Pivoting the Office Products Dealer Toward a Digital Future

It is essential to understand that there are no silver bullets for traffic development. Still, consistent hard work can result in high-quality, relevant visits from users who spend more time on your website. This combination ultimately fulfils the objective of increasing a business’s online profile.

Setting realistic goals and consistently working on a sound strategy over time is imperative for achieving traffic development goals.

Content Strategy and Task Outline for Developing Web Traffic:

• Publish and maintain a conforming website with high-quality content, meta titles, descriptions, URLs, internal links, etc.
• Intelligently incorporate well-researched keywords within your competitive range.
• Conduct an exemplary reputation management policy covering domain and IP reputation.
• Execute strategies to develop direct traffic and email traffic.
• Execute a link-building strategy to improve Domain Authority and Search Engine Performance Results (SERPs).
• Develop and start to execute a brand development strategy designed to improve Brand Authority.

Making the Most of Social Media

While we will regularly post content on your LinkedIn and Facebook social media sites, this activity only represents half of the required job. Unless engagement with that content takes place, then the impact of the postings will be negligible.

Some may wonder what the point of posting to social media is, but it makes more sense when you think of these platforms in the context of the average person spending a little over 2 hours daily on their favourite social sites. This is where most of the population has chosen to spend a significant portion of their day, making social media a powerful tool for developing brand awareness.

There are two requirements to kickstart the effort.

1. All company employees must be encouraged to like, share, and comment on the content posted to your company pages. In doing so, the “reach” of the content is exponentially increased. To accomplish this, it should become routine for employees to spend half an hour daily performing this activity. By increasing the “reach,” we mean the number of impressions (appearances on members’ timelines) will be increased. By increasing the number of impressions, the number of clicks will be increased, the number of website visits will be increased, and the possibility of earning additional likes, shares, and comments will also be increased.
2. It is desirable to increase the audience size because the larger the audience, the greater the potential for likes, shares, and comments. However, we must be careful when we talk about increasing the audience size because the audience must be carefully cultivated so it consists of relevant members. Your role in this cultivation process is crucial, as it ensures the audience isn’t just about the numbers but the focus on relevance, which is what makes it valuable.

Our approach to social media is about more than just developing sales opportunities or increasing the size of the audience. It’s about thoughtfully doing both. Each action you take on social media should be a plan to maximise our brand’s reach and impact strategically and be part of a larger plan.

Every salesperson has customers and prospects, and almost every one of these customers and prospects has their own social media accounts where they post content as part of their brand awareness programs. Just like you, they also want to grow their audience and get the audience to like, share, and comment on their postings. Think of this as an opportunity.

As we already noted, it is getting more difficult to get conventional sales appointments, so rather than flogging a dead horse and trying to get appointments using yesterday’s approach, the tactics to get in front of potential customers and even existing customers must change. You will get noticed by liking, sharing, and commenting on your customer’s social posts. Over time, the companies whose posts you engage with are more likely to follow you back and engage with your content. Using this tactic strategically and intelligently is far more likely to earn click-backs to your website and the possibility for ongoing engagement with your value proposition.

Liking and sharing content is essential for expanding the content reach (audience), and Facebook is an important platform for posting. However, family and friends frequently use Facebook for personal posts, so it is essential to establish a firewall between personal and business activity. The Facebook settings for achieving this can easily be overlooked, so below is a gallery of images that walk you through the required settings.

The campaign is not intended as a direct attempt to sell anything. Instead, it is designed to raise awareness of a brand amongst an existing email and social audience by using thoughtful content to resonate with many of the problems existing and prospective customers are also likely to be facing.

The email campaign content is divided into four phases, with each stage consisting of a different topic group:

1. 1. Smaller businesses face a monumental challenge as internet traffic increasingly concentrates on giant companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc. As more and more business activities are conducted online, developing the online presence of smaller local businesses has never been more critical. Unfortunately, it has also never been more challenging to do so. The three pieces of “local-theme” content that form phase 1 of the campaign are to explain the importance of local businesses’ role in a healthy economy and position your dealership as a company that understands technology is necessary to be a viable business in the digital economy. While many companies may be willing to consider doing business with a local provider, the performance requirements have been significantly increased because consumers have become accustomed to the superior service levels offered by Amazon and other online behemoths. For a smaller company lacking the technology platform necessary to deliver comparable service, competing regardless of their local presence becomes increasingly challenging.
   2. To leverage its position (relationships) in its local market, a local business must deploy technology designed to gather data to convert into business intelligence. Once in possession of the business intelligence, it must leverage this information to “get ahead of the curve” and protect its existing business (and gain new business), knowing Amazon and other behemoths do not have access to the same information.
   3. Total Cost of Ownership – many consumers are driven to make their purchase decisions by the sticker price. However, the sticker price often may not accurately indicate the total cost of ownership over the device’s expected lifetime. The educational content is written to demonstrate expertise in understanding the TCO, which is valuable to potential customers contemplating a new purchase.
   4. Information Technology – there has been an ongoing transition for business and consumer transactions to go online. Unfortunately, most small businesses have not developed an online presence and are bypassed as traffic defaults to larger companies with a commanding online presence. Unfortunately for smaller businesses, the trend to conduct business online is not likely to be reversed and, if anything, is more likely to continue to accelerate. The educational content distributed in the campaign is written to resonate with existing and potential customers about the common problems they face. In resonating with the audience, the company’s position will be elevated amongst its audience, who will be motivated to:
      1. Learn more about the links between information technology and a local business’s survival ability in the digital world.
      2. The vital role the Internet of Things plays in this process, and;
      3. How closely intertwined technology and the total cost of ownership is.

