01732 759725
14
BULLETIN
Around eighteen months ago, BNP
Paribas Leasing Solutions introduced
free of charge financial training courses
for sales teams. The course, led by
Andy Milsom, Head of Training and
Partner Development, is designed to
help dealers sell more, by providing
them with the tools they need to
better connect with Financial Directors
and ultimately win larger and more
profitable deals.
Finance Unlocked: how to sell and win
with finance
focuses on supporting technology
resellers to adopt
a more strategic
approach to sales
in today’s financial
climate. Milsom says
that BNP Paribas
has worked with
many of the
industry’s major
players including
Balreed, Konica
Minolta,
Danwood
and Principal,
hosting
individual
sessions for
4-15 sales
professionals.
These explore in-depth how businesses
generate and use finance; explain the benefits
of leasing over cash; and teach delegates how
to use leasing as a strategic sales tool.
“Feedback has been extremely positive,”
said Milsom. “The course is the only one
that’s designed to help sales teams develop
the confidence, knowledge and skillset to
negotiate at a different level. Today, it is the FD
that is driving acquisitions and in order to win,
sales teams need to talk their language and
understand how they make decisions; we’re
showing them how to succeed with that.”
Topics covered include: the importance of
cash flow; cash vs. borrowing (and the benefits
of each); how to assess businesses' financial
performance, balance sheets and P&Ls;
underwriting criteria; and general business
finance issues.
“The ability to demonstrate an in-depth
knowledge of finance; confidently explain buzz
words, such as TCO and ROI; and pitch a deal
in financial terms is helping our partners to win
more business,” said Milsom.
Following the success of the initial half-day
course, BNP Paribas plans to roll out a series
of new, shorter courses focusing on individual
subjects in more detail.
“For example, one of the sessions will
centre on digging deeper into understanding
company accounts and what information you
can glean about a business from these. Another
will focus on MPS and different finance options
including the BNP Paribas We Manage Print
and TVP products,” explained Milsom.
“This gives us the opportunity to revisit
our partners and to fine tune the content, so
it’s tailored to support each dealer’s goals and
strategy,” he said.
Learning to sell and win
with finance
NAPPS UPDATE
Bah humbug – although
I can’t quite be sure
By Aaron Warham,
Director,
NAPPS
I had every intention of
using the last issue of the
year to offer my thanks to
the great and the good of
the industry for making
2014 the best NAPPS has ever had. I was
going to thank the majors of the industry
for making the NAPPS Partnership scheme
such a success and for helping to lay the
foundations on which the Association will
build over the next five years.
I was also going to mention that the growing
number of channel members is helping to convince
the UK market that there are companies out there
who know what they are doing, so that the term
professional services will soon become synonymous
with document solutions and not just the IT industry.
There was also a very good chance that I was
going to mention the Association’s affiliate members
who have continued to supply services to the NAPPS
community, giving them an edge and profitability not
normally seen in our industry.
However, just as I was about to do all this, I was
struck by the piece in last month’s
Print IT Reseller
which asked our industry’s leading opinion-formers
about jargon and why the demand side of the
industry is having trouble connecting with the
constant stream of three-letter acronyms.
What struck me was that the real problem is
not the abbreviations themselves, but how they are
being used, which inevitably brought me back to
sales technique. The biggest proportion of complaints
NAPPS receives from customers is that they have
been mis-sold to, or as they normally put it, ‘lied to’.
When it comes to confusing abbreviations, the issue
is not as unethical as ‘lying’, but it is just as serious.
A confused buyer - regardless of what level
you are pitching at within an organisation - usually
means a confused seller. If abbreviations are being
used badly and are clouding a sales pitch rather than
demystifying matters, there is a fundamental problem
with how the words are being used.
‘Solution’ has been the key term of the past two,
maybe even three, years in our industry. This is the
biggest signpost that as a whole we are trying to
move towards a more professional way of doing
things. If buyers are confused by terminology, rather
than excited by a company-wide solution, I would
suggest that we have not quite made it to the
promised land of a higher state of professionalism.
Finally, in closing, have a great New Year and
thank you all for making 2014 such a fantastic one.
Andy Milsom, Head of Training and Partner
Development, BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions
Olivetti serves up new range of mono A4 MFPs
Olivetti has launched a new range of high speed A4 mono MFPs.
Offering print speeds of 40, 50 and 60 pages per minute, the six
new machines will replace Olivetti's previous range of 40ppm
devices.
The new models are the d-Copia 4003MF and d-Copia 4004MF (40ppm)
for small workgroups; the d-Copia 4003MFPLUS, d-Copia 4004MFPLUS
(40ppm) and d-Copia 5004MF (50ppm) for larger workgroups; and the
d-Copia 6004MF (60ppm) for departmental applications.
All new models except the d-Copia 4003MF/4004MF feature a tiltable
7in colour touchscreen with an intuitive, smartphone-like display and a customisable home screen for
easy operation.
The combination of an optional 1.24 GB hard disk and the embedded JAWS software
development platform for customising the operator display enables users to integrate the MFPs with
personalised company workflows.
All new models are AirPrint-compatible to enable simple printing from mobile iOS devices and
offer enhanced data security through local and network authentication and enhanced network
encryption, including encrypted PDFs. An optional Data Security Kit is compliant with the EAL3
security protocol.
