August 2017 Office Technology

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CONTENTS Volume 24 • No. 2

FEATURE ARTICLES 10

Power Protection Vendors focused on increasing MFP reliability

COURTS & CAPITOLS Surf-by Lawsuits Does your website comply with ADA standards?

32

by Robert C. Goldberg BTA General Counsel

by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

Help yourself and your customers avoid unnecessary litigation by reviewing your and their websites, and update them as necessary to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.

Some office technology dealers remain skeptics. The MFP operates the same with or without the use of a power protection device, they contend. “Why would I want to increase the cost of our unit by adding an extra device that the customer likely wouldn’t notice?”

16

Data Security Providing a growing opportunity for solution sales

P R I N C I PA L I S S U E S ‘From Paper to the Cloud’ A&A pleased with its cloud services division

36

by Christine Dunne Keypoint Intelligence - InfoTrends

by Craig Lupienski A&A Office Systems

When people think of data breaches, they often think about large companies. But, the truth is, a data breach can happen to anysized entity. So, what does the prevalence (and risk) of data security issues among SMBs mean for the office technology dealer community?

22

Hidden Content When shared, it can set you apart from competitors

by Lindsay Kelley Prospect Builder

Simply existing in an industry is a death sentence. Tastes change.

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SELLING SOLUTIONS Who, What & Why? Constructing an effective, unified prospecting effort

37

by Troy Harrison Troy Harrison & Associates

If your prospects are researching online, do you have content that answers their questions and shows you understand how to solve their business pain? When you do this, you showcase your industry expertise. So, where do you find these answers?

And, once you find them, what do you do with them?

28

Waltz Celebrates 125 Years Milestone coincides with president’s retirement

by Jeff Jehn Waltz Business Solutions

On June 2, Waltz Business Solutions of Crestview Hills, Kentucky, celebrated its 125th anniversary with a company event attended by current and past employees, along with some of our long-tenured clients. Founded in 1892 by Frank Waltz, the company started in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio.

Prospecting. Nearly all salespeople have to do it, but few are good at it. After training salespeople from all around the world, I have found that prospecting — in any country or any language — is a universal challenge.

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

34

• BTA Highlights

6

Executive Director’s Page

8

BTA President’s Message

38

Advertiser Index

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S PAGE

Waltz Likely the First Dealership to Hit 125

I

t was great to receive the article from Jeff Jehn, “Waltz Celebrates 125 Years,” starting on page 28 in this issue of Office Technology. I would like to congratulate Jeff — and all members of the Jehn family — on this significant milestone. There is no shortage of family businesses in the office technology industry, but likely no others have celebrated 125 years in business. The Jehns are to be commended for the hard work they have put into ensuring that Waltz Business Solutions of Crestview Hills, Kentucky, has endured for so many years.

Of course, I was particularly pleased to read this comment from Jeff in his article: “I have had a wonderful relationship with the association, which has benefited me and my company over the years, and has certainly contributed to our longevity.”

Waltz joined BTA, then the National Office Machine Dealers Association (NOMDA), in 1956. The company is the association’s eighth most long-term member dealership.

Jeff’s comment about BTA brings to mind a comment that appeared in this space in November 2013, from Don Anderson, whose father, C. Elmer Anderson, founded BTA’s most long-term member dealership in 1912, Anderson Business Technology of Pasadena, California. In an email, Don wrote: “BTA and its forerunners have played a great part in the success and longevity of our firm. The great support, education and camaraderie that has been provided to our three generations has been so important to us.” Don’s son David serves as the current president of the dealership, which has been a member of BTA since 1930.

Incidentally, both of these long-term dealerships have some noteworthy history

for volunteerism in the association. Jeff was the 2004-05 BTA national president. C. Elmer Anderson was national president from 1934 to 1936, when BTA was known as the National Typewriter and Office Machine Dealers Association.

BTA has received countless comments like these from dealers through the years, essentially thanking the association for the role it has played in the success of their businesses. In all cases, such comments are from the dealers who do not just pay their annual dues, but take advantage of the benefits BTA has to offer. It is easy to pay BTA dues. It takes a bit more effort to explore BTA’s many benefits listed on our website, www.bta.org. However, it is always worth the effort.

Are you taking full advantage of your BTA membership? Did you know that the association’s website provides details on more than 50 benefits? If not, I encourage you take some time to visit the site and explore all that BTA has to offer. Remember: The association was formed by dealers in 1926 and continues to be governed by dealers to this day. With that in mind, you can be assured that BTA’s benefits are ideally suited for independent office technology dealers.

By the way, are you curious about the other dealerships that hold the distinction as being the most long-term members of BTA — those between Anderson at number one and Waltz at number eight? With the year they joined, they are (continuous members, based on the BTA database): Capital Business Machines, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1939; Wagner Office Machines, Burr Ridge, Illinois, 1941; Howard D. Happy Co., Mayfield, Kentucky, 1942; Enid Typewriter Co., Enid, Oklahoma, 1943; Standley Systems, Chickasha, Oklahoma, 1945; and Phillips Office Solutions, Middletown, Pennsylvania, 1946. 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, Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends www.keypointintelligence.com Robert C. Goldberg, General Counsel Business Technology Association Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates www.troyharrison.com Jeff Jehn, Waltz Business Solutions www.waltzbusiness.com Lindsay Kelley, Prospect Builder www.prospectbuilder.net Craig Lupienski, A&A Office Systems www.aaofficesystems.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 Teresa Leerar Bookkeeper teresa@bta.org Brian Smith Membership Sales Representative 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 Names 2017-18 Scholarship Winners

E

ach year, the Business Technology Association (BTA) awards one $3,000 and a number of $1,000 and $1,500 scholarships to qualifying children of full-time employees of dealerships that are current BTA Retail Dealer members. Since the 1984-85 school year, BTA has presented 1,422 scholarships to deserving students, totaling $1,606,500.

BTA scholarships are awarded based on a thorough review of completed applications, transcripts and essays by an independent, impartial evaluator. For the 2017-18 school year, BTA awarded a total of $28,500 in scholarships to 24 students.

