Today, print is rarely at the top of the SMB sales agenda. Customer conversations are more likely to be around cloud and mobile IT services. However, more partners are beginning to discover that print technologies can enrich their most important IT propositions —and give them an edge.
Time and again, we’ve found that print sales are a reactive part of the revenue of resellers, VARs, MSPs and other IT solution providers, as I mentioned in an earlier blog. But the sales opportunity becomes much more exciting if you change the conversation to how print technologies can impact customers’ productivity and ROI in profound ways. This can open the doors to winning lucrative deals, such as ERP/CRM integration, storage, security, collaboration and disaster recovery solutions.
Valuable Reasons to Invest in Print Sales – You should invest in print sales because it’s no longer about just print, it’s about print technology, and how that technology integrates into the customer workplace – and into a successful channel partner and IT provider’s services portfolio.
Keep reading to discover how print technologies are your secret weapon to IT solutions sales.
Print as Best Supporting Actor
Today, viewing print as merely a mechanism for producing sharp-looking pages is a bit like investing in a smart TV simply for the terrestrial channels, without realising you can also access thousands of shows in HD and on demand. The trouble is, many SMBs are doing just that with print — and many IT resellers haven’t spotted the potential either.
While the printed page can be a steady source of income, print tech can play a crucial behind-the-scenes role in supporting your IT solution sales. The right print devices and apps can make your high-value IT offerings more practical, accessible and consumable for SMB customers.
Cisco Spark is a great example.
Xerox Print Tech Gives Conferencing an Extra Dimension
Xerox’s print tech can support the Cisco Spark conferencing tool, which is great news for Cisco resellers who are hosting and selling this service.
The MyWork Spark App improves productivity. It lets anyone scan paper documents to the Cisco Spark meeting room on the fly in one easy movement, direct from their Multifunction printers (MFPs). They can say goodbye to emailing and transferring files manually in an insecure way — and holding up everyone on the call.
More than that, the room can serve as a consistent storage repository for all documents, enabling one continuous workstream before, during and after meetings, boosting the return on investment in Cisco Spark. Cisco resellers can provide the essential hosting, backup and disaster recovery services around this.
The MyWork Spark App is available at no cost for all Cisco Spark free accounts.
MyWork Spark App – With the MyWork Spark App, you can scan to and print from your Cisco Spark meeting rooms, directly from your MFP. Click here to learn more about the app and to discover other apps on the Xerox App Gallery.
Drive up Demand for IT
Other IT solutions can be made more attractive to SMBs when you add the Xerox® ConnectKey® platform of MFPs, combined with ConnectKey apps.
You can accelerate the way SMBs bring paper documents into the business — and help them to use data more effectively. As a result, your customers can get more from the new ERP/CRM systems, other business applications and IT services you sell them. They can streamline workflow and gain a faster return on investment.
Xerox print tech makes the process refreshingly simple for SMBs. Documents can be added, recorded and archived easily. Employees can gain immediate and secure access to digital documents simultaneously.
Then sales start to snowball. Your applications are readily embraced by SMBs and document volumes increase, so you can sell more cloud storage, backup, helpdesk cover and other IT services.
What’s Changed?
In the past, it was possible to use MFPs in a smarter way — but only if you enlisted the expertise of third-party developers. Before long, you could be battling with added cost, complexity and delays. But now you can cut the corner completely.
Today, the Xerox® ConnectKey® platform of MFPs and ConnectKey apps enable a host of basic workflow capabilities for SMBs that are keen to take advantage of mobile-capable, cloud-enabled IT services. Everything is plug-and-play — out of the box — with the ability to develop further if you wish.
If you only aim to sell printers as a way to produce smart-looking pages, then that’s fine. But if you want to offer profitable, business-transforming IT services to your customers, then print tech should now be considered as an essential ingredient.
Become a Xerox Channel Partner
Ready to become a Xerox Channel Partner? Contact your Xerox account manager or review the Xerox Global Partner Program and apply to become a Xerox channel partner today to find out how we will help grow your business.
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Tweet: Here’s why print tech is an essential ingredient in offering business-transforming IT services to your customers: https://ctt.ec/Y10Pf+ by @SimonTune1 via @XeroxPartners
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