Not many things are more important than understanding your customers. Since the fall of 2003, GreatAmerica Financial Services has been active with office technology industry peer groups to do just that. Our industry presence and deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing our customers has been a significant part of our go-to-market strategy since Tony Golobic founded our company in 1992.
A Rich History with Office Technology Dealer Peer Groups
We’ve participated in just about every dealer peer group in the office equipment space, the first being Select Dealer Group (SDG). In 2003, SDG was associated with the Business Technology Association (BTA), which has always supported education and best-practice sharing, and their support of industry peer groups has been phenomenal. At the time, our COO and one-third of our Office of the President, David Pohlman, had just joined GreatAmerica and understood the value peer groups would bring to our company. Soon, we were also participating in the Business Products Council Association (BPCA), American Coop and eventually the Copier Dealers Association (CDA).
After we started investing time in peer groups, we began earning speaking engagements. We knew we wanted to educate rather than do a sales pitch, and we’ve tried to maintain that approach to this day. The first BPCA meeting we spoke at was in Quebec, and the topic of education was focused on cost-per-copy (image) billing. We shared best practices on a tiered volume cost-per-image approach (the more copies you made, the lower the per image charge), adding a reimbursement charge to their customer invoices for peripheral support (something not many dealers were doing), and revenue-enhancing strategies related to color. My how times have changed!
Jennie Fisher of GreatAmerica Financial Services (left) and Sally Brause of PathShare HR Services enjoy the beauty of the New York skyline during a break at the Select Dealer Group meeting in 2013
As the industry evolved, topics broadened in scope—from crafting an MPS deal to the importance of flexible invoicing. A pivotal time for us was offering remote monitoring with our FleetView product. We took our in-depth knowledge on MPS and educated the dealer community on why a strong sales approach is necessary, how to analyze an environment and how to craft a transaction (that included hardware financing) with the likes of PrintFleet, Okidata and our own MPS Navigator training.
While our involvement as presenters holds value in driving awareness for GreatAmerica, the real value comes from the networking. Participating in these events and dining with office technology dealers and other vendors allows us to get to know the needs of our industry at a deeper level.
Continuing to Evolve with the Times
Our participation has uniquely positioned us to identify the needs and pain points of our dealers and vendors. Not only are we able to generate ideas for new ancillary services that address gaps in our industry, but we stay tuned to opportunities to build new peer groups as a result of being immersed in these conversations.
In 2013, Pohlman identified an area where our office equipment dealers needed support; as the industry evolved, more dealers were looking for ways to successfully deliver Managed IT. With the help of industry expert, Paul Dippell of Service Leadership, this spurred the creation of the SL-GAMIT groups.
Tony Golobic, founder, chairman and CEO of GreatAmerica Financial Services, gives a presentation on company culture during a Copier Dealers Association meeting last October
These groups were designed to accelerate dealer expansion into managed IT. Rather than let dealers stumble through trial and error, we wanted to provide access to a proven process for entering the IT space. Via quarterly meetings with member-driven agendas and facilitation by Service Leadership, part of the group’s appeal is its financial and operational benchmarking. This is used to gain comparative insights among dealers in each group and to track their progress. The value of the SL-GAMIT Group lies in the access to knowledge, current best practices and best-in-class metrics of Service Leadership’s experts.
The number of SL-GAMIT groups has varied over time. Some dealers were either successful at accelerating their managed IT efforts and decided to put resources elsewhere, or decided that managed IT services wasn’t a direction they were ready to pursue. An additional managed IT peer group was formed in 2018 exclusively for our Collabrance partners to help accelerate their success.
Value of Dealer Peer Groups
The number-one reason we find value in facilitating these groups is the opportunity to interact with industry friends, partners and vendors. We use these meetups as opportunities to educate ourselves and gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities our dealers face.
In fact, some of our ancillary products and services were born as a result of our participation. For example, it was at peer group meetings where we witnessed more dealers getting into IT, and better understood the challenges associated with it. That’s when we developed our own Master Managed Service, offering to help our dealers without the high upfront costs and time to market. We initially beta tested our offering with a couple strong customers. It soon developed into a subsidiary company of GreatAmerica called Collabrance, offering our dealers the ability to enter managed IT in a much lower-cost, lower-risk way than building it themselves.
Why Should Dealers Participate in a Peer Group?
Office technology dealers find immense value networking with industry peers who are focused on evolving their businesses to share best practices. Whether it’s financial benchmarking and consultation on areas to improve or learning how other dealers are expanding their businesses, learning the trials and tribulations others have experienced holds valuable lessons they can leverage as they evolve. As a result, friendships are formed and connections are made—adding to their “Rolodex” so they have someone to consult when they need it.
Sharing and Learning From Subject Matter Experts
Some of the best peer group meetings we’ve been a part of have included panel discussions involving subject-matter experts on various topics within our industry. For example, SDG has held roundtable breakouts, speed-networking opportunities, dealership tours and overviews of specific aspects of their businesses, like service benchmarks.
While most of these dealer groups started out as “owners meetings,” these days they’ve expanded their programing beyond topics of specific interest to presidents and CEOs. It’s been refreshing to see many of them adding meetings to include various functions of their business, enabling the same benefits of best practice sharing and networking to additional leadership roles within dealerships. For example, BPCA now includes education and programing for those in finance, sales, service and, more recently, marketing. I’m personally excited to see CDA adding a track for marketing this spring.
At one of the most recent SDG events, Joe Terfler, our CFO and one-third of our office of the president, presented on the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) new lease accounting updates, covering the potential impact that the financial reporting of lease obligations may have for companies that are required to follow US GAAP Accounting. He shed some light on some of the common myths about how the accounting changes impact the decision to lease and set the record straight.
Dealer peer groups provide a resource system for best practice sharing and help dealers keep their radar up to what the future holds for their industry. These groups are a valuable tool that office technology dealers can use to help them stay tuned in to their ever-evolving industry. Having a network of like-minded, forward thinking office technology dealers who understand the value of connections and knowledge sharing is key to continue growing and evolving your business for the better.