This year’s scholarship recipients and their sponsoring BTA member dealerships: Cassidy Buffington, Duplicating Products Inc., Gainesville, Georgia; Sarah CaseySummers, The Toner Exchange, Wilmington, North Carolina; Elizabeth Chamberlain, Pacific Office Automation, Salt Lake City, Utah; Makenzi Coleman, Thermocopy of Tennessee Inc., Knoxville, Tennessee; Samuel Eastin, RJ Young Co., Nashville, Tennessee; Sydney Emmerich, EO Johnson Business Technologies, Wausau, Wisconsin; Hope Flanders, United Business Systems, Buffalo, New York; Grace Fletcher, Rumble’s Office City, Thomasville, Georgia; Ryan Fortson, R.K. Black Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Abigail Hamvas, Coordinated Business Systems Ltd., Burnsville, Minnesota; Jeffrey Henize, Waltz Business Solutions, Crestview Hills, Kentucky; Anna Hinkle, The Toner Exchange, Wilmington, North Carolina; Natalie Jehn, Waltz Business Solutions, Crestview Hills, Kentucky; Zachary Jones, Copy Link Inc., Chula Vista, California; Jacob McCabe, Century Business

Technologies, Topeka, Kansas; Megan McKenzie, Applied Imaging, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Evan Mikos, Gordon Flesch Co. Inc., Dublin, Ohio; Carly O’Dell, Century Business Products Inc., Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Katie Paulich, EO Johnson Business Technologies, Wausau, Wisconsin; Savanna Service, Service Business Equipment & Sales, Kent, Washington; Morgan Shipley, SolutionOne, Lincoln, Nebraska; Shelby Taylor, Indiana Business Equipment Inc., Terre Haute, Indiana; Darryl Watkins, Gordon Flesch Co. Inc., Dublin, Ohio; and Mackenzie West, Pearson-Kelly Office Products, Springfield, Missouri.

The BTA Scholarship Foundation is supported by contributions from individual dealers, manufacturers and distributors.

We would like to thank the following companies that contributed to the BTA Scholarship Foundation during the 2016-17 year: Advanced Office Systems Inc., Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Advanced Systems Inc., Waterloo, Iowa; American Office Machines Inc., Metairie, Louisiana; Anderson Business Technology, Pasadena, California; Applied Imaging, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Bratton’s Office Equipment Inc., Greeley, Colorado; Budget Document Technology, Lewiston, Maine; California Business Machines, Fresno, California; Century Business Technologies, Topeka, Kansas; Coordinated Business Systems Ltd., Burnsville, Minnesota; Copiers Plus, Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey; Des Plaines Office Equipment Co. Inc., Elk Grove Village, Illinois; New England Copy Specialists Inc., Woburn, Massachusetts; Prior & Nami Business Systems, Hamilton, New Jersey; Purvis Business Machines Inc., Meridian, Mississippi; Stan’s - LPS Midwest, Woodstock, Illinois; and Superior Business Equipment Co., Great Falls, Montana. n — Dan Castaneda

2017-2018 Board of Directors President Dan Castaneda International Copy Machine Center El Paso, Texas dan@icmc-elp.com President-Elect John Eckstrom Carolina Business Equipment Inc. Columbia, South Carolina johne@cbesc.com Vice President Bob Evans Function4 Sugar Land, Texas bobevans@function-4.com BTA East Jim Donnellon Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises Cincinnati, Ohio j.donnellon@dme.us.com Tim Seeley Jr. Seeley Office Systems Inc. Glens Falls, NY tseeleyjr@seeleyoffice.com BTA Mid-America Erik Crane Copy Products Inc. Springfield, Missouri ecrane@copyproductsinc.net Greg Quirk JQ Office Equipment of Omaha Inc. Omaha, Nebraska gquirk@jqoffice.com BTA Southeast Tim Renegar Kelly Office Solutions Winston-Salem, North Carolina trenegar@kellyofficesolutions.com David Polimeni Rite Technology Sarasota, Florida dpolimeni@ritefl.com BTA West John Hines Copiers Northwest Inc. Seattle, Washington jhines@copiersnw.com Mike Brandon ABC Office Equipment Co. Inc. Spokane, Washington mbrandon@abcoe.com Immediate Past President Rob Richardson Allied Document Solutions & Services Inc. Swedesboro, New Jersey robr@ads-s.com Ex-Officio/General Counsel Robert C. Goldberg Schoenberg Finkel Newman & Rosenberg LLC Chicago, Illinois robert.goldberg@sfnr.com

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Power Protection Vendors focused on increasing MFP reliability by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

S

ome office technology dealers remain skeptics. The MFP operates the same with or without the use of a power protection device, they contend. “So, why would I want to increase the cost of our unit by adding an extra device that the customer likely wouldn’t notice in the first place?” the skeptic may ask. “Anyway, the concern is something big like a lightning strike, isn’t it? The odds of that happening are pretty slim.”

Dave Perrotta, director and business unit manager at AMETEK Electronic Systems Protection (AMETEK ESP), a manufacturer of power protection, conditioning, diagnostic intelligence, predictive analytics and monitoring solutions, has met a few skeptics. “They may say, ‘Hey, adding a power protection device would increase the price of my product package. It’s going to make me non-competitive. I don’t want to add to the cost,’” he says. “Do they really know what a power protection problem looks like? Are they having repeated service calls for issues that they are not able to solve? Could those be power problems? In some cases, the answer is ‘yes.’”

As some skeptics consider that thought, perhaps their skepticism about power protection begins to wane just a bit.

It is true that there are times when a tech responding to a service call is unable to identify the source of the problem with an MFP. While the connection between power protection and previously unidentified issues with an MFP may resonate with some, for others, the skepticism may still run pretty deep.

“They [skeptics] just won’t look at the facts,” says Vincent DeMaio, who provides technical support and training at Smart Power Systems, a manufacturer of power protection products, including uninterruptible power supplies, computer-grade filters and automatic voltage regulators.

“This isn’t something someone made up. The information out there comes from the pioneers in the development of

PC boards and microprocessors.

They have recognized all of this for a long time.”

What is “all of this”? “Back in the early 1980s, when they did their studies, IBM and Bell Labs found that, most of the time, it is going to be low-voltage transient noise that causes disruptions; the rest of the time it is going to be voltage sags,” DeMaio says. “Yes, lightning strikes are also of concern, but the biggest detriment to the operation of a microprocessor is going to be low-voltage transient noise or ground noise.”

Wait, lightning strikes are not the biggest worry? It is low-voltage transient noise? Does this mean an MFP connected to a power protection device can, in fact, operate differently than one that is not? Since when did the dealer need to worry about such things? “When machines went from analog to digital, it really changed everything,” DeMaio says. “It is the speed of today’s equipment that makes the microprocessor more susceptible to disruptive voltage. Faster processor speeds have lowered the threshold to where spikes as small as two volts can cause disruption and downtime.”

