Beyond Traditional Print: Three Product Lines to Consider

With traditional printer/copier sales flat, what dealer isn’t looking to expand its business? Ideally, any new product line should provide good margins and profitable recurring revenue. It should also mesh well with the needs of the dealer’s customer base and in-house capabilities.

Those options exist, and ENX Magazine this month looks at three of them: label and barcode printers, digital signage/professional displays, and 3D printers. They all won’t be a good fit for every dealer, and none of them will be a seamless addition to your offerings. Expect to make investments in training and equipment, and to prepare for a different type of conversation with your customers. Dealers who have made the investment in research, staff, and training, however, report success and foresee good growth.

Label Printers Find a Surprising Niche Among Dealers

Think about everything you see each day that has a printed label. Food product labels show ingredients or health benefits. Product labels grab attention or show government-mandated information. You have a similar scenario with the label printer’s close cousin, the barcode printer. “Anyone who ships materials and puts a label on the box will buy a thermal barcode printer,” said Bill Melo, chief marketing executive at Toshiba America Business Solutions. He cites logistics, manufacturing, and retail as key verticals for barcode printers. Estimates for overall growth in the digital label printing market run as high as 40 percent per year.

“Every dealer has customers that can benefit from [label printing] technology,” said Dino Pagliarello, VP of product management and planning at Konica Minolta. He sees a growing global trend from print to digital, where printing technology is integrated with information technology. That’s a trend he believes dealers can exploit.

Most label production is outsourced to printing companies with large label converters, but that’s a problem for companies that need short runs. “Label converters require volumes of at least 50,000 to 100,000 [to be cost effective],” said Lou Stricklin, director of marketing and sales support at Muratec America. “Short runs of 500 to 5,000 are wasteful or very expensive.”

This gives channel partners the option of providing label printing services of their own. A dealer with a label printer can do a run of that size in a couple of hours and generate a little revenue. “And it keeps them fresh on the equipment,” said Stricklin. Eventually, those small customers might grow to where they want a system in-house, he added.

Muratec recently launched its line of label printers, the PLS-2112 and PLS-5150, designed for those shorter runs. Stricklin said these printers are finding traction in micro-breweries, wineries, light manufacturing, and even the emerging cannabis industry in Washington and Colorado. “We have an emergency lighting manufacturer that has 16 labels on one product, and they change [the labels] throughout the year,” he said.

Stricklin sees label printers as a good fit for printer/copier dealers. In fact, Muratec is leveraging its printer channel partners to sell the label printers. “Printer/copier dealers understand toner technology and the need for a two-hour service time,” he said. “They have full service teams on staff and know how to support. And they can wrap their heads around the [label printing] applications easily.”

Muratec’s channel partners are finding success within their existing customer bases for the label printers. Stricklin believes there’s plenty of net-new business potential as well. “There’s a set of varied prospects to go out to. It’s the best of both worlds for us.”

About 20 of Muratec’s channel partners are fully on-boarded to sell its label printers with another six or seven in the queue, according to Stricklin. The goal is to have 40 by the end of the company’s fiscal year in March. “Partners with experience selling production or wide-format printers are well set up to succeed,” said Stricklin. “They really get it and know how to aggressively attack a market.”

Some customers won’t have the volume to justify the purchase of a label printer, but some of Muratec’s partners are using that to their advantage. “Not every prospect will be a solid customer for an in-house system,” said Stricklin. “A lot of small businesses need runs of only 200, 300 labels.”

Muratec requires its label printer channel partners to purchase a printer and finisher so that they become familiar with it and can demonstrate it. They also go through a three-day on-boarding process. At the end of on-boarding, the company helps the partner set up an open house where prospects can bring in sample label files to run on the system. They leave with professionally developed labels. The on-boarding process is included in the price of the equipment.

The MSRP of a Muratec label printer system can run as high as $65,000. The good news is that margins are much higher on the hardware, which is typically leased. The better news is that not only do label printers consume a lot of toner, dealers also get a second recurring revenue stream in media sales. “You can die cut to any design,” said Stricklin. “Customers can create unique, powerful labels.” To assist its channel partners, Muratec has a media specialist who can help negotiate with providers to source media for their customers.

Konica Minolta’s laser-based label printer, the C71cf, also targets smaller runs that are not efficiently produced by converters, but in the 8,000 to 15,000 range. According to Pagliarello, some label converters are buying Konica Minolta label printers to handle those shorter runs more cost-effectively.

