Independent Service

[adecanmin]

Re: Independent Service

When I started in 94. I went door to door handing out flyers. Your lack of money (no insult) will make things much tougher. I lived off my savings for about a year and a half before people started calling. I focused on the service side instead of sales. All that matters is getting your foot in the door. Granted sales gets you there faster but service will work if you can wait it out. Eventually if they like your service you will get a sale. You need a good website and rank highly on the search engines. If you're on page 10 your website will be useless. Back in the day I made sure I had a good yellow pages ad now it's the internet. Make sure you offer competitive service rates. I charged a very competitive hourly rates way back when. The service plans for the copiers or printers is the goal. It makes things much easier for you and the customer. However you will have some customers that will never get a plan. I have many that are charge but are loyal. I touted my low overhead which allowed me to offer good pricing and not having to call a 800 number to get service.

A few final thoughts. Make sure you have a couple of loaner machines. Nothing worse than having a customer down for a week because you don't have the part. If you have machines to sell and loan you need a way to move machines so you will require a trailer of some sort. I would stay away from rentals unless they are short term. They are not worth the effort. Also there are new machines and leasing companies if you want to go that route. You will need to be more established before you can offer leasing. The leasing companies will expect you to have a solid financial situation.

Good luck.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Independent Service

Couple of thoughts:

- When trying to gain a new customer be it thru sales or service, you still have to sell. Sell the service. Or sell the machine. It's all sales.


Know your industry - office machines.


The vast majority of copiers are under lease. If the machine has years left on the lease, you're wasting your time. Gather information and move on - next! The secret is to find a business where the buying window is open. That means less than a year on the lease. This is key. No use banging your head against the wall.

- There are no magic words in sales. Don't believe the BS. Talk to a potential customer like a regular person. Don't come across as a salesperson. It's a big turn off. How do you feel when you encounter a pushy salesperson? Exactly.

- Final thought: If someone tells you that you don't need to know sales? Do you think this is easy? Do you think the customer is gonna buy and sell the machine to themselves? Or the service contract?


PS - Here's what you'll hear over and over again. You best learn how to deal with these objections like a professional.


- We're happy with who we have.
- I've never heard of your company.
- I'm not interested.
- Check back with me in about a month.
- Our corporate office handles that.

How would you respond to those objections? Food for thought.

[adecanmin]

Re: Independent Service

Good points

I've gotten myself in by working on the printers. When the lease comes due I can make my proposal. These days I sell refurbished machines. If the customer wants new I do my sales presentation to convince them they will save a bunch of money on my machine. Doesn't always work. Most of my customers are small businesses. The big boys tend to overlook them.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Independent Service

Good points

I've gotten myself in by working on the printers. When the lease comes due I can make my proposal. These days I sell refurbished machines. If the customer wants new I do my sales presentation to convince them they will save a bunch of money on my machine. Doesn't always work. Most of my customers are small businesses. The big boys tend to overlook them.

Were these existing customers? If not then they know nothing about you or your service.

[adecanmin]

Re: Independent Service

Both. Of course existing is a little better because you have a history.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Independent Service

Both. Of course existing is a little better because you have a history.

Let me just cut to the chase. You say that you get customers via service. Correct?

First, most companies have a service contract. Trying to pick up new customers thru service...you'll find a narrow market. Now, if you try to compete for the service contract and you've never done business with this company...just how do you plan on doing this? You didn't sell the machine. They know nothing about you or your service. That's what you're gonna run into mostly. Been there, done that. All I can say is good luck and that there's a MUCH better way. If this is your plan, you're gonna have to sell them on it. It's still sales.

It's not complicated. It's not easy, either. It involves a lot of work. No need to reinvent the wheel. Just look at the successful copier companies. How did they grow? They grew thru the sales of mahinces. It doesn't have to be new machines. Refurbs are big money makers.

This is just my opinion but its a huge waste of time trying to grow a copier company thru service. Service keeps the customers. Sales is responsible for picking up new customers.

Get a good CRM program. Make your sales call each day no matter what. Gather as much information as you can and enter it into your CRM and follow up accordingly.


In my experience, most techs are adverse to being a salesman and will avoid making sales calls at all cost. This is a mistake.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Independent Service

One last thing before I call it a night.


