Print in the Channel - issue #15

EPSON

Shaping the future of printing with Heat-Free Technology

but with the added environmental benefits.”

Successful career Marketing the printers in Epson’s range is a key part of Nick’s new role at Epson, a company he has been with since 2020, joining six weeks before the pandemic hit. “Which was very lucky indeed,” he says, Selling the benefits of products is something he has always done. Nick started his career at age 16 selling mobile phones. “I just absolutely love interacting with customers and the buzz of winning a deal and getting a contract,” he says. After working in that sector for a few years, he wanted to try business to business sales and joined a managed print service partner in Brighton, where he lived at the time. From there, he joined Canon, where he spent five years working in a national accounts role and then working in its European division, setting up a data capture and document management business. He then moved to Kyocera, where he was head of business development. After this, Nick joined Epson as a channel sales manager for UK and Ireland. “Working very closely with key channel partners to support the growth of their business, overseeing account management, pre-sales and our end user team,” he explains. Future positive But now he is settling into his new role, Nick is ambitious for the future of Epson, and heat-free inkjet printing, in the UK. “We need to continue to be disruptive in the marketplace because of that unique offering and messaging that we've got,” he says. “Our objective is clear: we want to continue to educate customers about the benefits of heat-free technology and closely support our channel partners to convince customers to upgrade from laser devices to heat-free inkjet printing technology. That is our number one objective in continuing to grow our business. “We're going to do that through educating our end user prospects about why they should be talking to Epson for their managed print services, and by supporting our channel partners to sell this technology. It's quite a simple strategy, but one that's been working very well for the last few years. My objective is to carry on the great work that Richard Wells has done and to accelerate the growth of Epson and our channel partners.”

There's a perception from some users that may have had an inkjet printer 15-20 years ago that it was very slow, and the print head moved across the page. But things have moved on and now they have very high quality, very high-definition output...

market in the future,” Nick adds. “That's one area where we are looking to continue to disrupt because while other laser competitors in the market have USPs of their own, we genuinely believe that the heat-free technology is unique, not just in terms of the technology, but the value that it offers to customers. “There is lower intervention in terms of the number of times you have to interact with the printer with long life consumables, much less waste is produced, it consumes less energy, and creates less CO₂. A laser printer can't do that to the same extent that Epson’s heat- free technology can. For us, the marketing element is important because we want to get the messaging of our technology out into the end user marketplace. We do that exclusively through our channel partners. They're important to us, because they're the people that are out there extolling the virtues of heat- free inkjet printing every day.” When most of the industry is laser, getting the message out is even more important to explain the advantages of it over what they may have used before. “It's a different technology called Micro-Piezo print heads, which is the underlying technology that makes them possible,” he says. “Epson's version is unique. There's a perception from some users that may have had an inkjet printer 15-20 years ago that it was very slow as the print head moved across the page. But things have moved on and now they have very high quality, very high-definition output – all the things that you would expect from a multifunction printer,

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