them to consult, you will uncover more opportunities now, and so we use that to start a conversation and see if than you can handle. we can’t find a chink in the armor of their existing environStrategies: Our focus has been on the customer expe- ment or their current provider’s strategic plan with them. rience. In every meeting at Stone’s Office Equipment, we Partnerships, relationships and trust are certainly huge stress the fact we want the customer to have a great experi- components when it comes to looking after someone’s data ence and we show what that looks like. Part of that focus is and their business’s productivity. If any of these areas have a our theme of “Obsess Over the Basics” by showing respect weakness or are questionable, we move in and explore that for our client’s time, showing empathy, and making sure we as far as we can to set the stage for our presentation. Findcommunicate openly with each other and the client. The ing the right companies to partner with in building up the best strategy for success for us is to not lose sight of why stack has been an important piece. I want to know that they 18 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ja nua r y 2 0 1 7

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are looking out for us and keeping on the leading edge with their products and tool sets that we, in turn, use to deliver on our promise to our customers.

Ron Hulett, project manager US Business Systems Inc. Elkhart, Indiana

“It is key to establish processes and standardized procedures for MPS so that it is streamlined, and there are checks and balances ... ”

Opportunities: Each of us has a different growth pattern. An expanding dealership passes through many learning/growth plateaus that offer opportunities and decision points: Is it time to add MPS, document management, IT or managed IT? Is there infrastructure to support it? Are resources (people, money, knowledge and time) available?

And, do I want to do this? Whether you have passed these milestones or have yet to reach them, merger or acquisition is always a potential path to technology and growth. 2017’s best opportunities are really based on where you are now in your growth pattern. What commitments are you willing to make? Sometimes the choice may not be the most profitable, but it might be the most interesting.

Strategies: The strategy to move to the next level is your desire to do so. When you are ready, set a goal, make a plan and then commit to perform — day after day.

Robert Moore, president Lockwood Moore Inc., Reno, Nevada Opportunities: The greatest opportunity is to form strong relationships with customers and work your butt off to bring them the best products and best service at the best value. Keep it simple where they can understand, and completely invest yourself in helping them improve their business technology.

Strategies: Out-work everybody; the customer will buy as soon as value exceeds price.

Tim Elliott, owner & CEO Standley Systems, Chickasha, Oklahoma Opportunities: Solutions around MPS — specifically document management — scan, store, retrieve and workflow. The HP A3 offering to roll out through 2017 could potentially be very disruptive to the traditional copier space.

Strategies: n Solutions — Understanding the needs of the clients in your market and then partnering with a source that can provide an offering to accommodate those needs; there are many out there and some participate in BTA. n HP — Making sure that we do everything we need to do in order to have access to sell and support the HP A3 line as it becomes available; maintaining and growing our HP

relationship from an equipment, supplies and service perspective in order to get access to those products.

Rob Richardson, owner & founder Allied Document Solutions & Services Inc. Swedesboro, New Jersey

Opportunities: There are a couple of areas of great opportunity for the dealer in 2017. Continuing to perfect and expand into managed print services (MPS), as well as becoming more of a player in the highvolume production print arena, are key to growth in 2017.

Another growth opportunity is being able to partner with the top manufacturers outside the top 50 markets on customer accounts where the skill set and resources of a dealer are a better fit to service and retain the customer long term.

Strategies: The best strategies in pursuing these opportunities are continuing to build and invest in growing the infrastructure of the dealership. It is key to establish processes and standardized procedures for MPS so that it is streamlined, and there are checks and balances on unprofitable machines and excessive toner usage. In addition, [dealers should] invest in the service department and training so that response times and customer satisfaction will continue to be an advantage for the dealer channel. Servicecall-avoidance phone support allows technicians to immediately take care of customers while focusing their on-site visits on calls that truly require the time and investment of being on-site.

Keith Allison, president & CEO Systel Business Equipment, Fayetteville, North Carolina Opportunities: Perhaps, unfortunately, a great area of opportunity is purchasing other, smaller dealerships. I was on a conference call recently with an attorney who told me he had overseen 51 transactions in our industry this past year.

There are some reasons that are apparent as to why this is happening. First of all, in a more general sense, there are a number of businesses that may transition because of the ages of the owners. But, drilling down into our industry, there are still a large number of dealerships that have not adopted the managed print services (MPS) and managed network (IT) platforms. Not doing so makes the dealership unable to compete in these markets effectively. Many dealers who do not want to make this conversion (and that can account for up to 80 percent of the dealers in the market) are potentially targets for acquisition.

Some dealerships are expanding into other areas, such as water delivery to offices, as ways of increasing revenues. We don’t envision using that as a growth strategy.

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Other strategies that don’t include acby 58 percent last year and are planning “The potential for quisition would be archiving software. another 45 percent growth this year.