When a person starts a new company it's real tough. For starters, no one has ever heard of your new company. You'll quickly run out of customers that you did business with at the previous company that you worked for. Ditto for family and friends. You have no references to give them because you're a new company.

So, how do we pick up new customers that have never heard of us? How do we gain their trust? Keep in mind that most people don't like change. Even if they're having trouble with their current service provider...it's still damn hard to get them to switch to our new company. Why? Because it's a big risk and they could lose their job if it doesn't pan out. You better walk in their office dressed to the 9's and give them a damn good reason to do business with your new company. You can't be tripping over words. You better have all your ducks in a row. You better be on time if you have an appointment.


Also, try to get them to demo your machine for a week. No charges for anything. Tell them if they don't like anything about it that you'll pick it up with no questions asked.


I've been doing this for a long time. I made every mistake in the book. I wish someone would have told me what I'm telling you now. It would have saved a lot of heartache.

[adecanmin]

Re: Independent Service

One last thing before I call it a night.


When a person starts a new company it's real tough. For starters, no one has ever heard of your new company. You'll quickly run out of customers that you did business with at the previous company that you worked for. Ditto for family and friends. You have no references to give them because you're a new company.

So, how do we pick up new customers that have never heard of us? How do we gain their trust? Keep in mind that most people don't like change. Even if they're having trouble with their current service provider...it's still damn hard to get them to switch to our new company. Why? Because it's a big risk and they could lose their job if it doesn't pan out. You better walk in their office dressed to the 9's and give them a damn good reason to do business with your new company. You can't be tripping over words. You better have all your ducks in a row. You better be on time if you have an appointment.


Also, try to get them to demo your machine for a week. No charges for anything. Tell them if they don't like anything about it that you'll pick it up with no questions asked.


I've been doing this for a long time. I made every mistake in the book. I wish someone would have told me what I'm telling you now. It would have saved a lot of heartache.

Good Information

I guess it depends how fast you want to grow. Look at independent car repair places. They make their money from service only. These companies don't work on new stuff but cars out of warranty. Some are specialists others work on anything. As I mentioned earlier it took me a year and a half before i started rolling. Things are a little different today than in the 90's. I can't emphasize enough have a great website and have enough money to make it through the lean times. If you are a great technician (not necessarily a salesman) with good pricing, get there quick when they call, be professional, you will have repair work and eventually sales.

[mloudy]

Re: Independent Service

Depending on where you are in Cleveland you should be no further than 55 mintutes from one of Wullf Enterprises warehouses. I am not sure if they allow buyers to come in and inspect equipment before they buy but if they do you can get some really nice used equipment from them to sell. I have brought some extremely nice equipment from them for very good prices. I just bought a mono copier with 3K total pages for $950.00. This machine would have cost me $3,300.00 new.

You are going to have your hands full. Selling, servicing, phone support, IT support, deliveries, ordering, accounts payable/receivables.....So much to juggle. The last few years have been one of the worst times I have ever experinced for sourcing parts and supplies.

I've had three techs leave over the years to go indenpendant and none of them lasted more than a few years. They didn't have the resources or the knowledge to run a business. Profits were much higher back then too. Really good techs but that only got them so far. A guy can be the best tech in the area but if he can't get a part or supply to get the customer up and running then it doesn't matter. I had a friend ride along with me once and I pointed out one of my old employees who started his own business. He was mowing his lawn while we were on our way to a service call. His comment to me was "Who is doing it right, you or him?" His point was look at the guy, doing what he wants any time he wants while you are working. I simply repsonded, We'll see. Last I heard that old employee working at a gas station.

You might consider finding someone to team up with but that will bring a whole new set of problems. Even if it is just for deliveries, helping with he phones and remote support.

[adecanmin]

Re: Independent Service

Depending on where you are in Cleveland you should be no further than 55 mintutes from one of Wullf Enterprises warehouses. I am not sure if they allow buyers to come in and inspect equipment before they buy but if they do you can get some really nice used equipment from them to sell. I have brought some extremely nice equipment from them for very good prices. I just bought a mono copier with 3K total pages for $950.00. This machine would have cost me $3,300.00 new.

