NA0406

Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A

Professional Approach to Selling (B)
Prabakar Kothandaraman, William Paterson University
Sudha Mani, William Paterson University
William J. Healy, William Paterson University

O
n the afternoon of January 3, 2013, Bill Swanson sat at his desk, reviewing
his morning meeting with Peter Daniel. He had been very attentive, allowing
him to prepare a table that he called, “Daniel’s Target Checklist” (Exhibit
B-1). He thought the list offered an excellent starting point for developing and suc-
ceeding in his effort to acquire the NYCG—New York Consulting Group—account.

Exhibit B-1: Daniel’s Target Checklist

üü Company
üü People
üü Competition
üü Process and timeline
üü Key benefits sought
üü Products/solutions

By Monday, January 7, Swanson felt ready to pick up the phone and dial NYCG’s
number in Wayne, New Jersey. All he had was a single name: Bob Benedict. Daniel
offered it, with the comment that he had heard Benedict still was with NYCG and
even might have become the group’s head of procurement. Bringing all his charm to
the fore, Swanson explained to the operator that he wanted to speak with Bob Bene-
dict’s secretary to arrange an appointment. It appeared that Benedict might have been
anticipating calls from copier company salespeople; Swanson immediately received
a meeting on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. The secretary also told him that “Mr. Benedict
expects all the salespeople who schedule appointments with him to leave a one-minute
introductory message on his answering machine. You can do it either today or tomor-
row after hours.” This practice was new to Swanson; he immediately began thinking

Copyright © 2016 by the Case Research Journal and by Prabakar Kothandaraman, Sudha Mani, and William
J. Healy. All rights reserved by the authors and NACRA. This case was written by Prabakar Kothandaraman,
professor of professional sales, Sudha Mani, assistant professor of professional sales, and William J. Healy,
professor of professional sales at William Paterson University to stimulate class discussion rather than to
illustrate effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors thank Konica Minolta
Business Solutions for written permission to use this case and the editor, associate editor for marketing
and health care, and the reviewers of the Case Research Journal for their helpful comments on the draft.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling 121

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 about what information he would need to include in the short message to be left on
the answering machine (see Exhibit B-2).

Exhibit B-2: Highlights for Introductory Call Message

1. Who am I?
2. What do I know about you and your goals?
3. Who are my existing clients?
4. What are my areas of expertise and how might I be able to bring that to benefit you?
5. What would I like to accomplish at the meeting?
6. How can I be reached?

Source: Case writer summary, based on interviews

On January 10, Swanson reached Benedict’s office at 1:30 p.m. His heart was rac-
ing. But he chatted amiably with Benedict’s secretary Lydia Cruz, who was happy to
discuss her young son’s baseball exploits. Swanson promised her that he would send
her the contact details of a newly opened baseball academy in Wayne. He also knew
that he had prepared well for the meeting, and he was determined to let Benedict
do most of the talking. Particularly, he reminded himself that he should not use the
meeting to list a host of features KMBS machines have. Swanson completed all of his
research on NYCG’s operations and knew about its great financial performance. But
even though he understood how NYCG was organized globally, he had very little
information about its printing needs or how its printing departments were structured.
As the conference room door opened and Benedict entered, Swanson also frantically
wondered if he should have asked another KMBS executive to accompany him on the
call. Bob Benedict was a heavy hitter, the global procurement director at NYCG. As
a procurement specialist, he reported directly to NYCG’s partner-in-charge for global
sourcing.
To open the meeting, Swanson explained KMBS’ credentials and concluded the
introduction by saying, “I would like to know from you what your goals are for acquir-
ing copying and printing solutions and how you plan to achieve those goals.” Benedict
began by thanking Swanson for meeting with him. He appeared very experienced
handling copying and printing procurement, such that he could readily outline his
procurement philosophy:
We at NYCG have thought through our needs carefully. As you know, printing and
copying are important services that are “always on” here. Consequently, we want to be
absolutely sure about our vendor’s capability in critical dimensions such as security,
reliability, and ease of serviceability. We are also focused on eco-friendliness and usage
monitoring. Here at NYCG, we have two departments that oversee our printing needs.
The first one deals with our large volume printing, and the second one deals with print-
ing and copying that takes place in our office locations around the country. We have
a plan for procurement and usage, and we want a vendor who both understands and
achieves it.
From that foundation Benedict went on to explain the various aspects of the plan
in detail, as Swanson took copious notes.

