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Building Rapport
BTA dealers discuss their customer events by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine
Have you hosted an open house, lunch-and-learn or other customer event lately? If not, perhaps such an event should be added to your 2025 calendar. After all, when done right, customer events can lead to a surge in closed deals while building valuable rapport with your customers.
Your Sales Team’s Evolution Expanding your base & increasing net-new revenue by Jon Dunkelberger Ricoh USA Inc.
The immediate aim for this article is to address a key business challenge for technology sales companies: expanding your account base and increasing net-new revenue. However, on a broader, more visionary level, it is aspiring to guide the evolution of your sales organization.
Attracting Customers
How to evaluate your current marketing strategy by Jenna Miller Emerald Strategic Marketing
How is your marketing strategy going? Is it helping your business grow?
Do you even know? Unfortunately, many B2B companies simply do not know the answers to these questions. A reputable marketing team should be showing you its progress in regular reports. 22
25 DEI Under Fire
Exploring the potential impact of new executive orders by Greg Goldberg
BTA
General Counsel
The flurry of executive orders (EOs) spilling out of the Oval Office in the opening days of the second Trump administration has been nothing short of overwhelming. This month, Legal Perspective explores the president’s use of EOs to curtail diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Optimizing Operations
e-automate inventory counts & service cancellations
Compiled by Elizabeth Marvel Office Technology Magazine
This feature includes two questions submitted by dealer members as part of BTA’s Dealers Helping Dealers resource and many of the answers received. These answers and others — as well as additional Q&As — can be found in the members-only section of the BTA website.
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OEM Training Profile: Toshiba Empowering dealers with a blended approach by Peter Morisco Toshiba America Business Solutions Toshiba is reimagining dealer training. We recognize that while traditional e-learning remains essential, low engagement limits its effectiveness. We are reemphasizing hands-on, in-person learning. This approach fosters deeper engagement while driving stronger retention.
‘A Clear Commitment’
FP Mailing Solutions hosts National Dealer Summit by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine
FP Mailing Solutions hosted its 2025 National Dealer Summit Feb. 12-14. The summit provided the mailroom, digital and shipping solutions company an opportunity, in part, to thank dealers for their partnership and to emphasize the continuing but changing opportunities in the market.
The New WorkForce® Enterprise AM Series.
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AExecutive Director/BTA Editor/Office Technology
Brent Hoskins brent@bta.org (816) 303-4040
Associate Editor
Elizabeth Marvel elizabeth@bta.org (816) 303-4060
Contributing Writers Jon Dunkelberger, Ricoh USA Inc. www.ricoh-usa.com
ny time a member calls the Business Technology Association (BTA) and asks us to recommend a consultant to assist with either the acquisition or sale of a dealership, we refer him (or her) to Jim Kahrs, president of Prosperity Plus Management Consulting, a longtime member and supporter of BTA. I have known Jim for many years and was happy to cross paths with him once again at the recent FP Mailing Solutions 2025 National Dealer Summit, held Feb. 12-14 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (You can read my coverage of that meeting on page 29 in this issue.)
At the summit, Jim presented one of the educational sessions, “Growth Through Acquisition.” In his session, Jim discussed strategies for growth, both organically and through acquisitions. Below are some of the high-level highlights/comments from the portion of Jim’s presentation where he walked through the acquisition process. I believe they will be of interest if you are considering an acquisition.
n Identify Targets: “It’s a great drill to do — even if you are not necessarily looking to acquire tomorrow — to really understand: Who are your competitors? Who are the companies in the contiguous territories? Learn as much as you can about them; identify which would be the potential targets.”
n Develop Relationships: “Play the long game. The way you start the long game is you go out and develop relationships. I know that they might be competitors, but say, ‘I want to get together and have lunch one day’ ... You say: ‘I would love to continue to grow my company through acquisitions. I realize this is probably not the right time for you, but I would like to at least have a conversation so that if and when you’re ready, we can talk.’”
n Engage When Ready: “Keep that relationship ... so that when they do get ready, you’ll be able to lead ... You’d be surprised how often [the dealer building the relationship with an acquisition in mind] winds up being the only potential buyer the company [target] talks to.”
n Determine Value: “There are a lot of folks out there who have absolutely no realistic idea of what their companies are worth, but they have a number in mind ... It’s usually a lot higher [than it’s worth] ... The only way to bring it down to earth, typically, is with the numbers [pulled from the data provided by the target company, revealing the profitability, etc.].”
n Letter of Intent: “Once you come up with that value, the next step in the process is a ... letter of intent, which is a non-binding document that will outline the basic terms. What’s the purchase price? How is it going to be paid? What does it include? What does it not include? What’s going to happen with the staff, the owners and the facility?”
n Due Diligence: “Once you have agreement on the letter of intent, the next step is you have to go through due diligence ... here you ... go in and really dig into the details. You get to see many more details that back up the financials, the contracts; you can turn over every stone you want to turn over to make sure there isn’t something hiding that’s going to come back and haunt you later.”
Of course, space only allows me to share a very brief look at the process. There is much more to it, including the creation of a purchase agreement and the ancillary documents that go with it, following satisfactory due diligence. However, perhaps Jim’s comments will give you at least a sense of the scope of the process if your first acquisition is on the horizon. n
Brent Hoskins
Greg Goldberg, BTA General Counsel Business Technology Association
Jenna Miller, Emerald Strategic Marketing www.emeraldstrategicmarketing.com
Peter Morisco, Toshiba America Business Solutions https://business.toshiba.com
Business Technology Association 12411 Wornall Road Kansas City, MO 64145 (816) 941-3100 www.bta.org
Member Services: (800) 505-2821 BTA Legal Hotline: (847) 922-0945
Valerie Briseno Marketing Director valerie@bta.org
Brian Smith Membership Sales Representative brian@bta.org
Brooke Barker Administrative Assistant brooke@bta.org
Photo Credits: Adobe Stock. Cover created by Bruce Quade, Brand X Studio. ©2025 by the Business Technology Association. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of published material. However, the publisher assumes no liability for errors in articles nor are opinions expressed necessarily those of the publisher.
The association’s magazine cover 47 years ago this month — the NOMDA Spokesman, March 1978.
I2024-2025 Board of Directors
President
Adam Gregory Advanced Business Solutions LLC St. Augustine, Florida adam@goabsinc.com
President-Elect
Debra Dennis CopyPro Inc. Greenville, North Carolina ddennis@copypro.net
f you are looking to grow your network of dealer peers — and earn some extra money at the same time — the Business Technology Association (BTA) recently announced a new referral program for BTA dealer members. For every dealership you refer that joins BTA, you will earn $500. The process is simple. In fact, there’s only one step: Tell your office technology friends about BTA and ensure they put your name or your company name in the referral section of the BTA membership application when they apply.
