{"id":797,"date":"2012-02-13T05:30:36","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T11:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/?p=797"},"modified":"2012-02-13T05:30:36","modified_gmt":"2012-02-13T11:30:36","slug":"the-squeaky-sales-team-gets-the-grease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/2012\/02\/13\/the-squeaky-sales-team-gets-the-grease\/","title":{"rendered":"The Squeaky Sales Team Gets the Grease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week\u2019s video is a bit of fun, a bit of made-for-your-entertainment videography, and a bit of a business lesson. Watch my team of transmission sales reps destroy our $2,000 Dell color-laser, multi-function printer with sledgehammers. Yep. I let them do it. In fact, I watched from my office window and smiled.<br \/>\n<a class=\"wistia-popover[width=600,height=366,playerColor=#636155]\" href=\"http:\/\/fast.wistia.com\/embed\/iframe\/68b2d3cecd?videoWidth=600&amp;videoHeight=338&amp;volumeControl=true&amp;controlsVisibleOnLoad=true&amp;autoPlay=true&amp;popover=true&amp;plugin%5BpostRoll%5D%5Bversion%5D=v1&amp;plugin%5BpostRoll%5D%5Btext%5D=Click%20to%20sign%20up%20%3Cbr%2F%3Efor%26nbsp%3Bthe%20REMAN%20U%3Cbr%2F%3Eweekly%20e-Zine!&amp;plugin%5BpostRoll%5D%5Blink%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.etereman.com%2Fsignup&amp;plugin%5BpostRoll%5D%5Bstyle%5D%5BbackgroundColor%5D=%23616161&amp;plugin%5BpostRoll%5D%5Bstyle%5D%5Bcolor%5D=%23ffffff&amp;plugin%5BpostRoll%5D%5Bstyle%5D%5BfontSize%5D=36px&amp;plugin%5BpostRoll%5D%5Bstyle%5D%5BfontFamily%5D=Gill%20Sans%2C%20Helvetica%2C%20Arial%2C%20sans-serif&amp;plugin%5Bsocialbar%5D%5Bversion%5D=v1&amp;plugin%5Bsocialbar%5D%5Bbuttons%5D=facebook-twitter-email-googlePlus&amp;plugin%5Bsocialbar%5D%5BtweetText%5D=The%20Squeaky%20Sales%20Team%20Gets%20the%20Grease\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/embed.wistia.com\/deliveries\/cf2f0cd8043a76374f83a296c81d0f7a674a90c5.jpg?image_play_button=true&amp;image_crop_resized=520x293\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nWhy?<br \/>\nBecause the printer was causing problems for the team for several months. The sales reps complained of documents not printing, faxes not going through, copies not looking right, time wasted standing around waiting for stuff to work, countless phone calls to IT, and on. I\u2019m sure some of the issues were exaggerated (as they often are), but I could see the frustration on their faces \u2013 and I even heard them complain to customers about it on a few calls (as in, \u201cWe\u2019re having problems with our fax \u2013 it may take me a bit to get this to you\u2026\u201d).<br \/>\nI\u2019m a businessman. I invest in technology that increases efficiency and\/or improves the customer experience. Sometimes, however, I buy stuff that adds to the fun factor around the office. I\u2019m well aware that few people would consider anything to do with a printer \u201cfun,\u201d but I was able to find a business justification and a fun reason to buy the team a new printer recently.<br \/>\n<strong>First, the business:<\/strong> I found a new printer for $900 that had all the bells and whistles. I spent about fifteen minutes comparing the stats (first page output time, print speed in pages per minute, copy speed, and fax memory), another five minutes determining the annualized cost of replacement toner cartridges, and then a minute realizing that the printer was going to pay for itself in under three months. It was a pretty easy decision.<br \/>\n<strong>Now, the fun:<\/strong> Nobody knew that I had bought a new printer. Nobody knew that I had even paid attention to all the complaints. And, nobody was prepared for what I did at the company holiday party. Just when you\u2019d think the party could not get any better, I rolled in a big package (covered by a black tablecloth) and unveiled the new printer for all to see. The amazing food, open bar, Ping-Pong tournament, and fabulous cash and prizes all paled in comparison to the new printer. You just had to be there.<br \/>\n<strong>Finally, the outcome:<\/strong> The team had a blast. They went all <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Office_Space\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cOffice Space\u201d<\/a>\u00a0on the printer and they loved every minute of it. Morale is up, everything is printing smoothly, and we\u2019re back to selling transmissions. Now, if I could just get the new printer to print money\u2026<br \/>\nSo, what\u2019s the lesson? Something relatively trivial to you (the boss) may be very important to your employees. Sometimes you have to give them what <em>they<\/em> want so they can give you what <em>you<\/em> want \u2013 <strong>better morale, happier customers, more sales.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week\u2019s video is a bit of fun, a bit of made-for-your-entertainment videography, and a bit of a business lesson. Watch my team of transmission sales reps destroy our $2,000 Dell color-laser, multi-function printer with sledgehammers. Yep. I let them do it. In fact, I watched from my office window and smiled. Why? Because the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[79,80,81,14],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Squeaky Sales Team Gets the Grease - REMANU<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/etereman.com\/remanu\/2012\/02\/13\/the-squeaky-sales-team-gets-the-grease\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Squeaky Sales Team Gets the Grease - REMANU\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week\u2019s video is a bit of fun, a bit of made-for-your-entertainment videography, and a bit of a business lesson. 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