Perrotta cites the analog-to-digital transition as the reason ESP (prior to its purchase by AMETEK) was established.

“We came about with the switch from analog to digital,” he says. “Small power problems would not affect the analog equipment, but do affect the digital equipment. You’re talking about products now that operate basically as servers. They are doing everything. They are processing, storing and disseminating data. So, because of the analog-to-digital transition, they are now much more compact and more sophisticated, particularly within the electronics, clock speeds and microprocessors. As a result, they are much more susceptible to different power anomalies.”

What types of damage can occur with an MFP as a result

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of power anomalies? “Typicalresponsible for a lot of ly, degradation of the boards; electronics failures out “What’s really impacting they then can fail prematurely,” in the field.” your day-to-day life is not Perrotta says. “In some cases, Perrotta says AMEa machine catching fire you have constant undervoltTEK ESP estimates that because of a lighting strike. age power issues, which can 80 percent of power probIt’s going to be fuser or be a problem for things like lems in the workplace jam issues; things that hard drives. That can also be a are caused by issues in problem for power supplies, bethe building itself. “You we know our technology cause you are basically stresscan have improper wirhelps to prevent.” ing all the components of the ing, for example, and that

— Jun Ho Son system, which causes them to does not always manifest Innovolt wear out prematurely.” itself immediately,” he Ed McLaughlin, vice chairsays. “It manifests itself man of Innovolt, a provider of power protection solutions when more equipment is added to the space, which can result that combine sensor, remediation, monitoring and analytics in different pieces of equipment competing for the same cirtechnologies, offers a similar perspective. “The MFP is proba- cuit. So, if someone plugs an appliance into the same circuit, bly the most powerful computer in the office today, with com- that can have an immediate impact on the performance of a plex integration and multiple subsystems,” he says. “Those piece of office equipment.” subsystems all rely on a single power supply. Any power that When new office equipment is installed in the workplace, is out of spec runs the risk of those subsystems getting out “chances are you are probably not going to check the wiring of sync and causing a whole host of problems. Innovolt ad- diagrams,” Son says. “You are just going to plug it in. You dresses all of those anomalies with constant monitoring and expect it to work because we are all conditioned to think remediation of power problems.” our power system is very stable. The reality is, all of those What are the sources of power issues that can affect an things [overburdened circuits, sags, etc.] cumulatively start MFP’s performance? The primary source is the range of having an impact and causing more and more of these types factors generated within the office building itself. Second of anomalies within the walls of a facility.” is the power grid and third is the very distant, almost nonPossible power anomalies within customers’ buildings existent, threat of damage resulting from a lightning strike. and their effects on MFPs should lead skeptical dealers to “The odds of a catastrophic surge event are, like, one in 10 take another look at power protection devices, McLaughmillion,” says Jun Ho Son, CEO of Innovolt. “However, yes, lin says. “One of the most compelling reasons for dealers to you should be protecting against those, because you liter- utilize power protection is to reduce service calls,” he says. ally could have your machine blow up.”

“Our technology helps them to do that by not having the Instead, the primary focus should be on “what really hap- truck roll, saving on parts costs and, more importantly, savpens on a day-to-day basis out in the field,” Son says. “What’s ing labor costs.” really impacting your day-to-day life is not a machine catching This message is commonplace among power protection fire because of a lightning strike. It’s going to be fuser or jam vendors. “Money is made on the service contract; the less issues; things that we know our technology helps to prevent.” you have to show up at the customer location, the more profSon notes that it is not the observable power events, but itable you are,” Perrotta says. “Dealers put a great deal of the unobservable events that are the primary focus at Inno- time into making sure they are hiring the best techs who are volt. In between the surge and the blackout “is a wide range not showing up to make repairs repeatedly. We can help by of different events that vary by severity and duration, such keeping them from going to an account repeatedly because as brownouts, overvoltages or sags, which are less dramat- of a power problem that was previously masked.” ic than surges, but can still bring in unwanted high doses The key is “offering the right power protection; it makes of voltage to your machine,” he explains. “These issues are all the difference in reducing the number of service calls much more prevalent than people once thought. Conven- and the profitability of service agreements,” DeMaio says. tional wisdom used to be that it is those big ones that you “Consumer-type products — products without the ability to should be worried about. Well, our company was actually clamp spikes and surges to a low voltage — have little or no founded based on some hard research at the Georgia Insti- effect on reducing service calls. In fact, they actually genertute of Technology that revealed there are a lot more of these ate service department expenses, which result in less profitthings going on than anybody realized and they are directly able service agreements for the dealer.”

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Conditioner, for example, As noted, beyond power which will then boost or protection devices for MFPs, “The bulk of our customers buck the voltage, keeping it vendors provide dealers the are the OEMs themselves. in a safe operating range for means to offer diagnostics Yes, that’s part of our talk the connected equipment.” and analytics as well. Smart track: ‘The OEMs are Finally, dealers who rePower Systems, for example, recommending power main skeptics may want to offers its Smart Power Anaprotection. It is a proven consider that MFP manufaclyzer. “As mentioned, most entity. It is a proven fact. turers are among the believoften power-related issues ers. “The bulk of our customare caused by low-voltPower protection products are necessary.’“ ers are the OEMs themselves,” age transients, which our

— Dave Perrotta Perrotta says. “Yes, that’s part Guardian product will filter AMETEK Electronic Systems Protection of our talk track: ‘The OEMs out,” DeMaio says. “Howevare recommending power er, on occasion, voltage fluctuation sags or swells will present themselves. To identify protection. It is a proven entity. It is a proven and confirm their presence, we will provide a Smart Power fact. Power protection products are necessary.

Analyzer to report the onsite activity for at least 24 hours. ESP can show validated ROI.’” n Brent Hoskins, executive director of the The unit is returned to us and we print out the report, which Business Technology Association, is editor confirms the existence of an undervoltage or overvoltage of Office Technology magazine. He can be condition. This report is given back to the dealer, who then reached at brent@bta.org or (816) 303-4040. takes it to the end user in support of the need for our Mega

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Data Security Providing a growing opportunity for solution sales by: Christine Dunne, Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends

W

hen people think of data breaches, they often think about large companies like Target or Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. That is because breaches within such organizations tend to receive intense media coverage. But the truth is, a data breach can happen to anysized entity. In fact, Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends research shows that about 60 percent of companies with 100 to 1,000 employees have had an attempted or actual security breach, which is on par with breaches within larger-sized companies (see Figure 1 at right).