With security and breach issues, more Strategies: I believe the best strategy growth in the managed and more people are looking to bring for success in pursuing the MNS space IT sector and the their clients into the cloud. It has potenis to find a trusted partner such as Colimpact that this sector tial for recurring revenue for dealers. labrance or a master service provider, or will have on office Strategies: Dealers today need to join a peer group such as Service Leadertechnology dealers be more involved with their clients. In ship; they should be able to guide you to particular, it’s important to teach them make good decisions on how to get into is enormous.” about the technology of the future. We this space and, most importantly, what do this through a lunch-and-learn pronot to do, as we have all made some misgram. We invite clients and prospects to our location, pro- takes. If we consult experienced players, they should be able vide lunch and have educational sessions with topics rang- to help us avoid costly mistakes. ing from cybersecurity to MPS to archiving and more. We Chap Breard, president are also very well networked with other organizations and MOEbiz, Monroe, Louisiana we work with other dealers all the time.

Chip Miceli, president Opportunities: The greatest opportunity I believe may Des Plaines Office Equipment, Elk Grove Village, Illinois exist in the changing marketplace. Specifically, manufacturer restructuring (namely Xerox and Samsung) and a Opportunities: We believe there are several areas of op- change of focus create a potential void for those customers portunity for office technology dealers in 2017. in confidence, giving the smaller, more flexible independent Production, especially in the color segment, represents dealers an opportunity that did not previously exist. a true area of growth for us. We have experienced a lot of Strategies: The best strategy would be to focus our attengrowth and success in this area over the past year, and we tion specifically on those prospects in an attempt to turn expect that it will only continue to grow in 2017. them into independent dealer customers.

Managed services, such as managed print services (MPS) Michael Boyle, owner and managed IT, are other areas where we expect substanBASE Technologies Inc., Bethel, Connecticut tial growth.

With MPS, we help organizations reign in their excessive Opportunities: The potential for growth in the managed printer costs and consolidate their device footprints. Al- IT sector and the impact that this sector will have on office though we have already experienced a lot of growth in this technology dealers is enormous. Managed IT (MIT) is curarea, this industry continues to grow as companies realize rently a $420-billion industry that is slated for continued how cost-effective it is to have an MPS provider. IT services expansion. Businesses of any size and scope benefit from are becoming increasingly popular for the same reason. the implementation of an MIT program. One example that Enterprise content management and cloud solutions also resonates with organizations in any vertical is the issue continue to be areas of growth for GFC. Every organization of disaster recovery. A comprehensive MIT program will has inefficient business processes and there is growing un- remedy this issue, while also providing businesses with a certainty about how to leverage the cloud. Our consultants greater degree of accessibility, control, business continuhelp provide our customers with the efficiencies and guid- ity and more efficient operations. From the standpoint of ance they need in these areas. the office technology dealer, MIT is an extremely profitable Strategies: As always, we plan on meeting our custom- initiative that can be offered in conjunction with other serers’ needs by providing them with the most professional, vices or as a standalone service. It is a value addition that qualified experts in the business. Our account executives businesses will increasingly benefit from in 2017 and well and business consultants drive our growth by helping our into the future. customers optimize their businesses, which ultimately reStrategies: Our MIT growth strategies revolve around duces their costs and maximizes their bottom lines. two main initiatives this year: cloud offerings and security.

Thomas Flesch, president & CEO Cloud offerings: Gordon Flesch Co. Inc., Dublin, Ohio n vDESK — A fully hosted desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) infrastructure for clients. The days of small to medium-sized Opportunities: The greatest opportunity in 2017 (in my businesses running their own servers and complicated inopinion) for us is to grow our managed IT business; we grew frastructure are numbered. The cost to host client servers 22 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ja nua r y 2 0 1 7

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client retains all of the benefits of enand storage servers in a dedicated and “Companies that can’t terprise email systems (like Exchange), secure data center have finally come but no longer has to license, manage or down enough to allow us to show the clifind the right solutions maintain an on-premise server. ent a more secure and scalable environfor their environments Security: Protecting client data and ment at a price point that is actually less will constantly be network resources is forefront in all than procuring, installing, licensing and reacting to security things IT related. The ongoing outbreaks maintaining its own network infrastrucissues instead of properly of ransomware and successful hacks of ture. This solution also allows clients to cloud services means that IT must now initiate a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) preparing for ... them.” think security first before providing policy. This gives users flexibility in the end-user services. The consumerization devices they use for work, but maintains of IT has also meant that IT departments are no longer just the company data and intellectual property security. n Hybrid Cloud — Similar to vDESK, but aimed at larger fighting against outside attacks, but are also having to find organizations that still need some on-premise server/storage/ strategic ways to allow the use of consumer/employee-owned network equipment to maintain operations (manufacturers devices while still maintaining company security initiatives. or companies that deal with large data, such as marketing or Our programs help clients find the right security solutions A/V companies). In this scenario, we can still offer cloud ser- based on their needs. Our ability to create custom programs vices for end-user file storage and directory services, all while based on individual client needs allows us to be successful in many verticals. The “one-size-fits-all” approach to security maintaining the IT gear that must remain on premise. n Office365 — Small businesses are migrating from on- no longer works. Companies that can’t find the right solutions premise email (Exchange) servers to hosted Exchange. The for their environments will constantly be reacting to security

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issues instead of properly preparing for and, ultimately, stopping them.

