Thinking About Solid Ink
Perry Perkins commented on Jim's post, asking about the reaction to solid ink at the Partner Summit. Of course I have a lot to say on the subject of solid ink in general, so I thought I'd respond with a post.
During the event we set up a “Solutions Pavilion” to show off new products along with new service offerings, document solutions (like DocuShare and Nuance ScanSoft), and leasing offerings. I manned the solid ink section which included a Phaser 8560 and Phaser 8560MFP… I was swamped!
The answer to your question, Perry, is best illustrated by a wonderful discussion I had with a potential new reseller. This reseller did not know much about solid ink and frankly was unsure whether he was going to carry the product line. Of course I then launched into all the good news around solid ink – extremely easy to load supplies (I had him drop in a solid ink stick), brilliant colors (I showed him print samples and made some color copies on the 8560MFP), and demonstrated real world performance by showing the fast first page out time. Although he agreed with all the points I made, you could tell he was still on the fence a bit. Without any prompting from me, another existing reseller just stepped right in and started talking about how he sells solid ink, (paraphrasing) … “This product is great because only Xerox has solid ink. We tell customers about the easy to load sticks and how they are good for the environment. A lot of customers ask us why Xerox is the only company that has solid ink. I tell them because Xerox is the only company that cares, then I write up an order….” Then he (my new best friend) literally did my sales pitch for me while I was standing there nodding. Nothing is more powerful than a peer in the same business praising a product. As they walked off together, still talking about solid ink, I knew that new reseller would sell solid ink.
All in all, it was a very good chance to meet our partners and talk to them in depth on what they are seeing in the market. My impression was that the resellers were excited about the new solid ink products and look forward to receiving their demo units--but I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on solid ink here!
Shell Haffner
Worldwide Solid Ink Product Manager
XOG Marketing