By Simon Quicke03 July 2008
Brother has unveiled a leasing sales model to revitalise the printer market
and tap into the current demand in the SME market for pay-as-you-go economic
models.
The leasing programme operates with a quarterly payment where customers can opt
for colour laser and mono products plus consumables at an agreed monthly print
rate.
Phil Jones, sales and marketing director at Brother, said that it paid the
reseller a lump sum percentage of hardware and consumables revenue after the
customer had signed a contract adding to the attraction of selling the leasing
model.
He added that it had been planning the programme for a while and research of
SMEs showed an appetite for leasing, which was being spurred by a wider
interest in pay-as-you-go hosted services..
“In particular we are looking to expand sales of the colour laser printers,”
he added “We had to push the market because the industry needed something more
than someone just bringing out another printer.”
He added that customers could monitor their printing levels through a
Brother extranet that would be fed by a device that could report back on
the customers acvitivy to help them make the most of their agreed monthly print
rate.
That information could be supplied to resellers, which Jones believed would
be interested in a sales approach that "suddenly makes printers sexy
again".
James Kight, managing director of Printerland, said that developed a team
that was dedicated to selling contract printing and the appeal of a leasing
programme was the revenue it retained for the reseller.
“You are not just selling the hardware but selling the package and you keep
the consumables revenue under the same roof,” he said.
