It’s not often that I have the chance to bring the Print4Pay Hotel on the road. My first road show stop of this year was with Ethos Technologies aka Blue Ridge Copiers in Salem, VA.
Many years ago, I had traveled the length of I81 and the Blue Ridge Mountains in route to Memphis. That drive along Route 81 is spectacular and I would encourage anyone to take that drive from Front Royal to Roanoke.
Back in January of 2015 Eddy Jones (vice president of marketing ISG Division) had contacted me and asked if I was willing to travel to Ethos Technologies to meet with their sales people to share my knowledge of 35 years in the copier industry. After a few teleconferences I had mapped out a presentation that covered these talk tracks:
- My background in the industry and how I got to where I am today
- How A4 Devices will Affect Our Sales & Commissions
- The Three D’s of Selling
- How to Add More Selling Days to your Year
- 10 Tips to Keep Your Pipeline Full
- Five Ways to Reach the Decision Maker
- How I Prospect for Net New Business (with Google & Web Hacks)
- My Box Approach for Prospecting
- Simple Yet, Effective Telemarketing Scripts
- What it Takes to be Ichiban
- Thirty One Ways to Close More Sales
To say the least, we had a blast! I enjoyed my time with the Ethos sales reps and found them to be engaging, polite (that’s that Southern thing), and to be very knowledgeable with their products and skills.
In addition, I had the chance to meet with Paul Story (Owner of Ethos Technologies). I thought I had a few years in the industry at 35. Hah, Mr. Story has got me by 15 years! The night before my presentation, Eddy, Alan, Mr. Story, and I had had the chance to swap copier stories at dinner. I was fascinated with Mr. Story’s pre-Xeroxgraphy days. In fact I want to share one of those memories.
In the day before Xeroxgraphy, Mr. Story explained that he had sold a machine named the “copy cat” (I hope I’m right about that). The system resold for $65 and produced one copy every ten minutes. Mr. Story stated that the machine took a picture of the original and then needed 10 minutes to develop the copy while the copy was attached to a something like a clothesline in a dark room. In fact, he stated that many companies had 10 or more of these lined up in a row to produce ten copies per minute. Wow, I had no idea!
I also noticed that Mr. Story takes an active role in giving their reps one of the best comp plans in the business. The proof of that comp plan is with their tenured reps.
When I first met with Eddy Jones and I heard him refer to Paul Story as Mr. Story, I asked, why do you refer to Paul as Mr. Story? Eddy replied that it’s out of respect. After meeting Mr. Story, I agree, he’s got my respect. Congrats to the Ethos Sales team and to Ethos Management Team that made this happen.
Good selling!
P.S. I’m available for road shows, if you’re interested in an engaging presentation and some excellent content to help your sales team then please e-mail me at arthurkpost@gmail.com
