Las Vegas — Some of the most powerful benefits of events like Kyocera’s Fiscal Year 2018 Business and Technology Conference, held April 18-20 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, can be learned from the attendees. ENX Magazine spoke with several Kyocera’s dealers to understand their perspectives on the company, the conference and how to succeed in this competitive market. This week’s installment features Jason Lieberman from DEC Office Solutions in West Haverstraw, NY.
Jason Lieberman (middle)
Jason, what are the ingredients that make you so successful that you’re a CopyStar Premier Dealer?
Lieberman: The first things you have to have to really succeed in this business are the right support team, software, and infrastructure. You just have to have those in place before you even start. Next, you have to fully understand your product before you walk in. Then, when you go, you have to differentiate your dealership. I’ve been doing this for twenty years and it’s a different world than it was even five or ten years ago. Back then the goal was to just get a machine in and, while that does feel good when it happens, you can’t just go in and talk price and expect to win. What we have learned is that you need to listen to your customers and hear what they’re saying. I can’t stress that enough. Don’t just listen to your customers – you really need to hear and understand what they’re saying.
And how do you differentiate your dealership?
Lieberman: Well, we start by providing different apps and services. For example, the new KFS (Kyocera Field Services) capability allows customers to get automatic toner when it gets down to a certain percentage. That eliminates our customers’ time and hassle of tracking it and calling us when it gets low. And, we can do remote software upgrades and firmware updates. From their perspective, they don’t have to see us coming in and taking their machines offline. Of course, for us it means we’re providing a valuable service while saving time and money by not having to go out. This means that we’re offering a product that works, it’s reliable, and we’re making it easy on them. And we’re covering everything. We can even cover their printers for them. Then you have to back your promises up with service. A big differentiator for us is that we move in like a swat team in the rare event when there is an issue.
You mention apps. What do you mean by that?
Lieberman: One of the KDA apps we sell a lot is the DMConnect app. DMConnect simplifies document workflows by letting customers scan, manage, use, and share documents. The demand for this is no longer limited to a few choice industries. Everybody wants to manage their documents the most efficient ways possible today. Legal and real estate, however, are big ones for us because they need to scan, edit, and manipulate such a large number of documents. But to succeed here, it goes back to listening to your customers, knowing your customers’ businesses, and being able to craft solutions for them. We’ll call on anyone, but the most efficient way to do this is to successfully solve one customer’s problem and then call on similar businesses in the same industry and replicate the solution.
You also mentioned Kyocera Fleet Services (KFS). What’s so special about it?
Lieberman: KFS is a big deal to both our customers and our service guys. It’s not just about seeing when people’s paper or toner are low. It does that, of course, but it also lets us remotely service them with upgrades and updates. You heard the KDA executives talk about how KFS lets dealers solve problems before customers even know there’s a problem. Well that’s true. Sometimes our service guys can clear codes and do updates without the customers even knowing there ever was an issue. And, if there’s something like a repeating jam code and they do have to go out, they now already know what they need to do and already have the right parts with them when they go. The whole process is less costly and much faster to service.
And, to wrap up, what are your opinions about Kyocera and the conference?
Lieberman: It is nice to see that Kyocera cares about their dealers and wants to help us succeed. They give us the right tools here and the winners take advantage of these shows and the tools that they give us to utilize in our business. Look around the show here and you’ll see a lot of Premier Dealers at the show. One of the reasons we are Premier Dealers is that we come and take advantage of what KDA provides us. I can tell you that we are a Kyocera shop because we like the relationship, we like the people, and they take good care of us. We’re loyal to them because they’re loyal to us.
And what are your plans for 2018?
Lieberman: We just want to grow.
