March 2024 Office Technology

FEATURE ARTICLES

10

Sales Team Success

Dealerships share how they hire, train & motivate reps

by Brent Hoskins

Office Technology Magazine

Are you fully satisfied with how your dealership hires, trains and motivates sales reps?

How to Sell to Nonprofits

Tapping into an undiscovered technology market

by Dale Stein

Technology Assurance Group (TAG)

THANK YOU, BOB 32

I’ve never met anyone in this industry who is more beloved than Bob Goldberg.

22

Solutions Made Simple

Enhance the benefits of the MFP for business evolution

by Sheryne Glicksman

Kelly Office Solutions

Has your dealership put strategies into place to enhance the features and benefits of the MFP?

AI INSIGHT

26

16 6 8 38

34

Competitive Compensation

Compiled by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

Here is a question and answers submitted to BTA’s Dealers Helping Dealers resource.

Maximize the Power of AI

Use the technology to gain a competitive advantage

by Louis Ormond

Toshiba America Business Solutions

To explain the opportunity represented by AI, consider its role as an enhancement to existing computer systems within any process.

PRINCIPAL ISSUES 36 COURTS & CAPITOLS

Department of Labor issues final rule on classifications by Greg Goldberg

The expansion of the gig economy has brought a legal issue into focus: Are workers employees or independent contractors?

The vital role of mobile apps in business today

by Randy Tucker Boundless Design

LLC

An indispensable innovation for businesses of all sizes is the mobile app.

SOLUTIONS 37

Attracting Younger Talent

Updating your hiring techniques for new generations

by Troy Harrison

Troy Harrison & Associates

You might need to evolve your hiring practices to attract top young sales talent.

DEPARTMENTS 30 Business Technology Association • BTA Highlights

Consider Joining One of BTA’s Peer Groups

SExecutive 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

Jim D’Emidio, D’Emidio Consulting LLC jdemidio007@gmail.com

Sheryne Glicksman, Kelly Office Solutions https://kellyofficesolutions.com

ince it was established in 2012, it has been my privilege to attend every meeting of the PRO Dealer Group (PDG), one of two dealer peer groups under the Business Technology Association (BTA) umbrella. The other is the Select Dealer Group (SDG). I serve as staff liaison to PDG; BTA’s Valerie Briseno serves as staff liaison to SDG. Both of these groups are designed to provide non-competing dealers a community in which they can share best practices, provide counsel to others, learn about the latest opportunities in the industry and encourage one another in the collective goal of bringing all the peer group member dealerships to new heights of success.

SDG hosted its most recent meeting Feb. 28-March 1 at The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast, California. A week prior to that, PDG hosted its most recent meeting Feb. 21-23 at El San Juan Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Founded in 2003, SDG has 38 member dealerships; PDG has 32. There are open geographies for membership in both BTA peer groups.

The groups work, in part, with John Hey, Todd Johnson and Paul Mosley of Strategic Business Associates (SBA). Every year, the member dealerships in the groups complete a financial survey, providing all of the key metrics for their dealerships for the prior year. In the spring, SBA presents the results of the survey in meetings hosted by the groups. In addition, each member receives a custom report, showing how his (or her) dealership compares to the aggregate of the others in the same group. The idea is that dealers can see how their dealerships are performing as compared to the industry model benchmarks taught by John and Todd in the ProFinance

3.0 workshop. The groups’ members can see where they need to make improvements.

As noted, I have attended all of PDG’s meetings, including the recent meeting in Puerto Rico. So, of course, it is fresh on my mind. Each time I see the PDG members convene, I am reminded that I am witnessing, once again, the primary purpose of BTA — providing opportunities for dealers to help one another. I have seen some very strong bonds develop among the PDG members. They are not just interacting at the in-person meetings, but throughout the year. I know this is true of SDG as well.

During many BTA meetings and events, I like to interview attendees on camera for testimonials. These videos are ultimately posted on the BTA website as “My View” interviews. During the recent PDG meeting, I pulled aside Tim Seeley Jr. for a quick interview. Tim is president of Seeley Office Systems in Glens Falls, New York. He is a relatively new member of PDG. I believe the excerpt below from the comments he shared reflects a primary value of membership in PDG or SDG that any member would share.

Tim noted that the Puerto Rico meeting was the third PDG meeting he has attended. “Each time I’ve attended, I’ve met new people and solidified relationships with other people I’ve already met,” he said, noting that the benefit of those relationships can be tapped into year-round. Between meetings “something inevitably comes up; you now have these strong relationships where you can ask just about anything.”

Would you like to learn more about either of BTA’s dealer peer groups? If so, for SDG, visit www.bta.org/SDG. For PDG, visit www. bta.org/PRODealerGroup. If you have questions about membership opportunities in SDG, contact Valerie at valerie@bta.org. For PDG, contact me at brent@bta.org. n

—

Brent Hoskins

Greg Goldberg, Incoming General Counsel Business Technology Association

Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates www.troyharrison.com

Louis Ormond, Toshiba America Business Solutions https://copiers.toshiba.com

Dale Stein, Technology Assurance Group (TAG) www.tagnational.com

Randy Tucker, Boundless Design LLC www.boundlessdesign.us

Business Technology Association

12411 Wornall Road

Kansas City, MO 64145 (816) 941-3100 www.bta.org

Member Services: (800) 505-2821

BTA Legal Hotline: (312) 648-2300

Valerie Briseno Marketing Director valerie@bta.org

Brian Smith Membership Sales Representative brian@bta.org

Bruce Quade, Brand X Studio. ©2024 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.

FLASHBACK

The association’s magazine cover 51 years ago this month — the NOMDA Spokesman, March 1973.

Photo Credits: Adobe Stock. Cover created by

BTA

BTA Scholarship App Deadline is May 1 A

2023-2024 Board of Directors

President

Don Risser DCS Technologies Corp. Franklin, Ohio don.risser@dcs-tech.com

President-Elect

Adam Gregory Advanced Business Solutions LLC St. Augustine, Florida adam@goabsinc.com

Vice President

Debra Dennis

re you a full-time Business Technology Association (BTA) member dealership employee and is your son or daughter enrolled in or currently applying for college or a trade school? Or, are you a current full-time student and a full-time employee of a member dealership? If so, I encourage you to take a look at the BTA Scholarship Program, which can help with some of the costs of higher education.

Each year, BTA awards one $3,000, one $2,000, and a number of $1,500 and $1,000 scholarships to qualifying scholarship applicants. Since the 1984-85 school year, the BTA Scholarship Foundation has awarded more than $1.7785 million to 1,561 deserving students.

There are a couple of requirements that must be met to apply for a scholarship. The applicant must be (at the time of the evaluation and the award): A full-time employee (30 hours or more per week) or the son or daughter of a full-time employee of a current BTA member dealership AND a fulltime student maintaining a class schedule of at least 12 hours (nine hours for grad students) of college credits per semester throughout the school year covered by the scholarship. These credit hours must be at an accredited two- or four-year college, university or technical/trade school.

Applicants must submit information on their school activities; leadership positions; work experience, recognition and awards; and community involvement. The application also requires transcripts and an essay. An independent, impartial evaluator reviews the applications and selects the winners.

