Happenings February 16, 2024

    In this issue:

• National Day Spotlight
• Customer Spotlight
• ASWi IT Services
• Sales 101
• Events, Blogs, Movies
• Webinars, Community
• Point to Ponder

The purpose of a newsletter is an opportunity for the ASWi team to provide you and the rest of our clients with information on all the new ASWi and Acumatica related things (or “happenings”) that you may not otherwise be aware of.

Please feel free to share this newsletter with any/all of your team. Pease let me know if anyone on your team who would like to be added to the mailing list for the next issue and removed.

“The value in an idea lies in the using of it.” Thomas Edison

“Innovation” has become something of a buzzword these days, but it is one that represents an important concept that is constantly changing the world.
Any time a person comes up with a new idea, a new product, or a new service that advances modern technology and finds new ways of doing things, they have been a part of innovation. Whether this happens at home, on a local level, corporately or on an international level, Innovation Day celebrates such accomplishments.

You can celebrate Innovation Day by watching a movie about innovation, visit your local science museum, read a book about an innovator, write down your own ideas for new innovations, or do something a little out of the ordinary.

The picture: The Apple Vision Pro could be the innovation that brings virtual reality into the mainstream of every day life in a truly transformative way.

LASIK eye surgery is man’s greatest invention. At least in my eyes.

The invention of the shovel was groundbreaking, but the invention of the broom swept the nation.

Of all the inventions of the last 100 years, the dry erase board has to be the most remarkable.

The invention of the spoon caused quite a stir.

One of the most under-rated inventions was the lock; it was a key turning point in history.

Levi Strauss was a true jean-ius.

Q: What are a couple of good books about innovation?
A: “Making New Things” by N. Ventor and “Old Inventions” by Pat N. Pending I invented a new word: “plagiarism”.

ASWi is very humbled, privileged, and proud to be able to serve some of the most innovative organizations in the country as their IT Services provider and trusted business advisor. Today, I would like to spotlight and introduce JET Specialty, Inc. to our ASWi community.

Established in 1980, JET Specialty, Inc. has grown to become one of the Oil & Gas industry’s premier suppliers with 20 locations serving over 1,500 customers.

Headquartered in Boerne, Texas, JET Specialty, Inc. created its own fabrication shop that is located in Corpus Christi to fabricate ASME code vessels, skids and spool piping.

JET has over 60,000 stock items, including pipe, valves, fittings, flanges and safety equipment. JET Specialty, Inc. stocks a very comprehensive selection of
the highest quality instrumentation and electrical components from leading vendors that are key to Oil & Gas infrastructure.

With the merger at the first of the year, we were very fortunate to have a team of very talented IT Services professionals join the ASWi team. We are also very fortunate to get the opportunity to continue to serve the customers that our IT Services group has been supporting, in many cases, for decades.

Here are some of the IT Services that ASWi now has available:

Managed Services
ASWi offers personalized “white glove” managed services subscriptions to manage your day-to-day IT support needs, along with proactive management of the technology systems within your environment. These services can range from 24×7 server monitoring to full-service, all encompassing IT server (and anything
in between).

ASWI Cloud Services (ACS)
Whether your company is mandated by government or industry compliance requirements, a need to have tighter control over the technical and performance characteristics of the IT infrastructure used to enable mission-critical business functions, ASWi can provide private cloud environments that will provide you with the benefits of moving your IT infrastructure to the cloud while providing these additional advanteages.

Infrastructure Projects (Refreshes, Migrations, Deployments)
The ASWi team is highly experienced with migration projects for Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Exchange, etc. as well as large office relocations and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments.

Backup / Disaster Recovery Services
Be prepared and assured that your business-critical information, applications, and systems are fully protected from catastrophes that will cause downtime and/or data loss with ASWi’s backup and disaster recovery services.

Security Services
ASWi can provide “endpoint protection” by monitoring and protecting endpoints such as computers (desktops, laptops, and tablets), smartphones and other devices using industry standard tools. An early detection plan is available to complement the endpoint protection.

