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Konica Minolta South Africa, a division of Bidvest Office (Pty) Ltd. was recently awarded the trophy for "Best Expansion in Solution Sales" at the annual international Konica Minolta conference.
This year the conference was held in Malaysia and included a visit to the factory where machines, spares and toner are manufactured. The trophy was handed to Konica Minolta South Africa's Head of Sales and Marketing, Alten Hulme by the President of Konica Minolta Europe, Ikuo Nakagawa.
Mr. Nakagawa explained that this award is very prestigious as the entire industry had moved away from traditional "box dropping" to Solution Selling. He added that Konica Minolta showed by far the best expansion by all companies, and that it can be seen in their market share, where Konica Minolta South Africa now dominate the SA market for the 7th consecutive year.
Alten Hulme explained that they have introduced several initiatives to put huge emphasis on solution selling. This included intensive training - both online and classroom training- for sales and technical staff, as well as restricting sales incentives only to those who offer solutions to clients and not merely just a machine. "Gone are the days when we simply see how many copies a month you make and then advise on a suitable machine for the client. We now make sure we understand the clients' business processes, risks and pain points before we recommend solutions to their companies", Hulme said.
Konica Minolta South Africa maintained their number one position in production machines, office machines (7th consecutive year) and a remarkable 14 consecutive years as the leader in colour office machines in South Africa. They have 92 141 machines installed in South Africa – 18 800 more than their nearest competitor.*