Posted by Tom Callinan on Thursday, April 18, 2013
If sales professionals communicated in their personal life the way they do when trying to get a first appointment with a prospect they would be a lonely bunch. Can you imagine walking up to somebody and saying, “Hi, I’m Tom Callinan and I live in a house in Bryn Mawr. The house was built 16 years ago by a local builder. I’m a good guy and I think you and I can have a relationship. Want to sit down and talk for 30 minutes.” You’re laughing at me at this point, correct (Or more accurately, I hope, you’re laughing at this scenario)?
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Posted by Tom Callinan on Monday, April 8, 2013
I get asked all the time, “Can you help my team close more sales.” When I then ask the person to tell me what they are looking for the emphasis is always on closing as an event. This belief would lead the average business owner to believe there exists a superstar closer; you simply “wheel them in” when it’s time to close the sale and you are guaranteed to be booking revenue.
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Posted by Tom Callinan on Monday, August 27, 2012
There have been numerous commentators providing opinions as to Sharp’s future in the copier business. An article by Nikkei suggested that Kyocera was in discussions to buy Sharp’s copier business. Sharp US has stated that the article is not accurate and that Sharp is not currently in discussions to sell the copier division. Commentators have focused on the fact that the copier business is one of Sharp’s more profitable businesses. That is the correct focus but I think the commentators arrived at the wrong conclusion.
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Posted by Tom Callinan on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Three weeks back I was at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). My desire to get more educated in the “IT space” started about a year ago when many of our clients started asking about entering the IT space.
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Posted by Tom Callinan on Monday, April 2, 2012
If there was a single area I find most entrepreneurs spend too little time on, it's planning. Because they don’t spend the time on planning they spend even less time on research, a necessity of planning. The fact that prints are declining across the business segments of the industry is no surprise to anybody at this point. I’ve been speaking about it for four years now. Some providers have entered the MPS space, albeit with limited success.
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Posted by Tom Callinan on Monday, November 28, 2011
Nations are in the news: Greece, Portugal, Italy, and soon maybe even France. Greece has a debt to GDP ratio of approximately 150%, Portugal’s ratio is 93% and Italy is 120%. The good old US is right around 100%. How did these countries dig themselves such a large hole that they subsequently crawled into? I realize any easy answer will be an over simplification, but in my mind the answer is by not acting on good data.
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Posted by Tom Callinan on Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Last week ECi announced the acquisition of the last independent industry specific ERP, Digital Gateway (DGI). It appears as if this acquisition has caught many by surprise as DGI’s outspoken CEO, Jim Phillips, has told anybody who would listen that he would never sell out (That infamous “read my lips” mantra that seems to be followed in history by the exact opposite event). Jim’s reasoning seemed to be founded on his belief that being an independent software provider was good for the independent dealer.
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Posted by Tom Callinan on Friday, September 9, 2011
It started out as just another Tuesday; I had my reservation at the Times Square Hilton and I was on the bus from South Jersey to Manhattan. For the last three years I had been commuting into Manhattan to my job as president of IKON’s NYC Marketplace. I was fortunate; IKON had agreed to foot the bill for me to stay in the city whenever I wanted, so I didn’t need to endure the four-hour daily commute like most on the bus. Unless you’ve experienced the bus commute to Manhattan you’d never be able to imagine that it is actually a community unto itself.
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Posted by Tom Callinan on Tuesday, May 10, 2011
From May 10 – 12, Strategy Development is hosting a client symposium in Las Vegas. May 10 kicks off with a full-day seminar on building dynamic teams facilitated by Dr. Rod Napier. Dr Napier is an instructor at The University of Pennsylvania in their Masters of Organizational Dynamics program and has instructed at the Wharton School, including leading the popular Executive Team Dynamics course. Dr.
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