With both label and barcode printers, the decision maker is probably not the same person as for office equipment. It might be someone in operations, logistics, or a shop foreman. The OEM onboarding programs recognize this and show resellers how to identify the decision maker and frame the conversation. “Konica Minolta has a core team focused on label printers,” said Pagliarello.

“We work with dealers to build appropriate business plans and help them make the right moves.”

Pagliarello said that margins on Konica Minolta’s label printers are similar to or slightly better than selling a color MFP product. Service can also be a good recurring revenue stream if a dealer chooses to handle it in-house. The biggest differences in the technology are the roller-based feeding mechanism and the lack of a sheet feeder. There are actually fewer moving parts on Konica Minolta’s label printers than an MFP. Konica Minolta will handle servicing if the dealer wishes it.

Dealers can also expect higher toner consumption due to the high volume of printing and higher toner coverage. Media for the Konica Minolta label printers is sourced through a third party, but dealers can work with customers to recommend and order substrates, earning another recurring revenue stream in the process.

Epson America offers production digital label presses and commercial color label printers. The SurePress digital label presses are intended to replace analog presses and can handle high volumes and do color matching. Models such as the L-4033 are easy to use for a production system, according to Andy Scherz, Epson’s senior product manager. They start as low as $185,000, and Scherz said that sales rate for these systems doubled last year.

“Analog is a black art,” said Scherz. They produce high quality labels, but are difficult to use and expensive. Digital options like the Epson’s commercial label line allow companies to match analog quality without the overhead of an analog press. For companies with print runs not quite big enough to get the best pricing from a print shop, a digital press offers real value. It gives businesses more control and eliminates lead times associated with print shops.

Epson’s ColorWorks color label printer models are compact and produce high-quality inkjet output for smaller runs. The media comes on a roll and labels are produced quickly, in just the right quantity needed at the time.

What’s driving demand for label printers are trends toward smaller production batches and customization, said Scherz. “The demand is to be nimble with label printing,” he said. “Shorter runs, more customization. [For example,] a micro brewery can do community marketing on the label that says, ‘Go Tigers’ or ‘Go Rodeo Days.’”

For its high-end printers, Epson prefers a channel partner who takes a VAR approach. “VARs figure out the whole solution,” said Scherz. That solution includes integration services, software, and understanding what a customer needs for the types of jobs it wants to do. For example, what kind of label stock is needed? How do you do die cut labels? A customer might need additional hardware that Epson does not sell, such as an unwinder. “We want the channel to compete on value, not on price,” said Scherz.

Epson has taken steps to help channel partners to stay within that policy and maintain margin. It sells ink only to its partners, and partners have little room to deviate from Epson’s retail price.

“The installed base can be quite lucrative on follow-on ink sales,” said Scherz.

“The label market is extremely dynamic,” said Scherz. “This label must not tear, or must tear easily, or it must be permanent or easy to remove.” Epson does not expect its partners to understand all the possible media qualities and different adhesives, so it has qualified run stock for use on Epson printers. Dealers can match the requirements to the specifications of a particular stock and place an order on behalf of its customers, earning margin in the process. “It’s probably the biggest revenue stream of the business,” said Scherz.

Toshiba offers a wide range of thermal barcode printers in different widths, resolutions, and speeds. About 10 percent of Toshiba’s barcode products sales go through BTA dealers, according to Melo. The rest are sold direct to enterprise accounts or VARs. That split does not mean the opportunity is small for dealers—think about how many barcode printers a Fedex or UPS uses. A regional dealer is not equipped to handle those large accounts, but it can serve many smaller companies that depend on barcode printers better than the OEM. Melo says that barcode sales within the dealer channel are growing at “double-digit” rates.

Margins on barcode printers can be good, especially if you lease them in quantity. “The margin on our first leasing deal was $20,000 on a $30,000 sale,” said Jim Shambre, corporate sales manager at Mid Ohio Strategic Technologies, which resells Toshiba barcode printers. However, recurring revenue opportunities for barcode printers are smaller. Since many barcode printers use thermal transfer technology, there is some consumables revenue in ribbon sales. They typically are sold with service contracts, but thermal barcode printers are relatively simple machines with low service needs.

Mid Ohio Strategic Technologies got into the barcode printer business by accident, according to Shambre. “One of our reps said that every time he went into a client site, they had bar-code printers all over the place. There had to be an opportunity there.” The rep got an appointment with the client to talk about its barcode printer business, and Shambre enlisted the help of a Toshiba barcode rep for the meeting. Eventually, they won that client’s barcode business. “The language we speak [for barcode printers] is a little different, but it’s not earth shattering. It’s not a complex product,” said Shambre.

