Annual Dealer Survey

In this year’s Survey, 920 A3 MFP lines were reported across 456 respondents.

The average number of A4 lines carried per dealer saw a modest increase from 2.0 to 2.2, likely driven by a greater number of Survey respondents, and some dealers adding new A4 suppliers that had products available during the height of the supply chain crisis.

Each year in our Survey, we identify the manufacturers with the strongest distribution. To do this, we track how they ranked as a dealer’s primary and secondary equipment supplier.

After seeing the percentage of dedicated dealers rise to 44%, the highest in the history of our Survey last year, the percentage of dealer dedication fell to 37.5% this year.

If the dealer revenue results of our last two Surveys were sharply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, one might think that this year’s Survey would have been impacted by the supply chain crisis.

The number of dealers in the $10 Million-Plus Club continues to grow thanks to organic growth and diversifying their product lines.

Multifunction A3 and A4 devices may have become the dominant technology in many offices, including home offices in the growing hybrid work environment, but standalone printers have not yet become extinct as evidenced by the results of our 38th Annual Dealer Survey.

Production print is also a great opportunity to capture clicks outside the traditional office. And now with Kyocera offering a production print machine and Sharp poised to do the same early next year, the number of OEMs offering production printers is expanding.

As the number of dealers participating in our 38th Annual Dealer Survey soared to 458 this year, we saw a modest decline in the percentage of dealers offering managed IT services.

Ever since we first began presenting revenue and productivity data in 2009, we have witnessed a series of spikes and declines in the number of sales reps per dealer.

Between last year and this year, we saw a 2% dip in the percentage of dealers making acquisitions. However, there was a significant uptick in the number of acquisitions.

In our Annual Dealer Survey we ask dealers to rank their greatest diversification opportunities from a list of nine, including “other” in order of preference.

In the latest episode of Fridays with Frank, Frank G. Cannata expresses his gratitude to the 458 dealers (the most ever) who responded to our 38th Annual Dealer Survey, and how valuable this information is to dealers and most OEMs.

The Cannata Report’s founder Frank G. Cannata why it is so important for dealers to share their thoughts in our Annual Dealer Survey.

The Cannata Report’s 38th Annual Dealer Survey is live and awaits your response to help us see how the office technology dealer channel is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and to gauge any negative financial fallout from the supply chain crisis.

In the latest episode of Fridays with Frank, Frank responds to a dealer who questions the validity of our Survey results and has a surprising take on how the mega dealers are…

One of the highlights of our November issue is the second part of our 37th Annual Dealer Survey. In this issue, we examine dealers’ biggest concerns and reveal the ratings of their A3 and A4 OEMs…

This is the second year we have been gauging the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the independent dealer channel. Last year’s Survey, particularly in the revenue portion, was pretty much what we expected based on our conversations throughout the year with dealers and OEMs. Annual revenue experienced the biggest year-over-year decline in the history of the Survey.

Executive Summary (Part II of II) The three most pressing concerns within the entire dealer universe comprising our Survey are declining clicks (54%), maintaining profitability (40%), and hiring and retention (35%).

Exhibits 2.1-2.11 Dealers have many concerns, and our Survey historically illuminates those concerns. After expanding the number of concerns to 13 last…

Exhibits 2.12-2.19 Each year, we ask dealers to rate their primary A3 MFP suppliers as “Excellent,” “Very Good,” “Good,” “Fair,” or “Poor.”…

Exhibits 2.20-2.25 This has not been a good Survey year based on dealer ratings of their A4 providers. Except for Lexmark whose…

Exhibit 2.26 In Part 1 of our Survey in the October issue, production print was identified by 46% of dealers as a…

Exhibits 2.27-2.34 If there is one thing you can consistently count on in our Annual Dealer Survey for the past five years,…