"The Things We Think And Do Not Say. The Future of Our Business..."

"I began writing what's known as a Mission Statement...Fewer Clients, Less Money..."

During the 2011 MPS Conference, at the end of the MPS Expert Panel session titled, The Best MPS Program, I gave a little bit of what I like to call, the Jerry Maguire Experience.

Some of these panels end up being all 'doom and gloom'. You know, people get to say "I did it this way, so you should too" and "change or die", "the sky is falling".

Ken was wrapping up, the urge was there, I couldn't help it.

I wanted - no,  I felt, words were needed. Good words, positive energy let out for the world.

I have no idea if anybody heard what I said or if anyone remembers - and that's okay.  It was about the moment, a chance criss-cross of time and place.

An opportunity like that doesn't come along very often. I seized it.

"So much to say, and no one to listen..."

The words stumbled out and into the air, drifting.

I said,  "Now is the time.  This is the place.  An opportunity to remember.  To remember why you got in this crazy industry in the first place. Those times, the way it felt to get that first sale, install those devices...

To remember what it was like to NOT know. To guess, to make it up as you went along.

To remember when your existence wasn't dictated by the beliefs and dogma of the few.

Do you remember? Do you remember that blind jump, that a Leap of Faith?

To be young, to be amazed, to just...be.

It's here.  It's here for us now.  This very second.  How happy are you with your place in the world? The World is moving."

As much as I love having the mic, I know that the Global 2011 MPS Conference does not approach the scale and gravity of a major motion picture, arguably one of the best American films ever released.

Or does it?

"Breakdown. Breakthrough."

What are we here to discover?  What are the simple pleasures we look for and endeavor to find?

Direction? Validation?  Yes.

It's okay to sell copiers.  It's okay to sell MPS.  It's okay to sell.   It's okay to try and fail.  To tumble.  Get up, do it again.

MPS isn't the end-all, it isn't the only reason to exist - it never has been.  Still, with everybody getting in and as many as 50% failing, what now?

With all the OEMs defining MPS as S1/S2 and reclassifying direct accounts how can we continue?

Touch More.

More Human Touch.  Less PowerPoint.  No more WebEx meetings, toss the 50 slide business summaries.  Instead, press the flesh.  Draw on a napkin.

Do that thing we do as sales professionals, look him in the eye and say "thank you, what more can we do, today?"

"Oddest, most unexpected thing..."

Success and change are hardly the results of design.  Innovation encroaches from another direction; from the left as we look right, from behind as we look ahead. Few ever see it coming.

So it is today.  As some deny the paperless revolution is near, companies like Alaska Air outfit their 1,400 pilots with iPads.  Apple is making the textbook obsolete and banks now accept pictures of checks for deposits.  Your kids, don't call each other anymore, they use their thumbs.

From social media to MpS, everything is new and scarcely predicted - there are no experts - the world is moving faster.  No benchmarks, no 'metrics', no comparison, no rules.

Waiting for the revolution?  It's already here.

"The Me I always wanted to be" - Trust

Trust. It is a very big word and one of the first MPS Conference keynote speaker attempted to rally behind stating, "...Trust is something this industry has got to reclaim."

He is new.  He doesn't see that to reclaim something, one must have first possessed it.

Again, now is the time.  This Great Financial Crisis is secular, not cyclical - everything is changed and in flux. Now is the time to get out and see your clients re-establishing yourself as a trusted advisor, a Business Partner.

Be you.

"I had lost the ability to bullshit, ..."

Our journey continues.

The path is less bumpy when we build partnerships. Partnerships are easier to forge over a foundation of truth.  Can you be true?

Can you lose the ability to bullshit? If not to your prospects, at least with yourself.  Or are you just another shark in a suit?

Can you see the entire ecosystem?

How about instead of optimizing a smidgen of hardware and some toner, you envision Optimizing Everything.

That's right, everything.   Managed Optimization Services. 

"That's how you become great, man. Hang your balls out there."

GET MORE LIKE THIS, IN THE BOOK - HERE.

One of the absolute best reviews of Jerry Maguire.  Started, 4/30/2011

Originally, 5/16/11

Click to email me.

DOTC Leopard & MPSA MPS Leadership Winner, Kevin DeYoung, @QualPath

first aired, 5/19/11

Kevin 'burned the ships in the bay' a few years back, jumping headlong into MPS.

I have had many lively conversations with Kevin.

He is an MPS Evangelist, an MPS Purist, a true believer and his team at QualPath deserve the MPSA Leadership Award.

We here at DOTC are honored to have Kevin contribute as a guest writer, joining the 'Spotted ranks'.

Enjoy.

Three Reasons Your Web Site Should Lead With Your Blog

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.

