By Scott Cullen
Business is doing just fine thank you at Oklahoma Office Systems, Inc. (OOSI) in Oklahoma City. Established in 1981, OOSI has established a reputation for meeting the challenges of the ever-changing office equipment landscape head on. They’ve been successful at transitioning customers to digital technology, connecting customer’s devices, and providing value-added services such as managed print long before it became an industry buzz word.
OOSI has experimented with different approaches to managed print during the past seven years and Principal Ron Carr reveals the best thing he ever did was create a separate division to focus on MPS.
“There are a few dealers that have converted their teams, but it’s difficult especially for those with longevity,” says Carr. “When it’s a separate focus and totally driven in that direction, it doesn’t allow them to back up and say, ‘You want to buy a copier, I’ll just sell you a copier.’”
Carr concedes last year was flat on the MPS side of the organization largely because of internal changes within the division, specifically the departure of a key person in the MPS division. The economy hasn’t helped, but things are on the upswing and Carr reports OOSI is running fairly close to what they’ve budgeted as growth for the current fiscal year thanks in part to increased hardware sales. He expects the MPS business to follow suit now that he’s hired a new person to manage the MPS division. This new hire will work closely with sales and marketing reps doing audits and making a case for MPS with customers in the Oklahoma City market. He’s looking to fill a similar position in OOSI’s Tulsa office.
“We’re going to be focusing on different companies and different size accounts than in the past,” says Carr. That means not just big customers and verticals like medical, but midsize companies too.
The personnel within OOSI’s MPS division aren’t from the copier industry and target new business rather than OOSI’s existing customer base. They assist OOSI hardware sales reps on calls, but none have existing relationships within the company’s current customer base.
“We haven’t taken anybody in the past seven years who was a current employee and said, ‘now you’re going to do it,’” says Carr. Despite that strategy OOSI still has a couple of veteran reps who embraced the MPS concept early on and have been successful.
It’s not easy streaking along at the head of the technology curve and there’s bound to be some bumps along the way. For example, if Carr knew seven years ago what he knows now, he would have taken a broader approach to MPS and focused less on hardware at the beginning.
“I wouldn’t have walked away from business because it wasn’t a certain profit margin,” states Carr. “The way the compensation plan was created and developed had our reps paying more attention to the hardware instead of focusing on the service aspect.”
What influenced OOSI to get into the MPS game so early on? Carr attributes it to his membership in the Copier Dealers Association, BTA, and industry events where that issue was a topic of discussion even though few dealers dared enter that fray at the time.
“It was something we needed to look at,” says Carr.
Amazingly, though, it wasn’t difficult presenting the concept to customers.
“It wasn’t a challenge other than the fact that people were hearing about it for the first time so it was a new, innovative approach,” explains Carr. “We did very well in the beginning because there was no competition.”
Seven years later OOSI has plenty of competition. “Everybody is trying to move into MPS even though many aren’t sure the best way to do it,” says Carr.
He’s also seeing more RFPs with an MPS component that obviously weren’t there seven years ago.
“That’s bringing in a whole different realm of competition whether they’ve done it before or not,” laments Carr. “My fear is if they don’t understand it and don’t have a good grasp of what the real cost is to do a true managed print services engagement, it’s going to be just like the copier side of the business and margins will start dropping and they’ll be giving services away.”
In the meantime, OOSI can only control what they can control and that’s their reputation as a hardware and services provider.
“We’re marketing ourselves as the MPS innovator,” says Carr. “We were first in this market therefore we’ve had seven years experience.”
OOSI is also an HP Elite reseller and that adds some credibility too, particularly with IT.
The biggest challenge to selling MPS in Carr’s estimation is reaching the appropriate decision maker, which in many instances is a C-level executive.
“Most of the copier people in my market and most in this industry are at a purchasing or office manager level, and it’s very difficult to get from there to a CFO or CEO,” says Carr. “Managed print must be driven from the top down.”
OOSI is doing just that. Other dealers focus on IT, but that’s not the OOSI approach even though IT often participates in OOSI’s meetings with C-level executives.
“We’ve taken the CEO, CFO approach with print management and IT people are coming in and buying into this and we get very positive feedback,” notes Carr.
With all the copier/MFP manufacturers touting MPS, we wondered if OOSI has received any help from their manufacturer.
“We haven’t asked for any help because we’ve been doing it longer than they have,” responds Carr. “For them to come in and tell us how to do it, it’s kind of like them researching themselves about how to go about doing it.”
Manufacturer’s direct branches have been the bane of many a dealer’s existence of late, but Carr isn’t concerned from an MPS perspective. “The manufacturers are going to have more of a challenge than the independent dealer because we have more choices of products to bring into it,” says Carr. “If I’m a Ricoh branch my only solution is typically Ricoh.”
OOSI has received guidance from Strategy Development in refining its MPS initiatives. Meanwhile, Carr has high hopes for the future and wouldn’t be surprised if within the next three to five years 70-75 percent of OOSI’s business involves some type of MPS engagement.
“We would love it to be 100 percent,” says Carr. “At some point our objective is to convert every one of our employees to this particular selling philosophy.”
Finally, Carr offers advice to dealers who have not yet taken the plunge into MPS.
“In the long run, if you’re going to be a viable company you need to transition into this arena,” he says. “This industry is really changing. As we know, the A4 product is starting to replace a lot of A3 products. So revenues are starting to go down if they haven’t already and they’re going to continue to drive in that direction as we go from selling a $7,000 machine to a $2,000 machine that does the same thing.”
