This past Valentine’s Day, Morgan Stanley released a 96-page study titled “Tablet Demand and Disruption – Mobile Users Come of Age.” The study was dated February 14, 2011, so the report is technically a year old. Most of the content is around the development and distribution of tablets globally and their disruptive effect on different technologies. There are only three pages dedicated to the impact of tablets on print, but the findings are stunning. One particular line caught my eye: “Tablet impact on pages printed is the most underappreciated cannibalization story.”
The most “underappreciated cannibalization.” We are eating ourselves alive, and we don’t even know it. Well, some of us don’t. I do. You do. It’s the muckety-mucks up top that don’t have the eyes to see.
The report is exhaustive and presents an accurate view of the tablet market as it unfolded in 2011. Indeed, when the numbers were in error, the miscalculation was on the plus side – more tablets sold than predicted.
Until very recently, the facts around paper consumption, printing at home or the office and the paperless movement were muted and debatable. Yet we see the results all around us. Our OEMs are stumbling through the MpS maze, confused and terribly vexed. Our fellow dealers are equally befuddled and most likely on their third MpS director. Still, some are fooling themselves into believing the recession will end and everything will go back to normal.
This is not the case. The writing is on the wall; the business is never coming back. Managed print services reduces the clicks and MIF. The economic environment is forcing us all to do more with less – less printing. The consumerization of IT is leaving print behind, and the MpS motion is skipping over the reduction of print and landing on the elimination of print/presenting documents on a screen.
So what do you do?
Push harder. Get as many machines and customers as you can, because this is truly the last land grab; when the music stops, people go home. The idea is to act with urgency without looking desperate and to keep your eyes open for new opportunities. I am not trying to scare anyone, but I won’t advocate ignorance or inaction. If, for some strange reason, you’re not already in MpS, get cracking – today. Reach out to your toner vendor and deepen your partnership. Look to new partners, bigger providers or folks you didn’t consider before. Things change, don’t they?
However, if you are in MpS, keep selling and supporting your brand of MpS. Keep doing what you do and do it well. Pivot off your strength into other areas. If your crew delivers toner, think about document destruction or delivering water. I am not kidding.
Seriously look into managed services – coffee services, waste management, records management and managed IT services. You’ve got nothing to lose. Well, that isn’t 100 percent correct; you could lose everything.
Before you do, take a serious deep-dive look into your existing systems – holistically. Our industry has excellent consultants who are very good in certain areas – business, finance, sales. But few imaging experts can look at the entire operation through a managed services prism, so be inquisitive and discerning.
If you offer a more advanced MpS, engage an outside expert to look at everything. If you’re building up a practice and have been through one or two multiple-week mentoring programs, now is a great time to look deeper into all your systems and evaluate the effectiveness of past expansions into MpS.
Get a good, honest, deep look at your operations, then make a choice.
There is one more thing.
In the spirit of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” have you ever considered reselling tablets in addition to copiers, printers, toner and supplies? If office supplies people can sell MpS, why can’t you provide tablets?
I’m just saying…
Posted on 02/21/20120 comments
Time is compressing.
It was just in 2009, a mere three years ago – or actually, just under 36 months – when MpS started showing up in its current form. At conferences, show floors were jam-packed with MpS propositions; Konica Minolta, OKI, Xerox, LMI, GreatAmerica, Digital Gateway, ECi, Compass, Strategy Development, M2M, Synnex, NER and many more were “all-in.” Granted, it wasn’t really MpS. The fliers had “MPS” stickers plastered all over them; the sales classes mentioned MpS selling cycles, TCO and the like; but the content was still copier sales, copier leasing, toner cartridges. Desk-side toner delivery/auto-fulfill, just fresh off the whiteboard, was being touted and sold. Yet some proclaimed MpS to be just another marketing point or passing fad, like black and white to color or analogue to digital.
Today, not even 36 months along, automatic toner delivery is a standard, remote monitoring happens every day, and MpS represents a secular change – not a fad. Now we’re talking about managed services, a help desk versus a dispatch desk, and content on screens versus marks on paper.
Time is compressing.
Take a closer look at the last six months, back to June 2011. Ricoh announced a $300 million investment into MDS and had just embarked upon their cross-country MDS cavalcade. Xerox was regrouping on PagePack. Office supplies moved from wallflower to center stage. HP lost its mind, but IPG stayed the course and started to digest Printelligent. Steve Jobs crossed the River Styx. Meanwhile, Apple sold 11.2 million iPads – and that was in one quarter, and not at $99 a pop.
Today, just six months later, Wall Street is not happy with our OEMs. We in the trenches are strapping deck chairs together hoping to float into the calm waters of managed services – wow. Twelve months ago, nobody knew what managed services was; today, everybody is an expert.
The point is this: Everything is moving faster than it ever has before. We are communicating with each other instantaneously on a global scale – and guess what? We aren’t printing agendas, letters or emails, and we don’t fax, but we’re all on the same page.
I contend that the lack of paper may have a bit to do with cost or convenience but is more related to speed and efficiency. In the amount of time it takes to pick up a print job – say, 4.9 minutes – 5,700 tweets are tweeted (TweetSpeed), 10,500 emails are sent (Pingdom), 1.5 million statuses are updated (SearchEngineLand) and 10 million Google searches are performed (SearchEngineLand). This makes even 120 ppm seem awful slow, right?
How do we, the people in an industry that was built on toner and fuser oil, survive in these content-driven times?
