Does Your Business Really Need an A3 Copier? The 90% Question Nobody Wants to Ask. Art's in the 10%

For years, the office equipment industry has convinced businesses that bigger is better. Bigger copier, bigger paper, bigger monthly payment, and naturally, a bigger commission for the salesperson. Somewhere along the way, we convinced just about every business in America that they needed the ability to print 11 x 17 documents, even if the largest thing they printed all year was a pizza menu for the company Christmas party.

After more than 46 years of walking into businesses of every size imaginable, I've started thinking about a question that probably should have been asked a long time ago. When was the last time the average office actually needed to print something on 11 x 17 paper, let alone 12 x 18?

I've heard some pretty interesting answers over the years. One person thinks accounting printed something oversized last summer, another remembers a marketing project from three years ago, and someone else tells me they have always had that capability and wouldn't dream of giving it up. That last answer is my favorite because it explains an awful lot about how we've been selling copiers for decades.

Somehow, the A3 copier became a permanent piece of office furniture. Nobody remembers exactly why it's there, but nobody wants to be responsible for getting rid of it either. It's a little like that conference room nobody uses or the fax machine that's still plugged in because someone, somewhere, might need to receive a fax from 1997...

Read the rest here.