One of the biggest challenges a dealer sales rep has today, and they’ve got a few, is sorting through and comprehending the variety of solutions on the market as well as how to effectively present that solution to customers and prospects. Recognizing this, Lexmark has developed a finely honed approach that should make this task easier for dealers selling its new Embedded Logistics Solution as well as future vertical solutions.Lexmark has packaged the Embedded Logistics Solution into what they’re calling an Accelerator Pack that the dealer purchases from Lexmark and can use over and over again when selling that solution.
“We’ve done 90 percent of the work in terms of developing that solution ahead of time so they have a variable way of deploying it to the customer,” explains Doug Frazier, Manager of Solutions Engagement for Lexmark. “We’re trying to make it simpler, faster, and more profitable for [dealers] overall.”
This strategy for selling solutions is the result of the industry experience Lexmark has accumulated over the past 20+ years, which they’ve made more dealer centric. “We’re targeting a set of solutions that will provide partners with a fresh talk track and a proven method they can take to their customers,” explains Frazier. “These are solutions we’ve deployed across industries many times over.”
With this assistance, a dealer sales rep can address a client’s current state and identify what they can talk about or expect to be talking about in terms of the customer’s future state after implementing the solution.
Doug Frazier
The Embedded Logistics Solution
The Embedded Logistics Solution, available May 1, targets warehouse operations, manufacturing, distribution, and retail, providing them with the ability to create, capture, process, and retrieve logistics documents more efficiently. It was developed internally using Lexmark technology.
“It’s that logistics function where there is a common application area for when they ship merchandise, where they need to produce a shipping label, a packing list, or a bill of lading,” states Frazier.
Lexmark’s Embedded Logistics Solution consolidates the various steps that have traditionally been part of the shipping process, capturing the information necessary to move those documents through a customer’s business process and route them where they need to go. Documents indexed in electronic form, are easier to locate compared to hard copy documents. The application can also reduce the costs associated with printing preprinted forms on dot matrix printers by printing them on demand.
The included Solutions Composer workflow scripts ensure that all hard copy documentation is captured at the source using Lexmark MFPs and scanners. This eliminates shipping, processing, and filing of hard copies of that documentation. Users are then prompted when scanning to enter the information necessary to transport those documents through their organization.
Overall, one of the biggest assets of this solution is that it is completely embedded. “I don’t see anyone else on market pulling this together in this sense,” says Frazier. “Lexmark is the only one doing it as an embedded solution.”
Back to the Accelerator Pack
The Accelerator Pack for the Embedded Logistics Solution assists dealers who are selling it by presenting it in a succinct way to their reps and customers. “That’s a challenge when you’re talking about a solution and how to approach a customer,” acknowledges Frazier.
The Accelerator Pack contains one-minute videos created by Lexmark on the solution as well as cards with Power Messaging elements so a dealer rep can go to a whiteboard and map out in four or five elements the customer’s current state and what future state processes might look like. “We’re explaining how to communicate that and doing it in bulletized terms so they can talk about the benefits they are bringing to the customer,” states Frazier.
He anticipates that any sales rep should be able to take this information and run with it.
“We’re not just bringing our partners software solutions and saying, ‘here, good luck,’” notes Frazier. “We’ve trained our territory sales managers on this solution and how to position it. We have solutions consultants in the field that can work with partners on the opportunities. It’s all about helping them sustain their business model and be successful.”
The Embedded Logistics Solution is an excellent starting point in that many Lexmark dealers have customers and prospects that could benefit from this vertical application. “This is a rich opportunity for them,” states Frazier. “They already have those customers that they’re providing some solution for.”
The margins associated with the logistics solution are potentially lucrative. “When we talk about this Accelerator Pack, it’s a kit that they will purchase one time from us and they can deploy it many times over,” emphasizes Frazier. “Beyond the Solutions Composer Agent that they will place on each device to support the capture workflow and a Forms Card that will provide the eforms capability, there’s no other licensing. It’s a leg up in helping them get started.”
Another benefit of selling a vertical solution from a dealer standpoint is that it helps them open new doors within existing customers as well as prospects. “It helps them maintain margins on the device because they’re not in a price competitive situation—they are talking about a net process and cost savings to the customer associated with this solution and don’t have to discount the box as much to win the deal,” adds Frazier.
Going forward, Lexmark will continue to promote a solutions-oriented philosophy. “Through 2014 and into the coming years we’re looking to put a stronger effort together and help dealers address this challenge of getting this message out,” says Frazier. “We’ll be coming out with targeted messages that are clear and succinct for their reps so they can convey it with the appropriate value to their customers.”