Hang on to your existing business while looking for the safe harbor of other models – that’s all. This is bigger than the shift from copiers to MpS; nobody will be able to fake their way through this storm. Re-examine your current relationships and open yourself and your business to new alternatives.
Consider managed services. There is a growing number of decent managed service providers who don’t want to sell direct – refreshing to think, isn’t it? Managed services is a high-margin, low-overhead proposition. There are no quotas and barely any OEMs to deal with – consider that.
As the cost of technology decreases – and it will – people are going to naturally move toward the fastest and easiest mode of communication available. Print is the slowest manner in which to transport information or convey a message. The world is moving faster; you need to as well.
There is, of course, one more thing: Don’t be hesitant about moving into the managed services space. The current skill set of your sales staff is sufficient because the managed services value proposition is simpler to get around than MpS. Here’s the dirty little secret: If you can successfully and profitably direct an MpS practice, running and selling managed services is easy. We just need to shift from the speed of print to the speed of thought.
Posted on 02/09/20120 comments
Here it is – 2012: the cusp of the end of the world as we know it. The MpS train is rolling, picking up steam and boldly going. It wasn’t so long ago one couldn’t find a soul who knew the difference between managed print services and the printer who printed wedding invitations. Today, the invitation printers are starting up “MpS practices,” pitching remote monitoring, desk-side toner delivery and service dispatch. Wow.
Back then, I would goad the office furniture folks getting into MpS: “What – are you going to deliver toner with the water?”
My snarky retort to the poor retail office supplies people was, “You’re selling MpS? Where is it? On a peg, next to the Wite–Out? Cleanup, aisle seven.”
Well, the mockery has ended.
Today, supplies stores and office furniture guys are offering MpS; old-school stationers are setting up global MpS programs, and – hang onto your hat for this one – the wide-format boys are getting in too. Oh, what a party it is turning out to be.
The floor is crowded, the music old, and the dance moves mundane. We’re getting burnt out.
Today, the LinkedIn forums are stuffed with questions posed and answered four years ago. Today, everybody who is in MpS has gone through at least three separate MpS training classes, and it doesn’t matter if the content was old, remanufactured, copier-sales classes; we’ve had enough. Brian Stevenson hit it pretty well with his “Death of the Hype?” blog here on The Imaging Channel. Personally – and I think Brian might feel the same way – I’ve forgotten more about MpS than the newbies know. And believe me, that is not a statement based in arrogance; it’s sad, really.
But let me tell you why you may want to take note: MpS is withering. This doesn’t mean you are fading; it means the world around you is shifting. Unlike the transformation from analog to digital, which wasn’t really a transformation, this conversion seems to plateau for three months, and then burst in a different direction.
You’ve been hearing more about the “consumerization of IT” and the explosive use of personally owned smartphones and iPads in the workplace. A study by Deloitte predicts 5 million tablet devices will be purchased in 2012 – a big number for sure, and it’s growing. Compare this with the several decades it took for more than 5 percent of households to have more than one car, phone, radio and/or TV. The world is moving fast, and the line between work and personal time is blurring into oblivion.
Five million tablets equate to the loss of cartridge sales, clicks and service calls. The exact number is not as important as visualizing the overall effect. Can you see it? Leaner organizations filled not with “mobile workforces” but “independent workforces” technologically adept and familiar in the transfer of information without printing. It’s happening right now so quickly, yet MpS appears to be moving in slow motion, almost standing still.
What to do?
Don’t get comfortable. Keep transforming. Fight stagnancy.
See your future by looking at your clients. They are getting leaner; maybe you should too. When they talk about utilizing technology to be more productive and fluid, perhaps you should look at reducing your overhead by getting all your employees set up remotely. Check out the latest tablets and figure out how to integrate to the cloud. Heck, take a look at setting up your dispatcher at his/her home. Then watch your customer satisfaction go up and your overhead drop. This isn’t brain surgery; it’s rocket science.
There is, of course, one more thing. All of this technology allowing you and your employees to work from anywhere in the world reduces overhead yet demands more from executive leadership/ownership – and not more reports or analyses. This movement demands that you break away from the “management by walking around” style. You must learn to trust again, and I’m not talking about trusting your employees or executive team. Don’t be stagnant; learn to trust yourself. Again.
Posted on 01/23/20122 comments
Last year, I subscribed to Dropbox and Box.net. My primary reason was the ability to send documents to the cloud and access them from my TouchPad anywhere in the world. This worked great.
I created a master blog article at night, then reviewed it, finalized it and sent it from 10,000 feet in the air the next morning. (Mile High Club – sweet!) And there is more: I didn’t need to “send” the file as an attachment; I simply shared the folder with my editor. When she opens the file or document, I am notified. When she needs a new contract initialed, instead of emailing me a 12-page PDF, she simply drops the file into our shared folder, and the cloud notifies me of the new document. Revisions, digital signatures and final drafts are all handled from a tablet. Even the final “print” is on a website, not ink on paper. And I know I don’t need to point out how much paper was not used in this workflow, do I?
Dropbox will degrade email, Twitter reduces Google searches and blogging, cell phones obliterate the pay phone system, text messaging replaces cell phone calls, Netflix dissolves Blockbuster, the Internet kills newspapers, and MpS frees content from the restrictions of paper, wasting all those devices along the way. All of this, every single motion, is content-driven and accessible from a smartphone anywhere in the world – instantly.
