Selling managed print services and managed services is not brain science, it's more like Rocket Surgery.
What year is this, 1989?
Maybe you know of these, maybe not. The point is, I'm hearing more and more about how the better MPS selling organizations are replacing failed existing MPS engagements. The losers are not covering the basics like toner delivery, prompt service and correct billing let alone workflows and business acumen.
As always, these are my views and mine alone - take 'em or leave 'em.
Yosemite is internationally recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, Giant Sequoia groves, and biological diversity. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness - most visitors focus on the seven square miles of the valley. If you haven't seen the valley from Tunnel view, you should.
For all its rough exterior and dangerous trek possibilities, I was amazed at the ease of access to almost every waterfall - paths have been constructed suitable for wheelchairs.
WhenApple released the iPhone 5Si the A7 chip set immediately attracted our attention - in essence, the A7 promised delivery of transparent connectivity between all (Apple) devices AND capturing sensitive data in the device - NOT THE CLOUD.
When I open an email on my iPhone, my MacBook knows and I can continue to read it on the laptop...or tablet; they are all connected. That means, when a call comes into my iPhone, I will be able to answer on my MacBook; I'll check voicemail, on my iPad.
When texting from my iPhone, I'll be able to attach voice and video to the IM and regulate how long that message exists - it will self-destruct in three minutes or exist forever.
As far as security, all our information, passwords, credit card numbers, bank account information would be held on our personal devices behind security hardware and fingerprint scanners.
By connecting to other devices directly thereby utilizing them as sensors, the iPhone is positioning to become the nexus of all things connected.
"One word, kid, apps..."
The connectivity of everyone is impressive, but that's just a fraction of the story; the key has always been the software. Today we buy 99 cent solutions to our million dollar challenges, in the near future, we will all simply write our own apps as we need.
The Shape of Things to Come (respect to TR7), a list of the next hierarchies to transform - enjoy:
The Death of Nationalized Healthcare - In this new walled garden, we control our health from blood sugar monitoring to the latest cancer treatment. But here is the kicker, with smarter devices connected privately to whoever we want, without 'cookies', our health data is ours. We won't need 'clearing houses' or central databases to store immunizations history. What's more, a great percentage of diagnosis equipment testing labs will be obsolete. If you stop and think, it is easy to see. The Death of the Search Engine - We search the mesh directly, not up and down
The Death of the Internet - who needs the internet when all devices connect through a web of personal servers.
The Death of Cell Services - The Mesh will carry voice and video
The Death of Cable Companies - We are the Cable Company
The Death of ISP - No need for an internet service provider
The Death of VoiP - Just as homes are getting rid of the phone-on-the-wall, so to shall B2B
The Death of MSP - Self-healing systems, simpler and easily affordable(free) technology The Death of Paper- Information moves faster than print
The Death of Hierarchies - everything will flatten
The BIG Transformation - The Death of Hardware The Convergence is progressing to a point where our decision processes will be supported by software/apps instantaneous and dynamically.
Apps are nothing more than thoughts frozen in time, converted into repeatable algorithms, manipulating a stream(or streams) of inputs. The old ways meant this processing was static - the algorithm doesn't change directly.
...this is a rant...good for the soul...from July 6, 2013
During the first 12 months, of our incorporation, we've explored the many nooks and crannies of a sector of our niche typically haunted by trainers, coaches, advisers, analysts, gurus, sages, and prophets.
Often, when we attempt to tell people what it is we do for a living, we get one or more of the following responses:
"Oh, you must be consultants like Photizo..." - understood, but no.
"Oh, you work with end-users, helping them weed out MpS programs..." - goodness, no.
"Oh, you're trainers like Strategy Development..." - nope.
"Oh, you're providers like Preo..." - huh?
"Oh, you're an MpS Practice, like OnePrint..." - sorta, only not.
"Oh, you're analysts like IDC..." - not even close.
"Oh, you're recruiters..." - again, sorta, only not.
"Oh, you're writers..." - isn't EVERYONE?
These responses make sense because folks think of us as people who have answers. To be fair, with a combined 40 years in this nutty business, we easily slip into the consultant role.
Originally posted on Walters & Shutwell, April 11, 2014.
