BuyerZone.com , Friend or Foe?

It seems everyone wants to move boxes. We've said this all along; more boxes generate more clicks for service and more clicks for supplies.

Lets face some hard facts, Internet Buying is here and it’s not going to go away! Margins continue erode for all aspects of our business, sales, service and supplies.

I’d like to tell you all about Buyzone.com www.buyerzone.com/copiers. Potential clients who search for copiers on the major Internet search engines will see buyerzone.com. The link basically states that you can receive FREE price quotes from multiple vendors!

That’s a fantastic idea for the client, no interaction with sales people, no coming to visit your office, no looking at systems and IT can still hide in their hole. Everything is usually done via email. You click on the link and then answer six or seven questions in reference to your copier needs, speed, volume, special features, maintenance etc.

Buyerzone is good for the Client and good for Buyerzone and what I think is a bad idea for the dealer.

Here’s Why:

We have been signed up with Buyerzone for the last year to receive copier leads. I have received over 50 leads. I have not closed one of those leads!! When you get a lead, you've got to keep in mind that there are five other vendors in your area also receiving these leads (especially if you are in a major market).

I have offered machines for as little as a 5% MU and still have not received the order. I have sent emails (that’s how you receive the leads) and have followed up with phone calls. Eighty percent of these people requesting quotes will not speak to you, even if you tell them you are calling on behalf of Buyerzone. Keep in mind that they are probably doing this because they do not want to talk to anyone and they are looking for the lowest price and may or may not want to do the research on their own.

I believe that dealers subscribing to Buyerzone are hurting their own market. This market is price driven and that’s it! Most of these potential customers only want email quotes. All I can think of is that all of the supplies will also be bought from the Internet and service contracts will be ignored and customers will only get service when they need it. If you think you’re going to make money on service and supplies, then forgetaboutit! (Famous Jersey slang)

I went along with this for about a year, just replying to the emails and then making the calls. I figured all of these leads would be gravy and I kept on working my target accounts. After getting no response from my quotes, I set out to find out why systems were not being purchased from us (me). Yep!, the answer was price, price and price, someone was giving the equipment away for a few hundred dollars over cost on a large system and a few percent on the smaller systems! How can a commissioned rep compete with these tactics. WE CANNOT!

Most of the leads were for small machines Segment 1 or Segment 2. Here’s what worries me. Over the last three weeks, I have received three leads from Buyerzone for mid to large size accounts in my territory! Two were for 30ppm color systems and the other was for a 65ppm system. Times are changing and it looks like IT buyers are hitting the Internet more and more. They do not want to be bothered by "salespeople" or are we consultants?

What to do, what to do, hmmmmmmm……. Do you waste time on following up with the potential client to make an appointment so you can tell them why they should pay more (keep in mind that most of them will not want to see you), or do you just prepare a quote to meet their needs, send it email and hope they contact you, or do you just throw the lead in the garbage? The low end of the market has already eroded margins; do we need this on mid to large volume systems?

I’m a firm believer that doing business with Buyer Zone can degrade the dealers market for commanding prices that are essential to their well being and the well being of their industry. Why? News travels quick, good news travels quicker and IT buyers getting substantial savings travels at lightning speed! Can you image if 10% of the companies in your area just searched quotes through BuyerZone?

Do you need the IT buyer of one company talking to another or getting a job at “xyz” company telling others the only way to get quotes is though the BuyerZone?

I decided to test the waters and really see what is going on.

I filled out a BuyerZone prospect sheet, stating that the Print 4 Pay Hotel.com was looking for a copier. I got an email in an hour saying I was matched with six different dealers from my area (of course one of them was my dealership), and one was Konica/Minolta branch office! It’s been 24 hours and I haven’t received any phone calls and zero quotes via email. Now, I’m thinking what the heck is going on, maybe they all know me (Naw, not me, but wishful thinking)?? Maybe they can’t meet my needs for high-end color? Or am I just to impatient and expect a response ASAP!

Day 2, I have heard back from two companies ( well, I guess I was impatient), one represents OKI MFP (I clarified and they are a dealer) and the other is a dealer for Canon (or so they say). The company that represents the OKI called and asked me all of the right questions, volume, speed, feed, and stapling. However, I was taken back when he told me the system was very expensive. Anyway, he did not push for an appointment to delivery the quotes and said that he would email them. He seemed knowledgeable with his product and services.

With the second company I got a call from the “service manager” who stated he would sell the system at cost to get the maintenance revenue!! He also stated that his salespeople do not want to be bothered with these types of leads because they cannot make any money, however all he hopes is that I will take out a maintenance agreement. The “service manager” did ask for an appointment to sit down and deliver the quote, I reneged and said to please email it to me. He also stated that his ImageRunner 2620 was capable of doing 600,000 pages in six months with out a service call (why must people do this?). I told him I had quotes from other companies and he asked who they were; we spoke about speeds, feeds, etc. I then asked him what was the bit depth of color for the Canon, he seemed perplexed, and I then said it has to do with the depth of color. He then responded and I quote: “You mean DIP”, I said DIP?, and then I stated “don’t you mean DPI”? He said yes, at that point in time I just asked him to email me the quote as soon as you can.

I realize that I’m not be quite ethical in doing this, however I believe that dealers who are selling equipment at cost or a little over cost are jeopardizing my future. I need to find a way to get some of this business and what the competition is saying or doing.

Out of these two dealerships neither mentioned that they would like to see my operation or probe further to see if their system has a particular solution that may save me time and money. Neither representative talking about scan2email, print drivers, scan2folder, security, document management or software.

Hopefully, I will have a few more calls in a few days and will have the pricing I need.

On another note, I called my boss and told him about the competition and he stated that he knew the Konica/Minolta dealer that is associated with BuyerZone in our area and he confirmed that the owner takes the leads and looks to move the boxes at cost! I think he’s traveling down a slippery slope, we’ll have to wait and see. I do not have a quote from the Konica/Minolta dealer yet.

If you are subscribing to Buyerzone, maybe you should think about canceling your membership and do not give these companies that many choices and if you don’t want to cancel then you should change sales tactics when dealing with these customers. No appointment, no quote, if they do not answer your call, and then no quote!

With BuyerZone, I was hoping to move a few more boxes and thought it would be easy and that my expertise would come out with my quotes and follow up. Boy, was I wrong. Take it to the bank, the thought of aftermarket service and supplies are intriguing, however the thought of IT buyers buying from us instead of IngramMicro and CDW could be a big gamble.

BuyerZone also has a link for Document Imaging Systems, now this may be a horse of a different color! If Document Imaging is a popular as all the hype, I would then suggest that you sign up for this service to give it a try. We are going to sign up sometime this week. I am hoping that the Document Imaging may not be as cutthroat as someone just buying a copier. Selling to real pain, or having a customer that needs a hardware and software solution may be able to put more Gross Profit in our deals. (link: http://www.buyerzone.com/software/doc_man_software)

I am asking the owners of my company to cancel their subscription to BuyerZone.com for copiers.

It’s now Sunday night and I have been working on this off and on for three days. I’m going to post this and then do a follow up reply when I hear from the other dealers in reference to their quotes.

Do you agree or disagree? Would you like to add anything? If so, please post a reply with your thoughts.