Below are links to the 12 pieces of awareness campaign content organized by topic group and dispatch sequence.

The primary goal of the awareness campaign is to educate and develop additional engagement with the audience through secondary and tertiary materials linked to each topic theme. The supplemental materials are accessible on the client’s website, which becomes the beneficiary of repeated visits. As contacts engage with the different materials, we develop a more detailed understanding of their interests. For example, some contacts may fully engage with the Local Business Topic; others may more fully engage with the Internet of Things topic. In learning where the highest levels of interest lie, the dealer’s sales team becomes empowered to offer carefully targeted demos, trials, and online meetings and eventually prepare and submit proposals for a new business that closely aligns with the customers’ needs.

Tip of the day!

Most email campaigns fail to fulfil their potential because goals for the campaign are not established in advance and because potentially valuable follow-up actions are not carried out.

1. Campaign Goals. Each email is prepared with a goal: to click the embedded link and access the educational content. Nothing is threatening about the email or its “ask.” For free, valuable educational content is provided on a relevant topic expected to resonate.
2. If This, Then That (iTtT). Contact engagement is the objective of the campaign. As contacts engage with the emails (opening, clicking) and reading the content, they will become educated on the subject matter and, secondly, develop an improved awareness of the client brand. Gradually, the client’s online presence will improve along with its brand recognition. However, the full potential will fail to be recognised despite this kind of activity unless subsequent steps are pre-planned and executed. This is where the iTtT rules come into play, as every potential source of engagement in the campaign has the next activity already pre-planned.
3. The Hand-Off. Automation and email messaging can only go so far. When used wisely to deliver the right content to the right person at the right time, email can still be an effective marketing channel. However, at some point, a hand-off must occur from the automated process to a live person if progress through the buying “journey” is to continue toward the ultimate goal of conducting a sales transaction. The provided email campaign builds awareness (stage 1) and establishes a transition toward the consideration (second) stage. A salesperson must then take over to effectively orchestrate the remainder of the consideration stage and the transition to the decision stages of the buying journey.

Although the awareness campaign is not a direct attempt to sell anything, there must still be defined paths toward pre-set goals for winning new business. Here are examples of two sets of goals: one for a contact who is already a customer and another for a prospect.

It is generally understood there is a greater possibility of doing more business with an existing customer than there is of winning business from a new customer.

Existing Customer Goal – launch an all-out effort to deploy the DCA throughout the customer base and work toward monetizing 100% of the monitored print devices. Deploy the 2clixz App to remove friction points associated with service calls, manual meter reads, and emergency consumables supply. Then, work to expand the reach of the DCA to capture remote employee locations.

Please click this link for an example of a landing page explaining the value of expanding the DCA coverage to capture additional machines.

Prospect Goal – Conduct a demonstration of the Data Collection Agent and obtain an agreement for a “no-obligation” install of the DCA to gather data and prepare a proposal. Be ready to include an offer for the 2clixz App as a differentiator to improve the client process of submitting service/repair requests and ink & toner supply orders.

Deploying the 2clixz App establishes the foundation for developing upsell and cross-sell opportunities. However, simultaneously and perhaps more significantly, starting to establish a user base with the 2clixz App creates the potential for initiating a less conventional market development opportunity. We will expand on this potential in Section 14 – “Selling an Unconventional Value Proposition Suited to the New Normal.”

Click this link for an example landing page designed to sign up prospects for a complimentary Data Collection Agent software trial.

Click this link for an example of a landing page designed to sign up prospects for a free install and use of the 2clixz mobile App.

Many office product dealers in the United States utilize legacy ERP systems. In our view, these legacy systems have been overtaken by alternatives now available in the market. However, as may be expected, despite the high cost and lack of development to keep pace with the changeover to the digital world, the dealers who use them have a fear of change because of the risk of disrupting their day-to-day business operations.

