The following is by West McDonald, VP of Business Development at Print Audit
The world is full of technological and software innovations that could revolutionize the way MPS (Managed Print Services) is delivered to end-users. You may be one of those MPS providers who believe that the old ways are the best ways. If that sounds like you, here are the Top 5 Reasons your MPS business may want to steer clear of software tools offered by companies like Print Audit:
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1. Your Close Rates are already too high: The average MPS dealer has close rates of 30% to 40%. Incorporating user and document analytics may lead to close rates of closer to 70% which could tax your already busy sales teams.
2. Your MPS practice prides itself on winning deals on the lowest CPP rates: Selling on low CPP rates could be your core strength. Use of user data in your MPS Sales process such as those offered by Print Audit may lead to a shift towards more value-based selling methodologies which in turn could lead to much higher margins.
3. You don’t want your customers relying on you for everything: The use of rules-based software to mange printing come with cost savings and security improvements that your customers could become far too accustomed to. They may lean on you too much for your expertise and delivery of real value. If your renewal rates on MPS contracts are too high your sales teams may have too much time on their hands. In order to keep them busy you may prefer that every contract renewal is like a brand new sale.
4. Use of user-based software could lead to more unwanted recurring revenue: You have already adapted your MPS program to deliver usage based billing such as CPP bundling of toner, service, and parts. Piling Software into your offering as SAAS (Software As A Service) could interfere with simply selling software and giving the customer complete control of their printing destiny. Helping them to understand things like their “Top 10 Color Users” and “Top 3 Print-Intensive Applications” could lead to them demanding similar information month after month.
5. You might make your competitors look less appealing: You are the type of person who would never bring a gun to a knife-fight because it’s unsportsmanlike. Using tools like those offered by might give you an unfair advantage as your understanding of your customers’ document-output needs will be far too thorough. Customers might actually believe your recommendations because they are fact-based and personalized to their unique user and business needs.
Take my advice: If you want to protect your current MPS offering from pesky innovation and overrated improvements steer clear of any user and document-based analytics. Failure to do so could result in too much growth and customer satisfaction. What fun would that be?
About the author: West McDonald is the VP of Business Development for Print Audit (www.printaudit.com) and the owner of FocusMPS (www.focusmps.com) .