These products, services, and solutions are still viable for expanding beyond traditional imaging technology.
Diversifying your product offerings doesn’t have to be complicated. Not every product, software, or service requires a significant investment in demo equipment, training, or specialists. The key to most of these products, solutions, and services is that virtually any dealer sales rep can sell them.
Managed Print Services
We have been on the fence about managed print services (MPS) as a diversification opportunity since we removed it from our annual dealer survey three years ago, only to find dealers including it in the “Other” category. With so many print management software solutions on the market that do the heavy lifting when tracking prints, MPS is one diversification opportunity that doesn’t have to be complicated to sell or manage.
Mailing Equipment
There aren’t many businesses, large or small, that don’t mail. Although email and online billing have reduced mail volume, a steady stream of mail flows through the U.S. Postal Service daily. That mail has to originate somewhere, and it’s not a stretch to think that, for many dealers, those origin points lie within their customer base. The leading U.S. postage equipment players include Pitney Bowes, Francotype-Postalia (FP USA), Quadient (formerly Neopost), and Data-Pac, a new player in the market. We’re also finding that more dealers featured in our CR-Connect Dealer Tour profiles sell mailing equipment, and more often than not it’s from FP USA.
Digital Signage and Interactive Boards
Among the office technology OEMs, this is where Sharp and Toshiba rule with a wide range of interactive displays, digital signage, and conference systems. Another player to watch in this category is Ricoh, which has made four acquisitions in this segment in recent years.
Most dealers are familiar with Sharp’s AQUOS BOARD interactive displays, which provide advanced touch-screen capabilities, integration with cloud collaboration tools, and a user-friendly interface that reportedly enhances team productivity and engagement. Similarly, Toshiba’s digital signage solutions deliver high-resolution content that can be customized for various applications, from corporate communications to retail advertising. These solutions align well with the increasing demand for hybrid work environments and enhanced customer experiences, making them a natural complement to a dealer’s portfolio.
The market demand for interactive boards and digital displays continues to grow as businesses increasingly prioritize communication, collaboration, and branding through digital mediums. These solutions enable dealers to enter new vertical markets, such as education, healthcare, retail, and hospitality, while deepening their value proposition with current clients. By bundling displays with existing managed services, dealers can create new revenue streams, enhance recurring revenue opportunities, and establish themselves as full-service technology providers in an increasingly digital business landscape.
During the January Executive Connection Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, Sharp President & CEO Mike Marusic referenced these products in his presentation. He emphasized that with video conferencing and digital signage, most dealers’ network engineers who are already servicing imaging customers can hang the displays, connect them to the network, and install the software.
Supporting Marusic’s point about these systems as viable diversification opportunities was Chip Miceli, president of Pulse Technology in Downer’s Grove, Illinois, who successfully placed digital signage and interactive boards in schools, mainly replacing aging scoreboards with LED displays. “We have over $3 million worth of projects that we’re waiting to close in the next couple of months,” Miceli revealed. “That’s how fast things are growing. And your current staff can install and support it. This is that simple.” Everything that Miceli’s team sells includes a support contract, leading to recurring revenue.
Light Production
Each of the Big Six office technology OEMs (Canon, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Ricoh, Sharp, Toshiba) offers light production machines. One can also make a strong case for RISO in this category with its inkjet machines. And let’s not forget that light production is a stepping stone for dealers looking to expand into production print. Although moving upstream into production print requires specialists and expensive demo equipment, general line sales reps should have no problem selling light production devices.
Document Scanners
One might describe document scanners as a product category that has had difficulty garnering respect from office technology dealers. Little wonder that Panasonic exited from this business a few years ago after aggressively targeting office technology dealers and achieving minimal success. That doesn’t mean you should give up on document scanners. The key players in this segment include Brother, Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, Kodak Alaris, and Visioneer.
Document scanners can be part of an organization’s digital transformation initiative. As businesses increasingly move toward paperless workflows, document scanners enable this shift. Dealers who offer scanning solutions are positioning themselves as essential partners in their clients’ digital transformation journeys. In addition, document scanners complement other office technology products, creating natural cross-selling opportunities. For example, scanners can be bundled with MPS, enterprise content management systems, or other software solutions like document management or workflow automation.
Water Services
At the Executive Connection Summit, a panel of next-generation leaders discussed various diversification opportunities. During their presentation, Korey and Ben Philpot of Precision Duplicating Solutions in London, Kentucky, made a strong case for water services. “We think water solutions are the future,” observed Ben, who added that they’re seeing 10% annual growth in this sector. Precision Duplicating Solutions sells bottleless water solutions from Quench, which recently announced the launch of its new 90-day Fast Start program to accelerate the success of imaging dealers selling its water and ice systems.
Precision Duplicating Solutions’ customers sign up for a monthly program, which Ben emphasized provides a predictable, long-term income. And because these are bottleless solutions, there’s no lifting or storage of bottles or jugs, which can sometimes lead to workplace injuries. According to Korey, these systems can be installed with minimal effort and typically remain in place for 10 years, leading to recurring monthly revenue and a high return on investment. For example, the gross profit from one Precision Duplicating Solutions customer on a 60-month program is $3,590. “That’s an 83% profit percentage,” revealed Ben. Also, he reports that the sales cycle is quick, with just a two-week turnaround.
According to the Philpots, many more prospects exist for water systems than copiers because every business must have a water machine or some form of drinking water in their office.
Above and Beyond
In addition to these diversification options, thermal barcode printers (see separate article), unified communications (see separate article), computers (see separate article), telephone systems, security cameras, document shredders, and shredding services can easily be added to this list and sold by virtually any sales rep in your organization. The opportunities for these and the previously mentioned diversification options may not be as broad as for traditional document imaging technology and managed IT, but they can potentially bring in additional revenue and position you as a one-stop shop for customers and prospects.
As Sharp’s Marusic pointed out during his Executive Connection Summit presentation, accounts where Sharp branches provide more than one service grew from 11.6% in the first quarter of 2022 to 13.3% in the fourth quarter of 2024, with the top half of branches that provide customers with more than one service averaging almost a two-point improvement in gross profit from 0.2 to 1.3.