This month marks the 25th anniversary of the addressing vehicle for the internet, the "World Wide Web". The internet, as it is defined, has been around 40 years, created in 1973. The thing is, I don't see the internet surviving another 40, let alone 10 years.
No really, I'm calling it, we are witnessing the very beginning of the Death of the Internet.
Indicators:
MSFT releases iOffice - One of the largest technology hierarchies cries "Uncle!"
The Snowden Effect - the internet is a centrally located sieve
The US gives up ICANN - addresses are irrelevant
Bio/Nano technology - not 'smaller' technology but 'closer' technology
Apple implements 'beam' and wire-less mesh for messaging...(Someday, very soon, Apple will be bigger than the internet)
Expansion and contraction are natural ways of business technology and social evolution. For instance, the glass rooms of mainframes moved to the desktop with the PC, then to our laptops, notebooks, tablets, smartphones - smaller yet more powerful computing expanded the reach boundaries of connectivity.
Oh, what could have been. Reading these words today is more than nostalgic. How can an article written in 2011 have relevance, if not foretell the future, today?
Enjoy.
Just over three years ago (four now), when I started writing about copiers, MpS, technology, selling, and pole dancing, I was one of three. Back then, if one were to Google “managed print services,” the dozen or so returns would’ve consisted of wedding invitation printers and “full-serve” print advertising providers.
There were a few fleet monitoring alternatives and fewer proactive supply management solutions. Hardly anyone mentioned cost reduction, business process, fleet optimization, or phases. And nobody championed reducing costs by reducing prints, copies, or printers and copiers.
This isn’t to say nobody serviced printers or supplied toner. Yes, some were “optimizing” fleets, shifting volume, addressing document workflow and business processes, or managing hundreds of devices, but we inhabited our own little silo.
Xerox, IKON, Canon, Océ, and Pitney Bowes all had their FM division – each conducting site surveys and usage analysis as well as working with colored dots and floor plans.
Silo 1.
The bane of OEMs, third-party cartridge manufacturers, lived their existence in the dark on the periphery of the ecosystem, struggling from legality to legitimacy.
Silo 2.
Liberty, Kofax, and other software companies were conducting user interviews, charting document flows, developing Statements of Work, and evangelizing paper to digital.
Silo 3.
Copier reps walking the streets were suggesting ROI, lower lease costs, TCO, and the benefits of color to purchasing agents and church deacons alike. They were churning, flexing, and otherwise landing gear, giving “more for less” and pitching scan-once-print-many (keyword being “many”).
Silo 4.
The OEMs were flush – seemingly changing models every 90 days. Corporate marketing departments were shoving quotas down the channel, and the channel responded obediently, floor-planning and filling show floors.
Silo 5.
Back then, VARs were executing thousands of transactions a day – servers, desktops, laptops, networks, data centers – and yes, tens of thousands of printers flew off the dock into waiting cubicles.
Silo 6.
I am simplifying by stating only six silos. We may have discovered as many as 11 silos or dimensions over the past two decades inside what can be called the imaging/technology industry.
The number doesn’t matter. Mere acknowledgment is important. Always there, unobserved until now. You see, even though these functions and organizations existed and thrived, there was never a recognized commonality. There was no unifying factor.
Until now.
If you envision these silos standing individually, what could be the common ground? More aptly, what would be the white spaces between the columns?
Managed print Services, the M-theory – that’s what.
Think about it. As we move through the stages of MpS into MS, the “P” fades and other factors, the other columns, illuminate – from third-party toner to scan-to-file, storage, mobility, and EDM – once unique and isolated, now pulled together as one overarching system.
The players haven’t changed, but the game is all different. Those of us who can now ”see” the ecosystem will thrive.
There’s more.
This point in history is unique. This is a time of technological convergence, time compression, and shifting control from a central authority to the individual. MpS is a vehicle for change at this moment. Again, not everyone will see the opportunities or the pitfalls; it takes a wider perspective and pure intent, but those who stay could be champions.
Kindle, schmindle, I want a PC in the form of an iPAD!
I want the comfort of Windows 1.0 and enough ports to plug in my optical mouse AND trackball- while you're at it, throw in parallel port to boot.
