The unfortunate reality, however, is that some traditional sales people never make the transition to managed print. They are so ingrained in the old way of selling, no amount of training and education get them to break out of their existing mold. So some VARs and MSPs are taking a non-traditional route. One company I heard from recently is looking beyond typical sales hires and opting instead for former CIOs and IT managers who are looking for a change in their careers. Even their new titles are not sales oriented—instead they are identified as “consultants” and the main responsibility is to speak with prospects and clients as technology peers who discuss strategies for optimizing the IT environment, including printing and imaging.

Tom McDonald, president of NSI and NSIserv.com, is one VAR that is using this approach successfully. He ties it with one other element—NSI does not lead with large, fleet-oriented managed-print solutions. An ambitious, multi-printer services contract can be a long and difficult sale to make. So instead, NSI starts by bundling services with a single printer or MFP. “Once a customer understands the benefits of managed print we can migrate them to more and more printers under service,” McDonald says.

What strategies are you using to align your sales department with managed-print services?

They say the Xerox eConcierge platform, which monitors printers on a company’s network and gives it the ability to order supplies through a solution provider’s e-commerce portal, is already having an impact on their business and shows promise for future growth.

“It is something that everyone in our organization understands now, and the service techs bring up to clients all the time,” says Tom McDonald, president of NSI, a Naugatuck, Conn., provider of virtualization, business continuity, disaster recovery, project development, network consulting and managed print services. “We did not have that happening last year.”

Managed print “has become a bit of a commodity, and we are sometimes competing against large copier companies, and we cannot compete,” McDonald says. “They generally already own the client in some fashion and we get beat. Xerox eConcierge is unique, it is different and it helps our clients be successful. No one else offers anything like it.”

McDonald’s advice for VARs or MSPs considering launching a Xerox eConcierge offering sounds like a Nike commercial. “Just do it,” he says. “It is painless and simplifies your business, and more importantly it simplifies your clients’ business.”

NSI’s customers “love this program, particularly clients with Xerox devices,” McDonald adds. “By simply buying their supplies via Xerox eConcierge they get free service. What is not to like about that? Plus, all clients are trying to do more with less. This helps them with that. They don’t have to dedicate a person to tracking this anymore; it is automatic, and it doesn’t cost them anything extra.”

What are your company’s plans for Xerox eConcierge?

It depends entirely on the preferences of the individual you’re trying to reach, says Steven Power, founder and president of Sales & Marketing Solutions International, a Santa Clara, Calif., firm that advises clients in sales processes.

There are numerous ways of getting in touch with people today: phone, e-mail, text, instant messaging, social media, traditional mail, fax and in-person meetings, for example.

Some decision makers don’t really care how people try to reach them, as long as the contact is relevant to their job and what they are trying to achieve. But others are far more particular about their preferred method of contact, and failing to recognize that can doom your chances of landing a managed print services deal.

To be safe, when making an initial contact try to find out the preferred method of contact from someone in the organization who is familiar with the decision maker, such as a secretary, Power says.

“Some people won’t read anything on e-mails and others are only interested in digital communications,” Power says. Some still prefer receiving printed material in the mail or via fax. Some insist on only opening attachments that are in PDF format. Regardless of the method of getting in touch and sharing information, it’s important to remember that it’s the decision maker you’re trying to cater to when making an initial or follow-up contact.

How do most of your customers prefer to be contacted?

Today, MPS is well beyond the “P,” sneaking into help desk, asset and digital content management, all the way over to IT managed services. Our capabilities are reaching beyond the edge of the managed services ecosystem and up into the cloud.

For example, Xerox announced the launch of a new business cloud service that helps companies manage mobile devices. The software monitors devices like iPads and BlackBerrys, sending out alerts when service issues arise.

Sound familiar?

In February, Xerox teamed up with McAfee to develop a new data security platform and a while back, Xerox and Cisco formed an alliance to help organizations “extend IT investments by delivering managed print and cloud IT outsourcing over Cisco Borderless networks.” From ACS to Xerox eConcierge™, Xerox is making the right moves, talking the talk and walking the services path—in short, transforming.