There are only two rules to the program: (1) Only dealer members may participate — vendor members are not eligible to receive the $500 referral payment; and (2) the referred dealership must not have been a BTA dealer member in the last year.
I’m sure you have many reasons for joining BTA and maintaining your membership, but if your dealer friends need more convincing, send them a couple of the following testimonials from members about why they joined the association and the benefits it offers them.
n “David Clearman, who has been a part of the association for many years (he’s currently with Konica Minolta) ... told me, as a dealer, I have to be part of BTA ... Shortly after attending the Orlando event [as a nonmember], I spoke to [BTA Member Sales Representative] Brian Smith on the phone and I was sold. Membership isn’t too expensive and in the last few months I’ve definitely made my money back ... just with the knowledge I’ve gained ... Now I have the BTA group behind me. I can call up a BTA member and they’ll walk me through an issue that I have, or [how to do an] implementation or how to make our business grow. So it was definitely
the best recommendation I’ve had since I got into the copier industry.” — Thiago Pagotto, Gold Coast Technologies Inc., Pompano Beach, Florida
n “I’ve actually made great friends and relationships [through BTA] ... and it’s great being able to bounce ideas and strategies off of others on how I’m running my business versus how they are running theirs on anything from employee compensation plans to ‘What do we think about this manufacturer or this technology?’ ... Really, it’s about the community for me. If you’re isolated on an island in our industry and ... you’re dependent solely on what you’re being provided from your manufacturer dealer network, you’re missing out on 80% of the bigger picture. And that’s what you can really take advantage of [as a BTA member] ... Each of us in the dealer community can also share our own experiences and become resources for each other. That you don’t get with any other association I’ve been a part of.” — Jayson Beasley, 1 Touch Office Technology, Torrance, California
n “The biggest reason why we’re a BTA member is we have to stay up to date with current best practices. [BTA] brings the best minds of the industry together who think at a level way above everybody else and we’re able to pick their minds to ultimately serve our customers with the current best practices. And if we’re not serving our customers with the current best practices, we’re not going to have them as customers. So that’s why we’re a BTA member after all these years.” — Kevin Marshall, Copy Link Inc., Chula Vista, California
Help us spread the word about BTA, expand your dealer network and get rewarded for your efforts. Learn more at www. bta.org/Refer and send your non-member friends to www.bta.org/JoinBTA to fill out an application. n
— Adam Gregory
Vice President Mike Boyle BASE Technologies Inc. Bethel, Connecticut mboyle@baseinc.com
Immediate Past President
Don Risser DCS Technologies Corp. Franklin, Ohio don.risser@dcs-tech.com
BTA East Joe Dellaposta Doing Better Business Hagerstown, Maryland jvd@doingbetterbusiness.com
Chip Denlinger DCS Technologies Corp. Franklin, Ohio chip.denlinger@dcs-tech.com
BTA Mid-America
Greg Quirk JQ Office Equipment Omaha, Nebraska gquirk@jqoffice.com
Brett Blake Corporate Business Systems LLC Madison, Wisconsin bblake@corpbussystems.com
BTA Southeast Mike Hicks
Electronic Business Machines Inc. Lexington, Kentucky mhicks@ebmky.com
Blake Renegar Kelly Office Solutions Winston-Salem, North Carolina tbrenegar@kellyofficesolutions.com
BTA West Kevin Marshall Copy Link Inc. Chula Vista, California kevin@copylink.net
Scott Reynolds Imagine Technology Group LLC Chandler, Arizona sreynolds@itgarizona.com
Ex-Officio/General Counsel
Greg Goldberg
Barta | Goldberg West Hollywood, California ggoldberg@bartagoldberg.com
by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine
Have you hosted an open house, lunch-and-learn or other customer event lately? If not, perhaps such an event should be added to your 2025 calendar. After all, when done right, customer events can lead to a surge in closed deals while building valuable rapport with your current and prospective customers. Why not strive to further set yourself apart from the competition?
Following are profiles of three BTA member dealerships focused on their most recent sizeable customer events — on-site and otherwise. Perhaps the insight and details they share will provide you with some welcome guidance, inspiring you to start planning your next customer event.
It was founded in 1953 in Spokane, Washington, by a former member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who, having helped build a highway from the Middle East to Europe after World War II, decided to name the dealership after a city in Iran. It also helped that the name would land his company near the top of the list in the Yellow Pages. Today, Tyler and Lindsay Best own Abadan. They fully acquired the dealership from his father Bob in 2017, who purchased the company’s Tri-Cities office from its second owner in 1987.
Best began working at Abadan, now located in Richland, Washington, about six months after graduating college. During those six months, “I pretty much refused to work here, but I gave in and took a job that was supposed to be temporary, which led from one job to another,” he says. “After a couple of years, I fell in love with the company and married Lindsay. At that point, we made the decision to start acquiring the dealership.”
Abadan covers most of eastern Washington, except for Spokane, and part of northeast Oregon, primarily selling Konica Minolta imaging products and KM Voice unified communication systems, but also Epson products and managed
IT. It also has a local print shop. “Since 2011, we have doubled in size,” Best says. “We currently have 45 employees.”
In part to further connect with those customers who have contributed to that growth, Abadan is dedicated to hosting customer events. Best is especially pleased with the dealership’s largest event, held annually. “We find it to be a great way to celebrate our customers and get to know them,” he says. “Most recently [for the past three years in a row], we have hosted an annual Printer Smash event, in part to raise funds for and promote a local nonprofit charity.”
The event’s name literally says it all. With a donation to the chosen nonprofit, attendees receive the opportunity to smash decommissioned printers with a sledgehammer, baseball bat or golf club for about 30 to 60 seconds — outdoors on large tarps, with safety glasses on, toner and glass removed, and at a safe distance from other attendees, Best says. “They get pretty exhausted at the end of 60 seconds, especially if they use our huge sledgehammer,” he says. “It’s around 30 pounds.”
In promoting the event, Abadan asks prospective attendees if they “want some stress relief” or “if they would love to hit something they ‘wouldn’t hit in real life,’” Best says. “It’s such a fun event; we have a blast doing it,” he says. “Our customers enjoy it. Our employees enjoy it. And we get to help support a local nonprofit. We have had some people who have attended all of our Printer Smash events, and they can’t wait for the next one.”
For each event, a local radio personality serves as emcee, Best says, noting that a few weeks prior to the event, that person interviews him and a representative of the nonprofit, and later broadcasts the interview on air. “We pay for it, but the nonprofit receives some advertising for their cause,” he says. “Plus, we are advertising for our event at the same time.”
