Keeping close to your customer

Mike Tucker, executive director, Workplace Solutions Association

advantages over their larger competitors. Most local dealers are much closer to their customers than national chains and internet resellers, and are better positioned to recognize changing needs. And being smaller, they can respond with far more agility than larger organizations with more bureaucratic corporate structures.

Admittedly, most independent dealers can’t match the sophisticated market research departments of their larger competitors. But there is still much that can be done to track new market forces and anticipate changing customer needs without making major investments in time or personnel. All that’s required is a commitment to ongoing dialog with the customer. This could involve engaging with marketing consultants, peer groups, surveys or industry networking; or it may involve nothing more than casual conversations over lunch with select customers on a regular basis.

If you earned your living in the office products industry back in the 1980s or 1990s, there was a real sense that you were on the right track. Fueled by steady growth in the size of the workforce and increased investment in office equipment of all kinds, the industry was expanding at a rate well in excess of the general economy.

The office market is no longer a growth market and the competition facing independent dealers has probably never been tougher than it is today. That said, our industry is still flush with opportunities; but finding the right track to follow is far from easy. Independent dealers have more potential growth opportunities available to them today than at any other time in recent memory. They must stay alert to the changing nature of customers’ needs and be ready to respond to these evolving needs with intelligence and imagination.

Fortunately, this is one area where local dealers have considerable

Whatever form it takes, dealers must recognize that no one has a more important opinion on their business and the direction it should take than their customers. Above all else, you must be willing to respond to what they have to say.

In today’s market, the messages that dealers are hearing often relate to e-commerce and software; but this is not always the case. Each market is unique and certainly some traditional product categories still have strong potential. The key is not so much the product category, but rather the dealer’s ability to identify the needs of the customer in its market and come up with a program that meets those needs effectively and profitably.