Frank T. Cucco, CEO Impact Networking LLC Lake Forest, Illinois

“ ... Using data to better understand the client’s needs and providing the best solution more efficiently than the competition ... provides a great opportunity ... ”

Opportunities: We see color production as our biggest growth area.

This market is one of few areas that is expected to have continued growth.

We also are continuing to grow our MPS business.

Strategies: We are developing marketing, training and programs to reach the color production opportunities. We are reaching more MPS opportunities by promoting workflow automation to provide a complete document solution to our customers.

Mike Blake, president Corporate Business Systems LLC, Madison, Wisconsin

Opportunities: I think 2017 will be pretty much business as usual for small to mid-range dealerships. However, the larger dealerships will be able to enter the Saas/XaaS market. It will be a slow challenge. Of course, the document management side has not really taken off for many small businesses. The small to mid-range dealerships will have to be more aggressive in educating smaller businesses about the benefits of document management.

Strategies: Just plugging away in a more aggressive manner. The smaller dealerships will have to do a little more research to enter some of the vertical markets that are available. With BTA’s help, we will be a step ahead.

Jerry Jackson, president All South Copiers Inc., Kennesaw, Georgia Opportunities: The definition of what it means to be an “office technology dealer” has changed significantly. Simply selling hardware will not get you as many wins as it used to.

With that being said, using data to better understand the client’s needs and providing the best solution more efficiently than the competition — in all aspects of the office environment — provides a great opportunity in the marketplace.

Strategies: To provide the best solutions, dealers will need to continue to diversify the stable of products they carry. From managed services, software as a service (SaaS), digital signage (displays, smartboards, room schedulers, etc.), down to printing hardware and water systems, all forms of equipment and services need to be at a dealer’s disposal. Office technology dealers will have to continue to evolve and reinvent themselves to remain viable. Maintaining agility in a rapidly changing marketplace will be crucial

to growth and success in our future.

Erik Crane, president Copy Products Inc., Springfield, Missouri

Opportunities: I believe MPS and the A4 market will continue to be areas of substantial growth for our dealership in 2017. Although some will say the opportunity for large growth in these arenas has already passed, we continue to see growth in excess of 25 percent year over year in our A4 aftermarket revenue. Yes, some of this comes at the cost of replacement of our A3 base; we track our net adds and know that much of this is as a result of capturing new business. The best part about this is there is still a huge population of A4 devices in our marketplace that are yet to be covered under any type of service agreement. These include devices in our own customer locations that we have been walking by for years, as well as new customer opportunities.

Strategies: Usually these tend to be higher-level-relationship deals. The customer must have an increased level of confidence in your dealership and in your rep, so the rep must educate the customer on how you have the capabilities to service its entire fleet and not just its copiers. It will be critical for sales reps to develop a services-selling approach versus a hardware-selling approach. One specific strategy that has been successful for our dealership is account reviews.

Reps have access to a variety of reports and other information from our CRM, as well as from our back-end software, e-automate, which allows them to present from a more consultative approach. This makes for an easier transition into a services conversation where a rep can go deeper into the topics of MPS, print tracking/auditing, document management, telecommunications or any of our other offered services.

Dave Quint, president & CEO Advanced Systems Inc., Waterloo, Iowa Opportunities: Services and solutions that streamline processes and encourage real change inside workspaces and their workflows.

Strategies: Consulting case by case with companies and custom solutions based on individual company needs. Dealers will take the relationships they have with customers and manufacturers to build a bridge to create the greatest success.

Earl W. Philpot, president Precision Duplicating Solutions Inc. London, Kentucky 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.

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The Silent Majority?

Taking steps to eliminate vulnerable accounts by: Rick Reynolds, AskForensics

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hen it comes to growing the business and increasing sales, most business owners look to new customers and accounts. However, did you know that your biggest account wins could be with the clients you already have? Strengthening your relationships with existing customers is the most cost-effective and efficient way to grow your business. This process often starts with assessing whether your current accounts are strong, vulnerable or damaged.

Strong, Vulnerable or Damaged?

While every business is unique, there are a number of common causes for lost sales and vulnerable accounts. If you want to win more deals and retain existing accounts, you need to be able to identify the early warning signs of customer dissatisfaction. You can then create a plan of action and address issues before they cause irreversible damage to a customer relationship — and possibly cause you to lose the account.