This finding is consistent with research from the Ponemon Institute, which also shows that confidence in SMB security is extremely low. In fact, just 14 percent of companies with 1,000 or fewer employees rated their ability to mitigate cyberattacks as highly effective. Going back to Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends research, it appears that the theft or loss of digital information, as well as ransomware, are among the top kinds of breaches experienced (see Figure 2 at right).

So, what does the prevalence (and risk) of data security issues among SMBs mean for the office technology dealer community? It means that dealers need to consider these types of issues when addressing current and prospective customers. This is reinforced by the fact that U.S. SMBs cite improving document security as a top goal in their organizations. This is particularly the case in industries like financial services and professional services (e.g., legal).

When pitching printers and MFPs to businesses, dealers should highlight the standard security features of the technology and, potentially, print and/or device-management tools that are available for free. This helps users derive value from products they are already purchasing. Dealers can help familiarize prospects with features like hard disk drive encryption, user authentication against the active directory and the ability to change the printer’s default password to prevent remote access. Office technology dealerships that sell non-print technology, such as PCs, can highlight the built-in security features of these products as well.

Going beyond educating customers on standard printer/ MFP features and software, office technology dealerships

can attempt to sell customers optional features and solutions that will further enhance the security of their print infrastructures and overall IT networks. One challenge they may have, however, is convincing users that printers and MFPs are just as vulnerable as other network endpoints.

Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends research shows that SMBs are much more likely to have enforced various security policies and controls on PCs/laptops and even mobile devices as opposed to printing equipment (see Table 1 on p.

18). The main reason for this is a belief that it is not necessary to support the policies.

That said, print devices are just as vulnerable to security breaches as other network devices, particularly as they have become hubs for processing, uploading, accessing and

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Table 1: Does your organization enforce these policies/controls on the following work devices?

PC/laptop devices

Mobile devices

Printer devices

User authentication

73%

56%

38%

Control of admin privileges

60%

43%

52%

Automated security patch & update

56%

35%

33%

Data, information, document, content protection

56%

42%

36%

Vulnerability detection solutions

47%

33%

27%

Vulnerability monitoring & alerting solutions

47%

34%

23%

Software application altering detection

44%

36%

35%

Security decommissioning policies

30%

22%

22%

Source: Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends security multi-client study, 2016

disseminating vital corporate information on and outside of the corporate network.

In a June 2017 Office Technology article, “The Rise of Ransomware,” Datto’s Henry Washburn noted a case where a print server password was hacked — allowing the perpetrator to lock up corporate data via ransomware. “With access to the network, the attacker could have created even more damage,” Washburn said. This incident could have been prevented with a more complex print server password.

Stories like these can be vital tools for selling security solutions. Depending on the particular printers and MFPs you sell, potential revenue-generating security solutions include: n Print/network security assessments n Policy-based device management solutions n Print management solutions with user authentication n Pull printing software n Whitelisting/blacklisting capability n Secure mobile print solutions n Print security analytics services n Integration with network-wide monitoring tools n Removable MFP hard drives n Hard disk data overwrite solutions Beyond print security solutions, dealers can sell other security solutions to serve the needs of customers. These 18 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Aug ust 2 0 1 7

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Konica Minolta Selects CIT Bank as Top Overall Partner Konica Minolta employees selected CIT Bank as “Best in Class” with the highest Net Promoter Score among their primary financing providers.* We humbly thank Konica Minolta for the recognition and are proud to serve the office imaging industry through our customer-focused approach.

Learn about our winning solutions for manufacturers and dealers at cit.com/equipment-finance

*Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA, Inc. surveyed its sales representatives and lease administrators, and asked them to rate their four primary leasing providers on a number of factors. CIT Bank earned top honors for: Top Overall Partner, Best in Class, Overall Performance, Best Customer Satisfaction, Best Sales Representatives, and Best Processes/Systems. ©2017 CIT Group Inc. All rights reserved. CIT Bank and the CIT Bank logo are registered trademarks of CIT Group Inc. CIT Bank, N.A. is a subsidiary of CIT Group Inc.

0000749_CR2546_Konika_Minolta_1.2.indd 1 CIT ad Aug 17.indd 1

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16 MAY 20

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Workflow:

A publication, website and e-newsletter for the business process automation and content management industry. Workflow delivers leading-edge information to the principal CIOs, IT directors, security experts, IT VARs, office equipment dealers, OEMs, vendors and distributors.

The Imaging Channel:

An integrated resource for the print and imaging industry that brings together the latest market information, business concepts, research, solutions and strategies to keep the channel informed, serving as the network between the OEM, dealer, vendor and reseller.

Go to www.WorkflowOTG.com & www.TheImagingChannel.com and click on “Subscribe” to receive the publications and weekly e-newsletters.

solutions include seIssues around IT curity software and services for other ofsecurity are growing fice technology, like in importance as PCs, mobile devices companies ... rely more and phone systems. heavily on a wide variety They also include of network and cloud security services for the overall corpotechnologies ... rate network.

Companies that are already providing managed services will likely have an easier time incorporating managed security into their portfolios. Some potential areas within managed security services include: n Security assessments and strategy development: Security assessments help organizations understand where their vulnerabilities exist. These vulnerabilities can be tested to understand the extent to which they could be exploited. n Perimeter security: Perimeter security usually takes the form of managing the firewall. It typically includes 24/7 administration, event log monitoring and analysis, and steps necessary to counter threats. n Endpoint security: This involves managing endpoint devices like PCs and laptops to ensure they do not become infected and/or serve as entry points for malicious activities on the network. n Data loss protection monitoring: Data loss protection (DLP) technologies allow an organization to precisely control and monitor its critical data, including company financials, employee information and customer information. n Managed backup and recovery: This service helps ensure data remains safe and available at all times. n Disaster recovery: Disaster recovery enables all or most of your IT infrastructure to be up and running again quickly in the event of a disaster.

Issues around IT security are growing in importance as companies, including SMBs, rely more heavily on a wide variety of network and cloud technologies to conduct business.

This represents a significant opportunity for office technology dealers to reinforce the security features of products they already offer, as well as sell complementary software and services that enhance the print infrastructure and/or overall IT framework. For more information on security solutions, speak with your OEM and ISV partners. n Christine Dunne is a senior research analyst for Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends’ Office Technology & Solutions Group.

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

Visit www.keypointintelligence.com.