I don’t think anybody can accuse me of being in Xerox’s back pocket. I truly call it as I see it, and this is what I see: an OEM that understands changing print behaviors and is plotting a course ahead of the tidal wave.

Xerox has “eyes to see” the things others haven’t—change is about to hit, and hit hard. The future isn’t toner on paper; it’s in the cloud.

This doesn’t mean one can ignore the current business model; businesses still need toner, there are millions of devices in the field.

Today, every MPS provider can cover its existing business and plan for the immediate future—covering all the initial managed print bases (supplies delivery, service) and plan for the future with mobile device management, help desk and the cloud.

Your dealership may never need to recommend or work with a firm like ACS, but your customers are going to see the benefits of a scaled flavor of managed services.

Will you have the eyes to see?

In reality, that kind of one-stop shopping is not always available to a VAR. A CFO may be reluctant to meet or delegate the services decision to a subordinate. This typically means someone in IT (the department that “owns” the devices) or a business unit manager (the group that “owns” supplies). The challenge, of course, is that the full benefits of managed-print contracts straddle both devices and supplies, so siloed groups may not understand the full implications of a comprehensive contract.

There’s something else they probably don’t understand—the full cost to the entire organization of the printing environment. “Nobody knows what they’re spending on print today. Nobody,” says Tom McDonald, president of NSI and NSIserv.com.  “Every customer I ask, they say they don’t know. When I show them, they don’t agree [with the numbers],” he adds. “They’ll go back and research it, and then they’re surprised. But once you show them they can save money, then it’s not a difficult sale.”

Hear more insights from McDonald and learn how he solves some of the biggest challenges that arise when selling managed-print services.

Tough, but not impossible, says Steven Power, founder and president of Sales & Marketing Solutions International, a Ventura, Calif., firm that advises clients in sales processes. The key is to lay enough groundwork to get these busy execs interested in managed-print services.

Power warns that there are few shortcuts when it comes to getting the attention of the C-suite. So commit to a methodical process that begins with developing case studies based on the successes you are seeing with your existing managed-print clients.

“After you get your first five or six deals in managed print, go back to those customers and capture the specific results that managed print has delivered,” Power says. “Be very specific about whatever benefits they’ve seen: cost savings, consolidation of devices, streamlined processes, how many vendors they had before and how many after.”

For added impact, supplement these profiles with testimonials from the IT, finance, and business managers who were part of these deals. Peer validation like this will go a long way to breaking down any skepticism senior managers might have about meeting with you.

Power also advises clients to put case studies in a package with third-party white papers and articles to further hammer home the benefits. Fortunately, you won’t need to look very far for these additional materials—you’ll find tons of them here at The Business Transformation Center.

One last piece of advice–Power says it is best to avoid a hard sell. Your package of background materials should have “no marketing hype; just straightforward information,” he says.

Let us know your experiences with C-level executives and what strategies work best for you.

Here are some printing-security tools and techniques to focus on.

Access Controls—Built into multifunction printers (MFPs) and networked printers, these tools require users to authenticate themselves when picking up a print job at a networked printer or MFP. Instead of allowing sensitive documents to sit unattended in output trays, the devices hold the order until the requester punches in the security code and stands ready to retrieve the job.

Encryption technology—This standard security capability scrambles data stored on the hard drives of printers and MFPs as an extra safeguard to assure that critical information doesn’t become accessible to unauthorized users.

Usage policies–Further controls are possible by limiting scan-to-e-mail and other settings on MFPs that prevent the devices from becoming conduits for distributing sensitive data.

Auditing software—VARs and MSPs should be able to quickly create reports about who is using each output device and provide audit trails in case of  suspicious activities.

Print-environment security sometimes simply involves promoting features that are being embedded within workgroup printers and MFPs. Other times it requires consulting expertise to develop the right solution for a customer’s unique needs. Either way, security concerns are creating new opportunities for VARs and MSPs as they expand their efforts in the managed-print market.

