During this period of compelled isolation, the leading OEMs serving the office technology industry would like to remind their dealer partners that they do not need to go it alone when it comes to devising, implementing and executing a sales strategy to address a COVID-burdened environment.
Here, 10 of the industry’s most influential manufacturers will detail their programs that can help dealers find new products and solutions to gain an edge on sales during the pandemic. If you, as a dealer, have not already availed yourself of these tools and solutions, then you’re missing a golden opportunity to raise your game, overcome objections and find new avenues to profit.
Brother International Corporation
For Brother International, the mantra “At Your Side” isn’t just a tagline, it’s a guiding principle for how we interact with anyone who chooses to do business with us, especially our partners. That’s why it was, and continues to be, a top priority to find ways to support our partners’ evolving needs during the pandemic, and to be at their side with creative new approaches to providing value.
To start, Brother teamed with Toshiba to create work-from-home kits that can help businesses continue in a COVID environment, and are focused on the “six-foot office” for companies returning on-site while being mindful of social distancing guidelines. This project speaks to our laser-focus on assisting customers with business continuity during these unprecedented times.
Our most recent partner program is also one of our most consequential ever: the new Brother Partner Portal. This portal consolidates all our partner offerings into one online suite of tools and resources and is being debuted in phases over the coming months. Among the partner portal’s features are a content and video library, cobranded assets, detailed product and solutions information, channel rebates, access to Brother’s online Knowledge Center, a Rewards Program and much more. But, even though the portal is virtual, our trained staff are prepared to provide that hands-on assistance our partners have come to expect, all the while acting as an additional partner resource as they work to maximize productivity in an ever-changing world.
Canon U.S.A.
During these unprecedented times, many businesses have had to shift their operations to find new ways to transform sales. One way is by embracing virtualization—from virtual training courses and demonstrations to customer support enhancements. Aligning with the company’s customer-first mindset, Canon is offering its dealers a variety of user-friendly training sessions and remote service applications.
Through the new “Canon Learning Zone” portal, dealers can access hundreds of online training courses designed to be more channel specific. This allows for easy integration with Canon’s Webex training and Hands-on Lab, or virtual training events, called Learning Zone Live. These courses can provide dealers with tips to help them transform their sales efforts while navigating through the blended work environment.
In order to work smarter and more efficiently, humans and technology should work together, which the company defines as “That’s Techmanity from Canon.” With this in mind, Canon’s Customer Solutions Center continues to expand its virtual presence assets to its field and engineering technicians in order to service and connect with its authorized dealers, even in dispersed locations. Leveraging augmented reality, this technology allows Canon’s support specialist experts to virtually reach out and touch what the field technician is working on through their mobile device, resulting in faster solutions and improved device uptime through an efficient and productive support experience.
As an added measure of its support, Canon is offering virtual technology sessions for its dealers to supplement training in place of its in-person roadshows. These sessions have been focused around how to help dealers as they get back to business, with an emphasis on cloud security solutions, leveraging technology and collaboration in the future of work, and diversifying and expanding business offerings. The company is also delivering virtual education formats, including assisted e-learning, technology events and customized training, to support requirements needed to meet product authorization.
Highlighting Canon’s sales service and support during these unprecedented times first-hand, Toty Salinas, vice president of Canon’s authorized dealer, Systronics, says, “To Systronics, service is the main focus. Despite the challenges thrown our way, Canon’s virtual training offerings have provided great insights and tools to help us stay productive and efficient. These have helped us tremendously as we continue to navigate through the ever-changing business environment.”
Epson America, Inc.
In April, we kicked off our Impact Training Series of live weekly webinars on various topics such as using remote technologies, keeping staff productive and training on products and solutions. Most importantly, we were identifying areas of sales opportunities. It’s been a combination of regional webinars, as well as higher level, more strategic topics conducted on a national level. And for areas such as product training, we’ve allowed regional sales teams to conduct those sessions in various regions, so that they’re actually having the touch points directly with dealers and staying engaged.
We also introduced virtual, hands-on service training. We decided that in addition to self-guided training, we would also offer live, instructor-led virtual training. Dealers can log in through a conferencing platform, and our live instructors can walk them through disassembly and reassembly and point out product differences from one generation to the next. With COVID eliminating our ability or desire to travel, or having technicians exposed to more people than they need to be, this has really resonated with dealers.
Another significant pivot from a sales perspective was toward the sale of A4 products, both printers and MFPs. As thousands of companies were having employees work from home and schools were implementing distance learning practices, the demand for A4 products skyrocketed, both for hardware and ink. We quickly identified that need and rapidly developed marketing materials that our dealers could use to address work-from-home/learn-from-home application needs.
