Art Post
Do you feel that you’re a top notch solutions and MFP sales rep? Do you consult more to the end user and then let the customer buy from you? Are you consistently producing print/document assessment reports for customers that have and instant ROI? Do you want to add more profit and value? If so, you need to add this weapon to your arsenal. In your territory look up the 10 largest accounting/CPA firms. Once you have them, be prepared to make the calls to success.
Accounting firms have many business clients that have trusted their services for years. What we want to do is to add value to the CPA’s service’s that they provide to their business clients, by added a new service for their customers. A customized Print/Document Assessment Report for their clients. I would recommend starting with accounting firms that are already your customers. Have a plan that will outline how they can add value to their clients and be able to add some profit from your work also.
Positioning yourself as an expert in the field of print/document assessments means you are offering your services to the accounting firm for their clients. The accounting firm can either bill out this service or include it as an additional service that they offer for their clients. Your goal is to sell your knowledge, expertise and nothing else. Have copies of print assessments that you have completed to show the accounting firm what the typical report entails. Here you are breaking the mold from the common copier salesperson and establishing yourself as the solutions/MFP expert. You can even offer a free print/document assessment to the accounting firm to show them your expertise and your creative ideas for print/document assessment and print migration.
Start by telling them about the high cost of printing to multiple devices and that you specialize in providing a detailed print assessment cost of what they are spending and a solution to save their clients money and or productivity. Your fees can be as much as $250 per hour plus expenses for your work. Even though MPS has been around for years there are still many companies (and we need to find these right?) that have no clue as to what they are spending each year for copies and prints.
All of the information needed is at your finger tips. Companies such as Ricoh offer a COG (customer opportunity generator), and this software program gives you real life per-page cost for about 95 percent of all the print devices that are on the market. For the other 5 percent you can do your research on the Internet. I would even go a step further and consult on page coverage. Producing this type of report especially if your MFP is using a tiered cpp pricing can have a dramatic effect on the bottom line.
There are many print management programs around, personally I like Print Audit, however nothing is better than visiting every single print device, generating a report and then interviewing the end user for their needs. Interview can uncover tremendous saving and opportunities for all. Plus what’s often left out is the type of media that each user is printing on.
After the assessment has been completed give this to the accounting firm that contracted you. They in turn would give the report to their client. You would have an agreement that if the client decided to move forward this would happen with your company.
This is just another way of positioning yourself as the expert and will allow you to gain easy access to new accounts. Keep in mind while you’re in the client’s office that you need to remove your selling shoes and provide an accurate and professional assessment.
Good selling.
