In the movie “Captain Phillips,” there’s a scene where the U.S. Navy tries to draw the line by pressuring the Somali pirates who have taken Captain Richard Phillips hostage to end the standoff. Phillips used a ruse to jump into the Indian Ocean in an escape attempt, but the pirates soon fish him out of the water, drag him back onto the lifeboat, and proceed to viciously beat him.
Amid the chaos of shouting and fighting, the lead pirate pistol whips Phillips, then holds the gun to his head. Battered and bloodied, tormented and tortured, Phillips looks his pirate captor straight in the eyes and mutters, “Now what?”
It’s not hyperbolic to assess that the business world is, indeed, Captain Phillips. Ten months into the pandemic, the normal state of commerce continues to be held hostage. While we’re aware of the captain’s fate (please watch this fantastic movie if you haven’t already), there are no guarantees of business resumption to the levels we were accustomed to pre-March 2020. It will take a long time to assess the extent of dealer injuries, but without a doubt, COVID-19 has changed us, and some of those changes will be permanent.
As part of this month’s trends and predictions focus, we have asked our panel of industry experts to share their views on the approach dealers should take in pushing forward amid the chaos, which might include some shouting but (hopefully) little to no fighting.
Larry White, COO of Toshiba America Business Solutions, sees 2021 as a year of opportunities for dealers, particularly when it comes to acquisitions, as a number of businesses evaluate their futures. This applies to parties on both sides of the negotiating table.
The bread and butter for dealers, White notes, is their suite of services. “They are the trusted advisor. As companies transition to more digitized practices, they are in a unique position to take advantage of this trend and evolution in our industry,” he said. “Being able to take advantage of this change requires a dealer to continually invest in their employees’ knowledge base. Toshiba has personally trained over 1,400 reseller representatives this year alone across topics such as software solutions, selling skills, hardware systems, MPS and security. We also reached over 1,000 dealer attendees across eight large-scale webinars addressing critical COVID-19 topics. Dealers such as these who continue to invest in their growth and expertise will excel.”
Pricing Models
Changing the dealer’s pricing model, such as device-as-a-service or flat-rate pricing, continues to gain momentum, as devices are used for more than just printing, points out Doug Albregts, president of Marco. He feels the pandemic exposed challenges of the current model, which relies primarily on page counts and meter reads.
“More creative pricing models that sustain margins while meeting customer needs will be an approach worth looking into,” Albregts said. “The model needs to evolve with service being a key element that drives value moving forward.”
Despite the considerable changes triggered by the pandemic, Brad Cates—president and CEO of Prosource—points out that the fundamentals of business remain unaltered. He feels the same can be said for the fundamentals of quality organizations.
“If anything, now is an even more important time to focus on your values, your customer experience, your selling and servicing capabilities, and your company culture and team,” Cates noted. “If you are fundamentally trying to strengthen the overall quality of your organization, you’ll win – especially if your competitors have been forced to hunker down in survival mode.”
There is something to be said for taking care of the people who make your dealership the prosperous entity it is—the clients. From PPE to temperature-scanning devices, continuing to monitor the changing needs of customers has been the main thrust for Pulse Technology and its top executive, Chip Miceli. As an example, the dealer’s website was modified to make e-commerce possible, allowing customers to have their products shipped to either the corporate or home office.
Miceli also suggests being as flexible as possible, particularly on the contractual side, as clients are struggling to fulfill their obligations. “We’ve given our customers a reprieve where necessary on maintenance contracts and a certain number of copies per contract,” Miceli said. “If you hold customers to pre-COVID commitments, you may the law on your side, but your customers won’t forget it. Help them through this time and you will have loyal customers. We’ve always looked out for our customers, but in the last seven or eight months it has been more pronounced.”
Business Catalyst
David Concors, senior vice president of sales for Supplies Network, echoed Miceli’s sentiments. Given the current landscape—businesses dealing with limited resources and access restrictions—those clients operating on-premise may be leaning more heavily on the reseller as a conduit to keep them operating.
“Chances are, customers will have a variety of needs and it’s critical to anticipate those needs to keep them happy,” Concors said. “Our MPS team has received tremendous feedback on how helpful our services have been keeping customer fleets running throughout the pandemic. Many have shared that their customers are really grateful to have one less thing to worry about as it pertains to their print environment. Beyond that, it’s critical for resellers to continually look for additional paths to revenue via new products and services, but I think it’s safe to say that need arose well before the pandemic unfolded and will continue well into the future.”
One of the more direct paths to success for dealers is their ability to effectively sell remotely, notes Mark Flesch, COO of Gordon Flesch Company. This entails remote demonstrations, virtual Teams training, learning new presentation skills and deploying new remote technology.
“To make up for lower revenues, we believe that selling Managed Print Services needs to be the focus now more than ever. Dealers need to pick up as much MIF as possible to help offset declining aftermarket revenues,” he added.
