{"id":7060,"date":"2014-06-26T13:13:57","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T17:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=7060"},"modified":"2014-06-26T13:22:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T17:22:00","slug":"twiis-and-print4pay-hotels-top-sales-reps-of-2014-mitch-taylor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2014\/06\/twiis-and-print4pay-hotels-top-sales-reps-of-2014-mitch-taylor\/","title":{"rendered":"TWII\u2019s and Print4Pay Hotel\u2019s Top Sales Reps of 2014: Mitch Taylor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mitch<\/a>

Mitch Taylor of 4 Office Automation has been selling successfully for 20 years.<\/p><\/div>\n

Name: Mitch Taylor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Title:\u00a0<\/strong> Sales Manager<\/p>\n

Company:\u00a0<\/strong> 4 Office Automation, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada<\/p>\n

Years in industry:<\/strong> 20 Years<\/p>\n

New business revenue:<\/strong> $5 Million<\/p>\n

Gross revenue:<\/strong> $15 million<\/p>\n

Units placed:<\/strong> 1,000<\/p>\n

What they\u2019re saying about Mitch:<\/strong> \u201cMitch Taylor is a consistent performer year-in, year-out. He\u2019s highly adept in understanding the nuances of complex negotiations and possesses cheese-melting persuasion. He\u2019s well respected by his peers and considered as the pillar of the dealership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes tough luck is the best luck of all. After graduating from university with a degree in commerce, Mitch Taylor spent a few years working in distribution in Ottawa. Eventually he found himself looking for a new job. Because he wasn\u2019t bi-lingual he had a difficult time finding a suitable position. Then one day he saw an ad in the Toronto Star for a sales position at 4 Office Automation. At that time he didn\u2019t think of himself as a salesman, but as luck would have it, he made the call, was invited to Toronto, a four-hour drive from Ottawa, for an interview. After the interview he drove back to Ottawa, was called back for a second interview, made that four-hour drive again, was hired, and moved to Toronto to start his career selling office imaging technology.<\/p>\n

That was\u00a020 years ago. Today, Taylor is the sales manager of 4 Office Automation\u2019s Ottawa office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve sort of always been in sales even though you don\u2019t always realize you\u2019re selling sometimes,\u201d acknowledges Taylor. \u201cIt\u2019s the last thing I thought I\u2019d do when I left university.\u00a0 I thought I\u2019d be working in an office somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a year and a half working in Toronto, learning to sell, 4 Office opened an Ottawa office primarily because Panasonic, one of their vendors at the time, wasn\u2019t well represented in that market. Taylor was offered the opportunity to move back to Ottawa and work in that office and he took it.<\/p>\n

He says he eventually became sales manager by process of elimination, but it was also a lot of hard work. \u201cI was the only rep they had in Ottawa so I sat in the manager\u2019s office,\u201d says Taylor. \u201cEventually we added more sales people and they said \u2018why don\u2019t you take that office\u2019 and I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working in an industry that\u2019s constantly evolving has been a revelation. \u201cThere\u2019s always something new you can go back to your customer and say, \u2018What about this? We can add onto your existing solution, do a refresh, or solve these problems you had before,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cSolutions are coming out daily and you can integrate them with various products whereas before I had one product to sell and that was it. Now we can add this app or that app and integrate it with this software on the backend. There\u2019s so much more you can do nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n

The toughest part of the job, or at least it was when Taylor first started in sales was handling rejection. He remains philosophical about what it\u2019s like to work in sales. \u201cYou lose today, but tomorrow you\u2019re going to win,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve been lucky, I usually win a lot more than I lose, and the ones I win are big.\u201d<\/p>\n

He remembers his first sale to a small roofing company in Mississauga, Ontario. \u201cI sold them a used fax machine and a used Panasonic photocopier and when I came back to the office it felt like I had made a $3-million sale,\u201d says Taylor.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s taken down many large deals over the years, including a few in the $7-$8 million range. Taylor recently won a thousand machine deal for a school board that\u2019s been his account since 2000. It\u2019s the fourth time he\u2019s won that business. This time they didn\u2019t even ask for a demo. \u201cYou build a reputation with clients and they know you\u2019re looking out for their best interests and that you\u2019re going to take care of them,\u201d says Taylor.<\/p>\n

Asked why he\u2019s been so successful, Taylor replies, \u201cI believe in what I sell and what I\u2019m doing. If I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good solution for the customer I\u2019m not comfortable selling it. I\u2019ve been fortunate to have products that make it easy to sell because I can stand behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The advice he always shares with new sales reps is \u201cCalls equal dollars. If you don\u2019t make calls you\u2019re not going to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalls some words of wisdom he received years ago from one of his first sales managers and that is that everybody has to make money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you give products away you\u2019re not going to be around; at the same time, you can\u2019t make too much money on a particular deal,\u201d states Taylor. \u201cYou can sell one product at $2,000 or 10 at $1,600, which would you rather do? Then you go in and expand those ten customers to other things and sometimes get referrals from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

His biggest challenge of late is finding good sales people. \u201cNothing against kids coming out of school, but what we see from them is they want the job title, they want the money, and they want the promotions, but they\u2019re not interested in putting in the hours and staying late to work on a proposal. It\u2019s \u2018No. Time out, I\u2019m going drinking with the boys or to play hockey or whatever.\u2019 Do I work late every night, no, but when I need to I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

