Today, I had to do some research on the new HP PageWide XL 8000 system. For those of you that are not familiar with the HP PageWide XL 8000, plain and simply put, it’s a beast. It can print 30 “D” size full color pages in a minute.

Information on the web is pretty much limited to an HP spec sheet, and the HP press release. Neither one of those documents were going to cut it for me; I needed to learn more, because the word on the street is that the XL series of PageWide could possibly put KIP out of business along with making a huge dent in Océ’s wide format sales. Did you notice I did not mention Ricoh? Well, let’s leave Ricoh alone for once and focus on the two leaders in wide-format systems.

Back to the need to know more; after a few minutes of searching I was able to find the HP XL installation guide. This was a huge find. After reading through the manual I was able to glean a few useful specs that will help me in the future. While I was researching the XL 8000, I had a call from my friends over at ESP Surgex. While I had them on the phone I had some questions about some of the electrical specs that HP mentioned and what devices are required for the install. ESP Surgex was able to help me understand those specs and put them into content that I could comprehend.

So, it’s really not about what I found in the manual, it’s more about doing the detective work, reading the manual and then using the information in the manual to sell against your competition. Over the years, I’ve downloaded many operation manuals. One that I remember dearly was the Xerox ColorQube. By the time I was finished reading the manual I had enough data to consult with potential clients about why the ColorQube was not the right system for them.

Dang, after reading the operation manual I probably knew more than the Xerox rep. That’s the key. If you arm yourself with knowledge, you are then considered not only the expert on your system, but also the competition’s.

When you’re stuck for reasons why the customer should not go forward with the competition’s system, go find the operation manual, give it the twice over, and you’ll have all the content you need to create a convincing argument.

Good selling!

About the Author

One of the most recognizable salespeople in the office equipment space and a veteran of 40-plus years in the sales game, ART POST is also the creator of P4P Hotel, a rest stop for salespeople to catch up on the highs, lows and developments in office technology. The site also allows industry pros to touch base with peers and have an open dialog about the state of the industry. Post’s blogs number in the thousands, and his writing has appeared in numerous industry publications. He can be reached at arthurkpost@gmail.com.