If you have the time, you might check out the new service offerings at Xippa. The world is definitely changing.

The energy and responsiveness of independents who are focused on the real world should be unstoppable, if you folks can get this right.

Besides your industry has a nice clear no fooling around metric. Commercial printers don’t have that advantage.

Go team!

You are on the money… MPS needs team selling.

Thanks for reading… keep coming back.

TCI

The reality is what you said. You have to know what you’re doing. Plus if you’ve been selling copiers, clients aren’t going to easily trust you to be an MPS expert. The more you say you are, the more than are waiting for the first screw up. it will confirm what they thought in the first place.

My advice is to break out of the “I have to do it all alone” mindset. Find experts. DON’t HIRE THEM. Either they are too expensive or they aren’t worth what you are going to pay them.

Instead do the deal with experts. Figure out a way to split the revenue for closed MPS deals. Doing an MPS takes thought. Selling it takes calls, calls,calls.

Two different jobs. Two different skill sets. Two different DNA’s.At ON Demand, I found ONE, yes, just one, PSP that figured out the answer was team selling. It worked! He’s doing great, while everyone else is whining about the economy. His team was a hunter, a CSR and a biz dev person.

For MPS that could mean a hunter, a CSR and an Print Efficiency expert(MPS). The good news is a Print Efficiency-MPS expert does not have to be on payroll. You can buy that expertise on an on demand basis. Thinking is best done on the web, not face to face. less noise.

As you get better, you will need them less.And grow your own Print Efficiency MPS expertise in house. When your staff sees that it works, you won’t have to worry too much about training.

How can you have an MPS specialist when there was so little motion a few months ago? That one’s easy… you find the people with the practical knowledge and experience… the people who have been through the sales cycles from start to finish. They’re the ones with the school of hard knocks know how.

As for the definition of MPS… we’re never going to get a solid definition once and for all. It doesn’t change that much every 15 days… unless you’ve got something to add on that point. To me, it’s more about the MPS vendor defining what MPS is and basing that definition on customer value. You and I both know it’s more than “Gee… we’ll supply you toner and fix yer broken printers.”

As for your value… you’re probably expensive… and probably worth more than you’re paid.

Thanks for the kind words… keep reading and commenting… and have a great weekend.

TCI

Now, of course, everybody wants in or has been “doing Managed Print for 20 years…” pfft..

Your last points should resonate in EVERY SINGLE TYPE of selling not just MPS – except the last suggestion – MPS Specialist.

My 0.0172 cents – how can there be any MPS Specialists in the world, when just a few months ago there was little motion in this niche?(domestically, don’t get me started on how far ahead the Brit’s are on this)

And how can anybody be an expert in an area that changes every 15 days, and to date really does not have a clear definition?

You want an expert? Hire me.

But let me tell you, I ain’t cheap, and I am still in the “school of hard knocks” – but my hard knocks started over 2 years ago…

Great Article, keep it up!

Just kidding about hiring me – I am way too expensive.

http://thedeathofthecopier.blogspot.com/search/label/sales

Allen Taylor