35th Annual Dealer Survey: Executive Summary Part I of Ii

written by Scott Cullen | October 14, 2020

This year’s Survey had the second greatest number of responses in the history of the Survey—342, with 338 of those representing the Big Six manufacturers—Canon, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Ricoh, Sharp, and Toshiba. The largest number of dealers were aligned with Sharp (72) and Ricoh (69), respectively. The OEM with the fewest dealers participating was Canon with 44.
Sharp continues to have the largest percentage of dedicated dealers.
The average number of A3 lines per dealer saw a slight decrease from the previous year’s Survey—1.9 from 2.03 IN 2019.
HP is picking up steam as an A3 supplier and is now carried by more than 18% of dealers in our Survey.
HP (33%) moved ahead of Kyocera (30%) as the leading A4 supplier, followed by Sharp, with a tie between Lexmark and Ricoh.
The average number of printer lines carried by dealers rose from 1.88 a year ago to 2.0.
HP remains the leading printer line carried by dealers, followed by Kyocera and Lexmark.
Brother printers and A4 devices are gaining traction in the channel, as 16% of dealers carry Brother A4, and 15% of dealers carry Brother printers.
The average yearly revenue reported by all dealers participating in our Survey was consistent with what dealers reported in last year’s Survey—$16.3 million.
Most dealers participating in our Survey reported revenues were up (61%), while 19% reported revenues were down.
The average revenue increase among dealers representing the Big Six was 13.9%, with Sharp dealers reporting the greatest increase (20%), followed by Ricoh dealers (17.5%).
Kyocera dealers reported the largest average revenue percentage decrease (12%), followed by Toshiba dealers (10%). The Big Six average was 8.5%.
Looking at MNS engagement by dealers representing the Big Six OEMs, Konica Minolta dealers maintain a double-digit lead (57%) over their nearest competitors, Canon and Ricoh dealers (45% each).
The average percentage of yearly revenue attributed to MNS was 9%.
The least popular way for dealers to build an MNS business is through acquisition, while the most popular strategy among dealers is building their own.
The average number of salespeople employed by dealerships saw an uptick from 14.2 in 2019 to 15.8 this year.
The revenue per salesperson declined from $1,147,442 in last year’s Survey to $1,029,162 this year.
The number of dealers who made acquisitions was the same as last year (47).
The number of companies that were acquired dropped from 81 in 2018 to 67 in 2019.
The percentage of Survey respondents who reported acquisitions were in their plans for the following year and beyond was identical to last year (50%).
The five most popular growth opportunities identified by dealers were MPS, production print, document management/ECM, MNS, and security/cybersecurity, respectively. Telephony/VoIP has emerged in our Survey as an opportunity to watch, with 5% of dealers identifying it in the “Other” category.