Secrets to Large-Format Success The large-format market remains a niche one for the average BTA dealer and finding BTA dealers who are doing well in this area can sometimes be like searching for a needle in a haystack. After a fair amount of baling, we found four dealers who have achieved various measures of success in this market. This segment may not represent a huge portion of their business, but it helps them position their dealerships as a one-stop shop for customers who might also need a large-format device in addition to traditional office technology such as printers and MFPs. While a lot can be learned from those who are successful, there’s much to learn from those who are still struggling with the segment as well. Advanced Imaging Solutions in South Bend, Indiana hasn’t done too badly selling large format systems. Although they sell Canon, Lanier, and HP, more often than not they lead with Canon. These products are primarily sold by traditional sales reps and not just to traditional large-format type accounts. “You have to look at a different place for large-format prospects and by that I mean we find it’s almost an add-on sale in a lot of our accounts where we didn’t even know they had an application for large format,” says Stephen Klett, president. “That’s not necessarily true when you talk about engineers and architects and vertical markets where there’s a bigger need.” Klett has found that customers with large-format color applications provide Advanced with new opportunities too. “In the past, some of those larger firms outsourced their marketing and printing of documents because they couldn’t get the quality they wanted, whereas now it’s affordable and they can do it in house,” says Klett. One client who sells RVs uses a large-format device to create displays with the specifications for display next to the vehicles. “I don’t think that sort of application existed three or four or five years ago,” says Klett. The market for large-format is still largely a niche one as one might expect and profits tend to be modest at best. “Because manufacturers don’t need to sell the product through a dealer distribution network, they’ve purposely made the margins substantially lower,” says Klett. “I make 15-20 percent at retail on a large-format Canon unit. We don’t go below list price most of the time because they purposely left the margin real low in order to be competitive with HP in that arena.” Why is Advanced selling more Canon large-format devices compared to the other manufacturers Advanced represents? “The quality of the images,” says Klett. “We even use it internally for our own marketing materials.” If you visit Advanced you’ll see posters with motivational messages in the sales area, all created on a Canon large-format device. Even though they lead with the Canon, price-sensitive customers usually opt for the HP. “HP has traditionally been a lower entry point with a higher operating cost so somebody who goes on the HP Website or a Website that handles HP printers will see a $3,500 large-format device, and because of the low investment up front they buy it the same as if they were buying a $200 printer.” Klett feels Advanced would sell more large-format products if they placed more focus on it, a sentiment shared by other dealers. “We find that specialists typically are the most effective sales people. They learn the vertical markets, the applications, and the customer pain points. If we did that, I could see having a large-format expert.” Advanced did hire a large-format expert a number of years ago, but at that time found they couldn’t get enough business with a high enough gross profit to support that position. Today it might be a different story. While margins may be tight, Klett still feels there’s opportunity. “I don’t want to sound like you can’t make money selling large format because color [supplies] are where the money’s at after the sale,” he says. Blue Technologies in Cleveland, Ohio has been selling the KIP large-format device for about three years now, mostly through their traditional sales reps along with an application specialist who understands the market. It wasn’t easy getting this portion of the business off the ground, mainly because reps were intimidated by the product. “It took us a good six months to get started and doing what we really wanted to do with it,” says Keith Stump, Vice President of Sales. “On the surface it’s ink on bigger paper. You still hit ‘Print’ and go. It’s the same process. But when you transition from small format to wide format the mentality of the rep seems to change.” Blue Technologies continues to train to educate their territory and major account sales people to track down opportunities. Once they find a ‘live’ one, the application specialist is brought into the picture. “They know what they’re doing, have knowledge of the types of industries, they know how to use [the device], and can make the machine and software sing and dance,” says Stump. Blue Technologies settled on this approach by learning from their production print [business] with Konica Minolta. “It’s a different market, different expertise level, and the bottom line is we were biting off more than we could chew with the expectation we were going to get our typical territory rep to be able to grasp and know everything they truly need to know in order to sell the product,” acknowledges Stump. “We focused on getting them trained, and educated them on how to hunt opportunities for the product.” He’s found opportunities for large format in both new and existing accounts. “It definitely opens up some new doors,” says Stump. “The reps who are better at selling the full concept of the company, ECM, wide format, MPS, are better at selling that whole program than the ones who are better at uncovering [opportunities], whether it be a large-format or a plotter, opportunity.” The biggest challenge of getting his sales force up to speed was getting the reps to understand that this is simply just ink on wider paper. “There’s an initial fear on the part of the sales person because they’re going into more of an industry specific application, maybe dealing with more of an engineering crowd even though most of our business is outside of that typical engineering/construction segment,” says Stump. “It tends to be more embedded within companies that make or build things.” While Blue Technologies selected KIP because of their partnership with Konica Minolta, there was another reason why they added the line. “We did our research and it seemed to be a top-shelf product in that category,” states Stump. As far as service and support from the manufacturer, Stump offers nothing but kudos. “Let’s put it this way: our service