Hello All,
Interested in your opinion. In 10 years do you think there will be outside Sales Reps doing what we do? I suspect a more educated buyer will source via web and soon an ecommrce platform will replace us. Am I paranoid?
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Monte
I don't believe you are paranoid! The ecommerce is a real threat for sales peeps. In order to over come that we as sales peeps will need to wear additional hats to better serve out clients. Those as a trusted adviser, become more knowledgeable with cloud services, IT services, MSP, MSSP. It's my belief that we will evolve from just print to be able to consult on all aspects of business office.
I would love to hear from others on this as well, this is a great subject for discussion.
Art Post posted:@Jason H it's my understanding that Canon has a rep dedicated to Amazon for the ImagePASS mfp's already
ImageClass?? If so that’s throw away junk just like the HP’s etc. I believe that stuff has been sold online for some time now. We don’t sell that series due to the extremely high cpc’s
Art Post posted:@Jason H, you're correct ImageCLASS. I understand the junk bit, just wanted to let others know that some of the manufacturers are active with Amazon
Yes agree! I’m not sure when they went online with them but I remember seeing them and didn’t have any use in selling them after that and the person over that product set doesn’t call or visit anymore 🤷🏽♂️
Interesting thoughts, Thank you p4p. I have sold Canon for 20+ years. Many years ago they listed the imageClass line (MFP's under 2,500 dollars) and the entire scanning line and Wide Format line. As such I stopped selling those products as I have always been compensated on hardware gross profit and there was none. Todays buyer is much different and has already done homework before I even get to speak with them. The mfr uniqueness has been commoditized and they all provide the #1 buying criteria.... Reliablilty. Imaging this. HP sells it's hardware to business online. Imagine Xerox buys HP and then moves the Xerox MFP line into the portal. Just thoughts...
@Monte I hope/think that even though buyers will research online that they will still want some interaction with a salesperson. If in fact the manufacturers allow the sale of high end MFP's online then the dealers will have to change a lot of how they do business.
My hope though is that it does not come down to this. I buy a lot online and my wife grocery shops online and has them delivered to the house, BUT I don't look at most things like groceries. I want to go talk to my insurance agent. I want to talk to the car salesman. I don't want to buy those things online, even though I will research online.
@jason Good points. Do other people buy cars online? How about insurance? Did they do that 5 or 10 years ago? Guess who is very involved in the purchase of MFP's. IT! They live online. What's the first thing many people do when they are considering a purchase. Google it. In my opinion it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when.
@Monte very true! Very well could be when. I will say with car buying, a friend of ours just bought a new car online - paperwork done digitally, car delivered to her house, and either a 7 or 14 day period that if she didn’t like it or want it anymore they come back and pick it up no questions asked.
I often times get caught up in what “I” do and how “I” buy and not how “others” buy.
Even if they meet a rep, that doesn't mean that they won't oftentimes turn-around and order online.
Building relationships and providing solutions is all good and I have accounts that I am very tight with. However, when the day comes that all the business I get is only from those accounts, I will starve.
All excellent points. My son (35) asked me the other day about Carvana and my thoughts about them. The first thing that came to mind is warranty, and service.
I guess the question becomes (at least for me), what will be the relationship with the dealer for service and warranty when you bought the car from Carvana?
Why should the local dealer expedite service, parts or put you at the top of the list for support when you did not buy from them?
"Why should the local dealer expedite service, parts or put you at the top of the list for support when you did not buy from them?"
I think more and more companies, our industry and others are separating the service department from the sales dept so much that each will be required to stand alone if necessary. There has always been a gap between sales and service and who wins is usually dictated by whether the person at the top came from sales or sevice. At some point the service dept is going to say, "I have numbers to hit too and I can't afford to just walk-away from revenue for the sake of the sales dept." The day of sales departments dictating service policy is coming to a close.
@Old Glory I don't think they will walk away from servicing the car also. The service department will need the business. However the owner of the company can set the mark with giving "preferred service" to clients that buy from them. I don't know when it comes right down to it, I can spend hours researching cars, reviews and pricing before I buy on-line. How much could I really save? $1,000 or $2,000 could that really be worth it, if I spend 40 hours doing the research or would I pay a price I helped negotiate and saved all those hours of research.
My gut feeling is that the younger generation does not want to deal with people and would rather deal with a click of the button and deal with the consequences if and when they come
In a way its already gone to the internet and away from the outside sales rep........at least for stand alone printers and A4 devices. If all someone needs is a printer or an A4 to be used for basic printing,scanning and copying.....face it, they really don't need us already.
If you've been at this a long time you probably remember the days when you sold a lot of A4 machines to small offices. 20 years ago if you needed an A4 you called a copier dealer. Those days are gone for the most part. Staples and others became the source for the desk-side tabletop Brother and HP MFP.
With A3 I think the need for an outside sales rep will remain hopefully for the next 10 years if we are lucky. The logistics of delivering, installing and so forth will make buying these products on-line less favorable for a business.
@fisher I agree almost completely, but to play devils advocate I will say that we are selling more desktop printers now than we ever have before. Mostly brother, as we became a partner a couple years ago. I think people are looking for reps to show them a better way than just buying another HP off amazon, but the rep still has to have a higher level conversation with the client...not just hey buy your printers from us.
I rarely sell a stand alone printer anymore.
We definitely are not out chasing them but we are much more versed talking about them and the benefits of buying them from us rather than the big box store. It has led to some very nice MPS accounts for us this past year. I don’t have a final count but I believe we added about 3 million new clicks this year from printer sales. Not breaking any records by any means but adding an extra 50k or so of revenue never hurts. And thanks to brother for having a minimum advertised price online for the workhorse series that we sell, our margins are pretty decent for something that cost 500 - 800.00.