It should come as no surprise that even the most successful dealers can struggle to keep growing while maintaining margins. They face the same market challenges as the rest: cut-throat pricing from competitors, declining print volumes, and the investment cost of offering new products and services to name a few. Here’s their perspective on what they are seeing and how they are responding.
Add value: Centric Business Systems sees its biggest challenge as the ongoing margin pressure, mostly from “incongruous marketplace pricing from the direct manufacturers’ sales offices.” To compete, Centric focuses on adding value to every transaction, emphasizing that it is a local company able to respond quickly with all management, parts, supplies, billing and administration close to its customers.
Network with peers: For many dealers like Waltz Business Solutions, rebates from manufacturers for meeting their sales expectations have a huge impact on their bottom lines. Waltz cited the growth of the A4 MFP segment eating away at the A3 base at less than half the placement cost per device. To help find best practices for staying competitive, Waltz drew from the wisdom of its peers. A 50-year member of the Business Technology Association (BTA), Waltz joined the Select Dealer Group (SDG) four years ago. The relationships formed by participating in these groups have provided “immeasurable benefits.”
When the going gets tough, be creative: Stargel Office Systems does business in the Houston area, which has seen an economic downturn in the oil and gas business. To minimize the impact, the company came up with creative ways to keep customers and position itself for more business when the local economy picks up. It launched a program to allow oil and gas companies to sell assets back to Stargel, for example. The company also took over existing equipment or replaced with Toshiba hardware at no cost to the customer except for a maintenance agreement. In return, customers agreed to lease from Stargel once oil prices exceeded $60 a barrel.
Stay focused: ACT Group believes the biggest challenge is staying focused on what you excel at. Dealers have many alternative services and products they might offer. As ACT Group sees it, if you can’t be great at selling and supporting an offering, “then you are just prepping the market for someone who can do a better job.”
Stay close to your customers: Usherwood Office Technology has a vision for 2020: Hit $50 million in sales. A key criteria for meeting that goal is to build and maintain strong customer relationships. This not only strengthens its core business, but it also increases their opportunities to cross sell other offerings.
Keep service strong: Des Plaines Office Equipment (DPOE) has felt increased competition from manufacturers and businesses seeking to cut costs during recessionary times. It has countered that competition by strengthening its service department to accommodate the wishes of customers who may wish to hold on longer to equipment. DPOE has also incorporated managed IT services into its offerings and expanded its reach nationwide.
A team approach to large accounts: Fraser Advanced Information Systems had relied heavily on account executives to win large bid business. Recognizing the increasing complexity of these opportunities, the company brought together a team from different parts of its organization to collaborate on them. Fraser’s bid team consists of the marketing manager, VP of sales, VP of operations, customer service manager, logistics manager, global support center manager, software solutions analyst, and leasing manager, along with the account executive and sales manager. This has led to a more streamlined process that allows each department to have a role in the bid process.
Become more efficient: To deal with commoditization in the traditional office product and maintenance offerings, ASI-People Driven Technology decided it had to become more efficient at what it does. It now takes a consultative approach built around MDOM (measure, design, optimize, and manage). This allows ASI to add value for the customer and deliver its products and services in the most efficient manner.
