Copier Careers^® is the only recruiting firm exclusively dedicated to the Copier and Office Solutions Channel^℠. With over 30 years of experience, Copier Careers connects employers and job seekers, providing valuable insights, career opportunities, and unmatched support in the industry. Whether you’re an employer, employee or job seeker, Copier Careers is here for you!

Securing Technicians Could Be Key to Expansion

The hiring crunch just got more complex

Paul Schwartz, president of Copier Careers, discussed the potential impact of an OEM dealer agreement on hiring with long-time industry journalist, Scott Cullen. You can read the full interview here.

Highlights

• While we have not seen the dealer agreement, nor know any details, we’ve heard the same speculations as everyone else. The key factor turning heads seems to be that dealers looking to expand their sales territory can do so by hiring a certified technician in the new area.
• What makes this dealer agreement unusual is that it flips a familiar playbook. Usually, a dealer gets a national account in another region and then figures out how to staff it, sometimes with help from another dealer. But in this case, the approach to selling in a new area reportedly starts with hiring a technician who lives there.
• “I don’t recall ever seeing a situation where having a technician allows you to sell in that area,” as Schwartz explained. “Some of the mega dealers do it. If they’re based in the southwest United States and have a major national account they’re servicing in the upper Midwest or the Central United States, but not through another dealer, they will call us requesting a technician. In my experience, that account has already been sold. This is the reverse.”
• From a recruiting perspective, this situation offers an opportunity for dealers and service technicians. “If I were a dealer, knowing what I know about the workforce supply chain, I want to consider every possible candidate—every technical candidate and every sales candidate—available to me,” observed Schwartz. “Now, all of a sudden, there seems to be an extra incentive: if the candidate lives in a certain ZIP code, it could benefit their business.”
• “Although we’re not consultants,” Schwartz emphasized. “I don’t do the bottom lines on numbers. However, it appears to me that it’s an opportunity for dealers to grow, if they’re willing to take the risk of hiring a certified technician as the cost of entry to expand their footprint and grow their business. What concerns me is that it may be at the expense of other dealers. We’re all in favor of competition but it cuts both ways.”

Read the full article