Managed Print Services - Everybody Sells

Mr. I.T Director, You are now in Sales. 

One of my favorite quotes(I have hundreds) is "Everybody Sells". If you're married, you sell a night out with the boys if you take the kids to school...

If you have kids, you sell a quiet trip to school for ice cream at the day's end...

If you have a "boss", you sell your reason for being late to the 8:00 meeting(to get a boys' night out)...

If you support end users, you sell the idea that printing down the hall is much better than printing at your desk...
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If you meet an MPS professional, and like what he/she says - get ready - you Sell!

There are only two types of people in the world.

Those who sell and those who support those who sell. Sales make the world go around - look around you this very second and find an object that has not been sold...I dare you. You won't. Everybody Sells.

Why do I bring this up? Your I.T. contact does not and can not sell your plan as well as you can. Although they think they can. They think they know "just the right time" to approach him with the idea.

Managed Print Services is the hottest IT issue right now. If you can get in front of an IT Director and start telling him how he can save money, diminish end user complaints and reduce his "headaches" related to printing he will buy into it.

Now all you need to do is wait for your IT person to "Sell it up". Well pitch a tent and heat up the coffee, because if he is like most other IT people he hates salespeople and can't stand selling, so you will be waiting a very long time.

Back to "Selling with High Intent" -

You know your programs will save this company money. Your IT contact knows this as well. If you are selling with High Intent, you know at your core that your solution is the best for the company - so how can you allow one more day to go by without screaming at the top of your lungs - "LOOK AT THIS...BUY THIS NOW!"? How can you fail your partner by enabling him to lose money every minute of the day?

Back to "Partnership vs. Vendorship" -

What? You're afraid of "going over your contact's head"?

Are you afraid of "stepping on peoples' toes" or "going around the contact and directly to the CFO"? Yes?

Oh, ok, so you're like all the other small and insignificant Enablers we call "Vendors". Move along and sell your hot dogs to someone else, let the real business partners talk, plan, implement and get something done.


How do you forge a Partnership with your Client? -

I can not answer that in one simple post, but I can tell you forging partnerships instead of vendorships relies on these points:

Your Outlook on your client and YOU
Your Attitude
Your Wisdom
Your ability to manage your process
Your ability to disconnect from the tendency to want to manage your client

- Attract
- Solve
- Lead
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