It’s not so much MpS as it is moving content, and it’s not so much about moving content as it is about the new “mobility” movement: the freedom to do what we like, when we like, from anywhere in the world.
MpS leads the way in this because MpS is all about efficiently utilizing technology down to the individual.
Inside most MpS practices, we sub out much to the remote monitor and the DCA. Our software automatically triggers an order, and that order is tracked live from point A to your client’s desk. On my Droid Bionic, I can see a Xerox in one fleet functioning correctly and whether a toner cartridge in another fleet has been shipped, delivered or lost. This I can do from the beach, the car, at 10,000 feet or right next to the client.
Of course, there are two edges. This new mobile age cuts both ways; the number of printed documents – our revenue and lifeblood – is reduced. No matter how many “e-print” devices land in business centers, hotel lobbies or Starbucks, the lost volume will never be replaced. The number of virgin cores is shrinking, copier sales are down, and people are getting out of the industry. People are printing less and “viewing” more.
The other side of independent mobility is the freedom to conduct business under a much leaner business model. Building space alone can be reduced by 50 percent when employing tablets, laptops, smartphones and a corporate cloud. Indeed, for a period last year, my dispatcher was in Florida for two weeks with her laptop and smartphone. During her time away, all of our service calls were within SLAs; deliveries and installs were coordinated, service parts were ordered, and our customers were happy. Not one co-worker back in the cube farm some 2,500 miles and two time zones away knew she wasn’t physically in the state.
It works.
It works with MpS and will work even better with managed services. One doesn’t need to build, house and staff a data center or NOC; the machines will practically run themselves. Managed services is not as infrastructure–dependent. Servers may need replacing, but not every 25,000 images, so monitoring these is not as labor-intensive as supporting fleets of output devices.
There is, of course, one more thing: Remember my dispatcher (the one who makes everything work) who was away in Florida? Well, not only did she conduct all her job responsibilities with her phone, laptop and WiFi; she didn’t use a printer. Never did toner hit paper. Not once.
Posted on 01/09/20120 comments
25,969 years in the making – change on a galactic scale, transformation guaranteed. The shift from “copier dealer” to CopierVAR – or should that be “VAR copier”? – is upon us.
Will this shift be as impressive as the analog-to-digital move or monochrome to color? No.
The paradigm shift has been building for decades. The machines were churned out over three shifts and distributed to every corner of the world. Once landed, like a sleeping horde, they sat, innocuous, silent, mundane – moving paper and melting plastic by the millions. Too many machines; something had to change.
Over the past five years, we’ve seen our share of change, with MpS leading the way. Some have made the jump, others only pretend, and still others don’t care. In 2011, business models were upended, partnerships made, consolidation unavoidable; it was a tumultuous year. How could there be any more upheaval?
This is what I see for 2012:
2012, the rise of the VAR
Technology VARs have taken notice of MpS; in 2012, they will start getting in. We have eAutomate and OMD. The typical VAR has infrastructure software like ConnectWise, Kaseya, TechLab, Level Platforms, etc. In 2012, most of these packages will offer upgrades or partnerships, adding visibility into printers, into the MIB. VARs will then be able to see into our printers like we do with FMAudit, PrintFleet, MiraCom, etc. The IT community will hold their noses and jump into the fray, adding MpS to their managed services portfolio.
While at World Expo this year, it was revealed that the imaging world has around 1,500 dealers/providers. The IT community boasts 15,000. How are you feeling now?
2012, the fall of the VAR
The IT channel will hit the same challenges we did four years ago, only worse. They will be fooled into thinking that software creates an MpS practice. They will continue to think selling managed services is as easy as adding it to the website and that responding to an MpS RFP is a marketing plan. VARs will find out how difficult it is to deliver a simple thing like toner – every day. Their technicians will see what it’s like to have 18 calls and live up to a real, next-day SLA.
They will miscalculate trunk stock, parts ordering, warranty and dispatch and try to unlearn “trip fees.” These new MpS providers will learn that printers, under a CPI service agreement, have one level of support, not three tiers. The accounts receivable department will shift from billing for every second to billing as an insurance policy. Work orders will drop through the cracks. They won’t collect meter reads for the first three months.
Then, they’ll overbill and not understand why their customers want to cancel their MpS contracts, NOCs and help-desk agreements. VARs will have difficulty dealing with adds/drops and will fear selling MpS into their existing client base. They will implode along the way, chasing that mystical 48 percent margin. And then they will get rid of the MpS practice – unless the organization is smart enough to put all the managed services under the MpS practice.
Fat chance.
2012, the rise of the “copier VAR”
That’s right, I said it, and I meant it. I’m here to represent it.
As much as those traditional VAR-supporting software packages now see printers, the more advanced and forward-thinking copier dealers now see switches, desktops and servers, and they want in. We’ve proven ourselves in the imaging industry; can it be that difficult to get some swagger out of the IT realm? We can dispatch and bill for meters or assets in our sleep. For our technicians, servicing cartridge-based devices is a breeze; we cut our teeth on Minolta and Ricoh. We also realize the little boxes don’t require as much service as our Canons or Toshibas (shhhhhhhh!).
One hurdle we may face is not having as solid a relationship with the IT team as their current VAR does. This means we would need to sell ourselves and our ideas. Huh? Of all the things I know copier people aren’t, it isn’t that we are afraid to sell ourselves, is it? We make it up as we go. We craft deals. We don’t see walls; we see ways around or through them. We tell stories. We make friends and we close deals. Do you want to be a “copier VAR”? Imagine the possibilities.