Therefore, we must provide dealers with a compelling alternative: a technology platform that meets the requirements for a digital environment and provides a riskless implementation plan that overcomes their fear of change. This alternative must resolve the dealers’ current pain points that the legacy systems fail to address.

However, even this won’t be enough for dealers to prosper in the long term because the mighty Amazon threatens the conventional transaction-based value proposition.

While the first step must, therefore, be to adopt technology that eliminates the current pain points, the technology must also be capable of positioning dealers to subsequently offer a less conventional value proposition. A future-proof platform that has been developed to enable them to compete effectively in local markets with Amazon and other online behemoths.

We will introduce the explanation for a less conventional value proposition in Section 14. For now, we will focus on explaining how the pain points that handicap a dealer from selling its current value proposition can start to be overcome.

If your technology platform is unable to support your business goals for the 2020s and beyond, then you must come to terms with the uncomfortable reality that your business outlook will continue to become increasingly challenged.

The business world is rapidly moving toward subscription-based billing models, with legacy transaction-based billing becoming increasingly outdated in many business categories. Unfortunately, the typical office products dealer is usually heavily dependent on transactions, which is one of the main reasons why the online threat from Amazon has become so serious.

To start down the path toward eventually offering a subscription-based billing model, the office products dealer must quickly acquire the skill necessary to successfully deploy the Data Capture Agent (DCA) into its existing customer base and leverage the same technology to develop proposals for new business. Dealers will utilize the data captured by the DCA to continue the conventional transaction-based business model. But that model will then be running off data that has been transformed into business intelligence. Leveraging that business intelligence will help reduce customer churn, improve new customer acquisition rates, and develop opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.

Over time, dealers can use that same data to formulate proposals for converting the transactions into monthly subscriptions. We will explain that process and more in Section 14. But for now, it is sufficient to contextualize this future concept with a reminder that the technology platform utilized by dealers must not only enable them to compete effectively in the current business environment but also the environment that’s expected to evolve later into the 2020s and beyond. Heavy dependence on the transactional business model already raises existential questions, and these questions are unlikely to diminish over time.

So, imagine, as a dealer, you have;

1. Deployed a new “rule-compliant” website, implemented a “state-of-the-art” CRM and integrated marketing platform.
2. Deployed a new eCommerce portal fully integrated with your website, with your vendors, and with your accounting system. You have eliminated existing constraints for adding and removing both products and vendors to your consolidated catalog.
3. Commenced a world-class “awareness” style email marketing campaign and have a “consideration” style campaign lined up to follow.
4. Everything is positioned to monitor and react appropriately to contact campaign engagement.
5. Started some initial social media activity. You are starting to see some improvements to your website traffic. You have started to make some progress in capturing leads for potential new business.

In short, you have started the journey necessary for improving your online presence and eliminating current pain points.

While all of this is great progress, it, unfortunately, is still not enough because the vulnerability to online behemoths has not been eliminated. To compete successfully with these entities, you need something they don’t have. This is where the Data Capture Agent comes into play because this is what will provide you with actionable business intelligence that your competitors do not have.

MEANINGFUL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Installing the DCA is a simple process accomplished by anyone with basic computing skills. As soon as the DCA is installed, it will discover all the print devices on the network. Once it has identified them, it will monitor usage and calculate the expected cartridge replenishment dates.

Typical email marketing may have the goal of trying to persuade a recipient to buy ink and toner from your dealership. Historically, without a DCA the typical dealer does not know what ink or toner is required, or when it is needed.

With a DCA, it becomes possible to comply with the three golden rules required for successful email marketing.

1. Send the right material
2. To the right person
3. At the right time

Few marketers comply with these three golden rules. Many because they don’t understand the need for them and almost all because they don’t have access to the business intelligence necessary for them to comply.

With the type of intelligence shown in the dashboard image above, that is clearly not the case. It becomes possible to deliver relevant content at exactly the time it’s needed. For example, it becomes possible to promote a yellow ink cartridge of the style needed for the Epson Workforce Pro WF-4720WDF machine.

The DCA also provides the data needed to help quantify the business potential at a networked customer location. It is this data that underlies the upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

Consider a dealer with a value proposition made up of the five product categories shown in the graphic below.

Default Model Assumptions:

• 600 customers
• Average 35 employees per customer
• 21,000 employees
• 4.3 employees per print device
• 4,884 print devices
• Average annual spend of $750 on ink & toner per print device

In utilizing data captured from the DCA, we can extrapolate the overall sales potential associated with the existing customer base. We can achieve this by assuming ink and toner represents approximately 20% of the customers’ total spend on the six categories that make up the dealership’s value proposition. First, we can calculate the total ink and toner spend from the 4,884 print devices equates to $3.6M per year, and then we can calculate $18.3M in total annual sales potential based on office supplies (excluding ink and toner) representing approximately 25%, furniture 30%, Print 7.5%, Jan/San 15%, and promotional products, 2.5%.

