![\"salesman2\"](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/salesman2.jpg\")
I need to make a long story short. A few years ago there was a slug of a copier salesperson\/owner running around New Jersey selling equipment, doctoring leases, not returning equipment, not paying buy-outs on the equipment, and who knows what else may have transpired.\u00a0 Eventually you get caught, that person did get caught and was indicted for several offenses. I believe one of the counts was wire fraud.<\/p>\n
Me, I was lucky enough to get an appointment with one of the clients that had been taken to the cleaners by the slug of a salesperson. Well, at least I thought I was lucky.<\/p>\n
After my presentation, the client asked what is Stratix\/Ricoh going to do for this non-profit? My response was, what would you like us to do?\u00a0 Logical, right?\u00a0 Wrong!<\/p>\n
First, they wanted a service contract, no minimums, no increases, and then no overages.\u00a0 The client then stated, \u201cWell some months you’ll win and some months I’ll win. I thought, \u201cThis is going to go over well with my manager.\u201d\u00a0 However, I continued to say nothing and to listen.\u00a0The last demand was that they wanted free service on 15 different A4 devices. If the system required a part we could then bill them for the repair.\u00a0 I asked, “What happens when one of those devices can’t be repaired?” The client stated that they would take our recommendations for replacement.\u00a0\u00a0I then asked about supplies for those A4 devices and was told that we would need to match their current supplier.<\/p>\n
Right, and one more item, they needed a replacement copier for another location and thought that machine should be placed for free (it could be new or used).<\/p>\n
Thus, for a deal that would have generated two 55-ppm color devices, I had to figure out how I could accommodate this customer.\u00a0I did figure out a way, and it was to simply say no to their demands and give them a proposal based on our<\/em> terms and not their <\/em>terms.<\/p>\n At the final meeting, I presented our equipment, along with our T’s & C’s.\u00a0I could sense the uneasy nature of the client.\u00a0The final chapter was to present, my A4 solution for them.\u00a0At the end of the meeting I was told there were multiple proposals and we’ll have this sorted out in a week.<\/p>\n After the meeting, I sat in the car and reflected about the entire process.\u00a0I then sent the client an e-mail that we are removing our proposal from consideration and hope that everything works well for them.<\/p>\n In the back of my mind, I believe that all of these “wants” were to flush out additional vendors. I’m thinking they already had a new vendor in mind and did not have the guts tell me.\u00a0Instead, they opted to put something on the table that they knew no other vendor would provide a quote on.<\/p>\n You know what, walking away actually made me feel better.<\/p>\n Good selling!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I need to make a long story short. A few years ago there was a slug of a copier salesperson\/owner running around New Jersey selling equipment, doctoring leases, not returning equipment, not paying buy-outs on the equipment, and who knows what else may have transpired.\u00a0 Eventually you get caught, that person did get caught and was indicted for several offenses. I believe one of the counts was wire fraud. Me, I was lucky enough to get an appointment with one of the clients that had been taken to the cleaners by the slug of a salesperson. Well, at least I thought I was lucky. After my presentation, the client asked what is Stratix\/Ricoh going to do for this non-profit? My response was, what would you like us to do?\u00a0 Logical, right?\u00a0 Wrong! First, they wanted a service contract, no minimums, no increases, and then no overages.\u00a0 The client then stated, \u201cWell some months you’ll win and some months I’ll win. I thought, \u201cThis is going to go over well with my manager.\u201d\u00a0 However, I continued to say nothing and to listen.\u00a0The last demand was that they wanted free service on 15 different A4 devices. If the system required a part we could then bill them for the repair.\u00a0 I asked, “What happens when one of those devices can’t be repaired?” The client stated that they would take our recommendations for replacement.\u00a0\u00a0I then asked about supplies for those A4 devices and was told that we would need to match their current supplier. Right, and one more item, they needed a replacement copier for another location and thought that machine should be placed for free (it could be new or used). Thus, for a deal that would have generated two 55-ppm color devices, I had to figure out how I could accommodate this customer.\u00a0I did figure out a way, and it was to simply say no to their demands and give them a proposal based on our terms and not their terms. At the final meeting, I presented our equipment, along with our T’s & C’s.\u00a0I could sense the uneasy nature of the client.\u00a0The final chapter was to present, my A4 solution for them.\u00a0At the end of the meeting I was told there were multiple proposals and we’ll have this sorted out in a week. After the meeting, I sat in the car and reflected about the entire process.\u00a0I then sent the client an e-mail that we are removing our proposal from consideration and hope that everything works well for them. In the back of my mind, I believe that all of these “wants” were to flush out additional vendors. I’m thinking they already had a new vendor in mind and did not have the guts tell me.\u00a0Instead, they opted to put something on the table that they knew no other vendor would provide a quote on. You know what, walking away actually made me feel better. Good selling! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[87,1638],"tags":[106,151],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13710,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13708\/revisions\/13710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}