Possibly moving to Ricoh....

Ricoh has tremendous market share

Top four and not in this order KonicaMinolta, Ricoh , Xerox and Canon

Ricoh puts much more into R & D for MFP's


can others add to this?

Ricoh product ranks at the top of the industry. That being said, selling today is about far more than the box. What other value can you bring to the table with a given vendor/dealer? How about professional services, managed print services, software solutions, etc... I would take all of these into account when contemplating a move. If you are with or go to a dealer that only sells "boxes" you are limiting your self.

Unfortunately, I am already at a place that only sells "boxes". I don't know which companies in my area do those other services, or if the Ricoh dealership does so, but I know that I can't be too choosy, because some of the companies have no interest in hiring me. But according to the owner of the Ricoh dealership, they are doing very well.

As far as the Ricoh itself, what I'm wondering is WHY it ranks at the top of the industry, WHY are people buying it? I can't find much in the way of BERTL or BLI awards, though honestly I've never sold a machine due to those awards. Let me put it this way: I've had trouble trying to come up with the distinctions between Sharp machines and the others to use as selling points. Will it be any different if I go with Ricoh?

I've been told that the Ricoh dealership will provide much better sales training than my current company, so maybe these issues will be answered at that time. But I am nervous about a switch, and I'm hoping to allay some of my fears.

Thanks everyone!

I'm going to say something here from my experience of being a copier buyer BEFORE I started working in the copier industry. Yes, it's true, I was a client of the very dealership that I came to work for.

You're not going to like what I have to say because you're sales reps and you trained to think a certain way. Please, for once, listen with an open mind to someone with experience being on the other side of the proposal. Ponder it, don't spin it.


Most buyers don't care one bit what brand of machine they are buying.

Repeat: most companies, key ops, decision makers, whatever, DON'T CARE. All the brands do basically the same thing. You guys come in and make your proposals and you're really just splitting hairs. They aren't impressed with the industry awards, they've got other things on their minds than BERTL and BLI. In most cases, they've never heard of them. All that becomes just meaningless white noise because all of you are saying your versions of the same story.

What do buyers care about?

I cared about the reputation of the dealership.

I cared about whether you were going to service my machines promptly and efficiently.

I cared about whether I could count on you.

I cared about my relationship with my sales rep and whether I could trust him/her because I was going to put my own reputation on the line by recommending what you said to my company president.

I cared about honesty, I cared about reliability, I cared about whether your dealership was going to be a good fit with my company.

I cared about sales reps who saw us as working partners and brought me solutions to my problems. I cared about a rep who was observant enough to notice that he may have a better way to help me do my daily work.


So, dtarvin, my advice to you is stop worrying about the brand you could be selling and start thinking about the quality of the dealership you could be working for. Is working for this dealership going to be a good professional move for you? Can you feel proud to represent this dealership? Will they take care of their staff and their clients in an ethical manner? Will you be happy working there and and hopefully grow in your sales skills?

If the dealership is a quality company, I doubt they would be selling poor products.

Shaja:

Excellent post, makes me think twice about everything I do! Kudos

Thanks, Art!

Shaja, best post in quite some time! I cannot agree anymore with what you said about the reason a customer will buy from you or not. Companies buy "you" and not the products.

Jack Daly said it best "People buy from people they like"

I know a local RBS where the marketplace Manager let his #1 rep based on attitude

Sure this rep sold but the Rep was not liked by his customers.

Customers were purchasing from this RBS because they liked the Service Tech and Delivery guys.

this showed me personally that its not just the sales guy who sales its everybody in the company.

I forwarded to all of my Sales reps today.

Thanks,

A couple of thoughts based on my lengthy experience with both Sharp and Ricoh.

Ricoh is far and away a better product. No doubt about it.

As stated above buyers buy the dealership and the relationship with the sales rep in my experience not the brand name on the front of the box. Take it from someone who spent years explaining to customers who "Gestetner" was that had never heard of them........and now "Lanier".

Finally, in this market I would urge extreme caution making any sort of employment change unless you are on a total sinking ship. Be careful. If you are successful at your current dealership you are risking an aweful lot by jumping ship and if you are not successful at your current company the odds are probably not going to be any better starting over from scratch with a new dealership. The grass may look greener on the other side but keep in mind you will be low man on the totem pole and the first guy let go if the economy takes another dump.

Some great points in this thread.

In the end all of the main copier products do the same thing...they put toner on the paper, fuse it and offer a collection of ancillary tools which in many cases are more important (like scanning) than the copy function anymore.

Someone said earlier it was the whole package that the client wants to buy...they get impacted from everyone in your dealership, admin, billing, shipping, support, sales and yeh your suppliers too. We are a multiple branded op with Kyocera and Samsung as our largest lines now and Ricoh as a backup...why? because Ricoh chose to compete directly with us on the street...they went from 90% of our sales to aboout 20%....the competition with our supplier was not good for us and in the end not good for our clients. None of the suppliers are perfect and everyone of the brands has its challenges. In the end our job is to meet the needs of our clients profitably so we are around to serve them long term...and the clients who value that are the ones we look for.

Clients will change brands if you give them the reasons to do so...so they will also change to brands from your competitors if you give them the reason to do so...bad service, poor billing practices, unfriendly attitudes, etc.

Do the reverse and you will at least have a leg up when renewal time comes around.

Thank you to everyone for your input. I was offered the position and accepted. I will now be selling RICOHs, but I have the option to also sell Sharps.

To fisher: I understand what you are saying. However, my current boss has provided neither my co-worker nor myself any real sales training. He won't even demonstrate how to sell (we think it's because he can't). I have also learned that we are being underbid by the other Sharp dealer in town, and our service dept head has said our prices are higher. I further learned that our lease rates are also higher. While price is not the only reason to buy, it is important in this economy. Our boss seems to believe it is better to sell a few machines and make a lot of money on them than to sell several machines at less profit but with the service agreements to go along with to create a revenue stream.

He handles all the current customer accounts. The number is vastly lower than my new company's, and it seems to be dwindling.

The new company's sales people have all been there for long periods of time. My current company has a revolving door of salespeople lasting no longer than 6 months. It appears no one is successful at this business with this company.

In addition, his personal behaviors and actions have led both my coworker and myself to dust off our resumes.

Long story short: While I may not be successful at another dealership, I would still be looking around.

dtarvin:

Good Luck in your new position. I'm sure you'll do well!

Art