I decided to post here portions of an an email I sent out to our company reps. This applies to this small dealership but has poinient remarks all of us need to realize...
Do you realize how many 2035/2045 series units we would have to have to cover every 2035, 2035 S/P, 2045, 2045 S/P request that may come down from 7 sales reps? Now the 2022/2027 series with S/P versions are going to be the same way. We literally have 12 different models between 22 and 45 cpm now! As recently as 4 years ago we only had three, the 200, 250 and 401. Compound that with 30+ different accessories where there used to be, what, maybe 4 or 5 that we actually sold? With the 200 and 250 we seldom sold any accessory except ADF and fax...no printing, no finishing, no paper banks, no shift sort trays, no duplex or by-pass (because they were standard), no PostScript, no HDD yet all of these accessories are common now and missing any one on an install may be totally unsatisfactory. You may want a fax option and be frustrated because we can't get your demo out even though we may have 3 machines, just no fax options but we may as well have had nothing as far as you are concerned.
Consider this...If we had just one 2035/2045 in stock per rep for 7 reps, that would be approximately $91,000 at dealer cost tied up in just one small segment of the product line. It now takes somewhere around $150,000 to have just one of each model between 22 and 45cpm in stock. Yet even with $150,000 tied up in just that part of the product line, you still can't have one if any of the other 6 sales reps has it on trial or sold because there was only one to be had. Now multiply these equations about 3-fold to accommodate low-end, high-end, printers, faxes, Riso, and OKI Data. Inventory control is 10 times more difficult then it was just 3-4 years ago and to make things even more difficult, Ricoh is going through the same thing so much of what we order has some components Ricoh can't deliver. Therefore, even if we had things down perfectly, we still wouldn't have stuff you need when you need it because of Ricoh's backorders.
The point is, those days of having what you need when you need it are long gone and each of us need to recalibrate our thinking. I'm open to any ideas you have that you think will help short of "double our inventory" unless you are prepared to put up the capital. Each one of us needs to do everything we can do to help, mainly:
a.) Keep trials to a week or less. Anything more must be approved by me.
b.) Don't make promises you don't have to make. Under-commit so you can over-deliver. Most of our problems we create ourselves by making promises we didn't have to make.
c.) Accept trials that may not be the perfect model or configuration. Now with consistent control panels through-out the product line, you could sell a 2022 off of a 2045 if you have to and there might be times when you'll have to.
d.) Do not ever tell the customer that they can keep our unit until theirs comes in. Again, this needs to be approved by me from now on.
e.) Special order equipment to fill sales any time you can. If they are OK with a three week wait, let us order their unit and accessories special just for them. In the mean time, we still have a unit to demo.
e.) LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS SIGNIFICANTLY and realize that these issues are not unique to CBS. If a competitor can deliver out of inventory the exact model and configuration they requested, it is by the grace of God, not because there inventory is so large that they can deliver anything requested.
f.) Be glad that we are not a dual line dealer.
g.) Feel fortunate that we have the inventory we have. 90% or more of the companies out there are trying to get by with much less.
Thank you for your attention and your patience.
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