39th Annual Dealer Survey: Executive Summary (Part II of II)

written by Scott Cullen | November 15, 2024

The three leading challenges within the entire dealer universe comprising our Survey were declining clicks (27%), hiring and retention (18%), and maintaining profitability (16%).
When viewing those leading challenges, regardless of where the dealer ranked them, the top three are declining clicks (50%), maintaining profitability (49%), and hiring and retention (44%).
Most dealers (92%) don’t consider diversification their number one challenge; however, 37% of all dealers consider it one of their top three.
Dealers representing Canon (44%), Kyocera (43%), and Ricoh (40%) were most concerned about diversifying their product/solutions/services offerings.
Dealers’ ratings of their A3 manufacturers experienced a slight improvement from the previous year, with the Big Six averaging 4.3 out of a possible high score of 5.0. Last year, that figure was 4.2.
Toshiba supplanted Sharp as the A3 OEM with the highest rating (4.6); the same score it received a year ago. Sharp’s rating fell from 4.7 to 4.5.
After receiving the lowest rating of an A3 OEM (3.0) in the history of our Survey two years ago, Konica Minolta improved to 4.1 this year after rising to 3.8 last year.
Overall, A4 ratings improved modestly for the second consecutive year, rising to 4.1 from 4.0 as dealers still have issues with their OEMs. Sharp, Kyocera, and Others (Brother, Canon, Epson, Konica Minolta, Toshiba, and Xerox) received the highest rating (4.3).
Two A4 providers received ratings of under 4.0: HP (3.7) and Lexmark (3.8).
After holding steady for six straight years at 2.6, the average number of leasing partners rose to 2.8.
The ratings of the top five leasing partners (those identified by 25 or more dealers as a primary leasing partner) were as follows: GreatAmerica Financial Services (4.6), LEAF Commercial Capital (4.5), U.S. Bank (4.3), Wells Fargo (4.2), and DLL (3.9). With the exceptions of GreatAmerica and LEAF, which declined from 4.7 and 4.6, respectively, and U.S. Bank, which remained the same, Wells Fargo and DLL saw their ratings improve.
The percentage of dealers handling their own leasing declined from 10% last year to 9.8% this year.
The top four ECM/document management providers in this year’s Survey were DocuWare and Square 9, followed by Kyocera/Hyland Software and Laserfiche, the same four as last year.
The top four print management providers were ACDI/PaperCut, Printanista, EKM/Predictive InSight, and Canon.
Once again, dealers identified Ricoh as the top production print provider (30%), followed by Canon (22%), Konica Minolta (17%), and Sharp* (16%). However, we must place an asterisk next to Sharp as they’re still new to the production print space, and we suspect some of the dealers who voted for the company sell only Sharp light production.