Here are excerpts from thank-you notes from past scholarship winners:

n “Thank you so much for selecting me to receive a scholarship this year. This money has been such a blessing for my family and I so that I can continue my education. I was able to double major and am hoping to study abroad in the spring, and these goals would not be achievable without the generosity of this wonderful foundation! Thank you for giving me and countless others the opportunity to chase our dreams! I promise to steward this gift well and to never forget what a blessing it has been! Your generosity means the world to me.” — Sloane Brown, Bryan, Ohio

n “Thank you for the generous scholarship I was awarded in memory of Matthew Stone. I really appreciate the financial aid, which will help support and further my academic and professional career.” — Gabriella Hamvas, Princeton, Minnesota

n “Thank you for your contribution to my education. The scholarship that you granted me is going to make a big difference in furthering my life. I could not do this without your generosity.” — Madyson Trammell, Keizer, Oregon

Scholarship applications must be postmarked by May 1, so there is still plenty of time to apply. For more information and to download this year’s scholarship application, visit www.bta.org/Scholarships.

On the scholarships webpage, you will also find a link to a poster promoting BTA’s scholarship program. You can download the poster, print it and post it in your dealership’s break room to let employees know about this great member benefit.

The BTA Scholarship Foundation is supported by continuing contributions from individual dealers, as well as manufacturers and distributors. If you would like to donate to the BTA Scholarship Foundation, you can make a tax-deductible contribution online at www.bta.org/Scholarships. n

— Don Risser

CopyPro Inc. Greenville, North Carolina ddennis@copypro.net

Immediate Past President David Polimeni RITE Technology Sarasota, Florida dpolimeni@ritefl.com

BTA East Mike Boyle BASE Technologies Inc. Bethel, Connecticut mboyle@baseinc.com

Joe Dellaposta Doing Better Business Hagerstown, Maryland jvd@doingbetterbusiness.com

BTA Mid-America

Brantly Fowler Zeno Office Solutions Inc. Midland, Texas bfowler@zenotx.com

Greg Quirk JQ Office Equipment Omaha, Nebraska gquirk@jqoffice.com

BTA Southeast Jim Buck Carolina Business Equipment Inc. Columbia, South Carolina jimb@cbesc.com

Mike Hicks Electronic Business Machines Inc. Lexington, Kentucky mhicks@ebmky.com

BTA West Mike McGuirk ProCopy Office Solutions Inc. Mesa, Arizona mmcguirk@procopyoffice.com

Kevin Marshall

Copy Link Inc. Chula Vista, California kevin@copylink.net

Ex-Officio/General Counsel

Robert C. Goldberg

Schoenberg Finkel Beederman Bell & Glazer LLC Chicago, Illinois robert.goldberg@sfbbg.com

Sales Team Success

Dealerships share how they hire, train & motivate reps

by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

Are you fully satisfied with how your dealership hires, trains and motivates sales reps? If not, the following BTA member dealership profiles provide a brief look at some of their methods in these areas. Perhaps the comments they share will provide you with the guidance you are seeking.

Fraser Advanced Information Systems

Founded in 1971, Fraser Advanced Information Systems’ (Fraser) sales territory encompasses eastern and central Pennsylvania and western New Jersey. Headquartered in West Reading, Pennsylvania, with four additional locations in the state, the dealership offers Sharp, Canon, HP, Kyocera and Lexmark imaging products. In addition, Fraser has a sister IT company — Watchkeep.

Today, Fraser has 47 sales team members focused on imaging products, including three regional managers, one major account manager, three production specialists and three managed print specialists. There are three sales employees at Watchkeep.

The goal is for each new sales rep to be “the right person for the right job for the right reason,” says Michael Macri, vice president of sales. He provides a look at the hiring and onboarding process at Fraser. “We have found that the best way to find salespeople is through employee referrals,” he says. “It is amazing the number of successful people on our sales team who came to us through referrals. We provide the referring employee a strong incentive upfront and another incentive after the new hire’s first year of employment.”

In addition, “we use LinkedIn a lot,” Macri says. “That is a strong means of seeing the profiles out there. We have a very good LinkedIn program where we reach out to sales candidates, sometimes in other industries. Plus, we have a full-time, in-house recruiter. She is responsible for filling the pipeline with candidates.”

Once a good candidate is identified, the assessment and interview process begins. “We’re looking for people who display hunting skills in some way, shape or form,” Macri

says. “If we think they are good candidates, we bring them in for behavior assessments, which could lead to pretty lengthy interviews where we really dig into what makes them tick, why they would be good candidates and why they would be good fits for Fraser.”

Once a rep is hired, the sales development process begins. “We have at least two people who are actively involved in the development of new reps; the first 90 days are critical,” Macri says. “We measure a significant number of metrics. Plus, we use Smartsheet.com to send an automated email to new reps each week asking them to indicate what’s working, what’s not working and what they need help with. That automatically gets distributed to the right people, all the way up to the dealership’s owner, Bill Fraser, and our president, Melissa Confalone. We really care about making sure the new rep has the right resources to give him or her every chance to succeed.”

Another critical component of sales rep development at Fraser is training. The dealership uses Sandler Sales Training. “They’ve developed ‘Fraser Sales Training’ for us; every account executive goes through the training,” Macri says. “It takes about eight weeks for the initial training, but then is ongoing, often used in our weekly sales meetings.”

Fraser also works with Kate Kingston of Kingston Training Group. “She is foundational when it comes to providing training on the most important thing a new sales executive can do, which is to set meetings,” Macri says. “She provides amazing content that allows each sales executive to customize it to his or her own language.”

New reps quickly see that Fraser is a “work-hard-and-playhard company,” Macri says, noting that the dealership’s regional managers offer “gate-driven” rewards. “For example, it may be tickets to a Philadelphia Eagles game or a concert that reps can qualify for by hitting certain metrics. And, certainly, we have a President’s Club trip for which they can qualify.”

Reps have to “work hard” to achieve the “play hard” rewards, Macri emphasizes, noting that reps are tracked monthly in four key areas — top-line revenue, net-new

business, production equipment sales and managed print. “The majority of the reps are focused on the ‘playhard’ rewards, but not everyone achieves them. But when they do, they don’t want to miss the next one. These rewards are highly motivating.”

Frontier Business Products

“The majority of the reps are focused on the ‘play-hard’ rewards, but not everyone achieves them. But when they do, they don’t want to miss the next one. These rewards are highly motivating.“

— Michael Macri Fraser Advanced Information Systems

Headquartered in Aurora, Colorado, Frontier Business Products (Frontier), has four other offices across the state. While its primary imaging brands are Ricoh and Sharp, it also carries Brother, HP, Lexmark and RISO products. In addition, Frontier offers managed IT and managed print services. Currently, the dealership has 23 salespeople — including sales managers — at each location.

When Frontier President Scott Schnabel joined the company three years ago, he brought with him a history of working with internal recruiters. “Within about six months after I started at Frontier, we added a recruiter to help us with our growth efforts, finding the right people,” he says. “Last summer, we added a second recruiter to further advance our efforts to identify great talent. Having two recruiters has made a huge difference.”

All prospective employees initially meet with Schnabel. “Once a recruiter finds a candidate, I do the first interview,” he says. “It helps if they are talking to the president of the company early on. I think that has some substance from the candidate’s viewpoint that is important.”

Ultimately, all hiring decisions are made by a team of people. “Everyone involved has to give the candidate a thumbs up; it’s a joint effort,” Schnabel says. “If one person in the mix says, ‘I’m not sure about this person,’ we take a pass.”

