Modern Dealer Sales Blend New Technology with Time-Tested Relationship Skills

As it’s done with many other facets of business, artificial intelligence (AI) has greatly simplified the office technology dealer account representative’s job. Has that truly made their work easier? Perhaps. Has it enabled them to close deals more often? Well, that remains to be seen. AI can do a lot of things, but it can’t elevate a middling performer to the king of the bullpen or make a client want to do business with them.

What AI can do is considerable, and dealers across the country are leveraging AI-infused selling tools and/or customizing AI models to suit their particular needs. The applications cover market and client research, data analysis, lead generation, scripting, forecasting and role-playing with instant feedback, among other aspects. Whether it’s generative, conversational or predictive, there’s a flavor of AI to suit most tastes. As Salesforce and other sources note, autonomous AI sales agents can even handle early funnel activities such as qualifying leads, addressing product questions and setting appointments.

But can AI close a deal? Given the current, accelerated course of technology, one can only presume that it’ll be an eventuality. It’s true that AI can’t wine and dine clients, take them to ballgames or forge a human bond. But will those tactics remain relevant in 10–15 years?

The Washington Post published an article in September titled, “The Gen Z stare and the decline of saying things out loud,” which cited analysis from Perspectives on Psychological Science that found people are saying less—300 fewer words per day, a 28% decline between 2005 and 2019—with Gen Z leading the charge. The article pondered the influence of smartphones, texting, remote work and other technologies in that downward talking trend. The author further postulated that we’re not only talking less, we’re spending less time together.

Whether you buy into the article’s premise and logic, you see where we’re going with this. Brandy and cigars still carry the day in 2026, but if the upcoming generation of business technology buyers is as people- and interaction-averse as we’re led to believe, could a significant shift away from interpersonal transacting be far behind?

Well, psychology and social studies are well above our pay grade. Instead, we’ll focus our State of the Industry report on how account executives are increasingly blending technology with time-honored selling methods to efficiently and effectively drill deeper into clients and prospects, helping to unearth pain points and identify ways in which their dealerships can address them.

Deeper Dives

Buyers are more informed than ever before. Gone are the days when a discovery call provided account reps the opportunity to explain the product category, notes Dan Strull, CEO Of GoodSuite in Woodland Hills, California. Prospects have already done the research on the market and costs, and have already formed an opinion before the dealer reps walk in. With AI platforms enabling them to do side-by-side comparisons, it’s required reps to impart logic that clients/prospects can’t find through a browser or prompt.

The upstream conversation certainly has its merits and positions account reps as more responsive and informed. “That means knowing their industry, their workflow and where their real cost is buried rather than walking through a brochure,” Strull related. “An informed buyer is actually a better buyer once you get past the price question. They just expect you to be equally informed.

An informed buyer is actually a better buyer once you get past the price question. They just expect you to be equally informed.

– Dan Strull, GoodSuite

“Southern California is competitive and crowded, but a well-educated market rewards the companies who genuinely know more than the customer does.”

Knowledge is the differentiator, and Strull points out the sales team has become more AI focused, impacting what and how they sell. Having advanced knowledge can mitigate being stumped by an advanced question. Another wrinkle in the approach surrounds specificity, making the client’s profile and priorities the focal point as opposed to leading with product.

GoodSuite is also leaning more heavily into managed IT and services. They’re topics that allow the dealer to take deeper root with clients, and they segue nicely into its broader product and service portfolio.

AI fluency isn’t merely for the techies; all team members are required to become “AI relevant,” according to Strull. GoodSuite embarked on a global adoption program, complete with a leaderboard and recognition, which spiked participation. From the client standpoint, reps walk into meetings with granular intel on that firm’s stack, history and risks, he said.

Make no mistake about it, the sales game is still a people business. “What’s worked is the blend. AI handles the prep, the research, the follow-up,” he said. “The relationship still happens face to face. The tools made our people faster; they didn’t replace the part that closes business.”

Cracking New Accounts

Three of the biggest challenges confronting account reps are access to good data, speed and breaking into new accounts, notes Michael Macri, vice president of sales operations for Fraser Advanced Information Systems of West Reading, Pennsylvania. With reps tasked to accomplish more in the same allotment of time, the dealer is aiding their cause by investing in more accurate data, a new CRM platform and AI tools to simplify prospect research and build talk tracks. The idea is to increase their time spent on the primary initiative: selling.

