10 Things I Learned at Business Imaging Expo

When a major snowfall cancelled 1,500 flights the day before I left, and with the close proximity to four other major imaging manufacturer events, I wondered how productive 1105 Media Office Technology Group’s Business Imaging Expo on December 10-12th would be? Although the event was not packed with attendees, the relevance and topicality of  speakers,  business insights in the keynotes, and excellent breakout sessions made it a productive experience through the end of the last day.

We may think that our imaging business does not move very fast, especially as compared to the changes happening in the rest of the IT industry,  but the evolution and convergence of MPS and Workflow are rapidly changing the way top resellers approach their customers.  The ones that are embracing this convergence and investing in people and new technology are the ones setting themselves up to win in the new IT paradigm.  Because of this convergence it seemed a little strange to have the split between MPS and Workflow tracks on the first day but I understand why some of the more advanced resellers may have requested it.  Another interesting event feature was a live twitter feed on the sides of the stage so you could see real-time audience feedback on the presenter’s content.

These are the 10 things I learned by attending the conference:

1. If workflow process improvement is integral and a large part of the value of MPS, why not start selling the value of workflow first?  This idea was echoed by several presenters, including Michael Popa of HP.  Bundle print with Workflow.  Sell the highest ROI first.  It’s too easy to get caught up in a linear sales approach to MPS and forget what we are aspiring to. If you listen to your customers problems and start there, you deliver maximum value earlier.  The big direct organizations are starting with this approach, but even your mid-market customers will get it. 
2. If MPS continues to commoditize, getting the nuts and bolts right to provide food, water, and shelter for your company is essential.  Taking a more everyday approach, Doug Johnson of Supplies Network earned the nickname MPS Jedi when he spoke about the impact of operational inefficiency on MPS pricing.  Many of the suppliers at the event were there to help improve attendee’s operational processes to remain competitive so they can move forward to more complex MS offerings.  Buying or building your MPS infrastructure is a difficult question and strong cases can be made for each approach, but it’s critical you do all of it well in an increasingly competitive market.
3. Selling strategy is always evolving. Selling is a key part of our business, but the approach to the customer needs to change.  Jim Heffernan from Insights 53 said that “Advanced MPS and workflow services are widening the chasm between how dealers sell and how customers buy. Understanding how customers buy and articulating business outcomes are opportunities to bridge the chasm and accelerate growth.” Several resellers described how they recruit people that are wired to help customers with problems to make this happen.  These are not necessarily your normal sales hunter types but are more T shaped being wide and deep on several levels.  If most buyers do more than half of their research before purchasing by themselves, you need to be ready to enter the sales process at a different point than you did before.  And if this is true how much sense does it make to spend time with typical old school prospecting in the field?
4. The generational makeup of the workforce is changing, how do they want to work?  Terrie Campbell from Ricoh discussed the differences between the mix of generations in today’s offices and how they work, socialize, collaborate, research and buy.  The impact of this is happening now.  Suffice to say, you need to have a different selling strategy, approach, and value messages for different audiences because they do approach work differently.
5. The forecast for manufacturers is changing.  Shannon Cross of Cross Research Group provided detailed financial and strategic analysis for each of the key OEM players.  As expected, there are companies rising and falling, but listening to Shannon’s commentary on big picture moves was enlightening.  One key takeaway was that companies with higher exposure to Yen-based pricing may become less aggressive next year as the price change advantage year over year comes full circle.
6. Expanding your business beyond the printed page is essential, but do it carefully.  Recently, many OEM’s have been talking about expanding imaging resellers into adjacent areas like digital signage, in addition to their other managed services.  Peter Richardson of Samsung presented examples of where Samsung offers vertical approaches for incorporating new products into solutions for mobile, display, and computing.  When an analyst panel was asked what were the benefits and potential issues faced by this approach they agreed that expanding into new adjacent technology areas was a good idea to lessen the impact of the loss of printed pages.  Look to see where you can help your customer solve a problem and create competitive advantage.  For example, Fonality is a hosted VoIP telephony solution that is now being sold by one the OEM’s direct sales teams.  However, no one recommended that you enter any new area without full commitment to its success in terms of personnel and training.  Bottom line, don’t do it if you don’t plan to do it to win.
7. If a manufacturer’s MPS program is too easy to get in, then it probably is not going to help you much.  There are many turnkey MPS programs offered by major OEM’s.  Ricoh’s CHAMPS and Toshiba’s MPS programs were noted as having improved.  As with any new initiative, you will have to make an investment if it is to bear fruit.  If the manufacturer’s program is too easy to become a member of, ask yourself how exclusive is this and what am I really going to get out of it?  Chances are you will not really participate and drop it within a year.
8. Creating an optimal MPS comp plan is still a work in progress for many resellers.  Just modifying an existing comp plan to work in MPS, Solutions or MS is not going to work.  You may need different plans for hunters and farmers.  You want to pay for pages under contract, for the duration of the contract, because keeping the focus on the customer is important.  You will also want to incent new business and pay for the whole transforming process of the fleet to highest efficiency, moving the customer to workflow.  Make your money on the back side.  If that decreases page volumes then so be it; trade pages for the more important value stickiness and customer loyalty. You can also arm your sales teams with an offer that will guarantee your customers that you will save them 10 percent per year for the first three years as a way of driving this point home.  Make your comp plan consider this full value chain execution and your company will benefit in the longer term
9.  Hardware is relevant again.  Although selling Managed Services and workflow are the end game, having the right hardware in the mix to enable that is all part of the solution  You can and most likely should position yourself as hardware and brand neutral to offer the best of breed in every category, and your solutions derive productivity value from both the hardware and software experience.  More and more hardware is being sold as a platform for solutions. Think of hardware as service delivery vehicle, supporting apps like an iPad. How many of your sales teams sell this way?  Adopting solutions that are hardware neutral like Nuance or Intellinetics position your offering as truly manufacturer neutral.  The market spaces you address does not have to be the biggest.  An example is a reseller focused on nothing but car dealers and small medical offices.  This reseller won all the business in these segments because they knew these were workflow-intensive businesses where he built expertise in solving problems and providing integration that improved their customers productivity experience.  Build the right solution value for the right customer in the right market segment and they will come.
10. The clone wars are heating up. While different speakers cautioned about the legal ramifications in selling clone supplies, several resellers were overheard saying that their customers are asking for lower prices so they don’t really have much of a choice.  The legality of this is a moving target and difficult to understand, but some customers will always demand the lowest possible cost. It will be very interesting to see what happens with clone product in the coming year.  Charles Brewer of Actionable intelligence and Bob Palmer of Palmer Consulting discussed clone sources and how new fast full width print head array inkjet products are entering the market and could potentially change the value proposition for both mono and color.

Certainly tried and true business processes are the foundation of most successful businesses, but in this continuously changing market, opportunities abound for the reseller who can adapt to the discovery of  the customer’s needs, partner with the right technology providers to drive operational and sales excellence, support the best of breed integrated products/solutions, and provide the full value proposition between MPS and workflow. Those were among the key take homes at this year’s Business Imaging Expo.