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Can anyone comment on which dealer incentives or programs work best for your market? Which manufacturers offer the best/worst programs? Do any of your manufacturers have ridiculous terms and conditions? Just curious...

I have limited knowledge of this area, and have only seen a few manufacturer-to-dealer programs. Your feedback will help me think. Thanks!
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You need to be more specific when you say dealer incentives. What do you mean? From my standpoint some of the programs Ricoh offer are quite good. I am speaking about US Communities, NCPG, and the hospital pricing. These are forms of incentives via pricing discounts. Of course they have ordering specials and discounts that they sometimes pass along. It is usually up to the dealer principals how they choose to pass the incentives along.
Purchasing manager's perspective here. I think that B1116 is talking about two different things when he/she asks about "programs" and "incentives".

I can't quite agree with Larry that special pricing contracts such as AEPA (Konica) or US Communities (Ricoh) are incentives; I'd consider them pricing programs.

I can see you'd say they are an incentive to the client, who gets to choose between commercial and the discounted contract. But, on the admin side of things, these special contracts aren't always the great value to the dealership that manufacturers make them out to be. You see cheaper equipment, I see additional hidden costs to the dealership. Sales reps don't always know about twists like manufacturers hitting dealers with chargebacks (Ricoh DMAP) or dealers having to pay required rebates to the contracted organization (AEPA) when purchasing equipment. The admin time alone in dealing with their audit requirements ... well, I always said that DMAP stood for "Drowning My A@#$% in Paperwork." !!!!!

In my mind, the incentive that B1116 is talking about is any manufacturer promotion on commercially costed equipment that is of short duration. A great example would be Konica's special bundle price on the C200 color unit last year. In our dealership's case, yes, we do pass them along to the reps to pass along to their clients.
Last edited by Shaja
Thanks for your feedback and questions. It's great to see replies from different points-of-view. Pretty much what I was looking for, and I'm sorry if I seem so vague. Art, I agree that many manufacturer programs are not even know by the sales person (or oddly, get built into their comp plans whether know it or not).

From purchasing - Shaja - you make me laugh! I agree with you definition of pricing programs. Bundles or quantity purchases are a good example, but are easy to administer (cost-of-goods, no chargebacks).

I'm trying to use my words carefully. How about manufacturer promotions the dealer needs to claim after installation of the item in order to receive the incentive? Not just main pricing programs similar to DMAP (I feel your agony), but other manufacturer programs that require documentation? Examples... hmmm... signatures required from the customer, or documents that the customer has received the manufacturers promotion through the dealership?

I'm hope this makes sense. From a dealer owner purchasing perspective, it may. If not, please keep sharing anyway. Thanks!
quote:
Bundles or quantity purchases....are easy to administer

Oh, don't worry, the manufacturers find ways to heap paperwork on you even when it is a year-long contract program. Our QPP program, for example, requires a monthly report.

And bundles .... well, that C200 bundle had seven pieces to it ... buy some of those and have fun at inventory time. LOL

quote:
How about manufacturer promotions the dealer needs to claim after installation of the item in order to receive the incentive? ... but other manufacturer programs that require documentation?


Are you asking for specific examples of what kind of documentation is required, or specific examples of promotions?

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