With many companies downsizing or disappearing altogether, virtually every office, department and organiza-tion is looking for ways to reduce their operating costs. Customers are now beginning to ask themselves if turning back to monochrome devices might not be such a bad idea. After all, if a document isn’t going to be seen by anyone outside your office, do you really need color? Most of the time, the answer is “no.”

Over the last few years, when many offices finally made the leap and replaced mono-chrome devices with color, the economy was healthy and companies weren’t in “freak-out” mode, trying to justify every penny being spent. Now, things are tight and we’ve got to cut back. Often, that means printing in black instead of color unless the document is going to be seen outside the office. E-mails, driving directions and other personal documents can be printed in black.

The easiest solution for a customer is to simply replace their color device with a monochrome unit when their lease expires. This all-or-nothing approach may seem extreme but these are extreme times and reps are telling us this is what they see happening in the field.

Ironically, now may be the best time ever to be a copier sales rep. Your customers are begging to save money and between Managed Print Ser-vices and a new wave of capable, yet inexpensive A4 devices coming out, you have the ability to really help your customer reign in their printing costs. It’s all about helping your customer figure out new, less expensive ways to get their job done. Color management strategies fit right in this strategy.

Every sales rep should be visiting their customers regular-ly to see if there are any ways to help them reduce costs or im-prove their efficiency. This is not a sales call. This is you checking in to make sure everything is running smoothly. Ask your contact if you can poke around and make sure print drivers are defaulted to the most cost-effective devices. Make sure they also default to black printing. Your customer already decided they need color. They made the switch for a reason. Perhaps they’re using it more than they need to but there is still a need. Help these customers use their color properly.

Try to give a 5 - 10 minute training session to explain to the end-users how they can help keep costs down by printing non-essential documents in black and show them how to do it. Or perhaps the office manager wants only certain people to print in color. Make sure you use your vendor’s color restriction software to set this up.

Now is the time when your customers really need you. They will be more willing to listen to your ideas and recommendations as to how they can reduce their costs. You can really endear yourself to them as we all weather this economic situation together. Your customer doesn’t need to get rid of their color devices to reduce costs; they just need to cut back. Make sure you’re the one helping them do this or someday soon you might walk into your customer’s office and see several inexpensive mono-chrome laser printers and AIOs sitting where the 35-PPM color MFP used to sit. 


Andy Slawetsky, President of Industry Analysts, Inc. Industry Analysts, Inc., is a marketing and management consulting firm for the office automation industry. Much of the company’s research and testing results can be viewed on their web site – www.industryanalysts.com.