Solution providers can increase profit margins when they help customers rightsize their printing operations.
A key to performing an accurate assessment is using one of the specialized auditing applications that come packaged in USB thumb drives. These portable devices plug into a customer’s server to identify and gather usage data about all the printers and multifunction products (MFPs) on the network. (For more details, see related story.)
Assessments should also include walk-throughs of customer sites to locate printers and MFPs not attached to the network and thus under the USB tool’s assessment radar. In addition, conversations with end users will elicit information about special cases where desktop printers are preferable to workgroup MFPs. Justifications often center on security and privacy concerns for users in HR or payroll, for example.
These interviews may also help solution providers find new selling opportunities. “The strategy is to get closer to the customer and find opportunities where your equipment can be showcased,” says David G. Lawrence, president of Smart Technology Enablers, Ojai, Calif.
Assessors might also spot problems, such as a storeroom full of expensive color brochures that were leftovers from a print shop’s minimum press-run requirement. “That’s when the print-on-demand conversation can happen,” Kreiser says. “You wouldn’t know about that situation if you just looked at the usage data about connected lasers or MFPs.”
Emphasize Expertise
Kreiser warns that jumping directly from the assessment to a formal proposal for new equipment and services can quickly derail balanced-deployment opportunities. Instead, he adds the intermediate step of meeting with key financial decision makers, which, depending on the size of the customer, may be the owner, a CFO, a facilities manager, the purchasing department or an office manager. “Jumping from your 30-day snapshot of the print operations to the proposal stage reduces your perceived value as a consultant — you just look like a sales guy,” he says.
Only after a solution provider determines that the budget manager is willing to consider the cost-cutting potential of a rightsizing plan should it deliver a formal presentation.
An ROI analysis should be a standard component within the balanced-deployment proposals. “Show customers, ‘Here’s where your company is today and, if we do this, here’s where you’ll see the savings,’” says Brownlee of CAMCorp.USA.
Even in rough economic times, balanced-deployment proposals can garner new business for solution providers, Lawrence of Smart Technology Enablers says. “Customers still have to manage their business — in good times or bad,” he explains. “If you can show them where they’ll save three cents a page on printing costs, they’ll make that business decision.”
Customers that balk at new capital expenses are good candidates for leasing arrangements, he adds.
Veterans of balanced-deployment efforts say the proposals shouldn’t only involve new equipment. Often, a portion of a customer’s existing printer and MFP fleet remains viable when devices are relocated to areas where duty cycles and traffic patterns are in sync. “You might say, ‘We suggest you move this piece of equipment that you have in Shipping over to Accounts Receivable because you are going to get a better ROI,’” Brownlee says. “You have to be honest and fair about [rightsizing deployments]. If customers think your presentation is stacked, whatever you propose will not be accepted.”
Upselling Opportunities
Gaining a customer’s confidence can also open the door to larger solutions sales that dovetail with redeployments. So along with some new MFPs, a solution provider may be able to sell workflow and document-management software that reduces reliance on paper documents and creates secure electronic storehouses.
“You change how the customer thinks about your company. Suddenly, instead of being a hardware vendor, you’re looked at as a consultant or a workflow expert,” Brownlee says. “When you get that tag rather than just [being] somebody who sells hardware, it’s going to increase your margins.”
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