Jack's Back - "...you can sleep when you're dead...push on!"

May 20th...

Managed Print Services - Another DOTC Leopard Speaks, Sarah Henderson

4/21/2011

The DOTC throng continues to grow -  there be Leopards about.

I would like to welcome Sarah Henderson, from Great America to the fray.

Sarah chimes in with some insight around branding.

Enjoy.

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Where is the Brand?

By Sarah Henderson
Director, Strategic Marketing
GreatAmerica Leasing Corporation

So you are a copier dealership, consumables reseller or IT VAR who have made the decision to offer Managed Print Services (MPS)….welcome to the table! During the past few years, I have the privilege of working with providers of MPS through the Navigator program, attending and teaching at industry events. This experience working hands-on with your peers implementing MPS has demonstrated a lack of attention to the MPS marketing message that leaves customers confused and asking “Where is the Brand?”

The MPS marketplace is maturing and I see few markets where end-users have not been exposed to some form of MPS messaging or offer for a “print assessment”. From the big box stores, IT VARs, Copier Dealers, OEMs, print resellers and office suppliers, there seems to be an MPS offering available on every corner. This places pressure on you to not only build an MPS program but also brand it in a way that is unique in your marketplace. In the midst of building your MPS program, don’t get in such a hurry you skip over some important considerations for your program roll out and marketing plan.

Enjoy this drive-thru review of how MPS program structure and messaging impacts brand:

You're Not In Managed Print Services If -

...if you look to 'refresh the fleet'...

...if you don't know what a NOC is...

...if you use  'monthly cleanings' in your value prop...

...if you can't show your client how much you've decreased volume...

...if you still work with Purchasing...

...if you can't tell your client what percentage of their output is 11x17...

...if you don't compare the above with the percentage of the fleet 11x17 capable...

...if you have the phrase, "Powered By..." right under your MPS Brand...

...if instead of eliminating a machine, you provide your client with a re-furb'd unit...

...if you think a fax server is the beginning and end of Stage 3...

...if you don't know your replacement ratio, for your entire fleet...(4 machines removed for every 1 placed, 4:1)

...if you don't see how dual-monitors in your clients' Order Entry department is MPS...

...if you don't pay your copier reps the same way as your MPS reps...

...if your comp plan is 3 pages long...

...if you sell MPS as "Green"...

...if you sell 'cloud printing'...

...if you separate copiers from MPS...

The Separation Begins: Managed Print Services True Believers Leaving the Pack

4/2011

It's in your DNA.

We knew it, you knew it, there should be no surprises.

Nobody grows up wanting to be a "copier salesperson". (I read this somewhere.)

We had higher hopes and dreams; future policemen, Presidents of the United States, Firemen, Doctors, or Nurses - but someone who "sells"?

A "fast-talking", pushy, slippery salesman? Proprietors of Office Equipment, no less?

Thirty, forty years later, you're lucky not to be living in a van, down by the river.

But here you are now, selling copiers and moving into MPS - the "final frontier" in imaging.

Today, you are faced with another choice.  The MPS Ecosystem is moving on, the players separating.

Which way do you go?  To whom do you travel? 

What is best for YOU - not your boss, owner, VP, company, or industry.  "They" don't want you to think this way.

"They" want you to stay in a box until you're in a box - the final box - the most patient box.

It's all about YOU.  Well, no, that's not entirely correct - In here, it's all about me.

Managed Print Services is Managed Services: Are You Fighting Convergence? From Paper Mills to Data Centers

Sweet, delicious, irony - the sticky, syrup of life.

Those once carbon-spewing, river clogging, tree-killing, 'death-plants' - I am of course referring to the paper mills and newspaper printing plants, are being assimilated by the very force that destroyed them; Google.

In a post over at InfoTrends, Jeff talks about how these huge facilities are perfect structures for mega-sized Data Centers.

This is nothing new.  A plant in Chicago, developed by the R.R. Donnelly Co in 1929, once churned out the Sears catalogs.

Closed in 1993, the facility was sold off and in 1999 converted into an IT and telecommunications center.

Today, the building is powered by more than 100 megawatts, supporting Chicago's commodity markets.

And the Borg? I mean, Google?

Well, their buying old paper mills all over the world - like in Finland.