Tiered Color: IF it’s too good to be true, then it probably is

 

Last week I was involved in an opportunity where a competitor was offering a program called Tiered Color. For those of you who aren’t familiar with that, it means they will bill the client based on how much color toner is on a piece of paper. There are three tiers involved with tiered color. For example, tier-one might mean you have 5% of the paper covered with color toner. It might be a logo on letterhead and they charge a penny and a half to two cents on that page. Whereas, 15% may be tier two and they charge 4.5 cents to 7 cents a page. And tier 3 will be your heavier marketing material and it maybe 10 to 12 cents a page. The document I show you in the video will display how much color toner at 5% is for one page. I show what 10%, 30%, 60%, and 80% look like. The advantage in a tiered color program is for clients who are producing marketing material or sheets of paper only having 5% toner coverage. This may work for you and you can take advantage of a lower cost per page. However, the disadvantages are:
1.) The industry average for toner coverage is 15-20% which means you’re not always taking advantage of the low cost per page. You’re most likely going to be paying for above what the conservative rate would be, around 5-6 cents per color page.  Your price may be closer to 7-10 cents per page consistently depending on what your marketing materials or produced documents look like.
What we offer, on the other hand, is conventional and it works. It is a true cost per page which includes toner, parts, labor, and more for a specific amount per page. Typically that is 5-6 cents per page.
2.) Once you set the machine up for tiered color, you can’t go back without hoops to jump through. The machine is set up for tiered color and to take it off you have to reset the memory and meters, which is not a common service and may difficult to find.
We at AAA Business Systems don’t want you to get into a situation where you think you’re taking advantage of something new to the market. It’s not new but has been around for several years. We don’t feel like it’s an advantage for our clients and their business. We don’t want you to get into a situation where you feel like it was a good decision, but six months down the road you’re hating your decision and can’t turn back. If you’re asked to purchase tiered color from a vendor and it sounds too good to be true, please make sure you fully understand what you’re paying for before you agree. And if you would like more information on a true cost per page, please allow us to earn your business.