“It’s a longer sales cycle in some cases,” he said. “If a client has thermals in place, they’re going to run them until the wheels fall off.”

Barcode customers tend to order their own labels through third-party sources. Toshiba does offer a program to dealers where they can work with those sources to resell labels, taking the order and having the third-party provider fulfill it for a percentage of the sale. Shambre has not taken advantage of that program, but hopes to in the future.

Nonetheless, Shambre sees value beyond the margins in hardware for barcode printers. “Barcode gives us an opportunity to go into a prospect where we have no traction and talk about a new product and build excitement around it,” he said. A key goal for Mid Ohio Strategic Technologies in the coming year is to get the printer/copier business from customers who currently buy only barcode printers from them.

Demand for Digital Signage Growing

You see digital signage, also referred to as professional displays, everywhere. Why use a static sign, point-of-sale (POS) display, or bulletin board when you can have a video display that you can change on a whim and show video or animation? You’d think there’s an opportunity for the printer/copier channel, and there is. However, it might not be what you expect.

Copier dealers represent a “significant and growing” portion of Sharp’s $250 million in annual digital signage sales, said Mike Marusic, senior VP marketing, operations, and technical services at Sharp Imaging and Information Company of Americas. The traditional A/V channel makes up the bulk of the sales, but Marusic sees opportunities for office equipment/digital imaging dealers where digital signage applications are integrated into the document workflow process. “Start with what you know,” said Marusic. He noted that some Sharp dealers have had success selling turnkey document workflow systems that incorporate digital signage.

The BTA channel accounts for about 20 percent of Toshiba’s digital signage sales, according to Melo. He says that declining page prints are encouraging dealers to look at digital signage, and he noted that Toshiba is seeing 100 percent growth in channel sales revenue for digital signage. “What is replacing printed pages?” he said. “People are consuming information on screens more than ever before. Screen time is replacing pages.”

Margins on the hardware are about 30 percent, and service contract margins can be as high as 50 percent according to Melo. However, the dollar amounts for hardware sales into SMBs are typically smaller than for MFPs or copiers, and digital signage requires relatively little service. A good recurring revenue stream is possible for dealers selling digital signage if they are willing to try something new: digital content management and development.

Like a website or blog, the effectiveness of digital signage depends on the quality, freshness, and presentation of that information. Many businesses don’t have the inclination or in-house resources to develop that content and then design how it appears on the screen. Some applications also require management of a content schedule, where different content appears depending on the time or context. Offering a turnkey solution of hardware, network, software, and content is key. “A company that helps organizations do it all would be a really valuable asset,” said Melo. Taking a managed services approach will resonate with customers, he added.

Toshiba provides help here by providing content services that dealers can resell. That’s a big plus for dealers who don’t want to develop that expertise in house.

Acquiring the skillsets needed to provide a turnkey solution represents a significant investment to the dealer. Beyond training and acquiring in-house skills, the investment to sell digital signage is small. “You might want a couple of units—a nominal cost. It’s a lot less than for MFPs,” said Melo.

Those not ready to take the risk of that investment can partner with someone who can help them deliver a complete solution. “[Digital signage] is a very large market with a lot of players in terms of content and information,” said Marusic. “It can be a surprise to dealers once they get in it. [Digital signage] is not as simple as some would like it to be.” Marusic recommends that dealers target specific verticals and seek out partners who can fill in the gaps around content and other services.

There are a lot of partners to choose from. Sharp has created its Strategic Technology Alliance Resource (STAR), which lists hundreds of companies that offer complementary products and services to its digital signage line. It includes software developers, content providers, kiosk/enclosure makers, collaboration tools, and much more.

“Some dealers open a content arm,” said Marusic. “That’s where the residuals are. It’s a great opportunity if you are willing to make the commitment.” A content group would create templates for the content and then manage the content updates for the client. The client might already have all or some of the content in some cases, so the dealer needs to adapt it for the template. With other clients, the dealer might have to work with a third-party content source or develop original content.

One dealer that’s embraced the content side of digital signage is INNOVEX. Christopher Parisi, director of marketing and digital sales, had already launched a digital marketing practice at INNOVEX as a way to diversify the business. “I’ve always had a passion for marketing in addition to technology,” he said. Adding Sharp’s digital signage products to the marketing practice was a natural fit.

