In Episode 149 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RSPA CEO Jim Roddy talks about the history and future of the retail IT channel with Brett Van Riper, Channel Account Manager for Epson. Among the topics discussed are how trends from the 1990s and 2000s are parallel to today’s channel, the importance of VARs remaining independent, how distributors drive success for channel partners, and why innovation in the POS industry is driven by Main Street, not Park Avenue.
“The Trusted Advisor,” powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), is an award-winning content series designed specifically for retail IT VARs and software providers. Our goal is to educate you on the topics of leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other small business best practices. For more insights, visit the RSPA blog at www.GoRSPA.org.
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Full episode transcript via Apple Podcasts:
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Roddy: Welcome to another episode of The Trusted Advisor podcast and video series, powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association.
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Roddy: Our goal on the pod is to accelerate the success of today’s and tomorrow’s leaders in the retail IT industry.
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Roddy: I’m Jim Roddy back with you again.
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Roddy: Thank you so much for joining us.
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Roddy: As always, we talk with leaders in the Retail IT channel about their leadership journeys and what they’ve learned along the way.
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Roddy: In this episode, we’ll talk with Brett Van Riper, a channel account manager for Epson, where he’s been a member of the team for nearly 30 years.
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Roddy: Prior to Epson, from 1992 to 1997, Brett worked for NEMACS, a point of sale distributor, which was acquired by Ingram Micro in 2004.
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Roddy: Brett, our paths have crossed at many industry events.
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Roddy: Welcome to The Trusted Advisor.
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Van Riper: Hi Jim, happy new year to you.
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Van Riper: Good to see you again.
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Roddy: Yes, happy new year.
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Roddy: So I mentioned at the outset, we want to talk about your leadership journey.
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Roddy: Can you talk about that and some of the roles that you’ve held in the channel?
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Roddy: Because your entire career has been focused on coordinating channel companies.
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Roddy: Can you share for our listeners and our viewers some details on your background?
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Van Riper: Yes, sure.
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Van Riper: I was hired back in Epson in 1997 as a channel, or as a distribution account manager and did that for about almost 25 years, not quite 25 years, but something like that.
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Van Riper: And then I became, I worked for our, I transferred over and worked with Linda Sutter for about the last seven years as a channel account manager.
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Van Riper: And that group is led by Mike DeGeebert now because Linda retired.
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Van Riper: But I’ve been with Epson almost 30 years, it’ll be 30 years in September of this year.
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Van Riper: And then before that, I worked in the channel for NEMACS.
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Van Riper: People probably remember NEMACS out of Lavonia, Michigan.
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Van Riper: And I did that for about five years.
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Van Riper: And then for a short period of time, if people really want to claw back, there was a Radio Shack Business Systems, did Synchronix POS systems way back when.
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Van Riper: And we’ll talk about that a little bit more in detail, a little bit in our other conversations.
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Van Riper: But that was really where I started in POS.
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Roddy: Very interesting.
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Roddy: And who were some of the distributors you worked with over the years?
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Van Riper: Almost all of them.
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Van Riper: I have a 20-year relationship with ScanSource.
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Van Riper: I had Metropolitan for a good chunk of that, maybe 15 years.
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Van Riper: I did Nemax for a little while after the emotions settled down a little bit.
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Van Riper: I had Nemax.
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Van Riper: I did PC4 back in the day I started them.
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Van Riper: Ajealysis was with us.
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Van Riper: I didn’t really ever work directly with Bluestar, but I am good friends with a lot of people there.
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Van Riper: Mark Fraker and I go way back to my Nemax days, and Steve Koontz was a dear friend of mine, and I enjoyed the crew over there.
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Roddy: Yeah, and folks who don’t know PC4 was actually owned and operated by the RSPA.
00:03:19.718 –> 00:03:25.658
Roddy: It was like a commercial branch of it, and then eventually got scooped up by Scancers.
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Roddy: I think as distributors rose, and you can tell me because you were there on the front lines of it, as the role of distributors increased, it was like, hey, our association is like competing with us.
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Roddy: I don’t know if you have any stories on that in terms of, and really how sales through the channel really became more important over time.
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Roddy: And we’re going to dive in a little bit more, how distributors played a role with that.
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Roddy: But is that how you remember the whole PC4 thing from back in the day?
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Van Riper: Yeah, you know, it’s, so the relationship, so the PC4, you know, was an evolution of the ICRDA Part Center.
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Roddy: Yes.
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Van Riper: So, you know, one of the things that the ICRDA did was they got the resellers and the dealers educated on servicing product and dealing with the backend.
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Van Riper: And those that got involved in that business found out that that was very lucrative.
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Van Riper: And it also tied them into the end user quite a bit, because they became a more reliable source for the end user because of their skill set in fixing bad equipment.
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Van Riper: So that’s one of the real key things that the ICRDA did for their members is train their backend and then provide them an access for parts.
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Van Riper: So one of the evolutions there was, you know, we’ll get into this a little later too, but as the POS business broke away from being a system business to a component business, the thought on the ICRDA side was, you know, let’s become a distributor.
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Van Riper: Let’s bring on some of these components along with the parts and start being a full service distributor.
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Van Riper: Oh, that kind of went.
00:05:29.938 –> 00:05:32.218
Van Riper: That only went so well.
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Van Riper: But it went for a while.
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Roddy: Yes.
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Roddy: And that’s where I learned PC and PC4 came from Part Center and it was like the fourth warehouse that they had.
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Roddy: So they rolled it up from there.
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Roddy: So, all right.
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Roddy: So very interesting.
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Roddy: So thank you for sending that background.
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Roddy: And so during our discussion, we’re going to connect what happened in the channel historically to events today, because there’s a lot that we can learn from past events, right?
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Roddy: It might not be identical, but there’s a lot of philosophy and business best practices that tie in together.
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Roddy: So can you talk about the most important channel trend from the 1990s and the 2000s?
