The early frontrunner for the 2024 pithy business observation of the year goes to the following gem: the juice has to be worth the squeeze. It’s as clever as it is true.
Dealers have long been open to the idea of diversification, right? The qualifier is always, “Will I make a profit?” followed closely by the complementary query, “How long will it take for us to see ROI?” Naturally, the investments in time and money needed represent the squeeze, and the profit juice needs to be thirst-quenching. If the fruit tree is somewhat barren or there are other paws wrapped around that lemon…you can fill in the blanks.
It’s all about the bottom line. Profit keeps the lights on, covers payroll and funds the president’s club trip. Everyone loves revenue, but it’s the profit margin that brings the crowd to its feet, so to speak.
In that vein, we asked our Hot Takes panel the following question: What’s been the biggest profit generator during the first half of 2024?
Barry Simon, president, Datamax, Little Rock, Arkansas
It goes without saying that combating the declining clicks trend is right at the top of our core initiatives for 2024. I believe recovering, retaining and increasing aftermarket revenues requires a hyper-focus on generating first time accounts (FTA) as well as net-new additions (NNA) within our existing accounts. To that end, the following are three things we’ve been leveraging or plan to leverage in 2024.
- One: Sales compensation incentives are certainly better aligned with FTA and NNA objectives.
- Two: Marketing nurture programs, built on new integration capabilities between Salesforce (AgentDealer) and HubSpot, promise to produce more awareness of the Datamax Technology portfolio to new accounts in 2024.
- Three: Sales prospecting, fueled by more strategic current CRM data mining as well as new data (and intent data) resources (like SalesIntel) will help bolster new sales pipeline growth.
We are optimistic about our 2024 initiatives, but remain open to other ideas and pursuits that keep Datamax aftermarket revenues on the incline.
Patrick Flesch, president and CEO, Gordon Flesch Company
We are encouraged by the continuation of the ‘return to the office’ movement and how that is impacting our aftermarket business. Click counts continue to rebound since COVID, which has increased our profitability on the service side.
Dawn Abbuhl, president, Repeat Business Systems, Albany, New York
Our biggest profit generator is actually in IT services. We developed a really structured process and then refined it even further. We invested in the highest level talent and then added on a marketing strategy. That allowed us to scale and resulted in a tipping point, where our investment remained consistent but sales skyrocketed, therefore greater profit!
Tim Renegar, president, Kelly Office Solutions, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
For us copy print is still our largest total profit generator. Our highest margins on profit are coming from our water division.
Stu Wise, president and COO, United Business Technologies, Gaithersburg, Maryland
The single-largest contributor to increased profitability in the first half of 2024 for UBT has been securing several new accounts business. We were successful closing two million-dollar new accounts in the last six months, which will pull healthy service revenue/profitability over the next 60 months. UBT’s concentration in large enterprise accounts has helped mitigate the decline in volume and the downsides of the hybrid work environment. Both sales processes—one a prominent college and the second a government nonprofit—have been developing over the past nine months. Fortunately, we sold our value proposition and assisted in developing the RFPs, which were both instrumental in earning the business. There is definitely business to be had if your organization recognizes the competition’s vulnerabilities and exposes them professionally while intentionally targeting verticals that are financially healthy.
Dave Moorman, president and CISO, Novatech, Nashville, Tennessee
The biggest profit generator at Novatech during the first half of 2024 would be our print security configuration service and our managed security solution, Fortress. We have seen cyber-attacks double every year for the last five years and Novatech is projecting it will continue to double over the next seven to ten years.
Hunter Woolfolk, co-president, DOCUmation, San Antonio, Texas
Print service remains our top profit generator, which is on par with what we’ve seen for decades. These contracts remain our area of highest profits, which many non-industry peers seem to find surprising. Print isn’t dead – it’s alive and well, adapting to modern office trends and today’s technology.
