{"id":6739,"date":"2014-03-20T09:16:27","date_gmt":"2014-03-20T13:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=6739"},"modified":"2014-03-20T09:16:27","modified_gmt":"2014-03-20T13:16:27","slug":"the-modern-office-methods-approach-to-selling-power-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2014\/03\/the-modern-office-methods-approach-to-selling-power-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"The Modern Office Methods Approach to Selling Power Protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MOM<\/a>Modern Office Methods in Cincinnati, OH, has been selling power protection products from ESP for more than 10 years. In fact, virtually no machine goes to a customer without some sort of power protection included.<\/p>\n

Years ago MOM\u2019s service team came to a powerful conclusion about power protection thanks to their own research along with BEI Services data. \u201cWe tracked the number of service calls, the number of issues we had when we put on surge suppressors,\u201d explains Rod Randall, vice president sales, major accounts, for MOM. \u201cWe actually ended up with a lot less problems so we mandated that every device that leaves our office has a surge suppressor on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

MOM also bundles other power protection products into deals, such as ESP\u2019s eCommandCenter (ECC) plug-level energy management and power protection solution, which is an upgrade from a traditional surge suppressor and can be used to reduce business energy costs. \u00a0\u201cObviously, green is a big thing right now, at least in our market,\u201d says Randall. \u201cWhen we go after Fortune 500 companies we use the ECC to show what we are reducing and roll that into our RFPs so we could be more aggressive in positioning ourselves and sell for more margin. That\u2019s what separates ourselves in these RFPs because we\u2019re able to bring something to the table that our competitors are overlooking.\u201d<\/p>\n

With so many power protection options on the market to choose from, why did MOM choose ESP?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey understood our business,\u201d replies Randall. \u201cThey\u2019re open to help us grow our business. When you\u2019re a $40-$50 million dealer you\u2019re always looking for ways to grow your business. Most vendors don\u2019t want to help you with that unless they\u2019re can sell you something. ESP is more about \u2018How can we help you grow your business?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledges that ESP\u2019s products are not the cheapest on the market. \u00a0\u201cAt this point I might be paying a little more and that\u2019s okay because I know what I get from ESP,\u201d states Randall. \u201cWe have no interest in buying from anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he likes about partnering with ESP is the company\u2019s willingness to help MOM sell. MOM does an event every year for its top Fortune 500 clients, taking them to the Masters. At a recent Masters in Raleigh, ESP was gracious enough to set up a lunch and learn for MOM\u2019s top clients to discuss their entire breadth of products and the benefits of selling them. ESP also took MOM\u2019s clients out to dinner afterwards. \u201cNot many vendors will do that for you,\u201d says Randall. \u201cESP is extremely easy to work with,\u201d adds Randall, \u201cthey\u2019ll go out of their way to help you get the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESP has also been helpful in training MOM\u2019s sales reps about how to best sell power protection through lunch and learns and Webinars. Plus strategies such as sales promos and blitzes to get the word out in the market about power protection have also been instrumental in raising awareness internally and externally. \u201cI just gave away a $1,000 gift card to [the sales rep] that brought in the most leads for the quarter,\u201d notes Randall.<\/p>\n

Adding power protection has been a boon to MOM\u2019s business, especially in the current office technology sales environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cA box is a box is a box and we\u2019ve all sold them, and everybody knows the margins are going away, and everybody knows it down to .0028 on a big deal,\u201d acknowledges Randall. \u201cWe structure our sales presentations for major accounts around the consultative approach and how can we help them in other areas of their business so it doesn\u2019t come down to just a box sale. We make more money on [power protection products] than we do on the copiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Modern Office Methods in Cincinnati, OH, has been selling power protection products from ESP for more than 10 years. In fact, virtually no machine goes to a customer without some sort of power protection included. Years ago MOM\u2019s service team came to a powerful conclusion about power protection thanks to their own research along with BEI Services data. \u201cWe tracked the number of service calls, the number of issues we had when we put on surge suppressors,\u201d explains Rod Randall, vice president sales, major accounts, for MOM. \u201cWe actually ended up with a lot less problems so we mandated that every device that leaves our office has a surge suppressor on it.\u201d MOM also bundles other power protection products into deals, such as ESP\u2019s eCommandCenter (ECC) plug-level energy management and power protection solution, which is an upgrade from a traditional surge suppressor and can be used to reduce business energy costs. \u00a0\u201cObviously, green is a big thing right now, at least in our market,\u201d says Randall. \u201cWhen we go after Fortune 500 companies we use the ECC to show what we are reducing and roll that into our RFPs so we could be more aggressive in positioning ourselves and sell for more margin. That\u2019s what separates ourselves in these RFPs because we\u2019re able to bring something to the table that our competitors are overlooking.\u201d With so many power protection options on the market to choose from, why did MOM choose ESP? \u201cThey understood our business,\u201d replies Randall. \u201cThey\u2019re open to help us grow our business. When you\u2019re a $40-$50 million dealer you\u2019re always looking for ways to grow your business. Most vendors don\u2019t want to help you with that unless they\u2019re can sell you something. ESP is more about \u2018How can we help you grow your business?\u2019\u201d He acknowledges that ESP\u2019s products are not the cheapest on the market. \u00a0\u201cAt this point I might be paying a little more and that\u2019s okay because I know what I get from ESP,\u201d states Randall. \u201cWe have no interest in buying from anybody else.\u201d What he likes about partnering with ESP is the company\u2019s willingness to help MOM sell. MOM does an event every year for its top Fortune 500 clients, taking them to the Masters. At a recent Masters in Raleigh, ESP was gracious enough to set up a lunch and learn for MOM\u2019s top clients to discuss their entire breadth of products and the benefits of selling them. ESP also took MOM\u2019s clients out to dinner afterwards. \u201cNot many vendors will do that for you,\u201d says Randall. \u201cESP is extremely easy to work with,\u201d adds Randall, \u201cthey\u2019ll go out of their way to help you get the business.\u201d ESP has also been helpful in training MOM\u2019s sales reps about how to best sell power protection through lunch and learns and Webinars. Plus strategies such as sales promos and blitzes to get the word out in the market about power protection have also been instrumental in raising awareness internally and externally. \u201cI just gave away a $1,000 gift card to [the sales rep] that brought in the most leads for the quarter,\u201d notes Randall. Adding power protection has been a boon to MOM\u2019s business, especially in the current office technology sales environment. \u201cA box is a box is a box and we\u2019ve all sold them, and everybody knows the margins are going away, and everybody knows it down to .0028 on a big deal,\u201d acknowledges Randall. \u201cWe structure our sales presentations for major accounts around the consultative approach and how can we help them in other areas of their business so it doesn\u2019t come down to just a box sale. We make more money on [power protection products] than we do on the copiers.\u201d  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[487,926,1280,486,1279],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6739"}],"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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6741,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6739\/revisions\/6741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}