For years and years I wanted nothing to do with selling desktop and workgroup scanners. I learned the hardware many years ago that selling desktop and workgroup scanners an exercise in wasting my fraking time.
Years ago when I first saw those desktop scanners from Fujitsu I thought they would sell like hotcakes. I thought, I could sell these to everyone that had a desk and processed paper. I had the talk track down, I was able to get the decision makers to buy in, however when it came down buying time I lost every single time. In those earlier years I had no clue as to how commoditized and how easy it was to price those scanners on the web.
I lost to price and that's because either the DM or the IT person did a quick check on the web and my price was too high. I'm not talking onesies or twosies, but rather 15-20 scanners, when you're $100 or more higher that amounts to quite a few dollars. In addition we didn't provide service nor maintenance agreements. Thus where was the value to buy from the dealer? There was none.
The reason I'm in this crazy business is because I can make crazy money when I want or need it. In most cases it takes a combination of GP and revenue to hit the crazy money levels. In some cases we (sales) take the good with the bad. Good GP and or bad GP it all goes to my revenue goals.
There were many times when I was asked about scanners from clients and I opted out, told the client you're better off buying them on the web. We all know the reason for that statement. Thus for years and years I avoided talking about scanners.
It was last September at the BTA Grand Slam Event in NYC, when I noticed Panasonic scanners at one of the booths. I stopped had a short chat about the (I'm still a hardware junkie at heart) scanners along with learning that Panasonic sells their scanners through distributors. Thus I met some of the peeps from the distributor and from Panasonic.
Fast forward to early November and the Jillian Gala, I ran into some of the Panasonic peeps in the courtyard at the Venetian. It was Walton that re-introduced me to the Panasonic reps I meet at the BTA event. I made the statement why I hated selling scanners and it what a waste of time it was.
Have you ever made a statement and then had to eat it? Well this was me that night, little did I know that one of the peeps in our small group from Fred Scherman (National Sales Manager for Panasonic). Fred went on to tell me about Panasonic Program for BTA dealers and how the pricing works when it comes to clients that will go out and price scanners. Rather than getting into all the details and making the blog longer than I want I'll cut to the chase.
The Panasonic BTA program allows dealers to price scanners and not be priced out on the web. If you want a better explanation then please call or email Fred (email address below).
I thought this was awesome! I could now pitch scanners again and don't have to be afraid of my client finding a ridiculous price on the web from a distributor or Panasonic direct. I could hold a small amount of GP and generate addition revenue opportunities. Thus a few weeks after out little chat group Fred and I spoke in length about the dealer program. I was stoked about the program and thought that other sales peeps need to know this also. I brought Panasonic on board as a sponsor just about 30 days ago.
I also did my homework on the scanner pricing also. I priced a few of them out and then went to check the pricing on the web. In both cases I had a better price that what I found on the web. I guess the icing on the cake is that Panasonic also offers spiffs on all of their scanners to the sales peeps.
No longer do I have to worry about not having a good price for scanners. In fact I feel comfortable pitching them and helping clients understand that the can be more productive with desktop scanners. No longer do I have to cringe when I see the brands of Fujitsu or Epson!
In the next 30 days we'll be having our first webinar with the introduction to Panasonic and how the program works. If you're like me and hardware still remains and important part of your business then you should be "all in" for the webinar.
Here's Fred's email fred.scherman@us.panasonic.com as promised please email him to learn more about this really cool program for sales people. Here's the link to the Panasonic web page.
Here's the link for the Panasonic Scanner Spiffs
-=Good Selling=-
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