You’ve researched the industry, read articles, walked by every booth at trade shows, and attended seminars or workshops. You have evaluated programs from wholesalers, hardware providers, software providers, and cartridge manufacturers. Oh, and most importantly, your company’s margins are declining and/or you have lost business to other hybrid dealers offering MPS programs. You are convinced you need to offer MPS and morph your business to a hybrid model, but how do you move to this type of model without bankrupting your existing business? How can you effectively take your company up the MPS learning curve?

Whether you decide to build your program by assembling the components from software, supplies, service, hardware and financing providers, or find a “turn-key” program out on the market, obtaining the tools for MPS alone doesn’t ensure success any more than having a saw and a hammer will make you a successful carpenter. With enough trial and error you will eventually figure it out, but you will waste a lot of lumber and nails in the process: Can you afford so many costly mistakes in today’s economy?

Like other new business models, consulting, training and coaching can accelerate your success, mitigate risks and provide your business with a game plan for your transition to a hybrid model. How do you know what help you need? What type of help is available? Where do you start?

Let us start with the first question—how do you know what help you need? Largely, this depends upon the approach you take to implement a MPS model. If you are building a program on your own, you should consider bringing in a business consultant with experience in the MPS space. This type of consultant can analyze your current competencies, skills and assets, collaborating with you to develop a business plan for MPS, select strategic partners and frame out (carpenter’s reference) your initial 18-month objectives and strategies for marketing, sales and operations. This plan should also include your baseline financial model and investment requirements for at least the first 18 to 24 months.

If you have decided to work with providers that offer more “turn-key” solutions, a consultant can help you analyze the options and recommend the solution that will work best for your organization. A knowledgeable consultant will know the second- and third-level questions to ask to make the difference between a profitable and break-even or money-losing program. They can determine the gaps in each program and help you build or acquire the means to fill them.

Often, dealers looking at these solutions will evaluate options on their own, which is fine IF they take the time to thoroughly understand all of the requirements for a successful MPS model and THEN spend the time to evaluate each offering. Discover what elements are included in the provider’s program—from both a sales and an operational infrastructure perspective. Use your business instincts to ask questions until you are satisfied you understand the nuances of their program. Consider how this program (and the team behind their program) ties to your own business and team.

Once you’ve determined your approach to acquiring or building a MPS model, you should strongly consider training and coaching to improve the odds of success in implementing the model in your organization. Now to the second question—what type of help is available?

Most of the consulting available today focuses on sales training. Of course, without sales, the rest of the business model doesn’t matter; so sales training is certainly a great place to start, and the options on the market vary from one-day seminars to on-site multi-day workshops.

However, like the title of a great sales training book, you cannot teach a kid to ride a bicycle in a seminar. Selling MPS is a bit more complex than riding a bicycle. Some consultants and sales training companies now offer multi-week sales training AND sales coaching. With this option, your sales staff will be immersed in the sales process requirements for MPS, and then each week will be coached through that sales process with your targeted accounts, helping them through roadblocks, answering questions, and being a virtual sales manager. This approach often yields much better results, since the theories taught in class are put into practice using real customers and their environments.

Often completely overlooked in training for MPS is something I call Infrastructure Training. Infrastructure Training focuses on the major infrastructure and operational aspects of the MPS model. For example, how does your sales compensation model need to be modified for a hybrid model? What should your organizational design look like at various performance levels? What new skills and competencies are needed in your operations to support MPS? How do you effectively manage the deal after it is inked with the customer?

There are few options on the market today for this type of training and consulting, but it is every bit as important as sales training and coaching. All of the money is made on a successful MPS deal, but all of the money (and more) can easily be lost in an ineffective operational infrastructure. This is why many dealers enter the MPS space only to exit months or years later because they have lost so much money on deals they initially thought looked very profitable.

As for the last question—where do you start? First, find out what options for consulting, sales training, sales coaching, and infrastructure training are available. Talk to your prospective consultants and find out what they offer, what methodologies and techniques they use. Learn the details of their curriculum, their costs and your expected ROI.

Also, ask for references of other dealers they have worked with, who share similar business models as your own, and speak with those references. Understand those references’ initial business challenges in entering the MPS space. Share yours, and determine if the services provided meet your needs. Done right, this will be the most important investment you make in moving your business to a hybrid model. The result will be an MPS business that looks more like a model home and less like the birdhouse you built in second grade.

Doug Johnson, Senior Vice President, Managed Print Services of Supplies Network is an expert and early innovator in the MPS space, with a wealth of industry real-world experience. Doug joined Supplies Network in 2010, after a two-year engagement as a managed output services consultant and founder of RedSage Consulting and RedSage Partners. Doug also served as SVP/COO of Print Inc., and president of its subsidiary, PrintValue Solutions. Print Inc. was a start-up in 2001 that pioneered MPS, growing to a $67 million company when it was sold to Pitney Bowes in 2006. Prior to Print Inc., Doug was with HP for 20 years serving as SVP of world-wide marketing for HP's Imaging and Printing Systems Group, and VP/GM for HP's Imaging Supplies Division. Education: Doug received a B.S. in Quantitative Management from Boise State University, and was recognized as a Top Ten Scholar.