managers love the product. It runs well and doesn’t require a lot of maintenance.” At this point Blue Technologies has about 100 of these devices in the field. “I think we’re doing okay, but not knocking the cover off the ball,” says Stump. “It would definitely help if we could find the right industry sales professional that can work it.” Stump’s key application expert’s expertise is in production print, which translates nicely to large format. “The methodologies are similar such as understanding workflow,” he explains. “When you’re in production print, we find it’s really less about the engines and more about the structure of the environment and workflow. We’re EFI’s number one Micropress reseller and that’s all based on understanding what’s happening in architecting a solution. Large format really has a lot to do with that, especially with the software features now available with the KIP product.” Large format remains a niche product category at WJS Enterprises in Metairie, LA. Canon is their wide-format brand although they may be upping the ante at the high end by complementing their Canon offerings with Océ large-format devices. “It’s an upper-end product especially if you’re going to use it as a copier rather than a printer,” says Russ Jacketti, vice president of sales. Jacketti has no major revelations to share when it comes to successfully selling large-format. “We’ve had some success, but most of the business we get on wide format comes from our customer base,” he says. “We have some engineers, architects, and we do have a couple of non-profits who use them for signage.” WJS’s traditional sales reps are responsible for selling the product as opposed to a large-format specialist. “There’s not really enough potential for a specialist, at least in our area,” states Jacketti. When WJS initially began carrying large format the training came directly from Canon. Now, WJS updates the skill sets of their reps with info provided by Canon. At this point, WJS’s large-format business has been steady. “We’re not seeing a lot of growth,” concedes Jacketti. “Part of the reason is we probably aren’t concentrating on it the way so many other companies do. We’ve been able to penetrate a couple of accounts because of it over the years, and we’ve been carrying it for quite some time. We have a couple of accounts where we’ve integrated with the [Canon] Colortrac system where they’re using it as a printer, copier and wide-format scanner. It’s kind of, for lack of a better term, a shotgun approach.” The biggest challenge in selling large format is one that many dealers can identify with—the lack of concentration by sales reps on this product category and not having a specialist to focus on it. “To go in and penetrate some of the higher-volume accounts the skill set has to be greater because of the competition that concentrates solely on wide format,” emphasizes Jacketti. Another obstacle is time. “We’re constantly training just to keep up with our core products and that’s where we’re making money. When we sell [large format], it’s okay, but it’s very difficult to specialize in all these different areas. If we did get more into it and brought in a specialist we would definitely go with the Océ product to complement the Canon product,” concludes Jacketti. The ultimate advice for success in the large-format space comes from Andrew Ritschel, President of Electronic Office Systems (EOS) in Fairfield, New Jersey. They carry KIP, Kyocera, and Ricoh large-format products as well as Canon and HP plotters. Andrew Ritschel His first recommendation is to have a dedicated sales rep that focuses on working the vertical markets that buy large-format equipment. “Your down-the-street reps are going to stumble across their customers who might ask them about it when they’re selling MFPs, but a dedicated rep will seek out the engineering department, the CAD manager, the engineering office inside large buildings, and they will go outside your normal engineer, architectural, and construction company people who are the typical people who buy wide format,” says Ritschel. He emphasizes that this person must be knowledgeable about the entire large-format product line the dealership carries and that there are usually four to six products in any wide-format manufacturer’s product line. Ritschel didn’t start out with a dedicated rep, but learned from experience why that position is critical. He also believes a dedicated rep should sell more than just hardware. “They should also sell document management software that can be packaged with the wide-format product to enhance the sale and add another dimension of what to speak about when talking to the customer to distinguish himself from the day-to-day box rep because there are too many box reps who are handling wide-format equipment,” emphasizes Ritschel. A quota of four to six units per month is also essential in his opinion. “Selling one unit a month just by happenstance or a couple of units a month is not good enough,” states Ritschel. “Having low expectations or no expectations is not good.” Other Ritschel recommendations include having a large base of units already in the field along with the ability to sell color toner-based or solid-ink color machines to specialty users. “These products have higher margins and it’s a more in-depth sale, so you can get paid for your expertise about those products,” opines Ritschel. “A down- the-street rep isn’t going to be able to do that.” Another secret to large-format success is selling inkjet plotters only in addition to dry toner LED machines. “Do not waste time selling inkjets because you won’t make the margins because you’re going to be competing with B&H Photo and Amazon.” Some recommendations are beyond a dealer’s control such as being lucky enough to be in a secondary or tertiary market where you don’t have Ricoh branches, IKON branches, Toshiba branches, Konica Minolta branches or Sharp branches selling products for $300-$500 over their actual costs. “That hurts the marketplace and the industry,” contends Ritschel. “Sharp, Toshiba, and Konica Minolta are all selling KIP products as well as the Kyocera branches. This marketplace has been tremendously hurt by KIP selling their product to manufacturer’s branches and every dealer associated with that manufacturer. And IKON and Ricoh are just doing whatever they can to blow out the Ricoh product line.” On the leasing front, he adds, “Make points by financing [large format] with leases. Build in some extra points on it.” His final word of advice: “Do not include toner and paper in your cost per square foot charge. You will get eaten alive.” Scott Cullen has been writing about the office technology industry since 1986.