Reply to "RBS and DMAP/RMAP"

I spoke to one of my friends at RBS (yes, I have a friend at RBS, believe it or not), and we starting talking about named accounts, and down the street accounts in general. I then asked him if he was privy to any of the RMAP or DMAP info from Ricoh Americas Corporation or even info from Aficio League, he stated he is not and I believe him. I then asked how do you get your named accounts? Are they handed down to you from management or is it stuff you find in the field or is it a combo of both? He stated that named accounts are given to him, however in his eight or nine years there he has been with RBS he never seen a named account come down that stated the customer already had Ricoh products.

However, what he did state is that there are now 5 RBS reps working the same geographic area, and when someone digs up a lead from a named account, the rep from the named account has to prove that he has been in contact with that named account. If he has, then he keeps it and if not he loses it.

In my county there are also 4-5 RBS covering what I cover for my dealer, with this type of "feet on the street" they are stumbling over my accounts on a frequent basis. I guess I need to "educate" my customers ahead of time, kinda like what the Association of Oil Heating does, and why it is better to business with the Authorized Dealer instead of the Authorized Direct Branch. Plus with RBS why are they giving incentives for new business when they are taking existing Ricoh Business, here there should be no extra incentives, incentives should be for taking down Xerox, Kyocera, OCE, Canon, Sharp, Toshiba and the rest of them!

I have many thoughts on why Ricoh Americas Corporation is letting RBS do this. Here's a few for you:

Top Ricoh Management (this includes Sam, Tom & Larry) have no clue what is happening in the street, they are so far removed from the day to day occurrences and no one has the gumption to tell them what is going on.

Top Ricoh Management does not care, all they care about is the bottom line on how much revenue and boxes are on the street and whatever it takes to get there!

Someone has brain washed Top Ricoh Management into believing what RBS is doing is a good thing! I wonder if that someone is the guy who is in charge of all the Direct Branches.

This is probably the most far-fetched rational I have of the whole situation. The plan was put in place months ago to have the Ricoh boxes to be sold by Ricoh Direct only. Slowly over time dealers who were sick and tired would change brands (drop Ricoh), and then down the road Ricoh would then call the smaller and mid sized dealers on the carpet and tell them they are not meeting their quotas and they would then be dropped, however you could become a Lanier or a Savin Dealer. Thus at the end of a few years you would only have a few Mega Ricoh Dealers and RBS. RBS would then be able to raise prices after they have eliminated the other Ricoh Dealers in their area.

Yea, I know the last one is pretty far fetched and is out there, however the million-dollar question is "why" are they letting this happen to their own dealers. Ask your self why and the answer is almost always the almighty buck.

Just my two cents!