And I want it to print to any and every printer in the world. Dare I say, an Epson LQ-2550 and an IBM 4019 Laser printer.
Yeah, print to those, you goofy, goof-ball.
Those Win8, hockey pucks won't print.Not because they can't, because NOBODY WILL WANT TO PRINT.
Will Win8 be a bust? Will it lock up, like every other Windows version? Has there been a history of new interfaces confusing the hell out of everyone? Whatever.
The workplace has been evolving since the beginning of time. We've moved from farms to churches to castles, to high-rise office buildings and mega-cities. As communication shifted from handwritten documents to print to electronic, so too, did the office and the way we conduct day-to-day business.
Some consider the process started sometime in the 90s - while others imagine true digitization kicked off with the advent of the IPad.
My observations and research reveal the shift has been occurring since the late 1600s starting with a device invented and built by an 18-year-old, French kid. The mechanism performed addition, subtraction, and multiplication through the manipulation of gears and dials. The teen was helping his father calculate bigger numbers when performing French tax accounting.
I love the phrase, "It ain't bragging if its true..." - my high school football coach used it often.
I've noticed a trend over the past few months in our little niche: Robo-Boasting.
Self-promotion is great. I get that and if you're proud of your MpS, I say get that story out there. But don't do it through a robotic channel.
Bragging -
So many software, OEMs, dealers, toner pirates, distributors, consultants and analysts either claim to be or report to know the best Managed Print Services something-or-other. The twitter-feed is chock-full of MPS robo-brags and self-promotion, it is blinding. Observed from the outside it looks like one huge Love-fest. (I was going to use 'circle-jerk' but that might seem offensive)
"One of the iPad's biggest competitors has been paper," said Nick Bilton, a tech columnist at The New York Times, "and now this is better than paper."
So many books and so little printing-
I was somewhat dismayed to learn Britannica is no longer going to print its encyclopedia.
I was a bit vexed when I read that printed, pulp-erotica isn't as hot as it once was.
My confusion cleared upon discovering the hottest thing on E*Readers is ladies' romance/erotica - women and their dirty little Nook's. This makes perfect sense; nobody can tell what you're reading while sucking a caramel macchiato, head down on a Kindle. Poor Fabio.
Getting up early to fight the traffic. Fast food lunches, office politics, 'walk around management', empty Monday morning meetings, and equally nauseating, re-cap meetings Friday at 4:00 PM.
Ah, the modern, cube-rat life. Sick of it? You're not the only one.
There is good news - studies suggest by 2020, 50% of us will be freelancers. All of us, not just writers and out-of-work salespeople will either be or know somebody who is an independent, hired gun, freelancer. Everyone from CEO to Controller will have the opportunity to work 24/7, from anywhere in the solar system.
Before you say, "I couldn't concentrate at home..." I'm not just talking physically at home. Besides, you can concentrate anywhere. Consider the monthly costs your employer carries to put a roof over your head, phone in your hand, and connect you to the interweb.
It was about the A8. It was about calls shifting from wireless to cell, seamlessly.
It was a bigger phone with more Sensors, new gyroscope better camera.
NFC - Pay without Cash
Pay at McDonalds, Disney, Apple, etc.
Apple Pay
"Will forever change the way we pay for things. Online Transactions - Pay with a Finger"
Target, Uber, Open Table and more. Pay online with your fingerprint and keep all your credit card information in the palm of your hand or on your wrist.
I know this is going to ruffle some feathers, but my latest foray into the world that is the interweb has lead me to the above conclusion. Let me be even more precise: There is no such thing as an SEO expert in our industry. That’s going to hurt the few who claim to be guru’s and pundits - sorry.
It has been, and still is my belief that pure content is the best way to attract an audience. Google agrees. Their search algorithm seeks out fresh, organic content.
Traveling the world of content marketing and marketing content, I see parallels between this realm and the early days of managed print services.(MpS)
In the beginning, nobody really knew what MpS was or how to sell and support a profitable program - some still don't. Back then, there was a great deal of mystery in MpS so anyone who had the slightest insight vaulted to the rank of 'expert' - take it from me. Back then, one needed to have a few weeks more experience than everyone else.