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Roddy: There was a shift from dealers representing just one brand to resellers who were becoming more autonomous and building custom solutions.
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Roddy: So can you expand upon that for our listeners and viewers about that whole transition?
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Van Riper: Yeah, and that really was the 90s.
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Van Riper: So if you think about it, I see you’re wearing the RSPA shirt, and that’s Retail Solutions Providers Association, right?
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Van Riper: And that organization was actually the convergence of the ICRDA and the SDA.
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Van Riper: So the ICRDA and the SDA both have a common letter in it, which was D for dealer.
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Van Riper: And so that’s what happened.
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Van Riper: So whether it was an NCR, you know, what you had is these POS companies, they were dealers back in the 90s.
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Van Riper: And they were dealers of NCR, they were dealers of IBM, they were dealers of Data Checker, they were dealers of, you know, they would be a dealer.
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Van Riper: Casio, they were, you know, like they were cash register dealers.
00:07:13.978 –> 00:07:22.598
Van Riper: And so if you think about their names back then, they were all, you know, CRS of Fort Wayne or CRS of Kalamazoo or CRS of…
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Roddy: Or Micros and then whatever the location is, yeah.
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Van Riper: Yeah, and then the DCR, you know, Data Cash Register.
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Van Riper: So they were all selling cash register systems.
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Van Riper: And then in the 90s, the platforms started to open up.
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Van Riper: The software became the key to the solution.
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Van Riper: You know, so it was more of a business operation software as opposed to a cash register that was handling transactions.
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Van Riper: And so that’s really what the 90s was all about.
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Van Riper: And as that happened, the dealers changed to solution providers.
00:08:05.378 –> 00:08:06.958
Van Riper: You know, they became…
00:08:07.218 –> 00:08:08.998
Van Riper: And we talked a little bit about this.
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Van Riper: They became more in control of their future.
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Van Riper: You know, as opposed to being like a car dealer.
00:08:15.738 –> 00:08:19.538
Van Riper: Like Ford was kind of captive on whatever Ford brought out, right?
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Van Riper: And, yeah, well, the cash register dealers evolved into the point of sale business operation people.
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Van Riper: And they began to shop these software packages.
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Van Riper: And then actually the component business kind of broke up at that time.
00:08:40.718 –> 00:08:55.018
Van Riper: So when you look at it, like, you know, like, you would have this NCR system that would have a flatbed barcode scanner and an integrated keyboard and an integrated receipt printer and that type of thing, right?
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Van Riper: Well, during the 90s, everything broke out.
00:08:58.238 –> 00:09:07.858
Van Riper: And so you get companies like Percon and Spectrophysics and Symbol, they would control, they are Metrologic.
00:09:07.858 –> 00:09:17.758
Van Riper: They handled the barcode part of the business and Citizen and Star and Epson started dealing with the receipt printer part of it.
00:09:17.758 –> 00:09:22.638
Van Riper: And then you had like Cherry and Unitech handling the keyboard part of it, right?
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Van Riper: And so things became more a la carte.
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Van Riper: And so what could happen is that the dealers could bring a more unique, specialized offering to their end users and they became more autonomous.
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Roddy: Yes, so instead of just which of our cash registers that we offer do you want, they could put together a custom solution because they could say, you know, it’s going to work best for you, the Cherry Keyboard, the Epson Receipt Printer, things of that nature.
00:09:57.798 –> 00:10:07.798
Roddy: And it seems like it helped the dealer then become a literal systems provider or a solution provider, and they could be way more customer focused.
00:10:07.798 –> 00:10:11.678
Roddy: And that was part of the underlying transition as well.
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Roddy: They could serve the customer better, but they also had to raise their level of expertise, because they weren’t just selling 10 different things.
00:10:19.898 –> 00:10:22.178
Roddy: The options became almost limitless.
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Van Riper: Yeah, and that’s true.
00:10:24.378 –> 00:10:29.678
Van Riper: And the focus actually became more on the software and became more on the training.
00:10:29.678 –> 00:10:35.398
Van Riper: So the software ended up touching more of the operation than the transactional part of it.
00:10:35.398 –> 00:10:52.058
Van Riper: You know, the cash registers were somewhat limited to the transaction accounting area of the business, whereas when the software came around, it encompassed that, but also brought the, you know, the back end of the business to the front.
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Van Riper: And it integrated everything, right?
00:10:54.758 –> 00:11:06.158
Van Riper: And so the dealers, the solution providers had to become much more, much more fluent in the operation of the businesses.
00:11:06.158 –> 00:11:10.118
Van Riper: And that’s where they became so valuable, actually, to the end users.
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Roddy: Yes, yes, for sure, yeah, because they could actually act as a trusted advisor for them and a counselor on it.
00:11:16.098 –> 00:11:18.478
Roddy: What did it do from a pricing standpoint?
00:11:18.478 –> 00:11:21.838
Roddy: Like, did it go from you’re paying the same amount or was it less?
00:11:21.838 –> 00:11:26.778
Roddy: Was it more from a merchant standpoint and from what the resellers were offering?
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Van Riper: That was something that evolved over time.
00:11:29.118 –> 00:11:37.058
Van Riper: I mentioned my little time at Synchronix and Radio Shack.
00:11:37.058 –> 00:11:43.538
Van Riper: Back then, you had memory chips and stuff like that that were $150 or $125.
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Van Riper: And the hard drive was $500 for nothing, for not even a megabyte.
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Van Riper: And so in the 90s, that stuff, you might have looked at a register and actually looked at the price tag being much, much cheaper.
00:12:03.018 –> 00:12:10.918
Van Riper: But then, as we rolled into the 2000s and things like that, things started dropping dramatically.
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Van Riper: We talked about these components.
00:12:14.298 –> 00:12:25.018
Van Riper: And even like, you used to have these big TD sets for, remember, the Microtouch ELO Battles, you know, Resistive Capacitive and stuff like that.