For sales rep candidates, the interview process includes both a ride-along and a mock sales presentation. “I have a couple of key individuals who conduct the ride-alongs,” Schnabel says. “So, whether the Frontier sales team member is cold calling (knocking on doors), going on appointments or doing a demonstration, the candidate will shadow that individual. Of course, actually, the candidate is being evaluated. Our person is considering, on our behalf, ‘Do I think this sales rep candidate is a good candidate?’”

In terms of the mock presentation, each candidate is provided with literature regarding Frontier and one of its product offerings and “the sales manager and I will sit there as if we’re clients, with the candidate representing Frontier,” Schnabel says. “That’s a 10-to-15-minute presentation. We

are looking at their preparation, presentation abilities and communication skills. This helps us make sure we are finding the right people to represent our organization.”

Once candidates are hired, they attend Frontier University, two weeks of “mostly classroom-style training,” Schnabel says. “There are two primary things we try to impress upon them. The first is our consultative sales process — how we go to market and how we differentiate ourselves from competitors. The second is learning the technology we represent. On the last day of training, I’ll come in ‘as a customer.’ Each candidate will conduct a demonstration of a solution. There is then the proposal phase, where the candidate tries to close the deal with me.”

That level of focus on training is a regular part of the job at Frontier, both for sales management, who periodically attend on-site Learning Outsource Group training, and for sales reps, who attend training with the full sales team about every quarter and in semiweekly hour-long training meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays. Reps are also required to complete “reflection documents,” where they record highlights, areas in which they are working to improve and activity levels based on key benchmarks. The reports are reviewed one-on-one with sales management weekly.

In terms of strategies to motivate and recognize reps, Schnabel notes that there are two incentive trips annually, including the President’s Club trip. There are also regular activities focused on building team camaraderie; past outings have included Colorado Rockies games and Topgolf. Beyond that, there is the Frontier’s Finest program. Each month, employees have the opportunity to submit the names of any fellow employees “doing something above and beyond,” he says. “Those on the list are recognized at the end of the month. There is a separate drawing for those chosen by their peers. These are non-sales employees who can be recognized and also have a chance to participate in our President’s Club trip.”

WiZiX Technology Group

Although WiZiX Technology Group is a young dealership, it has grown quickly. Founded in 2017 and based in Roseville, California, the dealership has approximately 70 employees working in six locations — five in California and one in Nevada. WiZiX sells Brother, KIP, Kyocera, Ricoh and Toshiba imaging devices. It also offers EV charging stations and VoIP systems.

Across the dealership’s six locations are 22 sales employees.

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They include five sales leaders and 17 sales reps. Each employee in sales management is a selling manager.

WiZiX has built its sales team through various means, says Eric McIntosh, senior vice president of sales. “It’s like cold calling; you can’t just focus in one area,” he says. “You have to be multifaceted, whether it’s through LinkedIn, job postings on ZipRe cruiter or Indeed, or through hiring recruiters; we’ve done them all.”

“Last summer, we added a second recruiter to further advance our efforts to identify great talent. Having two recruiters has made

Tyler Johnson, one of three vice presidents of sales, provides insight into the WiZiX interview process. “We start with a phone call — an important first step in the vetting process,” he says. “Vetted candidates then have a

However, most of the time, WiZiX reps are found through “some sort of connection, such as an employee referral or family-friend tie,” McIntosh says. “I’m not saying that we only hire our best friends, but there is usually some sort of referral or connection that brings the employee candidate to our organization.”

“

... A new hire ... is riding along with me for all of my appointments and is with me when I prepare proposals. At WiZiX, new hires are ‘attached at the hip’ to their managers for the first two weeks.”

— Tyler Johnson WiZiX Technology Group

also works closely alongside his (or her) manager for the first two weeks. For example, “a new hire here in Roseville is riding along with me for all of my appointments and is with me when I prepare proposals,” he says. “At WiZiX, new hires are ‘attached at the hip’ to their managers for the first two weeks.”

New hires also attend virtual training by Derek Shebby of Modern Sales Training “as soon as possible,” Johnson says. “We think Derek has put together a training program that fits well with our offerings, but then also sets the tone of ‘You need to get out there and cold call.’ That’s ‘job one’ in our business.”

WiZiX works hard to maintain a team focus among its reps, McIntosh says, acknowledging that can be a challenge with the team members spread across six offices. “What we really try to emphasize is that we are one team, not six teams,” he says. “So, once a month, we have what’s called a ‘Rep Roundtable’ by way of Microsoft Teams. The meeting lasts about an hour and a half to two hours. There is not a big agenda. Instead, it’s a safe place for reps to ask questions of one another, whether it’s new reps or experienced reps.”

While there are also quarterly breakfasts, fun outings, end-of-year awards, the President’s Club trip, etc., Johnson and McIntosh share two other WiZiX practices designed to both recognize and motivate. Says Johnson: “Each rep has a ‘Champagne Goal.’ At the beginning of the year, a rep writes on a champagne bottle his or her goal for the year; that can be numbers driven or whatever has to do with sales. When the rep hits the goal, we pop the bottle and share a toast to the achievement.” Says McIntosh: “At 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, we send out a ‘Closing Bell’ email to all reps, stack ranking where each of them stands for the month, what they’ve sold. It’s a leaderboard. It is a very motivating way to get deals on the board.” n

Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine. He can be reached at (816) 303-4040 or brent@bta.org.

How to Sell to Nonprofits

Tapping into an undiscovered technology market

by: Dale Stein, Technology Assurance Group (TAG)

In the mid-1990s, a former hedge funder named Jeff Bezos realized the enormous potential that this newfangled thing called “the internet” had to revolutionize commerce. If only he could find the right product to capitalize on. Out of all the industries to disrupt, the hedge funder’s big idea was to focus on — wait for it — books.

Obviously, this unremarkable product category didn’t garner much confidence from Bezos’s peers. While colleagues kept laughing behind his back and initial investor pitches for what became Amazon.com Inc. were met with concerned rejections by shortsighted VCs unable to fathom the future of e-commerce, Bezos noticed an opportunity they didn’t in a market that was overlooked.

In Amazon’s slow-going early days, tech pundits snickered at what they saw as just an online bookstore, labeling it “Amazon.bomb” and declared it no threat to chains like Barnes & Noble. But through perseverance, courage and conviction in his e-commerce vision, Bezos grew Amazon into the “Everything Store,” which continues to steamroll competitors in virtually every industry. The experts who once chuckled at the idea are no longer laughing now that half the internet runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure.

The company built on “selling books,” now rakes in more than $500,000 per minute — much of it from categories that didn’t even exist back then. It turns out the “niche market” for this thing called “online shopping” ended up becoming very lucrative for Bezos. The lesson: We shouldn’t let our perceptions — however reasonable — cloud our visionary insights.

As a group of managed print services companies that is constantly looking for opportunities to sell managed IT services, we at Technology Assurance Group (TAG) would like to share a similarly widely overlooked opportunity in nonprofits. While it may be tempting to chuckle, ask yourself: Are nonprofits a bad market or, rather, an untapped one?

A Sector Ripe for Targeting

There are several reasons why a managed print services

(MPS) company might want to consider targeting nonprofits. Their chronic IT underspending makes them prime targets for cybercriminals. They have wealthy donors with tantalizingly rich data (like high-limit credit card numbers) whose information is being protected by volunteer workers who often lack security awareness training. On top of that, nonprofits often have insufficient access controls, outdated systems and limited data protection measures that leave “backdoors” dangerously ajar.

