“Having the same guy show up at your door each time takes the guesswork out of how important your partnership is to the vendor. ” - James Thomas
“Having the same guy show up at your door each time takes the guesswork out of how important your partnership is to the vendor. ” – James Thomas
Believe it or not, San Antonio based The MPS Groupand their CEO and founder, James Thomas, is often asked: Why Xerox? So when I asked the same question, the answer was both informative and simple: reliability. “If you’re going to do one thing, do it well,” says James, that’s why in the fourth quarter of 2014 he opted for an exclusive partnership with Xerox.

The search for an exclusive vendor relationship

For years, the MPS Group sold printers and copiers across many vendors, always with the expectation that at some point they would find the right fit and chose to be exclusive with one vendor. Finally, in 2014 Xerox stepped up to the plate with benefits that made working with together an obvious choice. Ever since, James and his team have reaped the rewards of tripled sales as an attentive, communicative, and stable vendor helped pave the way.
Thinking of going exclusive with a vendor? Ask these four questions first
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Four questions to help you choose an exclusive vendor

Are you considering an exclusive relationship with one vendor? Here are four questions that James suggests you ask yourself when considering moving to a single vendor:

1 – Does the vendor offer stability?

Having the “same guy show up at your door each time” takes the guesswork out of understanding how important your partnership is to the vendor. Low turnover and high product knowledge provided by Xerox is invaluable to The MPS Group, “We can count on Xerox to share people, products, tools and pathways to success.”

2 – Are their products readily available?

Too often vendors have new releases that are in high demand with the end customer, but aren’t readily available. Selling a product only to find it’s on back order is not good for business. James says, “Xerox earned The MPS Group’s trust by having new products available as soon as they’re released”.

3 – Do they provide reliable service?

“Only sell it if you can service it.” That’s one motto The MPS Group lives by. They are firm believers in ‘service after the sale,’ and choosing Xerox as an exclusive partner helped streamline their service department. James, his team and their customers do not have time to rely on a vendor’s time frame, which can be very sporadic depending on the vendor. When repairs are outside of The MPS Group’s scope, a local Xerox technician is dispatched quickly. Local technicians are trained in good customer services so even when The MPS Group can’t fix the problem, their end-users remain happy customers.

4 – Do they provide five star training for your technical specialists?

The online training programs Xerox provides are top notch and one of the cornerstones of this partnerships’ success. The curriculum provided keeps The MPS Group technicians up to speed on all the new products while teaching them the technology as if they were one of Xerox’s own technicians.