He said hardware margins are slim, but customers will pay a premium for services. “[The sale] is not about technology as much as it is about providing a marketing solution,” said Parisi. There is high margin in managing cyclical data, designing ads, or creating apps that encourage an impulse buy. Digital signage and marketing accounts for about 20 percent of INNOVEX’s revenue. Digital signage revenue is growing at a steady clip, but Parisi sees more potential in the digital marketing and IT services. INNOVEX was recently ranked the tenth-fastest growing company in Rhode Island according to Providence Business News, and that is due to the diversification in addition to growth and acquisitions of the core business of copiers.

That kind of sale is hard for the average copier rep. “The typical sales person does not understand all the factors.” Those factors might be where the signage will be placed (POS, office, or waiting room), who the target audience is for the content (retail customer, employee, patient), and whether the application is static or interactive. All can have a significant impact on how a solution is generated.

INNOVEX has two other recurring revenue streams from digital signage in addition to content services: software as a service (SaaS) for providing access to a content management system (CMS) and service contracts. Margins for the latter are similar to those for copiers. Parisi says that SaaS margins are important, but the tools are becoming so user friendly that they could be managed in-house by the client.

“Do your homework,” advises Parisi. “Digital signage is not a simple operation. There are a lot of variables including A/V, IT, and marketing. You need to consider all three aspects.”

Marusic cites the education market, including corporate education, as a good target for digital signage. Here, an application might involve courseware and a learning management system like Blackboard. “A copier can upload content to Blackboard, where it can be integrated with the courseware for video display,” he said. “That’s right up the alley of a dealer.” He adds that building applications like this is difficult for the customer to recreate.

Selling digital signage can also open doors for a dealer’s core printer/copier business. Dealers can use digital signage to start relationships with customers. “When the lease comes up [on the customer’s contract with the competition], a dealer can get into the core business quicker,” said Marusic.

Staffing requirements for digital signage are minimal. “A copier guy can lead, because he plays well with the end user,” said Marusic. “You also need a specialist who truly understands the space, a dedicated digital signage person.” He said that your copier sales person can identify digital signage prospects and make an introduction with the expert to assess the prospect’s needs and close the sale. All the digital signage OEMs we spoke with offer training programs that cover the products, the market, and other resources including third-party products and services.

Another reason you want a specialist is that the decision maker for digital signage might not be the same person as for digital imaging. “For small businesses, it’s often the same decision maker,” said Marusic. “For larger companies, it’s never the same person.” The department responsible for digital signage might depend on the application. It could be someone in IT for internal applications, or marketing for customer-facing applications. “A specialist understands the pain points of all the different stakeholders,” said Marusic. On the technical side, dealers who already provide managed network services likely won’t need to add staff for basic setup of a digital signage system.

3D Printing Has High Upside, but a Tough Market to Crack

It’s been a roller-coaster ride for the 3D printing industry for the past couple of years, especially at the lower end of the professional market. There are too many OEMs fighting for market share, which drives down prices and margins for dealers. The technology is evolving rapidly, so today’s hot model might be obsolete next year.

That said, the impact 3D printing will have on the way businesses design, test, and produce products will be enormous. Jonathan Jaglom, CEO of market leader MakerBot, believes that eventually every engineer and designer will have a personal 3D printer at work, and that every engineering/design classroom will have three to five 3D printers. With only about 250,000 3D printers sold last year, current market penetration is nowhere near that level.

This creates a dilemma for dealers considering the 3D printer market. The opportunity is clear, but the market is unpredictable. Will you earn back your investment in two years, or five? Will the horse you bet on be around in three years? It’s hard to know.

Dealers have two options in the way they approach the 3D printing market: Target the low end (primarily education and prototyping applications in SMBs), or try the mid-range, which targets both prototyping and end-use parts production in manufacturing. Almost all high-end 3D printing sales are sold directly by the OEM. The low-end is an easier entry, but much lower margin. The mid-range offers good margins, but requires a bigger investment and a much longer sales cycle.

HP’s recent introduction of its Jet Fusion 3D printer line is targeted at the mid-range, and the company will rely on channel partners for sales and service. Alex Monino, worldwide marketing and sales strategy director for 3D printers at HP, outlined what HP is looking for in a channel partner. “We want to see the ability to do a consultative sale with a sales force that is fully dedicated [to 3D printers]. [Dealers] also need the capability to service and support the products.”

