DOTC - Dirty Little Phreaks

"...Raise your glass...if you are wrong, in all the right ways..."



"...we will never be anything but loud and nitty-grity...Dirty Little Phreaks..."

Finally, We're All In Managed Print Services - Now What? "The MPS Immortals", that's What.

First things first.

I am tough on OEMs, I come down on copier reps.

I point out the glaringly stupid MPS training guffaws.

The cold-calling newbs and their trainers are easy victims - idiot sales managers worthy of the Wrath.

Short sighted sales schleps and their equally plebeian masters; drill and fill toner pirates lost in hubris, all get what they deserve. As much as I dislike the current belief that MPS is simply S1/S2, at least it's in the flow, part of the plan.

But - and there is always a "but" - no matter what the motives, however they got here, all of us are part of the MPS Ecosystem.

For better or for worse, we are all in.

Now what? Now that we're all in, what can we do?  What should we do?

Build MPS Systems like the Immortals would, that's what.

I'm talking inspiration from three immortals: Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo.  Not the Ninja Turtles, the other ones.

Managed Print Services Global Con - "Leopard One" Speaks

The jig is up, the news is out the time has come.

The MPS Global Conference is literally hours away - next stop Brazil.

I am humbled and honored to be part of this year's show.

My contribution includes pontifications about:

Business Acumen - Good Lord, they're teaching Professional Selling in Universities now...we're all doomed.

4/28/2011

"...we learned more from a three minute record, then we ever learned in school..."

- No Retreat, No Surrender. - Bruce.

You love training classes, don't you? Certifications, tests, demo contests - teachings and ramblings from those "more learned" than we.

Tweed jacket, pipe smoking, know-nothings, droning on and on about "TCO", lease ex-dates, and scan-once, print many.

Academic.

Very little practical, field tested, tools.

Professional Selling demands more.

In order to be ready, to truly own our destiny, we need to improve on our own.

We cannot rely on corporate sponsored, consultant based teachings.  Status quo dogma packaged as training "...designed to help you succeed..."

The only person you can rely on or trust to be looking out for your success is the one staring back at you in the mirror.

Nobody else.

I spoke with a student at Cal Poly - International Business Marketing major - he told me he is attending a  "Professional Selling" class.(IBM 306).

My curiosity piqued, "Oh, really?  We're now teaching kids how to sell? Impressive..."

The professor doesn't use a textbook, simply pontificating in front of the white board.  Exam questions are based on lecture material.

The tests are take home.  At this point I'm thinking, "how the hell does one get THAT gig?"

Course descriptions:

IBM 306 Professional Selling (4)
Focus on professional selling within the context of relationship marketing. Emphasis on precision selling process. Team presentations. 4 lecture/problem solving.
Prerequisite: IBM 301.


IBM 435 Advanced Professional Selling (4)
Analysis of the sales representative as a professional marketing tactician in a marketoriented
firm. Emphasis on applied and theoretical approaches utilized to effectively manage a sales territory. Analysis of sales representatives in different industries. 4 lectures/ problem solving.
Prerequisite: IBM 306.

Perhaps I am showing my age - by the way, it isn't the age, its the mileage - but since when did college's and Universities quantify the art of selling?

More important, what can all this mean to you?

Our higher education system is now churning out kids who fancy themselves Selling Professionals,  thinking they know as much as you and I.

This in itself is not terrible, a rising tide lifts all ships, but consider this next time you're sitting in a sponsored, "MPS is TCO" seminar: while your there pretending to stay awake, there is a young buck out there learning how to sell "within the context of relationship marketing" - whatever the hell that is...

Your next competitor may have grown up not with email, but texting.

He will not expect to stay at the same company for decades.  He will know how to Google faster than you.

He will demand more from his boss.

Yeah - I know, you ain't scared. You shouldn't be.

Sales is the ultimate school of hard knocks.

You can't get acumen, from an overpriced textbook, or take home quiz.  And self-esteem is not the result of some 12 step program.

Sell on.







Click to email me.

Managed Print Services Another DOTC Leopard - ReDux - Jennifer Shutwell. How to Steal MPS Clients

It's a re-intro and a re-post of her original article back in January, 2011.

Anything worth reading is worth reading again and again.

Jennifer is one those deeply profound veterans - she approaches MPS from the FM/Production arena.

Comfortable with enterprise level selling, Jennifer can maneuver the high halls of the Fortune 500.

She is an accomplished student of human behavior, easily applies her knowledge in the business world and shares with the MPS Ecosystem at large.

She is speaking at the 2011 Global MPS Conference in Orlando, on how to Steal an MPS Client.

 Enjoy.
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Global Managed Print Con, 2011 - Behind the scenes...

Deep within the bowels of the DOTC bunker, Western Command, a vast array of intelligence collecting apparatus hums 24/7.

Intercepting encoded messages revealing secret MFP plans. This machine sees all that is important.

But as every intelligence organization knows, human assets, feet on the ground, are most efficient and valuable.

And so it is with DOTC.

One of our 'assets' has been buried for years working as a lowly videographer at Photizo.

Let's just call her, Agent 99.

Eagerly awaiting activation, her GO code was issued April 1.

She has been covertly collecting 'behind the scenes' evidence of untold awesomeness.

Beware dear reader.  What you are about to witness is chilling.