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Tigerpaw ad Aug 17.indd 1

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Hidden Content When shared, it can set you apart from competitors by: Lindsay Kelley, Prospect Builder

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e have all heard the statistic that 70 percent of the buyer’s journey is complete before he (or she) engages with your sales team. He is completing this journey online while researching and educating himself about how to solve a particular pain point or problem. So, the question is: If your prospects are researching online, do you have content that answers their questions and shows you understand how to solve their business pain?

When you do this, you showcase your industry expertise.

So, where do you find these answers? And, once you find them, what do you do with them?

When we first meet with clients, we ask them to upload all of the content they use in the field to educate customers and we inventory the content they use in the sales process. Most of the time, we get OEM product brochures and sales slicks.

While these educate prospects (and help us understand what our client sells), there is nothing unique to the dealership that we can use; other dealerships are using the same handouts.

Finding Unique Content Great content is already scattered throughout your dealership, but you may not have considered it before (or even knew it existed). Following are the most common places you can find the answers your customers want.

Your Sales Team Members’ Inboxes — Your sales team members know a ton of information about products, services and all the features and add-ons that come with your products. When they go into the field, they find themselves in unique situations that warrant creativity and problem solving for their prospects’ pain.

They respond to prospects’ questions via email. Those emails and conversations are fertile grounds to find content ideas for blogs, e-books, videos and infographics. If the prospect is asking that question in person or via email, you can bet he is also asking Google. If you have answered the question on your website, you will have a better shot at being

a result on Google’s results page. Reps can also take those emails and post the answers on LinkedIn. This is a good way for reps to have their own “blogs” and voices in the social world, positioning themselves as industry experts in the eyes of their prospects.

Your Shared Server (in the Sales Folder) — There are approximately 273 pieces of content per employee in an organization (Source: “2016 State of Sales Enablement Report,” Docutrend). Not all of that will be worthy of using for lead generation, but you will likely find some hidden gems in there. Start in the sales folder and look through your sales team’s presentations. Your job is to find the hook for the customer in those presentations. You then need to remove the overtly “salesy” language (and any confidential information). Add details to highlight solutions to prospects’ pain points. These presentations (usually in PowerPoint) are easy to upload to LinkedIn’s SlideShare feature.

OEM Marketing Portals — Your OEMs have marketing portals with materials you can use. Keeping to the OEMs’ usage requirements, you can download white papers and infographics and include them as part of your educational offering to prospects — and brand as your own, if possible.

Put them up for download on your website for your prospects to learn from. This makes you and your website a trusted resource instead of the OEMs’ websites.

Your Customer Service Team’s Inbox — Your customer service team answers customer questions every day. Delight your customers by anticipating their needs and answering questions before they even ask — in blog posts or on an FAQ page on your site. Delighting customers keeps them as customers, and it is easier to keep them than find them.

One of our clients has a widely popular (and extremely helpful) blog post on how to read the dealership’s invoice.

It lays out all the sections of the invoice and explains each one. Now, sales and customer service reps have a blog post to point their customers to so they can better understand how to break down the invoice.

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Kelley Aug 17.indd 1

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Color is the new black and white Say hello to PageWide multifunction printers, transforming the copier market with the lowest color cost-per-page to reinvent how you go about business.

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Lowest color cost per page: Lowest cost per color page claim applies to devices that are not sold under contract: Comparison of HP PageWide A3 devices with the majority of in-class color ink/laser MFPs ($3000-$7499), and color ink/laser single function printers ($1500-$2999) as of January/February 2017; market share as reported by IDC as of Q4 2016. Cost per page (CPP) reported by Gap Intelligence Pricing & Promotions report January/February 2017, comparisons for devices/supplies not sold under contract are based on published specifications of the manufacturers’ highest-capacity cartridges, inclusive of long life consumables, MSRP, and page yield. Average yield based on ISO/IEC 24711 and continuous printing in default mode. Actual yield varies based on content of printed pages and other factors. For more information, see hp.com/go/learnaboutsupplies and hp.com/go/PageWideClaims.

HP ad July 17.indd 1 BTA_Print_ad_8x10.75in_cmyk_FIN.indd 1

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result was a video that was posted in 2009 What are the questions your cusWhat questions do your from a dealership. It is not fancy, but antomer service reps get all the time? Have swers the question quickly and accurately. them send your marketing team those techs get all the time?

What questions do your techs get all questions with answers and get them up They can record the the time? They can record the answers on your blog. Each time a customer seranswers and post them and post them to the dealership’s Youvice rep answers a question via email, to the dealership’s Tube page with the question as the title ask him to bcc the marketing team so YouTube page ... of the video to drive more prospects to that information can be shared on the you. It is that simple. website. Prospects will enjoy getting to It is that simple.

Your Presales and Post-Sales Arsee the responsiveness of the internal chitect’s Desktop — Presales: Once team to its customer base. It is all about what really happens after the sale that counts. Show them the sales rep has gotten the prospect’s attention and he is ready to see your solution in action, the presales folks are that your dealership is the best at customer service.

Your Service Techs’ Smartphones — Your techs some- on. They walk the prospect through a customized overview times record their copier/MFP and printer fixes on their of how the solution will work for him. This, my friends, is smartphones. It is rare that we are lucky enough to find these content. If you can take a screencast of a presales engivideos, but it happens. You can also ask each tech to record his neer giving a demo of the solution and chop it up into a next copier/MFP jam fix. Think about how many people type quick online demo, you have a very attractive piece of con“How to fix a paper jam on a copier” into Google. Search it right tent. Often, the engineer already has this available and now and you may find a few dealerships you know on the first has been sending it out on his own as a demo. If a prospect page. At the time I wrote this article, the number-one search is in the “awareness phase” and is able to see how your

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solution works for another company, Moving Forward Most of what we consider he could see how it may work for him Most of what we consider “content” as well. Get these folks to record the within your company was created to “content” within your screencast for a great piece of content answer questions asked of your sales, company was created to add to your website. service and customer service employees. to answer questions Post-sales: As your prospect is reWhat do you do once you find all this asked of your sales, searching, he may get to the decision content? You post it on your website. You service and customer stage and want to dive deeper into what post it on LinkedIn in long-format posts. to expect. Post-sales folks are experts at You post it on SlideShare. You share it service employees. implementation. They have documents in the places your target prospects are they share with new customers to help spending time. But, most importantly, them understand features and functions. They may also you get it into their inboxes and drive them to your website have screencast portions of trainings saved on their desk- to learn more about you. Content is everywhere inside of tops that they share with other new customers as part of your dealership — you just have to know how to find it. n training. This is valuable content. You can clean it up and Lindsay Kelley is president and co-founder of share it on the FAQ page of your site. So, when prospects are Prospect Builder. She has served in a marketing researching online for how an installation happens, your function for more than 19 years, including post-sales team members’ content can help them better unserving as the marketing director for a large derstand, especially if you are really good at that part. Win office technology dealership. She can be prospects over with customer testimonials regarding the reached at lkelley@prospectbuilder.net. smoothness of their installations.