HP is also asking its dealers to invest in a demo unit that’s set up at a demo site. “It’s important that customers can see the product and what it can do,” said Monino. Prospects will also want to do benchmarks that will show what to expect in terms of performance for the type of work they plan to do.

To support its channel partners, HP has established a formal onboarding process. During that process, the channel partners’ sales people will get training on how to conduct a consultative sale and make the right value proposition for the HP printers. Service technicians can become certified on the HP products at this time. Although the Jet Fusion products use familiar inkjet technology, much of the mechanics will be new to a printer/copier service tech.

HP will also work with each channel partner to build out a business plan that looks at opportunities three to four years out. This not only shows the partner what to expect in terms of investment and return, but it also allows HP to make sure the partners’ plans align with its own expectations for the market.

The HP 3D printing solutions will start at about $165,000 for the HP Jet Fusion 3D Printer and HP Jet Fusion 3D Processing Station, with different models and accessories available at a variety of price points. Monino said dealers can expect margins similar to those for its 2D printers. “Aftermarket sales will be big,” he added. These printers are designed for high volume, and HP is working with a number of suppliers to develop a line of HP-certified materials. This has the potential to be a significant and highly profitable recurring revenue stream, although there is no data yet to quantify it.

As with digital signage and label printers, expect a different decision maker. “3D printers are not an IT sale,” said Monino. It might be an engineer or a product manager. This is why the consultative approach to sales is important. Sales need to understand the use cases of the prospect, the types of materials needed, which software is being used, and the finish qualities desired.

At the low end of the professional market, it’s hard to find an OEM that can provide the kind of support that dealers have come to expect from digital imaging vendors. There are really only a handful of OEMs that have the resources to grow and support the channel. Some Konica Minolta dealers, for example, have taken advantage of that OEM’s partnership with 3D Systems to enter the 3D printer market.

MakerBot, which is owned by market leader Stratasys, is another option. Its MakerBot Mini and Replicator lines are popular in the education and professional markets, the latter as a rapid prototyping and iterative design tool. The company depends on the channel and has put significant resources into supporting it.

That support includes a sales enablement team, business intelligence, and an online training resource called MakerBot University. It offers videos and other resources that provide talking points for the MakerBot products, sample sales scenarios, and advice for overcoming objections—all professionally produced. A partner portal provides access to a large set of marketing assets.

Education is an important market for MakerBot. “We look for partners with strong relationships with local educational bodies,” said Jaglom. Already having an educational institution’s IT services business would give dealers an added advantage.

On the professional side, relationships with businesses that employ engineers or industrial designers might provide an opportunity for dealers to sell 3D printers. MakerBot prefers partners who already sell software or hardware that engineers and designers use—CAD software, plotters, or scanners for example—because these items support the use of 3D printers and the dealer is already talking to the decision maker. “It’s very complementary when a partner can showcase all [these components] in a demo,” said Jaglom.

MakerBot uses a tiered system for partners, where the most successful of them have the option of selling some higher-priced Stratasys models. The company also provides marketing development funds depending on the partner’s performance and its tier level. “[The tier system] motivates partners to hit or exceed targets,” said Jaglom. The more commitment and success a partner has, the more support MakerBot provides. If a partner lacks commitment and doesn’t perform, “We don’t feel obliged to go the extra mile,” said Jaglom.

MakerBot has its own line of materials that give partners a recurring revenue stream, and it offers products such as extruders and 3D scanners that dealers can sell as add-ons. Another revenue stream is training. MakerBot certifies partners to training, and it has developed a curriculum. “We want partners to provide training, because it makes [the customer’s] journey the most positive,” said Jaglom.

Different Lines of Business, but Same Approach and Attitude

Whether it’s selling label/barcode printers, digital signage, or 3D printers, the key dealer success indicator for every OEM was commitment. OEMs want to see management buy-in and participation, and adherence to the training and best practices set out for their channel partners. They also want to see an investment in infrastructure. “Some dealers will go get a guy [to sell the new line], but the guy fails because there is no infrastructure,” said Melo.

“When building a new business, you’re not just adding a new product,” said Pagliarello. “It’s important to understand the risk, investment required, and the opportunity for growth. You need to invest in service and sales personnel, and you need to know the type of customer to go after.” Although he was referring to selling label printers, this summary applies equally well to any new product line.

Dealers considering adding a new product line should treat it like starting a new business and build a real business plan. Leverage the assets you have, but invest where necessary. Look for an OEM that is prepared to work with you and support you as you build that business.