Think we are working in a business that is dying and will, in some time, no longer exist in the for that we know it in. Has the time come to try to seek our fortune in other businesses before it’s too late?
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I star tree s in copiers 10 years ago and only did it for a year and a half. FOR THOSE LOOKING TO GET OUT, HERE IS WHAT YOU DO - Leverage your copier sales experience and look for jobs in dental sales or medical device sales. That’s what I did and many others do and with a year or two you will make well into six figures. Copiers are dead, but the experience you gained isn’t and is very valuable if you just know where to look.
Lol copier company is dead and a joke
I worked in the biz for 25 years. It’s over, absolutely no doubt about it.
Yeah, for anyone reading this, the copier industry sucks! Do Not get a job selling copiers. It is a complete waste of your time and energy. Only the old men and women left who have all of their farmed accounts will make any money these days. If you just want a year or so of boring sales trainings, Monday morning sales meetings, and learn how to cold call, then by all means this is where you learn. But for goodness sakes, do not consider this a career. I know, I've wasted a lot of time hoping this would turn around, but it only gets worse and worse. Get out. You will be glad you did.
no future at this point. skeleton service and won't let customers have toner.
Get Out NOW if you have any opportunity you can't make money anymore
I sold copiers for 3 years and than switched to software sales with another company. In one year of sales at the new company, I made an annual income equivalent to 2 years of selling copiers with 1/3 of the amount of units sold. I didn't have any problems selling copiers, I actually really enjoyed it. There just wasn't any money in it. The margins have died down significantly due to competition and now with covid everyone is using paperless software vs printing everything. With my new job I probably print only 20 pages a month. When I left, the commission changed from 3% to 1%. The business is there, but the money isn't if your in sales. It will be dominated by left over big players trying to hold on, with employees only benefiting in positions such as supply chain to maintain their distribution channels vs a sales rep trying to capitalize on net new. The need for a copier tech has definitely died. When we started selling Hp Copiers, they changed the industry by engineering the devices to have built in segments we called boards. One board would have a series of parts on it. If one part broke on a board, you pulled the board out and replace it with a new one. It only takes 1 minute to figure it out. It was still cheaper to replace that entire segment of parts vs hiring a tech to fix the one broken part on the machine. They are designing the machines so the customer can fix it with a simple set of instructions. Future business and engineering professionals will only work in this industry as a starter job. A starting technician position is $9 dollars an hour without experience. You can make more money working at McDonalds with no training. Large copiers are no longer needed. Everything is small now and that's what HP was working towards. Small copiers that work like big copiers to place in individuals houses to eliminate all the overhead.
Global saw loss of revenue across all cores in the first quarter, geez i wonder why, sales writes contracts practically giving everything away, every fricken deal is a price exception, the customers demand everything but want to pay nothing, it's so laughable and yet they keep putting the deals through and wonder why their cost is higher than the revenue coming in , i could run a core better than them and i answer a phone a living!!
I definitely seeing print going away as the technology out there should be gearing towards paperless environments!
“People were talking about the end of the business supply store (think Staples) in the early 1980's and they're still around. Technology--Word Processors and eventually computers) replaced the typewriter but there is no technology yet to replace the copier.“
You don’t know what you are talking about. Staples was FOUNDED IN 1986. Sine 2013 staples has been in steep decline, closing hundreds stores and shrinking for years. The downsizing of all the big box office supplies has been driven by online ordering and e-commerce.
But the point really is that there are MANY technologies that HAVE replaced the copier and there are far, far fewer copies (and prints) being made all the time. The internet, cellphones, PCs, networked and communicating devices have wiped out vast amounts of copying and printing.
ALL the copier, printer companies are facing rapidly declining volumes and profits. There is little future in copying and commercial printing. Pull your head out of the sand and face the reality.
I see the billing for print volume clicks every quarter. Volume is WAY down over what it was just 4 years ago.
That “some time” is not very far off.
Even at Canon, Ricon, HP, KM ... the future of print (office and production) is a not so slow decline.
They are all shrinking and the career opportunities are shrinking with them. If you need to work to support your families, send your kids to college or build your retirement nest egg, get outta here!
If you are an engineer of any kind, get out! Go do something else. The future of this is shrinking every day.
Service? Service some other technicnology.
Marketing? Really? Copiers and MFDs? Come on!
Get out now!
Willing to bet your family on it? Willing to bet your ability to save for a retirement?
Unless your practically retirement age now, get out!
Go sell something else.
People were talking about the end of the business supply store (think Staples) in the early 1980's and they're still around. Technology--Word Processors and eventually computers) replaced the typewriter but there is no technology yet to replace the copier. Will fewer be sold? Yes, but as companies like Xerox and Ricoh melt down due to poor decisions by the executives it provides great growth opportunities for the remaining companies in the space. If you're looking for 40 years I get out now but if you need 15 or less it's a great business with the correct company.
Sort of like typewriter sales.
Get it?
Get out. It’s over. How can you possibly not see that?
Yes. That time has come.