01732 759725
16
DISTRIBUTION
division’s management team of Brothwell
(strategy), Alistair Coyne (commercial),
Carla Allen (retail), Theresa Downes (office
automation) and Lynn Shonpal (large
format printers).
“Between us, we have 65 years’
experience in selling into the print
marketplace, which in our opinion is
unrivalled,” said Brothwell.
Exertis’s in-house printer specialists are
backed up by vendor-trained sales people
from Epson, Samsung, OKI, Brother and
Ricoh. They sit on the Exertis sales floor
and, as well as supporting Exertis sales
people, can help resellers develop sales
opportunities and tender responses.
“We have outperformed the market
by bringing experience into the business;
by understanding different channels, such
as office automation; by building a service
proposition that, in my opinion, is best in
class; and by focusing on print. We don’t
believe there are many other distributors
focused on print at the moment,” said
Brothwell.
Among the added value services it
now provides to its customers are virtual
warehousing and next day delivery, so
resellers don’t have to hold stock; product
configuration in the warehouse, saving
dealers the time and expense of doing
it themselves; deliveries direct to the
end customer site (down to a specific
floor); packaging disposal; marketing and
telemarketing services to help customers
with business generation; flexible payment
terms; and credit insurance via an exclusive
agreement with Chubb.
“Our competitors tend to use Euler, we
use Chubb. If two competitors both insure
with Euler, they’re effectively sharing one
credit limit. Through our agreement with
Chubb we are bringing a completely new
line of credit to the marketplace that was
not previously available, and that’s been
hugely beneficial to the dealer channel,”
explained Brothwell.
Office Automation
Arguably, nothing highlights Exertis’s
determination to be the UK’s number 1
choice for printer distribution more clearly
than the development of a managed print
specialism for the OA channel, which not
only broadens and strengthens its print
offering, but demonstrates the company’s in-
depth knowledge of the UK printer market.
Brothwell says that treating print as
more of a specialist sale and developing
its proposition accordingly has already
had a big impact on Exertis’s business and
is transforming the way vendors and OA
dealers view the distribution channel.
“When Samsung and Lexmark entered
this space in 2008, it was a very difficult
...continued
sell to go to the dealer channel and say
‘deal with distribution’. They would say
‘I don’t deal with distribution, I deal direct;
I like to deal with the manufacturer’. Now,
we are seeing a reversal of that. Customers
have told me that they are telling vendors
that fulfil that they would like to deal with
distribution because of the benefits we
offer. That’s a huge change we have seen
in the last eight years.”
Brothwell is confident that, as a result,
a number of vendors will consider moving
their copier channel fulfilment business to
distribution.
“My prediction is that over the course
of the next five years, we will see more
migration to distribution. The print market
is becoming more competitive, margins are
being trimmed, the average selling price is
falling, so everybody needs to look at their
cost of business. We are geared up to ship
one box to a customer (or to site), the next
day and in the configuration they want.
Whilst a manufacturer is capable of doing
this, it’s not what they are primarily good
at. We've had conversations with leading
brands in the copier marketplace and they
are now looking at distribution. I think the
brands that are entering that space and
seeing huge growth, such as Samsung and
Lexmark, have proved that it works.”
Demand generation
IT resellers’ increasingly arm’s length
relationship with printers is influencing the
service that distributors provide in other
interesting ways, including the need to be
more proactive in demand generation.
“The reseller channel nowadays does
not touch product and because they don’t
stock products, they don’t necessarily have
‘stock pressure’, so it’s up to us to work
with the IT reseller to deliver compelling
selling messages to the end user, to make
their phones ring. If a reseller’s got three
or four distributors vying for its business,
offering the best price on a feed that they
can ship the next day, we need to do more
than just put a price on a feed,” explained
Brothwell.
“That’s why do all the things we
do, like having sales specialists to
support customers; dedicated account
managers who understand print;
marketing and telemarketing services;
virtual warehousing; next day delivery;
configuration of product; installation. When
you start to paint a picture of what we do,
it’s a very compelling story.”
Brothwell added: “We want to get
to a stage where we don't talk to our
customers about price, but talk to them
about the service that we can offer them
and the total proposition.”
Upward trajectory
There are a number of bumps in the road
ahead for Exertis, notably the fall-out
from HP’s acquisition of the Samsung
printer business – Exertis is not an HP
print distributor and Samsung is its largest
client, so any changes could be disruptive.
However, Brothwell is confident that Exertis
can maintain its upward trajectory in print.
“All our brands are doing well and we
are seeing growth across the board – in
print and in scan; in retail and IT; and in
OA – and that’s because we've got a good
structure, good people, a good brand and
a great company that’s investing in what
we're doing and that believes in us and
backs us,” she said.
To find out more about working with
Exertis, please call 01256 707070 or
visit
Meet the team
Resellers and OA dealers can find out more about the
Exertis print offering at the ‘Plug in to Exertis’ event,
taking place on May 11 at Twickenham Stadium.
Showcasing products and solutions from more than 80
market-leading vendors, the channel event will feature five
technology suites, covering AV, consumer, enterprise, mobile
and print, where resellers and OA dealers can hear about
developments from industry experts and network with
vendors and Exertis specialist teams.
Exertis managing director Paul Bryan said: “We have
the broadest portfolio of any distributor, from consumer
through to enterprise, yet we have managed to maintain a
specialist approach across very different technology areas
by having expert teams that understand their markets and
our customers’ requirements. This event is an opportunity
for resellers to increase their knowledge in their particular
area of interest and to look for opportunities to diversify
into new growth areas for their business.”
It’s up to
us to work
with the
IT reseller
to deliver
compelling
selling
messages to
the end user,
to make their
phones ring
