![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/David-Clearman-Muratec.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
senior director of sales
and marketing, Muratec<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Equally as exciting, however, is Clearman\u2019s quest to open up the dealer\u2019s world to include small- to mid-volume inkjet and toner label devices, with a focus on the myriad of packaging label applications. With higher margins and ample recurring revenue opportunities to peddle supplies and substrates, Clearman is tasked with educating dealers on the abundance of opportunities and acquainting them with new talk tracks and terminology. It involves engaging a different set of personas within a client\u2019s organization, but these audiences are ready and willing to have a conversation. In fact, Clearman believes that up to 80% of dealers are well positioned to add label and packaging solutions to their arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The end game, from Clearman\u2019s perspective, is to not only introduce dealers to a rich, new revenue stream\u2014a welcome addition at a time when A4 gear is ciphering business share from larger, more-profitable A3 units\u2014but also position Muratec\u2019s KM-addled product line as an argument in favor of garnering primary vendor status among dealers. Clearman shares the challenges Muratec has encountered with exiting the pandemic and the quest to parlay a high volume of activity into sales success heading into 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From a hardware placement standpoint, where have you seen the greatest success in the past year? What verticals have proven to be the most fruitful?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearman<\/strong>: We have seen a big increase in dispersed workers. Companies are coming back to work, either in their home offices or smaller offices, and are needing technology and capabilities. But they may not require that big, centrally located A3 device cranking out copies. We\u2019re not seeing businesses coming back to these large offices full of people, cubes and centralized printing. We\u2019ve seen a huge run on anything from 25 to 45 copies per minute on the MFP side. Color certainly has been a big part of that. Higher scan volume is great, and we\u2019ve naturally seen a spike in A4 volume. Muratec has been an A4 company for 25 years, so we\u2019re kind of getting back to our roots from that standpoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Provide some insight into Muratec\u2019s strategic approach during the pandemic and how it pivoted to meet the needs of its reseller partners.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearman<\/strong>: We haven\u2019t changed too much. We\u2019ve tried to stick to our basic strategy, which is to be easy to work with, easy to do business with\u2014that\u2019s a message our president, Jim D\u2019Emidio, often cites. We know dealers can\u2019t carry a lot of inventory, and we\u2019re OK with that. We want to provide the best support and pricing possible. Our small- to mid-sized dealers are looking for a way to do business with their customers without having to jump through a lot of hoops with their manufacturer. We\u2019ve never had quotas for our dealers. Last November, we started offering more bundles, an MFP combo package in which a dealer can select a package without adding bits and pieces. Dealers can select bundle A, which provides a 35-copy-per-minute MFP and all the peripherals. That\u2019s been well received. We need to be flexible when the dealer requires some kind of special program on the fly, and we can make it happen. We emphasizing that with our dealer partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How would you characterize the first half of 2021? Are we seeing a return to previous demand levels?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearman<\/strong>: The first half of the year has been tricky. It\u2019s been extremely hectic and busy with calls for pricing and opportunity questions, as well as inventory issues. We didn\u2019t see business ramp up to normal levels in the first half. It\u2019s been a little slower from a sales standpoint, but the activity has been fabulous. If we can get all of those deals closed that Muratec and the dealers have worked on, we\u2019ll be in great shape. We have to work around inventories, expectations and dealers having to replace devices they wouldn\u2019t normally replace. The dealers are seeing different types of volumes\u2014higher volumes from their lower-end machines but typically not the bigger devices. As for run rates, some of those devices in the field are still quiet. The large workgroup machines are showing little to no volume. Dealers are still trying to tackle that, and we\u2019re trying to help them out with other devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know that we\u2019re going to get back to our previous demand levels from a volume standpoint. We see offices changing. I was in Atlanta a few weeks ago, and office buildings that were once packed on a daily basis now only have eight cars in the parking lot. That tells me they\u2019re doing business in different ways, and dealers have to figure out how to help those smaller, dispersed workgroups do business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been four years since Muratec was acquired by Konica Minolta. Talk about how this partnership has shaped Muratec and its ability to scale in the office technology space.