Q&A: Sharp Sheehan comments on dealer support & recent strides Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine
H
ow are the industry manufacturers assisting dealers in the current environment? What advice do they have for dealers? What changes in the workplace do they expect? What training programs do they have in place to help sales reps and service techs optimize their success? In August, Office Technology magazine launched a series of interviews to ask these and other questions of manufacturer executives who oversee the dealer channel for their respective companies. The August and September issues featured Kyocera Document Solutions America Inc. and Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc., respectively. You can find those interviews in the Office Technology archives on the BTA website at www.bta. org/OfficeTechnology. This month: John Sheehan, senior vice president of channel sales for Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America.
dealership owners were taken care of. We quickly modified our programs to make earning targets more achievable. I am happy to say we have continued to modify our programs, as the situation continues to be fluid. A good example of this is that we have extended our annual dealer program deadlines and provided incentives around products relevant to the new business normal. During this time period, Sharp introduced 11 new A4 products, bringing our total A4 lineup to 19 MFPs and printers. This new lineup was accompanied by aggressive sales spiff incentives through the Sharp Ultimate Rewards program. Finally, our marketing team has been providing content pieces on our website and through social media that dealers are welcome to share with their customers. All told, I feel we have done our best to listen and work with our dealers during this time.
OT: In what ways is Sharp providing additional support and guidance to its authorized dealers during these challenging times? Sheehan: I think the thing that helped our dealers most during this time is that we reacted quickly to the slowdown in business. As states and businesses shut down, we realized that it would be hard for dealership sales reps to maintain income. Due to this, we launched an aggressive training schedule that included an average of 20 webinars per week. These webinars covered various topics that were relevant to the current market conditions. We were pleased to see that more than 200 dealerships and 1,600 people attended the webinars. All the participants were compensated for attending the webinar series. We have continued to offer different ways for dealership sales representatives to earn money as businesses build back up. The second part of the plan was to make sure that
OT: If you owned an office technology dealership, what would you be doing currently to optimize your level of business? Sheehan: If I owned an office technology dealership, I would be doing the same thing I am doing at Sharp right now. We [Sharp] are focused on broadening our conversations with customers to include topics other than print. There is no doubt that in the short term, print will decline. Together, Sharp and our dealers need to expand into other areas. This can include many areas, such as employee safety technologies, products that enhance collaboration and IT services to ensure network security. These are all areas where Sharp can provide products and support. Of course, print will still be part of the equation, so I would focus the conversation around the easiest and safest ways to print, such as using technology that allows for a touch-free experience. With our MFP Voice and Synappx™ Go products,
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