I developed a wide format lead just about a week ago from an engineering company in my territory. The company does not have a wide format system and is farming out all of their prints and copies to a local repro shop.
The client specifically asked me about the Ricoh wide format and stated that they also wanted speed. After many questions, I was able to narrow down their needs to the W3601, however, one statistic that they could not get me was the volume, nor the cost of the prints they were farming out. They also stated that they wanted to move quickly on this. However, they also needed to run by the decision maker (DM), and the DM was not in the day of the appointment. Thus I supplied them with a proposal for the W3601.
I knew that they might shop the price, but doesn’t almost everyone nowadays? I did my follow up call and spoke with my contact, still couldn’t speak with the DM. The follow up call did present the objection that they did shop price, but what they shopped was an ink based wide format system. While on the phone I stated all of the advantages for toner-based vs. ink-based wide format, but it felt like I was banging my ahead against a wall, because the price of the HP system was so much less expensive than my system.
I decided that I would then educate the client on the total cost of operation for an ink-based wide format vs. my toner based wide format. However, I still was not able to get the volume of prints that they are outsourcing. I needed to do something (winners make things happen and losers wait for things to happen), thus I stated I would drop that information off this week.
I did some research and found that the typical volume that’s produced on the ink-based CAD systems is around 3,000 square feet per month. The 3,000 feet per month breaks down to 500 “D” size prints per month. I developed an Excel spreadsheet with a side by side comparison and a PowerPoint presentation that was designed to educate the client about wide format volume and the costs that are associated for consumables, service, and parts.
Not sure if I’ll get the deal, but I think I did a great job with the two documents and I’m willing to share them with Print4Pay Hotel members (Premium). Click the links for the documents.
Feel free to use these two documents to present to your clients. BTW, the winner hands down was toner based over ink based. It was not even close.
Good selling!
