01732 759725 48 Q&A View from the channel Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing channel businesses today? A: Currently, dealers face a challenge of low margins on both hardware and costs per copy. Increasingly, manufacturers are cutting costs to gain market share and setting up only sales agents, which I believe devalues our industry. In addition, it is imperative to look for people qualified to work in our industry. This includes sales, but also customer support and administrative roles. This has become increasingly difficult because of the recent pandemic. Q: Which OEMs do you partner with and why? A: We are a major Konica Minolta customer; we have been with them since 1981. Throughout that time, despite many changes, they have always acted as a partner in helping us grow, on top of this, they have always been able to deliver outstanding products. Q: What are your customers most interested in currently? A: Now, our customers are mainly concerned with saving money or reducing waste by utilising software to manage their equipment. Q: How have you changed/are you changing business operations to exploit new opportunities? A: Business operations are changing at a fast pace due to the increasing need for on-time sales and service. In order to improve reporting and ease of use, we have implemented a new back-office system (Vantage Online), and we have implemented Salesforce to monitor our customer base and prospects. To complete all of this, our accounts were moved to Xero for quick, up-to-date financial information. Q: When selling MFPs, what are the most popular software solutions you provide and why? A: One of our most popular products is PaperCut, as most companies want to monitor how many copies are being used on a daily basis. Q: If you could change one aspect of your job what would it be and why? A: This is a difficult one, but if I could change one thing, it would be to have George Baker, Managing Director, KRL Group Ltd more time working on the business. I am sure most would agree in today’s world we get distracted in the day to day operations and not spending enough time thinking of new ways or improvement. Q: How do you spend your week – time on phone, face to face meetings with customers etc.? A: My week is spent primarily in meetings with manufacturing staff and customers. I am old school and do not believe in all this email or Teams meetings etc. Spending time with people is the only way you are able to build relationships. Q: What would make your job easier? A: Communication would make my job easier. It appears that even in this so-called era of high technology we still fail to receive information on time. I often feel that it is worse than before email and social media, but I am not sure how to resolve the issue. www.krlgroup.net George Baker
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