By implementing cloud-based security layers, multifactor authentication, staff security training and overall IT hygiene, MPS companies can profoundly assist nonprofits. Protecting their infrastructures and data helps ensure continuity of their all-important community programs and brings peace of mind to staff members who are trying their best with limited education. When we provide IT systems that enable staff members to focus on their core missions instead of worrying about cyberthreats, we can make a real impact on this sector.

With breach risks higher than ever, nonprofits need managed service experts to guide them through urgent infrastructure and policy upgrades. This is where we can step in and be indispensable partners for this completely neglected sector.

The Keys Lie in Fundraising & Licensing

The secret to making this program work lies in uncovering money in a nonprofit’s budget by leveraging new fundraising avenues and taking advantage of Microsoft’s wide array of low- or no-cost product access.

Here are the biggest opportunities that will provide nonprofits immediate value:

n Step One: Educate Nonprofits on Microsoft Cloud Tools — Since they have access to free or heavily discounted licensing for products like Microsoft 365, Teams, Azure, Dynamics 365 and more (based on their size), you can help nonprofits capture these savings by acting as their intermediary. Most nonprofits are unaware that they have access or simply

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need help getting set up. While most nonprofits leave these savings untouched, it’s much easier to gain a prospect’s attention when you are pointing out ways for him (or her) to claim “free money” or subsidized services he is in critical need of.

n Step Two: Identify Nonprofit Tech Grants and Help Them Apply — Microsoft and other tech companies provide credit for software, services and hardware that are reserved exclusively for nonprofits. Even though nonprofits are constantly searching for grants, they oftentimes lack a sophisticated enough awareness of their IT problems to know which grants they should be looking for. In addition to grants, there are plenty of companies offering deeply discounted licenses, too. Once you step into a leadership role and guide a nonprofit toward more resources, you establish yourself as an expert.

Once you step into a leadership role and guide a nonprofit toward more resources, you establish yourself as an expert.

IT-related risks (like cybersecurity, for example), you can help them to solicit earmarked donations from both individuals and corporate sponsors. One way you could accomplish this is by discounting your services by $100 for every $200 they put toward IT projects, which would effectively be like you providing a “matching donation.” The nonprofit might advertise it to donors as: “For every $200 contributed toward a technology fund, our technology provider will reduce our invoice by $100.”

How to Shepherd Nonprofits to the Cloud

Once you help nonprofits uncover overlooked resources and access unforeseen grants, they now have money in their budgets available to upgrade their dated IT infrastructures.

n Step Three: Assist Nonprofits in Setting Up “Technology Funds” and “Matching” Donations — Since board members at client nonprofits are typically more educated on

By this point, you’ve positioned yourself as an expert and educator, so they will be much more receptive to you guiding their migrations to the cloud. This way you get more clients and curry favor from high-profile donors (with big

personal networks), while the nonprofits you serve gain increased security, improved efficiency and resilience — which they need now more than ever. As their need for ongoing network management grows, managed service providers (MSPs) will receive reliable monthly service revenue. The nonprofit space allows forward-thinking MSPs to expand their service offerings while doing good.

The Last Step: Education

As their need for ongoing network management grows, managed service providers (MSPs) will receive reliable monthly service revenue.

Once you’ve developed this type of partnership, the last remaining piece is to help empower your nonprofit clients to increase their own fundraising capacities by leveraging improved technology. And once they have upgraded technology, you can continue to help them become more productive.

TAG has a checklist of “10 Fundraising Hacks for Nonprofits” that our private members use when introducing this program to nonprofits. To request a copy to rebrand and reuse with your own logo, email dales@tagnational.com with the

subject line “10 Fundraising Hacks for Nonprofits” and I’ll share this piece of marketing collateral. n

Dale Stein is co-founder of Technology Assurance Group (TAG), an organization of managed technology service providers (MTSPs). Collectively, TAG’s members do $800 million per year in IT, cybersecurity, telecommunications and video surveillance. They are located in 148 cities across the United States and Canada, and are presently serving more than 780,000 SMBs. He is responsible for developing TAG’s strategic planning and guiding its business development. In addition, Stein is the managing partner for TAG’s MTSP, i-NETT, and serves as its president. He also founded Westec Security Corp. and served as its CEO. Stein can be reached at dales@tagnational.com. Visit www.tagnational.com.

Solutions Made Simple

Enhance the benefits of the MFP for business evolution

by: Sheryne Glicksman, Kelly Office Solutions

From analog to digital to a sophisticated hub, the MFP continues to be a cornerstone product in the office technology dealer channel. While diversification comes in many flavors — adding product offerings for additional tools and services such as managed print and IT services, postage meters, water, production and document management — it also comes with the evolution of the MFP. Has your dealership put strategies into place to enhance the features and benefits of this important product?

Saving money and time and being more efficient have been incorporated into conversations before the MFP even became a connected device. As the MFP has evolved to have a panel that looks more like a smartphone with applications, the conversations around this “gateway or hub to internal communications” need to evolve for today’s business needs and users. Conversations around the value of applications — those that give the ability to edit documents and route them to shared collaboration and document management platforms — are good places to start when you consider the life cycle of your mission-critical documents.

With security and efficiency being top of mind for most workers in businesses today, we need to make sure that our sales and service teams are up to speed on the tools and questions to ask that impact document security and printing to network infrastructures.

Document security questions can be as simple as asking if anyone printing is concerned with someone else seeing the information that is being printed and left sitting on an MFP’s output tray. Document printing efficiency questions can be as simple as asking how often someone prints, only to find out the MFP is down and he (or she) must go back to his computer to print somewhere else.

Asking a customer if he “has had an ‘IT health check’ lately?” is another simple question that may prompt additional dialogue on the benefits of a safe network.

Four Categories to Focus on for Business Evolution

(1) Print

Strategies: Manage Your Printed Output

— According to an article published by Keypoint Intelligence,

the forecast for printing is stabilizing and slowly making its way back to pre-pandemic volumes. Keypoint states that organizations with more than 500 workers will end up seeing a 23% reduction in prints in the office. Organizations with 100 to 499 employees will see an 18% reduction, those with 20 to 99 employees are looking at a 14% reduction, and those with one to 20 employees will see 11% fewer pages.

The hybrid/remote workplace has clearly impacted printing throughout the world, especially in larger corporations, but we are all still printing documents. According to Google, the typical office worker prints 10,000 pages per year at an average cost of $725, or $60 per month. For a company with 60 employees, we are looking at 600,000 pages per year at an average cost of $43,500. Breaking this down monthly, we are looking at 50,000 pages per month with an average cost of $3,625. The bottom line is that the cost of printing is still one of the most uncaptured costs in businesses today.

Value-add MFP tools can help companies manage and track their printed output, providing the ability to have the print job securely “follow” the end user so he can print it at any networked device the moment he walks up to it.

Devices do not print — people print. Are your sales professionals asking customers and prospects if they have had a print output study lately? The print output study can help you develop a print strategy around rightsizing, optimizing and standardizing the fleet.

(2) Modernize Your Fax Workflow — In 2019, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a memorandum allowing companies to decommission copper wire phone

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services as early as August 2022. This has caused businesses to experience unexpected cancellations or price increases through phone and internet providers.

Are your telephone lines plain and old? Are you still selling boards with your MFPs because “they always get a fax board”? If so, it is time to consider a modern fax solution.

...

Run a list of MFPs

that have experienced fax service challenges and you will see the types of problems you can solve by moving them to a modern way to fax.

Modern faxing capabilities provide more security, audit trails and less downtime than traditional fax boards with analog lines. Ask your service department to run a list of MFPs that have experienced fax service challenges and you will see the types of problems you can solve by moving them to a modern way to fax.