Getting into an account without the benefit of a connection, referral or compelling reason to engage is increasingly difficult, Macri said. Technology helps, but team selling and continuous development are must-haves when getting a foot in the door. The bigger the prospect, the more layered the decision-making process becomes, which makes reinforcements imperative.

The fundamentals haven’t changed: build trust, ask better questions, listen, understand the problem and earn the next step.

– Michael Macri, Fraser Advanced Information Systems

“We’re also using AI to help salespeople improve, not just work faster,” Macri added. “By evaluating sales conversations and providing specific feedback, we can help reps learn from what works and continually sharpen their approach. Sometimes one piece of feedback can make the difference in the very next conversation.”

Measured growth within a new account is key for Fraser reps, a factor of how the dealer thinks about new business and cross-selling. Even the smallest slice of business acts as a proving ground that ideally leads to advanced opportunities. It falls upon the rep to remain vigilant and cognizant of opportunities to tack on managed services or production print, employing the same energy exhibited in winning the initial business.

“Ultimately, we’re encouraging reps to think less about ‘What else can I sell them?’ and more about ‘What haven’t I earned yet?’ That keeps the focus where it belongs: earning more of the customer’s business by delivering value,” Macri said.

Technology and advanced interpersonal skills have been key to Fraser elevating its sales game. The dealer employs Sandler and Kate Kingston Training, plus ongoing coaching. On the tech side, the Fraser Sales GPT it developed incorporates the company’s sales process, products, services and differentiators, bolstering reps’ ability to research prospects and prep quicker for meetings. The dealer is piloting technology that captures sales conversations, a tool that allows GPT to see how well it dovetailed with pre-call objectives, then provide notes and suggestions.

Fraser prefers this hybrid approach. While AI can do many things, it doesn’t replace “the ability to ask good questions, listen, uncover pain and understand why a customer would make a change,” Macri said.

“The fundamentals haven’t changed: build trust, ask better questions, listen, understand the problem and earn the next step,” he added. “AI simply helps our people do those things more consistently.”

Buyer Personas

The face of the buyer has changed, or at least grown in number. Historically, decision-makers have been office or IT managers, according to Mike Lepper, CEO of Impact Networking in Lake Forest, Illinois. It’s not unusual in today’s sales landscape for the conversations to pull in a prospect’s C-suite and security stakeholder. That increases the need for reps to be more fluent while deals take longer, given the wider buyer audience and the penchant for procurement to pore over a renewal line by line.

Alignment, appropriate deal scoping and velocity to close top the modern sales challenges, according to Lepper. He sees Impact’s markets as competitive yet healthy, and print continues to play a vital role in growth, backed by the requisite managed services. Being a dealer that “delivers across categories and challenges those who don’t” makes Impact a keeper vendor when clients trim their provider list.

Our account reps own the relationship and the account plan, while specialists come in for technical depth. That’s kept our reps from having to be experts in everything but quality enough to drive conversations and identify pain points.

– Mike Lepper, Impact Networking

Impact has undergone significant changes in its sales approach in recent years, Lepper noted. “We focused on a hardware-specific team, given how strong this business is for us, along with having our managed services team focus on their areas of strength and really defining those swim lanes to ensure we’re experts,” he said. “We have a client experience team that focuses on renewal, change orders and cross-sell expansion with our current managed customers.”

Lepper points out that Impact has made significant investments to stay on the cutting edge of constantly evolving AI technology. It’s on clients’ minds, and the ability to advise them in areas including document capture, data readiness and governance has “opened doors that a hardware conversation never would,” he noted. The cybersecurity business remains brisk, while the managed IT sector is experiencing challenges, given the crowded field and price to win. Meanwhile, Impact’s managed marketing is poised to grow on the strength of the profile being targeted.

Another change was beefing up Impact’s core of SMEs to accompany generalists and make each team stronger. “Our account reps own the relationship and the account plan, while specialists come in for technical depth,” Lepper said. “That’s kept our reps from having to be experts in everything but quality enough to drive conversations and identify pain points.”

Training geared toward products and solutions is ongoing, and there’s a focus on tailoring the dealer’s offerings to generate outcome-driven, business-level conversations. The fundamentals remain the same; although AI shortens prep time, it doesn’t shorten the relationship. Territory planning, activity discipline, referrals and showing up in person—at day’s end, Lepper believes they remain tenets for closing deals.

Expanded Conversations

The modern office dealer has more in common with a home interior designer than it does a 2010 provider. In the case of Green Office Partner, talk about boxes has expanded to conference room technology, document workflows, automation and IT-related areas. Co-founder Chris Gallagher wants his account reps to take a more consultative approach, and that entails getting an extensive tour of the prospect’s footprint. This allows them to see how their people work while also eyeballing potential issues and opportunities to help that may be unrelated to the initial engagement.

