Selling or Saving?

I just returned from stocking toner at a local college who's staff are customers of mine. Since returning I sent a message to the IT manager to call attention to the fact that a new color laser printer was placed outside of a computer lab that is used heavily by students...

A woman from the library informed me that said printer was being used by students to print color documents and that many of them as of late happened to be full page color prints of non-school related material such as ads, coupons and etc.

I quickly sent a message to the schools IT manager to inform him of these clicks so that he could decided what to do from here.

Color is expensive and while I could have sat back and let the clicks fly, boosting my commission for the month, I decided instead to help my customer see the possibly unnecessary expenses inherent with the location of said printer. If these variables had not been considered, cost saving actions could now be made should he choose to act on them...

My point is this...

In selling and sustaining a managed print services program, a good sales professional will always put the customers savings before their commission.

So I'll ask you this...

Is your rep focused on lining their pockets or helping you save money?

MPS, Jabooda and Barcelona

Upon first reading the headline of this post you are no doubt asking yourself...

What is Jabooda?

The funny thing is that many folks in Barcelona Spain (which happens to be the location for this years European MPS conference) are probably asking themselves the same thing. (See photo above).

About 2 months ago I was asked to write a post about about guerrilla marketing for my buddy Mark Schaefer's {GROW} marketing blog (highly recommended, Mark really is a phenomenal and friendly marketing professional and his blogs community is full of equally wonderful people) which described how I used the technique of guerrilla marketing not only in my work here at Expert Laser Services in regards to my now infamous "Destroy Your Printer Contest Series" but also in regards to marketing my band Jabooda.

The article explained how a simple sticker campaign promoted through friends, fans, and street team members manifested Jabooda stickers in most of the 50 states of the USA and in a growing collection of European countries.

The stickers simply ask the question "What is Jabooda?" below which there is a url for our facebook page.

Since the article has gotten out we have had orders for stickers from Spain, Egypt and Cyprus and as you can see we are effectively making ourselves known on a global scale.

So if you are going to the conference and you happen to see a "What is Jabooda?" sticker somewhere, consider yourself in the know.

Please help cure AHC! Please Read!

I am asking for help...

I am asking for any of you who read this post to please donate a second of your time to vote for a research fund from Pepsi to help find a cure for Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC).

My little Cousin Ian struggles with this very rare and potentially dangerous disorder. With your help we can find a way to cure this disorder which specifically effects younger children.

All you have to do is go to this webpage and vote for the funding to go to this cause.

Thank you for your time.

"We're Mocking The Industy"

You know how in cartoons where some character is torn between making a decision for good or bad and an angel and demon archetype would appear on one shoulder of said character while their counterpart would manifest on the other shoulder and try to sway their decisions?

Well, when I first looked at the picture in this post on Photizo's MPS insights blog that is the first thing that came to mind.

I will let you figure out which archetype I thought each of them to symbolize....

Anyway, I find that some of the folk in this industry are rather stuffy, all business types who prefer a tight corporate noose and an ocean of paper work to drown in. Granted those people get things done... With that being said I think the post referenced above speaks volumes about the fact that you can be two very important icons within your industry who work equally as hard as the previously mentioned personality and still be a goofball.

I believe in the mantra "If its not fun, why do it?" and I think the above video proves that even within the MPS industry, this philosophy can thrive.

Haza, Greg. Haza, Ken.