Personal relationships between vendors and dealers foster the loyalty that helps business happen.
“Loyalty depends on the interactions of dealers with their vendors,” said Laura Blackmer, president of dealer channel sales at Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. A critical factor is trust, which she described as an offspring of transparency and predictability, combined with operating in ways that yield no surprises. “Dealer loyalty comes from being consistent at every interaction and every level,” affirmed Blackmer.
One indication of this is how vendors and dealers emerged from the supply chain challenges of over a year ago. Issues varied widely, but vendors that were transparent and predictable had an advantage. The result was dealers and their customers who remained loyal to their vendors.
It’s Personal, Not Business
“A core element of dealer relationships are the personal ones with OEMs,” added Bob Madaio, vice president of marketing at Sharp Imaging and Information Corporation of America. These interactions are the one-on-one connections built between vendors and dealers because people are at the intersection of every transaction. “Things move quickly, and mistakes can happen,” said Madaio. “Because there are good and not-so-good times, knowing the people involved adds patience and understanding. This encourages sensible and productive conversations that can help resolve difficulties.”
He also noted how personal relationships—built over time through visits, discussions, shared experiences, and events are a core part of loyalty. In short, the personal part of “it’s business, not personal” is critical to developing and maintaining loyalty.
Some of this is an OEM being present and accounted for when a dealer or his or her customers need advice and support. “We have a dealer portal for day-to-day interactions, and a team in the field is always available to answer questions from dealers,” explained Konica Minolta’s Blackmer.
Other answers may come from dealer advisory councils that provide advice, assistance, and support. These may be separated by business and technical concerns but are sources dealers can contact for specialized knowledge and insights.
A crucial element for vendors is helping customers grow their businesses. “We help dealers build their reputation and grow their revenues,” said Michael Gale, vice president of channel sales at software provider DocuWare. Some of this is dealer-level training, Gale noted, and may include leveraging social networks like LinkedIn and helping customers reach beyond their base by creating campaigns that target a wider audience. “It can involve a wide range of activities, including selling with them,” observed Gale.
This is not an uncommon strategy because a prospect for a new fleet of office technology may have more confidence in their choices when an equipment or software vendor is part of the sales process and can answer technical questions. This strategy has long been commonplace in commercial and high-volume digital printing and has become the norm as office technology and software becomes increasingly sophisticated.
Having relationships at multiple levels within a vendor organization also helps foster loyalty because it gives dealers a person to call where they can obtain the information needed. For example, some advisory groups draw on dealers’ street-level expertise to help address problems. Others take a dive into the financial side to help ensure money is being spent wisely. Moreover, dealer advisory groups may reveal facts vendors need to hear. That OEMs pay attention to and act on such information helps build loyalty.
Trusted Advice
The complexity of modern office technology raises the bar for finding answers quickly, yet one cannot rely on Google or YouTube for reliable answers. “Dealers look to vendors for experience and expertise. We often become trusted advisors,” said Peter Morisco, vice president of sales at Toshiba America. “The accessibility of our executives to dealers enhances the collaborative experience, ensuring a direct and meaningful engagement with dealers.”
Such personal connectivity can span technical and business issues. Dealers who have not reached out to their OEMs may not appreciate the value of connecting personally with the CEO or president of a vendor until they make that call and outline a thorny issue. Vendors commonly make access to their executives part of every dealer agreement, a point often made clear at annual meetings and conferences. A C-Level exec won’t necessarily have every answer but can put a dealer in touch with the most appropriate person. Such personal approaches live large in the office technology space, and dealers should take advantage of this entrée to expertise.
Echoing other vendors, Morisco noted that relationships between vendors and dealers are forged in trust, empowering dealers to reach out directly with the confidence that resolutions to challenges will occur. All OEMs also have escalation processes that often begin with district sales managers to ensure concerns are addressed as quickly as possible.
Growing Business and Support
Whether a dealer is exploring strategies for making an acquisition, diversifying revenue streams, or grappling with sales team management challenges, few things help build loyalty like raising a bottom line. When dealers articulate their vision or problem to a vendor, an OEM’s professionals can help provide an escalation process within the vendor’s organization. In some cases, this can include a fresh strategy.
For instance, more pages printed and copied means more business for dealers and vendors alike. If a dealer’s customers are printing as much as possible and the dealer still wants to grow, vendor strength and support can empower dealers to pursue additional and larger accounts. “Dealers can access knowledge-sharing initiatives, pricing support, and guidance,” said Morisco. This is especially important given the complexities of today’s business environment, and it is important in choosing machines or software that best fit a customer’s needs.
Software provider DocuWare, for example, starts new customers with a 90-day launch program and a customized marketing and growth plan. It guarantees dealers lead protection and generation, supports setup of cloud trials of software tools, and provides tool kits for building top-quality webinars. These are important value-adds that help build loyalty.
Foundational Loyalty
At first glance, office technology products are an amalgam of plastic, steel, glass, circuits, and software. Your customers buy based on the capabilities of the machines and software, price, and their relationship with your company. For dealers, vendor preferences may be tied to contractual agreements that offer good margins and products that meet customer needs.
Underlying both of these is loyalty, which is very much a two-way street. A vendor has your back, with your company benefiting from the vendor’s experience. As Konica Minolta’s Blackmer noted, the keys to loyalty are consistency, transparency, and predictability. Vendors know dealers’ loyalty is essential to their success, just as their loyalty to dealers is part of yours. Dealers should all avail themselves of their vendors’ programs. After all, no matter how well you think you know your market, OEMs probably know things that you don’t and can add to your success. “Most dealers take advantage of what we know. But all of them should,” concluded DocuWare’s Gale.