Boomers and Managed (print) Services

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:

• They burned draft cards.
• They marched in the street.
• They took up new social and political issues.
• They expressed themselves through free sex, lots of drugs, and rock and roll.
• They didn't trust anyone over 40.
• 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:

According to lore, there are Seven Deadly Sins.  I’ll leave it up to you to agree or disagree; believe or not.  

Whatever, here’s the list of Seven:

- Pride
- Lust
- Sloth
- Greed
- Wrath
- Envy
- Gluttony

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.

#Copier Sales People: Three Tips to Selling Managed Services

2014

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.

Cloud stuff here.

Managed Print Services vs. Managed Services Providers

A Day at #CompTIA: 8/2014


It was billed as the "great debate."

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

Get out there and solve.

If you need help, reach out to me.

 

It's funny, no?

$HPQ: With All This 'Good' News, Is it Time To Sell IPG?

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?

$HPQ InkJet vs Toner - Five Reasons You're Hearing so Much

The concept of inkjet printing originated in the 19th century, and the technology was first developed in the early 1950s. Starting in the late 1970s inkjet printers that could reproduce digital images generated by computers were developed, by Epson,Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Canon. - Wikipedia.

The best marketing dollars are spent inviting 'analysts' to an event, feed them caviar, fillet, and tell them how important they are.  Lo and behold, a fountain of cool-aid drinking marketing content disguised as 'fact' splashes across websites and the industry's remaining print media. No blame, its just the way of things.

Nice ROI.

The $HPQ Way : Destroy All Channels Except One

8/14/14

"My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail is a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!"

I've talked about HP Instant Ink before  -

"This is the plan; make printing so cheap the act of printing is as thoughtless as watching TV.

Friends, I give you one possible timeline for the Future of MpS - self-imposed irrelevancy. Rejoice and make mirth for the sun shall shine on our faces forever!

So be it.

Just because the Motley Fool thinks this is a bad idea, doesn't mean it won't work(mopier). We all know how innovative HP can be (TouchPad) and their commitment to customers (2007, product delivered to the highest volume accounts only), employees(25,000 layoffs), and suppliers (thousands of canceled laser engine orders to Canon) is beyond comparison (pale)." - GRW, 2013

Well here we are, not even a year later and HP is bringing its brand of MpS to the SMB  - without you.

Death of the Copier: The Return

"Why in the hell would you come back?"  

Truth is, I never left.  The bigger truth is that the book is launching and I figured it would be nice to get the word out here where it all started.

A funny thing happened on the way to "blogdom" - I started re-reading entries from six years ago and THEY STILL MADE SENSE!

What seemed like a few years, was nothing more than a blink of the eye.  Whats more, the cast of characters hasn't changed - except for sons-of-old-guys returning home with marketing degrees - I see all the same faces, ideas and ways.

Sad.

But then another turn.  I caught the trailer for The Walking Dead now in its fifth season.  The show premiered on October 31, 2010.  Again, it seems like a million years ago since Rick rode into Atlanta - on a horse. It got me remembering, I published my first post, "Managed Print Services - That "Hot, New, Thing...", TWO YEARS before Walking Dead premiered.

Good lord, I am old.



Back then, I was selling managed print services and traveling the Wild Wild West of MPS. Everything was possible. No benchmarks, few experts, just a handful of tools - Excel, a clipboard and colored dots - and No Rules.

Has anything changed over the last 72 months?

In a way, nothing has changed.  Today:

• Everybody talks about managed print services
• Everybody is an expert
• We still argue about the paperless office
• The OEMs continue to believe they drive the market
• Fax machines are still around
• Nobody listens to the customer - we just talk to each other

And yet, there are some things that are different:

• Everybody sells MpS
• Customers are on their second or third MpS agreement
• The A4's
• Nobody talks about Stage 3 MpS
• Everybody talks about managed IT services
• The OEMs have cornered the definition
• The analysts have sliced and diced managed print services into demographic segments
• The paperless office is here

Well, one thing is sure.  There is plenty to write about and go off on.

Get ready, the end is here...



"In here you're not the greater good...you're part of a system..."

Death of the Copier: The Book is Here

It is official - at least in the E*Book version.  Death of the Copier, the Book is available on Amazon and iBooks as well as other places(SmashWords) and the print version is days away - just in time for the holiday season!

Unavailable on Google Play.

Not only are my words and ideas presented but the best and brightest in our industry contribute great insights.

Forward by Ed Crowley,  Founder and CEO of the worlds premier, managed print services consultancy shares views and insights about managed print services and beyond.

Afterword, Mike Stramaglio, President and CEO of MWAi, a forward thinking, gentleman of industry, talks about the future and a dramatic generational change ushered in by the imaging industry.

Introduction by Robert Newry, past Managing Director of Newfield IT, a cutting edge, visionary of stellar proportions, introduces the section about assessments and tools.