In the chart below, the blue segments represent actual trailing 12-months (TTM) sales (totaling $5M) by category across the six-hundred strong customer base, and the orange, the calculated incremental potential. We have quantified the upsell and cross-sell opportunities for each product category within the customer base with this methodology. With our dealership example showing $5M in TTM sales and $18.3M in potential, we have therefore established there are $13.3M of upselling and cross-selling opportunities spread across the categories.

In our model, we have assumed a medium-sized dealership with $5M in annual sales, 600 customers, each with an average of 35 employees. This extends to form a total pool of 21,000 employees, each estimated to have a yearly spend of $872 [$18.3M / 21,000 = $872]. Based on this calculation, we can extrapolate the total sales opportunity for the dealership for each customer or prospect as soon as the approximate number of employees is known. Furthermore, we can break down that annual sales potential by product category. The goal, of course, is to monetize each employee as close to their full potential as possible.

We developed this model to illustrate the importance of deploying the Data Capture Agent into the customer base to gain mission-critical business intelligence. Not only does this business intelligence help quantify the overall sales potential, but it also provides unique insights that ensure the dealership can stay ahead of the curve by using this information to minimize customer losses to the likes of Amazon. In the data-rich future, intelligently targeted marketing efforts can be aligned all the way down to the specific needs of individuals at the customer level.

Just as the DCA technology is designed to be used for maximizing sales opportunities with existing customers across the full breadth of the dealer’s value proposition, it is also designed to be utilized as an integral part of the pitch in proposals for new business. By utilizing this technology, the proposal stage is elevated to another level. The first step of the process becomes the customer prospect providing consent for installing the DCA and then sitting back for 30 days while technology (rather than grunt work) gathers all the information needed for developing a compelling pitch for winning new business.

DCA Deployment Tactics

For dealers already offering furniture solutions that go beyond straightforward transactions and include consultations for space planning, design, assembly, and installation services, obtaining the DCA consent can become part of the overall consultative effort. With this approach, after providing training for the DCA software install and techniques for overcoming objections, the existing furniture specialist can be expected to become the lead customer-facing dealer representative for accomplishing the DCA deployment.

With the adoption of this strategy, there is a clear objective in terms of deploying the DCA for the purpose of leveraging the information captured to upsell and cross-sell throughout the customer base. With this strategy defined, then the digital tools deployed as part of the new technology platform can start to be fully utilized. This means the first (awareness) stage of the email marketing campaign may be launched and confidently followed by the second (consideration) campaign promoting a series of landing pages closely associated with the different elements of the value proposition. As the opens and clicks accumulate, then the “owner” of each contact will start to reach out and talk to those individuals pre-armed with the knowledge of what they are actually interested in.

Click this link to see an example Landing Page designed to introduce the incremental value of the 2clixz Mobile App to your customers.

It is notoriously difficult for established businesses to widen their scope of thinking and change how they approach the market with their value proposition. This difficulty is especially pertinent when placed in the context of an era of rapid change, such as that currently associated with the digitalization of the economy and the acceleration of work-from-home (WFH) practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, when elements on the buyer’s side of the equation are changing, and the seller’s value proposition doesn’t keep up, a fundamental selling problem starts to develop. Given there is little room for debate that;

• The digitalization of the economy will ever go into reverse, or;
• Higher levels of WFH practices won’t become the established norm

Dealers’ looking to thrive in the market have little choice except to pivot their value proposition.

We believe the deployment of three technology initiatives makes it possible to establish the foundation for an office and business products dealer to widen its scope of thinking and provide a value proposition suited to the new business environment.

These three initiatives put technology into play that will serve to expand the dealerships’ addressable market. We have already covered the first two elements, so now we will explain the part of the mobile App 2CLIXZ.

The initial deployment of 2CLIXZ improves the legacy value proposition by providing customers with a free tool for improved communications and printer supplies management. After applying a QR Code label to each print device discovered by the DCA, it becomes possible to provide a valuable tool for asset management, a digital communication platform for creating service or repair requests, for ordering printer supplies, and, also, for helping corporate manage budgets, regardless of increasingly dispersed work locations. 

Removing customer friction points associated with submitting requests for service and repair or supplies replenishment. Although taking this step should be a “no-brainer,” it is a baby step in the scheme of things. However, its importance should not be under-estimated in terms of the market development opportunities it subsequently becomes possible to set in motion.

1. Upsell and cross-sell to cover a wider range of office products and supplies consumed in the work environment.
2. Asset Management (Human and Device).
3. Budget Control – the reality of a dispersed workforce and establishing centralized control to cover all spending.
4. Mini-Markets- helping get small businesses online while also expanding your potential customer base.
5. Ultimately developing a network of businesses and individuals within which the members can sell their products and services.