You are going to have your hands full. Selling, servicing, phone support, IT support, deliveries, ordering, accounts payable/receivables.....So much to juggle. The last few years have been one of the worst times I have ever experinced for sourcing parts and supplies.

I've had three techs leave over the years to go indenpendant and none of them lasted more than a few years. They didn't have the resources or the knowledge to run a business. Profits were much higher back then too. Really good techs but that only got them so far. A guy can be the best tech in the area but if he can't get a part or supply to get the customer up and running then it doesn't matter. I had a friend ride along with me once and I pointed out one of my old employees who started his own business. He was mowing his lawn while we were on our way to a service call. His comment to me was "Who is doing it right, you or him?" His point was look at the guy, doing what he wants any time he wants while you are working. I simply repsonded, We'll see. Last I heard that old employee working at a gas station.

You might consider finding someone to team up with but that will bring a whole new set of problems. Even if it is just for deliveries, helping with he phones and remote support.

Excellent points.

I started when things were analog. Profits were higher back then. I remember when the internet started affecting my pricing for parts. I had a customer that I quoted a price for a drum unit. I thought the price was fair. He told me he found one online for half what i was offering. Since then I always check what's online first before quoting a customer a price. I've had people get the parts online and I install them. I tell them I only warranty the labor. If the part fail it's on them. I remember the supply chain issue a year or so back. I found myself taking half the toner out of one bottle and putting into an empty one to stretch my supplies. Black image units (Konica Minolta) were all but unavailable. No we have the UPS strike on the horizon. As my older customers age out and the young people take over. Using paper is something they will not be using much of. I've had customers before the pandemic running some serious number of copies, prints every month. After, since some of them are still working from home, the copy, print usage has gone down to almost a trickle.

I wish that gentlemen much success with striking out on his own.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Independent Service

Good Information

I guess it depends how fast you want to grow. Look at independent car repair places. They make their money from service only. These companies don't work on new stuff but cars out of warranty. Some are specialists others work on anything. As I mentioned earlier it took me a year and a half before i started rolling. Things are a little different today than in the 90's. I can't emphasize enough have a great website and have enough money to make it through the lean times. If you are a great technician (not necessarily a salesman) with good pricing, get there quick when they call, be professional, you will have repair work and eventually sales.

Car repair is much different than copier repair. For starters, in car repair, the customer is coming to you. And there's a lot more cars than there are copiers. I would starve to death if my only income was when a new customer calls in to repair their copier. How many calls do you get in a week from a new customer wanting you to repair their copier?


I have one question for you. Do you think its wise not to have someone that knows copier sales and for them not to make sales calls each and every day?

- I don't agree with you on the website. Every company needs one but it's no solution for generating money, IMHO.

[MAE]

Re: Independent Service

So, what do you think of my current plan? Is it a dumb idea?

[adecanmin]

Re: Independent Service

Car repair is much different than copier repair. For starters, in car repair, the customer is coming to you. And there's a lot more cars than there are copiers. I would starve to death if my only income was when a new customer calls in to repair their copier. How many calls do you get in a week from a new customer wanting you to repair their copier?


I have one question for you. Do you think its wise not to have someone that knows copier sales and for them not to make sales calls each and every day?

- I don't agree with you on the website. Every company needs one but it's no solution for generating money, IMHO.

Wow you make good points. We can only hope the original poster looks at these and is able to get some good information from different points of view on starting and running his copier sales and service business. One final story about a customer i had for 20 years. They called me asking me to work on one small copier they had. It was a medical place. They liked my service and over the years I got more and more business from them as they grew, Copier sales, printer sales etc. I was doing about 20k a year with them. They sold off most of it. The buying company had their own multi state copier service company. I still service the portion they kept.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Independent Service

So, what do you think of my current plan? Is it a dumb idea?

Based on your current financial situation, I don't think its wise to open up a new business. You said that you have $500 to operate your new company? If so, that's a recipe for disaster. I feel bad for telling you this. I'm just being honest with you.

[adecanmin]

Re: Independent Service

I agree with Mr. Carpenter. Even though him and I have differing viewpoints on how to go about with your business you've got to have enough money to survive for x amount of months.
Fortunately with this service business you don't need a ton of money to get started. If you were in the restaurant business you would need to spend a lot more money before you get your first customer.