THE OFFICE PRODUCTS ANALYST A monthly publication devoted to the cost performance analysis of office products

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1 PAGE 1 Volume 35, Issue 9 Industry Analysts, Inc A monthly publication devoted to the cost performance analysis of office products Copier Dealer Channel Study 2011 Sales Representative Performance & Compensation Inside this issue: Average Number Of Sales Representatives...1 This report is the result of over 300 individual, in-depth interviews with traditional copier dealer owners and principles in the United Stated. The report covers 2008, 2009 and The interviews were part of our annual dealer channel study. Respondents were contacted in advance and appointments were set in order to complete the minute interview via telephone with our analysts. This issue is dedicated to covering the full time copier/mfp sales representative. Average Number Of Sales Representatives Total Monthly Unit Placements Per Sales Reps (Mono & Color MFPs)...2 Monochrome vs. Color Monthly Unit Placements Per Rep...2 Monthly Color Units Placements By Speed Range...4 Compensation...9 Commissions...10 Published by Industry Analysts, Inc. The OPA (Office Products Analyst) is published monthly by Industry Analysts, Inc., 50 Chestnut Street, Roch ester, NY , USA, Phone #: (585) , Fax #: (585) , Web: Publisher, Louis E. Slawetsky. This publication is for the exclusive use of our subscribers. The information and opinions in each issue are based on the best information available, but the completeness and accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Subscriptions: $350.00, one year (US); $ overseas and Canada. Prices for multiple subscriptions on request. Reproduction in any form without written permission is strictly forbidden and will be subject to prosecution. Ricoh and Canon dealers represented the two brands with the highest average revenue per dealership in our study. As such, it makes sense that these two brands would have the most sales representatives.

2 PAGE 2 Total Monthly Unit Placements Per Sales Representative (Mono and Color MFPs) The above chart shows that Ricoh dealer sales representatives are placing the most units per month at 4.3. Conversely, Konica Minolta dealers in this study reported their sales representatives were selling the fewest MFPs each month at 2.8 per sales rep per month. Monochrome Versus Color Monthly Unit Placements Per Rep

3 PAGE 3 Ricoh and Sharp dealer sales representatives are placing the most color units per month compared to other brand in this year s study. While Konica Minolta dealer sales representatives are placing the fewest overall units per month, their sales people are placing a greater percentage of color MFPs than their competitors, leading the industry with nearly 54% of MFP sales coming from color MFPs. Conversely, Canon dealer sales representatives placed the lowest percentage of color units at 43.1% of their monthly placements coming from color devices. One possible explanation as to why Konica Minolta sales representatives are placing fewer overall units than their competition is that they are focusing on color devices more than monochrome and perhaps the sale of color MFPs is more challenging than the sale of monochrome devices.

4 PAGE 4 Monthly Color Unit Placements by Speed Category

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6 PAGE 6 When examining the above charts, it stands out that Kyocera Mita dealers do not tend to sell color multifunctional printers under 25 PPM. Over 80% of their color MFP sales come in the PPM category the highest of all brands. As Kyocera Mita has a substantial A4 color MFP line, one explanation as to why Kyocera barely participates in these first two categories with A3 color MFPs is that perhaps they re selling their A4 products. Another explanation could be that Kyocera Mita has made an emphasis on marketing color MFPs in the PPM category, which is the lowest speed category that is generally considered profitable and the meat of the color market. Conversely, Canon dealers had the lowest percentage for the PPM speed category compared to competitors at only 48% of placements coming from these MFPs. However, this is because Canon dealers are selling a higher percentage of color MFPs in the PPM and 60+ PPM categories than all other competitors. Ricoh followed Canon in these two higher speed categories. Toshiba dealers place the lowest percentage of their monthly color MFP placements in these two categories.

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9 PAGE 9 The PPM category is still the largest part of the market with respect to monochrome MFP placements with all but one brand (Canon) placing at least 40% of their monochrome MFPs in this category. Canon dealers seem to place a higher percentage of monochrome MFPs in the PPM speed category than competitors. They also have the highest percentage of placements in the 85+ PPM speed category. Ricoh dealers also have a fairly high percentage of monochrome MFP sales coming in the PPM category. Perhaps, since their dealerships tend to have more sales representatives on average, they have more granular coverage in the field. Simply stated, with more feet on the street, their sales reps are selling anything they can. While competitors may not waste as much time on small accounts as with fewer sales people, their territories would theoretically be larger, a sales rep with a smaller territory may work harder to uncover opportunities regardless of their size. Another note of interest was that Konica Minolta has the second highest percentage of sales coming in the lucrative 85+ PPM speed category. As Ricoh dealers tend to be larger, we would have thought they and Canon would have held the top two spots in this category, but Konica Minolta has established themselves as a formidable competitor in high volume despite being a somewhat smaller company than Ricoh or Canon. Compensation The above chart shows the average compensation for sales representatives. We extrapolated data to show projections for 2011 and 2012 if trends con-

10 PAGE 10 tinue as they have in our past three studies. Several brands appear to show increases for their dealer sales force compensation; specifically, Kyocera Mita, Ricoh Family and Sharp dealers. Conversely, Canon and Konica Minolta sales representatives seem to be making less each year. While it is interesting to review these extrapolations, these are not firm estimates but rather projections based on data from our sample. Indeed, we do not believe that Konica Minolta sales representatives will be earning half as much in 2012 as they earned in Average compensation over the last three years shows that Sharp dealer sales representatives earned the most income followed by Canon and Ricoh. Commissions

11 PAGE 11 When examining pay structure for sales representatives, on average Ricoh and Sharp pay their sales representatives a higher percentage of pay based on commission than competitors. This may help explain why Ricoh and Sharp sales representatives earned the highest amount on average over the last three years. Turnover is a difficult situation in the office equipment community. Quite often a sales person with no experience when they are hired will use the training they receive to then find a more lucrative position with a competitor. Keeping talent has always been a priority at any dealership. When looking at the average tenure (average of the last three studies; ), Toshiba and Canon dealers appear to be doing the best job with respect to holding onto their sales people with Konica Minolta having a bit more difficulty than the rest of the field. By Andy Slawetsky, President Industry Analysts, Inc.