Upsell

Typically, ink and toner may represent around 20% of the total spend on items in the five product categories generally required to operate an office environment. If 50% of the print devices in the office are currently being monetized and zero percent of those outside the corporate office, there is a significant opportunity for upselling and cross-selling into the central office and the remote locations.

Budget Control

To help clients consider a proposition for expanding sales into areas currently not served, there is an opportunity for a compelling addition to the value proposition by offering a system designed to help manage expenses and achieve budget control. As workers have dispersed, corporate buyers have started to lose control of what is being purchased. With 2clixz, the reality of decentralized purchasing with centralized control can be accommodated while still allowing remote workers to order what they need when they need it.

Asset Management

Having already taken the step to assign QR Codes to all the print devices and demonstrating real efficiency improvements as well as the elimination of customer friction points, a compelling opportunity opens up to expand the scope of the asset management well beyond copiers and printers and to capture every asset for the benefit of every customer and their employees.

Build a Local Network

The most unconventional aspect of expanding sales comes from deploying the 2clixz App into the local community. First and foremost, it must be well-understood that almost every local business faces the same online presence issue as almost every independent print dealer is facing and is thereby also exposed to the threat posed by Amazon and Google. There are 30 million small businesses in the United States, accounting for 64% of the new jobs created each year and 45% of the Gross Domestic Product. They play a vital role in the economic health of the overall economy, they all have a common problem, and all can benefit from a common solution.

Insert link to “White Paper” – A strategy to Deploy 2clixz into a local market. Update/Rework this paper.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a trend toward higher levels of remote working, meaning employees are working less out of the corporate office and more out of home or “virtual” offices. The more employees work out of remote locations, the more the typical spend on the consumption of products used in the office is transferred out of the corporate office and into the remote locations. This development presents a business challenge for independent dealers supplying office products, business equipment, commercial furniture, etc. because less demand equates to lower sales and there is no infrastructure in place to deliver orders profitably to the residential addresses where a portion of the demand has now moved to.

The pandemic has also accelerated a trend in favor of adopting technology and abandoning many legacy work practices. Few of us now think twice before hopping on a Zoom call and presenting a PowerPoint presentation online, rather than handing out a bunch of printed copies in a meeting where attendees used to be physically present. So, not only are employees working more out of remote locations that are difficult for dealerships to service economically, but they are also consuming less of the types of products typically offered by the dealers.

The pandemic has also played into the hands of online behemoths such as Amazon (transactions) and Google (traffic allocation). This trend has long-lasting and significantly negative implications for local businesses. It’s not just Amazon; it’s also platforms like UberEats, Deliveroo, GrubHub, and Instacart. These are portals with large volumes of web traffic that are then parsed out to the local companies who have none of their own. Amazon subsidized free delivery with a decade and a half of losses and the patience of deep-pocketed investors. Now profitable overall, they can continue to fund free-freight using Amazon Prime and Amazon Web Service profits. Meantime, UberEats, GrubHub, Deliveroo, and Instacart have all emerged to provide consumer delivery services using “gig” workers motivated by the thought of flexible work hours, supplementing an existing income and achieving a higher level of employer independence.

Consumers love that they can order just about anything from Amazon at great prices and have their orders quickly delivered directly to their homes. They also love to visit UberEats, or GrubHub, order from their favorite restaurant and have their food delivered directly to their homes. They may also love that they can use Instacart, do all their grocery shopping from Kroger, Publix, or other established retailers, and have their orders delivered directly to their homes. After all, everyone envisaged these activities way back in the DotCom era that preceded the 2000 financial crash, but before all the technology needed to support the vision was in place.

Unfortunately, these developments are not favorable for local businesses. We’ve already explained the pitfalls of local companies entering the Amazon marketplace as part of an effort to overcome their lack of web traffic, but the delivery services we’ve now introduced to this narrative are no different in terms of the threat they also represent to the economic well being of local communities.

The concept of allocating web traffic to small businesses from any dominant platform business (such as Amazon, UberEats, Yellow Pages, etc.) is doomed to disappoint the companies they are currently purporting to serve. They will immediately disappoint in terms of traffic volume because, by the time the traffic is divvied up and allocated to individual businesses, it only represents a small amount for each company. However, more importantly, they will disappoint in the long term in a far more threatening way. Local businesses will cease to be “suppliers” in the UberEats and GrubHub model because they’ll eventually operate their own kitchens to eliminate expensive restaurants as suppliers. Likewise, traditional grocery outlets will close because Instacart will fulfill from their distribution centers as foot traffic in existing stores evaporates.

