When he was looking toward the next stage of his professional career, Joe Contreras saw in Epson a value proposition that was different, meaningful and exciting. Having spent a lion’s share of his career on the toner side, the inkjet proposition certainly applied to all three characteristics. It now dominates the consumer space and has garnered widespread acceptance on the industrial end.
But what about office inkjet? Despite being a $10 billion global performer, Epson is often relegated to consumer-product mindshare. Yet more than $6 billion of that total comes from sales of inkjet product, and now it’s targeting the office market. In a span of 100 days, Epson has mounted a marketing, sales and service team that is currently spreading the inkjet gospel to the office technology dealer space.
As the office printing segment of the market is predicted to shift from laser to inkjet over the next several years, the OEM knows it has a potential valued place in dealer portfolios and aims to play an instrumental role with their technology transitions. This is not a manufacturer that takes on such an initiative lightly; Epson enters markets with the intention of garnering top billing, as it has with point-of-sale printers, projectors, photo scanners and photo printers. Success is expected, planned and mapped precisely.
While Epson may not necessarily view itself as a catalyst for the paradigm shift, its unique PrecisionCore technology serves as the foundation for its trio of color and monochrome inkjet MFPs for the office. In a channel segment that is starving for the next “big thing,” Contreras and Epson believe the inkjet story is one well worth discovering. On the heels of its ITEX rollout, we spoke to Contreras to learn more about what role inkjet can play in the dealer arsenal.
Tell us about your career path leading up to your current position at Epson.
Contreras: I’ve been in the industry since 2000. I joined Toshiba as an assistant product manager and worked my way up through the organization over the course of an 18-year career. My journey into the printing world came about by chance, more than anything. I started in the PC networking industry, but I aspired to work for a larger corporation. I had applied to Toshiba thinking I would be pursuing a job in the PC industry, only to find out during the interview that it was a product marketing position for fax products. I knew what a fax machine was, but I don’t think I’d ever actually used one all that much. Still, I decided to make a slight career shift and that’s where I got my start in print.
It’s been a successful career for me so far. I’ve been afforded the ability to have a number of different roles in marketing, business planning and business development. I’d been a part of startup initiatives throughout my career, including the digital signage business at Toshiba. When I joined Epson about four months ago, part of the allure for me with the business inkjet was that startup feel, as well.
What has been your focus during the first few months as Commercial Marketing Executive – Office Solutions at Epson?
Contreras: My core focus in the first 90 days was centered on understanding our product portfolio and our go-to-market strategy in the program that enables dealers to sell. I’m working with the team and my counterparts in Japan, understanding what the current portfolio looks like and what we need to enhance to go forward. One of our big objectives this year, aside from selling products, is recruiting and activating dealers. How do we do that—what type of programs and support and sales enablement materials do we need to produce to advance that effort?
How was Epson able to assemble sales, service, field marketing and technical sales teams in just 90 days? What was the key to finding the right personnel?
Contreras: I came aboard mid-stream, so it was initiated by Mark Mathews and my counterpart in sales, Patty O’Brian. In order to have success around business inkjet, it requires partnering and going after the BTA channel. That was the profile of the sales, personnel and support staff we were looking for; those individuals who had come from the printing industry, who knew how the channel works, could speak the same language and knew the types of programs that were necessary to be successful. That’s what we set out to do and we’ve really done a great job at it. I came in on the marketing side and we’ve also built out the team on the sales side fairly recently, within the past month and a half. We also brought someone on to head up service. We’re touching all the core parts of the business.
The sales part was probably the most challenging. Today, people are intrigued when they hear what Epson is doing and our approach to the office printing space. We have a different play—the pure inkjet approach as opposed to what everybody’s been accustomed to doing. That’s been refreshing. There’s been turnover within the industry among our competitors, and it’s afforded us the ability to quickly recruit and bring on high-caliber staff in a short timeframe. Not a day goes by when I don’t have someone reaching out and asking about opportunities. There’s a large talent pool to draw from.
Why was the timing right for Epson to make its foray into office inkjet?
Contreras: We took a look at what’s taking place in the industry, the uncertainty at the dealer level in terms of how the market dynamics impact them—that’s really what has helped us. Epson is the market leader in inkjet technology overall, and we felt now is the time for us to pursue the office space. We are the number one patent holder in inkjet technology in the world and our portfolio spans from the consumer space to the high end with industrial presses. The office was a natural progression. We have this breakthrough technology, PrecisionCore, which really provides us a distinct advantage for the product itself. We’ve taken high-end, industrial-strength print-head technology and brought that down to the office space with what we call our WorkForce Enterprise products.
We’re coming to market with a differentiating technology, so we really allow the dealers to change their approach.
Joe Contreras, Epson
When looking at the industry, there are several dynamics taking place, such as a significant number of mergers and acquisitions. Most recently, with Staples acquiring DEX and EFI being acquired. We also see an influx of new entrants in this space, venture capitalists and private equity. Lastly, the common theme over the past several years of placements and page volumes being flat or declining.
From a dealer’s perspective, they have to ask themselves several questions: How do I remain in the marketplace competing against larger megadealers and manufacturers with direct operations? The BTA was built around family-owned and operated businesses, companies that have been passed on from generation to generation. For those dealers looking to remain independent, how do they future-proof that business and position it for growth and success going forward? With the price pressure being felt in the market, how do they increase, or at a minimum hold the line, on profit margin? That’s really where I see inkjet (and more importantly Epson) come into play. We’re coming to market with a differentiating technology, so we really allow the dealers to change their approach. It’s not the same old laser, toner-based product that they’ve been selling day in, day out. When you’re going up against a competitor who has very similar technology, the differentiation isn’t around the product, it’s around something else.
