Small business: New market, customers, and opportunity

Traditionally the domain of large tierone customers, multifunction printers are now a viable alternative for small business.

Anthony Toope, Fuji Xerox Printers Australia and New Zealand marketing and channel operations manager, takes a look at how best to tap the market.

In today’s competitive economic environment, identifying emerging markets and understanding the customer of the future is key to business growth.

The high value multifunction printers (MFP) segment is a growing new market for resellers. The sector grew by 16% last year, and this growth is set to continue.

IDC predicts demand for higher value colour MFPs priced $1000 and above will grow by up to 48% this year.

Historically, demand for high value MFPs has been driven by large tierone customers such as government departments and big business.

However as prices drop, the market is opening up to a suite of new customers: small businesses. Small businesses can now afford to invest in high value, high quality technology.

They are also beginning to move towards decentralised print environments to boost productivity. By having multiple smaller printers located around the office, staff spend less time going to and from the printer, and more time on business critical tasks.

The small business segment is large and growing. It accounts for 97% of New Zealand enterprise, creates almost one-third of all jobs and contributes 28% of New Zealand’s gross domestic product, or GDP.

This marks a significant new opportunity for resellers to grow their revenue by acquiring new small business customers and expanding offerings to existing customers.

Tapping the small business segment

Effective sales and marketing is key to tapping into the small business segment. Targeted marketing campaigns help to drive quality small business leads to resellers’ businesses.

Programmes such as our recently launched Small Business Pack, a one-stop customised lead generation program, help partners to talk to the right customers, at the right time and in the right place.

Small business customers often rely heavily on a sales person to guide them through the buying process, so an engaged and welltrained sales team are vital.

Look for vendors who can provide partners with support to recruit, retain and reward sales staff.

Generating recurring small business revenue

Small to mid-size business are moving away from simply buying printers to investing in efficient printing solutions with predictable costing structures.

Managed print services are gaining momentum for SMBs and offer resellers the opportunity to generate ongoing recurring revenue.

Fuji Xerox Printers recent channel survey found that 78% of partners consider managed print services to be the biggest opportunity for increasing revenue.