The most successful dealers and resellers understand that they are selling solutions to customers’ problems–that they are not just pushing hardware out the door. In other words, customers will pay a premium if you can show that you have the experience and knowledge to Read More

As someone who has managed millennials (people aged 19 to 35 according to Pew Research), I’ve been puzzled by some stories about how different they are from older generations. No doubt, there are differences, and I believe those differences are the result of millennials Read More

We’ve heard from many dealers and VARs that one of the biggest mistakes they made when first offering managed services was lack of focus on an ideal customer profile. The natural instinct is to sell your services to as many customers as possible, but doing so with managed Read More

Negotiating a fee to manage a client’s IT network is never easy. Even the most IT-dependent businesses tend to see IT as a cost center. Worse, sometimes you need to appease decision makers who question the need for the technology in place. The solution to overcoming both Read More

If you sell managed services, then you need a point person with the right technical, business, and people skills to help make the sale and design customer solutions. That role is often referred to as the virtual CIO, or VCIO. This person will essentially personify your company Read More

Dealers and resellers looking for new revenue sources or enhanced margins should consider selling managed services. There is strong demand in the SMB market for outsourced services such as help desk, application hosting, network operations, or remote monitoring and management. It Read More

Earlier this week, Dell announced that it has sold its Dell Software Group to the private equity firm Francisco Partners and hedge fund firm Elliott Management Corp. for $2 billion. The sale includes the Quest database software, network security company SonicWall, and cloud Read More

The mid-Atlantic has more than its share of office technology dealers, but none are growing as fast as Philadelphia-based KDI. Rick Salcedo, KDI’s CEO, founded the company in 1988 as a service organization, and service has remained at the core of the business as it has expanded. Read More

Providing managed IT services has been a boon to many office equipment dealers. In some cases, it has even saved the business as demand for printer and copier sales and services decline. It’s a natural fit, because supporting networked printers and copiers gives dealers insight Read More

Several research projects have required me to spend a lot of time looking at customer reviews of printers and other IT products on sites such as Amazon, BestBuy, and Staples. What I’ve learned is that while these reviews as a whole are informative and useful, you have to Read More

A VP of operations at a large office technology dealer recently told us that one of his biggest achievements of the past year was completely turning over his four-person customer service team. They knew how to do their jobs, but their demeanor tended to escalate problems. When Read More

No matter what part of the office equipment business you are in, finding the right people for your team is probably one of your biggest challenges. That’s because everyone is looking for the same qualities and experience for a given role, and often you are competing with Read More

Anyone who has done B2B marketing for more than 10 years will tell you that traditional lead-generation marketing doesn’t work as well as it used to. Technology has made it easier for prospects to ignore your attempts to contact them by filtering out communication from Read More

Selling or hosting document management software has long been a key service provided by digital imaging dealers. A lot has changed with document management solutions over the past few years, and it will affect how you sell and deliver them. First, it would be worthwhile to review Read More

Consumer-oriented continuous ink-supply system (CISS) inkjet printers are starting to gain traction in the U.S. after having established themselves as popular options in Asia and Europe. Epson leads the way in the U.S. with its Ecotank series, and other OEMs such as Canon, Read More