How Much Does Managed Print Service Cost?

How often are your sales professionals asked the dreaded question “How much does Managed Print Services Cost?” at the beginning of a client engagement? Or even worse, prospective clients have a generic cost in mind of what they believe they should be paying on a cost per page and start by asking “Can you do this for a penny a page?” The answer is not to rush to the numbers and instead lead with proper assessment in order to capture the client’s current operating costs.

MPS is Designed to Save Your Customers Money

Managed print services are designed to save your customer money by making their print environment more efficient. This cost savings should be presented by educating the client on their true total cost of ownership of their print fleet and related business processes.

Current costs need to be captured through a defined assessment process that includes a collection of the actual spend. This can be captured with a thorough analysis of current contracts, purchasing and invoices from accounts payable. It is also imperative you help educate your clients the difference between acquisition costs of their print devices vs. total cost of ownership.

A proper assessment will also capture the costs of related business processes to support the printers that can include:

• Internal print triage / IT helpdesk calls
• Internal IT support time
• Process to order consumables / manage supplies
• Processing POs
• Waste

A proper assessment will also include understanding your clients pain points and goals related to print. When you truly understand the needs of your client your sales process can also shift the conversation away from price to value. If clients are hesitant to move forward with an MPS assessment utilize a sample executive summary of a print assessment and scope of work to demonstrate the value your process will bring to their organization understanding what they spend today.

Once this information is collected your MPS team can compile the client’s current spend to present in your sales process. Once the client has agreed to this analysis it is then time to address the original question “How much does Managed Print Services Cost?” You then turn the question on them and ask them “How much do you want to save?” Once you know that information you can then finalize your pricing and present your MPS proposal.

Avoiding Pitfalls in Your Sales Process

It is also key you avoid the following pitfalls in your sales process when you are asked “How much does Managed Print Services cost?”

• Citing average cost per page for other clients
• Agreeing to price stipulations prior to have accurate fleet information
• Quoting pricing off of customer supplied data that are only averages / fleet summaries
• Jumping to specific makes / models of equipment (MPS sales is NOT about a brand, it is a business process)

Instead be confident in your MPS sales process and use pricing questions to lead the consulting and assessment process. Utilize industry data that demonstrates average spend of print vs. revenue, client case studies and testimonials should reference percentage or average saving vs. actual prices on contracts. With your knowledge clear on how you can redirect a sales process when asked “How much does Managed Print Services cost?” you will be ready to respond “Well do you know how much are you spending on print today?”
When you execute this simple redirect, you will find your MPS sales process will stay on track as a profitable consultative engagement vs. a quick price quote.