Visit www.prospectbuilder.net.

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Waltz Celebrates 125 Years Milestone coincides with president’s retirement by: Jeff Jehn, Waltz Business Solutions

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n June 2, Waltz Business Solutions of Crestview Hills, Kentucky, celebrated its 125th anniversary with a company event attended by current and past employees, along with some of our long-tenured clients. Founded in 1892 by Frank Waltz as Waltz Typewriter and Adding Machine Company, the company started its humble beginnings in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. It stayed in the Waltz family until 1961, when my dad, Jim Jehn, purchased the company from Waltz’s daughters.

Dad was a typewriter salesman for the Underwood Corp.; he started there in the mid-1950s after several jobs, including a bread route salesman and a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. My mom, Janet Jehn, recalls when he came home one day in 1961 — she was pregnant with child number six; there would eventually be nine of us — and announced that he had quit his job at Underwood. I can only imagine what that was like. He had heard Waltz was for sale and scraped together the money and borrowing power to purchase the then-69-year-old company.

Over the years, Waltz grew slowly, but steadily. My dad started with the Clary adding machine line, added Bohn Rex Rotary mimeographs and Olympia typewriters. It was with Olympia that the company really began to grow. In the heyday of typewriters, we were moving a lot of typewriters into schools and businesses in the greater Cincinnati area.

We opened two additional locations to augment our downtown location and, after tinkering with several copier lines — including 3M, Olympia and even Océ electrostatic copiers — we added the Mita line in 1979. Mita, of course, went on to become Kyocera in 1998.

Our downtown location housed a walk-in print shop and, at one time, two massive Xerox 9200 copiers, which was quite a feat. We eventually spun that effort off into a separate division and sold it to concentrate on the hardware business. We constructed our current facility in Crestview Hills in 1998. Today, it is our single location. We service the greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky marketplace from this office.

From a personal perspective, I became involved in NOMDA

Top: Waltz Business Solutions celebrated its 125th year in business with a party that included ribbon cuttings, presentations, commemorations and lunch. Right: A photo of the old Waltz storefront.

(National Office Machine Dealers Association; now BTA) back in the early 1980s when my mom, who was our part-time advertising and marketing person, invited me to take her to a local NOMDA meeting. Her contact at a local radio station we were using at the time was to be the guest speaker. That began a long history of my personal involvement with NOMDA/ BTA. I served as a local officer, district officer and Stemwinder (speaker) before ultimately serving as a national officer. I was BTA’s 2004-05 national president. I have had a wonderful relationship with the association, which has benefited me and my company over the years, and it has certainly contributed to our longevity.

As a family-run company, we have had many family members in the business; after dad and mom, there have been six of us involved. Dad retired in the early 1990s and my older brother Joe took over until 2005, when I assumed his role. My brother Jerry took over for me effective July 1.

My brother John was a senior technician; he started his road to retirement this year. Our younger brother, Josh, is our CFO and controller. And my son Matt, who started at the bottom, has been with us for 17 years. So, out of the nine children, five of us have worked in the business. Together,

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It was a great day. As they say: “A good we have completed a trek that took 125 I have been blessed time was had by all.” years to achieve.

This special anniversary event coinWe had a wonderful party on June 2 abundantly. I am truly cides with my retirement; it is time for with about 150 of our closest friends. The thankful to have been another family member to take over. I day started with ribbon cuttings by our part of an industry that consider this 47-year ride to be unbelocal chambers of commerce, as well as has taken care of our lievably fortunate for me; I have been presentations and commemorations by family business for blessed abundantly. I am truly thankseveral local and civic dignitaries. That ful to have been part of an industry was followed by a presentation by KYOsuch a long time. that has taken care of our family busiCERA Document Solutions America ness for such a long time. I have met President and CEO Yukio Ikeda.

We selected 25 of our best (but not necessarily our big- and learned from so many wonderful and talented people gest) clients and presented each of them with a personal- over the years; my company and I are indebted to them ized gift commemorating the business relationship. We in ways I cannot measure. We look forward to our famchose to invite, primarily, our longer-tenured clients rath- ily’s company enjoying many more years as er than extend an open invitation to everyone. We wanted a prosperous operation. n Jeff Jehn recently retired as president of Waltz to pay special attention to a large handful of our current Business Solutions, Crestview Hills, Kentucky, a clients that helped us get to where we are today.

BTA member dealership since 1956. He can be Lunch, served by our local fire department and its emreached at jeffj@waltzbusiness.com. ployees, culminated the day. In addition, there was a live reVisit www.waltzbusiness.com. mote from a local radio station for musical entertainment.

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Surf-by Lawsuits Does your website comply with ADA standards? by: Robert C. Goldberg, general counsel for the Business Technology Association

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he Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed by Congress to ensure that disabled individuals have equal opportunities in securing jobs, using public facilities and interacting with others. Previously, we have discussed the “drive-by” lawsuits that were brought to seek corrections to physical barriers preventing disabled individuals from entering or using public places. An individual would drive down a street and note any business that was not accessible to a disabled person. Lawsuits were filed seeking corrections — often without notice — as the ADA allows for attorney’s fees to successful litigants.

Drive-by lawsuits resulted in the addition of handicapped-accessible parking, doorbells for assisted entry, elevators for multistoried businesses, remodeled restrooms and the elimination of steps at entrances. In the digital age, “surf-by” lawsuits are the equivalent of drive-by lawsuits. One does not even have to leave his (or her) desk to find technical violations of the ADA on a business’s website. Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive and neurological disabilities.

As the population ages, disabilities will become more common and accommodations more important.

Although court rulings have varied, the trend appears to be that websites are indeed public accommodations that must be accessible. Winn-Dixie, a southern grocery chain, maintains a website that does not sell any products, but does offer in-store coupons, the location of stores and the ability to fill prescriptions for pickup. A visually impaired individual visited the store’s website and found it did not interface properly with his computer’s access technology software. The individual filed suit alleging he was deterred from shopping at the store, as the website did not provide the benefits others were able to obtain.

