As more dealers delve into the higher end production space, greater numbers are searching for opportunities with light production and wide format devices in not only traditional production environments, but within their traditional accounts as well. That’s because these devices aren’t that far removed from the devices they’ve long been comfortable selling into the traditional office space.
Larry White
Before we get much further into this, it’s a good idea to define ‘light production,’ a term that tends to mean different things to different people. Larry White, senior vice president of sales for Toshiba America Business Solutions, acknowledges that for some it’s machines in the 70-ppm range doing 50,000+ copies per month. “To me that’s not light production,” he opines. “Light production is more about the product’s capabilities than anything else so it’s customers that need high-end finishing like booklet making and things of that nature along with the ability to run high on-demand volumes.”
Similarly, Sharp’s Senior Product Manager Product Planning and Marketing Kent Villarreal says, “For Sharp light production means an operator is running that device and the [color] page volumes are averaging 50,000-150,000 copies per month.”
To get a better idea of how dealers can be successful selling light production and wide format we went directly to the source—the OEMs who are marketing these devices through their dealer channel—to get their thoughts on what successful dealers who are selling light production/and or wide format devices are doing right and the pitfalls they should avoid that could affect their success. A separate article in ENX/The Week in Imaging in April looks at what manufacturers are doing to help their channels achieve success in these product segments.
How to be Successful
Turns out there’s a fair amount of common ground among manufacturers about what it takes for their dealers to be successful. Let’s start with Toshiba, a company that sells most of its light production devices into major and Federal accounts. “We see those products combined in a large takedown environment where we’ll sell maybe three or four production print units and maybe 60-70 traditional MFPs all wrapped around what could be an MPS environment,” reports White.
The successful Toshiba dealers selling light production devices in those instances often have a good major account team or a person dedicated to the Federal/school market environment. “They’re the ones who knock the cover off the ball,” says White. “I don’t see a lot of standalone, single production print units placed in our environments.”
On the wide-format front, even though TABS doesn’t have an OEM product, White has found that dealers successful in this segment have simply selected the right partner. “It’s important to have somebody who can support them with sales and service,” he says.
Another key to success is having a specialist or champion—someone that understands that product and is not going to walk past the selling opportunities, emphasizes White. “That’s critical for selling wide format although it’s not that complicated of a market and becoming less complicated every day.”
Kent Villarreal
Likewise, for Sharp’s Villarreal, the number one key to success in light production is having a specialist on staff. “That’s where you’ll see the biggest impact. The specialist acts as the trainer and onsite expert and can teach the sales team the lingo.”
The specialist also understands what questions to ask and where to look for opportunities. “And once that down-the-street rep brings in those opportunities, the specialist can do the demo and get deeper into the [customer’s] workflow,” states Villarreal.
He circles back to the importance of asking the right questions, particularly what types of documents is the customer or prospect currently printing and is it done in house or outsourced? “That starts the conversation,” says Villarreal. “You may find out they’re spending $2,500-$3,000 every month. That’s one way you can take a look at what types of documents they’re creating. This is an area that Sharp and our dealers are focused on. How can companies bring more work in house and save time and money and produce the same or better quality as they were when sending the work out? The perfect example of that is our full-bleed booklet capability where you can create professionally printed booklets and brochures in house.”
Shane Coffey, senior director product management for Sharp, adds, “The lesson we’ve learned is you can’t put your toe in the water, you have to dive in. If they put their toe in the water and say, ‘Let’s see if we come across any opportunities,’ they might come across some low hanging fruit, but then what?”
Shane Coffey
Coffey is also bullish on creating a business plan specifically for light production. “You need to treat it as a supplemental business. Dealers who do that are tremendously successful. Every dealer has an opportunity in their immediate geography, not just with existing clients.”
“For products like imagePRESS or varioPRINT DP, providing education on how to market services in the in plant is very important. Help the in plant sell themselves to their internal customers thereby driving efficiencies,” says Tracie Sokol, vice president of marketing for Canon.
She also recommends targeting key verticals through association marketing. “It’s not rocket science,” observes Charles Grace, EFI’s vice president of sales, about selling light production. What he means by that is much of it comes down to common sense.
“The reps that go in and do a proper discovery, ask good questions and understand the problem and what a business owner is trying to achieve are the ones that will more often than not win the deal. That discovery meeting and asking the right questions the first time out is critically important. The second part is to step and repeat. If they do their job and do that discovery and follow up with a quick note, such as, ‘Here’s a summary of what I heard about what you’re trying to do,’ understand who the competitors are, the decision-making process, the timeline, the budget, and once you get that agreed to, then you go back and use that to sell the value of the return on investment. That’s effective.”
