How to Make Money in MPS

That seems to be the new theme of all of the MPS conferences and road shows. I guess just holding a MPS event is passé so the event coordinators needed a new theme. As a member of the leading consulting firm in the MPS space, I thought the theme was rather humorous. I mean could anybody really be in MPS and not be making money in a 56%+ GP business? Then, and this is true, As I was writing this blog post I received an e-mail from a dealer asking me for some free advice on how to fix his MPS business, on which he is “getting killed.” I took that to mean he is losing money.

This dealer principal explained that he had worked with two “consultants” on how to set-up his MPS program and inferred that they had sent him down the wrong path (he named the consultants but I will not). I’ll note that this dealer principal had spoken to me about two years back regarding helping him set-up his program and remarked that SD was too expensive; the two “consultants” in question seem to make a living speaking at vendor events about MPS so maybe he didn’t even pay them for their “advice.” Now after getting his bargain basement advice he wants to know how to fix his program for free? Doesn’t sound like much of a bargain….maybe Strategy Development was less expensive afterall.

The e-mail isn’t the point of the post I originally was writing it simply changed the focus slightly so let’s get back to the point. You can make a lot of money in MPS; the model is tried and true and Strategy Development has clients that have been executing on it for the last five years. If you go back and read the articles written by Strategy Development consultants you can pretty much design your own high profit MPS program based on our model. Those dealers and resellers that are committed to MPS—who invest in getting a real MPS program off the ground—are earning profits in excess of the copier model of 15%.

How do you achieve those returns? Not by going to conferences with a bunch of vendor’s giving you their spin on MPS; so you can stop doing that now and just add that expense back into your profit.

The first thing you need is an absolute commitment to building an MPS business. You need the same passion and commitment you had when you started the company you now lead.

The second item is an investment. I don’t know how to put it any other way except to state that you cannot rationally believe you can enter a new space without any investment, yet I see people trying to do it every month with MPS.

Third is an education. If you are a copier dealer that started your company you probably had experience in the copier space. If you are a VAR you probably had experience in the VAR space. Unless you have experience selling outsourcing (facilities management) it will be a long road for you to travel to learn the MPS space. You can travel that road alone but you’ll pay one way or another—either through mistakes or by investing in a consultant. An important note on the advice you seek: Make sure you are investing in real expertise. As the aforementioned e-mail demonstrates not all advice is equal.

Last, and tying into the commitment, is an open mind. Although MPS is about “putting marks on paper,” just like selling printers or copiers, it is not selling printers or copiers and it requires a different approach.
Follow these simple steps and you won’t have to worry about making money in MPS. You’re worry will be that more companies crack the code and start to experience success in your area!