It turns out that there’s a close tie between security and printing environments. A new survey commissioned by Xerox and the IT security company McAfee reveals that 39 percent of employees who print, scan, or copy confidential information at work worry whether the information on a networked device will remain secure.

“The threat landscape has evolved to include devices that when originally designed, where never considered a security threat,” says Tom Moore, vice president of embedded sales at McAfee.  “Now we are seeing the need for security on devices like MFPs to protect confidential and proprietary data.”

The survey also found that some companies don’t take simple steps to lessen the risk, such as making sure employees are aware of IT policies or taking steps to keep sensitive documents from sitting unattended in output trays. In fact, 54 percent of the survey respondents said they don’t always follow their company’s IT security policies, while 21 percent they aren’t even aware of the policies, according to the survey.

Additional data points from the survey include:

51 percent of employees said they process confidential information through printers, MFPs, and copiers

Only 13 percent of respondents said they are prompted to enter a password or passcode in their workplace printer, MFP, or copier before releasing a print job

The bottom line: end users need knowledgeable VARs and MSPs to help them not only optimize their printing environments to cut costs and increase efficiency; they also need trusted advisers to enhance the information security policies that directly impact printing and imaging activities.

Fortunately, that is not as difficult as it sounds. For example, Xerox PagePack 3.0 is designed to help VARs provide managed-print services for products from a variety of vendors. Xerox products, of course, are at the top of the list, but options in the Xerox PagePack suite also make it possible for solution providers to service entire fleets of printers and MFPs that include competitor’s products.

SPI Innovations, a Freeland, Mich., is using this flexibility to support the expanding managed-print program it launched about three years ago, says Bill Loiacano, president and CEO.

As Loiacano explains, the impact of being able to manage a diverse printer fleet goes beyond just grabbing as much print-services business as possible. It also helps demonstrate the valuable role a company like SPI can play in its customers’ overall success. “This all leads to profitability and also changes the discussion to truly a ‘consultant’ approach, something that most VARS have had trouble transitioning too,” he explains.

How important is device diversity in your managed-print efforts?

As in some warped Darwinian tale, managed print services and managed services are branches of the same tree. The MPS limb rising from the dirt, clawing through cold-calls and purchasing agents. The managed services bough magically sprouting from the traditional IT/VAR trunk.

Imagine this: IT solutions, the forerunner of managed services, were designed and installed by “really smart” people under the approving gaze of executive management. Copiers and printers, on the other hand, were acquired through the Purchasing or Facilities department after an exhaustive bid process vetted dozens of alternatives.  Managed services as a practice grew under the executive branch; managed print services rose up and flourished from the ground.

Same tree, different limbs mutated into the same species: Managed Services.

So what does this all mean? Three things:

This mutation attracts the same customers and prospects

Both destinies are parallel

The agile and adaptive will prevail through natural selection.

Our customers and prospects are similar because each customer base is rooted in business process and each utilizes technology within a changing environment, whether that’s an enterprise or an SMB. Both the managed services and managed print services prospect are technologically savvy. Both are under pressure to do more with less and both are reacting to historic change. The prospects world is changing almost as much as ours. 

Destinies are parallel because MPS contributes to the shift away from print and the managed services (aka, the cloud) pulls companies away from internal IT departments and assets.  As we in MPS reconcile the management of our destruction, so too, do they.  The “cloud” is to IT departments and “MPS” is to images as matter is to anti-matter – annihilation into pure energy. We are both contributing to our own transformation.

Finally, natural selection comes about as consolidation and partnerships are occurring daily, inside our industry and others. Like the overweight dinosaurs, some will fight for every last leaf, unaware of the falling sky. The strong will survive.  Mutation will occur, there will be a day after with a new batch of players rising from the ashes. It’s only natural.

Today, the circle is complete as print meets content, meets infrastructure, meets applications. We’re all colliding on the same page. Evolution tells us that the most adaptable is the predominant strain – the survivor.

The question isn’t which branch will survive, it’s who remains standing after the entire tree comes down.

Where will you be?