Queue up Rod Stewart’s 1979 hit “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” over an image of a 3-D printer and play it for an office technology dealer looking for a sexy technology to complement his traditional product offerings and what do you get? You might get a good amount of folks salivating over the profit potential of 3-D printing along with a healthy dose of skeptics who aren’t ready to invest in a technology that most of their traditional MFP customers aren’t going to be buying now or later.
The reality is there’s a lot more interest in 3-D printing within the office technology dealer channel than not. A recent Copier Careers survey found that 74 percent of respondents say the technology will have a major impact on the copier channel. And that’s the channel talking, not 3-D printer vendors.
Whether one takes the leap into 3-D printing sooner or later the analyst community that’s closely tracking this emerging technology recommends looking before you leap.
David Ramos, a consultant with InfoTrends, draws a parallel between 3-D printing and high-end production print for those considering making the transition. “I do a good job in Segments 1-4 and some Segment 5, and then my OEM asks me to sell Segment 6,” explains Ramos. “Now I have to invest a significant amount of human capital and financial resources in order to do that. Think about how much it costs a company to invest in production even today; it’s in the couple hundred thousand dollar range once you factor everything in, and that’s the aspect they don’t analyze—what is my investment going to be to get into this space?”
Another consideration is the business model for getting into the 3-D printing market. “They know the business model for 2-D printing—chemicals on paper—and what drives success, but this is a completely different animal,” emphasizes Ramos. “The term ‘3-D printing’ is a misnomer; there are no comparisons or commonalities between that [and 2-D printing.]”
Keith Kmetz, program VP, IDC’s Imaging, Printing and Document Solutions Research, concurs. “Calling it printing makes it sound like spitting out paper as with printers and MFPs, but that’s not the case.”
The challenge Ramos sees is that the materials used in 3-D printing are materials that the average office technology dealer is not accustomed to. Plus, depending on the application, whether it’s rapid prototyping for specialty manufacturing or making a widget, each application might require a different technology and a different material.
“It’s not Segments 1-6,” says Ramos, who might as well be telling dealers who are selling 3-D printers they’re not in Kansas anymore. “If you’re a dealer you’re going to have to figure out which technology you’re going to market based on your market conditions. You can’t market them all.”
Not that dealers can’t make the transition, but Ramos is dead serious on making sure they understand what they’re getting into. “The jump for a dealer to go to MPS is relatively small, the jump for a dealer to MNS or IT integration is a bigger jump, but many have already worked with some level of professional services and software integration,” explains Ramos. “Going into 3D printing is double the leap of going into managed IT services. Because it’s got ‘printing’ in it, everybody thinks I’m just going to jump right into it.”
He recommends figuring out how much you’re willing to invest, which 3-D printing technology to focus on, and equally important, whether or not you’re going to bring in someone who understands the technology and knows how to sell it.
“You’ll need someone on your staff that is smarter than the client in every facet of CAD development and application development,” opines Ramos.
He adds that in the office technology industry, dealers aren’t looking at the market and saying what direction should they point their organization in. “They just blanket cover everything,” says Ramos. “With this technology you won’t be able to do that. Law firms aren’t using this. You are looking at specific sectors or industries that will benefit from this application or service, or technology.”
He believes dealers are going to have to get good at serving different sectors of the market. “And that’s not their forte at this point,” he adds. “Very few independent dealers have a vertical market approach within their own geography. I’m not saying they don’t have clients in certain sectors, but most of the time they don’t look at it this way. With 3-D printing you need a more refined approach.”
IDC’s Kmetz just returned from a Select Dealer Group meeting where he made a presentation on 3-D printing. IDC’s forecast for 3-D printers is enthusiastic, showing double-digit growth patterns. “You don’t see that in your traditional markets,” says Kmetz.
IDC considers 3-D printers a viable option for dealers looking to offset declining traditional hardware sales, declining page volumes, and declining break-fix opportunities. “You need to look at adjacent markets for growth opportunities,” suggests Kmetz.
If 3-D printing is an adjacent market, the next step is going into the market and identifying the most appropriate customers for this technology. “Look at your customer base and potential customers who are making something that might be better suited to a 3-D printer,” states Kmetz. “You’re already providing them with a 2-D printing solution; find out if there is a possibility for 3-D too.”
There are plenty of verticals where a 3-D printer would fit nicely, and as Kmetz points out, that’s any industry that makes something. Worthy verticals include manufacturing, healthcare, and the dental market to name just a few. The talking point is on how 3-D printing can accelerate production by producing materials in house rather than outsourcing.
