Lee Evans, Sales Director, IT@Spectrum
Q: What are your customers most interested in?
A: With the GDPR coming into force in just under 12 months, our customers are now looking at how that will have an impact on how, and what they print – especially when it comes to security and confidential documents being on show.
Q: Do clients have the same understanding of industry terms such as BYOD, MPS or MDS, as we do?
A: Not as many as you would think! Although that is why we are here to educate our existing and prospective customers.
Q: Where are you seeing most traction at the moment, are there any verticals that are particularly strong?
A: Manufacturing is on the up and we have had lots of enquiries from different sizes of companies who are wanting to invest in ways that will make them more productive and increase their bottom line.
Q: When selling MFPs, what are the most popular software solutions you provide and why?
A: Print management software to complement the MFD is more or less standard now. The main reasons for this is that senior managers are wanting to track and limit what their staff are producing as well as make the printing of documents as safe as possible by activating the ‘secure release’ function that not handles this ever-growing problem but can also reduce the amount of waste prints/copies.
Q: Where do you get information on the latest products and solutions, and do you feel that the OEMs are doing enough to educate their channel partners?
A: We have a fantastic relationship with Canon and they have regular sessions and seminars with all of our sales and support team to ensure that we are kept up to speed on all of the latest developments that are happening within the market place.
Q: Is your patch particularly competitive – is it national or local competition that you face?
A: We are predominantly Yorkshire and Lincolnshire based and have competition from not only local dealers, but the manufacturers themselves. It is always competitive but we feel that if we do the job to the best of our abilities – it is hard for the customer to go elsewhere!
Q: How do you spend your week – time on phone, face to face meetings with customers etc?
The majority of my week is spent on training and developing all of my team’s skills – whether that be the senior account managers or the more ‘junior’ executive – we feel that this is a major part of our growth and is pivotal to all of our personal development plans.
Q: What would make your job easier?
A: By eliminating laborious tasks internally and concentrating on our customers’ needs and requirements which will then bring success to all and make it a win-win!