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearman<\/strong>: It\u2019s been quite a ride. It took a bit more time than expected to get acclimated to being acquired by a large company. We went from having three people in our marketing department to 40. From a marketing and support standpoint, it has been quite a learning curve. Our expectations of the product have definitely increased our confidence with the dealers. I\u2019ve been with Muratec for 26 years, and this is the first time we\u2019ve had a full MFP product line. We also have access to Konica Minolta\u2019s support and that has been a big plus. We used to have four regional guys who covered the whole country, and now we have 20 in each region, addressing the sales, support and service sides. It was quite an eye opener to be brought into the organization, but it\u2019s been good. It\u2019s raised our level of expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the label market expected to reach $41 billion by 2024, how is Muratec engaging with dealers in a consultative manner to take advantage of that growth trajectory?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearman<\/strong>: This is the most exciting part of my job right now. The label and packaging industry is really coming to us and the dealers will soon recognize these opportunities. Dealers such as Pacific Office Automation have embraced it and are having success. We have a dedicated team that supports both the Muratec and the Konica Minolta dealer channels. Our guys talk directly to our dealers and area sales managers, and we\u2019re supporting them. Our team talks with production print specialists, regional sales managers, dealer business managers, dealer reps, etc., about labels and if they need us, we engage directly with the prospect to offer samples or just talk terminologies or processes that the dealer may not be comfortable with yet. This is still about putting images on paper, and I remind the dealers of this during my presentations. Instead of paper, we call it media, and it\u2019s on a roll. It\u2019s not really about changing a dealer\u2019s paradigm, but rather providing insight into terminology and industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The label and packaging industry is really coming to us and the dealers will soon recognize these opportunities. Dealers such as Pacific Office Automation have embraced it and are having success.<\/p>\u2014 David Clearman, Muratec<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n When dealers approach a customer or print shop, they\u2019re going to be asked different questions by a different group of people. Our label team of subject matter experts (SMEs) is there to explain everything so that the dealer can quickly become comfortable with the talk track. That\u2019s taken a little more time than we\u2019ve expected. When we jumped into the label business seven years ago, we thought the dealers would embrace it more quickly. It\u2019s been slower, which is understandable. It can be somewhat intimidating when a customer starts asking questions about media and top coating. That\u2019s where our education and support come into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it a matter of dealers needing to market label printers more aggressively?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearman<\/strong>: We have collateral pieces there for support, but I tell dealers to keep it simple. If a field rep can ask a few extra questions during sales calls, they can find out if there\u2019s a label opportunity. One of the challenges is dealers are going to be calling on different types of businesses. They\u2019re used to meeting with a business manager or office administrator, but the label and packaging conversation is usually geared toward a marketing person or production manager. Fortunately, people in those positions are often willing to talk, even on a cold call. I\u2019ve done tons of cold calls with dealers, and the marketing or production people will say, \u201cOK, what do you have for me?\u201d It is a focused conversation, and we usually know right away if this is a prospect or not. Many dealers want to know, \u201cWhat do I do if they say yes?\u201d That\u2019s when dealers can call me and my specialists, and we can continue that conversation. But it\u2019s certainly a growth area for dealers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The entry-level to mid volume label market is a very specific group, but it\u2019s also a wide one. I\u2019d say 80% of our dealers can handle this type of product.<\/p>\u2014 David Clearman, Muratec<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n When dealers are ready to take that next step in the process, we provide sample kits that explain what\u2019s in the package. One of our devices is a press that prints images on corrugated boxes. We\u2019ll put a kit together that is a printed box with labels inside. Reps can provide the box, with their business card inside, to a production or marketing manager at a company such as a print shop. If the client has a question, they can call the rep and have a conversation. Aside from the terminology, the maintenance programs are a little different. It\u2019s not a cost-per-copy\/label program, but we can put them on an all-in-one program. The margins are really nice for the dealers. Right now, there\u2019s not another manufacturer that is really talking about labels and packaging like Konica Minolta. Our customer engagement center (CEC) in New Jersey is filled with packaging, wide-format and label devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are the recurring revenue opportunities with label printers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearman<\/strong>: There are standard consumables\u2014inks, print heads\u2014and when they run out, clients can pick up the phone and call up their dealer. Most dealers will put these on a maintenance agreement as opposed to cost per copy. These machines are not service-intensive, because they don\u2019t have a lot of moving parts, so the margins are going to be high because there\u2019s not a