{"id":7221,"date":"2014-08-13T10:28:01","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T14:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=7221"},"modified":"2014-09-30T01:31:25","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T05:31:25","slug":"7-technologies-i-used-to-use-while-selling-copiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/the-week-in-imaging-twii\/sales-and-service\/2014\/08\/7-technologies-i-used-to-use-while-selling-copiers\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Technologies I Used to Use While Selling Copiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

While on a long drive to one of my accounts on the fringe of my territory, I had time to think about some of the technologies that I’ve used to help me sell copiers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"motorola-bag-phone\"<\/a>The Phone in a Bag:\u00a0<\/strong> Pretty cool right!\u00a0 For you newbies, you probably didn’t even know that the first truly mobile phones came with a really nice bag.\u00a0 Nice big handset, big numbers and always such a short damn cord for the handset.\u00a0 Back in the day, my dealership was also authorized for Cellular One; we always had the latest phones and I can remember including cell phones and annual service plans\u00a0in copier deals. Everyone wanted a phone in a bag!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"demo<\/a>Demo Cart:\u00a0 <\/strong>Or you could call it the undertaker gurney. One of the first carts I remember was at least four feet long, had carpeting on top, and folded so that it would load in the back of a station wagon.\u00a0 Try pushing one of those over rocks, snow, ice or mud. It was often a disaster waiting to happen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"ibm<\/a>Typewriter: <\/strong>Back in the day, if you needed a quote there was usually someone at the office that had awesome typing skills.\u00a0 Handwritten quotes were not an option, thus all proposals were typed.\u00a0 But the proposals were much simpler then; none of the fancy graphics, logos or pictures that you see today. Just FAB (feature, advantage, benefit)\u00a0purchase price, and lease price.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Wang-Word-Processor\"<\/a>Word Processor:<\/strong> Word Processors\u00a0meant the death of the typewriter. You could store a proposal, edit a proposal, and then walk away and the\u00a0word processor\u00a0would type the letter for you. I remember selling many paper feed trays for word processors.\u00a0 Much like a document feeder on a copier, with the word processor you could load the letterhead and then tell the system to type (print) multiple copies of the document.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"phone<\/a>Phone Booths & Phone Cards:\u00a0<\/strong> Before, the Phone in a Bag, there were those good old fashioned phone booths. If you were running late for an appointment (which happened quite often) there were no apps like\u00a0Waze, Mapquest or GPS, you had to find a phone booth. The phone cards were handy to keep in the wallet in case you didn’t have enough change for the call. No, phone booths did not accept dollar bills.\u00a0We made those\u00a0calls in sub-freezing temps and torrential rains. We even closed deals from phone booths!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"rolodex\"<\/a>Rolodex: <\/strong>You knew you came of age in your sales career when you were allowed to keep a Rolodex of your accounts on your desk.\u00a0If you needed to waste some time or were tired of making cold calls (some things never change), you would add contact information to your Rolodex.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"1992<\/a>Copier Prospect\u00a0Cards:<\/strong>\u00a0 Before the computer, we all kept a box full of index cards. On these cards, we would hand write all of the pertinent information to keep in touch with existing customers and future prospects.\u00a0 You learned to write neatly and organize your cards quickly. I can remember making calls to prospects and then trying to decipher my handwriting while on the phone with the DMs.<\/p>\n

And one quick story for you.<\/p>\n

I had my first word processor on my desk. I was finally in charge of creating my own letters and proposals.\u00a0 Yeah!\u00a0 I was rocking and rolling sending letters to everyone (yes, we sent real letters through the mail). I’m in the office and I get a call that a prospect is on the phone for me. I thought this is awesome.\u00a0 I answered and the DM of the company that I sent the letter to\u00a0went on to\u00a0critique me\u00a0about the letter that I had sent him. He stated it was full of typos and “did I not proofread” the letter?\u00a0 Ah, no I didn’t. He then stated that this was a learning lesson for me and that he would not buy from someone who did not proofread the letters.\u00a0 Yes, this taught me a lesson. I never confessed that I was a good typist or a\u00a0master of the English language, however, I do confess that\u00a0I’m an\u00a0awesome salesperson.<\/p>\n

Good selling!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While on a long drive to one of my accounts on the fringe of my territory, I had time to think about some of the technologies that I’ve used to help me sell copiers. \u00a0The Phone in a Bag:\u00a0 Pretty cool right!\u00a0 For you newbies, you probably didn’t even know that the first truly mobile phones came with a really nice bag.\u00a0 Nice big handset, big numbers and always such a short damn cord for the handset.\u00a0 Back in the day, my dealership was also authorized for Cellular One; we always had the latest phones and I can remember including cell phones and annual service plans\u00a0in copier deals. Everyone wanted a phone in a bag!   Demo Cart:\u00a0 Or you could call it the undertaker gurney. One of the first carts I remember was at least four feet long, had carpeting on top, and folded so that it would load in the back of a station wagon.\u00a0 Try pushing one of those over rocks, snow, ice or mud. It was often a disaster waiting to happen.     Typewriter: Back in the day, if you needed a quote there was usually someone at the office that had awesome typing skills.\u00a0 Handwritten quotes were not an option, thus all proposals were typed.\u00a0 But the proposals were much simpler then; none of the fancy graphics, logos or pictures that you see today. Just FAB (feature, advantage, benefit)\u00a0purchase price, and lease price.   Word Processor: Word Processors\u00a0meant the death of the typewriter. You could store a proposal, edit a proposal, and then walk away and the\u00a0word processor\u00a0would type the letter for you. I remember selling many paper feed trays for word processors.\u00a0 Much like a document feeder on a copier, with the word processor you could load the letterhead and then tell the system to type (print) multiple copies of the document.   Phone Booths & Phone Cards:\u00a0 Before, the Phone in a Bag, there were those good old fashioned phone booths. If you were running late for an appointment (which happened quite often) there were no apps like\u00a0Waze, Mapquest or GPS, you had to find a phone booth. The phone cards were handy to keep in the wallet in case you didn’t have enough change for the call. No, phone booths did not accept dollar bills.\u00a0We made those\u00a0calls in sub-freezing temps and torrential rains. We even closed deals from phone booths!   Rolodex: You knew you came of age in your sales career when you were allowed to keep a Rolodex of your accounts on your desk.\u00a0If you needed to waste some time or were tired of making cold calls (some things never change), you would add contact information to your Rolodex.     Copier Prospect\u00a0Cards:\u00a0 Before the computer, we all kept a box full of index cards. On these cards, we would hand write all of the pertinent information to keep in touch with existing customers and future prospects.\u00a0 You learned to write neatly and organize your cards quickly. I can remember making calls to prospects and then trying to decipher my handwriting while on the phone with the DMs. And one quick story for you. I had my first word processor on my desk. I was finally in charge of creating my own letters and proposals.\u00a0 Yeah!\u00a0 I was rocking and rolling sending letters to everyone (yes, we sent real letters through the mail). I’m in the office and I get a call that a prospect is on the phone for me. I thought this is awesome.\u00a0 I answered and the DM of the company that I sent the letter to\u00a0went on to\u00a0critique me\u00a0about the letter that I had sent him. He stated it was full of typos and “did I not proofread” the letter?\u00a0 Ah, no I didn’t. He then stated that this was a learning lesson for me and that he would not buy from someone who did not proofread the letters.\u00a0 Yes, this taught me a lesson. I never confessed that I was a good typist or a\u00a0master of the English language, however, I do confess that\u00a0I’m an\u00a0awesome salesperson. 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],"tags":[106,151],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7221"}],"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=7221"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7231,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7221\/revisions\/7231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}