Five weeks have passed since I first sat at my new desk here at Advanced Office Solutions. I have just returned from completing my inaugural swing through the territory and felt compelled to blog about my experience to date.

First off I should introduce myself. My name is Scott Nicholl and my role here at AOS is as the Director – Graphic Arts Program. The short version is that I am the person responsible for Production Solutions and for the folks who create the output being sent to these solutions. For those not familiar with our industry a reasonable analogy would be that I have been selling Mustangs, Firebirds and Camaroes very successfully for years. Now I am selling Ferarris.

Scott Nicholl - AOS Director of Graphic Arts

So, why would I make the switch? Having sold against the Xerox solution most of my career to date I wanted the opportunity to speak to folks about how to grow their business, make it more complete, not just speak to price. The first three weeks of training have instilled in me a deep understanding of just how different the toolbox I carry into a customer’s office is today. That I can have utter confidence that the value people are asking for can be met and surpassed with our products and support.

Everyone I meet carries a pride for the work they do. I am thankful to Dave and the rest of the team for bringing me on board and I’m looking forward to participating in this blog on a higher level!

I have been a student of selling for more than twenty-four years, and I have regularly used a grand total of four “closes” during that time. I’ve tried many different kinds of close, but always revert back to these four. You must always remember that at some point in every sales discussion, you must “ASK” for the business. Here are brief descriptions of these four closes:

1. Financial Close
A financial close is the natural choice when you have successfully helped a prospect quantify the impact of their business problems. If the quantified impact of the business problems exceeds the investment required to solve the problems, a buying decision is easy to justify. The larger the difference is between the quantified impact and the required investment, the easier it is to close the sale.

2. Time Line Close
The Time Line close is effective when a product or service will impact a prospect’s project plan, especially if the purchasing decision is a prerequisite to other activities in the project plan. If you start with the desired project completion date, then backtrack to the point where your company’s product or service should be added, in many cases you and the prospect will discover that an order should have been placed some time ago!

3. The Visual or Ben Franklin Close
Some prospects have a hard time making a buying decision, regardless of the attractiveness of the potential return on investment. For these people, the Visual or Ben Franklin Close can be very effective.

This Close involves drawing a vertical line down the middle of a sheet of paper, and a horizontal line that intersects the top of the vertical line. This creates a large “T” on the paper. On the left side of the “T”, you should write the word “For”. On the right side of the “T”, you should write the word “Against”.

Now you should suggest to the prospect that it might be helpful to make a list of all of the reasons both for and against acquiring your company’s product or service. Help the prospect create the longest possible list of entries in the “For” column. Let the prospect populate the “Against” column by themselves.

The usual end result is a list of reasons in the “For” column that is much longer than the list of reasons in the “Against” column. Seeing this difference visually can help push a reluctant prospect over the decision-making hump.

4. Thermometer Close
In the Thermometer Close, you ask a prospect to rate their level of interest on a zero-to-ten scale. Zero means the prospect has no interest at all, and ten means they have already decided to buy.
If the prospect answers “Ten”, you’re done! Stop talking and write up the order!

If the prospect’s answer is five or lower, you should ask, “Based upon what you’ve told me so far, I don’t understand why you say (score). Can you help me understand that?” The prospect’s answer will tell you what you need to do to advance the sales cycle.

If the prospect’s answer is a six or more, you should ask, “What do you need to see to get to ten?” Again, the prospect’s answer will tell you what you need to do.
One of the attractions of the Thermometer Close is it can be used repeatedly. As the prospect’s “temperature” rises, you can continue to ask, “What do you need to see to get to ten?” This is a nice, non-threatening way to get prospects to share issues that are preventing you from making sales.

Sales is about closing deals, and it is for the Sales professionals to decide which close is best suited, and these 4 can certainly help you to close deals and increase your bottom line revenue.

33% of today’s workforce will be mobile by 2013. With this ever increasing trend technology companies need to race to capture new and innovative ways to serve a growing mobile workforce of ‘telecommuting’ employees. With the latest slogan “When you’re wireless, you’re everywhere” Xerox has announced the launch of the XMOBILE a wireless, portable, scanner.

