Cashing in with MFP Solutions

Another Labor Day has come and gone. Schools are back, along with getting stuck behind the caravans of yellow buses, especially when I'm trying to get to an appointment. Why must New Jersey school buses stop every two blocks or so, come on kids, get up earlier and walk 6 miles to school every day! I did it, well kinda, I had almost a two mile walk to and from school everyday.

What are your thoughts about a solution? Does selling a solution means that you sold a software applcation such as PPDM, NSI or Digi Doc Flow? Well.......yes, and how about if you just sold and MFP with no software application, does that mean the deal was not a solution? Hell No, MFP's have embedded solutions too!

Finding a clients pain means and having a solution to the clients pain means you're going to get a decent margin on your system or you're of the top choices for the client.

We found such a solution with one of our Ricoh devices, however it didn't start out that way. The client presented thier pain to us (that made it simple and we didn't have to drag it outta them), they needed a way to capture all of the pages of a walkup out bound fax electronic and seemless to the end user (meaning the user did not have to anything but input the number and press start/send). MY first thoughts were.........uh...well....NSI, Document Mall, and ....and that was kinda it. With that I stated we'll get back to you, so off I went to collaborate with the team and after many emails, and many phone calls we were'nt getting anywhere with an easy, inexpensive solution. With that I decided to put a post on the Print4Pay Hotel forums and see what the P4P guru's had to say.

Within 48 hours and 9 threads we had our answer, the solution was already embedded in the Ricoh box! With a few touches in the user control panel we were able to capture all outbound faxes and have them routed to a folder on the network, along with that the person sending the fax just had to keep on doing what they were always doing, dial the number and hit start/send!

So, what's my point? First point is that the client had no need to shop us since the solution was embedded and thier was no additional cost. The second, is that I don't know all of the features that the MFP's are capable of. I now realize that I need to spend more time reviewing the product manuals for these devices, I could have saved countless hours, but thanx to the resource and efforts of collaborating with Print4Pay Hotel members I had found someone who had the used the same type of solution.

Guess, it's kinda like KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid), go the book, check out the FAB (Features, Advantages and Benefits), if your answer isn't there check out the Print4Pay Hotel forums and at last resort check out all of the software solutions.

In this case the solution was in the MFP already, and in my book, that's a darn good solution sale! Special thanx to the the P4P member who took the time to help and post the solution.

-=Good Selling=-