Safe Words are for Sissies.

"Indigo...Indigo...INDIGO!" - she finally yelled before I remembered what the hell she meant. When I finally did, I stopped what I was doing and checked her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but, you made a mess."

"It was my intention."

"Well, now we need a broom."

"I'm sure we can find one." - time hung, upside-down, suspended.

One glance between her knees and it was obvious - we were going to need a bigger tool.

At least 80% of the toner bottle had spurted all over.

Turning to the six or so voyeurs, I said, "I'm glad this happened, now we can show you how easy our toner is to vacuum up..."

So continued the greatest copier training session in history - IKON rep, PBM and a willing audience of nurses and accounting clerks. One for the book...*

Fifty Minutes Before -

This was our first time together in front of others and just before starting, she jokingly mentioned, "We should have a safe word. Something that tells the other person to switch hands or hold off."

"Okay, let's make it 'indigo'." was my glib, off-handed response. I forgot all about it, until her climatic outburst jerked me from my fugue.

Safe Word - "a word serving as a prearranged and unambiguous signal to end an activity..."
The Past 24 Months

The last two years lack in "mps" excitement, passion and risk. No new ideas or technology from our manufacturers - ink in a bag is still ink. Aged programs remain in place - can we make mps even more confusing? Everybody has a cousin in the Mps business - no really. And the idea of paper to digital drips with denial.

No risk, no edges, no transformations, no need for safe words.

Perhaps shifting your business out of copiers and into display panels or integrating medical devices into your value proposition is the way. But how painful is that?

Establishing a safe-word recognizes boundaries. Some say the real way to know you're alive is to feel a bit of pain - get painful. Go there. Rub up against it.

This isn't a 'stretch goal' this is a cliff. Instead of 'adjacent markets', get into hoverboards, for example. That session would be painfully deserved of a safe-word, right?

Forget that terribly written, over popular, shallow, slow-motion-rape tome, "50 Shades of Spray" and consider a managed print services safe word - heck, make it a business safe word - it doesn't need to be mps only. Either way, light the candles, warm up the wax and get a safe-word.

Imagine the most painful change possible. Feel it. Label it. Then get as close as you can to it.

One thing: remain dubious of WHATEVER your OEM brings to the table. They seduce and dominate for more shelf-space - now more than every, devices are shackles.

One More thing: Seek advice from those OUTSIDE THE INDUSTRY. Innovation has run its course in the world of toner, ink and paper. There is nothing left. Industry pundits telling you how to optimize your service department, 'align' your incongruent backroom operations or change your value proposition are part of the problem and the past because,

You already know, what you need to know.

The Kids in #Oconomowoc: There are no such things as SEO Experts.

They were celebrating something...it was unclear and it was late.

Young Turks are all full of passion, possibilities, and a zest for "the new way of everything".  Kids of the internet, comfortable in that soft pool of warm ignorance - seven or eight, twenty-somethings out drinking; nowhere to go but up.

You remember those times, don't you? Think "The Breakfast Club" grows into "St. Elmo's Fire" on the way to "The Big Chill". I was smack-dab in the middle of Elmo's Fire expecting Rob to start blaring away on the Sax.

In some capacity, a few of these folks are builders of websites and experts in the way of SEO. They know all there is to know about, well, everything online - branding, selling, travel, food, publishing, online life, whiskey, tinder, and the ways of the world.

Never Go Out of Style: Managed print Services Inside a VAR

"You come and pick me up, no headlights

A long drive,

Could end in burning flames or paradise..." - T. Swift 

Mps Practice Managers, salespeople, BDMs, specialists, consultants, experts, evangelists, directors, principals, planning managers, and vice-presidents - I got a question for you:

If you had the chance to build an MPS practice, today, from scratch, inside a VAR,  how would you do it?

Where would you start?  Building a team? Compensation plans?  Assessment tools and DCAs?

What's your visionary statement?  Would you put together another, two-dimensional, old-school, top-down, business plan?  Really?

What about legacy accounting systems, dispatch, vendor relationships, existing BDM mentality, corporate philosophy/culture,  probes, NOC, SLAs, BDR, MS, and customer transformation off paper?  Can you lead or will past mistakes haunt you like the phantoms of Macbeth?

Inside this turbulence,  I'm sure some ask,

Building an Managed print Services Practice: LA to Oconomowoc #MPS #copiers

By David Cameron; CEO, Cameron Consulting Group, March 27th, 2012

Greg Walters is a well-known blogger, rebel, truth-seeker, and now a consultant in the managed services field for print and IT.

This article focuses on his leadership and—at times—exasperating experiences in building an MPS practice inside a large West Coast VAR. Adding managed print services (MPS) was an uneasy fit that didn’t demonstrate its value until after Walters took over. As the MPS practice grew more than $1 million, the plan shifted and the practice was folded into the much larger managed services group to leverage common processes and resources. It is an open question whether the MPS practice will retain its edgy personality and strong growth rate as it goes mainstream as part of the VAR services portfolio.

Greg Walters took over the immature managed print services practice

Build a SuperTeam for Managed Print Services - 2013

First posted, 2013, here.

I’ve spoken to many successful managed print services providers over the past few months who have said that commitment is the key to success in MPS.

As a foundational step, I agree.

Yet to fully achieve that, organizations need a team of MPS specialists, which may either be created outright or grown organically out of necessity. Today, I outline six basic players in a successful MPS SuperTeam:

“The Hub” – This person is all-knowing, all-seeing. She understands vendor relations, sales, dispatch, warranty, invoicing, meter reads, monitoring, technicians—and can manage them all. She handles customers, runs the books and knows CRM inside and out. She works within the rules, but is not afraid to stretch them.

“The Face” – This is the internal MPS evangelist. A true believer, he sees the value of MPS in his world and in the customers’ realm. He typically does not “throw all the services against the wall” in an effort to see what sticks. He can carry an MPS conversation almost up to business process outsourcing and knows how to gracefully bring in The Knight.

“The Knight” – This team member knows more about MPS than anyone else. He understands the corporate MPS vision because he helped create it and continues to support it. The Knight could sell MPS on his own and one day just might. But he is a team player and knows his position on the field. When the practice makes money, presents a 48 percent GP/19 percent in Net Income, he credits everyone else. When the practice burns a slow, terrible, painful death he alone takes responsibility and the long walk.

“The Master Mechanic” – The ultimate technician; a tech’s tech. He knows how to handle EVERYTHING and keep the promises made by The Face. Experienced, tested and seasoned, this person is customer-centric, not afraid to learn the new technology and can dissect an old Konica blindfolded. The “Master Mechanic” can show a rookie how to install fusers or remove misfeeds. He is the rare technician. We all know one.

“The Majordomo” – This person is part of executive management and an MPS believer. He understands the impact of MPS on the entire organization in all areas: gross profit, service revenue and customer retention. This person will sell internally and run interference when ownership wants to “improve” the MPS process or assimilate the practice into the “bigger picture.” He’s a straight shooter who knows what battles to fight and how to address the King.

“The King” – This is the one person who can defy logic. It is his vision that “your” practice supports. If he feels MPS no longer fits the vision, you’re out. No matter the margin, market, or how much blood you’ve put in, it is his decision. He can say “yes” or “no” all on his own.

In my opinion, these are the primary positions. You will certainly have more than one tech, and you will engage a team of salespeople; possibly midlevel management, department heads and fellow practice managers. Your team is the core of the practice.