00:12:26.518 –> 00:12:30.578
Van Riper: That pricing model just dropped dramatically.
00:12:30.578 –> 00:12:35.938
Van Riper: PC’s dropped dramatically once we got into the 2000s.
00:12:35.978 –> 00:12:46.058
Van Riper: And so when that happened, then the change wasn’t so difficult.
00:12:46.058 –> 00:12:48.758
Van Riper: You know, they knew the benefits by then.
00:12:49.258 –> 00:13:00.778
Van Riper: They knew this, you know, bringing the back part of the office and integrating it with the front part of the office and having it all operating under one system was beneficial.
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Van Riper: But it was, you know, in the 90s, it was kind of expensive and it was kind of cumbersome.
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Van Riper: But the better the software got, the better, the more encompassing the software got, and the better the components got, everything got cheaper and everything got a lot better.
00:13:19.638 –> 00:13:20.738
Van Riper: A lot better.
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Roddy: Yes.
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Roddy: And that maybe is a lesson for today, where you see something that comes out new and somebody’s like, well, the price point of it is too high.
00:13:27.698 –> 00:13:30.618
Roddy: But hey, over time, like the functionality is really what matters.
00:13:30.698 –> 00:13:36.318
Roddy: And if it’s serving the merchant, eventually that price point could come down exponentially, I guess.
00:13:36.318 –> 00:13:40.158
Roddy: Or am I trying to tie two things together that shouldn’t be tied together?
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Van Riper: Yeah.
00:13:41.058 –> 00:13:44.138
Van Riper: And I deal with Epson.
00:13:46.718 –> 00:13:49.918
Van Riper: We stake our claim on reliability.
00:13:49.918 –> 00:13:59.018
Van Riper: And in most of these areas, most guys that deal in these areas, particularly in the hospitality business, it’s a disaster.
00:13:59.018 –> 00:14:03.078
Van Riper: And it’s very tough on technical, on equipment.
00:14:03.078 –> 00:14:08.278
Van Riper: And so reliability becomes a much greater thing to look at over time.
00:14:08.278 –> 00:14:15.878
Van Riper: And for people that have been in the business a long time, I’m talking about end users that have been…
00:14:15.878 –> 00:14:20.678
Van Riper: Yes, they want to make their starting point as low as possible.
00:14:21.398 –> 00:14:25.938
Van Riper: But what overrides most of that is, hey, I want good solid equipment.
00:14:26.278 –> 00:14:32.958
Van Riper: And a lot of times, that comes with history, with a particular vendor and that type of thing.
00:14:32.958 –> 00:14:37.198
Van Riper: And so, yeah, they try and push price, but it’s not that.
00:14:37.578 –> 00:14:46.418
Van Riper: They want to make sure that they’re very confident in the service that they have purchased with the system.
00:14:46.418 –> 00:14:51.498
Van Riper: And then also just the general reliability of the equipment.
00:14:53.078 –> 00:15:01.498
Van Riper: That is, for smart business owners, that is more paramount than the cost.
00:15:01.498 –> 00:15:02.038
Van Riper: Yep.
00:15:02.038 –> 00:15:02.278
Roddy: Yep.
00:15:02.278 –> 00:15:08.918
Roddy: And just service the RSPA offers to a lot of our VARs and ISVs is that we do merchant surveys on their behalf, right?
00:15:08.918 –> 00:15:12.358
Roddy: We help them put their survey together so we get to see the results of it.
00:15:12.358 –> 00:15:19.538
Roddy: And what we see is, if your software, hardware, if everything you provide is reliable, that makes everything else great.
00:15:19.638 –> 00:15:24.338
Roddy: Because even if you have wonderful customer service, but if they have to jump in too many times, right?
00:15:24.338 –> 00:15:28.998
Roddy: These merchants do not want to be hanging out with your customer service team fixing problems.
00:15:28.998 –> 00:15:32.798
Roddy: They want it to be super, super reliable.
00:15:34.118 –> 00:15:44.018
Roddy: So tying in with that, so I’m hoping you can talk, Brett, about the importance of VARs and solution providers remaining independent today, and the important that they have that autonomy.
00:15:44.018 –> 00:15:48.938
Roddy: Like you chose the word D in ICRDA and SDA system dealers.
00:15:49.418 –> 00:16:00.658
Roddy: The thing that I go back to is, I always say the first word in the history of the RSPA was independent, Independent Cash Register Dealers Association, and RSPA Board Past Chair Jeff Reilly from Retail Management Hero.
00:16:00.658 –> 00:16:06.478
Roddy: He refers to our community as a, quote, mesh network of independent entrepreneurs.
00:16:06.478 –> 00:16:13.698
Roddy: Can you talk about the importance of, you talked how solution providers went away from being a dealer of one to being able to be independent.
00:16:13.698 –> 00:16:15.578
Roddy: How important is that in today’s channel?
00:16:17.698 –> 00:16:21.038
Van Riper: Well, it’s very important for a lot of different reasons.
00:16:21.038 –> 00:16:31.558
Van Riper: So it’s very important for an end user so that they can get an opportunity to see everything that’s out there.
00:16:31.558 –> 00:16:39.418
Van Riper: You know, see the broad spectrum, get a professional’s view of what has worked well in the marketplace, right?
00:16:41.838 –> 00:16:58.198
Van Riper: On the partner or on the dealer side or the solution provider side, it’s more about bringing the best equipment to play for the end user.
00:16:58.198 –> 00:17:02.458
Van Riper: But more importantly, they also control their finances on that, right?
00:17:02.458 –> 00:17:14.358
Van Riper: So, you know, once they’re making, once they create the demand, I look from an Epson side, you know, as a vendor, you know, who’s creating the demand?
00:17:14.358 –> 00:17:20.418
Van Riper: You know, who really is making the end user, you know, purchase whatever?
00:17:21.638 –> 00:17:25.838
Van Riper: It’s that demand creation thing comes with profitability, right?