There is, of course, one more thing …
2012, the return of selling, and the rise of the sales star
We’ve forgotten how to sell. We pitch value props and elevator speeches and spend hours pricing configurations. We make .PPTs and print lists. We feel that because we secure the appointment, we get the deal. We think that RFPs are opportunities. We put prospects through a process, never getting to know them. We are cold, shallow and compensated not to care. Selling is not some dark art or a mystical craft. Selling is changing because buying has changed, and buying has changed because everything has changed. In 2012, we will remember to let go of the past and sell into the future.
Good selling.
Posted on 12/19/20111 comments
This is where the rubber hits the road: the proposal. "Press hard; you're making five copies" – remember when it was that easy?
Ah, yes. That all-encompassing, heart-pounding, Toastmasters moment. The culmination of months of presales, assessment, subject matter expert content, leasing approval, cost calculating, margin calculating, big deal pricing, hardware configurations, sales forecasting, funnel management, account diagramming, proposal generating, bond-and-rapport'ing, role playing and management harrasment all comes down to your very pretty toner on paper – single-sided, I'm guessing.
Did you let your all-in-one assessment package generate a cold, heartless piece of work? Did you utilize your dealership's rehashed copier proposal template? Or did you print out a simple price list complete with manufacturers' SKUs?
After whatever it was that you did in presales, doesn't it make sense to put something in front of the client that reflects your commitment and also shows great respect for your prospect's time – and is closeable?
Let's outline the basic reasons for a proposal:
-
Explaining what you did
-
Explaining what you will do
-
Explaining how much it will impact your client
-
Moving forward.
Explaining what you did
Simple. Outline the process you went through to gain insight into their world. Explain your assessment process, how long it lasted, the walk-around, the DCA, software installations, internal meetings and your application of business acumen, droppping quotes from end users. It doesn’t need to be extremely detailed – just a cusory explanation of your unique process.
Explaining what you will do
This is your promise. This is an illustration of what your customer can expect from you, including your MpS engagement, service-level agreements, statement of work, etc.
Outline your internal support/infrasctructure as it pertains to superior customer service. Introduce the escalation, toner-delivery and service-call procedures. Tell them how this works and show them the machine behind the curtain – just a little.
Explaining how much it will impact your client
Straightforward, right? Not really. You are defining impact in money, time and their level of commitment to you. For example, when explaining how your toner delivery works, you're going to ask them, "When one of your employees misplaces one of our cartridges, how should we respond? Should we call you directly?" Consider the impact the answer to this simple question entails – for both you and your client. Talk about the money; will your system save hard dollars? If so, explain how and how much. If not, simply review the overall cultural or procedural impact of your system. Explain and confirm your MpS vision and how partnering with you secures a future with less stress.
Moving forward – the close
There is a reason for all this: It is to make money and provide food and shelter for yourself, your family and the families of your co-workers supported by high intent. This is the point. Have everything ready to go the day after the proposal. All signature documents are in the proposal. All pricing is in the proposal. Timelines, team members, commitments and expectations are in the proposal.
Now is the time to get the approval, the commitment, the agreement to move forward; now is the time to simply ask, to make all this real or to smoke out any doubts and objections. Address them now with high intent and "disconnect."
What is 'disconnect'?
Your sales manager probably doesn't want you to act this way; he may not even understand the concept of 'disconnect,' but the good ones do. Completlely illustrated, closing with disconnect means not owning any emotional connection to the outcome of the close. For example, when you ask for the order, your mentality stands at the edge of being personally connected to the successful close and obtaining money for the work you've performed. You are ready for every possibility, and if the close does not go your way, you are not personally destroyed. You are not personally invested in the results. On the flip side, when you do sign an agreement and move forward and receive compensation for your efforts, you have no emotional tie to the reward; act like you've been there before.
There is, of course, one more thing …
When preparing to submit a proposal, how difficult is it to ask your prospects exactly what they would like to see? Not only does their answer give an outline of what they think they want, but it tells you what kind of people they are and how they view you. When a client responds, "I am glad you asked that. Please don't bring me a 400-pound chunk of paper with all sorts of marketing crap in it," how will you respond? "Sure, no problem. How about simply the master services agreement and pricing? That way, we can move forward before the next billing cycle. Sound good?"
It might be just that easy.
Posted on 11/11/20110 comments
Let’s revisit a good friend – the assessment.
It seems the practice of understanding the static data of your prospects' environment has become mundane and normal. Basically, this makes sense. Getting to know the landscape, the numbers, is part and parcel of every engagement.
Over the years, specifically the last four, many tools have come to market. The evolution of these tools is remarkable: basic spreadsheets, clipboards and fire-escape floor plans, then DCAs in the form of a dongle or USB. collection software that could record machine activity, usage, SN, machine age, all numbers and toner levels. Once the data is collected, algorithms with cost and service ratios are applied, assumptions are made, and the total expense is calculated.
This is all routine, standard server-based MIB collection, plotting machine locations onto PDF maps – right?
Invoice analysis? Cost discovery and ROI? Check. Internal cost analysis – will you make money on this engagement?
Well, let’s back up or merely take a look at the basics. The assessment usually serves these basic functions:
- Determines the requirements of the engagement.
- Allows the provider a reasonable determination of cost and the generation of a proposal price for profit.
- Builds a case for future opportunities.
