That shift is why I keep circling back to service.
The device can be leased, bundled, swapped, refreshed, managed, or quietly replaced by a fleet of smaller printers and a pile of scanned PDFs. The customer’s expectation stays stubbornly old-fashioned: when they hit Print, something comes out.
In a recent piece for The Imaging Channel, I wrote it plainly: most dealers think they sell machines. They do not. They sell time. When a device has problems, time gets chewed up, and service becomes the business end of the relationship. (The Imaging Channel)
The department everyone references and few people learn
Inside most dealerships, the service department is treated like a separate country with its own language and weather patterns. Dispatch, techs, parts, tickets, meter reads, notes, a service manager putting out fires. That mix is not background noise. It is the operating system of the dealership. (The Imaging Channel)
Sales can be charming. Service is remembered.
Customers don’t typically know the name of the rep who sold the device three years ago. They often know the tech by first name. That can be good. It can also mean the tech is visiting too often. (The Imaging Channel)
New reps: the fastest way to stop sounding new
Most onboarding focuses on product lines, pricing, and how to build a proposal. The part that ages a rep quickly is understanding what happens after the paperwork leaves the sales desk.
In the article, I laid out a simple, old-school learning loop:
Sit with dispatch and listen to how priorities get set
Spend time on the dock and watch receiving and shipping
Watch bench setup with attention to connectivity and configuration
Do ride-alongs and pay attention to the questions customers ask when sales is not in the room
None of that requires a formal program. It requires permission, awareness, and the ability to stand there quietly without turning the shop into a classroom.
One small detail that tends to separate the grown-ups from the tourists is the “service facts” page per account. Device location, contacts, access notes, network notes, paper type, recurring issues. It makes a rep look psychic. It’s actually organization.
Dealer decision makers: the friction is real, and it has a source
There’s also a part most people acknowledge with a grin and then ignore: friction between sales and service is as old as the first service ticket. In the piece, I call out the stigma directly, the belief that sales will say anything to get the deal and disappear, while service inherits the cleanup.
That dynamic shows up most clearly at three points:
Site surveys that are thin, skipped, or guessed
Delivery and installs where the handoff is sloppy
Expectations around response time vs resolution time (The Imaging Channel)
Those are not philosophical issues. They’re operational issues. They land on dispatch, on the tech route, and on the service manager’s desk.
The favor is coming. It always does.
At some point a rep asks for a favor. A rushed part delivery. A squeezed-in visit. Help getting a device up a floor with a forklift and a prayer.
In the article I put it in more colorful terms, because the business has its own mythology. The god of copiers “demands it.” (The Imaging Channel)
The practical point is simpler: relationships built before the problem show up differently than relationships built during the problem.
The full article
If you want the detailed breakdown of roles, language, and the “learn it without getting in the way” schedule, the full piece is here: New to Copier Sales: What Is This Thing Called a “Service Department”? (The Imaging Channel)
For new reps, it’s a map of the building you’re already standing in.
For dealer leaders, it’s a reminder that the service department is not an appendix. It’s the part of the business customers actually meet.
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