A Better Way to Light Your Grill

Originally posted on The Source:

http://thesource.scansource.com/security/blogs/post/A-Better-Way-to-Light-Your-Grill

A Better Way to Light Your Grill

Posted To: Business, Technology

By: Nick Miller on: 6/8/2011

5 Reasons Why You Should Buy From ScanSource Security

The other day, I dusted off my charcoal grill to grill out for the first time this year. A little clarification for any readers north of the Mason-Dixon Line, yes, I was grilling out, not "barbequing." Barbeque is a noun, not a verb...I digress. I couldn't seem to find my lighter fluid. Quickly, I attempted to use crumpled newspaper, to no avail; I could not get the charcoal to ignite.

Frustrated, I noticed my Brazilian neighbor was in his back yard and I asked if he had any lighter fluid. "No," he said as my shoulders shrank. "But," he said, as I perked up, "this is what I do and what we've done in Brazil for years." He proceeded to tell me to take a paper towel, roll it into a ball, and soak it in olive or canola oil. He told me to take about three or four of them and strategically place them throughout the charcoal and light them. "They'll burn like candles," he said.

I ran inside, grabbed a ziplock bag and got to making paper towel balls. I tossed them in the bag along with some olive oil and got them nice and wet. Armed with my new "candles," I placed them within the charcoal and set them ablaze. To my amazement, they performed exactly as he said. They burned hotter and longer than anything I had ever used to light charcoal. Within 15 minutes, I had perfectly ashed coals just as the paper towels burned through the oil and disintegrated. On top of this Promethean miracle, there was no lighter fluid smell to ruin the food.

I've told this story to a few friends and they all had the same reaction as I. "That's so cool," and "when you think about it, it really makes a lot of sense." This got me thinking about how often we do things as if they are second nature, and we often don't look for a better solution, even though one may exist. Lighter fluid always worked in the past for me, so why would I need to think there was a better way?

Here's where I think this applies in the security world. Let's say you're an integrator and you purchase product direct from a manufacturer. Sure, that's worked for you in the past and you're buying direct from the source. Why would you even think about purchasing elsewhere? No one has told you there is a better way. Because ScanSource Security does what we do better than anyone else, you lose nothing, but gain everything you didn't know you could have.

1. Pricing - Sure, you can get your direct pricing through us, and even in some cases, we can do better than that. You might call us a "middle man," but instead of taking money away from you, we actually save everyone money by being more efficient at what we do. We solve problems for both the manufacturers and the resellers by warehousing inventory in a 600,000-square-foot distribution facility and offering terms to you.
2. Stock - We've got stock when most manufacturers don't, we ship blind and free ground, plus we have 99% shipping accuracy. As mentioned, our 600,000-square-foot distribution facility is centrally located and we offer same day shipping with ground cut off at 6:00PM EST, overnight cut off at 8:00PM EST.
3. Support - Not only do you continue to get your support from the manufacturer, but youget support from us, too. A dedicated accountmanager whom only sells security products (each one having gone through AxisAcademy as well as attends weekly trainings), a system design team to help withpre- and postsale questions, a top-notch customer service team, a financialservices team to help you finance and win deals, and even a pre-configurationdepartment to prep a lot of products for installation.
4. Value-Added Services - As mentioned above, we have a pre-configuration center that is ISO-certified. We can pre-program IP addresses into cameras, pre-install cameras into housings, and we can even give you VPN access to adjust settings on your own. We have a marketing staff to help you with any size project, of any type. Whether you need some email blasts made, a call campaign, a web seminar, a video, or a direct mail campaign, we're here to help. Just like we help manufacturers become more efficient, we can help you become more efficient in reaching your end user. Many more value-added services are available to help you be more efficient.
5. Competition - There is none because we don't compete with you. We don't sell to your customers. Government and Education? Yep, we consider them end users, too, so we don't sell to them. You, the reseller, the integrator, are our customer. Why would we want to damage that relationship by trying to kick you out of the sale? That's not good for anyone. We are a distributor that you can trust.

The "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality is not one to have in these times. You need all the help that you can get. Start looking at the way you do things and don't be afraid to ask someone for help. You never know when someone might introduce you to a better way to light a fire (that apparently 190 million people in South America already know about).

Look at the Sales Cycle from Your Customer's Perspective

Originally posted on The Source:

http://community.scansource.com/Blogs/post/Look-at-the-Sales-Cycle-from-Your-Customer's-Perspective

A-B-C. A - Always, B - Be, C - Cycling....wait, what?

I was at a seminar recently that was about writing blogs to promote your business. There were a lot of interesting takeaways, but one thing really stood out. They talked about the sales cycle, the full sales cycle, from the customer’s point of view. They were speaking in terms of how to write a blog; I thought it would be a good refresher to talk about it in general.

There are six phases: awareness, consideration, intention, purchase, use, and advocacy. I have to admit, being in sales and getting into a daily grind, it’s easy to forget about some of those steps. So let’s break it down.

Awareness

Are your customers aware of your product or service? Sounds like a silly question, but what are you doing today to make them aware of you and how you stand out amongst your competition. Does your advertising accomplish this goal? Is your sales staff conveying the right message? In these tough economic times, maybe it’s time to revisit your brand and what you’re doing to make people know you’re there. Another interesting comment in this seminar was that a good sales person doesn’t just create the solution for you, but he/she discovers the problem you didn’t know you had. Something to ponder about as you rethink your “go-to-market” strategy.

Consideration

So now that your potential customers know you’re there, it’s time for them to consider buying your product/service. Why would anyone buy from anyone but you, right? Again, here’s where you need to uniquely position yourself. It’s easy to forget that you may offer something distinctly different from your competition because it’s so common to you that you assume everyone knows about it.

