enx magazine

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A tenured sales rep with over ten years of successful experience had been trying to get the attention of a multi-lot car dealership.  The owner would not see him.  The owner’s son had an unyielding position that it was more economical for the dealership to buy desktop copiers from Sam’s.   Even after a free survey of all their equipment, the owner still was not interested.  (The sales rep did not have his attention.) 

So the sales rep decided to take a different approach.  He approached the owner from a document perspective instead of an equipment perspective.  He learned about their paper storage and retrieval issues.  The owner directed the representative to meet with the auditor and controller.  In the end, they purchased a full imaging system and a fully loaded multifunctional system—all with very healthy gross profits.  The client is very happy and the sales rep expects to sell hardware to each of their five store locations. 

Case Two: The Competitor’s Customer

In this case, a brand new sales rep with minimal sales experience approached a 25-member accounting firm on a cold call.  The firm had been a long-time client of the largest competitor in town. 

Instead of asking about their copiers, the sales rep was trained to ask about their documents.  He secured a meeting with the owner and their IT consultant.  In the meeting, the rep and the document solutions specialist shared the benefits of an electronic filing system.  Half-way through the meeting, the owner asked if a copier could be used to scan documents into the system.  Of course, the answer was yes.  Then, the owner asked if the dealership sold copiers!  (I subscribe to the opinion that it is a great thing when someone asks if they can buy something from you!) 

After a demonstration of the imaging software and scanning from the MFP, the owner was impressed.  Upon further investigation, the owner learned that they could manage scanned documents with their accounting software.  However, the trust built during the discussion of their documents earned a $65,000 hardware sale, once again, with healthy profits.  Best of all, a strong competitor was unseated. 

New Clients + New Profits

In each of these cases, the solutions message was leveraged to gain the attention of a new client.  One situation resulted in a profitable software and hardware sale.  The other resulted in a profitable hardware sale.  The key is both were new clients and both were profitable. 

How do these stories hit you?  Do you see the opportunity?  Or do you see the potential threat to your current base by progressive solutions-oriented dealers? 

The fact is, it really isn’t a big stretch to move into the solutions business.  You are almost there.  How, you say?  Your dealership’s core competency is that you understand documents.  Until now, you have positively impacted the flow of these documents by providing systems that increased copy productivity and lowered output cost.  With the first generation of MFPs, you helped with print productivity and cost.  Is it really that big of a stretch to think of adding some software utilities to help your clients increase their productivity and lower cost with their forms, storage, retrieval or workflow issues?   

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