For smaller local businesses to survive, first, they must improve their value proposition to match that of the online behemoths. Second, they must figure out a way to deliver that value proposition to the location the customer wants without bankrupting themselves in the process. They must accomplish this while still being prepared to pick up the phone and talk to their customers when required and, better still, visit when appropriate. Leveraging the relationship side of doing business while matching the value proposition of the online behemoths establishes a competitive advantage.

The emergence of gig economy workers is a recent phenomenon that will continue to mature and is unlikely to go away. However, as it stands today, the “last-mile” delivery component of the gig economy is not a sustainable business model because it does not support efficient use of the labor or capital resources it depends upon. The current model establishes the portal or platform as the component with the largest share of the value proposition because it has the web traffic that few others have. For example, the supplier (restaurant) and the service provider (delivery driver) have no power in the value equation. As a result, the platform operator strips the supplier’s profits, while the delivery driver is poorly compensated in a predatory business model that effectively places “orders” with the lowest bidder.

There’s a reason we’re now starting to focus on the gig workers who are willing to offer their time (labor) and their capital (vehicles) to deliver orders to consumers in return for compensation. The gig workers don’t care what the product is; whether food, electronics, general supplies, etc., is immaterial to them. They want to know where the pickup is from, where the drop-off is required, and how much compensation will be provided in return for their services. This “platform-agnostic” behavior makes them a potentially valuable resource for independent resellers.

From the consumer’s perspective, a clear demonstration of willingness to pay a premium for the convenience of having certain products delivered to their home has already been provided. In the case of a meal delivery utilizing the UberEats service, that premium may be as much as 90%, and that’s before a voluntary driver gratuity may also be added to the bill. However, while the consumer may be willing to pay a significant premium for the delivery of restaurant meals and groceries, this is undoubtedly not the case on more mundane items like office products and supplies. This is because Amazon has “trained” the typical consumer to expect “free” delivery, at least free within the context of the $150 annual fee levied for its Prime Members program.

A typical office products dealer already delivers to its customers in its local market using a fleet of trucks and employee drivers. Each day they will receive the prior day orders from their wholesaler, already packed and labeled for their end customer, and utilize software to optimize the routes needed for making their customer deliveries into their local markets. This system works fine for commercial deliveries where the average order size is large enough to cover the delivery costs but is not suited for dozens of deliveries of smaller average dollar sizes that are more typical for WFH and B2C business activities.

We will more fully detail the Work-From-Home (WFH) and (Business to Consumer) B2C sales opportunities and the strategies for developing them in Section 17. However, unless we can demonstrate a viable solution for the delivery model needed to support the “residential” delivery requirements, there will be no business case to explain because it can only exist if there is a viable order fulfillment solution to support it.

We have tried to illustrate by leveraging technology it becomes possible to offer income opportunities to GIG workers far more attractive than the ones they have currently signed up for. Furthermore, dealers’ can achieve this without relying on a platform provider such as Amazon, Google, UberEats, Instacart, etc., who would otherwise extract all the profits they should be earning for themselves. An independent dealer doesn’t need an established platform to obtain its GIG workers for delivery services (even if they were made available to them) because they only need a small number of drivers to fulfill a relatively large number of residential orders.

Delivering 50,000 residential orders over 12 months (five days per week) only needs seven full-time-equivalent GIG drivers. A dealer can appeal to its employees and find sufficient labor resources from their family members and friends to meet its requirements. When the OP “Route” model can generate five times the income (over the same number of working hours) as the UberEats model, word of mouth will quickly spread, and GIG workers will move to where the money is. In light of the substantial difference in income opportunity, it is difficult to imagine a resource allocation issue that prevents a dealer from providing its WFH customers with what they need in terms of the economic fulfillment of their orders.

In this example citing 50,000 annual residential deliveries, a dealer would be fulfilling $2.8M of revenue that would otherwise be off-limits (think Amazon instead). Furthermore, $365,000 will be paid to local GIG workers for their services to support the new business, which, in turn, will represent a significant financial boost to the local economy. Finally, in terms of organizing the delivery of the routes to the GIG workers prepared to invest their time and capital to make the deliveries, that can be performed quite ably with some clever modifications to existing route planning software.

The Data Capture Agent has not typically been deployed into the customer base of independent office products dealers. Instead, it has remained the domain of print dealers, utilized as the technology that underpins the multi-year managed services contracts at the heart of their business model.

A copier machine is usually at the foundation of a managed services contract, and copiers are usually sold by authorized dealerships set up by the major equipment manufacturers such as Canon, Xerox, Kyocera, Konica, etc. Selling copiers under managed services contracts, with cost-per-page billing models inclusive of service and repair, requires a core competency generally outside the skill set of a typical office products dealership. Because of these circumstances, it is not difficult to understand why there has been little interest to embrace IoT technology such as that enabled by the Data Capture Agent (DCA).