The past nonprofit charities have been current customers of Abadan, including a free health-care clinic, a local
hospice, and an organization that provides a therapeutic horse-riding service to improve the quality of life for children and adults, including veterans, first responders, health-care workers and anyone with special needs. “For the last couple of Printer Smash events, the nonprofits asked if they could decorate some of the printers, spraypainting them and putting other stuff on them,” Best says. “For example, one charity uses purple in its branding, so they had fun spray-painting printers purple and labeling them with words like ‘anxiety,’ ‘depression,’ ‘fear’ and ‘anger.’ When participants smashed these machines, they were symbolically destroying the things holding them back.”
“We find it [the annual event] to be a great way to celebrate our customers and get to know them. Most recently [for the past three years in a row], we have hosted an annual Printer Smash event ...“
— Tyler Best Abadan
across the street from the most well-known restaurant in the city.”
The Printer Smash event, usually scheduled for September, draws 50 to 100 people, trending higher when the event is hosted alongside the local chamber of commerce, Best says. Promoting the event gives Abadan sales reps “another reason to talk to customers about something other than selling a product,” he says. “That’s always a great thing — getting to know customers and building a better relationship with them.”
In 1983, United Business Systems (UBS) opened its doors with three original owners; one of them Wayne Kerling. Soon after, Kerling bought out his two partners. In the 1990s, his four adult children came on board, each now managing a different aspect of the dealership, today owned by their mother, Cheryl Kerling.
The primary imaging brands offered by UBS are Canon and Ricoh, but it also offers Brother and Lexmark products, as well as software products such as PaperCut and DocuWare. The company is headquartered in Buffalo, New York, with a second location in Rochester, New York. UBS currently employs just under 50 people. A separate UBS company, Pure Water of Western and Central New York, operates out of the two locations, as well as out of a location in Syracuse, New York.
Six years ago, Zach Bouley joined UBS. He serves as director of sales and marketing at the dealership. Each year since joining UBS, he has spearheaded the planning and execution of the dealership’s annual open house, always held at the Buffalo headquarters. “We have a great location in Buffalo; it’s downtown,” he says. “It’s central in the city on a great street that is well known by the locals and it’s right
Held each year in June, the UBS open house, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., is largely outdoors, features two food trucks (one of them a UBS customer), a number of prize drawings and the opportunity for attendees to see product demos inside the dealership, as well as meet UBS team members and vendor partners. “We used to have the restaurant across the street cater the event, but switched to the food trucks three to four years ago, once that craze became so huge,” Bouley says, noting that at check-in, attendees receive tickets for the food trucks and can dine under a large tent that UBS rents for the occasion. “That has worked out well, because it is less work for us and people like being able to order their own food.”
Once inside, attendees can sit in on various technology demos, based on the selections they made when registering for the event. “We know what each attendee is interested in, allowing us to place a colored dot on his or her name tag so that we know where to lead the person,” Bouley says. “For example, if we know that an attendee has an interest in interactive whiteboards or DocuWare, we make sure he sees those demos.”
In addition, “we try to alert each of our sales reps when one of his or her customers or prospects has arrived; it’s the rep’s responsibility to hand the attendee our swag bag, which has a coffee mug, pens and notepads — that sort of thing,” Bouley says. “For the lunch wave at the beginning, our reps are usually juggling trying to talk to five to 10 of their customers or prospects who are in the building at the same time.”
Generally, the lunch-wave attendees “stay for about an hour, grab lunch and see a couple of technology demos,” Bouley says, adding that the second wave comes at about 3 p.m. He also notes that the open house always takes place on a Thursday. “We stay away from Mondays and Fridays, because of people taking long weekends. We like Thursday because it is later in the week and, so, is a more relaxed day for people.”
Bouley has been pleased with the growth of the event in recent years. “Last year, we had more than 150 attendees; six years ago, it was a little over 100 attendees,” he says. “So, that 50% increase has been awesome. We’re hoping that it keeps growing.”
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While there are sizeable expenses involved, largely offset by support from the dealership’s vendor partners, the ROI is significant, Bouley says. “Every year, we can expect a three-month bump in sales after the event,” he says. “We host the type of open house that we do because we expect to close a good amount of business from it ... Our goals are to show customer appreciation, create stickiness, cross-sell and get net-new prospects through the door.”
“Every year, we can expect a three-month bump in sales after the event. We host the type of open house that we do because we expect to close a good amount of business from it ... ”
— Zach Bouley United Business Systems
been characterized, in part, by acquisitions — recently completing its third acquisition in the past three-anda-half years — helping to drive a new level of growth. “Outside of acquisitions, we achieved approximately 33% in organic growth this past year,” says Brady Bosse, vice president of sales.
Founded in 1892, Waltz Business Solutions is thought to be the second oldest office technology dealership in North America. Based in northern Kentucky, with a second location in Columbus, Ohio, the dealership’s recent history has
In 1892, it was all about typewriter sales and service at Waltz. Today, the dealership offers imaging products primarily from Kyocera, but also from Epson and KIP. “Plus, we’ve partnered with Xerox to handle our production needs,” Bosse says. “The production units have contributed to our recent growth.”
Brian Durrett, director of operations, joined Waltz 12 years ago. Among his many responsibilities: assisting in the organization of the dealership’s annual open house. For the
past 10 years or so, the event was held at the dealership, he says, noting that prior to that, some of the dealership’s customer events were held at the home of the Cincinnati Reds, Great American Ball Park. For Waltz’s most recent open house, the dealership made its return to a sports venue, this time hosting an event for the first time at the home of the Cincinnati Bengals, Paycor Stadium.
“You’re always trying to find creative ways to get clients to attend. We felt that the draw of the stadium would be intriguing enough to entice people to make the trip to be in the club atmosphere ... “
— Brady Bosse Waltz Business Solutions
For dealers hosting open houses, “you’re always trying to find creative ways to get clients to attend,” Bosse says. “We felt that the draw of the stadium would be intriguing enough to entice people to make the trip to be in the club atmosphere or to experience a behind-the-scenes look at the stadium.” The attendance was “in the hundreds,” he says, emphasizing the draw of the new venue. “In fact, we noticed it was not just the decision-maker attending alone [from a customer or prospect company], but the decisionmaker and, in many cases, someone else from the company who wanted to attend as well when learning about the venue. I think that resulted in more of a commitment to attend.”
“For the turnout we were expecting, the stadium venue was more accommodating for the event,” Durrett says. “We had a much larger area for the event, so clients didn’t feel rushed when visiting exhibitors’ booths.”
The Paycor Stadium event allowed Waltz to host 10 booths that were 15 to 20 feet apart, “so you were not trying to talk over multiple conversations,” Bosse says. “We instructed all of our vendors to give a quick 10-minute, high-level overview and, if an attendee had more questions, he or she was welcome to stay longer.”
