With Art's Ricoh post it got me thinking about the things I'd love to see from canon in 2017.
1 - put the directs on the same pricing the dealers have. I get disgusted by the pricing I see from CSA down the street. Don't claim how important the dealers are to the company while letting the direct whore the product out to keep the factory running.
2 - Open up the Oce wide format to all dealers without the need to deal with the Oce people trying to become a dealer. The only response I ever get from Oce is they don't need us as a dealer with the coverage they have in our market (which isn't that many people), and no I am not going to make a 100,000 purchase to become a dealer even if you "needed" me.
3 - Discount/rebate programs that can help all dealers. Get rid of the programs that to obtain a nice discount to be competitive you have to buy 6 machines at one time to save 300.00 per machine. With distribution centers close to every market smaller dealers don't need to stock 6-10 of every model to get a small discount.
4 - Play ball with the dealers on the medium size competitive opportunities, not just give the response that if it is less than 250k you get standard pricing and rebates.
5 - Hire some more specialists to support the dealers. Stretching specialists like production, solutions and wide format across 15 states (or whatever it is) does not help us sell more product. It is almost impossible to get a customer to wait 4-6 weeks for a meeting when that's the only time frame a canon support rep can come help you out. Seeing your specialists once every 10-15 months does not help us sell more product either.
I am sure there are plenty of others but these are my top 5 for tonight. It's been a busier December for me than years past with new deals and upgrades so I haven't been able to post as much lately. I am thankful to be sitting at my kitchen counter closing deals at 10pm last night but I sure am ready for a few days off.
I'd like to hear thoughts from others as well.