Customer accounts can be classified as strong, vulnerable or damaged. In a strong account, your corporate and customer-facing sales and account teams are fully in sync and aligned. They are on the same page with each other and the customer. They know what needs to be done and they focus on improving the customer’s business. Your account team members have successfully become trusted advisors and are part of your customer’s internal team.

In a vulnerable account, there are percolating issues that, if left undetected and unresolved, can escalate and become festering and growing concerns. These issues can hurt your chances for expansion and renewal. Many, if not most, of the qualities that exist in a strong account are absent in a vulnerable account.

In a damaged account, you are susceptible to losing the account, perhaps even before the contract expires. Immediate triage is needed to salvage the account and there is little time to waste.

Who is Vulnerable?

Although you may assume that your accounts are strong, you may not be aware that some of your most strategic

accounts are vulnerable or even damaged. Data from the 2016 B2B AskForensics Sales Analysis, which features sales and account data from B2B executives of accounts totaling more than $2.3 billion in total contract value with an average account size of $16.8 million, reveals that, on average, 87 percent of the accounts profiled are vulnerable or damaged. Some of these customers may seem happy, but are, in fact, thinking about going elsewhere. It is critical that companies attend to and monitor vulnerable accounts with the appropriate resources and care so they do not turn into damaged accounts.

Top Predictors of Vulnerable Accounts In our data, we identified elements that lead to accounts becoming vulnerable. Reversing or addressing these areas can help you strengthen these accounts. The top issues we identified: a lack of account support; insufficient service quality; and insufficient communication, reporting and analysis.

In vulnerable accounts, our data reveals that customers were unsatisfied with their account support 48 percent of the time.

For example, one of the greatest dangers to customer accounts is an unresolved problem that festers beneath the surface for an extended period of time without being acknowledged or addressed. To avoid this danger, all levels of your corporate and customer-facing teams must be responsive and on the same page.

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value through updates, reports, analyIn vulnerable accounts, in our analysis, Objectively assess what sis and other measures, you may not be customers also had a negative view of their getting full credit for your efforts. If you service quality 38 percent of the time. If is wrong ... Assume are doing a great job, make sure you talk there is a problem, it is not only important nothing. Assumptions about it. It is important that the client exto fix it — but to fix it properly. The way are your worst enemy ecutives who are making and influencing you handle problems contributes to your when attempting to decisions know you have resolved probimage and the perception that you are deturn around a lems. Schedule a time to routinely provide livering a consistent, quality product. the materials and documentation to supThe final element common in vulnervulnerable account. port your work. able accounts is a lack of communication, reporting and analysis. Ten percent of customers in our analysis identified this as a top area Take Action So, you realize that some of your accounts may be at risk of concern. Consider the following scenario: You have had a client for a year and are approaching the of being lost and you are prepared to fight for their business. client’s contract renewal. For the past year, you have pro- What do you do next? Here are some actions you can take: (1) Objectively assess what is wrong. It is time to take vided exemplary account support. You have addressed problems, upgraded systems, and maintained excellent and a step back and be objective. Assume nothing. Assumptions consistent quality. However, have you made the mistake of are your worst enemy when attempting to turn around a vulnerable account. Review survey and net promoter score keeping all this good news to yourself?

You need to tell your client about your performance and re- (NPS) data. Explore your CRM system to mine for data and sults. If you are not demonstrating and communicating your consider a formal assessment to determine how your company is performing. Regardless of your approach, you first need to accurately diagnose the problem.

(2) Develop an action plan. It is time to get to work. Assemble your account team, along with other talent in your organization, to develop an action plan that addresses all key problems. Involve your customer in this process once you have a preliminary plan outlined. If possible, immediately resolve low-hanging fruit or similar issues to gain quick traction and credibility. And do not just plan — follow through.

(3) Communicate progress and results. Many easy-touse and systematic resources exist to measure and communicate results and, still, some companies fall short in this area. Showing your work is just as important as doing it, especially when you want to be seen as a contributor to your customer’s success. Monitor and communicate ongoing results to show that you are delivering sustained improvement. It may take time, but eventually your client will see the progress and appreciate your efforts. n Rick Reynolds is a co-founding partner and CEO of AskForensics, which uses a forensic science approach to uncover the truth about why Fortune-level companies win and lose prospects and customers. He is an expert in sales growth and account retention, having led thousands of investigations to provide companies with objective insight into what is really happening behind the scenes with prospects and customers. Reynolds has been featured by the Harvard Business Review, Inc.com, Selling Power, and Sales & Marketing Management. Follow @AskForensics on Twitter. Visit www.askforensics.com.

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Seven for Success Key concepts every sales rep should master by: Kate Kingston, Kingston Training Group

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he goal of prospecting is for the sales rep to deliver a unique proposition that creates enough perceived value so the prospect will want to meet with the rep.