Point one is foundational. "Requirements" are defined both as discovering the pain and outlining the requirements you as a provider will be living with. Setting expectations, recognizing possible challenges and deliverying on promises made – all products of a basic assessement.
Point two is nearly as important but should fade as providers understand their costs. Some may argue that understanding the true costs of an MpS engagement is the leverage point to the entire MpS practice – indeed, profit is won or lost in the operations, infrastructure. They get caught up in TCO/coverages, etc. I see baseline costs being determined and published in the more advanced MpS providers’ infrastructure.
The third point is more nuance and truly an aspect of the forward-thinking – i.e., beyond Stage 2 – MpS provider. Consider this: As you are assessing the print environment in the accounting department, your questions end with, “How often do you print? Do you use MICR?” A more effective and long-term line of investigating may start with, “Show me how you approve and process your payables. What accounting software are you currently using? How long have you been utilizing it, and when was the last time you upgraded?” Granted, these queries may not appear to be MpS – indeed, if you live in the Stage 1 and Stage 2 realm, I doubt you know the difference between A/P and A/R (I’m joking).
In this example, once you outline the process involved in approving and cutting a check, you are dipping into workflow. And even though you are looking to implement desk-side toner delivery with on-site service, you now have a clear picture of one simple process which may lead to future opportunities – future EDM, archiving, consulting, business process optimization or maybe help-desk opportunities.
At the very least, you are viewed as more than a “printer guy.” Once you open up to these other areas of investigation, you and your assessments shift from the “mundane and normal” into a three-dimensional valuable proposition.
Yes, just like our good friends, the assessment will always be there. And just like our lifelong friends, we all grow and evolve together.
Posted on 10/28/20110 comments
Selling MpS, as I hope you know by now, is no different than selling any other complex intangible, like insurance; how hard can that be?
Let's review an esoteric example of the cycle:
Step 1: first contact — “Hi there”
Cold call — don’t sell, attract.
Sell your value proposition, use third-party references and note cost reduction and increased productivity. Secure the appointment; shut up and get off the phone.
Step 2: first meeting — “Is that your fish on the wall?”
Bonding and rapport.
Introduce yourself, and be yourself. Don’t ask about that damned fish on the wall unless you are honestly curious or have a believable story to share. Qualify by recognizing and gaining agreement on a fit between your two companies. Outline your prospect’s decision process; get commitment to move forward. Trial close.
Step 3: presentation — “Trust”
Make promises.
Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you just told them. Show them how you have kept your word in the past. Make them a promise and ask for the business.
Step 4: close/deliver — “Let’s dance”
Execute.
Secure signatures, outline delivery timelines, introduce your inside team and project-manage the entire engagement term. Schedule follow-up dates for the next year. Set the tone, cue the band, start the music and dance. You lead.
---
Looks easy, doesn't it? Hold the phone there, though, tough guy. I love the above process. I didn’t invent it, but it is part of my documented process.
But really, what have you done? Have you engaged a long-term relationship with a client? Have you established a wall around your fragile new customer relationship? Will you remember your prospect's name on Valentine's Day? More importantly, will they remember you?
Welcome, my friend, to the "Unremarkable Zone": desk-side toner delivery and on-site service. Nothing more. Cash that commision check, and wallow in your bliss.
Know thyself.
If you are very good at getting toner to a desk, if your technicians are competent and freindly, if you've got rock-solid contracts — great. If you’re not sure about selling EDM and don’t have the time, money or inclination to hire project managers or engineers, so be it.
Keep going.
All I’m recommending is to keep it fresh and engaging for both your client relationships and your sanity. Oh, and profit. How can you keep it all fresh? How does one keep one’s relationship fresh? Stir it up a bit.
Here’s what I see:
1. The value of a technician — Your technicians interface with the client at the worst of times; make it a pleasure doing business with you. Train your technicians in more than wrench-twisting, managing trunk stock and C++ whatever. Help them to understand they are the front-line ambassadors of your company.
2. Cross-train salespeople with technicians, accounting with sales — Oh, yeah, this is a great one. Trade places for one day. Have the salesperson take a technician on a day of calls, including lunch. Then have the salesperson shadow the tech for a day — salesperson still picks up lunch.
3. Everybody sells — From executive management to the dock, everybody sells. Holiday seasons are fast approaching, with all those family dinners and events. This is a great time to give your team an answer whenever Uncle Ted or Aunt Peru asks, “What is it you do again?” or “Where do you work?” and the ever-present, “How’s business?” The response, from the top down, should be your company’s value statement. Everybody should know it, own it and believe in it.
All this isn’t new, right? Three little ideas on how to keep it fresh.
Posted on 09/19/20110 comments
My subject was going to be a rather simple illustration on approaching the IT director – but then HP did what she did. I was on the “how to approach the IT director” theme when Steve Jobs sent out his letter. And I was still pushing cold-calling the IT dude when news of Warren Buffet injecting $5 billion into Bank of America hit the Twitter stream.
Just then, the two-by-four of reality smacked me in the forehead.
The world is as much about selling to the CIO as it is about change – more specifically, transformation. The continued economic uncertainty, political unrest, global social upheaval and general craziness isn’t just a rough patch; it is transforming each and every one of us in distinct and unseen ways.
So as you smile into your desk mirror and spin up 100 dials, just remember, every “No” not only gets you closer to a “Yes,” it transforms you; so did Steve Jobs, HP, Warren Buffet and Google.