Konica Minolta Business Solutions, U.S.A., Inc.
Early on during COVID-19, Konica Minolta’s strategy for doing business in the Workplace of the Future and the theme “Work is not where you are. Work is what you get done,” took on new meaning.
Reaching out to dealers to help address their immediate needs resulted in a webinar in which BTA’s Bob Goldberg provided the latest updates on stimulus packages and changes in the HR/employment programs. Our marketing division, Konica Minolta Marketing Services (KMMS), hosted a webinar about how best to market during this time.
For dealer sales reps, the initial focus was a webinar series that provided skills and techniques for working from home. Subsequent webinars focused on selling managed voice and prospecting. Today, educational support continues with online learning centered on new products and skills, as well as growing segments of the market such as MGIT, MV and production.
Throughout this time, we offered dealers special pricing on a range of devices, including a remote working bundle and a menu of savings to help dealer customers turn any space into a productive workspace. Programs were designed to promote sell-through versus inventory, including end-user promotions and QPP. Product launches continued with the introduction of Workplace Hub Pro, bizhub C750i and a revamp of the entire i-Series monochrome line.
Our relationship with dealer partners pre-pandemic and now is based on our ongoing commitment to develop products and services for today and tomorrow. Moving into the future, our dealer programs will continue to focus on supporting their growth.
Kyocera Document Solutions America
Kyocera has supported our dealers in several ways during these challenging times. With travel restrictions in place,our solutions sales instructors, product marketing and technical teams conducted a series of comprehensive remote training programs and webinars that centered on sales, products, solutions and technical support.
We incorporated Kyocera Fleet Services (KFS) training, our comprehensive, cloud-based monitoring service that allows our authorized dealers to remotely handle many maintenance tasks for their customers without time-consuming on-site visits. Ideally, it’s a great opportunity for our dealers to get a better understanding of the benefits of this service.
We had a series that was put together by our learning and development team called “The Channel Blended Learning Series.” It consisted of live, virtual weekly webinars that featured Kyocera’s solutions sales instructors discussing topics that would be beneficial to a dealer, including document security, prospecting, applications such as DMConnect, Kyocera Net Manager, MyQ and OmniWorx, and much more. And after the original broadcasts were made, dealers were able to download the recorded webinar via a shared link.
Lastly, our software and ICT services team, led by Kurt Brown, vice president, provided support from the business solutions consultants. They conducted remote software meetings highlighting solutions such as DMConnect and MyQ.
The goal was to offer as much support as possible and get as many of our dealers trained on Kyocera products and applications from a technical, product and solutions standpoint.
Lexmark
As businesses look for greater efficiencies amidst COVID-19, analytics and data-driven insights are more important than ever for managing business applications and devices, thereby enabling effective maintenance, security and productivity. Lexmark has enhanced access to services and software solutions, special terms and conditions, and a webinar series featuring COVID-19 service and solutions topics to help Lexmark partners and distributors become better equipped to serve our mutual customers.
Specifically, Lexmark has added several tools and solutions that can help dealers during the pandemic:
- Cloud Fleet Management, our remote service tool, enables technicians to access client devices without being on-site.
- Lexmark Industry Advantage webinars have helped thousands of dealer attendees leverage Lexmark’s vertical industry expertise to better serve their own customers.
- Extended terms on finance programs give dealers more flexibility with hardware purchases.
- Discounted products have also been featured in the Lexmark marketing hub, Lexmark Connect.
Lexmark Connect is a great central location for partner resources plus more information on specific promotions and marketing collateral that can help during this difficult time. The pandemic has changed the way we do business, and Lexmark is striving to provide enhanced, elevated programs to help our dealers connect with their customers while driving new and diverse revenue streams.
Ricoh USA
Since March, the way people work has changed. This is a challenging time, but it’s also a time of opportunity for dealers. They can take this opportunity to expand from a trusted print provider to a workflow management consultant and reliable collaborator, providing the low-touch, high-efficiency solutions that customers need right now.
In many cases, these types of agile work experience solutions were already a focus, as seen at ConvergX 2019. Now, they’ve significantly expanded with more robust cloud offerings, automated workflows and additional services. Ricoh has also collaborated with dealers on expanding visual communications, information management and other remote-work offerings in dealer portfolios. Dealers can offer support from Ricoh’s call centers, helping promote customer uptime and showcase the expertise dealers can make available.
