Time Spent Faxing Can Really Add Up

Let's say that you're on the phone with a client going over a major proposal and they utter four words that fill you with dread, "Fax it to me." It's not that you don't know how to send a fax, but you dread faxing because you know that you're in for a big waste of time, especially considering how many pages your proposal is.

Faxing is lame because the time you spend printing off and faxing a sales proposal will cut into the time set aside to do more productive things, like actually talking to the prospective client about the proposal (the most important part of the sales presentation).

It would be much easier if you could send the client your proposal via email, or even share your presentation with them over a webinar, but it turns out that this fax-loving customer does business at a much different pace than you because they have plenty of time to spend tending to their fax machine. Having extra time like this is a luxury that comes with doing business with technology from a different decade. It may also be the case that their business handles their finances with a team of accountants wearing visors and suspenders, and they use quills to enter data into paper ledgers.

While every fax machine is different, the scanning and transmitting of a full page of text averages around 30 seconds. This figure can vary depending upon the content of the page being faxed. Interestingly, it takes a fax machine longer to transmit a full page of condensed text than it does a picture. The technical reason for this has to do with encoding.

A fax machine scans a document and converts every pixel into either black or white, which it represents as a series of bits that it then compresses before transmission. Based on the number of bits scanned, areas which are constant white or constant black transmit much faster than areas which are complicated, like perhaps your wordy and multi-paged sales proposal that you need to send ASAP. Therefore, if you do have to send a fax, it may send quicker if you increase your font a few sizes before printing and scanning your document.

Working with a client that requests faxes may prolong the communication process, but it doesn't have to prolong it on both their end and yours. With a fax server solution from SMART Services, you can send a client a fax in the very same way that you would send a digital correspondence from your PC. In fact, fax server technology allows you to turn your email inbox into your new fax hub by sending and receiving faxes as PDFs. This means that, instead of waiting 30 seconds per page to transmit a multi-page fax, you can just click "send" and the document will instantaneously transmit to your recipient's ancient fax machine.

The recipient of your fax will then have to receive, print off, and organize each page, which will buy you a few minutes to step away from your desk and take a break while they're stapling together your proposal. A fax server solution will save you considerable time in the faxing process, and it will save you in other ways as well, and it will save you from having to buy paper and ink refills. It also saves you from maintenance costs associated with keeping a fax machine operational, save you from having to find space to store paper files, and it will free up a spot on your desk for a more useful piece of equipment--like a potted plant.

Just because there are businesses in the world that still use fax machines, doesn't mean that you have to too. Call SMART Services at 586 258-0650 to never again be bothered by a fax machine!