BMW used to bait printer wholesalers
Already
off to a booming start Kyocera Mita expects big things from its new
incentive programme, which sees one reseller a month given the keys to
a BMW Z4 car.
Within
minutes of the initiative being launched the company received more than
18 responses from interested resellers.David Finn, Kyocera Australia
managing director, says the promotion is about motivating the sales
channel.“It’s quite simple really. Sell a bucket load of printers and
get the car for a month. We’re not beating around the bush with this –
it’s a sales incentive,” he says.Additionally any authorised Kyocera
reseller gets a free Qantas frequent flier card – worth about A$80 –
and earns points on all printer sales.Kyocera has leased the BMW for
two years and it comes fully insured, though Finn points out the winner
is responsible for any parking or speeding tickets.“This is a good,
solid promotion and puts to bed some of the unfair criticism Kyocera
has received for going direct. The vast majority of our business goes
through the channel and we have a direct sales force of one person in
New Zealand.”In fact, says Finn, unlike its competitors, Kyocera wants
to encourage dealers to take on its multifunction devices.Kyocera
launched a similar incentive in Australia last year with a Porsche as
the prize.Finn says the results so far have been amazing.“All the
distributors have noticed a massive increase in sales. It also exposed
the rest of Kyocera’s range to the channel and we’ve ended up with
quite a few new dealers taking on multifunction products.”
Finn says he firmly believes that if resellers are going to do the hard work the reward had better be worth it.
“It’s about having big bait to attract the big fish. The easiest set of keys to win is the first – after that it gets serious.”