Managed print Services Truth #5 & #6 - Be a Leader, Be Open

Titles don't make leaders.  Cutting your own trail doesn't make you a leader - but you sure won't be a follower.

5. Be a leader

If you’re employed at a dealership that promotes MPS but the guy at the top doesn’t know the difference between remote monitoring and remote machine management, quit. It’s time for executive management and ownership to climb down off the ivory tower and get dirty. The good ones will; the leaders already have.

If you are ownership, get out and explain to your team how you’re going to move the company forward, and then do it — every day. Reach out into the trenches, deliver equipment, make sales presentations and take service calls.

If you’re in sales, put together your plan for success and present it to your fellow team members on Monday morning. Don’t ask your manager if you can; tell him that you are. If you get push-back, quit.

Now is the time — if you decide to stay in this industry — to ride out the storm. Let it all hang out. It won’t be easy; there will be doubters and naysayers. Stay the course. If the system is gamed against you, get out.

Leadership comes from all levels, and vision leads to profit. It’s not the other way around.

6. Be open

Educate yourself about everything other than print. You probably know more than you need to about copying. What about telephony and tablets? What about asset management and PC support? Rack versus blades? Would you be surprised to find out that some customers who utilize managed services are happy to simply receive a phone call telling them that one of their servers is broken? A phone call.

Do you know how naive you sound when you say you’re in MNS versus managed services? What’s your level of comfort with RMM or the difference between copier service SLAs and managed services SLAs? Why are you compensating copier service differently than MPS engagements? Plug into some new LinkedIn groups or subscribe to print magazines from outside the industry. Tweet, for goodness’ sake. Be open to new ideas. Get to know whatever it is you need to know.

#3 & #4 Managed Print Services Truths: Be a Partner, Be Lean "Come With Me Now"

Continuing our journey into the 10 Truths of MPS we look now to partnerships and overhead.

3. Be a partner

The tough times are making everybody re-evaluate their position in the ecosystem, and the best way to survive is to gather together with like-minded people. Partnerships open up your services portfolio; good partnerships bring with them even more connections and synergy. Isolation leads to desperation. Partner with your clients, toner provider(s), OEMs and fellow employees. If HP can work with third-party toner suppliers, why can’t you partner with a managed services provider? Or better yet, how hard can it be to become a tablet reseller? Today, it is all about partnerships and teams. Build a team that includes players from all over — from network infrastructure experts, software application specialists, property managers, bankers and shop owners. Full press your personal network and choose those you deem worthy.

4. Be lean

Tough decisions are coming, if they haven’t already. The economy is making a rebound unlike any other time in history, and the recovery will not include a spike in manufacturing jobs or employment. Look to reduce your overhead.

Do you really require a demo floor? Really? No, really? It may look nice, but ... really? Is it a stipulation of your dealer agreement? If so, throw that Lyra chart in front of them and push back. Nobody holds inventory anymore, so why are you? How tight are you on trunk stock and warranty exchanges? How many service calls have you made over the past 12 months on your fleet of laser/cartridge-based devices compared to your traditional copiers? Do you need so many technicians? Do you need three dispatchers? How many people in accounting?

I am not recommending you fire everyone in sight. I am recommending you look at the costs that could be reduced or shifted over to some of your partners and possibly move traditional infrastructure talent into your sales team.

For example, in my practice, I did not want to stock toner, take orders or coordinate the shipment of and maintain an inventory of toner cartridges. I did not want to — nor did I believe I should have to — bear the overhead cost. I evaluated every single fulfillment program out at the time from front to back. I looked at their process and the infrastructure the value-add provided and talked with the people on the ground.

I made the shift and demanded much from my new, integral partner — from delivery and customer relations to report generation. When I found somebody I could work with, that company became a full-fledged member of my team. It worked and reduced my overhead immensely. Lean, agile, clear.

Talk Managed Services - "Lost Stars"

November 2011.

This article is over three years old but the concepts and ideas prevail.  Not simply for the new people in the industry, but for all of us.  Gearing toward the IT world seems to be a universal attempt that never ends.  We keep going through the same scenario, altering and adjusting as we go. It isn't insanity, it's evolution.

Enjoy.

GRW

Would you like to sell more MPS? Start talking “Managed Services” not “Managed Print Services.”

Thinking the magic is in the “P” deserves a deeper look. Like it or not, the service we are offering for printing—the marking of paper with toner—is simply a symptom of our client's business process, an afterthought.

The “P” is an unsustainable aspect of the ecosystem dwindling with each passing day. Managed services are growing. Think I’m wrong? Take a look at the latest news from the IT side of the world.

Look up companies like ConnectWise, LabTech, Level Platforms—companies that provide client support and remote monitoring products to VARs and managed service providers. For them, managed-print services are the buzz, that Hot New Thing, just like it was for us—four years ago.

When companies like these finally see recurring revenue can be had at a 42 percent margin, how long before they add toner delivery and on-site support to their standard service level agreements?

And what will happen when they figure out, for instance, how to craft a 36-month, 90-day deferred, FMV (Fair Market Value)/dollar out, with a buy-out leasing deal—working with more than Cisco Capital Finance and Hewlett-Packard Financial Services?

They’ve heard our racket—living in a world of run rates, volume discounts, and five-point margins; MPS looks pretty good from their vantage point.

The battle lines are drawn. MPS is out of the corporate backwaters. All the noise we’ve made over here, in our small pond, is attracting the attention of some pretty big players. Remember the phrase, “…own the network, own the account…?”

These guys invented, installed, and support the network.

True, they loathe printers and copiers, recoiling at the thought of talking with “copier people.” They underestimate us.

Our edge is—or at least it should be—in vision, flexibility, and deal crafting.

Big thing is they see us coming.