In this article, I will share seven key concepts (and how to identify them) that office technology dealership owners should expect their reps to fully understand and utilize when pitching to new prospects that will allow them to move the conversation from the introduction to the discovery phase.

(1) Know how your dealership is truly different from your competition. Identify your top three competitors and create “apples-to-apples” comparisons on topics such as: n Service call turnaround n Investment in employee training n Your customer satisfaction survey results n General call response time n Investment in customer training n Service quality n Increase in uptime n First-time-fix rate n Staff tenure n Leasing options n Product diversity These are just a few examples. Sales reps should know the answers and be able to articulate how your dealership compares to your competition.

(2) Give examples of past successes with clients and how they are applicable to your new prospect. Gather client references or “power numbers.” For example, how many law firms your dealership has as clients. The statement, “We partner with more than 75 law firms,” is more impactful than the statement, “We work with many law firms.” This adds real power to a rep’s prospecting pitch. The rep may not be able to find this information on his (or her) own, but you should look at all of your current clients, identify the similar businesses and provide your reps those “power numbers” by industry.

(3) Show how the broad spectrum of your dealership’s technology solutions can enhance your prospect’s efficiency and profitability. A rep should understand all lines

of business within his customer’s organization. For example, how a law firm accomplishes its business goals and makes money is completely different from how a church uses technology to increase donations and communicate with its parishioners. Reps should be able to recommend the right hardware and software from the suite of proprietary technology solutions your dealership offers to assist in accomplishing each prospect’s goals. Understand the biggest challenges and priorities of your prospects and, most importantly, learn to speak to them using their industry and executive language.

(4) Know the specific compliance regulations that apply to your prospect and how your technology can keep your prospect compliant. Today’s technology solutions must help keep a company’s base data secure and compliant. A sales rep should understand and know how these compliance regulations affect the day-to-day workflow of the prospect, and he should be able to recommend the right technology solutions that can help achieve compliance for his client. You can assist reps with this by having a conversation during each weekly sales meeting that includes a deep dive into a specific industry that touches on all aspects of that type of client.

(5) Sales reps must know how to manage their time consistently so they can schedule five to eight decisionmaker net-new meetings per week. Time management is critical for a rep, and he must be able to carve out enough

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Kingston Jan 17.indd 1

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ProcureIT - BPO ads Jan 17.indd 1

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tool, not just to connect (which is really prospecting time each and every week The most important the “old-school” approach to LinkedIn), to identify new sales opportunities. but to research, find contacts and ask for Kingston Training Group (KTG) has concept a rep must be meetings. There are certain prospects surveyed more than 1,000 sales reps expected to live by is who will be more open to a conversation and there is a general consensus that it that his quota is the on LinkedIn than any other venue. is easiest to reach decision makers by bare minimum sales Here is one of the best-kept secrets inphone on Wednesday afternoons and on expectation to protect side LinkedIn: To find prospects by title Thursdays than any other times during (even in the free version), start typing a the week. Monday mornings should be his territory ... title such as “IT director” in the search avoided for prospecting calls, but they box on your LinkedIn home page. There are a great time to call customers who had a service issue the week before. In some territories, will be a drop-down menu that appears. The second choice lunch hours are a good time to prospect in person by physi- will be “People with the title IT director.” Choose that and a cally visiting potential prospects’ locations. Using email sidebar will appear on the left-hand side. Scroll down and resources like contactmoney.com or Yesware can provide choose “current,” and then under the location tab, click the invisible read receipts, allowing a sales rep to calculate the down arrow. This will allow you to select the “located in or best times for emailing. This can also give him visual clues near” option. Now all you have to do is type in a ZIP code and a radius and you will have access to all the profiles in as to when his prospects open emails.

(6) Understand how LinkedIn is reshaping prospect- that ZIP code with a certain executive title. Sales reps may ing. Social media prospecting can no longer be ignored. not innately know how to use tools like this to succeed, but Sales reps have to understand how to use this technology dealership executives should expect them to be able to incorporate them when applicable.

(7) Each rep should understand that his sales quota is the minimum expected sales volume required for the month. The most important concept a rep must be expected to live by is that his quota is the bare minimum sales expectation to protect his territory — not what he is striving to achieve. The territory that a dealership entrusts to each rep has been determined to hold enough opportunity to yield a specific amount of net-new sales each month. That quota has to be looked at as the minimum amount needed for the rep and the dealership to be successful. The bounty comes from exceeding the quota, not meeting it. A dealership should demand that a rep not only meet quota, but put repercussions in place for those who fall short.

Successful reps report that sometimes a 40-hour work week is not sufficient to get the job done. Reps should spend 15 minutes at the end of each day planning what they will do the following day, as well as be prepared to work outside the office if necessary, making time for training, mentorship and practice. It is fair to insist that reps meet or exceed quota every month. Using the above concepts should help keep them on the path to success. n Kate Kingston is founder and president of the Kingston Training Group (KTG). With more than 17 years of success in making appointments with decision makers, she is a recognized authority on lead generation, cold calling and new business development. Kingston can be reached at kkingston@kingstontraining.com.

