Ray’s BTA Question Leads to Another Question: Why Now?

 Celeste Dame 🚀🧠 | greg report 2027 Jul 13, 2026

A Seat at the BTA Table

Ray recently reviewed the Business Technology Association’s Form 990 and raised concerns about the amount of money the association holds in reserve.

The figures may be accurate. The argument built around them belongs to Ray.

My first reaction was simpler: Why now?

Become a member. Attend the meetings. Submit a proposal. Work with the committees. Convince other members that a different direction is needed.

The BTA is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The organization has more attention around it than usual, and Ray has found a public filing that gives him a timely subject for the big Sharp board.

OFFICE TECH & AI – The Buyer Has a Machine Now, Too

In the “olden days,” we walked into an account knowing more than the prospect. We knew the speeds and feeds, the lease ex-dates, the service costs, and the components of the monthly payment.

All the buyer knew was that the old device jammed Friday afternoon, the invoice “never matched” the quote, and the office manager had stopped believing the service promise sometime around the third callback.

That conversation has evolved, especially in this new AI/LLM world.

I wonder how many prospects are using AI now, and how much that changes the sale.

From Copier Sales to Ai: The Long Journey of the Modern Salesperson

I started writing about the future of selling in 2008, although it did not feel like the future at the time.

The copier business was still built around equipment, territories, quotas, leases, service contracts, and the belief that the salesperson controlled the information. Customers needed us to explain speeds, feeds, finishing options, duty cycles, and cost per page. We carried brochures, made demonstrations, and waited outside offices hoping someone would give us twenty minutes.