lot of servicing post-installation. We also have approved media from five different vendors that supply media ranging from basic paper label stock to synthetic media, glossy BOPP, estate paper and others. That\u2019s a new revenue stream that they don\u2019t see on any other product, aside from wide-format. Some dealers may not want to deal with the media, but most will once they see the potential margins. If they don\u2019t want to handle it, we can do direct dropships to the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Talk a little about the vertical potential you see in packaging. Is this a tougher sell for the typical office dealer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearman<\/strong>: An example that I use is breweries. They are attractive because there\u2019s a label on every beer bottle and 50% of all beer cans. But they are also one of the hardest sales you\u2019ll get from a label perspective, because breweries want to spend money on making more beer and the packaging is not always a priority. The best areas to focus on are those where the emphasis is on the product info, ingredient accuracy and clarity, presentation and marketing as opposed to sheer volumes of packages. Industries like chemical\/cleaning, pet pharmaceuticals, CBD and cannabis. If a dealer calls on one of those businesses, in which short- to mid-run labels are important, they are on the right track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sales process can be quick. During the first two months of the pandemic, we had a dealer that had been calling on a chemical company for labels. The end-user couldn\u2019t get labels from their regular vendor for the hand sanitizer they were producing, so they inquired about making the labels in-house. That deal went from order, to shipment, to up and running in five days, and it was a profitable sale for the dealer. In some cases, these deals can get pretty competitive on a cost per page or cost per label, and that may extend the sales cycle. If you talk to a print shop, they typically want to see samples, see it output and put it under a loupe. That\u2019s where we come in and help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It should be easier for dealers once they wrap their heads around it, because their competitors aren\u2019t typically other dealers. They\u2019re mainly competing with regional print shops or online providers. The potential customers are already purchasing their labels. If they bring label production in-house, turnaround time will be better, and the convenience and creative factors go up\u2014things that are worth a lot to these customers. It\u2019s about more than price; they need to be high quality and durable. We educate the dealer regarding expectation-setting for customers. The entry-level to mid-volume label market is a very specific group, but it\u2019s also a wide one. I\u2019d say 80% of our dealers can handle this type of product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is there anything new on the horizon from a product or partnership standpoint?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearman<\/strong>: There\u2019s a number of things going on that we can\u2019t share with the masses just yet. Konica Minolta is constantly introducing new products in production print and industrial print, which my group doesn\u2019t directly support. One update is a fifth station for white printing on its higher-end toner label device. Konica Minolta and Muratec have a desire to grow this label and packaging division, which is exciting. The CEC in Ramsey contains a lot of products that are geared toward packaging, labeling and embellishment. We\u2019ll continue to work with our partners, such as Memjet and MTeX, which are building new products. Our product development team will determine which ones we think are going to be effective in the U.S and we\u2019ll continue to get better products that cover more of the print segment that we\u2019re targeting. We have to make sure that the dealers know that we have these products and that they can sell them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is Muratec looking to accomplish in the second half of 2021 and into the new year?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearman<\/strong>: We\u2019re continuing to ramp up. Last November, we got the full product line in place, so we\u2019re still getting this product out to our current dealers. We\u2019re probably going to be looking at a new group of dealers. We historically have sought opportunities in different markets and geographies as a secondary or tertiary vendor. With the full product line and now with the labels, companies will recognize our ability to be their primary vendor. That is our focus. As other manufacturers start to fall out of the industry and the segment, we\u2019re going to be there to pick up where they left off. I challenge my guys to talk to as many dealers as they can about taking on Muratec as their primary vendor and what that means. We know the dealers well and understand what they\u2019re looking for from a standpoint of service and service revenue expectations. This is not our first rodeo in supporting the dealers. We\u2019re excited about the possibilities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Konica Minolta Business Solutions acquired Muratec America four years ago, David Clearman\u2019s world suddenly became a lot larger. Now, with the former\u2019s complete product line at his company\u2019s disposal, Clearman\u2014Muratec\u2019s senior director of sales and marketing\u2014is keen on proliferating these products and services to go wider and deeper with new and existing accounts. Equally as exciting, however, is Clearman\u2019s quest to open up the dealer\u2019s world to include small- to mid-volume inkjet and toner label devices, with