Scott Cullen has been covering the office equipment industry since 1986. Scott is Publisher/Editorial Director for Imaging Solutions Reseller; Editorial Director/Managing Editor for OfficeSOLUTIONS and OfficeDEALER; Editor for PC Solutions; and a contributing writer and Editor for Independent Dealer, OFDA, Mercer Business, ENX, BERTL’s iTchat, Repro Report.
Showing posts with label BTA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BTA. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
It’s Time to Grow Your Equipment Revenue
You survived a tough economic environment; let’s hope the toughest you’ll need to endure in your career. You made the necessary expense cuts and hopefully, you’ve optimized your service operations so you are experiencing returns greater than 52% (if not contact Mike Woodard at Strategy Development) and invested in an MPS program. Stay that course: keep driving down expenses, improving service returns, and growing your MPS program. But add to this growth in your equipment revenue line.
I am not suggesting you take the 1980’s approach and add a tremendous amount of sales headcount to sell equipment. That is an absolute losing proposition. What I am suggesting is that the extremely difficult economy of late 2008 and the entire 2009 has crippled some of your weaker competitors. Those that were too highly leveraged going into the “Great Recession” had to make expense reductions beyond the logical; they weren’t focused on reducing their general and administrative expenses (G&A) with improvements in workflow or automation—they were chopping heads to survive. Same goes for service, they didn’t have the benefit of a Mike Woodard helping them to improve their service returns with logical productivity improvements, recall ratio declines, and parts improvements, they were slashing and burning service payroll. When the unsuccessful sales professional quit—their lack of success probably partially due to poor territory design—they were not replaced to save the expense.
These companies will eventually sellout, and acquiring them is one solid strategy to grow your business. Frankly, they are selling for pennies on the dollar compared to four or five years ago. 5X EBITDA is a thing of the past—a small upfront fee and earn out is today’s benchmark. If you are not talking to the small local competitors you should start immediately.
You’ve read my posts and articles that there are fewer copier units sold year on year in the industry, but that doesn’t mean you need to sell fewer. Focus on market share gains that exceed the industry unit decline ratio. You have competitors that are impaired and will experience unit sales far below the industry decline—they cut too deep in the recession.
How do you achieve this growth? A well structured sales operations approach is the foundation. Start with territory design that uses machines in field (MIF) upgrade value. Without this information you don’t know if your reps are stars or flameouts. You also cannot be certain that your MIF is covered by a sales professional. After you have your territories structured on MIF add in the accounts in your territory that you don’t have as customers but want, and make certain you only add a quantity that can be managed by your reps. If you have six sales professionals it is not logical to add 10,000 accounts for them to target—they can never get to them and will therefore choose which ones to go after on their own. I would rather choose the accounts where I want my reps focused.
Next make certain your sales manager is focused on developing the employees and helping them to drive business into your current accounts and target accounts. Does MPS come into play? MPS can certainly help you sell more equipment but the assumption is that you are deploying MPS as your primary growth strategy; we are talking here about using your territory reps to grow your business as well.
If you want a blueprint to implement a sound sales operations approach attend BTA Sales Management Workshop, or if you are a Konica Minolta dealer the KMBS Sales Management training, both developed and instructed by Strategy Development.
I am not suggesting you take the 1980’s approach and add a tremendous amount of sales headcount to sell equipment. That is an absolute losing proposition. What I am suggesting is that the extremely difficult economy of late 2008 and the entire 2009 has crippled some of your weaker competitors. Those that were too highly leveraged going into the “Great Recession” had to make expense reductions beyond the logical; they weren’t focused on reducing their general and administrative expenses (G&A) with improvements in workflow or automation—they were chopping heads to survive. Same goes for service, they didn’t have the benefit of a Mike Woodard helping them to improve their service returns with logical productivity improvements, recall ratio declines, and parts improvements, they were slashing and burning service payroll. When the unsuccessful sales professional quit—their lack of success probably partially due to poor territory design—they were not replaced to save the expense.
These companies will eventually sellout, and acquiring them is one solid strategy to grow your business. Frankly, they are selling for pennies on the dollar compared to four or five years ago. 5X EBITDA is a thing of the past—a small upfront fee and earn out is today’s benchmark. If you are not talking to the small local competitors you should start immediately.
You’ve read my posts and articles that there are fewer copier units sold year on year in the industry, but that doesn’t mean you need to sell fewer. Focus on market share gains that exceed the industry unit decline ratio. You have competitors that are impaired and will experience unit sales far below the industry decline—they cut too deep in the recession.
How do you achieve this growth? A well structured sales operations approach is the foundation. Start with territory design that uses machines in field (MIF) upgrade value. Without this information you don’t know if your reps are stars or flameouts. You also cannot be certain that your MIF is covered by a sales professional. After you have your territories structured on MIF add in the accounts in your territory that you don’t have as customers but want, and make certain you only add a quantity that can be managed by your reps. If you have six sales professionals it is not logical to add 10,000 accounts for them to target—they can never get to them and will therefore choose which ones to go after on their own. I would rather choose the accounts where I want my reps focused.
Next make certain your sales manager is focused on developing the employees and helping them to drive business into your current accounts and target accounts. Does MPS come into play? MPS can certainly help you sell more equipment but the assumption is that you are deploying MPS as your primary growth strategy; we are talking here about using your territory reps to grow your business as well.
If you want a blueprint to implement a sound sales operations approach attend BTA Sales Management Workshop, or if you are a Konica Minolta dealer the KMBS Sales Management training, both developed and instructed by Strategy Development.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Are You Maximizing Your Business Potential?
Greece’s fiscal crisis is a clear indication that the global economy is not totally out of the woods. The “Great Recession” came in with a roar after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September, 2008, and by most economists and Government accounts ended in the second half of 2009. Today, the US appears to be experiencing some level of recovery in almost all sectors, albeit against week comparables from last year.
