If you’ve read a few of my recent columns, you know that Marco has been focusing on cross-selling opportunities and perfecting our customer experience. And you probably know why—print usage at most businesses isn’t bottoming out, but it’s leveling out, and those numbers are going to remain relatively low. Therefore, dealers are having to work harder and smarter just to keep their slimmer margins. And as every dealer has the same ideal client, competition is fierce.
Competing solely on price is a losing long-term game. Dealers that haven’t beefed up their offerings are going to find themselves in that fix, and many already do. None of this should come as news, but if you haven’t yet added more sources of revenue (e.g., software licensing, print security, IT services), you’re playing catch-up.
If you’ve been dragging your feet, there’s an even bigger reason to act quickly: these additional offerings can offset lower print usage while also creating more touchpoints with your customers. The retail and service industries often refer to this as “customer stickiness.” As our business continues to pivot from transactional to relational, Marco is certainly taking some of its cues from businesses that have made stickiness an art form. Stickiness has become so vital, in fact, that the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) has created a step-by-step strategy just for our industry, abbreviated LAER.
Learn To LAER and Love It
LAER stands for land, adopt, expand and renew. Got it? Not so fast.
It sounds simple enough. You land a new customer by selling them printing equipment, for example. They adopt your solution, and you help them get the most value from it, which ideally helps you expand your business with them. Finally, when their contract is up, they’re far more likely to renew with you.
However, many in our industry have been treating this scenario as a great bit of good luck instead of our goal each and every time. We put most of our focus on landing that first contract, but spend less effort on helping them adopt the solution and put very little thought into selling them additional services. Every time that initial contract is up, our competitors have a fair shot at winning that business. And why on earth would we give them that gift?
I don’t know about you, but I love a nice competitive advantage. And that’s exactly what you get when, over the life of an equipment or service contract, you’ve also helped your customer with software licensing or print security services. You’ve gotten to know them well, and they like working with you because you help them get more value. Every time they’ve needed help with their equipment, you provide an exceptional experience. You’ve even been talking to them about additional products and services you could provide down the road to help make their days even easier.
Now their contract is just about up, and your competitor comes a-calling with a similar base offering that’s a little bit cheaper. Your customer glances at that shiny brochure and thinks, “Switching is a hassle, I’d lose my bundled software deal, and I have no idea what it would actually be like to work with this new company. And I’d only save how much?” They tell the competitor, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Wouldn’t you?
Ace the Customer Experience
That ideal contract renewal scenario I just outlined isn’t wishful thinking. Getting to know your customers well and providing them with an exceptional experience takes time and work, and it may require taking a hard look at your business processes. For example, how long does it take to get a technician on site? How many issues require a second visit? What’s your customer’s experience when they call your company? How can you free up your sales reps’ time so they can anticipate your customers’ needs and present them with solutions to problems they didn’t even know they had?
At Marco, we’ve spent the past couple years refining our processes. We’ve also invested in newer automation and contact center technologies to ensure we can execute that LAER strategy every time. As you might imagine, while print is still our biggest revenue stream, our other offerings have become a much larger piece of the pie. Our recurring revenue is up. Our sales team has more time to knock it out of the park, which means they get more commission. Our customers get more personalized attention. Therefore, our customers are also much happier and more likely to stay. That’s not a guess, it’s what they’re actually saying in their online reviews over the past year.
Bringing It Home
LAER is a new language, and for our industry, it’s a new way of thinking through our sales process. However, it also happens to line up with some old-school ways of differentiating your business—as in, your competitor’s weakness is your biggest opportunity. In an era when most people expect a poor experience when calling a company, give them a pleasant one instead. They’ll remember. Most companies don’t offer their customers a personal connection, so do the opposite. Where many customers are likely to feel overwhelmed or confused, be Johnny-on-the-spot with the partnership you already know they need.
Treating every initial transaction as merely a jumping-off point is an adjustment for most of us, but I believe it’s the key to landing long-term clients in 2024 and beyond. And while the naysayers might focus on declining print use as a reason to count us out, I hope you’ll join me in feeling highly optimistic about this industry’s future. This past year was Marco’s 50th anniversary, and as this new year gets rolling, I now feel very confident we’ll be here in another 50 years and beyond.