00:17:26.778 –> 00:17:32.978
Van Riper: If you’re helping that end user make the decision on what product that they want, you should be rewarded for that.
00:17:33.398 –> 00:17:41.578
Van Riper: If I’m telling you what to sell to an end user as a vendor, you shouldn’t make as much money, right?
00:17:41.578 –> 00:17:46.378
Van Riper: Because I’m doing all that, you know, I’m bringing you the end user, that type of thing.
00:17:46.378 –> 00:17:54.678
Van Riper: But if you’re out there creating the opportunities, you should be in control of the margin, which, you know, should be beneficial to you.
00:17:54.678 –> 00:17:59.178
Van Riper: So I hope that kind of answered your question there a little bit.
00:18:00.178 –> 00:18:02.598
Van Riper: It’s, there’s a two-way street there.
00:18:03.878 –> 00:18:11.498
Van Riper: There’s the benefit to the end user to be able to look at a broader spectrum of product.
00:18:11.498 –> 00:18:21.138
Roddy: Yes, it reminds me, I won’t mention the name of the vendor, but this is many years ago where they introduced a product and the entire system like the margin on it was $9 a month.
00:18:21.138 –> 00:18:25.558
Roddy: And so I remember some resellers saying, well, that’s terrible.
00:18:25.558 –> 00:18:28.278
Roddy: I can’t make a living that way if I do it.
00:18:28.278 –> 00:18:33.438
Roddy: But if all they did was they were only a dealer for that one vendor, then they’d be out of luck.
00:18:33.438 –> 00:18:39.198
Roddy: But because they could then, I’ll just go buy, I’ll go resell something that’s better and I can actually make money at it.
00:18:39.198 –> 00:18:46.658
Roddy: That kind of sounds like what you’re saying is that independence gives them the latitude to actually have a living if they want.
00:18:47.478 –> 00:18:49.278
Van Riper: And that’s a good thing.
00:18:49.278 –> 00:18:57.518
Van Riper: You do want your people to actually make money that are out there working because otherwise you end up with other problems.
00:18:59.418 –> 00:19:00.878
Roddy: But some have learned that the hard way, right?
00:19:01.158 –> 00:19:03.058
Roddy: You and I have been around the channel long enough.
00:19:03.058 –> 00:19:14.318
Roddy: There’s a whole bunch of folks who think if I just throw a pittance to my reseller channel, that’s going to keep them happy, but that’s not really what it is.
00:19:14.318 –> 00:19:18.638
Roddy: If you want to get really good resellers, you got to make sure they can make margin on your product.
00:19:18.638 –> 00:19:24.298
Roddy: It’s got to open new doors and provide them a margin if I’m understanding what you’re saying correctly.
00:19:24.298 –> 00:19:25.218
Van Riper: That’s absolutely.
00:19:25.978 –> 00:19:33.898
Van Riper: And again, if you’re bringing something to an end user that is beneficial to their business, they’ll pay the tab.
00:19:33.898 –> 00:19:39.558
Van Riper: The idea is, why discount it before you find out the value?
00:19:39.878 –> 00:19:47.698
Van Riper: And there is a lot of value in buying leverage in the marketplace in regards to the margin that you provide your dealers.
00:19:50.018 –> 00:19:59.938
Van Riper: If they can make money off of what you’re trying to do in the marketplace, that will benefit you as a vendor or a software company tremendously.
00:19:59.938 –> 00:20:08.018
Van Riper: Even if they make more money than you could have possibly imagined, that’s still a really good thing for the vendor.
00:20:08.018 –> 00:20:10.338
Van Riper: It provides leverage.
00:20:10.338 –> 00:20:16.158
Roddy: And if you’re hiring salespeople, you could pay them a very little bit, but they’re going to go work for somebody who’s actually going to pay them, right?
00:20:16.158 –> 00:20:18.618
Roddy: The best ones are going to move on and move away from you.
00:20:19.658 –> 00:20:22.458
Van Riper: That’s usually where it rolls.
00:20:22.458 –> 00:20:25.338
Roddy: Though again, many have tried the other way, and then they learn the hard way.
00:20:26.058 –> 00:20:27.378
Roddy: It doesn’t work for you long term.
00:20:27.378 –> 00:20:30.378
Roddy: So let’s talk about distributors a little bit more.
00:20:30.378 –> 00:20:31.218
Roddy: We touched on it.
00:20:31.218 –> 00:20:45.038
Roddy: Can you talk from your vantage point about the importance that you saw distributors play, you know, really building up the channel and how they have helped and continued to help VARS become and stay independent today in the channel?
00:20:45.038 –> 00:20:50.478
Van Riper: Yeah, probably one of the most key things for everybody.
00:20:51.618 –> 00:21:07.158
Van Riper: If you look at a lot of dealers or solution providers, business operations isn’t one of their, you know, real qualities, so to speak, as a business.
00:21:07.158 –> 00:21:15.638
Van Riper: Lots of them are not operating the most efficient way you possibly can.
00:21:16.958 –> 00:21:24.738
Van Riper: You can’t be a distributor, a national distributor, like Blue Star ScanSource or Metropolitan, MSK.
00:21:24.738 –> 00:21:30.218
Van Riper: They’re very efficient businesses, very, very efficient, very impressive.
00:21:30.218 –> 00:21:36.698
Van Riper: And so what they’re able to do is they’re able to, you know, coordinate the back end of a business.
00:21:36.698 –> 00:21:42.318
Van Riper: They’re able to organize the equipment, you know, the different vendors and that type of thing.
00:21:42.998 –> 00:21:55.698
Van Riper: And they are, you know, able to provide probably very flexible credit lines, unlike Epson does.
00:21:55.698 –> 00:21:57.078
Van Riper: Epson’s got a type.
00:21:57.078 –> 00:22:04.558
Van Riper: So the distributors will work with the, you know, on the financial part of it, the accounting part of it.