Strategy Development’s copier company clients are experiencing year on year equipment growth and year on year click growth, although against weak comparables from last year in the copier segment. The big question is sustainability—does the short-term growth result in a sustained growth run.
Unfortunately, many companies react based on what is occurring today rather than on sound planning. If business is down—throw some bodies at the problem and when that doesn’t work, and you’ve needlessly drained cash—take an ax to expenses. If business is going well don’t take the time to understand “why” simply enjoy the ride. Yet history demonstrates that without planning and innovation the good times end and the bad times usually get even uglier.
I would suggest that now is not the time to be euphoric about your growth against weak comparables. Enjoy the additional revenue, operating income, and cash flow, but take the time with your senior team to understand where the industry is headed and how your business can properly invest today to be a leader tomorrow. Moreover, don’t assume that “better” is “best,” look for areas to increase revenue, improve gross profit, and reduce general and administrative expense (G&A).
Those of you that have heard me speak on business planning know that I use a concept of “air cover,” where I look for short-term gains in high leverage areas to provide me the investment dollars to grow the business. Service and back office operations were always two of the areas I looked to leverage. Both back office operations and service are quasi production environments. Without deep understanding of these areas of the business it is difficult to maximize gross profit and minimize G&A; yet they usually provide the greatest opportunity to provide the “air cover” you need to invest in growth.
MPS adds complexity to back office operations and service because many aspects of the MPS agreement are foreign to employees of a copier company. E.g., there were 100 devices on the initial assessment, 104 at the first quarterly read—plus three totally different from the initial assessment—then on the second quarterly read there are 103 devices, two reappeared from the initial assessment, and two others are different from the prior reads. And oh yea, the rep added four devices, changed the minimum and CPP rate, and extended the lease out six more months! Service has to deal with five different vendors and 18 different models.
Let’s say service represents 40% of your revenue and with the correct processes you can improve margins by 5%: That added 2% to your bottom line. Let’s assume you are in the 19% - 22% G&A range of most dealers and with the correct back office processes you can reduce that by 2%. You now have 4% operating income improvement to invest in sales. Isn’t that a lot more logical than hoping the new sales employees can outrun their expense? After all that expense coverage from sales never happens but by taking the “air cover model” you now you have money to invest in growth without feeling the severe pinch of cash flow.
Unless you have a team of analyst to run off and research back office operations and service—or you want to go down the trial and error route—you’ll need help. Fortunately for you Mike Woodard, service consultant and Jim Boulden operations consultant from Strategy Development have the experience to help you get your air cover. Every dealer engagement Mike and Jim have entered has had a three to four month payback period with ongoing savings that could be invested in growth. These two guys provide you the air cover!
If you are nervous about entering a consulting engagement enroll your team members in one of the classes they put on through BTA: MPS Operations and Service or Service Management University (SMU). Jim also instructs, along with Ed Carroll and me, BTA’s business planning workshop.
What about MPS? Where do you think you’re going to make those investments! Our MPS clients also experienced year on year click decreases on a comparable basis (same customers) during the recession (keep in perspective we’ve been consulting in MPS since early 2006); but they experience substantial overall growth because they were continuously adding new customers. How is your MPS program going—honestly? I add that qualifier realizing that it is hard to be honest when everybody you speak to says they have an MPS program, and at least in public, tell you it is going “GREAT.”
Strategy Development consults for the most successful MPS providers in the country so we know what great looks like. You want the first indication that “GREAT” may not be that good? When you are quoted a quantity of prints they manage (our start-up MPS clients did that until the figure was bigger than McDonald’s hamburgers sold). Let’s be realistic here: That “3,000,000 print” contract actually means 50,000 prints per month or $750 per month (most companies use 5 years as the multiplier even if the contract is for 3). And “we’re managing 60,000,000 prints” means they manage (maybe) 1,000,000 prints per month or $20,000 per month: Decent revenue for one rep 12 months into the MPS business.
What is good? Hyper growth to simplify the answer but here’s a quick financial look. After 12 months—from dead start—a good MPS specialist will be managing $24,500 in monthly recurring aftermarket revenue. After two years that same single rep will be managing $64,500 in monthly recurring revenue and will have sold $360,000 in equipment the second year; in other words your single rep will be a $1 million plus business by the end of year two. Use these figures to really get successful in the space! If you want to realize these results attend BTA’s Managed Print Services Workshop or download licenses from InfoTrends MPS Sales eLearning workshop through the BTA website (at a discount to members) or directly from InfoTrends.
What about copiers? According to the research firms you will continue to see year on year unit decreases. That doesn’t mean you cannot grow; you will need to increase your market share with better programs or processes than your competitors. Attend our BTA Sales Management program, or if you are a KMBS dealer the KMBS Sales Management Workshop, subsidized by KMBS and instructed by Strategy Development.
Finally, to tie it all together BTA has the Business Planning Workshop.
You probably see a theme here in that Strategy Development and the BTA have a training program for every ailment. Believe me SD didn’t invent the ailments we simply developed training programs to help dealers/resellers overcome the issue they face. We are in the business of helping you achieve success. Primarily, Strategy Development accomplishes that through our consulting engagements but the seven of us cannot possibly think we can touch all 2,500+ dealers with our consulting. BTA is also focused on helping the dealer community achieve success and we choose each other as partners to help dealers thrive.
Things are good now because most companies have very easy comparables from last year but don’t take long-term success for granted. Whether or not you work with Strategy Development, take the time to put together a business plan and take into consideration the environmental issues affecting the industry.
Strategy Development’s copier company clients are experiencing year on year equipment growth and year on year click growth, although against weak comparables from last year in the copier segment. The big question is sustainability—does the short-term growth result in a sustained growth run.