We are advocates for office products dealers to deploy DCA technology, but this does not make us advocates for expecting them to try to learn how to sell managed service contracts. Selling managed services would require a fundamental change of direction for dealerships and entail far more than the strategy pivot we are explaining.

Even if office products dealerships were to successfully acquire the skills needed to sell managed services, they would be entering a crowded market. 99.7% of businesses in the United States are classified as “small” businesses, i.e., less than 500 employees. How many of a dealership’s existing business customers even meet the qualification criteria for managed services? Let’s say the minimum threshold to make the selling expense worthwhile is 45 employees, ten machines, and/or 20,000 pages of print volume per month. How many of the typical office products dealerships’ customer profiles meet this threshold? Probably not many, and those that do are probably already under contract with one of the copier dealerships or original equipment manufacturers that supply their copier equipment. Ultimately, there is little chance an office products dealership would be successful in winning managed services contracts away from established managed services providers in those accounts where managed services make sense in the first place. Office Products dealerships have stayed away from Managed Services for good reason.

Dealerships must recognize that making a decision to deploy Data Capture technology into its customer base does not make it neccessary, or desireable, to try and enter the highly specialized field of selling managed print service contracts.

There are two important reasons why a dealership should consider deploying Data Capture technology in its customer base:

1. To enhance its customer value proposition
2. To reduce its customer churn (loss) rates and identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities

And, to reiterate, there is one overriding objective not associated with deploying the DCA, and that is avoiding ANY expectation that this requires an entry into the Managed Print Services value proposition.

For the dealer, the upside is going to be maximizing the revenue potential associated with each customer but, this goal falls short in terms of providing a reason for the customer to agree to install the Data Capture Agent onto its corporate network. The customer will only agree to install the DCA on the basis of the merits of its value to them, no other reason. So, explaining this value proposition becomes expertise the dealership must acquire in order to successfully deploy the DCA technology. The customer value associated with the DCA will be addressed later in this section after the dealership business case has been more fully explained.

Once the upside of the DCA is understood by the dealership, it becomes possible to make a business decision with regards to the cost of deployment because the return on investment can be calculated.

In Section 12 we already explained the upselling and cross-selling opportunities resulting from the business intelligence gathered from the DCA. Of course, it becomes a never-ending journey to realize the incremental sales potential but, the key takeaway here is that of positioning the dealership to leverage the business intelligence needed to identify those new sales opportunities. With our calculator, we have provided a means to quantify the upside potential, but now we must explain the costs associated with deploying the technology, as well as the cost (and tactics) for learning the skills needed to convince customers of the value of the technology to their businesses.

There is a real cost associated with technology, the DCA is not free, so someone is faced with having to pay. Unfortunately, it won’t matter how much the dealer is able to dress up the value of the DCA proposition, it’s very unlikely their customers are going to pay for it. This means the dealer must incur the cost and, for this cost to be worthwhile, a return on the investment must be anticipated.

Costs are going to be incurred from two sources:

1. The cost per monitored (captured) device
2. The human resource cost to deploy the DCA
   1. Training and incentivizing existing employees
   2. Paying an outsourced service for customer DCA deployments

There are two cost elements and two possible strategies for implementation. First, there is going to be a cost per monitored device, let’s say this is going to be $0.25 per device per month. Second, there is going to be a deployment cost that can be incurred either via an “insource” approach or an “outsource” approach.

1. The “Insource Deployment” approach. This would be where a dealership decided to move ahead with the DCA strategy and utilize internal sales resources for the implementation plan. This approach will require training individuals on how to overcome potential objections and incentivizing them to make the DCA deployment part of their sales routine.
2. The “Outsource Deployment” approach. This would be where a dealership decided to move ahead with a DCA strategy utilizing outsourced services for calling customers and deploying the DCA. Typically, this arrangement would be carried out under a 2-year agreement with a 12-month break clause if a pre-agreed percentage of customers has not deployed and maintained the DCA on their network.

The potential advantages of utilizing outsource services are:

1. Leverage pre-existing deployment expertise needed for overcoming customer objections.
2. Experience a faster take-up rate across the customer base.
3. Benefit from faster upsell and cross-sell opportunities that result from quicker take-up of the DCA.

In our model, we assumed a medium-sized dealer with 600 customers and $5M in annual sales with a calculated potential of 4,884 print devices dispersed across the customer base. Our goal is to get as many of those customers, and thereby the associated print devices under the umbrella of the DCA as quickly as possible. Once they are captured by the DCA, then attempts can be made to monetize the devices, for example, with ink, toner, paper, etc., and to monetize the related opportunities by cross-selling associated office and business products. It stands to reason, the quicker the DCA is deployed and the greater the overall percentage of devices captured, the greater the opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.

