I've been traveling cyber-land since the days of 1200 baud, BBS, and the MiRC was the only IM in the world. One thing I've seen again and again is how something is popular one moment then thirty seconds later, drab and mundane. The connected world builds loves obsolescence especially with advertising/marketing.
Because of the internet, gone are the days when a Yellow Page ad or 12 year old billboard out front attracted customers. Today, for now, its all about 'social media', 'keywords' and 'SEO Experts'.
I know, I know - you've listened to all the pundits (moi aussi) tell you to take those copier pics off and stop pitching logo's. Great. Your clients don't care about logo's or brand names.
The Last Gap Generation - Friday, June 28, 2013, Walters & Shutwell
If you remember back to the '60's - riots, Viet Nam, Presidential and political assassinations, hippies at Woodstock, the Beatles, Stones, the Peace Movement, and a vaguely remembered issue called the "The Generation Gap".
This Gap referred to the difference between younger generations and their elders. Back then, teenagers regarded their parents' established social norms as outdated and restrictive - many rebelled:
And they promised to never, ever end up like their parents.
At Transform 2013, I attended Terrie Campbell's presentation, "GenY's Idiosyncrasies - Can your Business Survive Them?" She has an acute understanding of the inner workings of the different generations within the business environment.
Here is your rendering of the Baby Boomer demographic:
It’s easy to see all seven playing out in managed print services. Today, let’s consider the mother of all MPS sins – an excessive belief in one’s own abilities: Pride.
It isn't that difficult...to sell managed services. As a matter of fact, selling managed services is a lot easier than convincing a 'board of elders' to lease your new color device...with saddle stitch, no less.
First things first, if your leadership is so wrapped up in themselves they think:
A) copiers will be around forever or
B) Managed services is akin to adding a duplexer or fax board
- keep your resume up to date.
Unless you're in some backwater market where they still lease copiers for 72 months, hardware sales are about to fall off a cliff (slight exaggeration). Maybe your guys don't see it coming - it is already here, so the sooner you get your personal act together about services, not hardware, the better.
Just between you and I, there are hundreds of hints and tips around selling managed services. In the end, the advice is nothing more than a shuffle of what you've already been told.
There isn't ONE training course, consultant or "MNS" expert who will mention any one of these tips:
1. Stop being afraid
2. Forget everything you know about hardware
3. Ignore your quota and in some cases...Ignore your boss
Your Fears
If there's one thing I've seen from coast to coast is whenever somebody on the copier side starts to talk about Managed IT Services, they backtrack into, "well, I need to know more about that business before I dive in..." Horse Pucky.
Who would buy a product which openly insults?
We're taught to believe that the computer guys know so much more than we. We've got memories of feeling dumb because we called IT only to have them come up, reboot and head back.
"Reboot? That's it????!...arrrrg..."
IT folks were strange, anti-social, and difficult to understand. They fixed our problems and they made us feel like dummies.
Stop worrying about what you think you don't know, stop Facebooking and use the inter-web to learn about what CIOs think is important.
"You know what Mr. Prospect...every, single, copier is exactly the same..."
Yeah, we used that line all the time at IKON. Of course, we sold almost every brand back then...
The same goes for servers, cloud, backup disaster recovery, switches, firewalls, help desk, anti-virus - your prospect does not care how many awards your hardware has earned. They do not care how much you've invested in R/D or how long you've been in the industry.
They don't...and when your OEM rep tells you to build credibility by dropping their name, let the words go in one ear and out the other.
Tell your prospect how your stuff solves problems. Printers, copiers, luxury submersibles and can openers solve problems. If you can find a problem duplexing solves, I'm sure you can find an issue BDR(googlitize it) addresses.
Stop Selling and Start Solving.
Ignore Your Boss - "On the 1st of the Month we Sell Solutions. On the 20th, we push boxes..."
Careful here.
If I had a dime for every sales manager I've met, that wasn't worth a dime, I'd have a lot of dimes - a March of Dimes, actually. I'm not saying ALL sales managers are worthless...and I know YOUR manager is Fortune 100 material. I am not recommending you blatantly mock your boss - not overtly - just understand his perspective.
Here's the deal, typical sales managers are compensated on the team's hardware sales and most dealerships are driven to quota by their OEM - it is the way of things.
When you hear your manager say things like, "Everybody better start learning MNS, because these copiers aren't going to be around for long...""its a numbers game, kid..." or "you can't sign deals on the phone..." or "...why don't you get a new car/suit/wife/credit card/house..." take it with a grain of salt.
Don't get me wrong, if this style matches your core values, stop reading and get back to those 100 dials, 10 contacts, 1 appointment - there's a church out there dying to buy a copier!
Otherwise, let's talk about you.
I've always said and felt that pure managed print services has little to do devices and nothing related to logo's - its a service, not a cartridge or machine. Managed services is an extension of the same ideal, its a service not a server or firewall.
Most managers do not understand this because they are not compensated for services. Indeed, some ignore services all together figuring that's "the service department's responsibility" - point, missed.
I know you didn't grow up wanting to be a copier rep - NOBODY DOES. I understand how difficult it can be describing what you do to your parents - been there, done that, got the therapy to prove it.
And here we are, in the heart of the jungle...
Do anything to improve yourself every, single day. Polish up on your knowledge of the Cloud, nod during your next sales training session, and then go buy my book. Write in the margins, read it from your iPad on the bus ride home...(?). Cut and paste passages into emails and Tweets - put the cover on your desktop.
On one side, "Managed Service Providers(MSP's) Should Get into Managed Print Services", on the other, "MSPs Shouldn't Bother." I didn’t get the hype - maybe because I’ve done it from the front and behind - saved an MpS practice inside a VAR/MSP and created an MSP within a copier dealer.
