Prospecting for new clients is tough. It’s time-consuming, expensive, and very, very tedious.
This rings especially true for small-to-medium-sized MSPs who often don’t have dedicated sales account managers, and, instead, allocate the majority of their resources toward providing excellent service.
Because of prospecting’s many challenges, your MSP should strive to get the most value out of each client you work with - the most bang for your buck, if you will.
One way you can do so is by working with more clients that use managed print services (MPS).
After working with hundreds of MSPs across the country, our team at Print Partner has found that across the board, clients that use MPS are more profitable for their IT support providers.
In this article, we’ll go over the many benefits that working with managed print users can have for your business, and why you should encourage your existing clients to sign on with a quality MPS provider.
1. Saving Hours of Technician Labor
How often does your MSP get stuck dealing with print-related support calls? If your company is like most others in your industry, chances are, these calls are a common occurrence.
That’s because printers - generally speaking - suck! Printers and copiers are complex devices, and your clients that don’t have a managed print vendor that trains and supports their device users often run into many frustrating, time-consuming issues.
And those same customers, desperate for solutions, end up calling the most tech-savvy team available - which, unfortunately, is you, their MSP.
These print calls are frustrating for both parties. Your technicians are not equipped to handle all print devices, which are diverse, complicated machines with countless brands and models.
Consider how many hours your technicians sink into dealing with print devices, and how many paid hours of labor you waste every day on handling what should be someone else’s problem.
However, when your client has a managed print vendor, they deal with these issues so your technicians won’t have to.
This will free up your team to handle more important tasks, so you won’t have to pay them to waste hours of time on absurd print device escalation calls.
2. Print Device Standardization
Large clients without managed print often have very disorganized print fleets.
When a client doesn’t have a team of print experts at their side to advise them, they often just wing it when they need more devices. And if devices need replacing, they’ll often just buy whatever their office administrator is in the mood for that day.
This sort of unfocused, unaligned print strategy results in a seemingly-random assortment of print device models. And when your MSP’s technicians attempt to troubleshoot network problems, they’ll struggle with deciphering which ones are having issues.
You can’t expect your team to know how to troubleshoot every brand and model of copy machine on the market!
However, a quality MPS provider will implement the same handful of devices across the company, making them easier for them to manage, and easier for your team to troubleshoot general network issues.
Understanding 100 device models is impossible for a strapped IT group. But learning common errors for 3-4 models is very manageable.
Plus, your team will be able to defer issues beyond your scope to the MPS providers, which will save your team countless hours on the phone. This means your team will have more time to work on other money-making projects - you know, the stuff MSPs are actually supposed to do!
And for future device issues, your client will call their MPS for troubleshooting - your technicians will know longer have to grit their teeth for hours while they try to decipher the manual for another Canon TR4-whatever.
To learn more about print standardization, read: Top Benefits of Standardizing Your Clients’ Print Fleet
3. Additional Revenue Stream from Print Referrals
We’ve talked a lot about how MPS can save your employees precious time - and since your employees’ time costs your MSP money, then time is money, right?
Something like that…
While saving your team’s precious time and freeing their days up for more lucrative projects is great, there’s another huge way that MPS-using clients can make your MSP more profitable.
Depending on which MPS provider your client works with, your business can create an additional revenue stream by referring your clients to an MPS vendor you partner with.
While there are many print vendors who offer their own set of bonuses, we’ve found that Print Partner has some of the most competitive referral perks.
Here are the benefits Print Partner offers to our MSP referral partners:
- $250 per business referral
- Another $250 if we receive the prospect’s current print agreement with the referral
- $1,000 per copier sold
- 5% on the client’s lifetime print allotment
- Additional revenue for future sales
So, when you prospect for new clients and you learn that one has an MPS provider, check if they have some kind of referral plan - even just a few referrals a year can create sizable checks upfront, along with recurring revenue for years to come.
To learn more about evaluating potential MPS vendors to work with and refer clients to, read: MSPs: How to Choose a Print Partner
Print Partner and Maxing MSP Profit
In this article, we covered how managed print providers working with your clients can save your business time and money, while creating additional revenue from referrals.
MPS can make a huge difference to your business’ bottom line, which is why you should always have a print vendor in your back pocket.
If your MSP does not currently have a solution to print, consider working with Print Partner!
Print Partner is committed to uplifting the MSP community - in case you haven’t noticed, we write content for you guys twice a week, every week.
Our #1 priority is to take the burden of print off your MSP’s plate. That is our value prop.
We offer value to MSPs in three ways:
- Collaboration: We actively manage your clients’ print fleets, and coordinate on service with your team when needed.
- Protection: Unlike many other print vendors, we don’t offer any of our own MSP-related services. This means that we’ll never compete with you for business, and we’ll protect you from print vendors that would try to compete with you.
- Additional Revenue: Like we stated above, we’ll pay you for referrals! You’ll earn income for introductions, machine sales, and a recurring 5% on lifetime print allotment. Plus, you’ll earn on future sales.
So what are you waiting for? Start saving time and making money today, and consider partnering with us, a Print Partner you can trust.
