Taking The Human Element Further

After reading this post by Amanda Hutchins at the MPS insights blog many thoughts flew through my mind. While I really enjoyed the post I found that her perspective almost seemed skewed towards the acceptance of the following philosophy as proposed in this paragraph:

"Now, if Mr. MPS Specialist comes into the office to optimize your fleet–taking away your congregating point there could be some resistance. Are you happy with this change? No! Could this affect your job satisfaction and in turn your work? Yes! Are you going to riot? Well, probably not, but you get my point."

Perhaps I am just taking it the wrong way, but it almost seems as if "Mr.MPS specialist" will always be tasked with taking away said end-users congregating point and the above seems to suggest "that's just how it is."

Who says taking away the congregating point is always the right thing to do and is "Mr.MPS Specialist" always to propose such an idea? I understand that many companies will in fact take away said congregating point however, if we are going to discuss the human element in this way perhaps we should consider the fact that maybe this is not the right thing to do. Perhaps if said congregation meets in this way and job satisfaction is merely one of several positive byproducts accompanied by useful conversation within said aggregate which in turn produces benefits to the company and its customers...

Is cutting this limb off really benefiting the company?

As far as I know, this kind of thought process, one which takes into account the psychological consequences of MPS in regards to an organizations end-users is uncommon. With that being said... perhaps it shouldn't be.

I personally think that "Mr.MPS specialist's" job should not merely be a well oiled, overly mechanical process that eliminates costs without the human element associated with those costs also being taken into consideration.

People make your business what it is and people don't like being sterilized. Cutting certain costs may be akin to cutting out the human element. If the interactions at the water fountain, the coffee pot or the printer directly effect the emotions of the people who will be answering your phones, taking orders or speaking with your customers, then eliminating that organic experience may very well cost you more than it saves you in the long run. I suggest that maybe lowering the costs associated with said congregating point as apposed to eliminating it all together is something to consider.

I personally believe that if your trying to save money within your business, you may achieve the exact opposite if the only thing you focus on is money itself.

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.

The Division Line

Many salesmen in this industry (and most others) are just that. Salesmen. An annoying breed of well dressed double talking magicians whose sole purpose is to generate money for the corporate machine and of course, themselves. They move from prospect to prospect in a veil of smoke and mirrors which to some is rather enticing. Truth be told many of these creatures are quite good at coming off as saints while actually perpetrating a far more sinister role in reality.

There are also those who are more trustworthy and noble folks who while reflecting said positive attributes still do only one thing. Sell...

As a salesmen (or rather a "business oriented relationship development specialist") I too share in the responsibilities of selling. What separates myself and other more noble people within the craft from the big boys are the other aspects of my work which have lead to the development of my character as it pertains to my position as a salesman.

Here at Expert Laser Services our sales team has had to take on some roles that many salesmen in larger companies would not have (additional duties that many of those mentioned in the first paragraph of this post would scoff at).

Being a smaller company, each of our salesmen are tasked with setting up new accounts with toner for each and every end user, providing each printer with a cleaning and or simple maintenance with our own two hands. There are times when we have go out into the field and do monthly cleanings and maintenance for large organizations ourselves. These jobs sometimes take one or multiple days out of our time that would normally be spent on finding new customers and trying to build new relationships.

These are the kind of experiences you may be hard pressed to find within the history of salesmen who work for the "big boys" or who tread upon the earth with that certain level of ego in regards to what their responsibilities "should be".

While I do not claim to enjoy doing monthly cleanings or simple maintenance procedures, jobs which can be lengthy, at times dirty and somewhat redundant, I will say that performing such duties have helped make me a better salesman. Having to execute these tasks myself has given me a great respect for those on our team who do these jobs day in and day out and help me to communicate with our service team better. These experiences also help me to get to know my customers from the CEO to the receptionist and every end user in between, better than I would have known them otherwise.

Whether its delivering toner, removing a paper jam, cleaning a machine, replacing rollers or so on and so forth, having to take part in these responsibilities (which are shunned by the bravado of some salesmen) plays an integral part in the molding of sales professionals who really care.

Take note of where you stand, for there is an invisible division line dividing those who wish to manipulate you and or situations connected to you in a way that places prosperity not on your shoulders as the customer but on their own, their focus being on success only as it pertains to them. On the other side of this division line are those who truly want to help you, folks who will take time from the chasing of their own gains to take care of your needs. Those who will work diligently not only to feed their own success but rather to fuel yours.

Indeed, there is a division line drawn in the sand.

When it comes down to the people who are supposed to be helping you, I would ask yourself...

On which side are they standing?

Debunking The "Paperless Office" Myth

On this past Saturday afternoon I read this from Ken Stewart on linkedin:

Answer Charlie's Question: "How is the MPS market growing if its goal is to reduce prints?"

To which I answered:

It's not really about reducing prints so much as it is about reducing the cost of the prints. If being a print Nazi was what MPS was about (and some MPS providers are just that to their customers end users) then this industry would be futile.

This got me thinking...

Since April I have connected with about 300 businesses. If nothing else I have been able to garner one valuable insight. Other than maybe within the context of the medical field and or folks involved with law or government offices, the paperless office is at best a myth.

Out of the 300 aforementioned businesses only one person in one of those organizations had actually made a shift to the paperless office and they still had a printer... "just in case".

I have found that even the people who like the idea of a paperless office become a bit more reserved when all of a sudden they ask for a print out from their receptionist and there is not one available because they are now "paperless".

The simple fact of the matter is that human beings who work in an office setting (sans some atypical types) have developed an emotional connection with printed documents (whether they realize it or not). I can't tell you how many people I know who print e-mails to show other folks the e-mail, which of course could have been done without the printing of said e-mail.

To illustrate the concept further I would like to point to a less office oriented form of print. Books. Unlike newspapers whose fate seems to be teetering between extinction and an existence of novelty and antiquity, books have not wavered in popularity as much despite their digital nemesis.

I propose that this is due to the emotional power that books have over people. There is a strong esoteric pleasure in the indulgence and enjoyment of the cover art, back cover description and the feeling of a book in hand. Not unlike the lost art of buying a band's album for the same reasons, the book has yet to be fully replaced by e-readers and other technological offerings and while I know there is a huge difference between a good book and a simple office memo, the latter still has a bit of a connection to the emotional power of the former.

With that being said, I say that the "paperless office" is nothing more than futurist mythology that will never be...

Although, depending upon what the future holds for our freedoms in any government I suppose the possibility of the paperless office could manifest within the context of the unsavory power structure of a dictatorship (either within a company or, God forbid... a nation).

I suppose time will tell... What do you think?