While the sales landscape is competitive in the dealer’s hometown of Chicago, Gallagher notes that vendor fatigue has taken hold, especially true in multi-location organizations. Having fewer partners also goes hand in hand with solutions to help simplify their tech environments. And it’s no coincidence that Green Office Partner has been positioned to address that complexity.

Technology is changing incredibly quickly. The importance of relationships isn’t.

– Chris Gallagher, Green Office Partner

Traditional managed print has given way to a more diverse game plan. “We’ve been building our approach around three ideas: modernize the workplace, manage the technology and automate the business,” Gallagher said. “Print remains an important part of our business, but today it can be the beginning of a much larger customer relationship.”

It’s not just embracing the dealer’s full product/service catalog; Gallagher wants reps to view prospects from a horizontal lens. For example, if Green Office Partner has a strong client relationship with IT around print, there are undoubtedly solutions to be delivered in the finance, HR, legal and facilities realms.

“That’s a major evolution in how we think about our business,” he said. “We don’t want to simply sell more products. We want Green Office Partner to become a more valuable technology partner to the customer.”

Gallagher is another believer in striking a balance between people and AI technology. The dealer developed a proposal generator using AI, and Gallagher was smitten after watching it in action for the first time. It allows account reps to input elements of the proposal and generate a near-finished offer in short order, eliminating the hours previously invested in creating slides, formatting information and rebuilding standard sections. Without the administrative tedium involved in traditional proposal building, the reps can now focus on refining the presentation, talking to clients and building relationships.

“At the same time, some of the most effective sales strategies haven’t changed,” Gallagher explained. “Get in front of the customer. Visit their workplace. Ask good questions. Understand what frustrates their employees. Then bring those conversations back to the team, and determine where we can help.

“Technology is changing incredibly quickly. The importance of relationships isn’t.”

Market vs. Market

One of the challenges in establishing a uniform sales approach is recognizing the unique characteristics of each market. That is certainly the case for Pearson-Kelly Technology of Springfield, Missouri.

Bill Fernandez, director of sales, notes that the company’s Springfield headquarters benefits from an established team and strong support structure. The Joplin branch serves a distinctly different market, with a strong blue-collar business community where relationships, local presence and trust play an especially important role in developing new business. As a result, success in Joplin often calls for a relationship-driven sales approach tailored to the local market.

Pearson-Kelly’s newest market, Northwest Arkansas, came through the acquisition of a company with more than 30 years of history in the region. During the first 18 to 24 months following the acquisition, much of the focus was on integration and transition. Fernandez has found Northwest Arkansas to be an extremely competitive market, particularly when it comes to attracting and retaining talent amid the presence of major retailers, food companies and distribution organizations.

I’ve got 10 people, and I have to manage each of them differently, primarily because of the Differences in the regions.

– Bill Fernandez, Pearson Kelly

The opening of a new Pearson-Kelly facility in Northwest Arkansas will provide additional resources and support as the company continues to expand its presence in the region.

“I’ve got 10 people, and I have to manage each of them differently, primarily because of the differences in the regions,” Fernandez said. “There are different challenges when you have more than one location. As we continue to grow, it’s something we’ll need to continue to manage and adapt to.”

In 2026, Pearson-Kelly’s sales strategy has centered on what the company calls its “prospect continuum”—placing a concentrated focus on a different line of business every one or two months. Focused training has been an important part of that strategy, helping sales representatives strengthen their knowledge and confidence when discussing the company’s broader technology portfolio.

The approach has contributed to record years for both VoIP and managed IT growth. Fernandez said the additional training has given sales representatives greater confidence when discussing more complex solutions such as managed IT, making those conversations more natural and effective.

“It’s made a big improvement across all four lines of our business, including printers and physical security,” he said. “The focused approach has made a big impact. We’re now more balanced than we were two years ago.”

While Pearson-Kelly continues to embrace technology-enabled sales tools, Fernandez believes there is still no substitute for traditional prospecting, including cold calling and face-to-face selling.

The company works closely with its OEM partners to leverage data and market intelligence to identify opportunities. Pearson-Kelly also partners with a third-party business development firm to conduct outbound prospecting, an approach that has helped strengthen lead generation while complementing the efforts of its internal sales team.

“We like to blend a mix of old and new selling methods, which has worked particularly well for us,” Fernandez said.