(3) A Smarter Way to Scan, Search and Store Mission-Critical Documents — Scanning from the MFP has evolved from basic scanning to a much more sophisticated approach to capturing information, acting on it and sending it somewhere to be stored.

The question to ask end users today is not about whether they are scanning, but what they are scanning, why they are scanning, who is touching these scanned documents and where they end up. Scanning to a shared drive is considered unstructured data. Over the years, I have seen that information on shared drives is often unorganized and duplicated with no standard naming conventions. This causes your operating system to be taxed and slowed when searching for documents.

Adding an advanced capture and storage tool to the MFP will help the scanning process become more efficient. These tools provide you with the benefits of full-function naming and indexing automation so your documents are more easily searchable within a central repository. Other benefits of utilizing a central repository are having the ability to access documents via the web, managing multiple versions of a document and setting up retention policies.

As you move from unstructured data on a shared drive to a central repository in the cloud, you start to develop a more organized storage methodology and can add this tool to complement your disaster recovery strategy.

Have you taken the time to assess your own current state when it comes to storing documents within your dealership? If not, this year might be the perfect time to consider change by automating the way you print, scan and save documents.

(4) Value-Add

Administrative

Tools for Everyone — Applications and admin tools are now available on most — if not all — MFPs (both A3 and A4). However, are your sales and service professionals up to speed on the benefits of these tools?

Having discussions about the benefits of security functions such as network port security, IP address filtering, encrypted communications, user authentication, user access

restriction, hard disk drive and data encryption, data overwrite security systems, document security and device operation administrator features are ways you can differentiate your MFPs from your competitors’.

A tip for sales reps and service personnel: Pick one of these security functions each week and learn more about how it helps the customer. Then, develop a flyer that helps explain these features.

Building a Solutions Strategy

Steps to consider when building a solutions strategy for your dealership include:

n Look at how these tools are centered around the MFP — the gateway for internal communication.

n Identify the categories such as print strategies, modernizing fax workflow, smart scanning to storage and valueadd administrative tools.

n Start with two to four solutions you want to get good at selling.

n Get good at asking the discovery questions around these categories associated with the MFP.

n Do not mention the name of a tool too soon — it is all about how that tool will solve a problem.

n Learn about how the tool helps solve a simple business challenge.

n Leverage the partnerships with your manufacturers for content.

n Invest in presale knowledge sharing and post-sale support.

Solutions Solve Problems

Preparing to sell solutions is an educational process for everyone — from knowledge transfer to sales, pricing, ordering, implementing, billing and servicing with the objective of aligning with your customers’ goals and objectives. Where is your dealership in this process today? n

Sheryne Glicksman is vice president of sales at BTA member Kelly Office Solutions, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has experienced her own digital transformations within the channel during her 32 years of industry expertise. Glicksman started her career as a copier sales rep, and later served as a sales manager and office document specialist. She also previously served as director of the Channel Strategy Consulting Service at Keypoint Intelligence. Glicksman is a visionary, inclusive leader with a mindful approach to life. She can be reached at sglicksman@kellyofficesolutions.com. Visit https://kellyofficesolutions.com.

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Maximize the Power of AI

Use the technology to gain a competitive advantage

by: Louis Ormond, Toshiba America Business Solutions

We are moving toward an era when artificial intelligence (AI) will impact every aspect of our lives. Computerbased machine learning uses large data sets to train algorithms for use in various applications to provide the basis for AI. Recently, AI has made a significant leap in progress with the release of generative AI systems (e.g., ChatGPT). Generative AI is also referred to as a large language model (LLM) because it is trained on enormous data sets to provide human-like natural language interactions. LLMs are now being specialized and embedded into nearly any type of computer system to provide enhanced functionality and optimization.

To explain the opportunity represented by AI, consider its role as an enhancement to existing computer systems within any process. In a manufacturing value chain, there are the functions of R&D, production, distribution, sale and resale, and servicing. Each of these areas can be made more efficient with AI.

For engineers, coding environments and CAD/CAM design systems empowered by AI facilitate accelerated product development cycles. AI-driven supply chain analytics promise to revolutionize procurement, inventory management and transportation logistics. Marketing and sales efforts are bolstered by AI tools that can identify lucrative opportunities with precision and speed.

AI is driving a paradigm shift in customer engagement and marketing strategies. We have grown used to recommendation engines powered by machine learning algorithms that analyze consumer behavior and preferences to deliver personalized product recommendations and enhance customer satisfaction.

Another recognizable implementation of AI is chatbots and virtual assistants. These AI-driven programs provide 24/7 support to extend the reach of sales programs, resolve customer queries and facilitate seamless experiences across multiple channels.

Hardware products and related services delivered to customers can be AI enabled for enhanced value. In our industry, the inclusion of an LLM-enabled user experience via product interfaces will help decrease operational errors and increase customer satisfaction. AI applications for fleet administration can optimize equipment placement, energy management and fleet sizing. Predictive service methods are already a reality and will continue to improve. Within all of this, of course, AI will shape the way office workers interact with documents and information through print correction and image adjustment, as well as intelligent workflow data extraction and behavioral-based automation.

Vendors that provide tools with AI capabilities showing tangible benefits will outperform and outcompete those that do not. Manufacturers and resellers that strategically adopt AI capabilities into their internal processes will do the same.

Despite the rapid advancements and potential, there are still limitations that require caution before blindly adopting everything AI. Legal considerations loom large, particularly concerning data privacy and intellectual property (IP) rights through data leakage, where data used for training AI models may inadvertently be included in generative AI responses. This is of particular concern if the generated content includes the IP of a third party without its consent, as you could be unknowingly held liable for infringement.

An additional concern is your own company’s IP leaking out into the open-source community. Avoid providing a public generative AI tool with proprietary information — both company IP and personal data. The latter is to ensure your software systems allow you to properly secure proprietary data from being used in the vendor’s AI training. Discuss these issues with your hardware and software system providers. They should be able to explain their safeguards, both from a contractual standpoint and with the use of their products.

And, as we all may have experienced, AI (much like human intelligence) is not always correct. Poorly implemented AI use cases have the potential to cause more damage than good. In the case of humans, it seems natural to call each other out when mistakes are made and correct any issues. This should apply similarly to AI, but is inherently more difficult because of the black box in which the algorithms are trained. When implementing an AI process, a best practice is to prototype and evaluate your systems before a full-scale production deployment.

Is AI potentially the greatest disruptive technology ever for humankind? Perhaps. We can certainly conclude that AI is here to stay and will continue to be refined. Companies that evaluate their opportunities carefully and prioritize use cases that prove to have tangible benefits will reap competitive rewards. n

As vice president at Toshiba America Business Solutions, Louis Ormond leads global product development teams to innovate and exceed goals.

He has initiated multiple product development projects and has numerous patents. Ormond can be reached at louis.ormond@tabs.toshiba.com. Visit https://copiers.toshiba.com.

Employee or Contractor?

Department of Labor issues final rule on classifications

by: Greg Goldberg, incoming BTA General Counsel

The rapid expansion of the gig economy has brought an important legal issue into focus: how to properly characterize workers as employees or independent contractors. In January, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final classification rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which takes effect this month.