Visit www.kingstontraining.com.

32 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ja nua r y 2 0 1 7

Kingston Jan 17.indd 2

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ESP Ametek ad Jan 17.indd 1

12/20/16 3:00 PM

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

Dealer Member A-Z Office Resource, Morristown, TN Vendor Associate Member Canon USA Inc., Melville, NY For full contact information of these new members, visit www.bta.org.

BTA Benchmarking Reports

For the benefit of its dealer members, each month BTA features two of its Vendor or Service Associate members in this space.

BTA Vendor Associate member ESHA Corp., established in 1989, is a national wholesaler of OEM and compatible computer and printer supplies. It is an authorized distributor of HP printer supplies and storage media, and it has direct relationships with many additional manufacturers and distributors. Known for its personalized customer service, most of ESHA’s team members have more than 20 years of experience in the office technology sector. ESHA prides itself on its three tenets: service, pricing and selection. It is here to offer better service than the big stationers, unmatched selection and aggressive pricing. www.eshacorp.com

BTA has released its 2016 BTA Service Report, which tabulates and compares median industry performance by size of business and geographical area. The data is broken down into performance categories: profitability (service; revenue per service employee and per technician; service gross profit; etc.), personnel (technician accountable time; average billing rate; incentive plans; distribution of time; etc.), call center efficiencies (response times; gross calls per day; recalls and incompletes; installation times; etc.) and product (copier/MFPs on contract and T&M; percent of sales; etc.).

In addition to the BTA Service Report, members can download the BTA Compensation Report, which gives detailed salary information on a variety of dealership employee positions, and the BTA Finance Report, which compares key income statements and balance sheet indicators. Free to all BTA members, the reports are a $650 value. All three are now available to download from the BTA website at www. bta.org/BenchmarkingReports.

BTA Service Associate member Sentry Insurance provides a full line of business insurance including property, business personal property, commercial liability, automobile fleets, false pretense, workers’ compensation and equipment insurance, as well as employer-sponsored 401(k) programs.

Sentry can help you create flexible, custommade risk management solutions, and provide property and casualty insurance, workers’ compensation, retirement plans, employee group benefits and business life planning. With Sentry you will spend less time worrying about insurance and more time running your business. www.sentry.com

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

A full list of BTA Vendor and Service Associate members can be found online at www.bta.org.

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Highlights Jan 17.indd 1

12/28/16 11:53 AM

COURTS & CAPITOLS

Competing for Employees Government guidance has recently been issued by: Robert C. Goldberg, general counsel for the Business Technology Association

I

t is well understood that dealers compete with each other — and, often, with their suppliers — for the sale of equipment, service, support and supplies. It is illegal to enter an agreement with a competitor to fix or maintain prices, divide territories or allocate customers. The Business Technology Association (BTA) has strict antitrust compliance rules and emphasizes them regularly. These restrictions are not limited to the office technology marketplace, but extend to competition for employees as well.

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission recently issued written guidance for human resource professionals on how the antitrust laws apply to employee hiring and compensation decisions. The guidance makes it clear that workers are entitled to the benefit of competition for their services.

Agreements among employers to fix wages or other terms of employment, and agreements not to recruit each other’s employees, are likely to be considered per se violations for which the agreement itself is the violation and no defenses can be raised. The agreement is illegal regardless of the employer’s motives — such as lowering costs to customers. An agreement can be formal or informal, written or verbal. The mere invitation to enter an illegal agreement may violate the antitrust laws. Finally, there are incentives for turning in those who participate in such conduct.

Dealers are always concerned that a customer will seek to employ a technician who is familiar with the customer’s equipment or network, and avoid maintenance and support charges. To combat this fear, many industry agreements contain language similar to this: “NON-SOLICITATION/NON-HIRER. Customer agrees not to solicit, hire or otherwise engage in any manner whatsoever, directly or indirectly, any of the dealer’s employees in the position of support or service technician, installation and support specialist, project manager or service manager from the date of this agreement and for a period of two years following the expiration or termination of this agreement. If the customer violates this provision, the customer shall pay the dealer the sum of one year’s direct salary of each employee hired or engaged as liquidated damages and not as a penalty.”

It would appear that restrictions such as these would run contrary to the government’s guidance. The requirement to pay one-year’s salary would tend to affect the employee’s right to a competitive marketplace. If two employees were available for the position and one was not subject to the payment, surely that employee would be more desirable. If the customer

agreed to this provision in a sales agreement, or a dealer in a supplier agreement, they could face a civil claim from the employee, and criminal or civil charges from the government. The better approach may be to have the employee sign a non-compete, non-solicitation and/or non-disclosure agreement. This way, the employee is limiting his (or her) own marketplace. Of course, which approach is taken will depend on the state in which you are located, as some states restrict non-competition agreements.