The court ruled that the website was a public accommodation because it offered services directly connected to the physical stores. Winn-Dixie was ordered to upgrade its website and pay the plaintiff’s attorney fees. This troubling decision should motivate you to review your digital presence to ensure you comply with the latest ADA standards.

Most dealership websites allow end users to submit meter readings, order supplies and place service calls. These features are clearly connected to the business conducted at your

physical location and, thus, should be accessible to disabled individuals as well. Consult with your web designer to provide a chat option. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio along with descriptions of any video presentations. Display a telephone number to call for assistance. On your “Contact Us” page, have alternative means for disabled individuals. Establish that your site is compatible with the various software programs that provide assistance to disabled people.

Once you have made certain your website is in full compliance, you can expand your “trusted advisor” role and raise the issue with customers. View their websites, point out issues and offer solutions. Conduct a lunch and learn discussing the requirements. Partner with a web developer or enhance your staff with one. Many accessibility features are easily implemented if they are planned from the beginning of website development or redesign. Fixing inaccessible websites can require significant effort, especially sites that were not originally coded properly with standard XHTML markup, as well as sites with certain types of content, such as multimedia.

Help yourself and your customers avoid unnecessary litigation by reviewing your and their websites, and update them as necessary. There is an army of lawyers out there already looking. n Robert C. Goldberg is general counsel for the Business Technology Association.

He can be reached at robert.goldberg@sfnr.com.

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Goldberg Aug 17.indd 1

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

Dealer Members BIS Inc. - Business Information Systems, Edmond, OK CVCC Business Solutions, Fresno, CA Elevated Business Equipment, Omaha, NE Indiana Business Solutions, Indianapolis, IN Ink & Toner Outlet, Tulsa, OK Printer World International, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada UBEO Business Services, San Antonio, TX Service Associate Member Cargill Consulting Group Inc., Los Angeles, CA Vendor Associate Members ITC Supplies LLC, West Chester, PA Midwest Copier Exchange LLC, Waukegan, IL For full contact information of these new members, visit www.bta.org.

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 ISN Partners Inc. (ISNP) is a provider of integrated solutions that help attain sales and provide the next generation of customer management. Beginning in the sales cycle, ISNP provides a cloud platform, integrated with a tablet PC, to visualize and quote a complex MPS or MNS solution by utilizing maps and generic pricing tables. Once the sale has been closed, that information is automatically transferred to ISNP’s newest solution, eesyQ, which provides a complete automated platform for your customers, your service team and any device, simply by scanning a QR code. www.eesyq.com

enroll in a number of insurance programs.

Each insurance program is specialized to fit the needs of office technology dealers. The programs span a wide variety of insurance coverage including health, business, disability, executive life, cancer programs, workers’ compensation, retirement and Section 125 plans.

Visit www.bta.org/Insurance for more information.

BTA Service Associate member Cargill Consulting Group is dedicated to helping business-to-business sales forces pinpoint problems in their infrastructures and implement effective action plans that provide long-term solutions for both management and salespeople. As a result, performance and sales numbers will increase, as well as overall company productivity and morale. Whether you need consulting, one-on-one coaching, sales management training, or help interviewing and hiring, Cargill Consulting has the service and expertise business owners rely on to improve sales by improving processes. www.gilcargill.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.

Insurance Programs BTA members have the opportunity to

34 | w­ w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g ym a g.c om | Aug ust 2 0 1 7

Highlights Aug 17.indd 1

7/26/17 2:51 PM

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PEERTOPEER A PATH TO MANAGED SECURITY SERVICES

CompliancePoint launched its managed security services, solving client regulatory compliance issues and fueling growth, says Michael Boone (pictured)

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PRINCIPAL ISSUES

‘From Paper to the Cloud’ A&A pleased with its cloud services division by: Craig Lupienski, A&A Office Systems

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imply existing in an industry is a death sentence. Tastes change.

Technologies change. To truly thrive, an organization must be agile and forward thinking, ready to evolve before even the customer sees the need. Over the past few decades at A&A Office Systems, we have tried to read the tea leaves and be proactive in the office technology space. It does not always pan out; we offered desktop PCs between 1992 and 2003, for example, but razor-thin margins and ferocious competition gave us reason to reconsider.

One thing we have always understood is the document. Seeing an increase in interest for digital documents, A&A Vice President Barry Sullivan was instrumental in opening our Scansmart document management division in 2007. Document scanning served as the perfect complement to print, but it was not long before Sullivan realized something was missing.

“People were printing less; volumes were dropping,” says Sullivan of the state of print in 2011. “We followed the documents.”

The documents were not being printed and, so, they could not be scanned either. They existed in the cloud. They were born there and never left. And, if the trend continued, it would eat away at A&A’s core products and services.

Sullivan began exploring strategies as early as 2011. “We wanted to do an acquisition straight away, rather than collaborating with our print partners or another outside vendor,” he says. “It was important for us to maintain our customers’ privacy and for our customers to judge us on our own merits.

When you partner with a third party, you give up some level of control.”

Initially, A&A looked at acquiring managed IT firms just as the industry began buzzing about managed IT services. While managed IT was an attractive service to add to A&A’s portfolio, these smaller firms did not come with the infrastructure necessary to keep A&A within the future of the document life cycle. We needed the cloud. We needed a data center.

The acquisition happened almost serendipitously. As Sullivan weighed A&A’s options on and off, RECOL, a data center just 30 minutes from A&A’s Middletown, Connecticut, location, went on the market in late 2015. RECOL was close by, with an existing clientele and generous square footage for growth.

There was no true sales team at RECOL, presenting a perfect

opportunity for A&A to integrate its solution sales department.

Things moved relatively swiftly. In late 2015, A&A met with RECOL’s principals and entered negotiations. We spoke with RECOL’s current employees to gauge the company culture and, of course, did our due diligence for making such a large purchase. On April 1, 2016, RECOL, rebranded as Cloudsmart, became the third pillar A&A had been missing.

RECOL already offered an attractive suite of hosting and backup products and services, including website and email hosting and cloud backups, which fit into the business model A&A was looking to adopt. Of great interest was RECOL’s colocation services. Colocation, wherein a customer uses a data center’s network and power infrastructure to rack its own servers, is a growing industry and A&A wanted to be sure to capture this part of the market.

