The Adventures of Michel and Santeena...a tale of Co-op work at Tri-County Copiers Plus - Xerox

Welcome back! We hope everyone had a great long weekend with their friends and family. Happy 150 years to Canada!

Creating a Quote

Earlier in our work term, Paul showed us what a quote for a potential customer looks like. With proposal templates, it seemed fairly simple working with the prices and descriptions. This week, we were able to create our own quote for a company interested in upgrading their equipment. Paul had given us the necessary information to complete the basic parts of the template. It was a chance to understand how the Excel spreadsheet works, where to get possible Xerox solution options from and how the pricing should look like.

1. The quote entails a few main parts:
2. The name, address, and company name of the recipient
3. Recommendations based on their requirements, activity and overall costs
4. Total cost of ownership section includes the following: Their current expenditures on monthly lease fees, their average monthly copy volume, and cost per copy as compared to our proposed solution to show the potential change in monthly costs and annual costs. This lets the business owner quickly understand how much money they'll need to invest to move up to a new Xerox device, or how much they might be saving when switching to newer technology.
5. Benefits of the ConnectKey Platform and having a Xerox partnership

Working with Excel seemed easy until the columns were giving us a hard time when inputting the numbers. Eventually, we figured it out. Paul shared with us what he came up with for the same company and we were able to differentiate both quotes. Based on Paul's experience, he shared with us what his recommendation would look like and that will be a reference for us in the future.

I was able to create a quote for a potential customer who is having issues with their current supplier. One of the most important aspects of this quote is that Xerox would "buy-out' the current lease. This is an option for customers who are unhappy with their current equipment and need a quick way out of their contract. Within next week, we will be presenting the quote to the prospect and waiting for a decision to be made.

Word of the Week

PROOF-READING

One valuable lesson that we have been learning in our co-op experience is to proofread anything that we write. This gives us the chance to catch any basic spelling mistakes or grammatical errors in our writing. Most of today's software applications have spell check on and can provide direction with grammar. Be sure to use these tools as your first steps. The next step would be to review and edit your work online or have a printed hardcopy. Ask someone else to review the work, and see if they can improve on it. They can catch any mistakes that you may have of missed. Our weekly blogs go through this process, with our manager proof-reading it one last time before being posted online.

Proofreading is a necessary step that must be taken in order to prevent mistakes. An example of this is when completing paperwork that is required for a sale. The contract has to include all of the correct information; the company name, address, and the total cost of ownership. One mistake in any of these sections can delay or withdraw any commitments.

Proofreading is a skill that we are going to use for the years to come. A simple skill that will help us become ready for the professional business work environment. 

Thanks for reading our blog!
Michel & Santeena