Ours is a unique industry; the powerhouse OEMs typically are not considered “drivers” of the financial, manufacturing, Internet or technology industries – except in technology with the Xerox of old and today’s HP. So it is that we, the individuals, are a reactionary force – at times like a ping-pong ball in a shaking shoebox. We respond to what the OEMs throw down from on high; they respond to their perception of the marketplace.
Like it or not (and I do not), our destinies have been heavily influenced, if not dictated, by the Big Boys – the OEMs. Our personal transformation has been by design – engineered, in a sense. Like “replicants,” we hit the streets with manufactured memories, predestined functionality and expiration dates. As events beyond our control spin into and out of our realm, their gravitational force tugs and pushes at our unique, personal transformation.
Well, hang on: It was one heck of a month for events beyond our control, for transformation. Consider these five milestones in August:
Bank of America – Warren Buffet injects 5.5 million.
Why is this important to you and all of us in the industry? How’s all that open credit working for you? Another bubble is going to hit, and this time, banking has nowhere to hide; they will transform.
HP – The largest PC company in the world is getting out of PCs.
And that’s not the best of it. HP killed off their tablet after only 49 days in the market, euthanized their smart phones, then spent $10 billion on the cloud. HP sneezes; we all get Zombie Flu.
Since the Hurd exit, HP has lost 40 percent of its value. Mother Blue is in dire straits and lacks the leadership/vision to transform.
And as I write these words, rumors of resurrection – not much more than three days later – are popping up on the Twitter stream. Too late.
Apple – Change is guaranteed; time moves.
Talk about a transformative force. Love him or hate him, Steve Jobs and Apple transformed everything. From the presentation of content to music and magazines, Jobs put forward technology with a human touch. How this void is addressed will ripple across all ecosystems for years to come.
Google buys Motorola’s Mobility – Is nothing sacred? The answer is no.
A “search engine” company, Google wasn’t even an application company, let alone a mobility concern. Google is buying defunct paper mills all over the globe – excellent physical platforms for significant data centers for the cloud. Convergence is a term of yesteryear; transformation is the new convergence and the new collaboration.
Everything changes.
August was a hell of a month – one for the record books. Unlike transformative phases of the past, the current shift affects all of us individually.
Technology and society are converging faster than thought. The old imaging-world power structure is caving in upon itself, condensing.
The time is now. Take a look at your position – your personal position – and get ready.
Posted on 09/02/20110 comments
Oh, boy ... look out. Double Dip Depression is here.
You see it, hear it; we're in it. Just the other day, I was driving through a business park – empty – and a tumbleweed literally blew through the parking lot. It was a bad movie.
Today, banks have the bailout money, but they ain't lending. We can’t hire staff without taking a major leap of faith – not in the candidate, but in the system. AMEX, MC/VISA – they’ve got us all by the short hairs, and they don’t let us raise our personal “debt ceiling”; get the scissors out.
Five years ago, there were three U.S. automotive companies; today, just one – and GM don't count.
The times are tough, and our troubles are artificially extended. The current administration doles out plenty of blame and zero leadership. Do people still blame the “test” for poor scores? “The test is unfair,” they say. Really? A product of little leagues not keeping score.
Was it that long ago when we were blowing out quotas? Offices, businesses, mortgage companies and churches were buying a copier, fax or printer for each employee.
Everybody had a job. “Green” was in.
We owned two houses, three cars; bars were crowded on Wednesdays; Vegas was packed every day. Folks who couldn’t sell their mother a box of football candy were making bank, pushing paper.
That paper – that tainted-turned-toxic paper – brought it all down.
Remember those times? Feeling depressed? Suck it up; we’ve got work to do.
There has never been more opportunity for us – the individual selling professional – ever before in history (I know – 25,000 years of history; don’t get me started).
MpS changed everything. We changed our perspective on the print environment, with most of us shifting our gaze off the black marks and toward content, acknowledging the entire ecosystem. The change was a secular impact on our model, our established processes and us as individuals – a shift in power. It is still shifting from OEM to dealership to the individual. The heavens have been blown into stars, falling to us.
Okay, a bit touchy-feely, but my point is a simple one: Now is the best time to improve your unique, individual position. Not your position at work or your position in the MpS ecosystem – your standing, your position in life.
A new age of selling is upon us, and if you're in MpS, you are the vanguard, the tip of the spear, “boldly going” where few selling professionals have gone before.
There are no experts. This is virgin growth. We are on the frontier without guides, yet we have eyes, and our unfiltered and clear vision makes us the experts. Do you see that?
Think about this the next time you are being lectured on closing ratios and hear that very expensive talking head drone on about, “It’s a game of numbers,” “Every ‘no’ gets you closer to a ‘yes’,” “Flex them in,” or “How many dials did you make today?”: Now is the time to sell yourself before your company. Now is the time to expand your outlook before product training.
The battle is not easy. There are those who lament their misfortune, looking to drag us down. And the old guard, the centralized power establishment, will fight the change, will degrade and demote you and your beliefs. The machine doesn’t sweat, bleed or feel. This doesn’t matter; it cannot win.
Why? Analog is bigger than digital.
So while some of your contemporaries are transfixed on the Double Dip Depression, get a good book, study our world and go boldly forward.
Posted on 08/15/20110 comments
The oldest profession in the world isn’t prostitution, it’s professional selling. Selling one to one; one to many; many to many; retail; B2B; to that hottie in the corner; to your girlfriend, wife, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, sales manager, cop, judge, jury; to ourselves – we all sell, and we always have.