DOL’s final rule adopts a six-factor framework known as the “economic reality test” to assess a worker’s financial dependence on an employer. Under the new rule, the six factors are not regarded as exhaustive and no individual factor is deemed to be outcome determinative. The six factors:

(1) Opportunity for profit or loss

(2) Investments by the worker and the potential employer

(3) Degree of permanence of the work relationship

(4) Nature and degree of control over the work

(5) Extent to which the work performed is an integral part of the employer’s business

(6) Skill and initiative

The first factor considers whether a worker has opportunities for profit or loss based on managerial skill and typically hinges upon whether the worker’s rate of pay is fixed or variable. In other words, a worker’s decision to put in additional hours or take on more jobs will not generally reflect the exercise of managerial skill when the worker’s rate of pay is fixed per hour or per job. In those cases, the worker is more likely to be classified as an employee. On the other hand, a worker who can choose jobs with variable rates of pay per hour or per job is more likely to be considered an independent contractor.

The second factor weighs the relative investments by the worker and the employer. Investments that are capital or entrepreneurial in nature suggest independent contractor status. Because investments made by workers and employers may differ vastly in financial terms, the relevant question is whether the worker is operating independently or at the employer’s behest. For instance, a worker who purchases a car to make deliveries is more likely to be judged an independent contractor.

The third factor looks at the degree of permanence of the employer/worker relationship. Open-ended, continuous or exclusive arrangements are more likely to be deemed employment. Arrangements that are intermittent, project-based, nonexclusive or limited in duration lean toward independent contractor status. Under certain circumstances where short periods of

work are unique to a particular business or industry, an employment relationship may nonetheless exist — unless workers are able to exercise their own independent business initiative.

The fourth factor involves the nature and degree of the employer’s control over the worker. Employers exerting control over workers solely to comply with applicable federal, state or local laws or regulations may permissibly classify workers as independent contractors (provided other factors are consistent). However, employers seeking to implement and enforce their own standards — such as safety, quality control or customer service — are more likely to create employment relationships.

The fifth factor is whether a worker’s output is integral to the employer’s business. This analysis must be conducted on a case-by-case basis across different industries. In the office technology industry, employees like salespeople and service technicians are more likely to be considered integral, whereas more peripheral roles may be independent contractors.

The sixth factor evaluates a worker’s skill and initiative. In general, the more specialized skills a worker possesses, the more likely he (or she) is an independent contractor. The decisive question is whether the worker utilizes those specialized skills with independent, businesslike initiative. For instance, a graphic designer engaged to create a logo for a dealership is likely to be considered an independent contractor unless the designer’s output is continuously exclusive to the dealership.

The impact of the DOL’s new rule is significant. In some instances, employers may need to reclassify workers, as the risks of misclassification are simply too great. Specifically, employers may face exorbitant costs, not limited to unpaid minimum wages and overtime, liquidated damages, civil penalties and employee benefit obligations. To safeguard against these consequences, employers should proactively audit their independent contractors and immediately correct any misclassified roles. In addition, independent contractor agreements should incorporate all applicable DOL standards. Sample agreements are available at www.bta.org/LegalDocuments. n

Greg Goldberg, partner at Barta | Goldberg, is incoming general counsel for the Business Technology Association. He can be reached at ggoldberg@bartagoldberg.com or (310) 479-1454.

BTA HIGHLIGHTS

BTA would like to welcome the following new member to the association:

Dealer Member

Connected Office Technologies LLP, Portsmouth, NH

For full contact information of this new member, visit www.bta.org.

2024 BTA Events

Each year, the Business Technology Association (BTA) hosts four educational and networking events that provide many opportunities for dealers to interact with one another and with exhibitors, and to gather new ideas and strategies for their businesses.

This year’s BTA events will include:

•2024 BTA National Conference, hosted by BTA Southeast — April 5-6, Orlando, Florida

•Capture the Magic, hosted by BTA West — June 18-19, Huntington Beach, California

•Gateway to Success, hosted by BTA Mid-America & BTA East — Date to be determined, San Antonio, Texas

•Fall Colors Retreat, hosted by BTA Southeast — Oct. 3-4, Asheville, North Carolina

For more information, visit www.bta.org/BTAEvents.

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

For the benefit of its dealer members, each month BTA features two of its vendor members.

Epson’s technologies open the door to limitless opportunities in visual communications, robotics, sensing, and business and commercial digital imaging. A technology leader and innovator with original, efficient, compact and precision technologies, Epson has offices located throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East and Africa. Epson’s broad portfolio ranges from business and wide format printers to industrial presses, document scanners, projectors, wearables, robotics and the WorkForce Enterprise MFP series.

www.epson.com

For more than 50 years, Ricoh Document Scanners/PFU has been developing technologies to accelerate digital transformation for organizations around the world — including its state-of-the-art fi Series and ScanSnap document scanners. In 2022, PFU joined the Ricoh group of companies and, even with a change in branding, the company’s customers and partners receive the same level of excellence, quality and reliability they are accustomed to. The R&D, manufacturing, sales, marketing and services that PFU’s customers and partners know and trust remain exactly the same.

www.pfu.ricoh.com/us

A full list of BTA vendor members can be found online at www.bta.org.

A Tribute to Bob Goldberg

Greatness is what one does when no one is looking

by: Jim D’Emidio, D’Emidio Consulting LLC

Editor’s Note: On June 30, 2024, Bob Goldberg will retire from his service as general counsel for the Business Technology Association (BTA). He has served in that role since 1977. On July 1, his son, Greg Goldberg, will become the association’s new general counsel. The two have worked together for many months preparing for the transition. This article is the second of several to pay tribute to Bob, thanking him for his many years of service to the association and the office technology industry.

Ihave been in the office technology industry for almost 40 years. You can’t be in this industry that long without having the pleasure of being in Bob Goldberg’s presence.

Early in my career, I was managing the dealer channel for Muratec America Inc. As a manufacturer, there are always disputes between dealers and manufacturers. Some of these disputes involved Bob contacting me on behalf of the dealers. These discussions began a relationship — and a friendship — of more than 30 years.

Muratec was always considered a dealer-friendly manufacturer. When problems were brought to my attention, Muratec handled them quickly and fairly. Bob and I found solutions for dealers without threats of lawsuits or legal action. He once wrote an article in Office Technology magazine stating Muratec was one of the organizations he fully trusted to always put the dealer first.

Bob always stresses the importance of being equitable and fair, so if you did the right thing by the dealers, they would never try to take advantage of the relationship. I learned a very simple business principle from Bob: Treat dealers — and others — the way you would like to be treated. Bob always did this in his business dealings.

I’ve never met anyone in this (or any other) industry who is more beloved and respected than Bob. For many lawyers, he is a disappointment to the lawyer community, as he is not a typical lawyer. Bob treats everyone well, is equitable and quick to return calls — almost the opposite of most lawyers I know.

However, the merit of a man is not merely what he does in his professional and public life. What is more important is how he conducts himself when others aren’t looking. This is where my respect for Bob has grown immensely. Almost 22 years ago, Muratec was planning a president’s trip to Punta Mita, Mexico,

a small village close to Puerto Vallarta on the west coast. Bob heard I was heading to Mexico and said he had some very strong contacts in the community, as he owns property there. He told me to use his name when I visited restaurants, bars and stores in the village.

The first place I went, I asked the owner if he knew “Bob Goldberg” and he said “no.” Then I asked him if he knew “Robert Goldberg.” Once again, he did not recognize the name. Finally, I asked if he knew a lawyer named “Roberto.” A huge smile came over his face and he said he knew Roberto very well and our money was no longer good at his restaurant because we were his friends.

