![\"John](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/john1-213x300.jpg\")
John Kuchta, President – SolutionOne – Lincoln, NE<\/p><\/div>\n
Eric Crane, president of Copy Products, Inc. in Springfield, MO finds that color is still a big selling point and interest in color devices throughout his customer base grows every day. \u201cWith the ticket price of a color machine coming down so much it\u2019s in reach of so many more customers,\u201d states Crane. \u201cWe live in a color world\u2014it\u2019s not black & white\u2014and color [documents] differentiates you from the competition. Color is growing and I don\u2019t see it shrinking at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copy Products, Inc. does a fair amount of placements in the production space thanks in large part to the high-end color Konica Minolta products they carry, although the company is also doing well with 25-55 ppm devices for general office use. \u201cThe color offerings in that space are outstanding and we see every customer looking for or asking about color,\u201d says Crane.<\/p>\n
Recent color placements include a construction company and a law firm. \u201cOne of the biggest things they ask about is quality,\u201d notes Crane. \u201cDollars and cents are always a factor, but if you have good quality output, a good quality product, and good quality service, which we have, you can get a few dollars more for your product as you should.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Eric](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/eric-239x300.jpg\")
Eric Crane, President – Copy Products, Inc Springfield, MO<\/p><\/div>\n
The pitch that Crane\u2019s reps use when selling color is a good one. \u201cWe tell them just like our office equipment represents us when we\u2019re not there, the documents your office equipment produces represents the customer when they\u2019re not there,\u201d says Crane.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest changes in Copy Products\u2019 approach to selling color over the years is who sells it. Like many dealers they used color specialists in the beginning, but now that it\u2019s become moremainstream, every rep sells color. \u201cWe still have techs that specialize in color on the production side because that market is a little bit different,\u201d reports Crane.<\/p>\n
What hasn\u2019t changed at Copy Products, Inc. are the sales incentives; monthly, quarterly, and yearly sales contests where sales reps can still earn double points whenever they sell a color device. \u201cWe emphasize that with color, so that\u2019s a big selling point,\u201d states Crane.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/2013_months\/feb2013\/img51.jpg\")
Glenn Plank – Spectrum Business – Huntington Beach, CA<\/p><\/div>\n
At SolutionOne in Lincoln, Nebraska, color represents about 30 percent of the dealership\u2019s total clicks. \u201cMy color volume is my indicator of what\u2019s going on out there,\u201d says John Kuchta, SolutionOne president. \u201cAs long as that trend line is more than 30 percent of my click total, we\u2019re doing a pretty good job of maintaining that color volume.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, his total click volume is up over last year by about a million clicks a month and of that figure about 300,000 is color.<\/p>\n
Kuchta has found that his customers are savvier about color and won\u2019t settle for less. \u201cToday quality is a given, you have to have quality or they won\u2019t even consider you.\u201d
\nSolutionOne sells Konica Minolta and Canon devices so when it comes to color quality and quality product he\u2019s in great shape on the quality front.<\/p>\n
Where he sees pushback is from customers concerned about controlling costs and limiting abuse. \u201cThat\u2019s primarily what my customers are talking to us about,\u201d says Kuchta. \u201cWe\u2019re leading with that and tell them, \u2018we can provide you with color and the means to manage your color output so it doesn\u2019t lose control and you have a cost edge.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The hottest Segments for SolutionOne are Segments 2, 3, and 4. \u201cMost customers we talk to today have black & white and are upgrading to a color-enabled device,\u201d explains Kuchta. \u201cWe tailor the contracts towards printing in B&W and have that at a minimum, and then they pay an overage for color. A lot of dealers think that\u2019s risky. I might lose on a few that are only generating 5 or 10 percent in color, but I\u2019m making it up on others that are running 40 or 50 percent in color.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCustomers are constantly asking for color, including industries that have traditionally not,\u201d reports Glenn Plank with Spectrum Business Centers in Huntington Beach, CA.<\/p>\n
Plank has found that a client in the mortgage industry, which has never used color in the past, is now adding a color device to their network because they want to scan appraisals in color even though some black & white machines can do color scanning, but also for advertising, mailings, and flyers to get new business.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/2013_months\/feb2013\/img52.jpg\")
Chip Miceli, President – DPOE – Des Plaines, IL<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not in the day-to-day operation, it\u2019s the advertising where they find they need that color,\u201d states Plank. \u201cThat\u2019s an industry that\u2019s traditionally not used color except for appraisals. It\u2019s not that they do a ton of color, but it\u2019s building.\u201d<\/p>\n
He hasn\u2019t found any customers who acquired a color machine in the past switch back to monochrome. \u201cSome are apprehensive because of the cost, or they\u2019ve had it for awhile and then when they revisit it they\u2019re more aware that they need to control their color costs and that\u2019s where we bring up user account limits or user access codes to help restrict color usage,\u201d says Plank.<\/p>\n
