{"id":30857,"date":"2018-09-13T09:52:24","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T16:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=30857"},"modified":"2018-09-13T09:52:24","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T16:52:24","slug":"broaching-the-topic-of-mps-where-to-begin-with-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2018\/09\/broaching-the-topic-of-mps-where-to-begin-with-clients\/","title":{"rendered":"Broaching the Topic of MPS: Where to Begin with Clients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attention, dealers. Who wears the decision-making pants in your family of customers? Obviously, it varies depending on the product or service offering. On the subject of managed print services (MPS), many will point toward the chief financial officer. If the value proposition centers on saving money, that is your go-to guy or gal.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kevin Morris, OneDOC<\/p><\/div>\n

Still, framing the MPS conversation, the table-setting process, can require a host of different department heads. According to Kevin Morris, president and CEO of pure-play specialist OneDOC MPS of Oklahoma City, he finds it is important to make sure customers and prospects understand the definition of MPS; after all, one provider\u2019s package might only scratch the surface of a true MPS platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we figure out where they\u2019re at right now, we talk about differentiations and what we bring to the table,\u201d Morris related. \u201cThey may know what the lease payments on their copiers are, but most companies truly don\u2019t know what their monthly spend is. Some people within an organization may go off on their own and expense printers from Office Depot. So we talk about what we can do to impact that. Faxing is still important for some, especially in the health care space. So we\u2019ll look at how much people are faxing. There\u2019s obviously a better way to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

John Turner, Loffler<\/p><\/div>\n

John Turner, director of Managed Print Services at Loffler Companies of Bloomington, MN, notes that the dealer\u2019s efforts are best tailored toward the chief information officer and the client\u2019s IT organization. \u201cThey are the ones looking for print solutions and they help sell it to the CFO,\u201d he said. \u201cIT groups are looking for the secure follow-me-print, secure scan and printer security solutions, not the CFO.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putting Pieces Together<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Jim Jones, Cannon IV<\/p><\/div>\n

An effective MPS package can bring sanity to what can be a fragmented approach within the customer itself. Generally, that means someone within the organization was buying hardware separately in the past and getting service on a time and materials bases, with toner also separate. C-level targets are the best bet with a prospect, according to Jim Jones, COO of Indianapolis-based Cannon IV.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about helping someone identify, control and contain their costs\u2014help manage it,\u201d he said. \u201cOur job is to help them decide if what they do is OK, or if they need to go in a different direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises (DME) of Cincinnati always aims for the top, using its quarterly reviews with clients to facilitate a conversation with the CEO or CFO of an organization. A speeds and feeds talk is bypassed in favor of a data-driven analysis that provides a compelling argument in favor of a managed approach.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jim George, DME<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIf we can get to the CFO, we\u2019ll say \u2018Here are some things we\u2019ve noticed, here are some potential improvements and here\u2019s the exact data of your organization,\u2019\u201d noted Jim George, DME president. \u201cWe\u2019ll give them a side-by-side analysis of their actual cost savings if we were to add the printers onto their fleet, and what it would mean to the organization, whether tangible or intangible. The tangible is the toner cost and the intangibles are the benefits of having someone manage their fleet. Their IT team will be happy that it\u2019s not bogged down with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing is we\u2019re trying to show an ROI and for us to get as sticky as possible with our clients by providing a service that they can never say no to,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Business Case<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the CFO is an obvious prospect, Nashville, TN-based Novatech encourages its reps to start at the C-suite in general, because the dealer always tries to sell to the business case. In many instances, the business case is scenario-specific, and there\u2019s no commonality from one opportunity to the next, notes John Sutton, director of sales.<\/p>\n

\"\"

John Sutton, Novatech<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe goal is to identify what that driver is, and in sales,\u001b the individual that\u2019s going to be that champion and ultimately that person or persons will get us to the remaining team members that can drive an actionable result,\u201d Sutton said.<\/p>\n

Despite the pecking order of an organization, the formal structure and hierarchy, many times a lesser-ranked individual can wield great influence when it comes to pulling the trigger on an MPS solution. Thus, it is important for a reseller to understand the true decision makers or key influencers within a client, according to Kevin DeYoung, president and CEO of Qualpath, another pure MPS provider.<\/p>\n

Given that a majority of IT managers have no sway in the budgetary conversation, there has to be an economic business justification that is compelling to the people who made decisions based on financial statements.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kevin DeYoung, Qualpath<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEven then, these economic decision makers like CFOs will query the involved parties on their opinions as to whether or not they believe the offered solution is doable,\u201d DeYoung remarked. \u201cI think decision makers have learned to test theory, reality\/practicality before they engage in a partnership with an MPS provider.<\/p>\n

