We were asked to present at an ICDA (International Copier Dealer Alliance) meeting in Savannah, Georgia, on March 31. We have been invited to address this group on several occasions. Their president Ben Ragusa of Applied Business Concepts in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is an old friend, and periodically he reaches out to us to attend the meetings.
What we enjoy very much is learning about the critical issues facing this group of dealers. The meeting was sponsored by Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. and NEXERA. Laura Blackmer, president, channel sales, gave a presentation about what Konica Minolta was up to and Bud Karakey, vice president, customer engagements, did the same for NEXERA. The best part of the meeting was when Casey Lowe of Capital Business Machines in Olympia, Washington, spoke about a new product that his dealership is selling. It fits a dealer’s business like a warm glove on a cold day.
We truly appreciate the opportunity to sit in for the entire meeting. Some of the dealer groups do not allow the presenters to attend any part of the meeting unless you are speaking. The benefit to the dealer groups that allow us to sit in is easy to explain. It increases our ability to understand their main issues. We were pleased to hear John Thiel of OMNI Business Systems in Alexandria, Virginia, who spoke briefly and informally to the group about his success with Ricoh’s production print offering.
In this group, approximately 20% of the members participate in production print. It was a good opportunity for them to understand why Thiel values Ricoh’s production print products. As we have been strong advocates for dealers participating in production print, we asked Thiel if he would sit with us for an interview. He was happy to oblige.
CR: How long have you been selling Ricoh production print?
Thiel: We became a Savin dealer in 2012 and made the decision to sell their production print line in 2017. The ability to serve Federal Agencies (in Washington, D.C.) is one of the reasons we have done well.
CR: What is your lead product and how many units have you placed since 2017?
Thiel: The 7210 is our flagship product because of its ability to satisfy in-plant applications. It is a diverse printer. We have placed 100 machines in the following market segments:
63 – Federal Space (in Washington, D.C.)
22 – Commercial Printers
15 – Federal Locations (machines shipped outside of D.C.)
CR: What is there about the 7210 that enabled it to become your flagship production product?
Thiel: We believe that Ricoh has a real advantage with that machine. [In our experience], the only company that can compete with it is Xerox and the cost of their printer is twice that of the 7210. The registration is flawless, it offers a fifth color, and can handle media up to 410 GSM.
CR: What motivated you to get into production print?
Thiel: It was customer-driven. We were selling managed print to a top-secret facility and the techs that serviced the machines must be fully vetted. The manager of print products asked if our techs were capable of servicing production printers. Being a Ricoh dealer, it was easy to transition into production products.
CR: If a fellow dealer were to ask you what is most important for a dealer to succeed once they commit to selling production print what would that be?
Thiel: Manufacturer support is most important. I cannot speak enough about the support we receive from Ricoh. I will give you an example. We had a deal for five 9200s and could not get leasing approval. We spoke with Chris Chando, vice president of finance for Ricoh, and he got the deal done for us.
CR: You have a MIF of 100 machines. How many techs support those units?
Thiel: We have five techs on the production side that are fully certified who we think are the best.
CR: How important is production print for OMNI and what does it do for you?
Thiel: If you sell 10 units that gives you $1 million in hardware alone, not to mention the supplies and other potential accessories. The clicks those 10 machines put out can easily be 750K each a month. With the decline of clicks in MPS and smaller placements, it compensates for that decline [in office print] that everyone must deal with.
CR: Are you experiencing any large numbers of backorders for production print products and how does it affect your sales team when you cannot deliver what you sell?
Thiel: We had a carryover of $7 million and fortunately it is down to $2.5 million (This interview was conducted at the beginning of April.). We supported all the employees because we did not want to lose anyone, and we have not.
CR: How have you helped your sales, service, and admin teams combat the reduction in compensation caused by the pandemic?
Thiel: About six months after the pandemic started, I was so pleased with how my team executed the game plan for working during COVID. There was no absenteeism, and no one got the virus. I gave each employee a one-time $500 thank you bonus. I retained all 100 employees, and we had no layoffs or furloughs. The following Thanksgiving, I gave each employee a $200 bonus because the cost of the 2021 Thanksgiving dinner had a big increase. I was thankful we still had our team in place and had very few mild cases of COVID during that time and wanted to show them my gratitude for their deportment.
CR: At the ICDA meeting we just attended the dealers seemed excited to share with each other some of the things they were doing to combat the negative effects of the pandemic. Have you ever had a meeting where you discussed production print?
Thiel: Yes, we did. In fact, last September. We have Sharp dealers that are members and found that they had taken on Xerox. From what we heard they are only buying production from Xerox because it filled out their product line.
CR: Are you doing anything different in terms of selling these high-volume units that you had not done in the past?
Thiel: One of the federal facilities did not have the people to operate the machines. We created a facilities management program for them. They absolutely loved it. It is very profitable for us. Production has given us incremental growth. We do a strong business in MPS with A3 and A4 and we are including light production into the placements. That is one more added benefit for dealers of including production print in the business.
Frankly Speaking
If you are a dealer and not a member of any of the independent dealer groups, you should join immediately. If what Thiel shared with us is of interest, contact Ben Ragusa at Applied Business Concepts ragusab@abcia.com and see if you can join them for their November meeting. If you are interested in information on any of the other groups such as American Co-op, BPCA, CDA, ProDealer Group, or SDG we are happy to make an introduction to the appropriate person at each of those groups.
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