However, limiting access to color isn\u2019t always worth the trouble. \u201cA lot of times we see people want to implement that off the bat and then they find it\u2019s difficult and cumbersome within the office space,\u201d notes Plank. \u201cIt\u2019s more of a human resources issue than a cost issue. \u2018How come X can print in color and Y can\u2019t?\u2019 Then they tend to remove that over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the color devices that Spectrum sells fit squarely into their wheelhouse\u2014small and medium-size businesses. Those models tend to be in the 30-50 ppm range.<\/p>\n
On the volume front Plank\u2019s seen volumes increase tremendously during the past few months in both color and black & white. \u201cIt\u2019s in many different industries with home builders and mortgage companies leading the way, but we\u2019re starting to see it now in many other industries,\u201d says Plank. \u201cIt\u2019s a good trend, we like what we see coming and where it seems to be going.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as color capabilities, Plank believes color has reached the point where the quality is pretty darn good. Spectrum doesn\u2019t service the print shop so the focus is on business color where customers are less demanding. His customers are pleased with the quality of the color.<\/p>\n
But what\u2019s made a difference for many of Spectrum\u2019s customers is the ability to print on thicker postcard stock. \u201cNow they can print a postcard-type mailer or something more substantial on thicker paper that they can run through all the trays on the machine,\u201d says Plank. \u201cIt\u2019s not so much that the color quality is improving, but the quality of the papers and thickness of papers the machines can handle reliably, and that\u2019s been a big boost to help people embrace it a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chip Miceli, president of DPOE, in Des Plaines, IL, has been pleasantly surprised by the new Sharp high-end Polaris column systems. His customers tend to be concerned about the cost per copy of colord ocuments and concerned that employees will abuse the system. For those customers, DPOE can offer a solution. \u201cWe\u2019ve put into place a lot of restrictions when we install a color copier so they don\u2019t get these large bills on the color side,\u201d says Miceli.<\/p>\n
Unlike Plank, Miceli has found that once those restrictions are in place, they\u2019re usually there to stay. Others customers who didn\u2019t put those restrictions in initially occasionally come back to DPOE and inquire about ways to reduce those costs.<\/p>\n
![\"Ben](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ben-234x300.jpg\")
Ben Russert, President – ProSource – Cincinnati, OH<\/p><\/div>\n
Besides placing color devices in the general office space, DPOE is making inroads into the production environment. \u201cThe new Sharp color products are selling a lot better than I ever dreamed they would in the production space,\u201d beams Miceli.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s great news, especially since he didn\u2019t have any relationships with those companies before he had a color device to meet their requirements. He\u2019s also finding that many current customers are now embracing color, specifically churches.<\/p>\n
The biggest opportunities have been with customers who haven\u2019t had a color device before, especially those who have been outsourcing their color work. \u201cWe take the consultant approach rather than just trying to sell them a box that has color,\u201d says Miceli.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s resonating with customers are the faster color devices even in the office space. \u201cWe\u2019re selling a lot of the 50 ppm machines,\u201d says Miceli. \u201cWe\u2019re selling more of that than the 36 ppm machine. A lot of companies that are cutting back on the number of machines are looking for machines that are more robust so they don\u2019t have any issues over the next five years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even better, DPOE has found that once customers see these new color devices, they have a hard time saying no. \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve lost a demo on this new Polaris product from Sharp yet,\u201d reports Miceli.
\nWhen it comes to customer expectations, if DPOE is introducing color for the first time the customer doesn\u2019t have anything to compare it to so it\u2019s not an issue. If they\u2019ve already had a color product they\u2019re fussier about color quality and some of the additional features available on the machines DPOE is replacing. For example, some of those devices had Fiery controllers. \u201cThat becomes an issue for us because the Sharp doesn\u2019t have a Fiery,\u201d acknowledges Miceli. \u201cIf the customer is used to a Fiery, that\u2019s hard to overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like many dealers Miceli used color specialists in the beginning and still has one for the Sharp Polaris products, but he\u2019s found that his down-the-street reps can also successfully sell these devices. He still offers his reps incentives for color sales\u20145 percent of the GP if they add color to an organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo question more customers are asking about [color],\u201d adds Ben Russert, president of ProSource in Cincinnati, OH. ProSource is doing well with production and general office color.<\/p>\n
While you occasionally hear of businesses that purchased a color device go back to monochrome, that\u2019s not what Russert has experienced. \u201cBy and large people have figured out what to print or not print in color,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019ve gotten a lot smarter about their printing and they definitely like color, and don\u2019t give it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although those who have been selling color for years are well aware of how the technology has improved, Russert\u2019s customers are picking up on it too. \u201cCopy and print quality is so much better and they notice it.\u201d<\/p>\n
ProSource has been doing well of late with Konica Minolta\u2019s Segment 3, 4, and 5 color devices as well as the 8000 series for higher end production applications.