As Cloudsmart, A&A sought to expand RECOL’s backup and hosting capabilities, as well as build out a cloud-based document management platform and a comprehensive managed IT program. With services like e-discovery, we are able to handle jobs that are too processor-intensive for many end users.

The end result allowed us to broaden our customer base and sweeten deals with existing A&A customers, covering not just the life cycle of the document as we had hoped, but also the information that drives it. We call it: “From paper to the cloud.”

Owning Cloudsmart greatly improved A&A’s internal IT infrastructure as well, benefiting everything from our workflows to our phone network. With a host of new solutions to sell, our sales team was trained and educated on a wide variety of topics they had not been familiar with previously. Even for us internally, Cloudsmart was an upgrade and a valuable learning experience.

In the future, A&A hopes to roll out its Cloudsmart services for resale to other dealers in adjacent markets. “Other dealers who aren’t doing this should be looking at it,” Sullivan says. n Craig Lupienski is creative specialist at A&A Office Systems. Well versed in social media and design, he brings a fun and modern approach to A&A’s look. He is also responsible for much of A&A’s communication, both online and in print.

Visit www.aaofficesystems.com.

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SELLING SOLUTIONS

Who, What & Why? Constructing an effective, unified prospecting effort by: Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates

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rospecting. Nearly all salespeople have to do it, but few are good at it. Fewer still enjoy it. It is a conundrum, isn’t it? After training salespeople from all around the world, I have found that prospecting — in any country or any language — is a universal challenge. It is even more challenging now because of the rise of social media. Right now, it seems, salespeople are living on the extremes — either eschewing conventional prospecting for social media or focusing entirely on cold calling to the exclusion of social media. As in many situations in life, the solution lies in the middle.

Constructing an effective, unified (including conventional prospecting and social media) prospecting effort can be greatly simplified by asking three key questions: (1) Who are you going to approach?

(2) What are you going to say to get the prospect’s attention and create buyer motivation?

(3) Why do you want to say it?

Too many salespeople start a prospecting effort without answering these questions. This leads to unsuccessful prospecting and unsuccessful selling. Let’s define “successful prospecting” as a task that yields a consistent flow of appointments with contacts who can independently make a buying decision for your products and/or services. In other words, successful prospecting leads to a consistent flow of sales.

I talk to salespeople all the time who tell me they are able to successfully prospect, but then their sales later stall because they are not in front of actual decision makers. What they really mean is they are not successful prospectors.

Now that we have the definition of successful prospecting, let’s look back at our “who, what and why” in various potential prospecting venues. A statement I made in 2004 when I started my business that remains true today is that a quality, data-driven teleprospecting program is the cornerstone of any successful prospecting effort. Data-driven teleprospecting means we can target and segment our market by using comprehensive databases such as InfoUSA, Dun & Bradstreet, Hoover’s or others. If you are trying to prospect without one of these tools, you are working with one hand tied behind your back. In this day and age, there is simply no excuse for not using databases — not even cost (ReferenceUSA, an offshoot of InfoUSA, is available for free through most public libraries).

So, with respect to data-driven prospecting: Who? You need to be approaching the person who can make a decision to purchase. With modern databases, it is easy to find

that person. In any organization, the power to buy independently begins in the corner office (president, CEO, owner, etc.) and emanates out only as far as the person in the corner office wants it to. Hence, you had better be at the C-level or the V-level (vice president), at least, for most B2B service companies.

What? What you say to this person needs to be something that grabs his (or her) attention quickly. Most people have “walls” — defenses against salespeople — already built. What you say to this person on the phone will either grab his attention and get him to pull the walls down — or get him to quickly begin adding height to the wall.

Why? Here is your guideline: People buy solutions to problems. Hence, focus on the problems that your contact is likely to face and then demonstrate how you can help solve them. “I want to talk to you about … ” is an old approach and unlikely to succeed in today’s world. The first 15 to 20 seconds after the phone is answered is critical to your success; think through your words and make them the most effective words you say.

Now that you have answered those three questions, let’s look at social media with the same questions in mind.

Who? This is much more difficult with social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook. I liken social media to a message in a bottle; much of the time, you are putting out a message hoping that it finds the right person and resonates with that person. Most of the time, it does not. Twitter and Facebook have frameworks that make it difficult, at best, to target the right contacts. LinkedIn is much better for this. In fact, for business-to-business sales, I recommend using LinkedIn as your main social media platform. The truth is that your defined decision makers have not changed — it is the method www.offi cetechnol ogymag.com | Au g u s t 2017 | 37

Harrison Aug 17.indd 1

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should be geared toward creating motivathat has changed. Stay focused on this tion in targeted buyers — anything else is a and your social media efforts will likely be Remember, your posts waste of your time and effort. more effective. or messages should be An effective prospecting effort inteWhat? The “what” can take many forms geared toward creating grates teleprospecting and social media in in social media. I always recommend conmotivation in targeted such a way that a salesperson can be highly fining your content — no matter what the buyers — anything else time-efficient with both. If yours is not this platform — to professional posts. Seek out way, consider getting help or good prosarticles, give tips, etc., that will benefit your is a waste of your time pecting training to improve. n readers (preferably your customers and and effort.

Troy Harrison is the author of “Sell Like prospects). On LinkedIn, you can send mesYou Mean It!” and“The Pocket Sales sages to targeted contacts that mirror your Manager.” He is a speaker, consultant and sales “what” from your teleprospecting efforts. You can also use navigator who helps companies build more profitable and LinkedIn for introductions. This can be very effective. (I have a productive sales forces with his cutting-edge technique for generating appointments on LinkedIn that is insales training and methodologies. cluded in my “Ultimate Guide to Prospecting” training course, For information on booking speaking/training available on the “Buy Sales Tools” page of my website.) engagements, consulting or to sign up for Why? This is where most social media efforts fail. Few salesHarrison’s weekly e-zine, call people think all the way through their posts and end up with a high frequency of posts that are nearly meaningless in terms (913) 645-3603 or email troy@troyharrison.com.

Visit www.troyharrison.com. of business development. Remember, your posts or messages

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What does this label cost?

Label dimensions (shown actual size): PLS-2112 toner cost: PLS-675L Package Laminator PLS-175i ink cost: PLS-475 / PLS-875i ink cost:

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This label was produced by Muratec as an example only, and is not intended to reflect any functioning business.

Cost and measurement estimations should be used only for educational purposes. Muratec makes no guarantees to their accuracy as there are several variables affecting label cost.

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