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By Robert Faletra, ChannelWeb
CRN
June 30, 2008
I'm convinced the opportunity in selling print management capability and services into the midmarket customer base is enormous and untapped.
To capitalize on this, however, requires detailed knowledge of the customer's workflow, which can only be gained by asking lots of questions at the departmental level. The real opportunity in print management goes far beyond knowing when a toner cartridge is low.
There's an example going on in our business here at Everything Channel. Historically, we have printed media kits by the thousands each year. I always ask the team why we need to print them at all, which is met with some pushback on how important a sales tool they are. It's hard to argue that information about our media brands in the hands of a customer is a bad thing.
The problem, of course, is figuring out how many media kits to print because no matter how many you choose, it is sure to be too many or too few. When you line up the costs of preprinting a bulk amount against buying the equipment and total cost to be able to print on demand, the numbers generally tip to the bulk printing. These types of situations, which are not large enough from a cost-savings perspective to force an organization to spend the time to solve, offer an opportunity for solution providers to step in and offer a turnkey solution that does the trick.
Solution providers interested in building a concentrated business in the print management arena might even think about managed services. In that case, solution providers might consider outsourcing the service with an eye toward bringing it in-house at some point.
Regardless of the direction and the fact that we may be printing less than we have in the past, paper and all the technology and management that go with it present a real opportunity. Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Lexmark, Xerox and others are all interested in a more engaged channel around this market.
The customer potential is real and I believe ripe to uncover an opportunity to sell that is not being competitively bid. That means better margin and a chance to deliver customer satisfaction via reduced costs the customer may not have realized were possible.
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