Tagged With "Direct Branch"
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Re: The Death Of The B2B Salesperson [Infographic]
Art, I call Bull ****! At least for our industry, the copier industry! This may be true of a commodity (like envelopes, or coffee, or even a PC) but copiers, really MFDs require a lot of attention, both before and after a customer buys it. This article seems to be written by an old brick & mortar company that successfully transitioned to internet sales. This will work for any company that drop ships their products. And I agree that the MFD manufacturers would LOVE for this to be, or...
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Re: Sharp Direct Service Pricing
I don't know if the bubble is bursting but I think more consolidation is around the corner. I mean in this case, if you do one service call you are in the hole for the entire term of the lease. Their branch in our market will do anything and everything to take business. Sometimes I think they would pay they customer to take the machine.
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Re: Another Ricoh Dealer Takes on Konica Minolta
Who will be next? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A & A Office Systems Now Offering Esteemed Konica Minolta Product Line 9/9/2009 New England-based Company to Offer Award-Winning Lines of Konica Minolta MFPs, Production Print Systems, Printers, and Software Solutions Middletown, CT and Ramsey, NJ – September 9, 2009 – John Sullivan, President & CEO of A&A Office Systems (A&A) and Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), a leading provider...
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Re: Sharp Helps Dealers 'Align' for Success at 2009 National Dealer Meeting
Sostilio & Associates did not have a very favorable review of the SHARP 'Align 09' Dealer Show and mentioned that SHARP "did little and offered less to neither raise the attendee’s spirits nor make a good argument to be a Sharp dealer if you want to sell A3 product." Moreover, there wer no 'show promotions' and during the Awards Ceremony, SHARP Branch personnel were given awards. I was wondering if anyone attended this Align 09 Dealer Meeting and cared to provide feedback, since this...
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Re: Ricoh Ikon Letter
Something to think about as well, adding to what was mentioned by Mega. The Japanese division is making the bulk of their profits on the manufacturing of toner. That is the money tree for them. They sell to Ricoh USA and they work through their channels to distribute the boxes. The ultimate goal is to “place the box” Ricoh USA makes their overhead by the profit on the box moving it to the Dealer and other channels. The profit make by selling the box is what keeps the “Reps paid and the...
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Re: Ricoh Canada Inc. and IKON Office Solutions Inc. Officially Amalgamate as Ricoh Canad
There will be a lot of P-offed Ricoh dealers in Canada that will begin to search for alternate copier suppliers. I have one that switched a few months ago. They stated that as an independent dealer, Ricoh Canada treated them poorly, like a branch office. Ricoh Canada has grown so big with rules ands procedures it is hard to get anything done quickly or easily.
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Re: Riso "ComCOLOR Where Are you"
With David out of the Marketing role, the subsequent closing of most of the Riso Branch offices nationwide and the deterioration of the CPC of color prints from MFP's I'd think that the demise of Riso as anything other than a manufacturer of niche products is guaranteed.
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Re: The reason why Ricoh Bought Ikon
There are 3 Canon dealers of size in the Dallas market, & at least one of them is in virtually every deal. One that has a 90 minute response time has been growing like crazy since they came into the market in the mid-2000's. Those 3 dealers probably do $50mm-$65mm per year, & there's also a CBS branch here. Canon does a lot of business in DFW.
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Re: JOINT STATEMENT BY SHARP ELECTRONICS CORPORATION AND EDWARD MCLAUGHLIN
Well who knows what will happen in five years. There is no evidence to suggest that the industry will not keep consolidating. My point was, I do not believe Sharp is in the process of killing this part of its business. I feel like they are still trying to grow it. Plus if there was ever a time to freeze direct branch expansion it was 2008-2011.
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Re: Comments on the Canon 1730/1740/1750 Models
The Ricohs have been slow sellers is not because of end user needs or wants. Basically ours is a quota/revenue driven business from the top to the bottom. The preferred compensation model for commissions is that of a revenue based plan with commissions. Why have a GP driven comp plan for your sales people when your Dealership or Branch has a revenue based quota plan from the manufacturers? It just doesn't make sense. With that A4's from Canon, Sharp, Ricoh, and KonicaMinolta has presented...
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Re: Why is single clicking an 11×17 on a “copier” legal?
