Consultative PrintMedia Sales 101: The 12 tweet program.

Consultative Print Sales 101: (1 of ?) Follow The No Asshole Rule.The Video: http://tinyurl.com/yejre8d The Book: http://tinyurl.com/trjps

Consultative Print Sales101 (2 of ?). Stop the Bullshit.The vid: http://tinyurl.com/ycy53jn The book: http://tinyurl.com/2vpjon

Consultative Print Sales101 (3 of ?) Practice (1 of ?) and (2 of ?) until it becomes second nature. Start with your life partner.

Consultative Print Sales 101 (4 of ?) Repeat after me: Print is a commodity. Coffee is a commodity. Starbucks sells coffee. I sell print.

Consultative Print Sales101 (5 of ?) Print = Coffee = commodity.. So work out of Starbucks to get a feel of how to do it right.

Consultative Print Sales 101: (6 of ?) Discover people you like. If you don't like them, tell someone who might. Re: comp: maybe do a deal.

Consultative PrintMedia Sales (7 of ?) Read http://bit.ly/2xU8z6via @leighshev. If you want to be a big fish, discover the right sized pond.

Consultative Printmedia Sales 101 (8 of ??) "Social media" is just same old thing but faster and written down. LISTEN, Think, talk.

Consultative Printmedia Sales 101 (9 of ??) Social Media via @BrianRegan "doing sales calls and she said "I think I follow you on Twitter."

Consultative Printmedia Sales 101 (10/??) LISTEN, Think, talk. LISTEN for a question. If you don't know, say "I don't know." Don't bullshit.

Consultative Printmedia Sales (11 of ?) Listen to Mr Rogers. video at http://ilnk.me/ae . Learn how to manage assholes. video at http://tinyurl.com/yejre8d

Consultative PrintMedia Sales (12 of ?) What do a Two Year and Business Success Have in Common? video at http://ow.ly/qUwU

KKR, George Fisher, Kodak, Ricoh and PPBG. Ricoh just keeps on, keeping on.

Ricoh Americas Corporation announced today a strategic partnership with Kodak's Print On-Demand Solutions Group to develop a new CREO Color Server for its Production Printing Business Group's (PPBG)

On the 19th, I noticed that KKR is on track to own "up to 16.5%" of Kodak. Money prowling as we move away from an era of gambling to an era of investing is not a surprise. But what really caught my eye was "George Fisher, a former Kodak chairman, is one of KKR’s senior advisers."

All good. KKR made an awesome deal for themselves. It seems that while they are waiting they are lending EK money at "up to 10.5%" That says Kodak really needed the cash.

Then yesterday this got on my radar.

ToughLoveforX Ricoh and Kodak to "develop a new CREO Color Server" http://tinyurl.com/yclrdca

The money sentence from the Press Release:

The built-in JDF capabilities allow the Color Controller C-80 to seamlessly connect into industry-leading commercial print workflows, including the KODAK PRINERGY Software and AGFA :APOGEE,

The Dots and How I connect them:
KKR is not constrained by legacy business systems nor groupthink. That's the advantage of smart money. Kodak leads in the offset workflow space with their CREO dna.

Ricoh has been making a serious run at MFP. The speed with which they replaced Canon boxes with Ricoh boxes was impressive.

Ricoh has leveraged their purchase of the IBM print piece with InfoPrint. (My bad. Correx made 9:59 pm EDT.)InfoPrint is working with CMO council www.cmocouncil.org. to produce some of the most rigorous data on the effectiveness of transpromo.

The pattern I see is that Ricoh is emerging as the lead player in the game. They now have serious presence from the desktop to industrial strength output.

From where I sit Ricoh is emerging as the one to beat. The next question for me is how will Canon, Fuji et al respond. I wish I could read Japanese.


From yesterday's Press Release;

WEST CALDWELL, N.J., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Ricoh Americas Corporation announced today a strategic partnership with Kodak's Print On-Demand Solutions Group to develop a new CREO Color Server for its Production Printing Business Group's (PPBG) powerful PRO C900 color production system. Meeting the needs of print service providers in the commercial print, print-for-pay and in-plant markets, the advanced Color Controller C-80 enables Ricoh users to increase the productivity of their systems. Powered by CREO Color Server Technology, the Color Controller C-80 also provides users superior output options ensuring the creation of high-quality, professional documents.

With the introduction of Color Controller C-80, Ricoh print production customers can choose CREO Color Server Technology for workflows with open connectivity using JDF standards. The built-in JDF capabilities allow the Color Controller C-80 to seamlessly connect into industry-leading commercial print workflows, including the KODAK PRINERGY Software and AGFA :APOGEE, as well as other solutions in the web-to-print, digital workflow management, MIS and other print production steps. As a result, users see full integration of offset and digital printing operations, faster turnaround times and reduced labor costs. Urgent jobs and proofs, for example, can be easily re-routed from offset, to a digital workflow.

Consultative Print Sales in two easy steps and one hard step.

Consultative Print Sales 101: (1 of ?) Follow The No Asshole Rule.The Video: http://tinyurl.com/yejre8d The Book: http://tinyurl.com/trjps

Consultative Print Sales101 (2 of ?). Stop the Bullshit.The vid: http://tinyurl.com/ycy53jn The book: http://tinyurl.com/2vpjon

Consultative Print Sales101 (3 of ?) Practice (1 of ?) and (2 of ?) until it becomes second nature. Start with your life partner.

The hardest thing(2me) has been (3 of ?). As I got better at that, I got better at consultative sales.

Xerox (UK) scores again: "Future Proofing" Atos Healthcare clinics' printing systems

Everyone wants "future proof" insurance.

