I recently purchased a new car from one of the largest car dealers in the country (privately owned, $55 million in annual revenues). Given that I am notoriously cheap about cars, it was a very inexpensive car, and we paid cash. After negotiating the deal, we went to the back room where we signed all of the documentation. We signed the following forms:
- Permissive Vehicle Use Agreement
- Application for State Tags
- Proof of Insurance
- Acknowledge of Privacy Policy re Information Use
- Odometer Disclosure Statement
- Acknowledgment of Receipt of Written Warranty
- Buyer's Order
- Copy of Registration
We got a copy of each document, and the Ford person put all of their copies in a stack.
Being somewhat of an evangelist for document and content management, I asked, "What do you do with all of your copies?" While asking the question, I gave a quick look to the multi-function device sitting on the table; I could tell just yearning at its very core to scan those documents.
The answer? "We put them in a file folder, and then put them in our records room."
"Where is the record room?" I asked. "On-site here."
Intrigued, I asked, "Are the documents backed up anywhere?" The predictable answer, "No."
"How long do you keep the documents?" "10 years."
"It must be a pretty big records room." "Yes, we have 3 full-time employees who file the information and help find the documents if we need them."
The reason I spend time on this anecdote is that it illustrates a couple of key points that we often forget:
- Even though it feels like document and content management has been with us forever, the market is still largely untapped — for those salespersons who can match the situations and business problems facing thousands of businesses with the technology to solve those problems.
- For those with a lot of scanning and capture experience, the world of scan-to-process is loaded with upsell opportunities. But we forget -- simple scan-to-archive is still mostly a Brave New World for many small and mid-sized organizations.
- The two keys to penetrating this market are: 1) anticipating and articulating the need that many customers don't even fully acknowledge yet, by asking the right questions of the right people — well before an RFP is even issued; and 2) being able to offer a simple solution that combines hardware and software that can be implemented — and then used — without a lot of training or preparation.
Many don't realize that AIIM can provide the sales enablement education — tapping into our community of 65,000 users of the technology — that can help make this happen. And do so in a cost-effective, turnkey way that customizes many modular elements from our broader training business. Ping me at johnmancini [at] aiim.org if you'd like a quick 15-minute chat on how we can help.