I've also heard of this, funny thing is dealer or direct branch that they bought the machine from never knew about it either, and yes they had the special clause "if we find you using more than your estimated coverage". After six years the system is still in the field w/single click 11x17, they are running 80% 11x17. They've never been told they were using too much toner. Art
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Re: Canon shaking up the great white north
Your teaser headline made me think that Ricoh Canada had sold all of its branches. Not quite the case, just Sasquatch. It reflects the realities of a direct channel - very high infrastructure and management costs, along with the recognition that the mfrs need to focus on the opportunities where they have an advantage, in particular where they are large geographic or global entities. By using the dealers to focus on the SMB market, the costs to support that channel are much less. I can see...
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Re: Canon shaking up the great white north
Yeti: I can understand the size thing and even though populations maybe the same, I'm sure there are many other factors also. However, I'm sure we can all agree that less will mean more when it comes to not having a direct branch in your back yard. I hoping that even as small as this deal is that the trend continues, it would get the industry back on track to more sustaniable levels, increase dealer business, increase profit for dealers.
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Re: Oce:CBS::Ikon:RBS Simple Math
Vince I concur. When you sell value price doesn't equate. When there is no perceived value price becomes main objective. I have yet to find a direct branch that gets this whether it be Ricoh or Canon. Good times to be independent!
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Re: Oce:CBS::Ikon:RBS Simple Math
Larry, I agree it is a great time to be an independent! Art, When I was at Ricoh - RBS the Ricoh leadership was more concerned about all of the branches being THE SAME then they were about each individual branch succeeding. What made me loose respect for the Ricoh Management team was they did not respect individual achievement. So even though my branch hit our triple crown numbers they dismantled what we had put in place, what made us successful, because they wanted all branches to be the...
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Re: Managed Network Services discussion
Art, We looked at All Care through Konica Minolta but the contract T's & C's were so one sided we thought it was written by the Mafia. The bottom line was they got paid (by the Dealership) whether or not the customer paid you or not. I was speaking to a VP of a large independent dealer on the east coast who had a discussion with the principal of his company. What it would take for his company to do Managed Network Service. His answer was we can: 1) Hire people 2) Partner with a company...
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Re: Ricoh Dealership in Minnesota will buy.......
Independent Dealers will never compete successfully with any Direct _BS branch on price. The _BS Branch has shown that they are willing to run their branches at a loss for years! We must sell at a profit, IMHO they should (Legally) have to also sell at a profit (Don't get me started on dumping). If you work for an independent dealer and you are trying to compete with a _BS Branch (that sells your product) on price then you are playing into their hands, and you are going broke. They can...
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Re: 100 calls a day, 240 minutes talk time a day, 4 opps per day
First: Your old employer is imploding. You don't ditch that many people all at once if things are going good or even so-so. Second: Non Competes are hard to enforce whereas Non disclosure/confidentiality agreements generally are not. (Non Attorney opinion, No I won't pay your legal fee's) Third: Did you re sign your non compete after the pay scale change? Is the pay change in writing, did you have to sign the pay change and do you have a copy? Did they give you anything in return for re...
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Re: 6513 & real Wood!
We have one cust. in our other branch that is doing this as a promotion. I think Ricoh looks down on this but it sure is impressive. I'll try and get some samples or the name of thier suppiler Jeff
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Re: Need help!
I don't know what you guys are talking about. We have tons of both 850's 1050's and 1085's (at least 50 from within my branch location) in the field. Mostly in schools (which I personally think is the worst environment to place a copier-due to too many hands on the machine by teachers who can care less about do's and don'ts.). But they quite often run PM to PM without any calls. And I've found that the majority of "in between calls" are due to user mishandling and abuse.Most of the...
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Re: Need help with inter-territorial install
Contact Matt Armstrong for Dallas. He is with Denitech. If it's not his branch, he would know which one.
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Re: For HP, Copiers May Not Be A Cinch
this is very intersting, just a note of recent personal experience. I just had a deal signed for a branch campus of a university. Until this month, this satellite has been a client with me. When we came to upgrade, everything was fine, until the higher powers said anything connected to the network, no matter what had to be HP. Simple fix right! Remove the print controller from the paper work and the unit. NO NO NO. I found out. Deal turned south. This HP copier is thing is going to be large...
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Re: Weekend Notes from the copier industry!