What I found was that people at every place I went in Punta Mita knew Roberto and loved him. He had helped most restaurant owners and merchants with different legal issues and challenges they had in their businesses “at no charge.” It didn’t matter if I was talking to Gustavo, Teresa, Jamie, Hector or Juan. Each of these owners had a similar story.

Teresa told me that Roberto “helped our restaurant by contacting manufacturers to get the products fixed and replaced.” This was after months of trying to get the attention of the supply manufacturers.

Hector told me that Roberto helped his son get into the University of Illinois. Roberto sponsored Hector’s son and allowed him to live with his family for a while in Chicago, Illinois.

Roberto also helped others with legal work, all at no charge — unless you consider he has free tequila for life!

I see the love we have for Bob in the BTA Channel. He also helps other associations that equally love him for his humor, intelligence, quality of work and ability to find solutions without legal recourse. This is typical for a lawyer, but Bob comes up with solutions that are best for all parties, not necessarily what is best for the lawyers.

This world needs more Bob Goldbergs! It’s what he does when no one is looking that makes him a great person and someone you want to emulate. Thank you, Bob! n

Jim D’Emidio is CEO of D’Emidio Consulting LLC. He previously served as president of Muratec America Inc. He can be reached at jdemidio007@gmail.com.

Competitive Compensation

How dealers are attracting talent with their plans

Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

Following are several related questions submitted by a dealer member as part of BTA’s Dealers Helping Dealers resource and many of the answers received. These answers and many others can be found in the members-only section of the BTA website. Visit www.bta.org/Dealers HelpingDealers. You will need your username and password to access this member resource.

“We have moved to a base-plus-commission structure with a starting annual pay of $36,000 to $48,000. Currently, the commission rate is 15%. We offer a revenue multiplier for net-new business, which helps salespeople reach their monthly/ quarterly revenue targets and associated bonuses more quickly. We have a car allowance of up to $500 per month.”

Don Nesbitt, president

In a time when sales candidates are scarce, a competitive compensation structure is even more important than ever. I would like to know what other dealers are doing to attract talent by way of compensation. What is your typical base salary? What are your commission ranges? Do you offer additional non-monetary incentives?

“Unfortunately in our market, $60,000-per-year salaries have become common for industry veterans. We pay up to 50% of the adjusted gross profit for net-new business and 32% to 35% for upgrades. Additional non-monetary incentives would be 80% of employees’ and 50% of dependents’ health care [is paid], along with a 50/50 match of 401k.”

Richard Van Dyke, president/CEO

Advanced Office, Irvine, California

“We pay them $2,000 to $2,500 salary [per month], 35% profit in new business and 30% for existing customers. We offer up to $250 for gas allowance.”

Jose Hernandez,

owner

JCM Distributors, Miami, Florida

“Our base salary going forward will be around $40,000. We have the reps at 35% of gross profit for commissions for existing accounts and 45% for net new. We offer $500 to the sales rep of the month and the annual President’s Club trip has an incentive to exceed their quota.”

Jennifer Thomson, vice president of sales and marketing Automated Business Solutions, Warwick, Rhode Island

“Straight commission. [They get] 60% of gross profit.”

Frank Braun, manager

EDC Business Solutions, Richmond Hill, New York

CSRA Document Solutions, North Augusta, South Carolina

“$40,000 base salary, 35% of gross profit for current clients, 50% of gross profit for net-new clients and 50% of gross profit for used equipment.”

Gordon Stapleton, vice president/CFO/owner

Quality Digital Office Solutions, Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania

“Base salary is $30,000 to $55,000 depending on experience and quota. They make 25% to 35% of gross profit with cost at OEM plus 8% to 10% depending on the product. Quarter incentives range from 1% to 1.5% with gates. We pay a car allowance and a cellphone allowance. We have an established base, so this may need to go up if the territory is not developed.”

Nick Lioce, president

The Lioce Group, Huntsville, Alabama

“We are going overseas for sales staff and adding self-service automation to our systems.”

Jeffrey Foley, owner

Apollo Companies Inc., Alvin, Texas

“CPI has a base that ranges from $32,000 to $40,000 depending on outside sales experience. The rep can then make up to 55% of the gross profit over outcost, which is based on bundling service in the lease, keeping service whole, not locking in service pricing, selling in-stock gear and net-new business. We have monthly, quarterly and annual sales contests with a trip for top-performing reps.”

Erik Crane, president/CEO

CPI Technologies, Springfield, Missouri n

Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine. He can be reached at brent@bta.org or (816) 303-4040.

Modern Communications

The vital role of mobile apps in business today

by: Randy Tucker, Boundless Design LLC

In today’s rapidly evolving business era, embracing innovative technologies and adapting to the new preferences and behaviors of the digital-native consumer is paramount. We are witnessing a seismic shift in consumer behavior driven by smartphones and other innovations. One such indispensable innovation for businesses of all sizes is the mobile app. Mobile apps serve as gateways for businesses to create personalized experiences tailored to the preferences and behaviors of today’s technology-driven consumers. The proliferation of mobile devices has transformed the way consumers interact with brands, making a mobile app a crucial tool for companies aiming to enhance their market presence and brand recognition. A custom, branded, feature-rich mobile app can give your company an immediate competitive edge, positioning you ahead of rivals that have yet to embrace mobile technology.

phones. It’s everywhere you look — in restaurants, at stoplights, walking down the sidewalk; literally everywhere, in almost every waking moment. Recent studies have shown that the average American adult spends approximately 5.5 hours on his (or her) mobile device a day. Approximately 92.5% of that time is spent using apps.

This is why it is so important for businesses to have a mobile presence. Companies must be where their customers are. On average, people check their mobile devices once every 10 minutes. That’s approximately 96 times per day. When a user sees your company’s name and app icon on his mobile device nearly 100 times a day as he’s scrolling through his app library, it serves as a constant reminder of your brand, reinforcing brand recognition in the most non-invasive way possible.

In 2023, 63% of businesses had a mobile app. Just two years ago, that number was only 32%. This year, that number should exceed 70%. As mobile usage continues to rise, having a mobile app is becoming a necessity. By investing in a mobile app, your company can stay ahead of the competition and meet the evolving expectations of tech-savvy consumers.

In a world of selling commodities, the companies with the best customer-centric approaches and customer experience are the ones setting themselves apart. Customers want to partner with companies that are the easiest to do business with — on every level. One primary advantage of having a mobile app for your company is the level of customer engagement it facilitates.

Through real-time push notifications, in-app messaging, customized functionalities and targeted marketing, businesses can effortlessly reach their customers with timely updates, promotions and personalized, relevant content. This direct line of communication fosters a stronger connection with customers, leading to increased brand loyalty, repeat business and an enhanced overall customer experience.

The average mobile device has approximately 80 apps loaded on it. This may seem like a lot, but count how many are on yours. I believe the number may surprise you. The reason we find ourselves using all these apps is because they serve as the fastest, easiest and most convenient channel between us and the companies we’re doing business with.

There is no doubt you and your associates have made many comments as to how often everyone has their faces in their

Having a mobile app ensures that your brand remains visible to users even when they are not actively seeking your products or services. This increased visibility contributes to top-of-mind awareness, making customers more likely to choose your brand over competitors when making purchasing decisions.

We have now reached a pivotal point where businesses must adapt, embrace and leverage mobile technology in order to thrive in their competitive markets. A well-crafted mobile app not only adds a modern touch to your company, but also demonstrates a commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction. This competitive advantage can set your company apart in the marketplace and attract a broader audience.

