12 Aspects of Leasing a Copier - No You Can't Break a Lease

Leasing is math under contract. The dealer buys a device from distribution or manufacturer. The leasing company pays the dealer his cost, all upfront.

The leasing company bills the ultimate customer periodically until the cost of the machine to the dealer and profit is covered.  

Benefits to each player:

• Lease company - profit
• Dealer - profit all upfront
• Customer - monthly payment instead of a large, one-time outlay

Example:

A customer wishes to 'own' a large piece of equipment.  The purchase price is $20,000.00.  Instead of paying 20k all at once, the customer would like to pay over time.

The dealer would like to sell the customer equipment, installation, and software needed for the device to function.  The dealer cannot offer pay overtime to the customer directly.

The leasing company approves the client and the sale moves forward.

The Stages of Managed Print Services, 2007. The Model Still Works.

Back in the olden days, 2007 or so, I came up with three stages of managed print services.  This model was designed for my MPS practice, not necessarily for the industry, and I used it to help explain the MpS procedure to clients and co-workers.  In less than five minutes, the prospect had a basic idea of the stages, procedures, and expectations of our program.

As time went by, every OEM, MPS dealership, and software provider had their version of the MpS process. 

HP had a similar idea but the one from Photizo matched and improved upon my vision of the stages.  Photizo even came up with a more detailed approach reaching into a Fourth stage.

I'm not saying this is the ONLY managed print services model, it was mine.  There are just as many MPS models as there are definitions. All of them are good, each has shortcomings.

Ideally, I was trying to design a process that could be applied to more that managed print services like workflow solutions and business process optimization.  I figured every opportunity can be broken down into three stages, Control, Optimize, Enhance.

That makes sense, right?

Unfortunately, many of the models ended up being pure marketing as deliverables rarely matched the original plan.  Like most innovations in the industry, we first argue “it will never work for me…” then jump on the bandwagon. We then focus on price, commoditize the service into a box and accelerate the race to the bottom, dumbing down the concept and cutting pricing.

MPS became little more than automatic supplies delivery and on-site service, billed per usage.  Managed print services devolved into “managed toner delivery, at the lowest price…”

Regardless, today the industry seeks out pivot points with many players getting into managed services - something I've been a proponent of for a decade.

Naturally, because I was building an MPS practice inside a VAR, I was looking for a way to ease copier dealers into the IT realm, to include IT salespeople in the MPS equation, and fold managing output devices, business processes, and IT assets in one agreement. 

MpS deserved a screen in the N.O.C. Managed services was the future and MPS was the way to get there. 

The MPS Model.

Talking a Managed Print Services Renaissance with Greg Walters

From Carl Schell, Keypoint Intelligence.

Four quick questions about managed print services:

"The concept of managed print services (MPS) has meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people over the years, by definition and in revenue. Is it just about A4? Auto-replenishing of supplies? How deep and wide can it go? MPS has evolved to be anything a dealer wants it to be, for lack of a better way of putting it. It’s elastic, flexible. One thing we can all agree on, though, is that taking a consultative approach with customers leads to better relationships and greater financial success for all parties.

And because of that, it takes an exceptional listener to execute and deliver on managed print services. Greg Walters is that exceptional listener. While he started his career in IT, he’s been immersed in the print industry for a while now and currently finds himself working with clients on MPS deals, specifically—surprise, surprise!—A3. All of this is quite ironic seeing as, in 2008, Walters created The Death of the Copier, a website that’s still going strong."

Read the rest, here.

The Managed Print Services Renaissance is here.

"Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come,
In yours and my discharge..."

The die was cast a decade ago; the rise, fall, and rise again of managed print services was foreseen. Even as office printing wanes, and withers, we are amid a Managed Print Services (MpS) Renaissance and age of enlightenment.

"Remote work is accelerating the A4 shift at lightning speed, ransomware and bad actors heighten the need for analog backups (paper), user authentication and print tracking/control are becoming normal, and that all adds up to new ways of doing business and new opportunities to manage that print."

Those survivors stand at yet another precipice:

Do we move forward with managed print services, or do we leave it in the dustpan of history?  

How to Sell

This is great.  Start at 9:26 or listen to the entire piece.

It is the first time I've heard an academic explains how sales really work.

Give it a listen and take notes.

 

  

Click to email me.

How Will Work From Anywhere Affect Copier Sales?

I've been a work-from-anywhere person since 2009ish - I've presented from Sydney, Starbucks' parking lots, and poolside in Vegas.  I've evangelized the lifestyle from Detroit to LA to Charlotte to Oconomowoc, Wi. and points between and beyond.

So when the fear of Covid sent everybody home to work, my environment didn't skip a beat.  Remote selling, online marketing, virtual meetings, and Zoom sessions became second nature to the rest of the world. 

Welcome to my world.

As #WFH becomes standard, the powers that be will attempt to define, moderate, and ultimately fashion the model into their likeness.  That will not work.

This concept is bigger than this small tome.  Today, we'll talk about selling copiers(or anything else) in this new land of  "work from anywhere". - GW

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