Unfortunately, many companies react based on what is occurring today rather than on sound planning. If business is down—throw some bodies at the problem and when that doesn’t work, and you’ve needlessly drained cash—take an ax to expenses. If business is going well don’t take the time to understand “why” simply enjoy the ride. Yet history demonstrates that without planning and innovation the good times end and the bad times usually get even uglier.
I would suggest that now is not the time to be euphoric about your growth against weak comparables. Enjoy the additional revenue, operating income, and cash flow, but take the time with your senior team to understand where the industry is headed and how your business can properly invest today to be a leader tomorrow. Moreover, don’t assume that “better” is “best,” look for areas to increase revenue, improve gross profit, and reduce general and administrative expense (G&A).
Those of you that have heard me speak on business planning know that I use a concept of “air cover,” where I look for short-term gains in high leverage areas to provide me the investment dollars to grow the business. Service and back office operations were always two of the areas I looked to leverage. Both back office operations and service are quasi production environments. Without deep understanding of these areas of the business it is difficult to maximize gross profit and minimize G&A; yet they usually provide the greatest opportunity to provide the “air cover” you need to invest in growth.
MPS adds complexity to back office operations and service because many aspects of the MPS agreement are foreign to employees of a copier company. E.g., there were 100 devices on the initial assessment, 104 at the first quarterly read—plus three totally different from the initial assessment—then on the second quarterly read there are 103 devices, two reappeared from the initial assessment, and two others are different from the prior reads. And oh yea, the rep added four devices, changed the minimum and CPP rate, and extended the lease out six more months! Service has to deal with five different vendors and 18 different models.
Let’s say service represents 40% of your revenue and with the correct processes you can improve margins by 5%: That added 2% to your bottom line. Let’s assume you are in the 19% - 22% G&A range of most dealers and with the correct back office processes you can reduce that by 2%. You now have 4% operating income improvement to invest in sales. Isn’t that a lot more logical than hoping the new sales employees can outrun their expense? After all that expense coverage from sales never happens but by taking the “air cover model” you now you have money to invest in growth without feeling the severe pinch of cash flow.
Unless you have a team of analyst to run off and research back office operations and service—or you want to go down the trial and error route—you’ll need help. Fortunately for you Mike Woodard, service consultant and Jim Boulden operations consultant from Strategy Development have the experience to help you get your air cover. Every dealer engagement Mike and Jim have entered has had a three to four month payback period with ongoing savings that could be invested in growth. These two guys provide you the air cover!
If you are nervous about entering a consulting engagement enroll your team members in one of the classes they put on through BTA: MPS Operations and Service or Service Management University (SMU). Jim also instructs, along with Ed Carroll and me, BTA’s business planning workshop.
What about MPS? Where do you think you’re going to make those investments! Our MPS clients also experienced year on year click decreases on a comparable basis (same customers) during the recession (keep in perspective we’ve been consulting in MPS since early 2006); but they experience substantial overall growth because they were continuously adding new customers. How is your MPS program going—honestly? I add that qualifier realizing that it is hard to be honest when everybody you speak to says they have an MPS program, and at least in public, tell you it is going “GREAT.”
Strategy Development consults for the most successful MPS providers in the country so we know what great looks like. You want the first indication that “GREAT” may not be that good? When you are quoted a quantity of prints they manage (our start-up MPS clients did that until the figure was bigger than McDonald’s hamburgers sold). Let’s be realistic here: That “3,000,000 print” contract actually means 50,000 prints per month or $750 per month (most companies use 5 years as the multiplier even if the contract is for 3). And “we’re managing 60,000,000 prints” means they manage (maybe) 1,000,000 prints per month or $20,000 per month: Decent revenue for one rep 12 months into the MPS business.
What is good? Hyper growth to simplify the answer but here’s a quick financial look. After 12 months—from dead start—a good MPS specialist will be managing $24,500 in monthly recurring aftermarket revenue. After two years that same single rep will be managing $64,500 in monthly recurring revenue and will have sold $360,000 in equipment the second year; in other words your single rep will be a $1 million plus business by the end of year two. Use these figures to really get successful in the space! If you want to realize these results attend BTA’s Managed Print Services Workshop or download licenses from InfoTrends MPS Sales eLearning workshop through the BTA website (at a discount to members) or directly from InfoTrends.
What about copiers? According to the research firms you will continue to see year on year unit decreases. That doesn’t mean you cannot grow; you will need to increase your market share with better programs or processes than your competitors. Attend our BTA Sales Management program, or if you are a KMBS dealer the KMBS Sales Management Workshop, subsidized by KMBS and instructed by Strategy Development.
Finally, to tie it all together BTA has the Business Planning Workshop.
You probably see a theme here in that Strategy Development and the BTA have a training program for every ailment. Believe me SD didn’t invent the ailments we simply developed training programs to help dealers/resellers overcome the issue they face. We are in the business of helping you achieve success. Primarily, Strategy Development accomplishes that through our consulting engagements but the seven of us cannot possibly think we can touch all 2,500+ dealers with our consulting. BTA is also focused on helping the dealer community achieve success and we choose each other as partners to help dealers thrive.
Things are good now because most companies have very easy comparables from last year but don’t take long-term success for granted. Whether or not you work with Strategy Development, take the time to put together a business plan and take into consideration the environmental issues affecting the industry.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Trade Shows: Are they worth the time
I am frequently asked the by clients “Should I attend (fill in the blank) show / conference?” I tend to answer the question with another question, “What are you looking to get out of the event?” Your answer to that question will then lead to some research to determine if the event is worth the investment in entrance fee, travel expense, and more importantly, your time.