“The industry still needs to define the Holy Grail in terms of what manufacturers or consumers are going to print in 3-D often enough to make it a worthwhile investment and receive a quick ROI,” adds Kmetz who is skeptical of consumer applications, a market he doesn’t consider viable for the office imaging dealer channel.
Scott Dunham, research manager for Photizo Group, agrees with Ramos and Kmetz that selling a 3-D printer is not at all like selling a copier or MFP. “It’s a consultative sales process, which is not something the dealer channel is used to doing or is opposite of what they’re doing,” opines Dunham. “And decision makers aren’t going to be anywhere close to who you were talking to before.”
He too recommends doing research to qualify the opportunity and see if it’s feasible, and determining whether or not there are business model similarities that one can create some synergy around within their existing organization. Other considerations include whether or not to hire 3-D specialists. “Which I would say you probably should,” suggests Dunham.
Also important is training existing staff on how to use a 3-D printer through the entire print process. “There’s a lot that goes into it, it’s a pretty big undertaking, so I would advise anyone in the imaging channel to dedicate some resources to get into this if this is what they want to do,” says Dunham.
As far as finding opportunities, does it come down to location, location, location for targeting the right prospects in the region the dealer serves or are there opportunities that will eventually be uncovered as 3-D printing matures?
“It’s not location, location, location; it’s application, application, application,” says Dunham. “There are copier dealers doing this right now, not a lot; where most have had success is picking a specific application that 3-D printing can serve and serve well and starting there.”
He emphasizes that the most fundamental concept dealers need to understand is there’s not a single 3-D printing technology that’s right for everything, and one needs to understand what the different technologies can be used for and what they can’t.
Two of the most prominent names in 3-D printing are 3D Systems and Stratasys. Other vendors to watch are EnvisionTEC and Mcor Technologies.
“All the big manufacturers are going to an indirect sales model now and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re not actively seeking more resellers,” says Dunham. “3D Systems is most aggressively doing this, particularly in our industry.”
One dealer who does a good job of researching a technology or service before leaping into the fray is Chip Miceli of DPOE in Elk Grove Village, IL. He’s not doing 3-D yet, but he’s thinking about it.
“I believe it’s a product we should be able to do well with,” states Miceli. “3D Design looks like it might be an opportunity for us and we’ll probably be selling it before the year is over. It just depends whether they want us or not.”
Miceli could learn from three dealers who are currently selling 3-D printers, including Fraser-AIS in West Reading, PA, Advanced Copy Technologies in Cromwell, CT, and Nova Copy in Dallas, TX.
After hosting a successful open house to announce their entry into the 3-D space, Greg Gondek, Advanced’s president, found not only were existing customers interested in the technology, but the technology was opening new doors for Advanced.
He quickly discovered that 3-D printing involves a different decision maker than he’s been used to dealing with. “I don’t think we’ve seen a purchasing person yet on any of our transactions, it’s heads of engineering and C-levels.”
He’s also learned that customers and prospects aren’t dummies about 3D printing. “Some are more knowledgeable than us,” acknowledges Gondek. “We have a physics engineer on staff to interface with all the engineers coming in to see this product. They want to know all about the materials and the properties of the materials. It’s a detailed type of sale, much more so than office equipment.”
For Fraser-AIS the best opportunities to date have been within engineering departments. According to Daniel Fraser, new business development technology for Fraser-AIS, the difference between selling 3-D printers and copiers is that 3-D printers are graded on their material output. Usually, clients don’t need to see the machine. They need to see general output samples or how their samples print out.
Fraser contends that it’s important for a salesperson to understand the chemical and physical properties of the consumables when selling a 3-D Printer. “Knowledgeable clients are interested in tensile strength, heat deflection, elongation at break, Young’s modulus, etc., and a salesperson should know how to speak this language, otherwise you can lose credibility real fast if you aren’t up on your materials.”
NovaCopy CEO Darren Metz has learned to dial down his expectations when it comes to selling 3-D printers. “The actual sales we’ve been seeing have been very low whereas the market interest and the people that want to talk about it are extremely high. Getting people to buy that machine has proven to be extremely difficult. There are a lot of tire kickers, but not a lot of buyers. (For more of Metz’s perspectives on 3-D printing, see this month’s Dealer Spotlight.)
There’s going to be a lot more written on 3-D printing in the coming months just as there will be a lot more dealers talking about the product. One thing is for sure, whether one is already selling 3-D printers or still thinking about it, everyone still has a lot to learn.
