Business Technology Association, Strategy Development Unveil
Kansas City, Mo. — The Business Technology Association (BTA) and Strategy Development have announced the launch of a new two-day educational opportunity for office technology dealers. The workshop is designed to provide dealerships the tools they need to establish a print management strategy that will allow them to significantly increase the quantity of captured prints, lock in customers, distinguish themselves from competitors and, ultimately, sell more hardware.
“Today, the page volumes generated by both monochrome and color printers are increasing substantially, resulting in a similar increase in the volume of printing-related issues reported to IT personnel and help desks,” said Tom Callinan, principal of Strategy Development and instructor for the new BTA workshop. “Meanwhile, office technology dealers continue to see a decline in copy volumes. There is also the ongoing threat of competitors, including OEM direct sales operations and VARs, encroaching on the dealer’s customer base. All of these realities point to a growing need within the channel for dealers to pursue a print management strategy.
“Print management offers office technology dealers a highly profitable revenue stream while locking out new competitors,” he said. “However, to be successful, the leadership in a dealership’s sales organization needs to better understand the key differences between the printer and copier spaces as well as understand how to manage the longer and more complex selling cycle inherent to a print management strategy. Those who attend the new ‘BTA Print Management Workshop’ will leave with the tools they need to develop and implement a print management business plan and take their dealerships to new heights.”
Among the topics to be covered in this two-day course: Understanding the print space (the opportunity, IT’s involvement, the sales approach and target markets); getting the appointment; presenting a value proposition; how to conduct an assessment; developing a strategy and tactics; how to build a print management proposal that sells; pricing a print management contract; how to expand the opportunity after the sale; and preparing for account reviews.
“We are very pleased to announce BTA’s new relationship with Tom Callinan and Strategy Development,” said BTA Executive Director Brent Hoskins. “While the concept of print management is not new, there are a number of factors in our industry today that make this revenue strategy a particularly compelling opportunity that more dealers should consider. Tom Callinan is ideally suited to lead the new ‘BTA Print Management Workshop.’ The value of his expertise and years of experience will be immediately apparent to anyone who attends this new BTA educational offering.”
The first two BTA Print Management Workshops are scheduled for Aug. 8-9 in Chicago and Aug. 13-14 in Baltimore.
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This article originally appeared in the July 2007 issue of Recharger.