There are many trade shows out there and a new one seems to pop-up every other year. They may be disguised as conferences or some other educations sounding event but when you look under the covers most are simply trade shows. Let’s explore some of the goals of a trade show:
Networking: An important aspect of business and one that requires focus. Many dealers belong to industry groups such as BPCA, CDA, SDG, or others and get to see their fellow group members at the events held by these groups. The networking aspect is just one of the many reasons why we recommend that our clients belong to an industry peer group. You also have the manufacturer dealer meetings held every 18 – 24 months. The problem with both of these types of events is that they are closed—you need to be a member of the peer group or you need to be a dealer for the manufacturer.
To network with dealers outside of this group you need an open forum. Two that accomplish this goal are the BTA regional events and ITEX. As by far the largest advocacy group for the copier / MPS industry, the BTA provides many benefits to the dealer / reseller community. One of those many benefits are the regional events they hold every year. I have participated in events in the Northeast and Southeast and they had drawn a large quantity of regional dealers and they are easy to get to, not requiring extra time for travel. I strongly recommend membership in the BTA and attendance at their events.
ITEX is the other forum that provides for networking, but in this case on a national basis. Las Vegas is a destination city and airfare and hotels are relatively inexpensive. You have great restaurants, entertainment, and oh yea, gambling. One of the largest benefits ITEX provides is the networking.
Education: Two warnings when it comes to education. First and foremost, if the event sponsors have most of the speaking spots you are wasting your time. One thinly veiled secret of the conference set is that some events are simply designed to generate revenue for the event coordinator and not designed to actually provide any value to the participants. Want to provide the keynote address? Become the platinum sponsor. Want to provide the day one closing address? Buy the gold sponsorship. Just align the sponsorship hierarchy with the relative status of the speaking spot and I think you will find perfect alignment. When you pay $10,000 to $20,000 to be the sponsor you talk about what you believe is a legitimate subject—the event coordinator doesn’t have a lot of influence after they take your check.
Do you really need to pay to see a vendor speak? It is my experience that the vendor will gladly pay for you to visit their office for the presentation and maybe even buy you a nice dinner or round of golf. Heck, lately some have even been flying dealers to their offices in Asia—on their dime.
And if you gave it some thought do you think that software vendor, toner recharge sales person or parts sales person really knows how to instruct you on launching an MPS program? Improve your sales effectiveness? Improve service margins? How about that MFP manufacturer trying to sell you that they don’t necessarily want you to sell their hardware? Why on earth would you pay to have these vendors that would either pay you for the opportunity to meet or who don’t have competency in the subject matter to speak to you…or should I be more straight forward and ask why pay for a sales pitch?
The second warning is on the concept of education at a trade show or conference. Most of the time the person giving the “training” is not being paid to instruct (in the sponsorship scenario they are actually paying for their opportunity to “train” you), but more than likely considers the speaking engagement an opportunity to give a sales pitch on their program. The degree of “pitch” vs training varies. I am sure we have all sat through the training program where we received 5 minutes of 80,000 foot theory and 55 minutes of program pitch, some disguised and some not so disguised. At other times we did get 45 – 50 minutes of 5,000 foot information and 10 – 15 minutes of pitch. The former is a complete waste of time and the latter provides you an opportunity to determine if the speaker can help your organization on a consulting or training basis.
The point is that you can learn at some of the conferences where the sponsors don’t get the majority of the speaking slots, but don’t expect to learn too much and choose the seminars you attend carefully. Let’s be realistic, do you think that a person that makes a living selling their knowledge is going to provide it to you for free, and do that in one hour?
What should you look to avoid? Preconference days that are completely paid for by sponsors and all of the speaking slots are taken by sponsors. These usually focus on the hot topic of the day like MPS or service improvement. Ironically, even though the sponsors paid to speak at these events they usually cost you additional money to attend—so you are paying to get a sales pitch.
The other area to avoid is conferences designed strictly to generate revenue for the show producer. What do they look like? A subject matter conference (always the hot topic of the day as that is the only topic anybody would be lured into paying for without much investigation) where all of the sponsors have speaking engagements. Whereas the add on day to the conference usually only costs an additional $99 - $150, effectively doubling the cost of the conference, it isn’t unusual for these total rip-off subject matter conferences to cost $795 - $995. Some go as far as having an add on day as a front runner to their totally sponsored conference.
If you really want education you need to pay for it and you should select the education topic you require. The good conference, like the main ITEX show or BTA regional events, may give you exposure to different speakers to help you make your assessment but once you believe you found a good trainer go to the specific workshop they offer on the subject and don’t attend any overpriced conferences hoping to get trained. You’ll only get trained if the trainer is getting compensated for their knowledge. The BTA offers some great programs.
Product information: If you want to compare and contrast products you have three choices, two of them logical. The first, illogical approach is to visit each company (illogical because of cost and time). The second is a series of webinars. The third is got to the main ITEX show and have appointments scheduled with each of the vendors to review their products.
Research: I find InfoTrends conference to be a great research opportunity. This isn’t the traditional educational event but it is one of the most educational events you can attend. Want to know what is going to happen with unit placements? You’ll learn it at the infoTrends conference. Want to know about print volume trends and where documents are being printed? You’ll learn it at the infoTrends conference. Basically, if you want to get into the details of the industry, copier or MPS, attend this conference.
You might want to research a new area—document archival for instance. There are trade shows for these areas such as AIIM. Search out the trade shows but use the information you have above to vet the show. If it is comprised totally of talking heads from the sponsors that are going to tell you how to do something they never did avoid the event.
The bottom line—there are a few shows that are worth the money if they fit into your goals but evaluate what your goals are against the agenda of the show.