00:22:04.558 –> 00:22:10.078
Van Riper: They will also help everybody with their merchandising and marketing.
00:22:10.238 –> 00:22:16.818
Van Riper: If you, you know, distribution is three components.
00:22:17.378 –> 00:22:23.418
Van Riper: It’s this warehouse, it’s sales, and then it’s merchandising.
00:22:23.418 –> 00:22:35.378
Van Riper: Out of the merchandising, they do marketing, but merchandising is one of the most important things that the distributor brings the market.
00:22:35.378 –> 00:22:37.438
Van Riper: And they’re very good at it.
00:22:37.998 –> 00:22:49.038
Van Riper: And they, they leverage, they not only leverage a bunch of vendors, they leverage all of these resellers, right?
00:22:50.238 –> 00:22:57.818
Van Riper: And then they bring efficiency into the picture, and it works very, very well, very, very well.
00:22:58.198 –> 00:23:00.898
Van Riper: And it was a, it’s, it was a great thing.
00:23:00.898 –> 00:23:05.718
Van Riper: It’s, the distributors are a great thing for the resellers.
00:23:05.718 –> 00:23:13.418
Van Riper: They’re even probably a better thing for vendors because they penetrate the market.
00:23:13.418 –> 00:23:21.078
Van Riper: They have, they are, our distributors are so responsible for our reseller base.
00:23:21.078 –> 00:23:23.098
Van Riper: So responsible.
00:23:23.098 –> 00:23:25.818
Van Riper: They are, they are more than 50%.
00:23:26.338 –> 00:23:40.598
Van Riper: They are responsible for developing our partner program, for finding new resellers, for expanding us into different vertical markets because everybody knows the hospitality market.
00:23:40.598 –> 00:23:41.798
Van Riper: They know the grocery market.
00:23:41.798 –> 00:23:42.998
Van Riper: They know the retail market.
00:23:42.998 –> 00:23:45.818
Van Riper: But what about, you know, the hospital market?
00:23:45.818 –> 00:23:48.518
Van Riper: What about, you know, what about the financial market?
00:23:48.518 –> 00:23:49.758
Van Riper: That type of thing.
00:23:49.758 –> 00:23:53.818
Van Riper: The distributors have explored almost all of those markets for us.
00:23:55.198 –> 00:23:58.398
Van Riper: And they do it with multiple vendors, right?
00:23:58.398 –> 00:24:01.378
Van Riper: And so they can penetrate them.
00:24:01.378 –> 00:24:07.458
Van Riper: They can penetrate a market much easier than me just going at it like, you know, with receipt printers, right?
00:24:07.458 –> 00:24:13.078
Van Riper: You know, they’re going at it with all kinds of technology, equipment and components.
00:24:13.078 –> 00:24:19.098
Van Riper: So they provide a tremendous value to the whole market area.
00:24:19.098 –> 00:24:19.278
Roddy: Yeah.
00:24:19.278 –> 00:24:28.318
Roddy: And it seems like a lot of folks focus on the, as you said, the efficiency and the logistics and like, that’s keeping costs down by centralizing it, but they help with exposure.
00:24:28.318 –> 00:24:39.658
Roddy: And so I have you and I talked, you know, when we prepared for this conversation today and you said something, I wrote it down where he said Epson was not really successful until you were on the distributor shelves.
00:24:39.658 –> 00:24:42.118
Roddy: Can you talk about why you say that?
00:24:42.118 –> 00:24:44.778
Roddy: Like, did it make you 5% more successful?
00:24:44.778 –> 00:24:46.738
Roddy: Was it, you know, multiples of that?
00:24:46.738 –> 00:24:49.858
Roddy: I guess if you can, if you can kind of paint that picture for folks, that’d be great.
00:24:50.138 –> 00:24:52.598
Van Riper: I fight this internally all the time.
00:24:54.338 –> 00:24:57.338
Van Riper: You know, we, we are well positioned.
00:24:57.338 –> 00:25:02.298
Van Riper: Our brand is, is very well recognized, very well respected.
00:25:02.298 –> 00:25:02.738
Roddy: Yes.
00:25:02.958 –> 00:25:10.138
Van Riper: And it’s because of our, you know, our consumer printers, our project, you know, we’re out there.
00:25:10.138 –> 00:25:14.458
Van Riper: But the other thing we are is we’re a component based business.
00:25:14.458 –> 00:25:22.578
Van Riper: We’re not a solution provider, and particularly in point of sale, we, we sell a component to a system.
00:25:22.578 –> 00:25:32.038
Van Riper: And so when you look back at the late 90s or 2000s, there weren’t a lot of end users looking for receipt printers.
00:25:32.038 –> 00:25:35.578
Van Riper: They were looking for point of sale systems, right?
00:25:35.578 –> 00:25:52.978
Van Riper: And, and so our evolution and our success was almost all driven through either OEMs, because we had, we had really good OEMs that integrated our printers and their solutions or the distribution channel.
00:25:54.518 –> 00:25:58.998
Van Riper: And the distribution channel is the one that introduced us to it.
00:25:58.998 –> 00:26:07.398
Van Riper: You know, other, could have been other solution providers, could have been the software companies, could have been resellers.
00:26:08.238 –> 00:26:12.118
Van Riper: But the distributors were paramount in that.
00:26:12.938 –> 00:26:15.418
Van Riper: More, more, much more than 50 percent.
00:26:15.418 –> 00:26:16.538
Roddy: Wow.
00:26:16.538 –> 00:26:20.558
Roddy: And so it’s like the distributors gave you the opportunity to be part of the total solution, right?
00:26:20.558 –> 00:26:31.798
Roddy: As opposed to, you know, a merchant or, you know, just say a chain would have to work with a whole bunch of different vendors, they’re able to go to one solution provider and the distributor is able to give them all the choice, if I’m understanding that correctly.
00:26:31.798 –> 00:26:32.158
Van Riper: Yeah.