Sharing compensation and benefit information may also be illegal. If such information is to be shared, it is best to do so through a third party as part of a benchmarking exercise where historical data is used and cannot be attributed to a specific employer. There is nothing improper in disclosing the last salary of a former employee to a prospective new employer. The only caveat is to require authorization from the former employee prior to disclosure.

These guidelines were issued under the Obama administration and may be revised by the new administration. As always, BTA will keep you advised and the BTA Legal Hotline is always available to answer any member questions. n Robert C. Goldberg is general counsel for the Business Technology Association.

He can be reached at robert.goldberg@sfnr.com. www.offi cetechnol ogymag.co m | J a n u a ry 2017 | 35

Goldberg Jan 17.indd 1

12/28/16 11:57 AM

PRINCIPAL ISSUES

The Future of Office Printing Speed, color capability driving print device use by: Christine Dunne, InfoTrends

D

ealers across the United States are seeking more strategies for growing their businesses, particularly at a time when business process automation may be threatening their core offerings. InfoTrends recently conducted a primary research study, “The Future of Office Printing,” to look at printing trends and expectations across company size categories, ages and job roles. While many topics were addressed, this article focuses on the factors that were most likely to impact the use of various print devices in office environments. Understanding these dynamics can help dealers during the sales and marketing process.

InfoTrends asked respondents to specify their top three reasons for using a variety of networked and personal printers and MFPs. Device types included: color MFPs (laser and inkjet, networked and personal); black-and-white MFPs (laser, networked and personal); color single-function printers (SFPs; laser and inkjet, networked, and inkjet personal); and black-and-white SFPs (laser, networked and personal). Respondents had 14 reasons to choose from: speed; color capability; two-sided printing; print quality; scanning/copying/ faxing capability; ease of setting up (print driver); distance away from me; I only have access to one device; low cost per page; ease of control panel use; finishing (e.g., stapling, collating, folding, etc.); A3/11-by-17-inch capability; ability to print from my tablet or smartphone; and other.

By far, the top reason for choosing a print device was speed.

This was the top factor for eight of the 11 device types. The only devices where this was not the top response were personal color inkjet MFPs (scanning/copying/faxing capability and color capability scored higher), networked color inkjet SFPs (color capability scored higher) and personal black-and-white laser SFPs (distance away from me scored higher). It appears that speed is a somewhat less important factor for inkjet and personal devices versus laser and networked products. This makes sense; networked laser devices are typically the workhorses within office environments while inkjets are more likely to be secondary desktop devices. This is reflected in “The Future of Office Printing” data on device use by technology.

For color devices, the next most popular factor driving use (after speed) was color capability. Of the seven color device types mentioned above, color capability was chosen as the number-one or number-two factor for five device types. The only color products where it was considered less important were networked color inkjet MFPs (third to speed and scanning/copying/faxing capability) and networked color laser SFPs (third to

speed and print quality). “The Future of Office Printing” study provides deeper insight into color printing. For example, respondents revealed that the document types most commonly printed in color are photos, greeting cards, presentations, marketing materials and maps — both for required and optional printing.

Print quality appears to be the next most important factor impacting the use of print devices. It is the second most important factor for personal black-and-white laser MFPs and networked color laser SFPs, and the third most important factor for personal color laser MFPs, networked color inkjet SFPs, networked black-and-white laser SFPs, and personal black-andwhite laser SFPs. Nevertheless, the survey results seem to call into question whether print quality is as important for young people as it is for older workers. Overall, U.S. workers aged 18 to 29 were less likely to cite print quality as a driver for print device use. Deeper research into this topic could be beneficial.

Other factors that scored fairly high in driving device use were two-sided printing, multifunctionality and distance away from me. Of course, the importance of the various factors may depend on the worker’s vertical industry, position, company size and a host of other factors. n Christine Dunne is a senior research analyst for InfoTrends’ Digital Peripherals Solutions Consulting Service (DPS), Digital Peripherals Solutions Consulting Service in Europe (DPSE), and 3D Printing Systems Consulting Service (3DPS).

She can be reached at christine.dunne@infotrends.com.

Visit www.keypointintelligence.com.

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Dunne Jan 17.indd 1

12/28/16 11:59 AM

PRINCIPAL ISSUES

The Interview Process Six steps to identifying the ‘great pretenders’ by: Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates

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hat if you had to enter a business process that was mission critical to the success of your company, but you were outmanned and outgunned? Worse, what if you felt like you were flying blind most of the time? How anxious would you be to undertake that process?

I have pretty much described the average hiring process.

Every time you go out to hire, you are seeking a needle in a haystack. In my experience in hiring, the needles are always there — but the size of the haystacks can be very daunting.

