Managed Services - Qualification is Very Important.

Fire your undeserving customers, don't lock them in.

Qualify at every turn. Call it "trial closing" if it makes you feel better.

To qualify a prospect, you must first know what you are, what you believe in and what you stand for.

And most of all, be prepared to see - no - search out reasons the person in front of you is not a prospect and does not match your ideals or what you stand for.

Again, I doubt very much, any of your OEM sales training ever stresses this, simple point.

Your 'solution' does not fit everybody.

Managed Services - Can Your Marketing Department Come up With Something Like This?

We know Managed Print Services can be boring to some.

Putting together Value Prop's and sales collateral is extremely important. Toils every marketing department/major love to do.

But really, why can't just once, all those web-design and Adobe classes result in something like this:

Your Managed Print Services Association - Looking for Standouts

Nominations Now Open for 2011 Managed Print Services Leadership Awards

Third annual award program takes place at MPS Global Conference in Orlando

Columbus, OH – March 14, 2011 – The Managed Print Services Association (MPSA) is accepting nominations for the third annual MPS Leadership Awards. These awards recognize organizations demonstrating leadership in implementing, providing or supporting MPS projects.

“The road to success in MPS takes hard work, and organizations that demonstrate leadership and innovation deserve to be recognized. Our winners exemplify the initiative, excellence and diligence found throughout the managed print services industry. The awards catapult deserving firms into the winners’ circle of this emerging and critically important MPS world, and bring them valuable visibility and credibility,” said MPSA President, Joe Barganier.

Skylar, Dr. Dre, Em, and Ri - On and Off Stage, an Orchestra, Lights, Video - Lot's of Moving Parts. Just Like Managed Print Services

The award season is past, thank the TV gods. This year's 53rd, Grammy show returned its best rating since 2001.

The telecast, in addition to rewarding musicians for jobs well done, teems with performances.

Some good, some not so good.

One of the best of the evening, was Rhianna performing "Love the Way You Lie" as a duet, with Eminem.

Em, Skylar and Dr. Dre, rounded out the recital with the sequel, "I Need a Dr.".

The production was big, complex, and sophisticated with many moving parts.

They made it looked easy.

Catching the performance that evening left me impressed; my appreciation grew more profound in the weeks that followed.

The performance ecosystem:

• Dre - the Rock. Solid, been here, done this.
• Em - recovering.  Detroit. White Rapper(the f?)
• Ri - Damn.  Hot. Mocha. Sing the shit outta everything.  Recovering.
• Skylar - Who?  Young.  New. Wrote the Song. Never performed to a crowd like this.

Oh, and one more thing - Live.

All these parts, these ego's and interpretations, seemingly incongruous styles, overlapping, merging and separating.

Infusing an emotional charge from each individual - and making it work - stellar.

The Tsunami and Ricoh - Hopes and Prayers

As more and more details come out of Japan, (just now, I see tweets regarding yet another explosion at a Nuclear Plant) the environmental and the economic ramifications seem troubling.

I have seen some reports of Canon shutting down 8 plants.

Over at Art Post's Blog, he mentioned Ricoh's locations and factories in Japan:

"...Ricoh operates factories in Tottori (Ricoh Microelectronics Co., LTD), located 421 miles southwest of Tokyo, Ibaraki (Ricoh Printing Solutions) which is about 95 miles south of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant and Miyagi (Tohuku Ricoh) which is about 20 miles south of Sendai and 65 miles north of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant, Iwate (Ricoh Optical Industries), which is located about 95 miles north of Sendai and about 55 miles inland of the Ocean, Yamanashi (Yamanashi Electronics Co., Ltd.) which is located about 73 miles west of Tokyo, Miyagi (Ricoh Hasama) lies 113 miles north of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant and 54 miles northeast of Sendai, Saitama (Ricoh Unitechno) is located about 13 miles north of Tokyo, Saga (Ricoh Keiki) about 713 miles southwest of Tokyo, Kanagawa (Handano & Atsugi Plant) is located 28 miles south of Tokyo and a few miles from Yokohama, Hyogo (Yashiro Plant) 331 miles southwest of Tokyo, Fukiu (Fukui Plant) located 324 miles west of Tokyo near the Sea of Japan, Shizuoka (Numazu & Gotemba Plant) is 111 miles southwest of Tokyo..."

Captain America: The First Avenger

Shield seen in Ironman 2.

The comic-strips continue....



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CNET Needs Managed Print Services - So Says Molly Wood

You may ask, and rightly so, "who the heck is Molly Wood, and who is CNET?"

Molly, here.

"...dude ....what is the deal with that fukin printer?"

"Why can we not fix the printer?  Who doesn't use a printer?'

And according to the CNET Mission Statement:

"CNET shows you the exciting possibilities of how technology can enhance and enrich your life. We provide you with information, tools, and advice that help you decide what to buy and how to get the most out of your tech."

Molly rants professionally for CNET as a technology editor and the following printer reflections are apparently caught "off-line".

So, quick, you're in MPS - How many of your co-workers love their printers and hate the big copier?

Have they "ranted" like this?