Among the vendors exhibiting at the Waltz open house: Kyocera, eGoldFax, Epson, Kyocera, LightTouch, MyQ, Square 9, Verkada and Xerox production. While the vendors all sent personnel to attend the event, Waltz had two booths hosted by internal personnel — one focused on Pitney Bowes and another focused on the dealership’s document destruction business.
The event also featured a buffet lunch, Waltz swag bag, prize drawings (for such gifts as a Joe Burrow signed jersey and helmet), appearances by the Bengals team mascot and cheerleaders, and a brief presentation and Q&A with the “voice of the Bengals,” Dan Hoard, and Dave Lapham, a commentator and a former Bengals player.
Durrett says there was a notable contrast when comparing
the customer orders resulting from the open houses hosted at Waltz and the event held at the stadium, perhaps driven by the excitement of the stadium venue, more exhibiting vendors and a larger turnout. “The open houses held at Waltz would drum up business opportunities, but the deals sometimes would result in longer sales cycles,” he says. “After the event at Paycor Stadium, within a week, we had a significant increase in signed new business.” n Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine.
He can be reached at (816) 303-4040 or brent@bta.org.
by: Jon Dunkelberger, Ricoh USA Inc.
The immediate aim for this article is to address a key business challenge for technology sales companies: expanding your account base and increasing net-new revenue. However, on a broader, Simon Sinekinspired, more visionary level, I am aspiring to guide the evolution of your sales organization.
We will use Stephen Covey’s Habit #2 and start with the end in mind. In sales, that is starting with the close for action. I recommend you: Plan, staff and continuously transform a team of business development representatives (BDRs) to align with and generate outbound, sales-qualified leads for your best field sales professionals.
There is much to unpack in that recommendation, so it will help to define some terms early on:
n Net New: An account with which you are not currently doing business.
n Outbound: The sales professional finds, contacts and engages the prospect, versus inbound — when the prospect contacts your company or digitally confirms interest.
n Sales Qualified: The introductory meeting with the prospect is booked with its agenda set, interest in solving a specific business challenge is confirmed and an initial level of discovery questions are answered by the prospect.
n BDR: Sales professional who generates net-new, outbound, sales-qualified leads. Different organizations use different titles for this role or a similar one, such as sales development rep (SDR) or lead development rep (LDR).
We focus on net new because that is where the growth of your business lies. New prospects rarely contact us unsolicited to place an order. What better way to initiate a net-new sales process than with a quality, qualified lead? Additionally, outbound lead development is a necessary accompaniment to your digital outreach and inbound lead-generation program. But why take on all the work and expense of forming a BDR team?
First, many successful, experienced reps do not like to initiate contact with prospects. Some are not good at it and most are focused on later steps in the sales process at which they excel. Consider that a sales process with all its steps is like a football team with all its positions — should we expect one player to be excellent at all positions?
Partial, one-person solutions are difficult to manage and lack the power of peer engagement. Additionally, if a partial approach works, why wouldn’t a comprehensive team approach with increased capabilities, management and tools work even better?
Outsourcing the function is expensive and it can be challenging to consistently get your targeted ROI. SalesRoads says that the average sales-qualified technology lead will cost about $200. The price can be higher depending on your requirements and level of interaction. I tested this with a friend who owns a services business. The business recently went through an outsourcing agency and happily paid $1,200 for four high-quality leads.
However, more important than the financial debate on outsourcing is the goal to evolve your sales organization. If
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sales is a core competency for your dealership, then outbound lead generation should be a core competency of your sales organization.
Let’s look at the tangible benefit of having a BDR team at your dealership. A handful of organizations in our sector have done their math and implemented the strategy. Here is a theoretical version to get you started, which you can adjust for your assumptions:
If you are already recruiting the next generation, you know that they want to see a progression plan for their development and success.
n PayScale.com lists an average salary for a BDR at around $50,000. Add 20% for incentives, a 40% burden rate and another 20% for management, tools, etc., to get a cost of roughly $90,000 per year per BDR.
n Let’s do better than the SalesRoads average and generate $300 leads. At a steady-state rate of 1.2 leads per day per BDR, we are at breakeven.
n Or, working backward from the sales generated, we need two net-new sales per BDR per month to reach breakeven based on a $12,000 average equipment sale with a 10% profit contribution and a three-year service contract of $200 per month with a 40% profit contribution.
n I like the odds of getting at least two leads a day or two sales per month. Good hiring, development, process and management can get you levels that exceed the breakeven.
How about the intangible benefits? They are just as important — and maybe long-term, big-picture more important — than the tangible benefits. You will need to whiteboard with your leadership team to develop your own version of the extended value to your sales organization, but here are some potential intangible benefits to get you started:
n Bench building: As an alternative to your challenge of recruiting and hiring experienced sales professionals, you can create your own — with your training, your culture and your proven process. You will also have an alternative to our industry’s common approach — “give ‘em a net-new territory and see if they can grind it out.”
n Excitement: Let’s give your experienced (and maybe in a bit of a rut) sales professionals something that can get them excited — a mentoring role where they can witness new success, next-gen development and teaming that makes them more effective or increases their results.
n Development Plan: If you are already recruiting the next generation, you know that they want to see a progression plan for their development and success. BDR is a great step in that plan. I had a university sales graduate tell me about his tech employer’s three-step plan — a solution implementation role (to learn the customer experience) to a BDR role (to learn prospecting and beyond) and then to the account executive role.
n Cognitive Diversity: By hiring people with different ways of thinking, problem solving and decision making, we are expanding our sales capability and culture to excel with our customers’ decision makers of the future.
Ricoh has an outbound lead-gen team that falls under the responsibility of my colleague, Kory Vannoy, senior director of digital customer engagement. He comes to this subject with a terrific level of relevant experience and he shared the following: “We recognized that inbound lead generation wasn’t enough to drive growth. We now have a balanced approach to support pipeline growth with both inbound and outbound tactics. The biggest challenge is mindset — outbound requires grit, creativity and resilience. Hire people who are hungry, energetic and passionate and show them a path to success. Equip them with training, tools, playbooks and scripts, and be patient. It takes time for a BDR to hit their stride, but the payoff is worth it.”
In my role at Ricoh with our RFG dealers, I have had the pleasure of meeting Adrian Lopez, director of sales development at Applied Innovation. He leads Applied’s SDR team and is an excellent strategic thinker who provided the following insight: “Our SDRs come from a variety of backgrounds and skill levels, but teaching them what it takes to be successful at prospecting and seeing them connecting the dots is always fun! The team is located in a sales bullpen and works on-site. We feel this is a critical part of real-time feedback and team camaraderie.
“How to get started? Just start. Exactly how it’s going to work is going to change hundreds of times. I would also caution that at first there will be resistance from the field sales reps, and change management is an important part of the process. But SDR roles are an excellent way to recruit talent into your sales organization. Our SDRs get educated on all of our lines of business and are integrated into our culture from day one. SDRs who are able to last 15 months or more are often recruited into full-cycle sales roles, so we get the benefit of having internal candidates who already know our business.”
