Written by: Kendall Tucker; Senior Editor and Communications Coordinator, Evolved Office

In recent years, we have seen immense and widespread growth of managed print services here in the U.S. and around the world. But, while awareness and demand for MPS grows at a rapid pace, we still have many obstacles to overcome before the service will enjoy broad acceptance in all business environments and truly become a necessity, rather than being perceived as a commodity.

One of the biggest and perhaps most obvious challenges to achieving this is selling the idea of MPS to top management. As any managed service provider will tell you, this is no easy task. In fact, selling the idea of MPS to top management and business owners often takes a steady dose of convincing and objection handling before they will see the light. Each year, as we see the new innovations and trends that accompany continued market maturation, the MPS-minded must adapt their sales strategies to meet the demands of the evolving business landscape.

Every day I talk to vendors about the challenges they encounter in the sales field. It’s my job to develop marketing materials to help them handle the objections they face against MPS. Over the course of hundreds of conversations, I’ve learned that there’s no single sales strategy that will work every time for every decision maker, but the secret lies in the ability to customize a value proposition based on a decision maker’s individual needs. It’s one thing to go on and on about how great MPS is in a rehearsed pitch—it’s another thing to show the real value in a way that resonates with decision makers.

Whether you’re a solution provider trying to improve your strategies, or a department manager of an SMB who wants to translate the benefits of MPS to get your CEO on board, the following represent some of the most common objections voiced against MPS by top management, as well as tips to help you handle and overcome them.

The Objection: ‘‘MPS is not a top priority.’’

It’s no surprise that, in this depressed economy, many businesses are cutting back on anything that isn’t considered a critical business function. Oftentimes, document output operations are regarded as non-essential to the overall functioning of a company, which makes the task of convincing top management that they need MPS that much harder. So, unless printing actually is a core business function, you don’t want to try to convince them that it is. That will just hurt your credibility and reduce your chances of success.

Instead, address this objection using a holistic approach, highlighting the fact that MPS can directly improve the core functions performed in your organization. A well-designed MPS program will increase employee productivity and efficiency, while saving the company money that can be re-allocated to benefit critical initiatives. An MPS solution will also secure a printing network, preventing unauthorized users from printing confidential, business-critical information.

Additionally, explain how MPS will improve overall workflow and will free up more of their employees’ time. No longer will the admin staff have to spend time tracking down which printers need more toner, searching for the model number and calling in the orders—that will all be done for them. And the IT staff won’t be tasked with performing printer repairs or maintenance—because that’s not what they were hired to do anyway. By removing the burden of labor that it takes for a company to manage a print fleet without MPS, decision makers will be able to recognize that MPS provides many benefits that significantly contribute to the performance of their critical business functions and that managing their print environment really should be a top priority.

The Objection: ‘‘It sounds expensive.’’

Many decision makers are under the false impression that something with a fancy name like “managed print services” is just another expensive and frivolous commodity that they neither need nor can afford. But, because one of the main goals of MPS is actually to help businesses achieve immediate and long-term cost savings, this is a relatively easy objection to address.

Because a well-designed MPS program can save businesses up to 35 percent in printing-related costs, this is a huge selling point. But, that alone is not enough. The challenge here is that many end-user decision makers still view printers and MFPs as peripheral to their overall IT operations and don’t see the value in giving them the same level of management and budget controls as their servers and networks. To address and overcome this challenge, show management potential savings in hard figures—making it a real and tangible benefit for the end-user. Use the company’s total annual revenue to show management just how much the company is spending on printing. For example, a company with annual revenue of $5 million might be spending about three percent, or $150,000, on document output each year—that’s a lot of money no matter how you look at it.

If a decision maker fails to recognize document output as a significant drain on their profits, they will immediately dismiss MPS because they will think they have little to gain. But, if you can convince them of the seriousness of their problem and that MPS can uncover hidden costs, they will be more likely to consider it as a solution. True value is perceived when a top-management decision maker recognizes the true cost of not implementing a MPS solution.

The Objection: ‘‘There’s nothing wrong with the way we do things now.’’

Many top decision makers—while they like the idea of innovation—have the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. This objection is linked heavily to the fear of change. Many business owners are resistant to change because they don’t understand the MPS model. Therefore, overcoming the fear of change begins with education. Build a case for MPS by assessing individual needs and stating the case for change, including the fact that MPS actually simplifies operations of the entire print fleet without interrupting the company’s workflow.

When it comes to easing fears of change, it’s all about defining potential fears, detecting signs of those fears and resolving them. If, for instance you believe a COO is concerned that MPS will disrupt business processes, immediately address the concerns linked to the fact that a MPS deployment is a long-term engagement and will likely impact almost every aspect of an organization—but for the better! Explain that MPS integration takes time because each stage needs to be properly executed and that your proposed timeline will cause the fewest possible disruptions to workflow and business processes. Focusing on the direct benefits to the decision maker and mitigating fears of change will help convince top management that MPS is the smart choice.

The Objection: ‘‘You’re just trying to sell me something I don’t need.’’

This is a common defensive attitude that business owners use to protect their assets. They don’t want to be taken advantage of any more than you do. But you and I know that MPS isn’t a scam, trend or fad. It’s a legitimate business solution that actually saves companies money and improves efficiency throughout entire organizations. So, how do you go about convincing top decision makers of that?

Start by addressing the businesses’ needs right away. If you exist inside the organization, you might already know what could be done to improve the business environment. But if you are coming from outside an organization, you must first listen to the client’s concerns so you can transform them into clear and measurable objectives. If they say they don’t have any concerns, be prepared with hard facts and figures that show common inefficiencies in print environments and ask if they want to improve any of those common areas. By simply applying some listening skills, a list of objectives quickly shifts in the decision maker’s mind from “wants” to “needs.” You are no longer perceived as trying to sell something the decision maker doesn’t need. Now, you’re the one who is offering unique, innovative and value-added solutions to very real, yet very solvable problems.

At the end of the day, it’s all about them—decision makers want to know how you can help them. How can you save them money, increase efficiency, improve their business processes? Focusing on the direct benefits to the decision maker and their business will help convince them that MPS is the smart choice and really is something they need.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, objection handlers and sales strategies can only get you so far. As MPS vendors know, the real “strategy” of MPS is not selling equipment or service contracts, but it’s providing unique and innovative solutions that will propel businesses to the next level of success—that is after all what MPS is all about. Convincing top-level decision makers of the real and tangible benefits will help sell the idea of MPS to those who really didn’t know what they were missing.

Kendall Tucker is the senior editor and communications coordinator for Evolved Office, a premier marketing solutions provider for office equipment dealers. Tucker has a master’s degree in publishing and has contributed articles for imageSource magazine. Evolved Office partners with BTA and IBPI to provide the most innovative solutions for their clients. Evolved Office provides highly targeted marketing services and ready-to-go content for business solution providers, including newsletters, video marketing, email marketing, postcards, case studies, event marketing, and more. To learn more about Evolved Office, visit www.evolvedoffice.com or call 954.903.7900.