From Workintelligent.ly, Aug 27, 2014. Aswe know, the cloud is a platform that allows you to store and process data away from your personal device. The resulting information can then be presented to that or other devices.
This is not a new concept. It’s the way computing originated. Programs originally ran on mainframes, mirroring sessions to terminals throughout an organization. But these were expensive options. In the very early days of personal computing, businesses could only afford to provide CFO’s and controllers with spreadsheet applications and $10,000 PCs.
For decades, MPS assessments have been a cornerstone to almost every engagement. Even when a 30-Second assessment is popped off, as light as it its, its still an assessment.
Indeed, every sales rep assesses the situation upon entering into a conversation - its only natural. You're measuring the opportunity to be embarrassed or rejected in the first seven seconds. Think back to 7th grade and asking 'whats-her-name' to dance. Or is it just me?
Passing notes in class used to result in a disciplinary action. Back then, the most efficient method of conveying information or querying a prospect was to scratch a simple question on a scrap of paper and ask your neighbor pass it along. “Do you like me? Do you want to be my friend? Check yes or no." In the early days of business, like those notes in third grade, sales orders were hand written on paper with a pen.
As time went by, more advanced order-entry processes developed around carbon and carbonless paper and forms. One instance of data entry, writing information down on the order, would create three or four copies, which you’d just peel apart and forward a copy to the appropriate department — original into daily sales, yellow to the warehouse, goldenrod over to accounting as an open order, and the pink gets thrown away. (As an aside, do you remember how challenging it was for some copiers to make a copy of a yellow background, carbonless form? That’s right, we were making copies of copies.)
We've gone from Gorilla Marketing to Goofy Marketing.
In the old days, we would send one baby shoe with a note, "Are companies make a great pair." Get it?
Later, we would send a radio-controlled car with an offer to deliver the remote control, when given an appointment.
I've seen it all, crumbled letters, newspaper articles writing about how your prospect did something famous(or infamous), singing telegrams, lunch in a box, and yes even fresh apple pie in exchange for a signature.
I can't believe I still hear about these techniques.
_________
This account is based on a True Story. The names and locations are changed to protect the ignorant.
------
The sharp-dressed, well-seasoned sales manager sauntered in five minutes late. He's read somewhere, that a strong entry is important when motivating the troops and this month's sales figures are in need of some heavy stimulation.
"All right ladies, " he starts, ignoring the fact that only two of the 18 salespeople in the room are female, "as you know, this is the last week of the month. You've all committed to numbers that none of you have delivered. Not one."
"...IBM and Apple sittin in a tree...K-I-S-S-I-N-G...first comes love, then comes marriage, then little Siri-Watson in a baby carriage..."
The last #APPLE announcement was revealing in terms of technology because of the A7 chipset and the deal with Beats. The upcoming #APPL announcement this September , has much in store, here are just a few:
New iPHONE 6
The A8
New wearable(s)
Yosemite
IBM
iPhone 6
By now, we know the new iphone is always awesome. This time, the new phone will set extend Apple's lead in the market, all others will begin to look old-fashioned. The timing is right for upgrades but some who bought the 5 last year will be slamming phones on Ebay looking to replace with a 6.
Why? The new processor.
Y O S E M I T E
The buzz and anticipation around the op-sys roll out would be enough of an accomplishment for any major, technology company. Imagine how happy #MSFT and all those Windows users would be if their OS were 50% of what Apple brings. Yosemite is going to set the bar so high, others will get nosebleeds contemplating the dire situation.
Why?
Yosemite will blow the doors off of every other operating system - EVER.
I've seen things - the square mouse that was DOS 4.0, the smooth, out of this world, not ready for prime-time, pre-emptive multitasking OS/2 from IBM and the shear marketing and social goliath called Windows 3.0(1).
When I look at all the Mac OS/X, the actual operational tasks melt into the background - which is exactly what you and I want. Thoughtless operation. Support me, no matter how many applications I open. Don't make me learn about .TMP files and wait 20 minutes for my machine to start up.
Why in the world do any of us know what the phrase, "blue screen of death" pertains too? Why should I know this?
I want to be able to share my current app on my MacBookPro, iPad and iPhone automatically -handing off to each device as needed. Impossible? No. El Capitan? Yes.