For a look at the availability and readiness of your future BDRs, let’s go to the Office Technology archives. In the September 2024 issue of this magazine, I discussed a strategy for sourcing your next generation of sales professionals in my article, “At a University Near You.” (Visit https:// www.bta.org/assets/pdf/Sept24Dunkelberger). To further test the theory, I did a quick study of a couple hundred students who graduated from university sales programs. I found more than 50 who are now in sales roles. Many are currently in or have passed through BDR-type roles in their
employers’ career progression. In corresponding with some of them over recent weeks, I found the following:
n The experiential learning theme was pervasive — starting a relationship with a prospect and then seeing the progression to a sale with a mentoring, capable, tenured sales professional.
A typical example: “It’s been great spending time with experienced professionals and learning firsthand — some things you can only pick up by watching in person. I’ve noticed that everyone has their own style on sales calls, and seeing different approaches is really helping me find what works best for me.”
In reading about ... overcoming skepticism, I found two techniques to try. First, education and communication ... And, second, addressing misconceptions.
n Here is my favorite comment from a grad who started as a BDR and is now an account executive who is teaming up with a BDR: “My AEs were great for memorable advice. From one I got, ‘Comparison is the thief of joy.’ And I’m lucky to be able to replicate that to my BDR now.”
If you don’t recognize the quote, it is Theodore Roosevelt — so that’s a next-gen account executive quoting an early 20th-century president based on what he learned from a sales mentor. I love it.
n Granted, there may be a bit of my bias involved, but I got consistent feedback on how the university sales program prepared them with sales skills, process understanding, and the necessary curiosity and desire to succeed.
Doing my follow-up with the students was a next-step enlightenment for me and I owe much to my mentor in sales student engagement, Beth Renninger, who gave me the opportunity to lead a sales strategy class. She is the executive director of the Center for Sales Success at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, and told me: “Experiential learning is the key to preparing undergrads. The ‘reps’ of practicing challenging sales conversations in the classroom strengthens communication skills, builds competency and creates confidence in the new sales professional. Those foundational skills help a sales grad to realize success faster and practice patience through challenging times.”
Skeptical? In reading about processes for overcoming skepticism, I found two techniques to try. First, education and communication, which we are contributing to with these articles thanks to the Business Technology Association (BTA) and Ricoh. And, second, addressing misconceptions. Following are some of the skeptical responses I get on this topic and some fresh perspectives on each:
n “A first sales job must be a grind. That is the way we have always done it to see their commitment.” Maybe it is time for a new or additional way to look at it.
n “We can just dabble with a single person.” Maybe, but
work on the plan to do it in a bigger way. True organizational advancement rarely comes from dabbling.
n “We can’t afford it — the money, the management, the distraction and so forth.” Work the numbers — your netnew revenue, your hiring and retention, and your field rep productivity versus the benchmarks or your aspirational goals. Can you afford not to do it?
n “I’m not comfortable trusting a recent grad with my prospects.” Work on it, read about it, discuss with those who are and try it (you could form a BDR intern team to get started).
n “We’ll keep hoping that the tenured field reps will do it because they should.” As they say: “Hope is not a strategy.”
In my September article, we met Sally Stevens from the Sales Education Foundation (SEF), who recently introduced me to Joan Rogala, CEO of Pi Sigma Epsilon (PSE), the fraternity for university sales students. SEF supports the university sales programs and PSE supports the university sales students. When discussing the mindset progression, Rogala told me: “Employers that want to work with the next generation need to rethink what an entry-level sales job should and shouldn’t be. It’s not about making it hard for the new sales professionals; we need to get past that outdated view. A best practice is a one-pager that maps their progression — here’s entry level and then what’s next after that and after that — competencies, development, responsibilities and compensation.”
If this article has been successful in the last eight-plus minutes, you are going to give this strategy some serious consideration and you may now be wondering about your future processes for sourcing, developing and managing your BDR team members to success. If so, keep reading Office Technology magazine; in a future issue I will dig into those topics with more from dealer and Ricoh experiences, academics to partner with and, especially, those in the next generation who have lived it. And remember the words of George Bernard Shaw: “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” n
Jon Dunkelberger serves as region business director for Ricoh’s Dealer Division, where he is focused on helping dealers develop their sales organizations and grow their businesses. Dunkelberger is committed to the development of the next generation of sales professionals and has taught sales strategy as an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. He can be reached at jon.dunkelberger@ricoh-usa.com. Visit www.ricoh-usa.com.
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by: Jenna Miller, Emerald Strategic Marketing
How is your marketing strategy going? Is it helping your business grow? Do you even know? Unfortunately, many B2B companies simply do not know the answers to these questions. Marketing tends to be an afterthought until you realize you have been spending thousands of dollars on marketing and have no idea what you have to show for it. Maybe it is because many companies see their sales teams as the ones bringing in business and do not think marketing does much. But let’s not forget that buyers need at least 12 touchpoints before moving ahead with a purchase. That is where a good marketing strategy is key.
A reputable marketing team should be showing you its progress in regular reports. Even if those numbers are not where you or your team want them to be, these evaluations are vital to understanding what is working, what is not and how to improve every action your marketing team is taking.
The first step in any marketing evaluation should be defining your business goals. What are your goals this year? Please don’t say, “Sell more!” Of course that is what you want. That is what every business wants. But growing businesses know you need SMART goals — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Without specific goals, you are setting your marketing team up to fail. Here are some questions to help you write better business goals:
n What do you consider a marketing qualified lead (MQL)? Does he (or she) have a specific job title? Is he in a specific industry? Does his company have a certain revenue each year?
n Is there a particular product or service you want to sell more of this year versus other products and services? Are there specific products or services you want to focus on at specific times of the year or to specific industries?
n Are there any new markets/industries/locations you want to expand into this year?
n How do you want clients to perceive your brand? As knowledgeable, authoritative, approachable, etc.?
n Do you want to focus on brand awareness, as well as generating leads?
n Are there live online or in-person events you want to focus on and increase attendance for?
n How many qualified leads are reasonable to bring in each month/quarter to pass on to sales? (Remember, not every lead will be a sale. Once a lead is moved to the sales team, it is accountable for moving it down the pipeline.)
n Are you trying to improve customer retention and loyalty? Are there already programs set up for this?
n Who is your ideal customer? Give a detailed description.
n Who are your top three competitors in your industry, as well as in your location?
Once you set clear goals, it is time to take inventory of your current marketing platforms. Here is a list to get you started: website, organic and paid social media, email marketing, digital and physical marketing collateral, pay-per-click (PPC) and physical advertising. Make sure to have a detailed list of all the places you market because the next step is to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) for each platform.