Other Security Services offered by ASWi includes network security, vulnerability scanning, spam filtering and phish training and testing.

If you would like to learn more about what IT Services the ASWi team can provide you, please feel free to reach out to our Customer Success Manager Keith Wood (keithw@aswius.com; 717-581-1226) for more information.

By Mike Brooks

Here’s a proven response to help you overcome the “Your Price is Too High.” objection.

The reason this is such a common objection is because your prospects have figured out it’s the best way to get sales reps to drop their price! And most do!
Top performing reps, however, know better. They know the “Price is too high” objection is just another smokescreen. And they handle it using any of the following scripted techniques:

Compared to what?[Listen here! Don’t rush in to answer.] Besides price, what’s important to you?

[My personal favorite.] And the old Stan Billue technique that takes courage, patience, and finesse to use (but it’s SO effective—and fun to use!):
Oh?[Then remain completely quiet and let your prospect tell you what the REAL objection is.]

Once again, the price objection/smokescreen is just that: a smokescreen hiding the real objection. Unless you question it and get clarification, your only fallback is to lower your price!

And that rarely gets you anywhere.

Try these the next time you get this objection and watch your sales and conversion rate soar!

Has this ever happened to you:
You are in an important meeting and, 10-15 minutes before it is scheduled to conclude, one of the attendees cuts into the conversation and blurts out “I have another meeting coming up, so I need to leave now to prepare for it.”

Uh, what?!

It can be infuriating when others do this to you and embarrassing when you have to be the one committing this meeting faux pas because you have back-to-back meetings in your schedule. Here are some ways to prevent these situations from occurring to you:

1.) Create Meeting Buffer in Your Outlook Calendar
Add a 15 minute “meeting buffer” Microsoft Outlook Appointment before and after each of the meetings in your Microsoft Outlook Calendar. This gives you time to prepare for an upcoming meeting, overcome any login/dial-in issues for remote meetings and join the meeting a couple of minutes early so that you can “hit the ground running” once it starts.

2. Configure Automated Buffers for Your “Book a Meeting” option
Microsoft Office 365 has a great feature that enables you to allow others view when you are available for a meeting and then book the meeting with you.
You can either share the link with others or you can embed the link your email signature block as I do (see below).

Within the Bookings configuration of your Microsoft Office 365, you have the ability to assign a buffer ranging from 5 minutes to 3 hours before and after a meeting to ensure that others do not inadvertently book a meeting with you that is abutting another existing meeting.

3. Share These Tips with People You Frequently Meet With
Following these tips will enable both you and those that you meet with

By Mike Brooks

I don’t know why sales reps still have trouble handing this typical blow off. They know it’s coming; they get it daily or weekly, yet many still struggle to handle it effectively…

The way to not only handle it, but to overcome it is to be prepared in advance with a proven, scripted approach. Like this:

“I’m sure you do, and that’s why I’m calling you today. I know it makes sense to have several vendors you can check pricing and availability with, and having another supplier in your back pocket is only going to help you, right?”

[Get buy in here before you continue…] “So let me email you some information so you’ll have it in case you need it. What’s a good email address to send this to?”

[Now take it down, and then move into qualifying!] “Just so I’m prepared in case you do need another option, what kind of…“

Now ask questions, try to engage, and take your prospect as far as they’ll let you!

You see, the value of having a proven response in your back pocket is that it allows you to move past a prospect’s initial resistance. That’s what most blow offs are!

The next time you get this objection, use the script above and watch how much more effective you become as a sales rep.

Nearly every weekday, a motivational quote is posted on X/Twitter by @ASWiDelivered and on LinkedIn by @ASWi.

• “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ’faster horses’ .” Henry Ford
• “The only thing that is constant s change.” Heraclitus, 500 B.C.
• “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” Lou Holtz
• “Great moments are born from great opportunity.” Herb Brooks
• “Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.” Winston Churchill