{"id":11547,"date":"2015-03-04T08:28:48","date_gmt":"2015-03-04T16:28:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=11547"},"modified":"2016-09-15T10:02:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T17:02:21","slug":"time-to-retool-your-mps-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/the-week-in-imaging-twii\/2015\/03\/time-to-retool-your-mps-pitch\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to Retool Your MPS Pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"salesI just took a quick random sampling of dealer websites.\u00a0 Eight out of the ten sites I looked at were making a variation of the following claim, \u201cWe can reduce your output spend by 30-40 percent.\u201d No doubt these are the same folks who are complaining that their sales reps only sell on price.\u00a0It kind of reminds me of that opening scene from the movie Top Gun<\/em> when they say that the pilots had become overly dependent on missiles and had lost their dog fighting skills.\u00a0 To that point, I think the majority of folks in this industry have lost their \u2018dog fighting skills\u2019 or more appropriately the craft of professional sales.\u00a0Even those websites I referenced tell the story: Isn\u2019t saving 30-40 percent of document output costs the MPS version of price selling?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a step back for a moment and analyze the claim a little further.\u00a0These websites are making a blanket claim.\u00a0They know absolutely nothing about the prospect\u2019s print environment, yet they are touting 30 percent savings; thirty percent of what?\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0The bulk of the print costs of single function printers is the toner cartridge \u2013 60 percent or more.\u00a0People have been buying cartridges for 20+ years.\u00a0The remaining costs are service (about 25 percent) and equipment (10-14 percent).\u00a0 Again, our reps have taught companies to be shrewd consumers of service and equipment for the last 20+ years.\u00a0 So we have educated buyers using RFPs, the Internet, and even reverse auctions to drive down costs yet these companies promise another 30 percent savings on current document output costs.\u00a0Seems like a bit of a disconnect to me.<\/p>\n

Where do these claims come from?\u00a0 The most logical source for this claim is a conversion from OEM to remanufactured cartridges.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really think finding folks that are still using exclusively OEM cartridges is much of a growth strategy.\u00a0The only other option is to simply take less margin in the deals. Try taking less margin on a product that is openly marketed on the Internet from multiple sources.\u00a0Like Dr. Phil says, \u201cHow\u2019s that workin\u2019 for ya?\u201d<\/p>\n

MPS is not a cost play.\u00a0In truth MPS is outsourcing \u2018lite.\u2019\u00a0Look at outsourcing as delegation. Why do people choose to delegate tasks?\u00a0Usually, tasks that are not mission critical, strategic, or value adding are delegation candidates.\u00a0Further you could say that tasks that are menial, time consuming, cumbersome, or distracting are also great candidates.\u00a0 Companies may also choose to delegate or outsource functions if the company lacks the specific technical expertise to effectively manage the function or can acquire the expertise more economically than creating it organically.<\/p>\n

Engage Maverick you are too close for missiles, switch to guns.\u00a0MPS isn\u2019t about the easy pitch – saving money; rather it is about convincing the client to delegate the servicing of their fleet. The craft of selling MPS lies in the rep\u2019s ability to link the outsourcing motivators listed above with the prospect\u2019s current situation.\u00a0 Successful MPS reps are skilled at asking probing questions that lead the prospect to the realization that the current state is broken and a new course of management should at least be investigated.\u00a0 This realization should lead to a well-defined list of issues with the current situation.\u00a0 This pain must be quantified.\u00a0 Now we have an actionable business case for change.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t it make sense to delegate the menial and time consuming task of managing the print fleet?<\/p>\n

Register today<\/em><\/a> for Strategy Development\u2019s April 8-9 MPS Sales Workshop in Dallas and give your MPS specialists the tools they need to successfully sell MPS.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just took a quick random sampling of dealer websites.\u00a0 Eight out of the ten sites I looked at were making a variation of the following claim, \u201cWe can reduce your output spend by 30-40 percent.\u201d No doubt these are the same folks who are complaining that their sales reps only sell on price.\u00a0It kind of reminds me of that opening scene from the movie Top Gun when they say that the pilots had become overly dependent on missiles and had lost their dog fighting skills.\u00a0 To that point, I think the majority of folks in this industry have lost their \u2018dog fighting skills\u2019 or more appropriately the craft of professional sales.\u00a0Even those websites I referenced tell the story: Isn\u2019t saving 30-40 percent of document output costs the MPS version of price selling? Let\u2019s take a step back for a moment and analyze the claim a little further.\u00a0These websites are making a blanket claim.\u00a0They know absolutely nothing about the prospect\u2019s print environment, yet they are touting 30 percent savings; thirty percent of what?\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0The bulk of the print costs of single function printers is the toner cartridge \u2013 60 percent or more.\u00a0People have been buying cartridges for 20+ years.\u00a0The remaining costs are service (about 25 percent) and equipment (10-14 percent).\u00a0 Again, our reps have taught companies to be shrewd consumers of service and equipment for the last 20+ years.\u00a0 So we have educated buyers using RFPs, the Internet, and even reverse auctions to drive down costs yet these companies promise another 30 percent savings on current document output costs.\u00a0Seems like a bit of a disconnect to me. Where do these claims come from?\u00a0 The most logical source for this claim is a conversion from OEM to remanufactured cartridges.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really think finding folks that are still using exclusively OEM cartridges is much of a growth strategy.\u00a0The only other option is to simply take less margin in the deals. Try taking less margin on a product that is openly marketed on the Internet from multiple sources.\u00a0Like Dr. Phil says, \u201cHow\u2019s that workin\u2019 for ya?\u201d MPS is not a cost play.\u00a0In truth MPS is outsourcing \u2018lite.\u2019\u00a0Look at outsourcing as delegation. Why do people choose to delegate tasks?\u00a0Usually, tasks that are not mission critical, strategic, or value adding are delegation candidates.\u00a0Further you could say that tasks that are menial, time consuming, cumbersome, or distracting are also great candidates.\u00a0 Companies may also choose to delegate or outsource functions if the company lacks the specific technical expertise to effectively manage the function or can acquire the expertise more economically than creating it organically. Engage Maverick you are too close for missiles, switch to guns.\u00a0MPS isn\u2019t about the easy pitch – saving money; rather it is about convincing the client to delegate the servicing of their fleet. The craft of selling MPS lies in the rep\u2019s ability to link the outsourcing motivators listed above with the prospect\u2019s current situation.\u00a0 Successful MPS reps are skilled at asking probing questions that lead the prospect to the realization that the current state is broken and a new course of management should at least be investigated.\u00a0 This realization should lead to a well-defined list of issues with the current situation.\u00a0 This pain must be quantified.\u00a0 Now we have an actionable business case for change.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t it make sense to delegate the menial and time consuming task of managing the print fleet? Register today for Strategy Development\u2019s April 8-9 MPS Sales Workshop in Dallas and give your MPS specialists the tools they need to successfully sell MPS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1638],"tags":[193,2409,339],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11547"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11554,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11547\/revisions\/11554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}