In February 1519,
Hernando Cortez set sail from Cuba to the shores of the Yucatan.
Ha had 11 ships, 500 soldiers, 100 sailors and 16 horses. Their
goal was to conquer the great Aztec empire, the largest empire in
South America, and capture their gold.
Upon arrival on the shores of the Yucatan, Cortez prepared his
small army by drilling them and giving them pep talks each
evening. He trained them to fight. But then, on the last night
before the invasion, he called everyone together for a final
speech. The troops were probably expecting a speech on the spoils
of victory and how they could rise up to the challenge. But that’s
not what happened. As they listened, Cortez leaned in and said
three simple words that changed everything: “Burn the boats.”
By giving this order, Cortez raised his army’s commitment level to
new and astounding heights! See, when you take away plan “B,” the
“if this doesn’t work out so well” plan, you’re whole-heartedly
committed to making plan “A” succeed. And an amazing thing took
place on the shores of the Yucatan: they fought well! For the
first time in six centuries, a small army defeated thousands of
Aztec soldiers. Cortez’s band took that treasure. And why did they
win? The answer is very simple. They had no choice! It was “take
it or die.” no options. Their boats were burned.”
Most MPS programs are not succeeding. A recent survey by an
on-line blog site found that over 50% of all resellers and dealers
were unhappy with their MPS program. Photizo Group predicts that
over half of all dealers in business today will be gone in five
years due to their inability to transition to a managed print
services model (Hybrid Dealer Report: http://store.managed-print-services.com
/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Hybrid+Dealer+Report).
From our perspective, the single biggest barrier to a lack of
success is commitment. This is an issue that I have spoken about
many times in this column. It is the “burn the boats” type of
commitment by senior management, which allows for a complete
transition of the business model.
There are a number of barriers to this commitment. The first is
fear. What if I kill the “”old” business model (hardware- centric
sales) before the new business model comes on-line? What if my
sales force can’t learn to sell under the new model? What if my
management team doesn’t follow -me as I lead them in transitioning
the business model?
The number of excuses is almost limitless, but the reality is most
resellers and dealers are not willing to make the commitment to
change, which is required to transition from a traditional sales
model to a hybrid dealer model. This commitment includes investing
resources (I’m burning a boat), replacing sales people who cannot
transition with new sales people, and training these sales people
appropriately (another boat burned), charging for services that in
the past have been given away for free (another boat burned),
investing in consulting to assist in change management (another
boat burned), or hiring a MPS champion and giving them the real
authority and power to make changes (there goes the last boat –
burning!).
This was driven home to me in a recent engagement with a client
who has actually started a business under the “”new” business
model while still trying to support a business under the old
business model. They are struggling with the transition and are
facing a myriad of management and business issues due to conflicts
between the two models. At the same time, they are unwilling to
fully commit to the new model for the entire organization and they
still have managers who are actively fighting the new model.
The bottom line.: there is a tremendous amount of “”treasure”
available for those vendors who make the transition to managed
print services. And even with commitment, there is a significant
amount of preparation that goes into a successful program (notice
how Cortez drilled his team and prepared them for the battle
before he burned the ships). But the bottom line is that you must
have the “”burn the boats” level of MPS commitment to be
successful in transforming your business into thea profitable
Hybrid Dealer model.
Ed Crowley is the
CEO and founder of the Photizo Group, . Wwith over 20 years of
industry experience with firms such as Lexmark, DataProducts, and
QMS. The Photizo Group is the thought leader for managed print
services. The firm provides publications, conferences, and market
intelligence for the managed print services market. To learn more
about the company, please visit
www.photizogroup.com .
To sign up for the firm’s free daily MPS Insights news summary,
please visit
www.mpsinsights.com . For more information on the firm’s
conferences, please visit
www.mpsconference.com .
