As a manufacturer that sells 100 per cent of its products through resellers, the ongoing challenge for business printed communications company Oki Systems is to continuously strive to improve its reseller relationship. And that, explains Martin Ebbage, sales director at Oki, can only happen if the company is fully committed to understanding and responding to the challenges that resellers face.
“Our resellers are not just selling our product,” states Ebbage, “they are responsible for the delivery of our brand.” It has therefore always been Oki’s priority to create and maintain strong relationships with its resellers – relationships based on open communication to ensure mutual profitability.
Lines of communication
At a time when profit margins for resellers are being increasingly squeezed and there is greater competition in the marketplace, specialist brands needs to understand what will motivate their resellers to advise the customer to purchase their products above the household names.
Ebbage explains: “We undertake regular, independent research across our reseller base to find out what their business challenges are and the market issues they see affecting their business. This helps us to establish how we can help them meet these challenges and to find out what they really need from a reseller programme.”
In addition, every 12 months Oki goes out to talk face-to-face with its resellers to ensure its existing reseller programme is still relevant and effective. It also hosts a quarterly Dealer Council, attended by a cross-section of Oki’s reseller community, where manufacturer and channel can meet to discuss all concerns and develop future business plans together.
Listening
Oki has established the following main areas of ongoing concern for its resellers.
1. Being treated as individuals:
Oki’s Reseller Partnership Programme is a flexible package created to suit the individual needs of its resellers. The programme has several categories, from resellers needing minimal sales support through to those requiring a dedicated account management team. Resellers can change category as their business grows and their needs change.
To respond to demand for easy access to manufacturers’ sales and marketing materials, Oki’s Reseller Marketing Programme provides dealers with an online literature service, Oki Co-Brand, enabling them to download documents, such as industry specific direct mail, point of sale banners, brochures, magazine inserts, product reviews and images. All the reseller must do before the documents are ready to print, is to customise the document with their own logo and contact details.
2. Acquiring and retaining customers:
Resellers are always looking to generate high quality sales leads, relevant to the markets they target. Ebbage explains, “one answer is to raise its brand profile in the business media via a fully integrated marketing and PR campaign, creating a pull effect.” Recent marketing initiatives have included TV and radio adverts, catalogue placement within national and trade press, launch of a new website and direct mail. All campaigns promoted Oki’s strong emergence as one of the top four players in the colour printer market championing efficient in-house document production. Ebbage continues, “We understand however that it is not enough for our resellers to merely gain customers. They need to retain them and find additional ways of generating revenue.”
The newly launched Oki Community website supports this aim. It is a practical advice and support system designed to educate and help end-users produce professional business documents in-house. There are reciprocal links with resellers’ own websites.
3. Delivering value to the bottom line:
Oki communicates with everyone within the reseller organisation, from the MD down to the sales staff – all play an integral part in how the manufacturer’s brand is perceived by end users. This is reflected in its incentive programme OkiRED (Reward Every Deal). A consistent reward recognition programme it responds to the demand that manufacturers provide a rewards programme that supports the reseller’s business plans as well as providing incentives for their salespeople. OkiRED is web-based, quick to implement and centrally managed by Oki. This means that the reseller can focus more time and energy on driving its own business forward knowing that its sales team is being motivated by Oki.
Ebbage concludes, “We work hard to listen and respond to the needs of our resellers and we think we’re doing pretty well at it, if we weren’t, they would waste no time in letting us know!”
