As 2022 draws down. I hope all of my friends and vendors had a prosperous year.
All of 2020, 2021 and 2022 presented significant challenges for me and our office technology industry. Years ago I would I would have labeled us a the copier industry, but with all of the changes I believe office technology better suits us as a whole.
Heart Aches Still Persist
One of my largest challenges for me and maybe our industry was the ability to meet net new objectives in 2022. In fact I failed for the first time in many years for hitting my annual net new number. The supply chain ramifications and not being able to get A4s put me at a disadvantage because I did not plan correctly for 2022 (that will not happen again).
I should have seen the writing on the wall and increased my activity with A3, however I also understand that our entire (competitors) industry was also focused on winning A3 business as well. I believe our challenge will continue to exist well into 2023 for A4 MFPs.
The Competition Softens
If you follow the press releases many traditional copier companies have been purchased by those MEGA dealers again in 2022 (this will continue in 2023). It's my belief when those companies are purchased they are no longer a competitor of mine. There's a few reasons for my belief and that's because many employees will leave the MEGAs due to the cultural shift and many employees will be terminated to increase profits for their investors. Thus there is and will be a talent shift away from the MEGAs and to companies like Stratix Systems that I work for.
Those those of us that are left can continue to write our tickets for success.
Work from Home in 2022
While there is still much hype for remote work and hybrid work. I see many companies are feeling the pain from people burning out because the culture of work from home does not lend it self to the TEAM. While there are many people that lavish in the remote and hybrid work, there are just as many or more that can't adjust. I've heard from many companies that work from home is not a great option for many companies because they can't teach their new and younger employees on craft of their industries. People still need to be with people in a TEAM environment for companies to succeed.
Office Print in 2022
Yes, print volumes are down and they will continue to erode as time passes. There is no holy grail that will stop progress to the paperless office one day. However for those of that still sell print there are still opportunities to make a great living with selling MFPs for many years to come. The MFP opportunities exist with finding companies that have manual processes in place with paper (there are still many of those). MFPs offer companies many ways to reduce costs and increase productivity with those manual processes. We just need to find them.
How to Win in 2023
The last couple of days I've thought a lot about how to make a difference in 2023. I'm in a unique place in my career since I'll be 66 in February and I've taken the position that I'll continue in my current role for another year as long as I stay healthy. I've got experience on my side!
I will put prospecting for content opportunities on the top of my agenda for both net new accounts and existing clients. Content can be a mixed bag of offering for business intelligence, serverless printing, AI and RPA (robotic process intelligence). It will not be easy, but in order to win I also need to increase my knowledge for 2023. Of course I will never give out prospecting for MFPs, because I believe the MFP prospecting will lead to the content opportunities.
The best way to win again is to never, ever stop prospecting.
-=Good Selling=-
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