Forcing Your Sales Team to Talk About Remote Monitoring Functionality Will Lead to More Sales

Last week I sent out an analysis on the ECi acquisition of PrintFleet and what it means to our industry. You can read that analysis here. The analysis gained a lot of attention, mainly because I concluded that prices will rise. Today, I’m going to explain why as a dealer you should pay more for your remote monitoring system, and why that’s a good thing.

First off, a disclaimer: I have no financial relationship with any RMS vendor. Now then, here are 3 points as to why you should pay more:

1. Compare the RMS systems for printers to other systems like AVG that monitor other network assets. Prices for those systems generally cost around $3 per device per month. PrintFleet and FM Audit cost closer to $1 per month. Why should it be less expensive to monitor and manage a laptop or other device than a network printer?
   
   
   
2. What value are you giving to the customer? Overwhelmingly, most devices on an RMS system are only being monitored and not managed. A classic example of this is when dealerships install a data collection agent (DCA) on a customer network to monitor a newly financed MFP. The DCA then also picks up 5 or 6 (10, 12, even 100) other printers. The primary reason for this installation is to collect the meter reads for the financed printer, instead of calling or emailing the customer for monthly page counts. WHAT A WASTE! Here’s what you could, and should do:
   
   
   
   
   
3. Force the value conversation between your sales team and customers. When you give away software it has no value to the customer, it also has no perceived value for your sales team. 
   
   

Customers should pay for the service of monitoring and managing any print device on their network. Keep in mind that it’s not just the software cost you are giving away, it’s the value that your company adds to it with product knowledge and industry experience. You are saving customers’ time and money. You are helping them make better asset purchasing decisions. You are saving them hours of manual labor, and you are protecting their IT network by removing potential vulnerabilities. Customers should pay for these services, either directly or indirectly, via commitments to buy supplies, service, or hardware.

Giving away RMS software, or not using it to its full extent, is a huge missed opportunity. Nobody likes to pay more for a product, but in this case, maybe paying more will force sales people to have meaningful conversations with your customers.