For example, maybe one of your goals is to bring in more awareness about your company’s newest location or service area. For social media, you should view the impressions and reach your posts get in the new location. For email marketing, look at all the emails focused on this new location and set goals for open and click rates. For your website, check the views and conversion rates on location-specific landing pages, as well as web traffic coming from a radius around your newest location.
If your goal is to bring in more qualified leads, look at your website’s prospecting forms (not your service request or customer service forms) and evaluate the conversion rates. For B2Bs, a good conversion rate is 2% to 5%, but some industries can see 10% or more.
You should also consider your leads’ interactions with marketing material to be just as important as form submissions. The truth is, people do not want to fill out a form until they know for sure they want your product or service. We all know that as soon as a form is filled out, you are likely to get emails and phone calls.
An increasing number of B2B buyers want a seller-free experience, meaning they do not want to be “hassled” by a sales rep until the very end of the sales process (this is why good websites are so vital). So, you have to be sneaky to find leads who are not filling out forms but may be interested. This could be done by tracking who is opening and clicking on emails, who is viewing blogs or product and service pages, or who interacts with social media posts. We love using HubSpot’s lead scoring system to determine who is likely to be a qualified lead based on these interactions.
What we like to remind clients is that a few big sales that originated from our social posts, emails or lead scoring systems can pay for an entire year of marketing.
Last, but certainly not least, it is time to discuss return on investment (ROI). You will see some marketing agencies and teams cringe at this because it can be tough to really calculate unless you have a spectacularly mapped-out customer journey within software like HubSpot. Even then, it can be difficult to quantify the return on all those brand awareness touchpoints that lead up to a sale.
What we like to remind clients is that a few big sales that originated from our social posts, emails or lead scoring systems can pay for an entire year of marketing. But how do you know where these leads originated when the goal is to provide as many touchpoints as possible to get the potential customer to that sale?
One way is to use a platform like HubSpot to see all the activities that a new customer takes. But please remember, with more privacy laws, tracking filters and security walls, it is becoming increasingly difficult to see all the helpful data like website views and email interactions.
Another helpful tool is to add a “How Did You Hear About Us?” section to your forms and in your sales reps’ scripts. Allow the lead to choose multiple options like “social media” and “a marketing email.” Though I can personally speak to the fact that many will say “sales rep” when the data shows they clicked through emails and read blogs, it is still a good way to get a little more data.
Following the steps outlined above will help you evaluate your marketing strategy, understand where there is room for growth and where to invest more resources. But if you are still looking for some extra advice on how to improve your strategy, we have some final tips to help you achieve your goals:
n Marketing results take time, especially organic SEO (which can take more than a year to see results), so do not assume something is not working because you are not seeing immediate results. There are many variables in marketing — time of year (think holidays and summer vacation), type of offer, call-to-action verbiage, when the buyer actually needs and can afford your product or service — and the list goes on. True evaluation should be done over a period of time to truly understand what is working and what is not. A small snapshot does not provide the whole story.
n Consider a balance of paid and organic marketing. Many B2Bs focus solely on organic, but the best course of action is to have a mix of both. Organic efforts should be established first and constantly improved to get steady results over time, but paid ads help bring in more immediate results, giving your strategy an early boost. n
Jenna Miller is the CEO of Emerald Strategic Marketing, a digital marketing agency based in Navarre, Florida, that delivers custom solutions like SEO, social media management and other marketing services tailored to each client’s unique brand story. She can be reached at info@emeraldstrategicmarketing.com. Visit www.emeraldstrategicmarketing.com.
by: Greg Goldberg, BTA General Counsel
The flurry of executive orders (EOs) spilling out of the Oval Office in the opening days of the second Trump administration has been nothing short of overwhelming. Less than one full month into his second term, the president had signed more than 60 EOs, which represents the highest number of EOs signed in the first 100 days of a presidential administration in the last four decades. The pace, scope and quantity of new presidential directives has ignited a broad range of reactions, including some celebrations, legal challenges, outright confusion and even blanket retractions. Even though EOs do not operate with the same force and effect as bills passed by congress and signed into law by the president, the impact of EOs remains far-reaching.
This month, Legal Perspective tackles a controversial subject, exploring the president’s use of EOs to curtail diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and the impact on U.S. employers. The principle behind DEI programs in the workplace is to promote equal treatment and full participation of all people, particularly among demographic groups that are historically marginalized or underrepresented. The genesis of DEI dates back to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made it illegal for U.S. employers to discriminate based on race, ethnicity, religious preference or gender. Modern-day DEI programs take on many forms, including eliminating gender pay inequity, providing accessibility for people with disabilities and widening recruitment to broader communities. Many opposed to DEI claim the programs are unfair and undermine merit-based advancement.
Count the president among those individuals who are hostile to DEI programs. One presidential EO seeks to eliminate DEI across the federal government, canceling DEI programs at both government agencies and government contractors. Another EO aspires to expand anti-DEI policy beyond the public sector by instructing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide the administration with recommendations for using federal civil rights laws to encourage private-sector employers to eliminate “illegal” DEI initiatives. In response, several prominent U.S. companies, including Amazon, Ford, Target and Goldman Sachs, among others, have already relaxed DEI requirements or suspended DEI programs altogether. In turn, some of those companies now face boycotts.
It is difficult to say whether the president’s DEI EOs reflect a bona fide law enforcement priority at the DOJ or whether the mere threat of litigation is meant to pressure U.S. employers to discontinue DEI programs. While the idea that the U.S. government utilizing its limited prosecutorial resources to target domestic private-sector companies with lawsuits attacking DEI practices may seem farfetched, business leaders evidently take the threat seriously enough to align with the president’s policy agenda rather than champion DEI priorities. Perhaps they are also accounting for the parallel threat posed by state attorneys general. Just last month, the Missouri attorney general sued Starbucks, alleging its DEI program — intended to hire and promote more women and people of color — violates antidiscrimination laws.
The decision to cancel DEI initiatives may reflect sound business judgment if doing so eliminates the risk of protracted litigation or negative publicity. Nevertheless, employers considering the fates of their DEI programs should remember that DEI is not illegal. What runs afoul of the law is discrimination. Therefore, the safest course for U.S. employers and the best defense against legal action is to implement policies that prevent workplace discrimination based on modern protected class status, such as race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, national origin or religious preference. This is particularly important for employers using artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the hiring or promotion process.
Looking ahead, it is safe to bet there will be more EOs emerging from the Trump White House intended to provoke strong reactions across the political spectrum and prolong the culture wars that swept the president back into office after four years away. It is important to remember that EOs are only as strong as the president who signs them and, unlike federal laws, may be retracted by future presidents with the stroke of a pen. Watch this space for more information about EOs and how they may affect your business over the next four years. n
Greg Goldberg, partner at Barta | Goldberg, is general counsel for the Business Technology Association. He can be reached at ggoldberg@bartagoldberg.com or (847) 922-0945.
