This week Lew Watson, senior account manager with Systel Communications in Fayetville, NC, discusses what’s hot and what’s not in his market. Systel, one of the largest dealers in the Southeast, sells Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Panasonic, and HP products as well as offers a wide range of services and solutions.
What’s hot?
Watson: We’ve come off several large deals selling traditional box models, the solutions sales are extremely hot, we’re doing some add-ons with MPS. I think how the rep gets paid is a bigger challenge on the software and solutions side. The rental and refurbished market is extremely hot. A lot of customers are looking for that low-cost entry point.
What’s not?
Watson: Obviously, fax is out. We really thought A4 was going to take off and crush the A3 market; we’ve seen pockets of it, but unless you present an A4, the customer prefers an A3 model and the A3 models are so much better. Customers many times are willing to pay that additional cost to get a better quality product.