There are many trade shows out there and a new one seems to pop-up every other year. They may be disguised as conferences or some other educations sounding event but when you look under the covers most are simply trade shows. Let’s explore some of the goals of a trade show:
Networking: An important aspect of business and one that requires focus. Many dealers belong to industry groups such as BPCA, CDA, SDG, or others and get to see their fellow group members at the events held by these groups. The networking aspect is just one of the many reasons why we recommend that our clients belong to an industry peer group. You also have the manufacturer dealer meetings held every 18 – 24 months. The problem with both of these types of events is that they are closed—you need to be a member of the peer group or you need to be a dealer for the manufacturer.
To network with dealers outside of this group you need an open forum. Two that accomplish this goal are the BTA regional events and ITEX. As by far the largest advocacy group for the copier / MPS industry, the BTA provides many benefits to the dealer / reseller community. One of those many benefits are the regional events they hold every year. I have participated in events in the Northeast and Southeast and they had drawn a large quantity of regional dealers and they are easy to get to, not requiring extra time for travel. I strongly recommend membership in the BTA and attendance at their events.
ITEX is the other forum that provides for networking, but in this case on a national basis. Las Vegas is a destination city and airfare and hotels are relatively inexpensive. You have great restaurants, entertainment, and oh yea, gambling. One of the largest benefits ITEX provides is the networking.
Education: Two warnings when it comes to education. First and foremost, if the event sponsors have most of the speaking spots you are wasting your time. One thinly veiled secret of the conference set is that some events are simply designed to generate revenue for the event coordinator and not designed to actually provide any value to the participants. Want to provide the keynote address? Become the platinum sponsor. Want to provide the day one closing address? Buy the gold sponsorship. Just align the sponsorship hierarchy with the relative status of the speaking spot and I think you will find perfect alignment. When you pay $10,000 to $20,000 to be the sponsor you talk about what you believe is a legitimate subject—the event coordinator doesn’t have a lot of influence after they take your check.
Do you really need to pay to see a vendor speak? It is my experience that the vendor will gladly pay for you to visit their office for the presentation and maybe even buy you a nice dinner or round of golf. Heck, lately some have even been flying dealers to their offices in Asia—on their dime.
And if you gave it some thought do you think that software vendor, toner recharge sales person or parts sales person really knows how to instruct you on launching an MPS program? Improve your sales effectiveness? Improve service margins? How about that MFP manufacturer trying to sell you that they don’t necessarily want you to sell their hardware? Why on earth would you pay to have these vendors that would either pay you for the opportunity to meet or who don’t have competency in the subject matter to speak to you…or should I be more straight forward and ask why pay for a sales pitch?
The second warning is on the concept of education at a trade show or conference. Most of the time the person giving the “training” is not being paid to instruct (in the sponsorship scenario they are actually paying for their opportunity to “train” you), but more than likely considers the speaking engagement an opportunity to give a sales pitch on their program. The degree of “pitch” vs training varies. I am sure we have all sat through the training program where we received 5 minutes of 80,000 foot theory and 55 minutes of program pitch, some disguised and some not so disguised. At other times we did get 45 – 50 minutes of 5,000 foot information and 10 – 15 minutes of pitch. The former is a complete waste of time and the latter provides you an opportunity to determine if the speaker can help your organization on a consulting or training basis.
The point is that you can learn at some of the conferences where the sponsors don’t get the majority of the speaking slots, but don’t expect to learn too much and choose the seminars you attend carefully. Let’s be realistic, do you think that a person that makes a living selling their knowledge is going to provide it to you for free, and do that in one hour?
What should you look to avoid? Preconference days that are completely paid for by sponsors and all of the speaking slots are taken by sponsors. These usually focus on the hot topic of the day like MPS or service improvement. Ironically, even though the sponsors paid to speak at these events they usually cost you additional money to attend—so you are paying to get a sales pitch.
The other area to avoid is conferences designed strictly to generate revenue for the show producer. What do they look like? A subject matter conference (always the hot topic of the day as that is the only topic anybody would be lured into paying for without much investigation) where all of the sponsors have speaking engagements. Whereas the add on day to the conference usually only costs an additional $99 - $150, effectively doubling the cost of the conference, it isn’t unusual for these total rip-off subject matter conferences to cost $795 - $995. Some go as far as having an add on day as a front runner to their totally sponsored conference.
If you really want education you need to pay for it and you should select the education topic you require. The good conference, like the main ITEX show or BTA regional events, may give you exposure to different speakers to help you make your assessment but once you believe you found a good trainer go to the specific workshop they offer on the subject and don’t attend any overpriced conferences hoping to get trained. You’ll only get trained if the trainer is getting compensated for their knowledge. The BTA offers some great programs.
Product information: If you want to compare and contrast products you have three choices, two of them logical. The first, illogical approach is to visit each company (illogical because of cost and time). The second is a series of webinars. The third is got to the main ITEX show and have appointments scheduled with each of the vendors to review their products.
Research: I find InfoTrends conference to be a great research opportunity. This isn’t the traditional educational event but it is one of the most educational events you can attend. Want to know what is going to happen with unit placements? You’ll learn it at the infoTrends conference. Want to know about print volume trends and where documents are being printed? You’ll learn it at the infoTrends conference. Basically, if you want to get into the details of the industry, copier or MPS, attend this conference.
You might want to research a new area—document archival for instance. There are trade shows for these areas such as AIIM. Search out the trade shows but use the information you have above to vet the show. If it is comprised totally of talking heads from the sponsors that are going to tell you how to do something they never did avoid the event.
