(Editor’s note: Although this article targets office supplies dealer, it should be of interest to any dealer selling supplies in addition to imaging technology.)
I know. It’s a slow recovery, but the worst is over. Business is coming back and a double dip is unlikely. Independent businesses have done a pretty good job weathering the storm, holding on to most customers while getting some new ones to make up for an overall sales decline. They’ve added new products and services, priced more carefully and kept margins from slipping very much. What they haven’t done (most, not all) is spend a lot of time planning for the future, a future that will demand major changes in how they operate their businesses.
When I ask dealers about plans for the next several years I hear something like this, “I’ll hire more reps, do a little more advertising, probably expand my product lines, and service offerings.”
What I don’t hear is how they plan to operate the business in a marketplace that is changing dramatically right before their eyes. The operative word is: Internet, Internet, Internet. I’m talking about more than just online ordering here. You can be fooled by thinking that you have pretty much the same customers, but you don’t. They may look the same, but how they want to do business with you has changed and will continue to change as we move into the “now” world of instant, mobile and wireless communications. Every part of your business is affected, including how you operate internally as well as with your customers. How you market yourself must change accordingly.
What Do Customers Want?
Reordering is boring. Dull. Same old items. No need to spend a lot of time doing it. You don’t have to know a whole lot to place an order. You don’t need a purchasing manager. Each department, sometimes each person orders what they want. This trend will grow, with more employees working from home and satellite offices. Now you’re dealing with multiple buyers at the same customer location. Unless some effort is made to consolidate these orders, you’ll not only be making daily deliveries but worse, they may be ordering from a competitor. That competitor may very well be one of the big box office supply houses. Why? Because the individual placing the order has certainly heard about the Office Depots and Staples of the world, but may not know about you, even when their organization is your customer.
What Should You Do?
The first and most important thing is to have an online ordering system that’s easy to use. What does a new viewer see when they click on your site? If they see, “sign in, please,” and then ask for your life history, you have little chance of getting an order. On the other hand, if you show six pages on how your grandpappy started the business in 1887, you’ll get the same reaction.
Give the viewer a well done, professional first page, the ability to click onto a prospective customer page, where they can preview your offerings, get a live chat, and a phone number. Do not insist that they sign in until they’re ready to place their order. Take a look at what the strictly online independent dealers are doing. They have easy-to-use sites; will accept most credit cards and orders of any size. In most cases, they offer next day delivery.
Getting your salespeople to communicate with the new, often younger order placers can be a problem. They’re not interested in receiving phone calls, only making calls on their smart phones, or more likely, texting or emailing, and they want everything in real time.
Some dealers are taking the initiative with customers, talking with top managers and setting up an ordering system that makes the entire procedure easier, while helping the less experienced individual order the correct printer cartridge, for example.
Social Media a Must
The social media, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others are growing so rapidly that your active involvement is an absolute necessity today. This is becoming the communication of choice by just about everyone. This new medium is so much more than communicating with customers and prospects. It can be the best way to get your name out there in front of the general public, and all it costs is a little time on the part of you and your employees.
Create your own blogs, tie your Website and all your ordering processes into one coordinated activity, managed by someone who knows how to do it. Name recognition is extremely important today and the social media is one of the best ways to build it.
Take Action Now
Independents have built their businesses on providing better service than the Big Boxes. That will continue to be important, but that service needs to be personalized customer by customer, and even person by person within a single customer organization. It means more personal interactions between your people and customer’s people and that includes your delivery drivers.
With just a little extra effort, you can market (e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) specifically to customer types (banks, hotels, restaurants) and even to individuals (we have a chair that you’ll like). The people you want to communicate with now carry their computers in their pockets. Using mobile devices, they want to communicate in real time, check availability and price and get their questions answered. They get their business news on the Internet, and that includes, increasingly, the social media.
All employees, but especially your salespeople, need to be up-to-date in this new environment. Waiting until the end of the day to return calls doesn’t work any more. Most important of all is to make plans now for the future. Waiting for the economy to improve further may be too late.
About the Author: Jim Rapp has worked in the office products industry for more than 30 years and has been writing about it in leading industry trade publications since 1998.