Epson is progressive and forward thinking in that we are heavily focused on demand-generation capabilities that help drive business back to dealers. As for the product and technology itself, it allows the dealer to be more flexible and provide a better total cost of ownership to clients. There’s more value for the dollar that the client’s spending.
You previously said that this is not an attempt to push aside dealers’ current A3 and A4 relationships with the various OEMs. So where does inkjet fit into dealer catalogs? Where do these opportunities exist?
Contreras: There was a dealer panel at ITEX about inkjet and the opportunities around it. We had two of our dealers on the panel, talking about their positive experiences so far. Our approach is one that provides a complementary fit to what dealers would currently be offering. The idea is to provide them with differentiated technology and not rely on a “me, too” approach. We also don’t want them to rely on replacing their machines in the field; we want to help dealers go after net-new business and thrive in areas where they haven’t been able to be competitive in the past. Given the inherent design and advantages of our products, and the lower total cost of ownership, we believe we have a strong value proposition, which allows the dealer to be more flexible. It’s not about eroding the price in the market, it’s helping dealers become more successful and position themselves for future growth and success.
What can you tell us about Epson’s current inkjet platform, and what might we expect to see in the coming year?
Contreras: I like to share with dealers a brief education about Epson. There are common misconceptions that we’re simply a consumer-based printing company, which is not the case. We’re actually a $10 billion technology company traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Of that total, over $6 billion of our revenue is in inkjet printing. When you line us up against the competition, we’re actually in the top ranks of print manufacturers in our industry.
The products we produce are very compact, precise and efficient thanks to the PrecisionCore technology. PrecisionCore is really that distinct advantage and breakthrough technology that helps drive our success in the portfolio, from the consumer all the way up to high-end industrial presses.
Our dealer channel offering is represented by Epson’s WorkForce Enterprise series that features two color and now one monochrome product in the 75-100 page-per-minute range. In addition, we also offer a series of A4 products that are a complementary fit to the Enterprise products that dealers can provide their clients. Epson is such a large organization, its portfolio expands beyond print as well. Our other dealer-relevant solutions include wide-format printing, document scanning and projectors. These are all product categories under our Epson Business Solutions portfolio, and they’re ideally suited for a number of verticals a dealer would pursue, such as education, hospitality and the AEC market, to name a few.
You’ve mentioned that Epson’s current goal is to sign up 200 dealers by the end of this fiscal year. Can you provide some insight into this initiative?
Contreras: We’re in the midst of that process. Now that the sales team is in place, we have very defined metrics and targets that we track on a monthly basis, in terms of the number of dealers that are being approached. Activation is the most important part. We’re not just looking to sign up a bunch of dealers; we want dealers who will actually produce, sell and represent our products in a positive manner. We’re focusing on embedding ourselves within dealerships, working closely with the principal, the head of service and the sales team. Our goal is to help them uncover opportunities and really identify where our products can fit in the market. Our field marketing support staff will work hand-in-hand with our business development managers and really be ingrained with the dealerships to help educate them on what our programs are and how to best utilize them, and also be that day-to-day face for Epson within a dealership.
What will be the key for inkjet scaling in the office dealer space? How will Epson help foster that growth?
Contreras: The design of PrecisionCore is really an advantage. It has fewer moving parts, making it much easier to service. From a dealer’s perspective, it allows them to bring on a product that is durable and reliable. And from a service-profitability perspective, there’s little to no risk in terms of how we structure our program. As dealers put the machines out in the field, we’re going to be behind them and ensure that they will perform. The second key is the sustainability aspect. We offer a different type of inkjet design than others on the market. PrecisionCore uses a cold process, as opposed to a thermal inkjet, which essentially heats up the ink, pushing it out of the nozzle. That involves a lot of expansion and contraction, which over time can wear out the print head. Our cold process consumes much less energy, is more environmentally friendly and also more efficient.
Do you have any other goals for the balance of 2019, and what will you look to accomplish in 2020?
Contreras: The goals tie back to dealer recruitment and activation. Obviously, we have a very aggressive sales goal in place, but I believe it’s an attainable plan. This year is about creating brand awareness, educating dealers on the value and distinct advantage that PrecisionCore offers, and driving that message to dealers. The value of partnering with Epson is our end user sales team, which calls directly on end users in various verticals. These sales reps’ roles are to help promote the Epson brand within large organizations, whether it be our print technology, projection, scanning, etc. Even beyond that, once it becomes time for a customer to acquire the products we’re promoting, we are working with channel partners (dealers) to support and fulfill the sale. I see that as an opportunity for dealers to leverage and work with our end-user sales team and utilize them as a force multiplier and to augment their current sales capability.
As we work with dealers, we’re not limiting it just to the verticals that we’ve identified. There’s education, AEC, hospitality, house of worship—those are core verticals. If a dealer has a strong presence in health care, we’re happy to help them with demand generation campaigns around the verticals or industries they serve. Based on our experience, this is where we’re seeing interest and success.
I firmly believe we’ll see that the market will shift over the next several years. As laser technology has matured, and with no new technological advancements having been introduced over the past 15-20 years, we’re seeing other competitors starting to migrate towards inkjet. The market is heading in that direction, and we feel we are in a great position to be ahead of the game.
