Skylar, Dr. Dre, Em, and Ri - On and Off Stage, an Orchestra, Lights, Video - Lot's of Moving Parts. Just Like Managed Print Services

The award season is past, thank the TV gods. This year's 53rd, Grammy show returned its best rating since 2001.

The telecast, in addition to rewarding musicians for jobs well done, teems with performances.

Some good, some not so good.

One of the best of the evening, was Rhianna performing "Love the Way You Lie" as a duet, with Eminem.

Em, Skylar and Dr. Dre, rounded out the recital with the sequel, "I Need a Dr.".

The production was big, complex, and sophisticated with many moving parts.

They made it looked easy.

Catching the performance that evening left me impressed; my appreciation grew more profound in the weeks that followed.

The performance ecosystem:

• Dre - the Rock. Solid, been here, done this.
• Em - recovering.  Detroit. White Rapper(the f?)
• Ri - Damn.  Hot. Mocha. Sing the shit outta everything.  Recovering.
• Skylar - Who?  Young.  New. Wrote the Song. Never performed to a crowd like this.

Oh, and one more thing - Live.

All these parts, these ego's and interpretations, seemingly incongruous styles, overlapping, merging and separating.

Infusing an emotional charge from each individual - and making it work - stellar.

From the first note, we are sold, intrigued that this could be something different.

Slipping into and out of the intro, the tone went raw and edgy, it felt sincere, seemed organic and real because it was real.

High Intent.  First, do no Harm. Bring it.

Swing this into Managed Print Services - 

Its been said too many times, about too many types of selling -

"Solution selling is Team Selling"

"The Complex Sale"
"Strategic Selling"

Consider a sample some of the gears, cog's and forces within our ecosystem:

Content specialists, service technicians, billing, CSR, Selling professionals, OEM's, Disti, marketing, management(Mid and Executive), third party toner, national service coverage, A3, A4, scanning, storage, network infrastructure, help desk, support desk, dispatch, trunk stock, meter reads, drunk technicians, I.D. 10T end-users, whiners, egomaniac decision makers, rude gate keepers  - SOWs, SLA's CPI, KPI, ETA, MTBF, alphabet soup...

Lots of moving parts...is it any wonder so many screw MPS up?

Is it any wonder so many live productions don't "click"?

Sometimes, the professionals know their place and their role in the big picture.

Occasionally, the production crew hits all their cue's, the characters, their marks.

From time to time, all meters get read days before billing needs to get out.

Sometimes, your assessment is dead-nuts on; estimated savings conservative, your client thrilled.

Every now and then, your MPS endeavor receives the "Project of The Year" Award - from you client.

The symbolism is real, the big system works, and after the lights go dark, people remember.

Systems break down, people stumble and make mistakes.

"Keeping it real" and being the "Leopard" means confronting issues head first, with strength, empathy and focus.

When one deals honestly with shortcomings, redemption is just around the corner.


Click to email me.