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 NYCG’s Plan: Central Print Services (CPS)
Large service organizations such as NYCG often have dedicated printing locations,
with production-quality printers. These in-house print shops operate as profit centers.
The various departments within NYCG thus sent their bulk printing jobs to Central
Print Services (CPS) and paid a fee, through internal transfers, to have the work com-
pleted. In turn, the internal customers demanded large print and copying volumes,
done to exact specifications.
Consequently, consistency was an important criterion for CPS. Although its cli-
ents were internal, many of these documents went out to NYCG’s customers, so they
needed the same look and feel, in terms of logos, pictures, and other elements, regard-
less of which of the thirty-one CPS locations, spread across the country, printed them.
Thus, CPS required that all machines could deliver the same quality level. When han-
dling large print volumes, CPS also wanted the flexibility to optimize printing or
copying loads seamlessly across different printers within a location.
As another criterion, CPS rated reliability very high, referring to both the depend-
ability of the machines, which needed to offer uptimes of 90 percent or better, and the
people assigned by the copier company to service its machines. CPS wanted to moni-
tor this metric closely, because higher downtimes meant it would lose revenue from its
internal customers. In a related demand, CPS required machines that were versatile.
For example, the machines needed to provide reliable binding; in the past, CPS had
grown frustrated with suppliers’ struggles to provide complete service offerings that
were sufficient in quality and reliability.
To ensure higher uptime, NYCG further expected any machines it purchased to
run self-diagnostics and send toner replenishment requests to the service organization
if toner levels fell below a preset limit. This auto-toner replenishment service appeared
important for NYCG, which did not want to have to make an individual responsible
for ordering toner supplies every time a toner ran dry. The process of replacing the
toner also needed to be simple and uncomplicated. In its experience, NYCG had
noted that vendors invariably installed machines with varying capacities, meaning
that each machine required its own set of supplies. This cumbersome arrangement
prompted NYCG to ask for standardized supplies of toners, staples, toner waste bottles,
and so forth from the copier vendors.
Noting the earlier controversies in the industry, NYCG demanded high standards
of security from its copiers, such that aspiring vendors would need to spell out clearly
how their machines met NYCG’s security needs. Security meant that the machines
wiped their hard drives completely after every use and granted access only through an
ID card–based authentication. They also needed to help NYCG monitor the nature
and content of individual uses. The company wanted to be able to run reports at any
time to monitor usage levels, for example.
Finally, NYCG sought to be a responsible corporate citizen in all matters, includ-
ing environmental pollution. For copiers, this demand meant that NYCG expected
vendors to take delivery of used toner cartridges and dispose them of in an environ-
mentally responsible way. It therefore expected a disposal plan from each prospective
vendor.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions: A Professional Approach to Selling 123

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 Distributed Print Services (DPS)
In addition to the CPS, NYCG maintained many printers and copiers dispersed
throughout its ninety-two U.S. locations. Unlike the centralized printing demands
of large jobs, Distributed Print Services (DPS) was tasked with providing immediate
printing and copying service to all professional employees and staff. The cost of run-
ning these machines was calculated as overhead, assigned to the divisions that operated
in those buildings. This situation increased the need to monitor usage and keep costs
down. Therefore, along with the basic security required of all machines, monitoring was
an important criterion for the DPS machines.
Most of the printing and copying done under the supervision of DPS involved
small lots, with occasional prints of 60–70 page reports. Consistency, though a factor,
was not quite as crucial as it was for CPS. For CPS, more usage meant more rev-
enue, but what mattered more at DPS was cost effectiveness and optimized usage. To
achieve these goals, NYCG sought better usage monitoring and required copiers that
could support duplexing, or two-sided copies, which would save paper. The company
encouraged staffers to rely on two-sided copying, and it sought to monitor this usage
to address both cost reduction and eco-friendly aims. Each month, NYCG wanted a
report that would identify the percentage of times a machine was used in duplexing
mode. It could then use this report to highlight which offices were not complying with
the green initiative.

Meeting Outcomes
Benedict concluded the meeting by saying, “We know that picking the vendor for
our printing and copying needs is a tough task. I am glad we have a great team that
is working to achieve the best possible outcome for NYCG, and we are aware that
our decision will impact how printing and copying is done at all of our ninety-two
locations.”
Swanson left with more questions than he had at the beginning of the meeting.
But he also did not want to get ahead of himself. He checked his notes to make sure
that he had understood which benefits CPS and DPS sought and how each divi-
sion perceived those benefits. Swanson also sensed that Benedict was warming up to
him and was pleased about it. Benedict’s mention of a “great team” made Swanson
recall his training program in Chicago, where he had learned that most companies
used multiple-member groups to make buying decisions. His trainer had referred to
the group as buying centers,1 and urged new recruits to spend more time scanning
the buying organization to identify people who might be involved in purchasing. So
Swanson moved on to defining his next questions: “Who makes up the buying center?
And where can I find them?”

Note
1. A buying center is a group of members of the buying organization, and occa-
sionally external consultants, who come together for the purpose of buying a
specific product or service; they typically bring unique perspectives and infor-
mation to help the firm make a more informed buying decision.

124 Case Research Journal • Volume 36 • Issue 1 • Winter 2016

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