Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) welcomed about 800 resellers, end-users and industry partners to the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas Sept. 12-14. Of that headcount, approximately 225 dealers were on hand to hear the OEM’s message of print positivity and the many tools in its arsenal that can perpetuate not just the sale of MFPs, but other hardware (label and receipt printers) and solutions (Elevate Sky platform) in burgeoning the share of customer wallets.
Now that attendees have had some time to soak it in, we decided to canvass a few noteworthy dealers to find out their first impressions, main takeaways and overall experience from the manufacturer’s first LEAD gathering in five years. There was a lot to take in, but there were many positives to emerge for these faithful TABS resellers.
The trip almost didn’t happen for Chelsey Bode, CEO of Pearson-Kelly Technologies (PKT) in Springfield, Missouri. She had just put the wraps on acquiring Digital Printing Solutions of Arkansas, but wanted to make sure she prioritized carving out quality time with the TABS team. Bode credits TABS CEO Larry White with maximizing PKT’s time investment.
Bode didn’t need to fly to Las Vegas to be sold on TABS’ value proposition. Still, she held several strategic conversations with a number of TABS’ execs and industry peers, which provided marketplace strategies where the OEM has a niche.
“To us, these conversations and scheduled follow-up meetings are what these events are all about,” Bode explained. “The general sessions were interesting and the breakout sessions had purpose-driven content with agnostic value…that will help our dealership get better holistically. We get invited to so many conferences and attend several, yet turn down others. Our PKT rule is that the team member(s) who attend an event must report back to leadership the takeaways and rate with an ROI value. I’m happy to disclose this meeting made the cut.”
Meaningful Dialog
Another attendee, Carter Hertzberg, sat on a dealer panel during the first day’s presentations. Hertzberg, the president of Nauticon Office Solutions in Gaithersburg, Maryland, saw the event as an opportunity to connect with old friends, forge new contacts and learn more about TABS’ approach to an ever-changing market.
Perhaps most of all, Hertzberg enjoyed the “no BS” talk track. “I really appreciated Toshiba’s messaging around the state of the print market as well as their view on what it will take to win both now and into the future,” he said. “Refreshingly, what we heard was not a pile of happy horse hockey but a well-reasoned and realistic vision of our industry and our customers. Cheers, Toshiba!”
A veteran of many OEM conferences, Joe Blatchford is accustomed to being inundated with financials interpreted in both dollars and yen for the first hour. The CEO of Image 2000 in Santa Clara, California, appreciates the details, but notes it does little to address how he and fellow dealers can sell more products. The tack taken by White didn’t get so deep into the financial weeds, and he felt the brisk pace set the stage for more meaningful discourse.
“I found the flow of the meeting kept me engaged and entertained while providing the information we all needed to know about the direction Toshiba is heading,” Blatchford said. “I especially enjoyed the banter between the dealers that were on stage and management with Toshiba. It was informative but also entertaining at the same time.”
Purpose-Driven Content
And while Blatchford historically tends to find post-lunch breakout sessions to be a bit on the dry side, he and Executive Vice President Jeff Rudisel found several to be beneficial to Image 2000’s purposes. The execs focused on one vendor during the breakout session and emerged with a greater understanding of its value proposition.
Blatchford also gave TABS high marks for its product showcase. “I especially liked the spacing of the presenters,” he added. “Typically, it is crowded, and we end up fighting to either see a product or presentation. I also liked the way they positioned all the vendors and presenters. It had a good flow, which allowed us to focus on certain areas and not spend time searching.”
Larry Weiss, CEO of Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office in New York City, was an active participant at LEAD Beyond, showcasing his interview chops by grilling CRO Steven Sauer. It’s Toshiba’s commitment to the print business, MPS and software, that he feels will give the OEM a leg up against competitors.
“The biggest take away for me and the theme throughout the meeting is Toshiba’s commitment to work with the dealer, to be easy to work with, which I can attest to since I became a Toshiba dealer in 1986, and to ensure we get all of the support needed to implement the initiatives that were presented at the meeting,” Weiss added.
Pulling off a successful conference was no small feat, considering the Bellagio suffered a ransomware attack just before attendees arrived, causing hours-long wait for check-ins as the staff needed to resort to manual registrations. Rich Brandenburg, vice president of sales for Cincinnati-based Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises, was duly impressed with how Toshiba navigated the frustrations to ensure a quality experience for attendees.
Brandenburg enjoyed the breakout sessions on consultative selling, capture integration and maximizing reseller profits. He was also struck by the message that attention is the new currency in reaching more clients, given the billions of emails, Google searches, Facebook posts and other touches that occur on a given day.
He also liked how Toshiba drew a correlation between trends and the solutions the OEM offers. “I was excited to hear about the iPaaS Connector (out-of-box integration) and Elevate Sky, with the focus on cloud and subscriptions,” Brandenburg said. “Notably, customers choose cloud 4:1.”