Our industry is turning another corner – contracting and expanding at the same time. We’re looking for the next frontier and eyeing the IT cluster.
Thinking about getting into selling servers, storage, networks and network management, aren’t you? Putting all those monitors, PCs, switches and hard drives under a contract and tying that all into a 36-month “rip and replace” strategy, right? Sure.
How hard can it be?
Copiers have been connected now for more than a decade. All your devices scan; you’ve sold or heard of a “fax-server.” Your dealership has at least one “Content Specialist,” and RiKon/Xerox employ thousands of cycle-extending PS peeps – not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Again, how hard can it be?
Well, there’s good news, and there’s bad news – and the bad news is worse than we think. It usually is.
The Bad News:
At last month’s Managed Print Summit, one slide showed our numbers to be around 1,500. We have 1,500 imaging dealers/resellers in the U.S. The number of VARs is 15,000. The figure may not be accurate, but the scale certainly is; there are 10 times as many of them as there are us.
They are already in your accounts; they own the network, hold contempt for most salespeople and think they know more than you – which they probably do.
Hubris permeates. They hate copiers – still – and love brand names. Even if Dell servers suck, once a Dell house, it is difficult to displace. They distrust those who wear a tie and can spot a Polo-shirt-wearing poser with their peripherals – they are militaristic in the use of acronyms.
The Princes of the VAR are the customer-facing subject-matter experts (SME), the guys with all the letters behind their names. They are smart, certified and can speak in front of crowds or directly to CIOs – as peers. But don’t tell them that; most believe they have no peers.
Their deals are complex, multidimensional and project-managed. And I mean real project management – with resources, GANT charts and such.
Most likely, the VAR front-line salespeople, often called BDMs, never physically receive a PO or process an order; they have an inside team to do all that stuff. This gives them more time in the field, in front of their clients – your prospects.
The Good News:
VARs/IT folks don’t really sell; they take orders and write SOWs. They tend to throw technology at everything, yet employ little in-house. They’ve been trained to believe “real cold-calling” happens on the phone. “Sales training” is nothing more than a vendor like Cisco, Lenovo or HP coming in, spewing product, pricing and distribution data, then leaving “leave-behinds.” Yeah, I know – that part sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Most VARs define “service” as pricing, logistics, deal registration, imaging (not the kind we know), prompt delivery, discounts and accurate billing (again, not the kind we know). Client relationships are built on “lunch and learn” giveaways and trading POs for iPads.
Transactional margins are in the single digits; charging for shipping equals margin. Back-end rebates equal margin for the house. Trip-fees are the norm, they have no idea how to manage to “call avoidance,” and trunk-stock is a foreign concept.
So, what to do?
Competing with a VAR head-to-head is difficult. If you can get in under the VARDAR, you have a good chance, since most are not looking at MpS as a serious value-add – yet. Those who do are experiencing the same mistakes we did – 15 MONTHS AGO. They’re stuck in the “powered by” stage of MpS.
Three ideas:
1. Work with your existing purchasing/facilities contacts without raising much dust. Sell S1/S2 without talking about software, business process management or EDM. Don’t set off any IT red flags.
2. Shore up your internal IT services pedigree. Now is the time to re-evaluate your current talent pool. Tough decisions — there are fewer devices out in the field; therefore, fewer service calls. Figure that one out.
3. Reach out and establish a solid relationship with a VAR as their MpS engine. This is a temporary, parasitic relationship filled with teachable moments. Again, figure that one out.
The times, they are changing. At our core, this niche, the imaging industry, is crowded with resilient, business-minded problem-solvers. We can do this, and for a profit.
Sell on.
Posted on 08/08/20110 comments
Yup, I was in Vegas at the “Recharger show.”
Well, technically, I attended the 2011 Managed Print Summit, which to me, seemed even more out of place, until I looked at the scheduled presenters: Ed Crowley, Robert Newry, Mike Stramaglio, Jim Lyons and Greg VanDeWalker – all MpS regulars, each in the ecosystem from early on if not the very beginning.
And there were more. Jim D’Emidio, Ed McLaughlin, Mark Mathews and Jim Phillips – old-skool hardware and infrastructure dudes who each see the impact of MpS.
And the new guys? How about Brendan Peters from Intel, Tim Grimes from Research in Motion or Gordon Jones from Green Hills Software? Googlitize them if you don’t know who they are. For now, let’s just say wireless, intelligent devices and security software. Yeah, at an MpSummit, the day before the large toner cartridge show. Who woulda thunk?
The room was packed and the crowd attentive the entire day. It was refreshing and concerning to see first-time MpSers looking to enter the fray.
This is not a derogatory statement: The tone felt eerily familiar to ITEX 2009 or the very first MPS Conference in San Antonio, 2009 – MpS is all new, and it scares us. Indeed, when Ed Crowley went into his now-famous “MpS is different; 50 percent of those who get into MpS get out” speech, one could cut the tension with a knife. Just like three years ago.
Remember all the mistakes we made along the way?
Back then, it was common to think desk-side toner delivery was simple. And telling your sales team to “go out and sell MpS” made it happen. “Comp plan? Just sell it; we’ll figure all that out later.”
There were no experts. Even worse, some proclaimed themselves MpS gurus when it was impossible to be one. We all made the same mistakes because we were all making it up as we went along. And that was just fine; it was innovative.