Atos Healthcare clinics streamline printing systems:
"Atos Healthcare has awarded a contract to Xerox to optimise the printing infrastructure across its 12 medical services centres (MSC) and 276 medical examination centres (MEC) employing 4000 staff across the UK."

Selling "future-proof' insurance is a pretty good value prop.

. . will help Atos Healthcare future-proof its printing infrastructure, allowing for web-based and security-focused applications to be added across its printing infrastructure, a key requirement for the company over the coming years.”

XRX, Global, Comdoc and Customer Evangelism

The problem with "metrics" (see previous post) is that it doesn't measure customer evangelists.
The video below takes about 48 minutes. But it's worth it.

XRX, Global, Comdoc. Another Voice heard from..

Global has/had a solid reputation (metrically speaking) in that regard. Anon

The Xerox buying ComDoc post continues to gather comments. 23 comments on a January post is unusual. About 4 hours ago this came in:

This last post sounds like a bit of sour grapes and anger if you ask me. The fact is, Global is the go-between here, with the belief that Global's ability to support the SMB is stronger than XRX. And Global has/had a solid reputation (metrically speaking) in that regard.

And your bet is that XRX will run what used to be a decent company straight to the ground, yet you are giving advice to people who "show up to collect a pay check". Honestly, if there are people who are obviously just collecting a check, XRX / Global / ComDoc shoud put them in the unemployment line.

My concern is that "metrics" may not be measuring the morale of the ground force.

In a world where margins on physical equipment will continue to be under severe pressure, MPS is a critical part of the Xerox value proposition. The recent announcements about DocuShare in educational systems is very good news.

The key question for me is whether X can break through a corporate culture that evolved when "nobody got fired for buying Xerox." At the time the margins were good and the necessity to pay very close attention to the morale on the ground was not that important. Corporate time in a protected environment is not going to make it in a fiercely competitive environment.

As in most complex organizations it's hard to get a view of how all the pieces fit together. How is the culture of Global different from Xerox different from ComDocs? How are sales of ColorQube going? What exactly is the relationship between Xerox and Fuji Xerox? and what's the plan for PARC?

Perhaps one of the analysts will ask the questions at the next conference call.

C'mon Big X, it anon is telling the truth the ComDoc situation is worth looking into

One of the most visited posts at the blog is about Xerox buying ComDoc. Posted in January, 21 comments to date. Another anon posted a not happy(2me) comment. Since it's anon, the chances of it being true are about 50/50.

What I care about most is the revenue stream going forward from XRX, if anon is telling true it needs to get to the top of someone's radar. ColorQube ain't going to do with the ground force. And it should be fixed sooner, rather than later.

If some Venture Capital comes in to do a "Kodak", that's fine with me. Consider that big X paid over a billion dollars for ComDoc. Consider that KKR got 16.5% of Kodak while they are getting "about 10%" on the loan. As far as I can tell, KKR made a much better deal.

Anon said:

i worked there for a few years. walked away with a nice roll of cash when it was all said and done.

but as far as comdoc being a 'good place to work and a good place to be a customer, HA! those days are OVER.

i had to deal with xerox every day and believe me they made so many mistakes on shipping and pricing. my bet is they (xerox) will run what used to be a decent co. strait into the ground.

for the people who still work there (and those who at least show up to collect a pay check, you know who you are)take some advise get out now before xerox put you on the unemployment line.

Oce, HP, Screen here's the biz model for versioned, clickable newspapers.

Just follow the link from this tweet:

ToughLoveforX A new model for newspapers. from thestar.com (CA) http://tinyurl.com/ muzg45 MUST READ for #HP #Infoprint #Kodak and #Oce

Why XRX is part of my portfolio: Xerox DocuShare Helps Schools Reduce Spending, Enable Virtual Learning

I knew I loved Xeroxed when I started this blog. I knew I was happy when Ursula Burns took over the top job. Today I got the data points. My day job is my IRA, my passion is fixing hs education.

Advertising is nice. Education is important.

The money quotes:

"DocuShare allows schools of all levels and sizes to focus less on processing paperwork and more on what matters most -- meeting their students' educational needs."

"Massachusetts-based Chelmsford Public Schools saves up to $150,000 on textbooks

Canada's Niagara Catholic District School Board that uses DocuShare CPX workflow application @Work for School Boards, and saves more than $38,000 on printing costs annually.

-- In Peru, DocuShare provides students at Universidad Peruana de Ciencas Aplicadas immediate access to course materials.

-- California's Manteca Unified School District shaved $300,000 off its annual operating spend by scanning its archived documents into DocuShare.

Full story at Market Watch.

Print, Advertising, Health Care. Next to go is education. The most recent data point is at Harvard.

Selling certificates and calling it education in the States is unsustainable. The escalating price in higher education is paid by parents and debt ridden graduates. The escalating price in K -12 is paid by everyone. Now that funny money is being flushed out the system, this approach is unsustainable.

Harvard is beginning a process that will lead to a massive reorganization of the business model in all levels of education. Snippets of the AP story that was published on MSNBC on Sept 15 follow.

The money quotes:

No tuition
The Harvard program will start in the fall of 2010 with just 25 students. It's tuition-free and includes a living stipend to attract a broader range of students

"We need a model — we desperately need a model — and this is an excellent candidate for that model," said Levine, head of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

Schwartz compares the final year to a medical residency

"The real question, when we look beyond Harvard, is: Are they going to come up with a concept that's exportable?" Kowalski said.

The "exportable concept" will mean the elimination of most and reinvention of some, teachers colleges in the States.

Full Story at MSNBC.