I have undergone hiring processes where pools of more than 400 applicants produced one candidate worthy of being a finalist. When I was recruiting, I used to tell my clients that the majority of what they paid me for was who they did not hire.

Today’s interviewee can, if he (or she) wishes, arm himself with sophisticated techniques designed solely to disguise the truth about his career, gloss over underachievement and outright lie. Worse, the interviewee can equip himself with the tools to do so in a trip to his local bookstore. A quick search on Amazon.com reveals that there are more than 12,000 books on how to get hired. I have read many of the most popular ones, and most of them should be titled: “How to Package and Pretend Your Way Into a Job for Which You are Not Qualified.”

The unprepared interviewer is easy prey for an interviewee who has read one or more of these books and has implemented the techniques involved. The good news is that a well-prepared interviewer can, with some work and attention to detail, break down the untruths (or build up the truths) and figure out if a person is who he claims to be. Here are five keys to understanding whether the person in front of you is accurately represented by his résumé: (1) Remain emotionally detached. If there is any single theme that I want to hammer home during this series of hiring articles, this is it. Your emotional detachment is key to making a successful hire. Studies have shown that 63 percent of hiring decisions are made within the first five minutes of meeting a candidate. This does not mean that an offer was handed over five minutes in, but it does mean that the interview trajectory changed based on whether the interviewer liked or did not like the candidate. Emotional hires are bad hires.

(2) Prepare the candidate. You should prepare the candidate for the interview to come. I usually begin by telling him that I am going to be asking very specific and detailed questions, and his candor and honesty in answering is key to his success. If I think I am being lied to or evaded, I am not going

to continue the conversation. By doing this, the candidate is put on notice. You should also let him know that, while you will allow ample time at the end for his questions, this is your interview and, in the early phases, the purpose is for you to get to know him. This should let the candidate know that you are in control of the interview and that his job is to be open and honest. If he fails to do so, that is on him.

(3) Start with very broad questions. I always like to see what information a candidate will volunteer about himself, and I do so by asking questions like: “So, tell me about you and what you are all about” and “What interested you about this job?” Sometimes he will volunteer information you would not have thought to ask. One of the biggest reasons for this technique, however, is that after you have prepared him, the candidate needs to be set at ease a little bit for a successful interview. These questions allow you to ease into the conversation.

(4) Review the résumé with very detailed questions. Now it is time to grab a shovel and start digging. Ask very detailed and specific questions about every stop on the candidate’s résumé over the last 10 years (unless there is a very good reason, I disregard experience older than 10 years as not being representative of who he is now). Probe accomplishments. Ask how his performance was measured, how he performed against expectations, and how he can document or prove his performance.

Drill down on answers; do not let ambiguities go unaddressed.

Do not be afraid to ask questions like: “Who was the customer?”; “Who else was on the team?”; “How did the project get started?”; “What specifically did you do?”; “What was your income?”; etc. www.offi cetechnol ogymag.co m | J a n u a ry 2017 | 37

Harrison Jan 17.indd 1

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questions he asks. Do not be afraid to reThe more specifics and details, the better. If spond with questions like: “Why would you you think that you are being evaded, remind Watch for red flags. ask that?” Often, a red flag can be revealed the candidate of your opening comments — People will tell you, during the candidate’s questions, not yours. once. If he does it again, end the interview. or show you, how they Implement the above six guidelines (es(5) Watch for red flags. People will tell will fail. Most of the pecially the first), and you will have the you, or show you, how they will fail. Most time, interviewers fail right approach for finding the “great preof the time, interviewers fail to listen, tenders” among your candidates. Anyone then they make bad hires. This is why you to listen, then they who survives this round of questioning should remain emotionally uninvolved; make bad hires. should then undergo due diligence, which emotionally involved people will want to will be the subject of my next article. n “cut him some slack,” etc. They are prey for Troy Harrison is the author of “Sell Like You Mean It!” and a skilled interviewee. Instead, watch for signs or statements “The Pocket Sales Manager.” He is a speaker, consultant and that indicate the candidate is inappropriate for the job. For instance, let’s say you need a prospecting salesperson, but in sales navigator who helps companies build more profitable and productive sales forces with his cutting-edge your candidate’s past career, his best work has been done with sales training and methodologies. an assistant who sets the interviews. That is a red flag. Probe For information on booking speaking/training every red flag carefully. engagements, consulting or to sign up for (6) Let him ask questions. The last fourth of the interview Harrison’s weekly e-zine, call (913) 645-3603 or (15 minutes in a one-hour interview) should be devoted to email troy@troyharrison.com. allowing the candidate to ask questions. This exposes his inVisit www.troyharrison.com. tellectual curiosity and you can learn a lot about him by the

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Harrison Jan 17.indd 2

12/28/16 5:07 PM

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