Art Post
It’s not often that you find a feet-on-the-street sales rep blogging about the industry and in a way that gets people to notice. I’ve been noticing for a number of years now and I can’t help but be impressed at the prolific postings of Art Post on his Print4Pay Hotel MFP Solutions Blog. Art certainly has his finger on the pulse of the industry and the day to day travails of the average sales rep and what’s important to them. Recently he posted his 1,000th blog. That’s quite achievement. In honor of that 1,000th blog we sat down with Art to talk about his blog, where he’s been with, where he’s going with it along with his successes and the topics that have riled and inspired his peers and the manufacturers.
What was the topic of your very first blog and what year was that?
Post: Wow, January 1, 2008, “Has Ricoh Underestimated Color Scanning?”
Why do you think people like your blog?
Post: My experience in the industry; I’m still doing down-the-street/commercial sales in the same business for more than 32 years. And the fact that I try to write a something a few times a week and write about solutions and experiences that are current.
What impact do you think your blog has made in the industry?
Post: Well, hmm, I think I’ve ruffled a lot of feathers, praised a lot of machines and solutions, and shed some light on the day-to-day activities in our business. Before I started the blog, pretty much the only thing you knew about the business was what your sales manager told you. I believe the impact we’ve made is that the down-the-street sales people truly understand the customer’s needs and wants. Thus people at the top are tuning in to what we are writing.
What blog was your most popular?
Post: “I Want My, I Want my Smart MFP”. That had more than 3,800 reads to date and I titled it similar to the Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing” with the lyric of “I want my MTV”.
I like that, very clever. What blog did you get the most heat from by a manufacturer?
Post: Without a doubt Xerox when I wrote a series of blogs when the colorQube was released. I had many responses trying to discount my statements. I discovered that most of them were Xerox people. You may not know this but Xerox actually had people reading blogs for the good and the bad. If they saw the bad they were suppose to comment and shed good light on the colorQube.
What topic have you written about more than any other?
Post: Most likely my day-to-day activity when it comes to selling MFP’s for tips, solutions, how this deal went, or how it didn’t go.
What’s the biggest difference with your blogs today versus when you first started writing them?
Post: I spell check now and use more than three syllable words. LOL!
Do you think you’re a better writer?
Post: Actually I do, I always enjoyed creative writing. I try to mix something that happened in my sales days with a current event. Plus I have about a half dozen blogs with a fictional character name “Eric the Office Worker” who uses technology solutions to solve problems in the office.
What’s the worst prediction you ever made in a blog?
Post: I predicted that Toshiba, Kyocera and Sharp would merge and they would brand a new line of MFP’s called TOKYOS. Pretty lame right?
Yeah. Anyway, what’s the best blog you ever wrote?
Post: I don’t believe I have a favorite; I tend to think of liking a series a blogs. I’m especially fond of the blogs I wrote about selling copiers in the eighties, and the really fun times we had. No rules, no locked doors, no security guards, heck you’d put a system in the back of your car, knock on 20-30 doors and eventually you’d find the right customer who would buy on the spot. Proposals and quotes weren’t needed then, all you needed was a station wagon, a pen and an order form.
Peering into your crystal ball what do you think you’ll be writing about in blog 2,000?
Post: My impending retirement and most likely how the industry has continued to evolve, condense, and how we manage not only the printed page, but also scanned and electronic pages.
