Printer vendor Lexmark, Lexington, Ky., has tapped a longtime company and industry veteran to head up its channel efforts, and expects to significantly add to its spending on channel programs in 2006, executives said.
Sharon Brindley, who oversaw Lexmark’s public and health-care sector sales operations, was tapped to become its vice president of U.S. channels Jan. 1. John Linton, Lexmark’s vice president of solution provider channels, will report to Brindley.
“I see my new job as one that’s focused on growing Lexmark and working hard with the channel to do that,” Brindley said. “We can grow their business, as well as grow our business.”
Though details were still being hammered out, Linton said Lexmark is set to provide “double-digit” increases for channel programs in 2006 compared with last year, and will pay close attention to the company’s managed service offerings launched in 2005. Linton said the company has increased its inside channel sales organization by 75 percent, including field representatives and solution provider support staff.
Brindley’s appointment was described as merely the addition of another channel executive who will advocate inside the company for its solution provider organization. She said that her first order of business is “to listen and to understand what the priorities of our channel partners are—what can we do to get ourselves to the next level?”
The next level will include the additional sale of Lexmark-branded printers—a differentiated lineup from the company’s OEM business for other vendors including Dell, Round Rock, Texas.
“The channel program additions and extra support would definitely be good things,” said Tom Carswell, president of Carswell Data Products, a Rochester Hills, Mich.-based solution provider and Lexmark reseller. As for additional financial incentives or margin programs, Carswell said Lexmark’s offerings have been attractive to date. “I sell a printer, I get a return,” he said. “If we sell enough printers over a year, it’s pretty attractive.”
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