BTA would like to welcome the following new member to the association:
Consultant/Trainer Member
Field Management Consulting, Centreville, VA
For full contact information of this new member, visit www.bta.org.
Each year, BTA awards two $3,000, two $2,000 and a number of $1,500 scholarships to qualifying applicants. Since the 1984-85 school year, BTA has presented 1,587 scholarships to students, totaling $1.8105 million.
To qualify, applicants must be (at the time of the evaluation and the award): A full-time employee, or the son or daughter of a fulltime employee, of a current BTA member dealership AND a full-time student maintaining a class schedule of at least 12 hours (nine hours for graduate students) of college credits per semester throughout the school year covered by the scholarship. Patriot Pack scholarships are also available to office technology industry U.S. military veterans, their children and grandchildren.
Scholarship applications must be submitted by May 1, 2025
For more information, visit www.bta.org/Scholarships.
For information on BTA member benefits, visit www.bta.org/MemberBenefits.
For the benefit of its dealer members, each month BTA features two of its vendor members.
In many cases, field service operations and supply fulfillment are the profit engines for a company. With more than 40 years of experience in executive field service roles, Field Management Consulting provides consultancy services to innovate, improve and excel your customer service operations. After all, it shouldn’t be a customer service department, but rather a customer retention department. Field Management Consulting’s mission is to help streamline field service operations for businesses of all sizes. It aims to enhance efficiency, reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction through innovative solutions. www.fieldmanagementconsulting.com
DXone, built on Acumatica’s core platform and open architecture, delivers modern technology and a no-code/low-code cloud ERP solution that addresses both the immediate and future needs of the office technology channel. DXone modernizes back-end operations and transforms mission-critical operations so businesses are future-ready. The solution offers a seamless, cost-effective way for companies to enhance productivity, leverage built-in AI capabilities, control their data and plan long-term growth.
https://dxoneerp.com
A full list of BTA vendor members can be found online at www.bta.org.
Compiled by: Elizabeth Marvel, Office Technology Magazine
Following are two questions submitted by dealer members as part of BTA’s Dealers Helping Dealers resource and some of the answers received. These answers and others can be found in the members-only section of the BTA website. Visit www.bta.org/DealersHelpingDealers. You will need your username and password to access this member resource.
If you are an e-automate user, what inventory tool are you using for physical inventory counts? We use ScanIt, but it has its limits and issues. I would love to hear from other dealers.
“We are a small ECI user and just use manual count sheets, but we only have three techs.”
Dennis McGalliard, owner
Western Business Products, Redding, California
“We do physical counts only.”
Wayne Piskin, vice president CCP Solutions, Farmingdale, New York
“We do it manually.”
Stephen Valenta, president Offix, Gainesville, Virginia
“We have tried scanning and editing an Excel document with limited success. Hand counting is the standard.”
Shaun Easter, service operations manager Seminole Office Solutions, Longwood, Florida
“We’re still using the old manual way of printing the count lists and counting. It takes two people just over an hour.”
Jeffrey Taylor, president
Kingsport Imaging Systems Inc., Kingsport, Tennessee
What is your process when a customer cancels a service contract?
“We request they give us an email in writing and we will cancel the service agreement once we pick up the unopened toners.”
Dennis McGalliard, owner
Western Business Products, Redding, California
“We check the terms and dates of the contract. We try to see what we can do to keep them. All of our contracts are for the term of the lease. We will send a final bill for the remaining months owed.”
Stephen Valenta, president Offix, Gainesville, Virginia
“Thirty days written notice of intent sent to contracts. Based on the contract, they can be liable for the remaining amount of money based on time. We send them to sales to see if there is a way forward as partners.”
Shaun Easter, service operations manager Seminole Office Solutions, Longwood, Florida
“If it’s for a machine we replaced, we simply cancel on that day with the final meter and prorate if necessary. If it is a cancellation by the customer, we ask for the request in writing with the final meter and typically cancel on that day. We have the option for a 30-day notice, but rarely enforce it.”
Jeffrey Taylor, president
Kingsport Imaging Systems Inc., Kingsport, Tennessee
“We request cancellation in writing and, once received, we have our designated account manager reach out to the person requesting the cancellation to understand why. If it’s because they’re being approached by a competitor, we can offer a revised contract that matches or beats the new price. Unfortunately, for those accounts we cannot save, it’s usually because the owner has decided to retire or sell the business and the new owners have an established relationship (i.e., national or corporate accounts) with another dealership. We are able, thankfully, to salvage a majority of the requests by just digging in and finding out what it causing the request for cancellation.”
Christina Dargis, vice president of operations Copy Concepts Inc., Fort Myers, Florida
“We have a 90-day cancellation clause, but we usually only enforce 30 days on a monthly CPC contract.”
Lynn Pickford, president Precision Copy Products Inc., Clairton, Pennsylvania n Elizabeth Marvel is associate editor of Office Technology magazine. She can be reached at (816) 303-4060 or elizabeth@bta.org.
by: Peter Morisco, Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS)
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of article submissions from BTA-member OEMs providing a look at their current dealer training programs.
Toshiba is reimagining dealer training. We recognize that while traditional e-learning remains essential, low engagement limits its effectiveness. Though Toshiba hosts an extensive library of on-demand training resources, only a core group of salespeople consistently leverage these tools. Therefore, we are reemphasizing hands-on, in-person learning. This approach fosters deeper engagement while driving stronger retention and application of knowledge in the field.
Our commitment to impactful learning has led us to develop two key training initiatives. The first is our Solutions Immersion Program, which provides structured and continuous training to interested dealer teams. We conduct two training sessions per month, each lasting approximately four hours. Following these sessions, our solutions team actively reinforces the training by working alongside dealers in the field. This grassroots methodology helps ensure that our dealers understand — as well as apply — real-world sales scenarios.
A critical component of this program is follow-up. Weekly check-ins with sales managers help schedule post-training fieldwork and direct calls to sales reps affirm the training is translating into tangible sales activities. Though only 90-days young, the program is already demonstrating impressive traction, particularly in generating new pipeline opportunities extending beyond traditional hardware sales.
We are also in the process of redefining dealer onboarding. When a dealership that was previously aligned with a single manufacturer adds Toshiba to its portfolio, the transition can be slow and challenging. We are taking deliberate steps to streamline and improve this process. Our onboarding plan features:
n A comprehensive orientation covering all aspects of Toshiba’s business.
n Aligning Toshiba department leaders with key dealership personnel.
n Assigning a dedicated Toshiba project manager to facilitate seamless communication and coordination.
n Engaging our sales team to participate in all onboarding
meetings to ensure alignment and clarity.
n Regular debrief sessions to assess progress and continuously refine the onboarding process.
n Early results indicate a smoother transition for new dealers and a faster path to revenue generation.