Yeah, sitting in the back, reminiscing, I couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed for those in that room on Tuesday.
Here’s why.
Just last month, I attended a Preo/Supplies Network seminar in St. Louis focused around behavior modification software. The package is huge, powerful and data-voluminous – one can see who prints what to which printer when and how often. There were 50 attendees in the room. Two weeks ago, I spent an afternoon talking with Shane Hannan, president, ROI Print Manager, looking back, sharing our visions of the future and recognizing that all behavior modification packages are capable, sophisticated and the next brief stop on our way to MpS Stage 4/5/6. That same week, I brought a client to the “Ricoh and U” MDS seminar in SoCali. There were easily 300 people in the room, 50 percent of them prospects. The discussions touched on ADKAR change management, “socialytics,” how MpS is moving into “predictive analytics” and turning content into knowledge for the individual.
Considering all those presentations and customer/thought-leader interactions, the juxtaposition was almost surreal. There I was, sitting in a room surrounded by folks still trying to get their heads around remote monitoring, auto-fulfillment and assessments.
Holy crap.
All is not lost, so let not your heart be troubled. There is good news, and it came from the presenters.
Three years ago, on a day like this, we would have been pitched assessment tools, MpS training, infrastructure software and OEM MpS programs. Three years ago, four or five separate sales trainers would have been up there presenting their “proven” MpS process.
Not this year; not this day.
Mike Stramaglio brought up how the youth expect change in how they communicate with each other and the world around them – less paper. He illustrated how the dominant role of the OEM is shrinking like it just got out of the pool …wait for it, wait… Mike’s company sells machine-to-machine technology, but he didn’t sell himself off the stage.
Ed McLaughlin’s presentation was informative, expansive and proven. Ed sells consulting time and dealer-transformation programs, but he didn’t sell himself off the stage either.
Mark Mathews advised all to get “professional help” – the industry mantra, no doubt. Okay, well, Mark from Toshiba told everybody he intends to sell into all of our accounts. High marks for “to thine own self be true.”
The presentations were honest reflections of journeys past.
And we listened. That’s the gold. We listened.
Whatever it’s called — Recharger, World Expo; MpS, MPS or MDS — is filled with the most resilient, innovative entrepreneurs in the galaxy. Scrappy. That’s the way it is, the way I see it. We will survive and prosper; there is room enough for everyone.
One other thing.
I can’t help but wonder if those of us who went before don’t have a responsibility to talk about our challenges, educating the willing and giving them a chance to learn from our mistakes. Would that be such a bad thing?
Posted on 07/25/20110 comments
Just over three years ago, when I started writing about copiers, MpS, technology, selling and pole dancing, I was one of three. Back then, if one were to Google “managed print services,” the dozen or so returns would’ve consisted of wedding invitation printers and “full-serve” print advertising providers.
There were few fleet monitoring alternatives and fewer proactive supplies management solutions. Hardly anyone mentioned cost reduction, business process, fleet optimization or phases. And nobody championed reducing costs by reducing prints, copies, or printers and copiers.
This isn’t to say nobody serviced printers or supplied toner. Yes, some were “optimizing” fleets, shifting volume, addressing document workflow and business process or managing hundreds of devices, but we inhabited our own little silo.
Xerox, IKON, Canon, Océ, and Pitney Bowes all had their FM division – each conducting site surveys and usage analysis as well as working with colored dots and floor plans. Silo 1.
The bane of OEMs, third-party cartridge manufacturers, lived their existence in the dark on the periphery of the ecosystem, struggling from legality to legitimacy. Silo 2.
Liberty, Kofax and other software companies were conducting user interviews, charting document flows, developing Statements of Work and evangelizing paper to digital. Silo 3.
Copier reps walking the streets were suggesting ROI, lower lease costs, TCO and the benefits of color to purchasing agents and church deacons alike. They were churning, flexing and otherwise landing gear, giving “more for less” and pitching scan-once-print-many (key word being “many”). Silo 4.
The OEMs were flush – seemingly changing models every 90 days. Corporate marketing departments were shoving quotas down the channel, and the channel responded obediently, floor-planning and filling show floors. Silo 5.
Back then, VARs were executing thousands of transactions a day – servers, desktops, laptops, networks, data centers – and yes, tens of thousands of printers flew off the dock into waiting cubicles. Silo 6.
I am simplifying by stating only six silos. We may have discovered as many as 11 silos or dimensions over the past two decades inside what can be called the imaging/technology industry.
The number doesn’t matter. Mere acknowledgment is important. Always there, unobserved until now. You see, even though these functions and organizations existed and thrived, there was never a recognized commonality. There was no unifying factor.
Until now.
If you envision these 11 silos standing individually, what could be the common ground? More aptly, what would be the white spaces between the columns?
Managed print Services, the M-theory – that’s what.
Think about it. As we move through the stages of MpS into MS, the “P” fades and other factors, the other columns, illuminate – from third-party toner to scan-to-file, storage, mobility and EDM – once unique and isolated, now pulled together as one overarching system.
The players haven’t changed, but the game is all different. Those of us who can now ”see” the ecosystem will thrive.
There’s more.
This point in history is unique. This is a time of technological convergence, time compression and shifting control from a central authority to the individual. MpS is a vehicle for change within this moment. Again, not everyone will see the opportunities or the pitfalls; it takes a wider perspective and pure intent, but those who stay could be champions.
Posted on 07/11/20110 comments