WEEKEND MFP INDUSTRY NOTES 8-5-07 The following is a quick review of copier/MFP industry news from industry publications. - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is legal for manufacturers to create a mandatory minimum selling price for their product. The case was decided regarding a store that sold women’s clothing, that ran afoul of the clothing manufacturer’s rules. Unknown if any copier manufacturers will adopt this policy. - A group in Australia at Queensland University, is claiming that...
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Re: How many prospects are in your territory?
Mine contains 17 counties, but I look at where the numbers are. I can't possibly call all territories in a given month, so I do both cold calling, and mass mailings. The majority of my sales are coming within a 5 county area, which is where I spend most of my time. Its when sales are off that I will branch out into the other areas to try and peak some interest. In my opinion, when you don't have your name and face in front of the customer yet, you will have to knock on alot of doors, so...
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Re: The Processors add The Canon imagePRESS C7000VP Digital Color Press to Their Fleet of
Burlington, N.J., November 20, 2008 – Canon Business Solutions, Inc., a subsidiary of Canon U.S.A. and leading provider of document imaging and office solutions, today announced that Printing & Publications of Langhorne, Pa., has installed the Canon imagePRESS C7000VP digital press to support their need to provide quality short-run output to a growing list of clients. “The new Canon C7000VP provides us with added flexibility. From a workflow standpoint, we will increase productivity by...
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Re: Email from Canon P4P'er "Ricoh Direct Pricing"
Here in Dallas, we've been seeing plenty of low-ball deals from the local Ricoh branch & IKON, particularly over the past 2-3 weeks. Our guess is that it is due to the fact that March is the end of Ricoh USA's fiscal year, so they are just moving boxes for next to nothing.
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Re: Around The World with Ricoh II
Ricoh Cleans Up! Story Link Ricoh congratulates all its volunteers for their efforts on Clean Up Australia Day 2004 On Sunday 7th March Ricoh fielded a team of 106 volunteers to participate in Clean Up Australia Day, 2004. Numbers of volunteers increased by 25% from the previous year. Representatives from Head Office and each branch gave up their time to don a pair of gloves, roll up their sleeves and get a little dirty for the sake of their local environment. Clean up sites included...
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Re: MT Business Technologies Acquires Ricoh Business Solutions Office
I am somewhat surprised this has not had any responses. Here's a case where the local RICOH Business Solutions Office was acquired by a local dealership. Must've been a rather underperforming branch office. Does anyone know of other situations like this. This could be used to create doubt in prospects minds that they're dealing with "the manufacture" - "So what guarantees does that give you Mr. Customer . . . yada, yada, yada"!
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Re: Ricoh Offers Managed Print Services to Reduce Printing Complexity
That announcement seemed to walk in circles. Not to mention I know the branch in my region can barely sell a copier, let alone assess a real organizations output.... I guess this initiative will keep the branch guys busy trying to learn something new, while we're in their taking the corporate business. Good for them.
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Re: Bid pricing seen for new Ricoh C900 production color system
What part of the country was this bid submitted as? I'm curious because as a Direct branch we aren't even within $30k of this at our branch cost levels. Very interesting
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Re: KMBS announces new direct organization
If you notice, I didn't say this was a good thing in any way other than from the manufacturer's perspective that they can't lose that dealer to a competitor. I fully understand that the direct branch cannot offer the best options to the client.
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Re: How to Win Against Direct"
Ricoh Americas Corporation (focus on 'Americas') lags behind Japan and Europe in terms of Color placements and Ricoh has developed incentive programs that focus on shifting B&W machines to Color (hence, the term B2C). Most Direct Branch reps tell the customer if they buy from them they’ll be buying from the manufacturer and they will have better service than any dealer! Take it from me, that’s a bunch of hog wash! True and true. Independent Dealers must indeed focus on their reputation...
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Re: How to Win Against Direct"
The branch guys do in fact cry. Take an account from direct and see how fast your dealer principal gets a call from the branch manager and his DSM.
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Re: Toshiba Launches Social Business Network Designed to Connect Sales, Service and Corpo
C'mon, copier sales professionals are among the most competitive people I know. (Passionate, knowledgeable, competitive, all good qualities when used for good, don't get me wrong). How many times have you written about a direct branch going in to one of your accounts? You weren't too happy about that! Do you really want to "easily connect and share knowledge" with a sales competitor in your own territory (be it from another dealer or direct) who could potentially use it to win a deal from you?
