Your next lease might not be a copier. It might be part of your strategy for diversifying services and products, such as a premium water and ice system priced at $450 a month for 60 months, with service included. Or, it could be an AMR robot or electric vehicle (EV) charger for a corporate parking lot—at least one major leasing partner has already financed over $1 million in EV charging transactions through its reseller channel.
The underlying deal mechanics are remarkably similar to what this industry has been doing for decades: wrap hardware, software, installation, and service into a predictable monthly number a customer can absorb as an operating expense. The difference is that the hardware now includes video walls, laptops, cybersecurity platforms, and yes, water purifiers.
Managed IT and network services have emerged as the number one growth driver among top-performing dealerships. The Cannata Report’s own Annual Dealer Survey continues to show that most dealers are thriving. But adding managed IT to your line card is a strategic decision. Figuring out how to quote it, finance it, bill it, and make a margin on it—that’s where it gets real.
Three questions quietly shape your pricing
Dealers who successfully price new offerings tend to work through the same three questions leasing partners use to evaluate a deal:
- What are the installation requirements? One-time project labor has to go somewhere—billed upfront or amortized into the monthly bill. This is a pricing decision dressed up as a finance decision.
- What’s the recurring revenue stream? Monitoring, help desk, maintenance, license renewals—this is the monthly recurring revenue (MRR) spine that makes a deal leaseable. Without it, you have a project, not a service.
- What’s the value at the end of the term? For fast-moving tech with unclear residual values, deals lean toward rentals and subscriptions rather than classic fair market value (FMV) leases—and that shapes what you can charge.
Pricing patterns—and the pitfalls that come with them
- Bundle and blend. Finance partners blend rates so that software sits alongside hardware in a single monthly number. One multi-location dealership reported 95% of customers on a single bundled invoice. The watch-out: for the dealer, what you’re supposed to charge and what you actually charge can diverge when systems aren’t integrated. For the customer, a single number can mask what you’re really paying for—insist on a written breakdown.
- Term stretching and refresh. Writing 60-month terms on equipment with shorter lifecycles, then refreshing early and rolling value forward. The watch-out: if the refresh doesn’t happen cleanly, the dealer carries negative equity into the next deal. For the customer, early termination fees are real—understand the refresh terms before signing.
- As-a-service packaging. CRaaS, AVaaS, managed IT—the client buys an outcome, not components. The watch-out: underpricing kills. Industry analysis shows that an MSP winning 100 seats at $95/endpoint when delivery costs $115 is losing $24,000 annually on that single contract. Benchmarks suggest margins below 30% put a provider at risk. For the customer, managed IT ranges from $110 to $400 per user per month in 2026—that spread is all about what’s included versus excluded.
- Residual-light rentals. Pure rental structures sidestep messy residual estimates. The watch-out: short-term agreements give customers an easy exit, driving up the dealer’s retention costs. For customers, rentals cost more over time than leases if you keep renewing.
The operational backstory about diversifying services and products
Across all four patterns, the biggest risk is that the dealer’s back office hasn’t caught up with the sales model. Credit application workflow volume grew by more than 50% in 2025, with billions in equipment under management across the industry. That scale only works if the quoting-to-billing pipeline is tight.
And here’s a closing thought that may feel premature today: sustainability reporting is heading toward the invoice. With 71% of IT decision-makers calling environmental sustainability important to their business, and major cloud providers already requiring suppliers to disclose service-level carbon emissions, dealers who have a sustainability story will be better positioned when customers start asking. Tomorrow’s quarterly business review (QBR) isn’t just about uptime and budget; it’s also about watts and carbon.
The bottom line
Smart dealers aren’t just adding products to their line cards. They’re designing financeable, outcome-based offers with clear monthly pricing and manageable service risk—and ensuring the back office can deliver on what the front office promises.