a focus on the myriad of packaging label applications. With higher margins and ample recurring revenue opportunities to peddle supplies and substrates, Clearman is tasked with educating dealers on the abundance of opportunities and acquainting them with new talk tracks and terminology. It involves engaging a different set of personas within a client\u2019s organization, but these audiences are ready and willing to have a conversation. In fact, Clearman believes that up to 80% of dealers are well positioned to add label and packaging solutions to their arsenal. The end game, from Clearman\u2019s perspective, is to not only introduce dealers to a rich, new revenue stream\u2014a welcome addition at a time when A4 gear is ciphering business share from larger, more-profitable A3 units\u2014but also position Muratec\u2019s KM-addled product line as an argument in favor of garnering primary vendor status among dealers. Clearman shares the challenges Muratec has encountered with exiting the pandemic and the quest to parlay a high volume of activity into sales success heading into 2022. From a hardware placement standpoint, where have you seen the greatest success in the past year? What verticals have proven to be the most fruitful? Clearman: We have seen a big increase in dispersed workers. Companies are coming back to work, either in their home offices or smaller offices, and are needing technology and capabilities. But they may not require that big, centrally located A3 device cranking out copies. We\u2019re not seeing businesses coming back to these large offices full of people, cubes and centralized printing. We\u2019ve seen a huge run on anything from 25 to 45 copies per minute on the MFP side. Color certainly has been a big part of that. Higher scan volume is great, and we\u2019ve naturally seen a spike in A4 volume. Muratec has been an A4 company for 25 years, so we\u2019re kind of getting back to our roots from that standpoint. Provide some insight into Muratec\u2019s strategic approach during the pandemic and how it pivoted to meet the needs of its reseller partners. Clearman: We haven\u2019t changed too much. We\u2019ve tried to stick to our basic strategy, which is to be easy to work with, easy to do business with\u2014that\u2019s a message our president, Jim D\u2019Emidio, often cites. We know dealers can\u2019t carry a lot of inventory, and we\u2019re OK with that. We want to provide the best support and pricing possible. Our small- to mid-sized dealers are looking for a way to do business with their customers without having to jump through a lot of hoops with their manufacturer. We\u2019ve never had quotas for our dealers. Last November, we started offering more bundles, an MFP combo package in which a dealer can select a package without adding bits and pieces. Dealers can select bundle A, which provides a 35-copy-per-minute MFP and all the peripherals. That\u2019s been well received. We need to be flexible when the dealer requires some kind of special program on the fly, and we can make it happen. We emphasizing that with our dealer partners. How would you characterize the first half of 2021? Are we seeing a return to previous demand levels? Clearman: The first half of the year has been tricky. It\u2019s been extremely hectic and busy with calls for pricing and opportunity questions, as well as inventory issues. We didn\u2019t see business ramp up to normal levels in the first half. It\u2019s been a little slower from a sales standpoint, but the activity has been fabulous. If we can get all of those deals closed that Muratec and the dealers have worked on, we\u2019ll be in great shape. We have to work around inventories, expectations and dealers having to replace devices they wouldn\u2019t normally replace. The dealers are seeing different types of volumes\u2014higher volumes from their lower-end machines but typically not the bigger devices. As for run rates, some of those devices in the field are still quiet. The large workgroup machines are showing little to no volume. Dealers are still trying to tackle that, and we\u2019re trying to help them out with other devices. I don\u2019t know that we\u2019re going to get back to our previous demand levels from a volume standpoint. We see offices changing. I was in Atlanta a few weeks ago, and office buildings that were once packed on a daily basis now only have eight cars in the parking lot. That tells me they\u2019re doing business in different ways, and dealers have to figure out how to help those smaller, dispersed workgroups do business. It\u2019s been four years since Muratec was acquired by Konica Minolta. Talk about how this partnership has shaped Muratec and its ability to scale in the office technology space. Clearman: It\u2019s been quite a ride. It took a bit more time than expected to get acclimated to being acquired by a large company. We went from having three people in our marketing department to 40. From a marketing and support standpoint, it has been quite a learning curve. Our expectations of the product have definitely increased our confidence with the dealers. I\u2019ve been with Muratec for 26 years, and this is the first time we\u2019ve had a full MFP product line. We also have access to Konica Minolta\u2019s support and that has been a big plus. We used to have four regional guys who covered the whole country, and now we have 20 in each region, addressing the sales, support and service sides. It was quite an eye opener to be brought into the organization, but it\u2019s been good. It\u2019s raised our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2938],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46328"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46333,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46328\/revisions\/46333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}