In the last five years, office technology dealers have significantly expanded their solutions. Enhanced bundled offerings, MPS, cloud, subscription-based, as-a-service, traditional IT, and a host of breakthrough new products are just a few of the ways the industry is undergoing rapid change.

But as new solutions are introduced, most dealers find their respective opportunities arriving slower than desired. In a survey of over 800 dealers in 2023, 81% point to one of the largest reasons for the slow growth of new capabilities being “poor promotion”.

Are you looking to introduce a new office technology solution? Here are six tips you can use to promote it consistently and effectively:

1. Utilize Surveys. 5% of dealers surveyed their audience about the new solution and their needs before bringing it to market. Only four—not 4%, but four dealers – had ever gathered trusted customers into a focus group to talk to them about how these new solutions might be received. This is a simple and extremely effective way to ensure your new offerings will be positioned for success.
2. Establish a Team. Create a cross-functional team that builds your go-to-market approach from a 360-degree view of your capabilities, strengths, and customer feedback. This also gives every functional area equity in the success of the new offering—not just sales and marketing.
3. Determine a Plan. Establish clear messaging, marketing, sales targeting, and communication plans for new capabilities. Ensuring everyone rallies around the same story, the value connection to your audience, and the promotion strategy is essential. Incorporate all this work in a written plan with clear goals.
4. Measure Everything. Continuously evaluate performance against your goals. Ensure new capabilities are well-rewarded when goals are achieved. All areas, including marketing, sales, service, and administration, should be accountable to each other and to the plan.
5. Offer Affordable Payments. Affordability drives adoption, and payments are the mechanism that makes your new solutions more affordable. Work with your finance partners for their unique take and leverage their marketing infrastructure to help make the most of your efforts.
6. Continue to Adjust. It doesn’t matter how well you’ve researched and planned for new capabilities – there are always new discoveries during and after deployment. Executing new solutions creates new opportunities for improvement and adjustment. Fail fast, learn quickly, and adapt to what you’re hearing.

Some of these fundamentals may seem apparent, but only 11% of the dealers surveyed had a written plan to launch their new capabilities in 2023. By keeping these tips in mind, you can successfully launch your new offerings and gain a competitive edge.

And don’t forget to build flexibility and affordability into your plan. For decades, LEAF has delivered flexible solutions for office technology companies that help them evolve and grow in all areas.