\u201cCentering on one point of contact is a mistake,\u201d he added. \u201cAnother mistake from prospective MPS providers is not describing how they will execute\u2026in many cases, the silent objection is \u2018can this provider actually do this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attention, dealers. Who wears the decision-making pants in your family of customers? Obviously, it varies depending on the product or service offering. On the subject of managed print services (MPS), many will point toward the chief financial officer. If the value proposition centers on saving money, that is your go-to guy or gal. Still, framing the MPS conversation, the table-setting process, can require a host of different department heads. According to Kevin Morris, president and CEO of pure-play specialist OneDOC MPS of Oklahoma City, he finds it is important to make sure customers and prospects understand the definition of MPS; after all, one provider\u2019s package might only scratch the surface of a true MPS platform. \u201cOnce we figure out where they\u2019re at right now, we talk about differentiations and what we bring to the table,\u201d Morris related. \u201cThey may know what the lease payments on their copiers are, but most companies truly don\u2019t know what their monthly spend is. Some people within an organization may go off on their own and expense printers from Office Depot. So we talk about what we can do to impact that. Faxing is still important for some, especially in the health care space. So we\u2019ll look at how much people are faxing. There\u2019s obviously a better way to do that.\u201d John Turner, director of Managed Print Services at Loffler Companies of Bloomington, MN, notes that the dealer\u2019s efforts are best tailored toward the chief information officer and the client\u2019s IT organization. \u201cThey are the ones looking for print solutions and they help sell it to the CFO,\u201d he said. \u201cIT groups are looking for the secure follow-me-print, secure scan and printer security solutions, not the CFO.\u201d Putting Pieces Together An effective MPS package can bring sanity to what can be a fragmented approach within the customer itself. Generally, that means someone within the organization was buying hardware separately in the past and getting service on a time and materials bases, with toner also separate. C-level targets are the best bet with a prospect, according to Jim Jones, COO of Indianapolis-based Cannon IV. \u201cIt\u2019s all about helping someone identify, control and contain their costs\u2014help manage it,\u201d he said. \u201cOur job is to help them decide if what they do is OK, or if they need to go in a different direction.\u201d Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises (DME) of Cincinnati always aims for the top, using its quarterly reviews with clients to facilitate a conversation with the CEO or CFO of an organization. A speeds and feeds talk is bypassed in favor of a data-driven analysis that provides a compelling argument in favor of a managed approach. \u201cIf we can get to the CFO, we\u2019ll say \u2018Here are some things we\u2019ve noticed, here are some potential improvements and here\u2019s the exact data of your organization,\u2019\u201d noted Jim George, DME president. \u201cWe\u2019ll give them a side-by-side analysis of their actual cost savings if we were to add the printers onto their fleet, and what it would mean to the organization, whether tangible or intangible. The tangible is the toner cost and the intangibles are the benefits of having someone manage their fleet. Their IT team will be happy that it\u2019s not bogged down with it. \u201cThe biggest thing is we\u2019re trying to show an ROI and for us to get as sticky as possible with our clients by providing a service that they can never say no to,\u201d he added. The Business Case While the CFO is an obvious prospect, Nashville, TN-based Novatech encourages its reps to start at the C-suite in general, because the dealer always tries to sell to the business case. In many instances, the business case is scenario-specific, and there\u2019s no commonality from one opportunity to the next, notes John Sutton, director of sales. \u201cThe goal is to identify what that driver is, and in sales,\u001b the individual that\u2019s going to be that champion and ultimately that person or persons will get us to the remaining team members that can drive an actionable result,\u201d Sutton said. Despite the pecking order of an organization, the formal structure and hierarchy, many times a lesser-ranked individual can wield great influence when it comes to pulling the trigger on an MPS solution. Thus, it is important for a reseller to understand the true decision makers or key influencers within a client, according to Kevin DeYoung, president and CEO of Qualpath, another pure MPS provider. Given that a majority of IT managers have no sway in the budgetary conversation, there has to be an economic business justification that is compelling to the people who made decisions based on financial statements. \u201cEven then, these economic decision makers like CFOs will query the involved parties on their opinions as to whether or not they believe the offered solution is doable,\u201d DeYoung remarked. \u201cI think decision makers have learned to test theory, reality\/practicality before they engage in a partnership with an MPS provider. \u201cCentering on one point of contact is a mistake,\u201d he added. \u201cAnother mistake from prospective MPS providers is not describing how they will execute\u2026in many cases, the silent objection is \u2018can this provider actually do this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":30597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1650,82,87,1638],"tags":[2810,3221,560,2409,3410,3460,697],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30857"}],"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\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30858,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30857\/revisions\/30858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}