• Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Friday, August 27, 2010 10:35 AM

Arik Hesseldahl reports that Lexmark is taking a somewhat novel approach to sales. It intends to make more money by helping its customers use its products less frequently.

CEO Paul Curlander wants to sell fewer printers with higher profit margins and then manage the printers for the companies that buy them. Lexmark claims it can cut printing costs by 30% or more when it takes over installing, repairing and restocking printers. Indeed, Coca-Cola Enterprises says it saved $11 million over five years with the help of Lexmark, which swapped out 6,000 printers and faxes from 16 different vendors for 3,800 Lexmark machines.

The company is targeting categories where print demand is still climbing, such as finance and health care. "We're very narrowly focused on laser printers and on specific industries," says Curlander. "We don't try to be everywhere."

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