The Insource Approach

Approaching the task of deploying the Data Capture Agent by utilizing existing internal resources can result in lower costs and the perception of lower risk. The amount of risk is directly related to the expected skill level of the internal resources in terms of their ability to successfully deploy the DCA. If this can be accomplished at a similar rate to that expected by a skilled outsourcing team, then some costs can be saved. However, if the skills are inadequate then it will slow down the deployment and delay the opportunities to upsell and cross-sell additional products as devices are identified. In our example, utilizing internal resources, while less costly, assumes a slower take-up rate and therefore lower sales potential upside. In the event internal resources fail to acquire the skills to overcome potential customer objections to the DCA, then the entire initiative could go to waste.

The Outsource Approach

The outsourcing approach will cost more but carries a lower risk of failure because the DCA will be deployed utilising resources trained in overcoming the customers’ potential objections. Typically, an engagement for services would cover a two-year term, with a breakpoint at 12 months that can be executed if the devices in the dealers’ customer hierarchy are captured below minimum contracted levels. After the two-year plan, the dealer may either continue with the DCA deployment services or terminate them and pay only for the number of print devices that continue to be monitored.

Comparing the Insource and Outsource Approaches

This comparison of the two approaches illustrates the financial impact of a slower take-up rate associated with the Insource versus Outsource approach. The Outsource Approach shows a faster implementation (60% of the potential printer population Vs. 34%) at the halfway point, plateaus at 80% Vs. 70%, and achieves 25% of the upsell opportunity Vs. 15%. This scenario shows the potential to achieve more than double the cumulative incremental sales revenue with the Outsource approach [$2.2M] versus the Insource [$975K] approach resulting in a monthly run rate of $220K Vs. $115K at the 24-month stage.

The return on investment can be calculated as follows:

Insource Approach:

• Total Invested [100% variable based on the volume of print devices monitored]: $62K
• Total Return (Gross Margin Dollars): $230K
• ROI: 368%
• Gross Margin per Device: $47.05 [based on 4,884 print devices / 70% captured]

Outsource Approach:

• Total Invested [blend of fixed and variable costs]: $108K
• Total Return (Gross Margin Dollars: $546K
• ROI: 502%
• Gross Margin per Device: $111.79 [based on 4,884 print devices / 80% captured]

The Customer-Facing Value Proposition

We have established there is the potential for a substantial return on investment resulting from the successful deployment of the DCA. When the data captured is used intelligently and combined with all the marketing elements enabled by the digital platform explained throughout this pivot strategy, it is reasonable to expect the upselling and cross-selling potential to materialize.

However, we must now shift focus to explain the front-facing customer value proposition because, without compelling reasons for the customer to agree to install the DCA on its corporate network, none of the potential dealer benefits can possibly be realized.

Based on the scenarios we have modeled, whether a dealer selects the Insource or Outsource Approach, there is the potential for a substantial return on investment resulting from higher sales through increased market share. This potential should provide the dealer with a strong incentive to implement the DCA strategy, knowing the “make or break” element is obtaining customer consent for the DCA software install. Like most things worth having, it’s not easy, if it was, everyone would already be doing it.

The primary recommended tactic for overcoming potential customer objections to install the DCA is to highlight the common enemy (online behemoths such as Amazon) and then appeal for a collaborative effort to defeat that enemy. When this appeal is combined with the tangible customer benefits that result from the DCA installation, then we have created a win-win scenario for the customer as well as the dealer. Most local businesses recognize the community benefits from doing business with local businesses, but almost no one will do business locally if there is a service or value proposition deficiency between a local, and a giant national business. Amazon has created a brand and a portal where almost anything can be purchased at competitive prices, and an infrastructure that ensures orders are fulfilled with an efficiency that was unthinkable little more than a decade ago.

In adopting the digital platform we have described, the independent dealer in the local market has technology similar in capabilities to everything the online behemoths routinely utilize. However, in addition, the local dealership has the advantage of its local brand, its local presence, and its willingness to pick up the phone and actually talk and visit with its customers. The technology and the local presence combine to establish a competitive advantage.

The collaborative aspect of the initiative for deploying the DCA comes into play with the dealers’ appeal for help from its customers and prospects. The help must come in the form of sharing innocuous and otherwise wasted, printing device data via the DCA. In getting that help, the dealer becomes empowered to elevate its value proposition beyond anything Amazon and other online behemoths are able to offer. The data that’s captured is converted into actionable business intelligence that competitors do not have access to and serves to underlie the improvement in the dealer’s value proposition that’s necessary to compete with the online giants. This improvement means more local business decision-makers will be prepared to follow their instincts and support other businesses within their community because the deficiency in the value proposition has been eliminated.