From his experience this is especially critical early on in one\u2019s career. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of ramp up to build your connections and your territory. We try to have our reps be like farmers; they don\u2019t have a huge territory and continue to work that territory. Eventually they\u2019ll walk in and the prospect will say, \u2018You\u2019re still there? We\u2019ve had four Canon reps during that same time, but you\u2019re still there.\u2019 That\u2019s what we try to get our reps to do. A lot of younger people want the instant gratification, but don\u2019t want to take the three years to build up to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He occasionally gets frustrated when he thinks about how much money dealerships like 4 Office Automation invest in a new rep only to have them leave after a year or two. \u201cIn our industry you can make a lot of money if you work at it,\u201d opines Taylor.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s something that Taylor has done and continues to do and why he is one of the industry\u2019s top sales people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Name: Mitch Taylor Title:\u00a0 Sales Manager Company:\u00a0 4 Office Automation, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada Years in industry: 20 Years New business revenue: $5 Million Gross revenue: $15 million Units placed: 1,000 What they\u2019re saying about Mitch: \u201cMitch Taylor is a consistent performer year-in, year-out. He\u2019s highly adept in understanding the nuances of complex negotiations and possesses cheese-melting persuasion. He\u2019s well respected by his peers and considered as the pillar of the dealership.\u201d Sometimes tough luck is the best luck of all. After graduating from university with a degree in commerce, Mitch Taylor spent a few years working in distribution in Ottawa. Eventually he found himself looking for a new job. Because he wasn\u2019t bi-lingual he had a difficult time finding a suitable position. Then one day he saw an ad in the Toronto Star for a sales position at 4 Office Automation. At that time he didn\u2019t think of himself as a salesman, but as luck would have it, he made the call, was invited to Toronto, a four-hour drive from Ottawa, for an interview. After the interview he drove back to Ottawa, was called back for a second interview, made that four-hour drive again, was hired, and moved to Toronto to start his career selling office imaging technology. That was\u00a020 years ago. Today, Taylor is the sales manager of 4 Office Automation\u2019s Ottawa office. \u201cI\u2019ve sort of always been in sales even though you don\u2019t always realize you\u2019re selling sometimes,\u201d acknowledges Taylor. \u201cIt\u2019s the last thing I thought I\u2019d do when I left university.\u00a0 I thought I\u2019d be working in an office somewhere.\u201d After a year and a half working in Toronto, learning to sell, 4 Office opened an Ottawa office primarily because Panasonic, one of their vendors at the time, wasn\u2019t well represented in that market. Taylor was offered the opportunity to move back to Ottawa and work in that office and he took it. He says he eventually became sales manager by process of elimination, but it was also a lot of hard work. \u201cI was the only rep they had in Ottawa so I sat in the manager\u2019s office,\u201d says Taylor. \u201cEventually we added more sales people and they said \u2018why don\u2019t you take that office\u2019 and I did.\u201d Working in an industry that\u2019s constantly evolving has been a revelation. \u201cThere\u2019s always something new you can go back to your customer and say, \u2018What about this? We can add onto your existing solution, do a refresh, or solve these problems you had before,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cSolutions are coming out daily and you can integrate them with various products whereas before I had one product to sell and that was it. Now we can add this app or that app and integrate it with this software on the backend. There\u2019s so much more you can do nowadays.\u201d The toughest part of the job, or at least it was when Taylor first started in sales was handling rejection. He remains philosophical about what it\u2019s like to work in sales. \u201cYou lose today, but tomorrow you\u2019re going to win,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve been lucky, I usually win a lot more than I lose, and the ones I win are big.\u201d He remembers his first sale to a small roofing company in Mississauga, Ontario. \u201cI sold them a used fax machine and a used Panasonic photocopier and when I came back to the office it felt like I had made a $3-million sale,\u201d says Taylor. He\u2019s taken down many large deals over the years, including a few in the $7-$8 million range. Taylor recently won a thousand machine deal for a school board that\u2019s been his account since 2000. It\u2019s the fourth time he\u2019s won that business. This time they didn\u2019t even ask for a demo. \u201cYou build a reputation with clients and they know you\u2019re looking out for their best interests and that you\u2019re going to take care of them,\u201d says Taylor. Asked why he\u2019s been so successful, Taylor replies, \u201cI believe in what I sell and what I\u2019m doing. If I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good solution for the customer I\u2019m not comfortable selling it. I\u2019ve been fortunate to have products that make it easy to sell because I can stand behind them.\u201d The advice he always shares with new sales reps is \u201cCalls equal dollars. If you don\u2019t make calls you\u2019re not going to succeed.\u201d He recalls some words of wisdom he received years ago from one of his first sales managers and that is that everybody has to make money. \u201cIf you give products away you\u2019re not going to be around; at the same time, you can\u2019t make too much money on a particular deal,\u201d states Taylor. \u201cYou can sell one product at $2,000 or 10 at $1,600, which would you rather do? Then you go in and expand those ten customers to other things and sometimes get referrals from that.\u201d His biggest challenge of late is finding good sales people. \u201cNothing against kids coming out of school, but what we see from them is they want the job title, they want the money, and they want the promotions, but they\u2019re not interested in putting in the hours and staying late to work on a proposal. It\u2019s \u2018No. Time out, I\u2019m going drinking with the boys or to play hockey or whatever.\u2019 Do I work late every night, no, but when I need to I do.\u201d From his experience this is especially critical early on in one\u2019s career. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of ramp up to build your connections and your territory. We try to have our reps be like farmers; they don\u2019t have a huge territory and continue to work that territory. Eventually they\u2019ll walk in and the prospect will say, \u2018You\u2019re still there? We\u2019ve had four Canon reps during that same time, but you\u2019re still there.\u2019 That\u2019s what we try to get our reps to do. A lot of younger people want the instant gratification, but don\u2019t want to take the three years to build up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[1504,1505,1455],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7060"}],"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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7060"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7079,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7060\/revisions\/7079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}