Dealer Demo Rooms

Gees, sorry I didn't see this. My dealership is one of those that out of 12 units only 3 are a current model. In the last 12 months, I've probably done 6 demo's in house and 3 onsite. I would have done more however I'm not going to fight with management about getting a demo unit. If I don't have a demo for a new model they will not get one.

Training/classroom, naw the systems just sit there for us.

Incentives: I'm always big on those, but incentives may not solve the problem, the larger problem maybe is that a lot of dealers are doing intial training with new reps on machines, however they are not letting the reps do the onsite training after the system is sold. Thus reps are selling systems and really have no clue how to demo or feel comfortable scheduling a demo because they are not literate with performing a demonstration.

I beleive we need to get back to the basics with demonstrations, but if the owners of the dealerships continue with not requiring reps to do the key op training, then do a demo for a copier may become a lost art in our industry!

You've got to convince the dealer owner that having reps do the keyop training will lead to more add on sales and produce more knowledgable sales people, thus the more knowledgable they are the more they will sell.

Hope this helps!

I have been selling the same brand of MFP for 15 years and I still need to refer back to a current colour model all of the time to answer various questions, produce print samples and test various software.

Maybe when I say Classroom, I should be saying Resource Center. Any sales rep needs current product to play with to be be able to understand what they are selling and project confidence to the customer that they know what they are talking about.

I am thinking a carrot and stick promo. Have a current colour copier in stock and get an extra discount on hardware sales. No demo unit, no extra discount.

quote:

.

I am thinking a carrot and stick promo. Have a current colour copier in stock and get an extra discount on hardware sales. No demo unit, no extra discount.

Thats a decent incentive, anyone else have any ideas?

With the added focus on software being bundled with the hardware having some model of current line of product becomes a necessity. We recently had to scramble on an install when the connector for a software package failed and neither the software vendor nor the hardware vendor could figure out what was wrong even with several remotes. It was only our familiarity with other options using another software package that let us save the day and not get both an MFP but more importantly a whole Document Management package back in our laps.

Having demo hardware and NFR software to be able to work with is the only way we can R&D true end to end systems for clients...including the extra programming we do using our own DBA to build linkages.

We are no longer a dealer...we have had to become a true integrator to be able to move forward.

quote:

We are no longer a dealer...we have had to become a true integrator to be able to move forward.

I like that!

quote:

...including the extra programming we do using our own DBA to build linkages

By DBA, do you mean Data Base Administrator?

By stating you are no longer dealer, are you implying you are no longer a dealer that just sells hardware? Are you stating that your business now functions as a reseller of hardware and software that integrates these combined technologies into a customer's workplace?

If you’re in a busy city, there very well may be some printer manufacture showrooms you can take advantage of. Showroom accessibility with the latest and greatest models may not be an issue for small dollar deals. However, if you are working on a 3 million dollar hardware deal with hundreds of thousands in solutions, the end user is going to want to see their exact (multiple) print stream (s) sent through the machines to make sure expectations are being met.

I’ve never worked for a dealer, do printer manufactures provide support in these cases when demo’s are needed?

I am thinking more of typical dealer demo room for the everyday $3k-$15k deal with a networked PC to demo Print drivers, Web Browsers and some specialty software.

Expensive demo rooms are not cost effective as most clients never visit them.

In a bigger dealer and assuming the Manufacturer's office does not directly compete with the Dealer's sales team, I am sure you would be able to take advantage of their facilities. If that showroom is too far away to drive, maybe the opportunity is worth the price of two airplane tickets.