Pick me! Pick me!

So when some months back Kyocera put together a promo that would see its most talented, dedicated and, dare we say obsessive sales rep actually score a Porsche, most people predicted that raising of the bar would get the white board markers squeaking in its rivals’ boardrooms.

"We’re slowly seeing the level of incentives increasing -- the ante is going up," says Epson marketing and communications director Mike Pleasants.

Although this may increase the levels of fun and excitement in the industry, many suggest that the growing trend of promotions is having an adverse effect on both vendors and the channel, encouraging a more cut-throat, less customer-focused sales culture.

While sharing some of these concerns himself, Pleasants believes that aggressive marketing and promotional activities are virtually unavoidable in such a competitive market. "We can’t get away from the fact that everyone is going to use incentives to attract attention first of all to their product," he says.

"It’s one of those things where everyone is trying to find the perfect one [promotion] for their end users or the channel."

Epson has been running its fairly simple Epson Stylus Club promo for several years and feels that it has probably got the model about as right as it is ever going to. "You have to accept they’re not necessarily the ultimate incentive in terms of prize and rewards unless it’s sheer cash. It’s one of those things we prefer to look at."

The way the club works is that sales reps accumulate rewards points that can then be redeemed for goods, holidays and so on. Epson feels that people are generally more attracted to promotions whereby they can have maximum choice as to what they receive. "It’s what he or she wishes to redeem rather than pushing any particular product," Pleasants says.

"The vehicle [not a Porsche] is there all the time -- which we believe is probably one of the better ways of running a channel incentive."

As a software company, ScanSoft’s promotional programs are somewhat lower key than in the hardware space. However, as corporate sales manager Derek Austin jokes, "I almost became a Kyocera dealer myself when I saw that one".

He points out though, that there are definitely pros and cons when looking at vendor promotions and their ultimate impact on the channel. "It’s an indication that the industry as a whole is moving to commodity status -- that’s both good and bad for resellers I guess."

This is especially pronounced given the current emphasis on a more servicesoriented approach to printer sales, which demands that resellers have greater depth of understanding not only of the products they are selling but how they relate to customers’ specific needs.

Glenn Gibson, general manager at WPT, the Australian distributor for TallyGenicom, believes that promotions like Kyocera’s undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on the channel: ‘Throwing cars at them or anything like that distracts the channel from how to sell the product’.

Fuji Xerox Printers claims that it was the first vendor to offer individual credit cards for sales teams – no doubt one of the most successful and enduring offerings in the market – and has been running its promotion for about two years now.

‘All staff get a MasterCard debit card and for every sale they get a portion of cash on their card to use whenever they like ... This has been very exciting for us,’ says operations manager Paul Harman.