00:26:32.378 –> 00:26:43.598
Van Riper: And they, they were very familiar with the idea that they, they were convinced that our reliability and our performance was going to be a benefit to those people.
00:26:43.598 –> 00:26:47.198
Van Riper: So they, they weren’t just doing it just to serve their own needs.
00:26:47.198 –> 00:26:50.758
Van Riper: They were actually doing it as a benefit to the people that we’re talking to.
00:26:50.758 –> 00:26:51.938
Van Riper: They knew it.
00:26:52.678 –> 00:26:55.298
Van Riper: You know, and I, and I take Epson out of that picture.
00:26:55.298 –> 00:26:57.978
Van Riper: You know, you take Symbol, right?
00:26:57.978 –> 00:27:01.918
Van Riper: You take Zebra, you know, back in the day.
00:27:01.918 –> 00:27:08.858
Van Riper: You know, those were very good, reliable brands and products.
00:27:08.858 –> 00:27:17.578
Van Riper: And they could bring them into areas where they weren’t done as a direct company, right?
00:27:17.578 –> 00:27:23.378
Van Riper: They did it through the reseller channel at that particular time in a lot of situations.
00:27:23.378 –> 00:27:27.498
Van Riper: And of course, it was a big benefit to the vendors.
00:27:27.498 –> 00:27:28.278
Roddy: So you’ve raised some things.
00:27:28.278 –> 00:27:30.798
Roddy: I have two follow up questions for you, but I’ll separate them.
00:27:30.798 –> 00:27:31.918
Roddy: The first one is about ISV.
00:27:32.358 –> 00:27:37.138
Roddy: So I think we’ve added a lot of ISVs to the RSPA community.
00:27:37.138 –> 00:27:42.538
Roddy: And oftentimes when they say, hey, we’d like to partner with resellers or partner with other ISVs to do APIs.
00:27:42.538 –> 00:27:45.418
Roddy: And we’re like, hey, let’s talk about connecting with some of the distributors.
00:27:45.418 –> 00:27:47.238
Roddy: And they’re like, we don’t do hardware.
00:27:47.238 –> 00:27:49.438
Roddy: And so I don’t know why we would work with the distributors.
00:27:49.438 –> 00:27:55.578
Roddy: Can you, I guess, shed some light on that in terms of distributors have a lot of ISVs that they work with as well.
00:27:55.578 –> 00:28:00.478
Roddy: That seems to be like a foreign concept because distributors are helping put together that whole solution.
00:28:00.858 –> 00:28:10.678
Roddy: I guess, can you talk about that from your perspective, working in the channel, working for a hardware company, but how important ISVs and distributor in that whole mix is together?
00:28:10.678 –> 00:28:11.458
Van Riper: Very important.
00:28:11.458 –> 00:28:13.238
Van Riper: And again, it does.
00:28:13.238 –> 00:28:23.318
Van Riper: So I have three ISVs that were very influential in my career.
00:28:24.678 –> 00:28:32.358
Van Riper: There was a company called Infogenesis, that now is known as Vagilisus.
00:28:34.058 –> 00:28:37.518
Van Riper: They’re in the gaming and resort area.
00:28:37.518 –> 00:28:44.218
Van Riper: The other one, very, very important, right from the very beginning was PosiTouch.
00:28:44.218 –> 00:28:47.798
Van Riper: It’s part of Shift4 now.
00:28:47.798 –> 00:28:51.898
Van Riper: And then the other one is Digital Dining.
00:28:51.898 –> 00:28:55.358
Van Riper: And Digital Dining is part of Heartland or Global Payments.
00:28:57.338 –> 00:29:07.118
Van Riper: These guys, the reason I mentioned that InfoGenesis is not as much, but Digital Dining and PosiTouch were dealer based.
00:29:08.778 –> 00:29:16.918
Van Riper: They sold some direct, but they were both very coordinated dealer based ISVs.
00:29:17.618 –> 00:29:19.458
Van Riper: And it was very good.
00:29:19.998 –> 00:29:35.198
Van Riper: And they only had, like, they bought a little direct receipt printers, but what they did is they certified our products and recommended them and said these are the only ones that are in our support program.
00:29:35.198 –> 00:29:42.178
Van Riper: So again, that led to tremendous sales through the distribution channel.
00:29:42.178 –> 00:29:50.418
Van Riper: And so whether it was direct for purchases, I’ll get to the distribution point.
00:29:50.418 –> 00:30:07.098
Van Riper: This all, the distributors understood that this, regardless of whether the ISV was going to buy product or just lead product their way, it was going to lead to opportunities to, for the distributors to grow their business.
00:30:08.718 –> 00:30:14.298
Van Riper: Because the software was going to sell and the hardware needed to be purchased.
00:30:16.338 –> 00:30:22.758
Van Riper: And whether they did it directly with the dealers or whether they did it with the company themselves.
00:30:22.758 –> 00:30:25.658
Van Riper: And then the company changed.
00:30:25.658 –> 00:30:29.558
Van Riper: You know, Heartland, you know, Heartland has changed a little bit.
00:30:29.998 –> 00:30:33.358
Van Riper: Their format, I mean, I think they’re changing it back.
00:30:33.358 –> 00:30:43.278
Van Riper: You know, sometimes, you know, they went to, you know, ASP model, where, you know, where it was all monthly based.
00:30:43.338 –> 00:30:46.878
Van Riper: And it was, you know, in coordination that that’s another story.
00:30:46.878 –> 00:30:50.898
Van Riper: We’ll talk about the credit card influence in our world.
00:30:52.238 –> 00:30:58.198
Van Riper: But just to get back, the distributors’ best friend were ISPs.
00:30:58.198 –> 00:31:05.838
Van Riper: You know, whether they were a direct purchaser of equipment, or they just created the opportunities.
00:31:07.678 –> 00:31:12.678
Van Riper: They’ve always done a very good job of maintaining those relationships.