Intention

Some might look at this as the customer deciding they want to make the purchase. I think it may be partly that, but more so how they intend to use your product/service. Basically, they’re trying to make sure that what you’re offering them will solve their problem. This is where the good salesperson’s talent should shine.

Purchase

Finally, the sale. You’ve closed the deal. Congratulations for all your hard work. Onto the next job, right? Well, maybe you do move on to your next prospect, but from the customer’s perspective, the sales cycle isn’t quite over.

Use

Here’s where they finally use the product/service. It’s important to follow up with your customer to make sure everything is going well. Many frustrations by the customer can be avoided by simple follow-up calls to ensure there are no problems. I have found that people are a lot less angry with a product that isn’t working when they at least have a sense that they are being taken care of. This can go a long way towards controlling the outcome of the final (and maybe most important) phase.

Advocacy

It’s almost a cliché, but it really is true. Word of mouth advertising is the best form. If your product/service truly solves a problem for someone and they have a pleasant experience throughout the sale, then they will talk about it. Conversely, the opposite can be detrimental. Why do I say this may be the most important phase? Quite simply, we’re not here to make just one sale. We want a lot of sales. So ideally, when the entire sales cycle is completed correctly, it should generate more business for you.

When you step back and look at the complete sales cycle from a customer’s perspective, I think it can really help you figure out how to re-position your business, as well as generate new business. Whether it’s an impulse buy or a year-long project, every one of these phases should be considered. You can really see how each one is important and needs the previous phase to move forward. So I say, instead of “always be closing,” always be cycling. How do you work the sales cycle in your business?

Are You In? 4 Reasons I Have Come to Know and Love LinkedIn.

This is not specifically related to Security, but I wrote this blog for The Source, ScanSource's Community Website. Original post can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/4tdpg5k

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Ever changed jobs and realized all your contacts were stored on your company's server? Ever changed email or physical addresses or phone numbers and found it very cumbersome to get that new info to all your contacts? Several services in the past have tried to make this easier for you. You may have heard about them, Plaxo was one of the more popular services. I was an avid Plaxo user for quite some time and really enjoyed the service. It synced with my Outlook, so it was easy to import/export contact info and keep it all backed up online. And when your friends made changes to their info, it automatically updated for you. Problem solved!

But after awhile, I began to get requests for this thing called LinkedIn. At first, I was hesitant to try it out just because I didn't want to go through the motions of starting a new service for something that appeared to be the same offerings as Plaxo. One day, I decided to make the plunge and see why I was being asked to join LinkedIn. It didn't take long for me to see the value of this service. Here are four (of the many) reasons that made me love LinkedIn.

1. It's your contacts...no, it's networking...no, it's like an online resume...no, it's all of the above!

I was partially right. It is like Plaxo in that you can put all your contact info in, link with other people, pull contacts from Outlook, etc. But then I saw it was much more. As part of setting up an account, you had to put in school info, past employers, interests, and other info about you. In short, it was soft of like creating an online version of your resume.Taking all that info, LinkedIn would then make suggestions of who you might know based on your education and past work experience. It was great because I could then find contacts that I had lost their info and finally connect with them again.

2. Real discussion on topics I am interested in. And leads too!

Soon I found there was this whole other portion of LinkedIn called Discussion Groups. Basically, these are forums for groups of users to get together on common interests in business, applications, product questions, etc. and allow them to post questions/topics and have other users respond to that. LinkedIn allows you to subscribe to these groups and get email updates when people post to them. This is a very valuable lead tool. Find a topic that has something to do with your business, follow the groups, then either engage in the discussions or contact people directly when they are looking for goods and services that you provide. I have personally gained customers and sales as a direct result of following these groups and contacting people.

3. Twitter updates appear in my LinkedIn status

Something elsethat LinkedIn has are status updates. It's simply that. Just an area for you to post whatever you want. Something going on in your life, a project you're working on, or anything else you want to tell the world about you. At first, I didn't care for this too much because I was using Twitter for that. But more recently, LinkedIn has integrated with Twitter so that your "tweet" will automatically sync and update your LinkedIn status. This was the game changer for me. For my contacts that don't follow me on Twitter, they get the same content now on LinkedIn and tha thas provided a great way to engage a large amount of people in an instant. When I have posted something about a new product or service, my fellow LinkedIn-ers then call/email me for more info. Honestly, I've had more followers from LinkedIn ask me about my "tweet" than I have on Twitter.

4. Facebook for the business world

LinkedIn is more than just people too. Many companies these days are creating LinkedIn profiles as well and using them to promote products and offerings. You can follow companies just like people, similar to what you can do with Facebook. In fact, I'd go so far as to call LinkedIn the "business Facebook" (although lots of companies and people are using Facebook for business these days too). The cool thing with LinkedIn is that it takes all these social interactions (status updates, discussion groups, etc) and ties it in to the original solution of keeping contacts up to date and update Outlook.

So if you've been looking for a tool to sync and keep all your contacts up to date, I would definitely give LinkedIn a try. If you're looking for a new way to engage customers (or read about your competition), chances are there's a LinkedIn discussion going on about it. Don't be shy, invite all your customers and other contacts to follow you on LinkedIn...and don't be afraid to update your status with, "Gone fishing" (that is, if you've really gone fishing). You'd be surprised how adding a little personal touch can open business relationships to a whole new level. And if you're company doesn't have a LinkedIn profile, you should take the initiative and create one...or at least get the right people involved to do so. It's a great place to share success stories about your company.

Plaxo was nice, but I've found LinkedIn to be so much more valuable as a business tool. So I ask, are you (Linked)In? If not, you should be.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/securitynick