I want to answer my phone on my MBPro - madness? Half Dome? Yes.
You know what else, I'd like the same op-sys on all my devices...jus saying. Craziness? Well, yes and coming.
The transparency between apps and platforms, dare I say the "non-fragmented", congruent approach of Yosemite is one of the biggest shifts in technology, ever. As with most Apple products, the device or operating system does not try to dictate our personal workflow - it pairs up and works with me.
Why do I need to tell Windows I don't want to upgrade in the middle of every Powerpoint presentation?
WeAReAbLeS
Healthkit, iWatch, whatever...love them or hate them, #Apple is about to crack the seal on the atrocious healthcare system.
How about I get to keep all my health records, secured in my iPhone? And how about instead of going in for tests, or scans, my watch is monitoring all that 7x24, data ready to be shared when I want with whomever I want?
Yeah, that's coming.
GUESS Who's Coming to Dinner? IBM.
The very first rivalry in the personal technology realm was between IBM and Apple - it was more of a feud, really. If you wanted to add up numbers and create DBII applications(what?!!), you owned a PC. A 'clone' if you couldn't afford an IBM Model 70. On the other hand, if you considered yourself 'artsy' or academic, a MAC was your status symbol.
The last two powerhouses standing are getting together; soon the accounting firms, engineering companies and manufactures will all be sporting "iSomethings". CRM's, materials planners and project managers will be flicking charts all over the place, from iPAD to AppleTV, to the iMACs in accounting.
This is transactional communications transforming into BI - is a another vista, waiting out there for everyone. But that is for another set of blogs.
"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.
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?
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.
"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!"
"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.
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..."
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 byRobert Newry, past Managing Director of Newfield IT, a cutting edge, visionary of stellar proportions, introduces the section about assessments and tools.
Available soon - Amazon, and a few Smashwords sites online - iBooks, Nook, in process.
I don not think I am putting on Google Play, on account Google is the new anti-christ, big-brother, establishment type organization that wants to build replicants and keep us all in their Cloud...after we die...spooky.
"...everything dies, baby thats a fact, maybe everything that dies, someday comes back. Put your makeup on, put your hair up pretty and meet tonight in Atlantic City..."
Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last
Night now they blew up his house too
Down on the boardwalk they're gettin' ready
For a fight gonna see what them racket boys can do
Now there's trouble busin' in from outta state
And the D.A. can't get no relief
Gonna be a rumble out on the promenade and
The gamblin' commission's hangin' on by the skin of its teeth
[Chorus]
Everything dies baby that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
Put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty and
Meet me tonight in Atlantic City
This post first appeared on DOTC, January 2009 and is the DOCT book. This is a truncated version, get the rest, in the book.
Never mind that he is hundreds of miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, he lives on a boat, sells "big-iron" copiers...and has a blog. Introducing Pirate Mike.
I received a "hit" today from one of my internet-search-spiders-thingies, and read the resulting post while waiting for the Rover to be washed - it was 86 degrees and sunny - as I scrolled along the post I literally laughed out loud.
Shigetomi's "flowing water crest" is a gem-like work created by abandoning the ego and assimilating it with the flow of water. The main shadow of the flow of the sudden time while echoing the song of Raku Holy Water is
probably because it has the memory of water
July 2014
Catchphrases come and go: Transformation, transactional to services, customer-centric, think outside of the box, change or die, innovate or die, release in beta. Each moniker seems to hold its uniqueness for about a week.
"Disruption" - is one such word.
Today, it's disruption tomorrow it's something else - observing the same thing over and over, calling it something new, expecting different results. In an attempt to understand the temporarily incomprehensible connectivity between multiple events occurring in real-time, a snapshot is taken.
A static slice of activity predicts futures based on this single shot.
A great sales manager once told me, "Greg, sometimes, we over complicate things - we're just selling copiers." I've come back to his statement again and again over the years because it's true.
Speaking as somebody from the industry; we've cold called, assessed, proposed, Powerpointed, scrubbed MIF and yes, even closed a few equipment, EDM, ECM, SFA, FM, Mps and MS deals - I can tell you, most of us take ourselves WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. Print, even managed print services, just ain't all that important to customers. Remember them?