We talk with dealers about how the marketplace is changing. We hone strategies to drive virtual engagement, both with our dealer personnel and between dealers and their customers. We walk through the portfolio and help them select solutions and services that fit their customers’ unique needs as they continue to change, from fully remote to hybrid and wherever their business takes them next. We update and develop offerings based on those evolving needs. Our programs aim to go beyond simply adding offerings to a dealer’s catalog—we provide go-to-market resources, including training, marketing collateral and “conversation-starter” copy. We make it as clear to our dealers as it is to our customers: we’re going to get through this, together.
Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America
We know that COVID-19 has been challenging for the dealer community, and we’ve made several modifications to make things a bit easier for them. Among these changes, we modified our annual dealer program targets and began providing special incentives for products that have seen higher demand in this new work environment, such as desktop printers. For example, after we launched 11 new A4 printers this summer, we offered dealers SPIFF incentives around our A4 lineup, as well as the Sharp Ultimate Rewards incentives we typically provide.
Useful content is also essential during this new normal. This is why we’ve been producing more content than ever, with multiple articles, social media posts and videos on our website to help dealers in their interactions with customers. We recently announced a new blog called Simply Smarter, where we publish posts on a variety of timely topics, including using AI to return to the office safely, and how businesses can protect themselves from cyberattacks.
As a response to the pandemic, we also began an aggressive dealer training schedule in April, with an average of 20 webinars per week. We invited guest speakers, including the Kingston Training Group, to discuss topics such as socially distant prospecting, MFP security and selling into the education market. We were pleased that more than 200 dealerships sent more than 1,600 people through our training sessions, and we anticipate it will be just as popular when we start our fall training.
Toshiba America Business Solutions
Toshiba is closely collaborating with our valued reseller partners throughout the pandemic to support them in both new and traditional ways. We’re helping dealers address this new environment across four primary areas: finance, products, marketing and enablement. Financial support includes offering dealers affordable pricing and aggressive financing options on office and home printing products, software and supplies.
On the product side, Toshiba is assisting dealers as they help customers extend corporate offices to home offices, enable social distancing within the office, and expand digital solutions for remote employees. This includes presenting resellers with brand-new A4 multifunction printers (MFPs), which merge the power, performance and functionality of our award-winning A3 models into a smaller footprint, as well as light-production MFPs coupling elite speed and performance. Resellers can also extend into adjacent growth areas with solutions, digital signage and label and receipt printers.
In terms of enablement, we’ve expanded our online sales curriculum with impactful content, including live and pre-recorded webinars, courses and training sessions. We’ve also brought in leading sales and financial experts to educate dealers about key topics such as call campaign best practices and CARES Act details. And our Vertical 360 (v360) program has expanded to deliver in-depth information and insights that empower Toshiba resellers to become subject matter experts in a variety of industries. We also held virtual seminars helping customers better optimize our hardware and solutions offerings while enhancing ROI.
Lastly, we’re trying to help our dealers achieve greater scale and ease in marketing and demand generation so they can better engage with clients and prospects when unable to meet face to face. Two examples of this support include expanded access and content on our automated marketing platform for dealers, and the launch of a dynamic presentation tool to help dealers create standout sales engagements.
Ultimately, we’re in partnership with our dealers to help understand and meet their needs during this unprecedented time. Toshiba leadership is in constant communication with reseller partners by phone and video to ensure we’re helping when and where needed. And our entire team remains dedicated to creatively helping reseller partners navigate these uncertain times.
Xerox
In an uncertain time, it’s more important than ever for companies and partners to work together in a tightly integrated, seamless way. As XaaS models are increasingly adopted across industries, our partners have an opportunity to create maximum value for customers who need to rethink operations and make “now” work.
Sharing, collaboration, and storage are (unsurprisingly) the top-three areas customers have invested in over the past few weeks and months. That’s why we’ve focused on introducing programs and deals specifically designed to address these investment areas and support a work-from-anywhere environment. We have:
- Offered risk-free, 60-day trials of DocuShare Flex, a cloud-hosted content management service to enable remote work.
- Launched a new virtual demo platform that gives dealers and their customers personal access to dedicated experts and 15 different Xerox devices, no matter where they’re located.
- Updated our Partner Portal with Back to Business tools and best practices around returning to work safely and productively.
Our solutions are built with a common theme in mind: finding meaningful and long-term solutions for customers challenged by the new normal. We’re doing our part to help partners evolve from a one-and-done transaction model to become trusted sources of ongoing support and counsel. In a time that requires maximum creativity and agility, that’s the way to best serve our end customers as they reemerge from the pandemic.