Still, I was intrigued...
From the imaging side, I believe if you can create and run a profitable MpS practice, you can handle an MSP.
I thought to myself, "Maybe there was something to this…perhaps the MSPs in the room DO want to learn more about MpS and are thinking about getting into the realm." I started to pay attention.
From the IT side, I’ve felt adding printers to a screen in your NOC is no big deal; I’ve done it, and you can too. Indeed, in the beginning, I wrote about how we on this side should beware of the possible invasion of our little niche by all those independent VARs.
It didn’t happen that way, did it?
Why So Crowded?
Based on the number of people in the room, it was apparent others were interested in this subject. For a managed print services meeting at a computer convention, there were more people than I had anticipated. I thought to myself, "Maybe there was something to this. Perhaps MSPs want to learn more about MpS and are thinking about getting into the realm."
WRONG. DEAD WRONG.
"...a Konica technician asked my customer how they were handling IT..." with a waive of his hand he dismissed a meager attempt to take HIS customer.
The debate attracted a cadre of MSPs more to support their MSP leader, less to explore the possibilities. Like every VAR/IT/MSP/ITOEM I’ve ever talked with about managed print services, their mind was made up. Anything to do with printing "is below them” and getting into MPS would be “a step backward”.
Yes, those are quotes, and here are some other talk tracks uttered by the MSP dude:
"Not going to add to my already full plate of vendors…" "The market is not that big…" "My customers are reducing print, why would I get into a diminishing market…" "I don't like printers. Should I be selling huge systems or filling a 'toner quota' - thanks HP…"
Have you ever been to an event or party and at some point, realize you're not in the right place? Sure, you've received an invitation, but you feel completely outside the discourse. Not because the conversation is over your head, but more due to a crystallized moment in time when you can clearly see everyone else off on their own voyage - apart from you.
Well, that's the flavor of epiphany I experienced - that and a bit of deja vu.
These IT guys just do not like printers and think copier folks can't compete with their real computer expertise. One MSP mentioned how "...a Konica technician asked my customer how they were handling IT..." with a wave of his hand he dismissed a meager attempt to take HIS customer.
"How droFor IT Providers: Managed Print Services Could be the 24th Chromosomele..."
They do not respect printers and the people who derive a living from this industry. If you think about it deeply, you know what I say is true. Seasoned MPS reps are numb to IT people talking down to us but it is there...always has been.
I am done trying to evangelize to the IT community about managed print services for three, basic reasons:
1. They are too prideful (snobs)
2. Print is declining
3. The IT/VAR/MSP niche will decline FASTER than office print
Call Great America, today or buy out one of the smaller MSPs in your neighborhood.Today. Now. Stop fooling around. This is one of those cases that supports the, "go out and sell it now, we'll figure the rest out tomorrow."
Pride goeth before...
Sure, there will be a few VARs/IT/MSP organizations who dabble in MPS if HP takes the deal and the paper, but for the most part, they are not going to deploy an ‘engineer’ into the field to clear a jam. This is a cost and emotional issue.
Going, going...
Dave Ramos, a colleague, and friend presented interesting findings about print decline, sighting one of our favorite slides from International Paper and linking the latest paper plant closing in Alabama. A4 paper is in such decline IP had to close a plant whose primary output was 8x11 - this one location supplied 8% of the office-sized paper.
They've Got Their Own Kettle of Fish...
Here's the big reason - the IT world is going through a much bigger transformation than we are. The 'cloud' represents a move away from hardware - Zero Client and IAAS both support the realization that organizations DO NOT NEED HARDWARE-CENTRIC VALUE ADD. Today's IT providers are blind to this and in no position to adapt. The biggest shift is going to be elimination and evacuation. For example, they're talking about 'moving to a service-based' business model with 'recurring revenue streams' as though they've just heard of it.
Don't expect to see copier techs badged up by your local MSP anytime soon. They're not coming to the MPS party. Just like retail computer stores dissolved overnight, so too, will your trusty down-the-street VAR/MSP. Bottom Line...
What about you, the copier dealer, the toner supplier, and the printer organization? Think of it this way, managed print services manages the decline in print, managed services helps customers manage down their dependence on local servers, software, hardware, and the people(local) who provide value-add.
Now is the time to get into managed services - the low barrier of entry and distracted fragmented competitors. Don't overstudy. Forget about heavy evaluation.
Call Great America, today or buy out one of the smaller MSPs in your neighborhood.
Today. Now. Stop fooling around. This is one of those cases that supports the, "go out and sell it now, we'll figure the rest out tomorrow."
One more thing...
Forget about getting all your reps trained on "IT Services", like it's different from managed print services - well, I should say, the offering is different, but the approach is similar. There are too many managed services sales experts who have never sold, proposed, or closed a complex, all-inclusive engagement.
The outsiders from the IT realm coming into the copier world don't get us, they've hired the wrong 'advisors' to help them grow their share of our wallet and some are increasing their value for the next round of VC or prospective buyer.
Go out there and learn it the best way - in front of prospects.
Your reps don't need some other guy's super secret sauce and you shouldn't measure yourself against somebody else's benchmarks
IPG no longer exists, yet "Printing" is report separately at $5.5B, in Q3. YTY growth has been dropping steadily all year, and operating income hangs in around 18%.
Meg mentioned "managed print services" more often than most of the other reports and referred to a change in the "go to market strategy".
$HPQ reports strong movement forward as a company, although the print business, especially supplies, is off.
Is it time to sell the print business? Have any idea what the multiplier would be for IPG?
