Great Expectations: What Dealers Expect from Their Manufacturers

David Lean’s 1946 adaptation of Great Expectations.

It’s been approximately seven years since I’ve written about what dealers expect from their manufacturers. Even when many of those expectations are expected it’s still good to have someone else validate what you already know. It only reaffirms what’s important and what continues to be important to the average office technology dealer. On the other hand, it’s also critical to maintain a sense of what’s important to manufacturers. I’ll serve up that perspective in next week’s issue.

Al Scibetta

Al Scibetta, president of Copier Fax Business Technologies in Buffalo, New York has been a loyal Konica Minolta dealer since 1990. Here’s what he had to say when I asked him what he expects from his manufacturer. He looks for reliability of product, minimal back orders, and good dealer support from his DSM to come in and train his staff, support the dealership, and know the competition.

He appreciates the team that Konica Minolta has in place to support his dealership.

“I have a team at KM, a corporate accounts manager, a special products manager, a production print manager, an aftermarket manager, and my DSM,” states Scibetta. “The support is paramount along with that we kept buying more and more so our pricing model improved and that’s helped us with our profitability.”

“It’s not a reinvent the wheel by any stretch, a quality product that’s competitively priced, knowledgeable and responsive tech support, and a level playing field when competing against a direct,” states Russ Jacketti, vice president of sales at WJS Enterprises in Metairie, LA. “That’s nothing new but it’s so hard for them to do that for whatever reason.”

He adds, “I understand it’s not so simple to do those three things, but it’s amazing how they lose sight of those three objectives on a regular basis. If they’ve got one going, they’ll drop on the other two.”

Jim Vitiello, president of Datasource ink in Chicago, no longer sells hardware, but he did spend his formative years in copier dealerships, including owning a successful Panasonic dealership. He hasn’t forgotten his expectations.

“I was fortunate when I was a Panasonic dealer to become good friends with the gentleman running the company,” recalls Vitiello. “One of the things Panasonic did for me which was both a blessing and a curse is that they stepped up to the plate when I was trying to grow my business with quite a bit of money in marketing development funds in terms of helping me hire salespeople, train them, and get them going.”

With that assistance Vitiello grew his business from $0 to $18-million in five years.

“I couldn’t have done it without the manufacturer supporting me,” he maintains. “Manufacturers like Panasonic specifically bought into how I was trying to build the business. I don’t think it exists today, it’s such a cyclical industry and the manufacturers have taken over again and they’re all trying to squeeze out the dealers and take over the business themselves. I think that will change again and the manufacturers will discover they can’t compete with the independent dealers and start selling off parts of their offices around the country to successful dealers.”

The expectations of Al Aaron, president of Saxon in Morrisville, PA, aren’t out of whack with what most dealers would want. “I need competitive pricing that I can survive with, a good product and something that works where my techs aren’t living with it day in and day out. That’s obvious to me no matter what brand we’re talking about.”

He also expects his manufacturers to provide him with cutting-edge technology. “On many [products] I’d like to be the first out of the box and let everyone else scramble for the next 18 months. That’s what I would like, is that what I expect? No.”

Aaron also wants his manufacturer to provide good technical support, timely delivery of products and parts, and quality people that can help him resolve problems.

What Bill Fraser, president of Fraser Advanced Information Systems in Reading, PA, expects is for his manufacturers not to put their dealers in a position where they are unfairly competing against direct branches. “I want to compete against them on a level playing field and I don’t want them going back and playing games where they’re out allocating [the branches] extra supplies and I can’t get them because then I just can’t compete. That’s across the board for manufacturers operating direct branches.”

Andrew Ritschel

We end with the comments of Andrew Ritschel, president of Electronic Office Systems in Fairfield, New Jersey. Not one to shy away from controversy, he lets it all hang out in his response.

“I’m sorry, but I have to answer your question with what is really the question, can our Japanese manufacturers still save their/our industry that they have been working so diligently to destroy?”

And here is what Ritschel expects from those manufacturers:

–       Learn from the mistakes of the past and not repeat them.

–       Not have huge disparities in wholesale pricing between branches/wholesale distributors/small/medium/large and mega sized dealerships. (No cheating…free finishers)

–       Treat each and every marketplace as a profit center not a dumping ground for product production levels. Don’t use the strategy that ‘we will buy this market place even if it takes decades.’

–       Don’t create or help create customer entities who dictate the pricing back to you with threats of selling more of your competitor’s products.

–       Work with the understanding that new young talent must be attracted to our industry because they can make a lot of money by working smart and hard.

–       Control/buy or put out of business your renegade manufacturer(s) whose pricing and distribution policies are putting themselves (and the rest of us) in harm’s way.

–       Leave the industry (fast) if you are not 100 percent committed to it for the next 5-, 10-, 15-, 20-years.

–       Stave off the threat from Korea (Samsung) who also happens to be making a key mistake right now by picking the wrong OEM partner. Throughout history this particular OEM has greatly hurt their customers (now past customers). Samsung’s strategy will be no branches, protected distribution/hence margins. Why is this only for newcomers to market?

–       And finally treat your customers and employees the way they want to be treated (and you want to be treated) with honesty, integrity, and reliability as well as keep them informed, produce quality [products], be efficient, regularly improve systems, make money, provide opportunities for growth, and be loyal and trustworthy.”