00:31:13.358 –> 00:31:22.258
Van Riper: And again, they will provide the introduction with resellers that are looking to get in those, you know, whatever area of specialty that ISV is in.
00:31:22.258 –> 00:31:23.258
Van Riper: Yeah.
00:31:23.258 –> 00:31:23.478
Roddy: Yeah.
00:31:23.478 –> 00:31:25.338
Roddy: So a lesson for ISVs that are listening.
00:31:25.338 –> 00:31:27.558
Roddy: One is don’t be like, nah, not distributors.
00:31:27.558 –> 00:31:28.238
Roddy: I don’t need that.
00:31:28.238 –> 00:31:33.218
Roddy: And also don’t say, because a lot of them are like, I don’t care what hardware my stuff is put on.
00:31:33.218 –> 00:31:34.778
Roddy: Like it’s got to be, like you said, reliable.
00:31:34.778 –> 00:31:36.418
Roddy: It’s got to have a good brand in front of it.
00:31:36.418 –> 00:31:40.498
Roddy: And it has to be something that the resellers want to offer as well and make margin on.
00:31:40.498 –> 00:31:45.258
Roddy: So you’ve got to make sure, don’t just focus on your software component, focus on the partnering component.
00:31:45.258 –> 00:31:49.878
Roddy: And that leads to my second follow-up, and you brought up earlier, like everybody knows Epson, right?
00:31:49.878 –> 00:31:51.278
Roddy: Epson has a brand name.
00:31:51.278 –> 00:31:53.418
Roddy: I mean, you got, you know, Fikile O’Neill, right?
00:31:53.418 –> 00:31:56.658
Roddy: You know, you’ve got, you know, a broad everybody knows who that is.
00:31:56.658 –> 00:32:00.878
Roddy: So like, why are you still active in the channel community?
00:32:00.878 –> 00:32:03.658
Roddy: Why are you active in the RSPA community?
00:32:03.658 –> 00:32:07.798
Roddy: Like, why do you continue to do that today, even though Epson has that brand?
00:32:07.798 –> 00:32:15.578
Roddy: I’m just curious from your perspective, what’s the value of still being part of the community and playing a role as a sponsor and very active?
00:32:15.578 –> 00:32:21.498
Van Riper: Well, I don’t, so I won’t speak, I’ll speak for Brett Van Riper personally.
00:32:21.498 –> 00:32:21.838
Roddy: Sure.
00:32:21.838 –> 00:32:23.478
Van Riper: All right?
00:32:23.478 –> 00:32:31.678
Van Riper: You know, I have, it’s been a long time since I’ve had to really sell product.
00:32:32.838 –> 00:33:05.778
Van Riper: My entire career for a long time now is just then developing relationships and, you know, and I can tell you that a good share of them have evolved from my association with the ICRDA, with SDA, with RSPA, and those relationships are paramount to the partnership, as opposed to the product line.
00:33:05.778 –> 00:33:08.578
Van Riper: The product line everybody’s already sold on, right?
00:33:08.578 –> 00:33:15.458
Van Riper: But it’s the idea that I have become a valuable partner.
00:33:15.458 –> 00:33:21.138
Van Riper: They can rely on me to do things for them that they might need to get done.
00:33:21.138 –> 00:33:25.758
Van Riper: And so that’s why we stay involved.
00:33:26.158 –> 00:33:34.338
Van Riper: And do I really want to get in a plane and go to South Dakota or Oklahoma?
00:33:34.338 –> 00:33:40.938
Van Riper: Or would I rather go to an RSPA event and get my opportunity to see them face to face?
00:33:41.298 –> 00:33:44.958
Van Riper: And so that’s why we stay involved.
00:33:44.958 –> 00:33:54.378
Van Riper: So that we can stay and get a chance to meet and greet and make sure that everything’s good, that type of thing.
00:33:54.378 –> 00:33:54.878
Roddy: Got it.
00:33:54.878 –> 00:33:55.518
Roddy: No, thank you for that.
00:33:55.518 –> 00:34:00.458
Roddy: That’s again, I was curious because there’s the brand, there’s a reputation, but it seems like you’ve got to keep going on.
00:34:00.458 –> 00:34:08.298
Roddy: And like you said, for those relationships, you can’t neglect those because your brand will carry you so far, but the relationships will get you all the way there is what it sounds like.
00:34:08.298 –> 00:34:09.358
Van Riper: Yes.
00:34:09.358 –> 00:34:16.618
Van Riper: It’s more that as time evolves, I mean, T88s have been around for 25 years, Jim.
00:34:16.618 –> 00:34:17.638
Van Riper: It’s amazing to me.
00:34:18.298 –> 00:34:20.158
Van Riper: I’m getting close to retirement.
00:34:21.798 –> 00:34:30.338
Van Riper: That product and the U220, you can’t find products that have been around that long.
00:34:30.338 –> 00:34:43.198
Van Riper: Now, obviously, we’ve changed our Roman numeral behind the model number to do some product improvements and that type of thing, but they’re the same models.
00:34:43.198 –> 00:34:45.318
Van Riper: So you can only sell that so much.
00:34:45.318 –> 00:34:47.838
Van Riper: It’s the relationship with Epson that’s important.
00:34:48.898 –> 00:34:53.798
Van Riper: And, you know, and more importantly, the relationship with me.
00:34:53.798 –> 00:34:54.178
Roddy: Very good.
00:34:54.178 –> 00:34:55.418
Roddy: Well, we’re glad you’re involved.
00:34:55.418 –> 00:35:02.498
Roddy: And for those who aren’t familiar with the RSPA, let’s pause here to let our listeners and viewers know about the Retail Solutions Providers Association.
00:35:02.498 –> 00:35:10.918
Roddy: It’s North America’s largest community of retail technology bars, software providers, vendors and distributors in the retail, restaurant and grocery verticals.
00:35:10.918 –> 00:35:16.538
Roddy: To accelerate your success through an RSPA membership, email membership at gorspa.org.