The bottom line—there are a few shows that are worth the money if they fit into your goals but evaluate what your goals are against the agenda of the show.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Strategy Development Launch MPS Mentoring Program
Bryn Mawr, PA (June 2009) — Over the last four years, Strategy Development has helped hundreds of dealers enter the managed print services (MPS) space through their industry leading consulting and training practices. The Strategy Development Team leveraged their significant experience leading large outsourcing, professional services, and equipment focused businesses to develop the services led MPS approach now advocated by most industry players.
Based on the Strategy Development Print Management Processes, the MPS Mentoring Program offers a Sales Track and Operations Track to help channel players enter the fast growing MPS space.
MPS Mentoring Sales Track
Dedicated Print Management Sales Professionals participate in a 13 week webinar series covering every aspect of the print management / MPS sale. Each weekly training event is paired with a weekly best practices call so that participants have the opportunity to learn from the other participants in their cohort. The Strategy Development consultants facilitate these calls and hold monthly update calls with the participant’s manager to ensure the learning’s are being applied and reinforced.
MPS Operations Mentoring Track
With the industry leading service and financial operations consultants on staff, nobody is better positioned to help you understand the processes and requirements to effectively support an MPS business. Over this 12 week program, with offsetting biweekly webinars supported by biweekly individual dealer calls, your team will learn how to build a business plan, developing a compensation plan, profitably price and manage MPS transactions, and handle all of the intricacies of installation and service, among other operational areas.
Participants in the mentoring program receive a toolset that includes:
• Sample contracts
• Web based employment ad
• Power Point scripted value proposition
• Power Point strategy session template
• Power Point proposal template
• Pricing tool
“We have encountered numerous VARs and BTA Dealers that sought the level of expertise that they could only get from Strategy Development and our team of employee consultants, but who did not have the resources to commit to a full consulting engagement,” commented Tom Callinan, managing principal. “Our mentoring program will provide a strong foundation for a VAR, BTA Dealer, or OEM Branch to launch a successful MPS strategy.”
Callinan continued “Our consulting engagements have helped channel players add millions of dollars in monthly reoccurring revenue, which I think is the correct way to measure an MPS program. You can extrapolate monthly clicks into multimillion print agreements over a three year period, but marketing spin doesn’t pay the bills so look at reoccurring revenue to drive your program.”
In addition to the consulting and mentoring programs, Strategy Development developed and instructs the BTA Print Management Workshop, open to all channel players. Ed Carroll, principal of Strategy Development, commented “An industry trainer recently commented that his MPS training doesn’t work. After having over 100 companies represented in our BTA training program, I can tell you unequivocally that our training program produces measurable results. The choice seems clear.”
You now have a choice on how to use the industry leading expertise of the Strategy Development Team: Consulting engagement, mentoring program, or training in partnership with the BTA.
For information on the MPS Mentoring Program or to request an complimentary assessment contact Tom Callinan at callinan@strategydevelopment.org or 610.527.3317
Strategy Development, a management consulting firm focused to the technology and outsourcing space, specializes in business planning, sales effectiveness, advanced sales training, and operational and service improvement. For more information visit Strategy Development at www.strategydevelopment.org
The Business Technology Association (BTA) serves office technology dealerships, manufacturers, distributors and service companies. Its members manufacture and/or sell and service hardware, software and supplies that help businesses be more efficient and save money. Through education, information and guidance, BTA members are the premier source of the technology used by businesses throughout the United States every day.
Based on the Strategy Development Print Management Processes, the MPS Mentoring Program offers a Sales Track and Operations Track to help channel players enter the fast growing MPS space.
MPS Mentoring Sales Track
Dedicated Print Management Sales Professionals participate in a 13 week webinar series covering every aspect of the print management / MPS sale. Each weekly training event is paired with a weekly best practices call so that participants have the opportunity to learn from the other participants in their cohort. The Strategy Development consultants facilitate these calls and hold monthly update calls with the participant’s manager to ensure the learning’s are being applied and reinforced.
MPS Operations Mentoring Track
With the industry leading service and financial operations consultants on staff, nobody is better positioned to help you understand the processes and requirements to effectively support an MPS business. Over this 12 week program, with offsetting biweekly webinars supported by biweekly individual dealer calls, your team will learn how to build a business plan, developing a compensation plan, profitably price and manage MPS transactions, and handle all of the intricacies of installation and service, among other operational areas.
Participants in the mentoring program receive a toolset that includes:
• Sample contracts
• Web based employment ad
• Power Point scripted value proposition
• Power Point strategy session template
• Power Point proposal template
• Pricing tool
“We have encountered numerous VARs and BTA Dealers that sought the level of expertise that they could only get from Strategy Development and our team of employee consultants, but who did not have the resources to commit to a full consulting engagement,” commented Tom Callinan, managing principal. “Our mentoring program will provide a strong foundation for a VAR, BTA Dealer, or OEM Branch to launch a successful MPS strategy.”
Callinan continued “Our consulting engagements have helped channel players add millions of dollars in monthly reoccurring revenue, which I think is the correct way to measure an MPS program. You can extrapolate monthly clicks into multimillion print agreements over a three year period, but marketing spin doesn’t pay the bills so look at reoccurring revenue to drive your program.”
In addition to the consulting and mentoring programs, Strategy Development developed and instructs the BTA Print Management Workshop, open to all channel players. Ed Carroll, principal of Strategy Development, commented “An industry trainer recently commented that his MPS training doesn’t work. After having over 100 companies represented in our BTA training program, I can tell you unequivocally that our training program produces measurable results. The choice seems clear.”
You now have a choice on how to use the industry leading expertise of the Strategy Development Team: Consulting engagement, mentoring program, or training in partnership with the BTA.
