From Copiers to Cyborgs: Why Sales Reps Must Learn LLMs or Be Left Behind

This isn’t about saving the industry, it’s about saving your seat at the table.

This article was inspired by the timely and insightful work of Louella Fernandes and the team at Quocirca. Their 2025 "State of the Industry" report is not only essential reading for anyone in the print sector, it is a strategic call to action for those of us still clinging to legacy sales models. Louella’s research confronts the uncomfortable truths head-on, mapping out the very fault lines shaking our industry. Her clear-eyed analysis and bold projections served as the foundation for everything you're about to read.

If you're in copier sales, office tech, or MPS, I strongly recommend digging into Quocirca's full study. They aren’t just chronicling the changes. They're lighting the path forward.

Celeste

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The office print industry is in the middle of an identity crisis, and if you sell copiers, it’s time to wake up or risk being replaced by the very machines we once ruled over.

According to Louella Fernandes and Quocirca's 2025 "State of the Industry" study, we are staring down the barrel of a 2030 where just 9% of customers say print manufacturers will own the customer relationship.

Selling to Digital Natives • The Imaging Channel

Selling to today’s buyer means showing up with relevance, clarity, and speed. In a world trained by TikTok and flooded

By Greg Walters

4 min. readView original

Selling to today’s buyer means showing up with relevance, clarity, and speed. In a world trained by TikTok and flooded with options, trust is earned before the first call. The buyer under 40 doesn’t want a demo, brochure, or “latest lease option.” They’ve already Googled the device, read a subreddit trashing your competitor, and found a blog from 2019 where your CEO promised to revolutionize workflows. You’re not their first stop. You’re barely the fifth.

Your prospects, from the auto shop to the F100 manufacturer, show up with a browser full of comparisons and can smell your pitch a mile away. They don’t want an education. They want relevance.

Back in the early 2000s, read more here...

Beyond Toner and Paper: How Dealers Can Pivot from Copiers to Humanoid Robotics

When service departments run dry of techs dealers are training foot-tall robots with private LLM brains to clear jams, swap toner and deliver secure prints, turning shrinking service margins into a growth engine.

By Cole Jensen

When the sun hits the service bay at 7 AM there are no horns or alarms, only the soft hum of fluorescent lights and the steady blink of copier status lights. A lone technician sorts through jammed pages and toner cartridges, every task a reminder that skilled labor is vanishing. Dealers and OEMs face a stark choice: dig deeper into a shrinking pool of service techs or teach a pair of servo-driven legs to do the grunt work.

Ricoh’s Fairyland Problem: When Growth Isn’t Progress

Inspired by Ray Staszak’s “End of the Day with Ray”

Ricoh’s digital services playbook looks strong on the surface, but weak margins, unclear financials, and questionable strategic returns paint a more sobering picture. Correction may only come through outside pressure and internal reckoning.

I watched Ray's recent breakdown of Ricoh’s FY2024 financials and couldn’t stop thinking about one image: Ricoh’s “Inkjet Fairyland” booth at a convention. That phrase stuck with him, and it stuck with me too. Because it’s not just about trade show kitsch. It’s the perfect metaphor for a company trying to sparkle its way through serious operational issues.

The Rep Who Never Sleeps: Why Custom GPTs Are the New Sales Team

The best reps in the world are no longer solo. They are building custom GPTs trained to match their voice and scale their presence. Prompting is not the goal. Projects are. This is how modern sales gets done.

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by Celeste Dame 🚀🧠

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​Most reps will never get past the surface. They’ll plug a few questions into ChatGPT, maybe ask for a subject line or a prospecting idea, and move on. A few will dig deeper. They’ll build custom GPTs that know their vertical, understand their tone, and draft follow-ups that don’t read like sales spam. And then there are the ones we train. The ones who move beyond prompts. The ones who don’t just use GPTs, they deploy them like teammates. That is where the real leverage begins.

Dex Imaging, LLC v. Impact Networking Ohio, LLC and Kenneth Vanden Haute: A Non-Compete Showdown in Northern Ohio

On March 17, 2025, Dex Imaging, a Florida-based office technology and managed print services provider, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against its former executive vice-president, Kenneth Vanden Haute, and his new employer, Impact Networking Ohio, LLC. 

Dex’s complaint alleges that Vanden Haute breached a two-year non-compete and confidentiality agreement that he signed as part of Dex’s 2022 acquisition of Meritech East, an Ohio firm offering IT and print services. The case, docketed as No. 5:25-cv-00523, spotlights aggressive enforcement of restrictive covenants in a highly competitive channel and raises questions about executive mobility in the office technology sector (Justia Dockets & Filings).

If You’re Still Quoting by PDF, You’re Already Behind - Inspiration from the Year 2013

By Greg Walters

The convergence wasn’t a future event. It wasn’t even a prediction. It was a condition. And it’s here, embedded in systems you forgot you were still using. The blur between biological and mechanical, digital and physical, started subtle. Now it’s invasive. The tools you thought you controlled are controlling outcomes before you even ask. You didn’t miss a moment. You missed a migration.