Under the leadership of Mike Marusic, Sharp has developed a particularly effective way to reach a maximum number of dealers and convey the message for the New Year. The concept for the Sharp Roadshow is simple—instead of hosting a large event, for all dealers, to a central location and present the current efforts to help Sharp move forward, they take the same program, shrink it down, and put it on the road.
CEO CJ Cannata and Chief Editor Mark Vruno took part in the Sharp Roadshow in Anaheim, California. I was unable to attend the meeting in California due to a conflict and was invited to the last stop on the Sharp Roadshow tour in Atlanta. (Also see my “Fridays with Frank” video covering the Georgia event.) The individual meetings host 40 or more dealer principles plus employees from each one of the dealerships. Total attendance is 100 + at each one of the road shows. The value to the dealers is they have a much better opportunity to talk to senior management at a road show than a large dealer meeting where they must compete with 160 or so dealers for attention.
In Marusic’s presentation he raised the question of the road show’s value versus the larger meeting later in the year [October]. My sense is Mike prefers four smaller gatherings as opposed to the one large meeting in the fall.
More JVs? Time will tell.
In addition, he framed his discussion to address consolidation in our industry. In this case it was addressing manufacturers as opposed to dealers. He pointed out that at one point Sharp (laptops) and Toshiba (displays) had joint ventures. Eventually, Sharp bought them out. His inference was that we would see more of this, which will lead to certain manufacturers getting out of the business. A premise with which we must totally disagree. However, his statement, at least on the surface, is highly credible. We will see how it all plays out.
Marusic pointed out the diversification that Sharp has taken in laptops and audio visual has driven more Gross Profit to Sharp and has allowed them to embrace a broad range of technologies. This includes the products mentioned along with unified communications. The point he made is that Sharp is embracing all the technologies which leads to a greater Gross Profit.
John Sheehan, senior VP of Channel Sales, and Dino Pagliarello, VP of Product Management & Production Print, followed Mike to the Sharp Roadshow stage. Later this year we’ll be talking with Chip Miceli, whose Pulse Technology dealership in the Chicago area is taking on production print. The whole Sharp approach to getting dealers up to speed in this key area will be laid out.
Others, including Vince Jannelli, associate VP of Software Product Management, addressed A3 and A4 and how the print world is changing. The individual speakers continued to broaden the discussion of print to lead to making statements such as AI is imbedded in Sharp devices and not a separate product. The aim of the sales focus is no longer a product focus; it is process focused.
Henry Woods, sales director for Pro AV, addressed audiovisual solutions and digital scoreboards. Erica Calise, director of Government & National Accounts, discussed successes with Dynabook and spoke of Toshiba introducing this product in 1985, which was the world’s first laptop. Sharp made it a joint venture and bought out Toshiba. She claimed they are now moving 30,000 laptops per quarter.
Pagliarello announced that the Sharp production printing line up will include 12 products, which is an enormous undertaking. They are currently waiting for the arrival of two products for which they have extremely lofty expectations.
Roadshows rule!
To answer Mike’s question about Roadshows versus National Dealer Meetings we would like to add: “Do the roadshows.” The dealers prefer them because it gives them greater opportunity to face-to-face senior management and the leaders of the various product areas plus technical service and IT. We have been to three Sharp Roadshow events over the last few years and found them highly informative and have only one suggestion: have dealer panels to discuss critical areas of the business. The audience values it, and their message sticks like glue. Dealer talking to dealer always works well. That’s my take.
GOING UP: Atlanta attendees were all smiles in an elevator ride!