Beyond these two initiatives, Toshiba’s Education and Development Team plays a pivotal role in preparing dealers for success. Our training philosophy focuses on customized, scalable programs catering to our dealers’ unique needs. This training delivery model has evolved significantly — from mostly classroom training to 90% live, instructor-led e-learning sessions with self-paced multimedia content and a dedicated social learning platform, Toshiba eXchange.
One of our most successful recent initiatives is the Toshiba e-STUDIO Systems Training (TeST) program, a blended learning approach designed for newly hired sales professionals. This twoweek program combines: instructor-led e-learning sessions; selfstudy assignments and product simulations; hands-on job assignments for real-world applications; and a competency exam. Developed in response to dealer requests, TeST has been highly effective in accelerating the onboarding process for new sales reps. Since its launch in May 2024, more than 100 participants have completed the program.
Our mission is clear: Equip our dealers’ sales teams with the knowledge, skills and confidence they require for success. By blending hands-on, in-person experiences with digital learning, we are driving stronger engagement, better knowledge retention and, ultimately, higher sales performance.
We look forward to continuing this journey, refining our programs and sharing our successes as we push the boundaries of dealer training in the technology sector. n
Peter Morisco is vice president of regional sales for the Eastern United States at Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS). He can be reached at peter.morisco@tabs.toshiba.com. Visit https://business.toshiba.com.
by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine
FP Mailing Solutions hosted its 2025 National Dealer Summit Feb. 12-14 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The summit provided the mailroom, digital and shipping solutions company an opportunity, in part, to thank dealers for their partnership and to emphasize the continuing but changing opportunities in the market. The total attendance was 138, which included dealers, sponsors, media, guests and FP staff.
The summit schedule included three guest speakers, including BTA General Counsel Greg Goldberg, who presented “Legal Perspective: What to Watch for in 2025,” and several breakout sessions, such as “Thinking Outside the Box: FP Smart Lockers.” Attendees also had the opportunity to learn about the latest products and services from 10 exhibiting sponsors.
In the opening general session, Friedrich “Fritz” Conzen, CEO of Francotyp-Postalia Holding AG, based in Berlin, Germany, welcomed dealer attendees, emphasizing that while the postage industry is changing, physical letters have endured for 4,500 years. “So, they probably will not disappear overnight, but change is here and we must change as well,” he said, noting that FP has two business units — one for mailing and shipping solutions, and the other for digital business solutions. He also reminded dealers of the long history of the company. “FP is a small, but very healthy business ... We are not a startup. We were founded in 1923, so have more than 100 years of experience.”
That longevity, along with FP’s modern line of mailing machines, help to set the company apart from competitors, Conzen said. “We combine the flexibility of a small business with the experience of a 100-year-old company,” he said. “Our team is very accessible and we have a clear commitment to our dealers. We almost exclusively focus on dealers in the U.S. and, with this approach, the U.S. is our most successful and biggest market.”
Beyond the mailing machine market, “we have entered the parcel market, which has been growing rapidly in recent years,” Conzen said. “And, with FP Sign, we’re active in the digital signature market, which is only now really picking up speed.” He also listed among FP’s efforts to diversify: its smart lockers, and parcel and assets solution, Tracks.
FP dealers are selling “into the mailrooms of a lot of companies and, from there ... should see a lot of opportunities to sell this tracking solution,” Conzen said, emphasizing his goal in providing a brief overview of FP’s scope of solutions. “I’m telling you this because I’m convinced that we can be very successful together,” he said. ”We are strongly committed to our partnership ... We know the world of mailing and business communications is evolving fast, but we think FP is at the forefront. So, let’s innovate together and build the future of smart office solutions.”
In his general session presentation, Michael Hannon, FP’s managing director of North America, likewise emphasized the importance of FP and its dealers working together for mutual business growth. It is particularly important, he said, given the state of the industry and the declines following the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. “We see that the market overall is declining,” he said, noting that in 2021-22, the number of postage meter imprints declined across the entire customer base. “In 2022-23, we saw a big jump of 12 million imprints, an almost 10% increase. Last year, there was an increase of another 3 million.”
While “mail is starting to come back” in recent years, the market is still considerably down from what it was prior to the pandemic, Hannon said. “We grew new customer placements only a little over 1% last year, but we are down almost 36% from what we were in 2018-19,” he said. “We do that much less in new customer business.”
Despite the declines, FP is targeting substantial growth in 2025, Hannon said. “We’re going to try to grow our equipment sales by 15%,” he said. “We don’t want to just maintain the installed base this year, we need to get back to focusing on net new; we want to grow the installed base. For 2025, the objective for us is to expand revenue in solutions sales — production inserters, lockers and Tracks.”
Hannon asked dealers to consider the question: “How do we sell more?” “You don’t just sell mail, you sell other [FP] products as well,” he said. “Selling other products, getting in there and having more to offer the customer makes your customer more sticky. So, we are going to make sure we are there to focus with you, to see that you have these other products and services to offer the customer, making it easier to retain them.” n
Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine. He can be reached at brent@bta.org or (816) 303-4040.
Deadline: March 11 th ,
2
Note: Anyone featured as a 2024 Difference Maker is ineligible for recognition this year.
• 2025 BTA National Conference (800) 843-5059 / www.bta.org/National25
23 • BPO Media www.workflowotg.com / www.theimagingchannel.com
24 • BTA Member Referral Program (800) 843-5059 / www.bta.org/Refer
15 • Business Equipment Quota Index (800) 843-5059 / www.bta.org/BEQI
32 • DLL
(610) 386-5629 / www.dllgroup.com
14 • DocuWare
https://start.docuware.com
9 • DXone www.DXoneERP.com
30 • ENX Magazine
(818) 505-0022 / www.enxmag.com
5 • Epson
https://epson.com/business-inkjet-printers
23 • Equipment Brokers Unlimited (800) 711-2815 / www.equipmentbrokersunlimited.com
3 • FP Mailing Solutions www.fp-usa.com/postbase-vision-a120
7 • Hytec (800) 883-1001 / www.hytecrepair.com
19 • Intermedia (800) 300-1310 / www.intermedia.com/resellers
31 • ProFinance 3.0 (800) 843-5059 / www.bta.org/ProFinance
17 • Quench www.quenchwater.com
31 • SalesChain (203) 262-1611 / https://saleschain.com/request-a-demo
11 • Sharp https://business.sharpusa.com
13 • Toshiba https://business.toshiba.com
21 • UPS (800) 636-2377 / www.1800members.com/bta