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Re: Ricoh CPC Methodology
I know alot of dealers and branches that will make you commit to a minimum black volume and a minimum color volume. So will get the meter monthly and other quarterly. Monthly reads would make the dealer or branch more profit if the customer DID NOT hit mimimum volumes, the quarterly read is better since meters are read only once per quarter, thus giving the customer more time to met the minimums. This shift started awhile ago, and is very nice profit when customer DO NOT hit the monthly or...
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Re: MFP & Copier Stream of Payments Calculator
I would love to check out the copier lease stream of payments calculator. Thanks, Walter Thomas Branch Sales Manager Sharp Business Systems - Southern California
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Re: MFP & Copier Stream of Payments Calculator
Thanks Art. I'll give this a try. Sincerely, Walter Thomas Branch Sales Manager Sharp Business Systems San Diego Phone: 619/258-1400
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Re: Toshiba Estudio 230 & Estudio 280
We are a dual line dealer and last year Savin was winning the deals. in 2005, Toshiba's pricing has been lower, which has helped us win some very competitive deaals against IKON and Canon. You should have better service reates than the Toshiba branch to balance out the offering.
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Re: DWG Option
not a viewer. try autocad express view or trixsystems.com - if you call / email trix let them know you are a RBS branch for a free no expire demo version of their viewer.
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Re: konica Minolta bizhub 250
Are you competing against another dealer or against a KMBS branch. If against a branch, sell your dealership . Sell your "local"-ness. Sell how much faster and responsive your service will be and where it's dispatched from, as opposed to heaven knows where the branch's service is coming from (central location = longer drive times = longer that the client is down). Sell you. Sell your relationship with your client as opposed to the branch's ever-changing rotating door of staff. Sell all the...
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Re: How To Sell Duplicators Round Table
Some random thoughts: Getting people interested is not that difficult. It takes good closing skills to get the check. I find it works best if you can determine how much you can save them before you quote any pricing. But keep two things in mind: 1.) It does not have to be cost justified. No church has ever cost justified a paved parking lot but they all have it. 2.) Just because it is cost justified doesn't mean it's a done deal. Napkins are free at every resturant but we don't fill our...
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Re: 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...
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Re: Does anyone have a clue as to how the CPC billing model started in the first place?
I remember it well and at ComDoc, in the early 80's we sometimes put the offer out there without it being a formal price plan. I think the customer realized that a lot of the toner they purchased and stocked was useless at end of the machines life. It was like a primer with a customer who had that and TCO on their mind, it was a way to close them. Equally, I remember taking it one step further in the early 90's with copy management - the first all inclusive (hardware, service, supplies)...
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Re: Document Capture
My branch has done a few installations with AutoStore. The price point seems a little high, but I also don't know much about what added feature set it has.
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Re: RBS Sales Reps
Fisher/Czech This what we've done now: pictures, buyers lab, and the ny times article. They could care less. They asked us to drop our other lines and go back Ricoh only and we told them we would if they will close the RBS branch. Also told them there would be a monetary figure considering how expensive it gets taking on additional lines.
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Re: Canon Branches To Be Closed
Carl, that would be good to know. I don't anyone that works for CSA so if there's any feedback they've heard I'd be all ears. Quote honestly I'd like to buy their base and have an office party for another branch closing their offices....that's just me though.
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Re: Canon Business Systems Pulling a Ricoh
Have to remind customer of your long term involvement vs. price. Usually the differentiator...
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Re: Canon Business Systems Pulling a Ricoh
Originally Posted by Art Post: Whoa there Art.... I've been with Canon (CSA) for 20 years. We have thousands of well satisfied customers. Not everyone everywhere is going to be happy but, to the chagrin of our competitors, most are. If they aren't, they will leave. You know it and I know it. We have ROE's that are rigidly enforced where I do business, we are not out to buy the business and the competition from Canon's own dealers often force prices to rock bottom margins. You've been at this...
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Re: Canon Business Systems Pulling a Ricoh
I call complete bull **** on that. I am dealing with a customer right now whose quote from csa is 20% less than we can buy it for with all programs etc. the directs are blaming the dealers for running the industry into the ground? That's hilarious And I've heard that from Ricoh direct as well. Let's not forget who decided to bring out the A4 machines and drive the hardware revenues down to nothing and then start doing service at cost so the factory could continue to run. Those branches are...