For information on the MPS Mentoring Program or to request an complimentary assessment contact Tom Callinan at callinan@strategydevelopment.org or 610.527.3317
Strategy Development, a management consulting firm focused to the technology and outsourcing space, specializes in business planning, sales effectiveness, advanced sales training, and operational and service improvement. For more information visit Strategy Development at www.strategydevelopment.org
The Business Technology Association (BTA) serves office technology dealerships, manufacturers, distributors and service companies. Its members manufacture and/or sell and service hardware, software and supplies that help businesses be more efficient and save money. Through education, information and guidance, BTA members are the premier source of the technology used by businesses throughout the United States every day.
Strategy Development & The BTA Launch Business Planning Workshop
Bryn Mawr, PA (June 2009) — Dealers are seeking strategies to grow revenue and profits in the face of year-over-year industry unit placement declines, a shift from A3 to A4 products, a difficult financing environment and new competition for pages from other channels selling print management solutions.
Although there are many training programs that address different aspects of planning or focus on improving results in functional areas, there is no single program that comprehensively brings together all functional areas into a cohesive plan of action — until now. The BTA Business Planning Workshop is a 2.5 day program developed and instructed by the consultants from Strategy Development. Attendees will learn through a combination of instruction, case studies and class discussion how to build and execute a business plan that becomes a roadmap to achieving business goals.
A snapshot of some of the content from this workshop:
· How to use your financial statements to make good business decisions
· Using the Strategy Development Balanced Scorecard to maximize results
· Conducting SWOT analysis and using the data to grow
· Using industry trends to plan for a profitable future
· Launching new initiatives
· Driving productivity: A key to high profits
· Engineering processes to improve workflow and employee satisfaction
· Cash management
“We have been able to help scores of dealers across North America launch print management initiatives, improve their equipment sales effectiveness and improve back office and service operations,” said Tom Callinan, managing principal of Strategy Development. “But short of a consulting engagement with our team, until the launch of the BTA Business Planning Workshop there has been no single program available that allowed the dealer to get a holistic view of growing their business and profits.”
“Our members have benefited greatly from the expertise of the Strategy Development team and we are looking forward to enhancing our training curriculum with this comprehensive workshop,” added Brent Hoskins, BTA executive director. “Business planning is one of the most requested educational areas from our members, so we are happy that we can now provide that education.”
The inaugural BTA Business Planning Workshop will be held October 6-8. For information e-mail Tom Callinan at callinan@strategydevelopment.org or call 610.527.3317.
Strategy Development, a management consulting firm focused to the technology and outsourcing space, specializes in business planning, sales effectiveness, advanced sales training, and operational and service improvement. For more information visit Strategy Development at www.strategydevelopment.org.
The Business Technology Association (BTA) serves office technology dealerships, manufacturers, distributors and service companies. Its members sell and service and/or manufacture service hardware, software and supplies that help businesses be more efficient and save money. Through education, information and guidance, BTA members are the premier source of the technology used by businesses throughout the United States every day.
Although there are many training programs that address different aspects of planning or focus on improving results in functional areas, there is no single program that comprehensively brings together all functional areas into a cohesive plan of action — until now. The BTA Business Planning Workshop is a 2.5 day program developed and instructed by the consultants from Strategy Development. Attendees will learn through a combination of instruction, case studies and class discussion how to build and execute a business plan that becomes a roadmap to achieving business goals.
A snapshot of some of the content from this workshop:
· How to use your financial statements to make good business decisions
· Using the Strategy Development Balanced Scorecard to maximize results
· Conducting SWOT analysis and using the data to grow
· Using industry trends to plan for a profitable future
· Launching new initiatives
· Driving productivity: A key to high profits
· Engineering processes to improve workflow and employee satisfaction
· Cash management
“We have been able to help scores of dealers across North America launch print management initiatives, improve their equipment sales effectiveness and improve back office and service operations,” said Tom Callinan, managing principal of Strategy Development. “But short of a consulting engagement with our team, until the launch of the BTA Business Planning Workshop there has been no single program available that allowed the dealer to get a holistic view of growing their business and profits.”
“Our members have benefited greatly from the expertise of the Strategy Development team and we are looking forward to enhancing our training curriculum with this comprehensive workshop,” added Brent Hoskins, BTA executive director. “Business planning is one of the most requested educational areas from our members, so we are happy that we can now provide that education.”
The inaugural BTA Business Planning Workshop will be held October 6-8. For information e-mail Tom Callinan at callinan@strategydevelopment.org or call 610.527.3317.
Strategy Development, a management consulting firm focused to the technology and outsourcing space, specializes in business planning, sales effectiveness, advanced sales training, and operational and service improvement. For more information visit Strategy Development at www.strategydevelopment.org.
The Business Technology Association (BTA) serves office technology dealerships, manufacturers, distributors and service companies. Its members sell and service and/or manufacture service hardware, software and supplies that help businesses be more efficient and save money. Through education, information and guidance, BTA members are the premier source of the technology used by businesses throughout the United States every day.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Developing An Effective Print Management Sales Process
Part two of this six part series was recently published in ENX Magazine. You can follow the link to view this article.
http://enxmag.com/2007/new%20site%202007/website/2009_MONTHS/april2009/article_DevelopingEffectivePrintManagement_tcallinan_apr09.htm
If you would like to launch a print management / MPS program at your company please contact the professionals at Strategy Development or attend the BTA Print Management Workshop:
http://www.bta.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=2127
http://enxmag.com/2007/new%20site%202007/website/2009_MONTHS/april2009/article_DevelopingEffectivePrintManagement_tcallinan_apr09.htm
If you would like to launch a print management / MPS program at your company please contact the professionals at Strategy Development or attend the BTA Print Management Workshop:
http://www.bta.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=2127
Thursday, February 19, 2009
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