\nUnlike Crane, Russert doesn\u2019t offer his reps incentives for selling color. They do lead with the color devices, and in his market that\u2019s in synch with what his customers and prospects expect. \u201cGenerally, people expect equipment to have color and we don\u2019t have to promote it heavily even though there\u2019s a lot of pressure on price.\u201d<\/p>\n
After talking to these five dealers it\u2019s clear that the days when a color copier was a novelty or a device targeted at specific vertical markets is long gone as color technology has become firmly embraced by a wider swath of the office technology buying public across a range of vertical markets. And that\u2019s a good thing, even in the age of solutions and services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you\u2019ve been around this industry as long as I have you probably remember the year of color. That was the year customers fully embraced color copiers and the market took off like a rocket. What year was that? You probably don\u2019t remember the exact year since this was something that was predicted by industry prognosticators for about five straight years. I guess if you make that prediction enough times eventually you\u2019ll get it right. And that\u2019s kind of what happened although it didn\u2019t happen overnight. Now that color technology seems commonplace I thought it would be interesting to look at where we are now by getting a sense of customer\u2019s attitudes about color. Are they asking for it, what are their page volumes looking like compared to black & white, are they happy with the current technology offerings, what speed ranges are the most popular within the general office space, and how many have found that after using it for a few years they decided they\u2019d much rather have a monochrome device? Five dealers across the country, some large, some midsize, some small, share what\u2019s happening within their markets and with their customers about the current state of color technology. Their comments may not paint a definitive picture, but they are enlightening all the same. Eric Crane, president of Copy Products, Inc. in Springfield, MO finds that color is still a big selling point and interest in color devices throughout his customer base grows every day. \u201cWith the ticket price of a color machine coming down so much it\u2019s in reach of so many more customers,\u201d states Crane. \u201cWe live in a color world\u2014it\u2019s not black & white\u2014and color [documents] differentiates you from the competition. Color is growing and I don\u2019t see it shrinking at all.\u201d Copy Products, Inc. does a fair amount of placements in the production space thanks in large part to the high-end color Konica Minolta products they carry, although the company is also doing well with 25-55 ppm devices for general office use. \u201cThe color offerings in that space are outstanding and we see every customer looking for or asking about color,\u201d says Crane. Recent color placements include a construction company and a law firm. \u201cOne of the biggest things they ask about is quality,\u201d notes Crane. \u201cDollars and cents are always a factor, but if you have good quality output, a good quality product, and good quality service, which we have, you can get a few dollars more for your product as you should.\u201d The pitch that Crane\u2019s reps use when selling color is a good one. \u201cWe tell them just like our office equipment represents us when we\u2019re not there, the documents your office equipment produces represents the customer when they\u2019re not there,\u201d says Crane. One of the biggest changes in Copy Products\u2019 approach to selling color over the years is who sells it. Like many dealers they used color specialists in the beginning, but now that it\u2019s become moremainstream, every rep sells color. \u201cWe still have techs that specialize in color on the production side because that market is a little bit different,\u201d reports Crane. What hasn\u2019t changed at Copy Products, Inc. are the sales incentives; monthly, quarterly, and yearly sales contests where sales reps can still earn double points whenever they sell a color device. \u201cWe emphasize that with color, so that\u2019s a big selling point,\u201d states Crane. At SolutionOne in Lincoln, Nebraska, color represents about 30 percent of the dealership\u2019s total clicks. \u201cMy color volume is my indicator of what\u2019s going on out there,\u201d says John Kuchta, SolutionOne president. \u201cAs long as that trend line is more than 30 percent of my click total, we\u2019re doing a pretty good job of maintaining that color volume.\u201d Overall, his total click volume is up over last year by about a million clicks a month and of that figure about 300,000 is color. Kuchta has found that his customers are savvier about color and won\u2019t settle for less. \u201cToday quality is a given, you have to have quality or they won\u2019t even consider you.\u201d SolutionOne sells Konica Minolta and Canon devices so when it comes to color quality and quality product he\u2019s in great shape on the quality front. Where he sees pushback is from customers concerned about controlling costs and limiting abuse. \u201cThat\u2019s primarily what my customers are talking to us about,\u201d says Kuchta. \u201cWe\u2019re leading with that and tell them, \u2018we can provide you with color and the means to manage your color output so it doesn\u2019t lose control and you have a cost edge.\u2019\u201d The hottest Segments for SolutionOne are Segments 2, 3, and 4. \u201cMost customers we talk to today have black & white and are upgrading to a color-enabled device,\u201d explains Kuchta. \u201cWe tailor the contracts towards printing in B&W and have that at a minimum, and then they pay an overage for color. A lot of dealers think that\u2019s risky. I might lose on a few that are only generating 5 or 10 percent in color, but I\u2019m making it up on others that are running 40 or 50 percent in color.\u201d \u201cCustomers are constantly asking for color, including industries that have traditionally not,\u201d reports Glenn Plank with Spectrum Business Centers in Huntington Beach, CA. Plank has found that a client in the mortgage industry, which has never used color in the past, is now adding a color device to their network because they want to scan appraisals in color even though some black & white machines can do color scanning, but also for advertising, mailings, and flyers to get new business. \u201cIt\u2019s not in the day-to-day operation, it\u2019s the advertising where they find they need that color,\u201d states Plank. \u201cThat\u2019s an industry that\u2019s traditionally not used color except for appraisals. It\u2019s not that they do a ton of color, but it\u2019s building.\u201d He hasn\u2019t found any customers who acquired a color machine in the past switch back to monochrome. \u201cSome are apprehensive because of the cost, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1649,1814,1641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9681"}],"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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9681"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9686,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9681\/revisions\/9686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}