Simply named Xerox Mobile Scanner it’s battery-powered, so you can scan anywhere (roughly 300 scans on a single battery charge). The scans can go directly to a flash drive you’ve plugged into the back of the device, or onto a digital camera memory card, or traditionally over a USB cable to your computer. But the mobile scanner’s major differentiator is that it can be completely wireless. Not just lacking a power cord, but also a cable to your computer. It can launch your scanned photos or documents through the Eye-Fi card to almost anywhere: your blackberry, iPhone, or Android phone.
The Eye-Fi card is unique it is a traditional SD memory card for cameras that also contains Wi-Fi wireless circuitry to link with your smart phone or tablet. Pop this Eye-Fi card into any camera model, and it automatically becomes a Wi-Fi camera, capable of sending your photos to your computer, phone or an online photo gallery Web site.

This scanner has many practical uses as well as the convenience it brings to marketplace. Many logistics companies face cross-border challenges whereby a truck driver immediately after crossing the border needs to find the nearest truck stop to fax (with long distance charges) information back to the customs broker. For example: bills of lading or any other customs documentation. Not only are there hard costs associated with this logistics example but as well as the soft costs of the driver’s time off the road to complete this task. With the use of the Xerox mobile scanner the driver can clear customs and immediately scan the documents to their smart phone and forward the attachments to the customs broker within seconds. Thus allowing the driver and businesses to move at a much faster pace to operate exclusively mobile eliminating traditional barriers to telecommuting. More importantly eliminating the need for a physical office.
This product retails for under $300 and will find a home with: real-estate, insurance, and any other travelling sales agent.

As the Super Bowl is nearing its dawn in 2012, football fans and sport fans of all kinds are gearing up to place their bets, cheer for their stars, and surround themselves with friends, food, and drink. The talk is always centered around the statistics, the favorites versus the underdogs, the plays that will make the difference, and a multitude of other facts and hunches about how the game will play out. A sport fan and “has been” athlete of the sort myself, I too am among the interested and intrigued many who will be watching with anticipation on February 5th when the game airs. I can’t help but wonder however about the millions of dollars spent on new advertising gimmicks and what companies will come out on top after the game. It is a known reality that companies spend a large chunk of change to showcase their products during the Super Bowl. This year it is estimated that a mere 30 seconds of air time will cost an average of 3.5 million dollars (Time Magazine, 2012). The concepts, graphics, and jingles are always an entertaining aspect of the Super Bowl, displaying a flawless balance of artistic creativity, innovation, and appeal. I personally admire the creative minds behind these famous advertisements and don’t mind watching the overwhelming minutes of commercials on Super Bowl Sunday, but my question is “what about all the other days of the year?”

Marketing through sport is a common concept and strategy used by companies to promote a product by using sports venues, teams, or individual players as ambassadors of a brand. We are all aware of the obvious use of commercials for this purpose and they are indeed effective at zoning in on their target audience, but has it reached an insurmountable peak where fans like me wonder whether I’m even watching a game or just a barrage of advertisements and propaganda? The combination of constant disruptions and extended pauses in the game, commercials on the big screens, and rotating board advertisements, are not only a distraction but a disservice to the athletes and true fans of the games. There are instances when players are ready to go, but the puck has yet to be dropped at a hockey game due to the infamous red light indicating there is still an ongoing commercial break. Certain venues give the impression of “selling out” in a sense, with growing emphasis on corporate boxes, low quality expensive merchandise and services, and a diminishing number of families or average people who cannot afford to attend as often.

The involvement of corporations and investors in sport is indeed important and inevitable for the continuation of growth and development of athletics. As a fair trade for sponsorship it is only reasonable to allow them the rights to advertisement through use of venues and players, but let us at least consider a slight shift in emphases. The European Football leagues are a valid example in their use of advertising of sponsorships and other supporters through graphic displays on the uniforms themselves. At times I’m actually fond of the unique designs donned by the players and think they are marketing through a sport gem that has not been embraced enough. Although the overall opinion in North America seems to forbid the use of uniforms for marketing, I think it could be a compromise for companies to have more exposure and fans to have a little less interruption. It’s interesting that I can watch a live English Premier League soccer game with no commercial interference during play- only at halftime, of course. In my view this results in a much more engaged audience; in terms of both the event being watched and the products they are advertising. Perhaps it’s time for a change not just in how often we see these advertising campaigns, but where we see them that matters most.

Here the NFL’s own Superbowl ad from 2011:

We’ve set up a set to do these VLOGS more pro like but I couldn’t wait to get this one out so here’s my iPhone recorded first ever VLOG about how excited I am that Xerox is investing in 500 Rochester tele-jobs.