A mobile app is no longer just an optional feature or luxury for a business; it’s a strategic asset that can transform the way a business operates and connects with its audience which, in turn, contributes to customer retention and growth. By leveraging the power of mobile technology, your company can enhance customer engagement, improve brand visibility and loyalty, increase sales and gain a competitive edge in today’s highly competitive, technology-driven businesses landscape. n Randy Tucker is a partner at Boundless Design LLC, which designs, creates and maintains custom-branded mobile apps. Prior to joining the company, he spent 20 years in the office technology industry, primarily at the OEM level in such roles as senior instructor of education services, MPS business development manager and area sales manager in a multistate territory. Tucker can be reached at randy.tucker@boundlessdesign.us or (574) 344-0605. Visit www.boundlessdesign.us.

Attracting Younger Talent

Updating your hiring techniques for new generations

by: Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates

The sales profession is changing and, unfortunately, it’s graying. Statistics show that the average age of a professional salesperson now is 47.1 years old. Fifteen years ago, that number was 42. That means that our profession has aged five years in the last 15 — and that’s unsustainable. The sales profession needs new blood.

With millennials now making up the majority of the workforce and Gen Z close behind, you might need to evolve your hiring practices to continue attracting top young sales talent. The old way of hiring salespeople — putting out a basic job description and waiting for résumés to trickle in — just won’t cut it anymore for recruiting younger generations. I’ve seen this in working with my clients — and I’ve seen some new methods generate great results. Sales managers need to take a more proactive and strategic approach to stand out and connect with qualified candidates. Here are six updated hiring techniques that have been shown to be successful in reaching younger sales professionals.

Showcase Your Company Culture

“Culture” isn’t just a buzzword anymore. Today’s younger workforce values culture, flexibility and purpose when job seeking. When recruiting, showcase what makes your company culture — and your job opportunity — unique. Highlight your culture on your careers page, company website and job posts. Let candidates know if you offer benefits like remote work options (sales is well positioned for this, in my opinion) and professional development programs, as these attract young talent. Use images, videos and employee spotlights so candidates can get a feel for your work environment. Culture can make or break whether you connect with younger applicants. One key is that, whatever you do, it must be authentic. Understand that if you fake your culture, sites like Greendoor will very quickly let candidates know the truth.

Leverage Social Sourcing

Members of younger generations live their lives online and on social media. You should incorporate social sourcing strategies into your hiring process to connect with talent where they already spend time. Strategically post job openings in relevant Facebook and LinkedIn groups in your industry. Share and engage with content from top performers and rising sales stars you would like to recruit and connect with them. You can also identify passive candidates by searching profiles with relevant backgrounds or skills. Social recruiting allows

you to grab the attention of talented individuals who are not actively job seeking. This also means being innovative with respect to your recruiting message. Don’t be afraid to step out of your lane and try things like a video job ad (keep it to 60 seconds or less) or memes (funny or serious). Post not only to the “normal” mediums like LinkedIn and Facebook, but consider TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram. Remember, you can’t hire them if they don’t know you are hiring. Don’t be snobbish about the way you get your candidates. Just get them.

Highlight Development Opportunities

Younger sales talent cares about career growth and acquiring new skills. If your company lacks structured development programs, highlight other growth opportunities in your job posts and outreach. Better yet, build some structured development programs, starting with your 90-day onboarding program. (You do have one of those, right?) Mention if top performers have a chance to take on mentees, have access to skill-building resources or can participate in stretch assignments. You want candidates to see that your company supports professional advancement so they envision future opportunities. Having one-on-one meetings with candidates to discuss career path trajectories is also powerful.

Showcase Tech Stack

Millennials and Gen-Z candidates expect companies to harness modern technologies and encourage innovation from employees. When recruiting, thoroughly describe your tech stack — like sales engagement platforms, LinkedIn integration, data analytics and automation tools you leverage (and if

you are not already, get comfortable with phrases like “tech stack”). Discuss how your sales team members utilize technology to enhance productivity. Today, you should be comfortable discussing artificial intelligence (AI) as a sales tool. You want tech-savvy candidates to see you providing cutting-edge resources to drive results. By the way — if you are not using tech to drive sales results, start doing it. The sales profession isn’t going to be backtracking to a low-tech environment anytime soon.

Convey Company Mission & Impact

Compete for sales talent with the same intensity as you compete for customers and you’ll have a great sales team — and you’ll leave many of your competitors behind.

Younger people increasingly seek out purpose-driven work. When recruiting new team members, sales managers should communicate how their company mission makes a difference and highlight recent company impact metrics. For example, explain how your product or service tangibly helps customers. If you have community involvement programs, those should be part of your messaging. One fear I’ve heard is that sales managers are reluctant to get into politics with candidates. That’s fine; you don’t need to. Companies can be seen as positive without taking a particular political stance.

Respond Quickly

Younger generations have been conditioned by social media

to expect quick likes, comments and attention. If you want to succeed in hiring, get used to doing the same. I used to recommend that managers collect résumés for a week, then sort through them, pick ones to call and call. Now, the best practice is to receive a résumé, do a quick scan on it and then call immediately. If your candidate doesn’t answer, you should also email and text him (or her). You want the candidate to get that dopamine hit that comes with a quick response, and then give multiple ways to get back with you.

You are competing for talent in a highly competitive environment. If some of the tactics above resemble ways that you would compete for customers, that’s not an accident. Compete for sales talent with the same intensity as you compete for customers and you’ll have a great sales team — and you’ll leave many of your competitors behind. n

Troy Harrison is the author of “Sell Like You Mean It” and “The Pocket Sales Manager.”

He helps companies navigate the elements of sales on their journeys to success.

To schedule a free 45-minute Sales Strategy Review, call (913) 645-3603 or email troy@troyharrison.com. Visit www.troyharrison.com.

ADVERTISER INDEX

2-3 • 2024 BTA National Conference (800) 843-5059 / www.bta.org/BTAOrlando

29 • ACDI (800) 990-2234 / www.acd-inc.com

27 • AgentDealer

www.agentdealer.com

20 • Boundless Design

www.boundlessdesign.us

39 • BPO Media

www.workflowotg.com / www.theimagingchannel.com

17 • Brother

www.partnerwithbrother.com

33 • BTA Scholarship Program (800) 843-5059 / www.bta.org/Scholarships

39 • Capture the Magic 2024 (800) 843-5059 / www.bta.org/BTAEvents

14 • DocuWare

https://start.docuware.com

35 • ENX Magazine

(818) 505-0022 / www.enxmag.com

5 • Epson

https://epson.com/business-inkjet-printers

13 • FP Mailing Systems

www.fp-usa.com/postbase-vision-a120

40 • GreatAmerica Financial Services

www.greatamerica.com/digital-app-entry

18 • Imaging Solutions Direct (855) 473-3444 / www.imagingsolutionsdirect.com

7 • Intermedia

(800) 300-1310 / www.intermedia.com

21 • MyQ

www.myq-solution.com

31 • ProFinance 3.0 (800) 843-5059 / www.bta.org/ProFinance

23 • Quench

https://quenchwater.com

25 • RISO

https://us.riso.com

19 • Sharp

https://business.sharpusa.com

11 • Toshiba

www.business.toshiba.com

35 • UPS

(800) 636-2377 / https://1800members.com/bta

9 • Zultys

www.zultys.com/partner

www.officetechnologymag.com

www.bta.org

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