Tim Horn
On the wide format front, Tim Horn, vice president sales, KIP America, is on the same page with the light production OEMs who stress the importance of hiring a specialist. “Dealers who have a product specialist and focus on wide format vertical markets achieve the greatest success. Having a person who can sit down with the customer and understand their workflow and the challenges of what they’re trying to achieve is highly critical to closing sales.”
Equally important is a good go-to market plan, especially when a dealer first takes on a wide-format product line. “Once they understand the opportunity in the verticals they immediately see how they can expand their offerings and penetrate more accounts,” says Horn.
“When it comes to selling wide format, a great route to success is the same one you’ll find in any sales area, and that’s cultivating a staff that is experienced with the product,” recommends Bill Milde, product manager, wide format, Ricoh. “In this case, that means having people who have in-depth knowledge of wide format technology and applications. As for something more specific to selling wide format, I’d say a good way to get results is to understand and focus on the graphics side of wide format, as it’s a major differentiator for the form, and it’s often what customers are looking to get from the space. If you know your product and know exactly what it can do for your customer in terms of graphical output, you’re well on your way.”
Obstacles to Success
Besides doing the complete opposite of what it takes to be successful, I asked about the obstacles to success. “It’s not the program, ‘If I have it, it will sell,’” says White. “If you’re going to go into that environment, you need to be dedicated to selling into that environment. The ones that aren’t successful will put one on their showroom floor and not do much more than that. It’s an investment in your business and you have to treat it as such.”
Villarreal says that dealers can’t underestimate how important it is to have their sales and service staff trained on these devices. That may sound like an obvious recommendation, but as he emphasizes, “The worst thing you can do is sell this product and not be able to support it. This creates problems for the dealer, but also gives the manufacturer they’re representing a bad name when not supported correctly.”
Tracie Sokol
“Don’t assume you fully understand the customer’s applications without a thorough analysis,” emphasizes Canon’s Sokol. “Don’t view this as a 30-day sales selling cycle, it’s much more complex.”
“Don’t get caught speeding,” advises EFI’s Grace. “Going into an account and being quick to pull a brochure out of your bag is a big no no. Keep that brochure in the bag the first day and don’t react to what your competition does. If a competitor goes in and says, ‘I’m going to recommend an XYZ,’ that’s good for the competition, but that doesn’t mean that’s the right recommendation. That’s what I mean by don’t get caught speeding. Do your own discovery and learn from what you hear and see, and don’t do feature dumping.”
He also cautions against the attitude that you’re the only person who can bring this solution to the table.
Charles Grace
“There’s a lot of fisherman in the sea going after that one fish and you’ve got to be the one that has the survival instincts to go out and bring it home,” states Grace.
For Ricoh’s Milde, one obstacle to success when selling wide format is overlooking graphic arts applications.
“If you’re in the wide format market but not in the graphics wide format market, you’re missing out on quite a large opportunity – such as art reproduction, vehicle wraps, wallpaper, point of purchase and tradeshow displays, indoor and outdoor signage,” he says. “Graphics is a key aspect of the wide format market at this point, and one that is still growing, so if your focus is exclusively AEC (architectural, engineering, construction), you’re not reaching an entire subset of potential customers.”
If you want to avoid failing in the wide format market, KIP America’s Horn suggests, “Avoid launching a wide format sales initiative without a planned approach that provides vertical market information and product training.”
Another obstacle to success is the attitude that if you’re successfully selling small format, it’s just as easy to sell wide format too. “There is some truth to that because they’re toner-based products; however, there is some special knowledge and applications associated with wide format, and to be successful, instead of a broad-based campaign, if you have a focused vertical approach, you’ll be successful sooner,” says KIP’s Horn.
If approached with the right strategy, Horn contends there’s never been a more exciting time to be involved in wide format because of the transition to color. “Many customers will begin to combine their LED toner-based product and their inkjet product into one toner-based product. We saw the transition occur many years ago obviously in the small-format industry with the shift from monochrome to color. There’s no question it will absolutely increase market opportunity for the dealer.”
And whether you’re talking light production or wide format, who can argue about two business segments that can only expand your business opportunities…just as long as you approach it wisely.
