Five To Do's for a Successful Year

It is the first week of the year and you're going to hear a lot about business plans, forecasts, funnel management, and quotas.  Thousands of time-saving, productivity enhancing, sales coaching, articles flow through the digital rivers of the internet - nauseating in its volume.

I ask you, how are you, personally, forging ahead in the new year?   Will you be part of another's plan or will you set the agenda?

My advice is simple - nod your head to whatever your manager says, tuck the dogma away, get alone and do the following five things:

1.  Download and print the chart below

The chart was developed to illuminate intent between clients and vendors. It works on a personal basis as well.

2.  Find your personal position on the chart

Trust yourself enough to be completely honest.  There is NO WRONG position. Think about the past year; did you add value beyond delivery and price?

3.  Find your employer's position

Step back and consider your organization's sales over the past 12 months. Did you see lots of devices delivered yet a handful of software implementations?  Are your equipment quota's higher than services?  Do you lead with the latest and greatest or solve real business problems?  Do you often hear your manager say, "That price is not competitive, bury the profit in the service, bundle installation into the lease..."?

4.  Where do your best client implementations fall on the chart?

Now consider your client base.  Did you sell machines or provide answers? Were most of your deals price-driven?  Did they begin and end with a purchasing agent?

5.  Look at the gaps and imagine moving into a more desirable position in 2015.  What will it take?

Although there is no wrong position, if for example, your prospect is looking for a 'Specialized' relationship and your company only provides 'Transactional' services, your relationship is not sustainable.

By the same token, if your personal position is in 'Specialized' but your employer falls comfortably in the 'Transactional' column, you may have some issues to work out.

If your clients are all in 'Transactional' yet you want to get to the 'Specialized' area, what can you do to elevate the conversation?

This is a simple beginning to personal success - we can get deep on both the provider and client-side of the spectrum.  The devil is in how your customers perceive your offering relevant to how they think of themselves; do you two match?

I'd love to discuss with you how to best use this tool.  It's been effective for providers and end-users alike.

For now, hang your chart in your cube, office, or dashboard.  Embed it into your pre-call planning or (god forbid) your pitchbook - heck, make it your wallpaper.

But make sure to take a pic and email it to me.  The most interesting one will get a Starbucks card on me.

Cheers!

Reach out to me: greg@grwalters.com and enjoy this sweet jam:

2015: Beyond Managed Print Services

I was having a great discussion about paper, printers, sales people and the always changing business environment with my sister over the holidays. She's always goaded me about "The Death of The Copier" - like most, she believes I hate copiers, printers, and paper.  I don't.

Of course, she's been with the same paper company for 27 years, as with most conversations along these lines, she defends ink on paper like her lively hood depended on it - I guess, in a way, it does.

We talked about how reductions in her industry have led to less people yet more productivity.  The parallels between the premium paper and copier industry is logically, familiar.

My sister will be fine selling high-end paper to large printers who use billion dollar machines and an Indigo or two.  Still, we talked about the decreasing level of value her sales team provides for customers - again, familiar territory.

And so it is with our niche - as copiers became a commodity, more advanced talk tracks refrained from mentioning first copy out speeds, scan-once print-many, or manufacturers - ushering in the the death of the copier and the birth of EDM/DOC MAN.

Some say managed print services has been commoditized.  I disagree.  I believe the definition has been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator - toner delivery.

It was inevitable. EVERYBODY ELSE SELLS MPS.

This is why I say, in 2015, give up selling managed print services.  Instead, talk about giving your client more hours by squeezing the amount of paper in your their workflow.  Incorporate paper flow into your basic assessments its simple, just ask.

In 2015, think about these types of value props:

• "At ABC Company, I helped them find a better way to process payables..."
• "At XYZ Company, we helped IT complete two initiatives..."
• "I've helped my customers see more of their children's soccer matches..."

You can still make quota and move away from being thought of as pushing commodities.  When you start feeling the pressure of commoditization, think how difficult it would be to get up each morning and sell paper.

If what I'm saying makes a bit of sense, but you're not quite sure how to execute in the trenches, reach out to me and let's see get some business going.

#9 & #10 Managed Print Services Truth: Be the Ruler. "Stand or Fall"

9. Be the ruler

This is simple: Comparing yourself to others is a standard approach, but I suggest you look inside before looking to others. They’re simply guidelines; the only comparison that really matters is internal. Gartner, IDC, Canon, Ricoh, HP, Xerox, Toshiba, Konica Minolta, Sharp, OKI Data, Kyocera, Lexmark, IBM, Cisco, Apple — they all have their rules. With few exceptions, their rules are not serving us very well. Don’t ignore their musings; just be open and dubious. Make your rules, Your Rules. And then live by them.

10. Stand or fall

This is the big one. The above recommendations are simply that: suggestions. I’ve seen dealerships, OEMs and general business models over the past 24 years grow, stumble, recover and fade. I’ve watched IBM transform and Compaq assimilated. I was the first generation of VARs born in the 1980s and destroyed in the 1990s. I’ve helped dealerships grow and evolve and watched others crash, burn and be born again under a new moniker.

Change is eternal, transformation unavoidable. And like the Matrix, this has all happened before. Right now, the wolf is at our door. We are simply collateral in the big shift from slow, paper-based transfer of knowledge to instantaneous, screen-based modes of communication. While digital content is set to grow 18 times over, print is dying.

Now is the time to make a stand, to burn the ships at the shore or dust off that exit strategy you designed. If you look at the rules and don’t see a happy ending, get out. Save yourself. Give your employees the opportunity to grow beyond your little dealership. But if you do decide to stay and circle the wagons, get your rules set, and then ride with them.

Stand or Fall.

So ends our journey into 10 separate aspects and sides of the MpS ecosystem.