00:35:16.838 –> 00:35:23.658
Roddy: Also, we want to thank these channel-focused companies who support the RSPA community and make this podcast and video series possible.
00:35:23.658 –> 00:35:32.698
Roddy: Our gold sponsors are Blue Star, CoCard, Global Payments, OrderCounter, ScanSource and, company Brett is familiar with, Epson.
00:35:32.838 –> 00:35:41.618
Roddy: Finally, we want to make sure everybody knows to save the date for RetailNOW 2026, the Retail IT Channel’s number one trade show, education conference and networking event.
00:35:41.618 –> 00:35:47.798
Roddy: This year’s event is set for July 26-28 at the new Caesars Forum Convention Center in Las Vegas.
00:35:47.798 –> 00:35:50.798
Roddy: For more information, visit gorsp.org.
00:35:50.798 –> 00:35:54.978
Roddy: Forge slash RetailNOW, RetailNOW is where the industry meets.
00:35:54.978 –> 00:35:59.458
Roddy: So Brett, we’ve only got a few minutes left, like maybe 10 minutes or so.
00:35:59.458 –> 00:36:03.478
Roddy: I want to ask, when you and I are preparing for this interview, you said something that really stuck with me.
00:36:03.478 –> 00:36:05.878
Roddy: And so this is the quote as I wrote it down.
00:36:05.878 –> 00:36:09.958
Roddy: You said, POS is driven by Main Street, not Park Avenue.
00:36:09.958 –> 00:36:17.238
Roddy: Main Street is small businesses working with each other to serve customers while Park Avenue creates monster companies right away.
00:36:17.238 –> 00:36:23.678
Roddy: I’m curious, can you expand upon that because the channel is definitely way more Main Street than Park Avenue?
00:36:23.678 –> 00:36:24.098
Van Riper: Yeah.
00:36:24.338 –> 00:36:28.578
Van Riper: And that’s the core of the RSPA.
00:36:28.658 –> 00:36:32.698
Van Riper: RSPA members own Main Street.
00:36:34.398 –> 00:36:40.738
Van Riper: They’re the ones that are going to the coffee shops and every day or the local hardware stores.
00:36:42.278 –> 00:36:45.758
Van Riper: And that’s where most everybody starts.
00:36:45.758 –> 00:36:49.878
Van Riper: You’re McDonald’s and you’re in and outs.
00:36:49.878 –> 00:36:55.358
Van Riper: And they all started from Main Street.
00:36:55.358 –> 00:37:02.358
Van Riper: They all started at the pizza places, the Hungry Howies, the Little Caesars.
00:37:02.358 –> 00:37:04.718
Van Riper: They all started on Main Street.
00:37:05.978 –> 00:37:10.078
Van Riper: And then they got more and more popular.
00:37:10.078 –> 00:37:19.658
Van Riper: And their local cash register or solution provider helped them grow and they grew with them and that type of thing.
00:37:19.658 –> 00:37:22.178
Van Riper: So that’s where it all is.
00:37:22.558 –> 00:37:26.638
Van Riper: And then of course, they start becoming regional.
00:37:26.638 –> 00:37:29.718
Van Riper: And then they become super regional.
00:37:29.718 –> 00:37:31.918
Van Riper: And then they become national.
00:37:31.918 –> 00:37:33.498
Van Riper: And that’s the way most people do.
00:37:33.998 –> 00:37:48.498
Van Riper: And then as people, as the stock market and everything grows and investment companies get into play, then some of them just start on Wall Street, right?
00:37:49.098 –> 00:37:55.018
Van Riper: They like, oh no, this hamburger joint, you know, we’re gonna open up 200 this year.
00:37:55.018 –> 00:37:57.738
Van Riper: You know, they’re gonna jump the shark, right?
00:37:58.018 –> 00:37:58.938
Van Riper: And just get in.
00:37:59.698 –> 00:38:06.138
Van Riper: So, you know, and those, those are dealing, those, most of those companies will deal directly.
00:38:06.138 –> 00:38:14.778
Van Riper: I’m not gonna name names of those type of companies because I might get myself in trouble internally, but they deal with us directly, right?
00:38:15.038 –> 00:38:29.538
Van Riper: The big high, you know, capital companies that are opening up two and three, 400 stores a year and jump in the ship a little bit, they deal with the manufacturers direct, usually.
00:38:29.538 –> 00:38:35.478
Van Riper: And then with the other people, the majority of everybody grows out of Main Street.
00:38:36.238 –> 00:38:42.618
Van Riper: And Main Street is where the RSPA members are servicing business.
00:38:42.938 –> 00:38:45.358
Roddy: And that’s where a lot of the innovation takes place as well, right?
00:38:45.358 –> 00:38:49.238
Roddy: A lot of the trying, testing, measuring is happening in the independent space.
00:38:49.238 –> 00:38:49.878
Van Riper: Oh, yeah.
00:38:49.878 –> 00:39:00.358
Van Riper: I mean, you talk about, you know, different things like, you know, like Kitsch’s display systems, you know, they did start, you know, at the highest high.
00:39:00.358 –> 00:39:09.858
Van Riper: They started at the, you know, the guy that we got tired of, you know, you should know, but he got tired of looking at the piece of paper on the grill, right?
00:39:09.858 –> 00:39:22.078
Van Riper: And I wanted Kitsch to display, but and then all those little test projects, they start at the smaller end, you know, and then all of a sudden it works.
00:39:22.738 –> 00:39:27.698
Van Riper: And somebody sees it and they say, yeah, you know, I’ve seen this work.
00:39:27.698 –> 00:39:31.818
Van Riper: But most all of those projects start, are started at the smaller end.
00:39:31.818 –> 00:39:32.198
Roddy: Yeah.
00:39:32.198 –> 00:39:32.418
Roddy: Yeah.
00:39:32.418 –> 00:39:37.918
Roddy: I always tell the story of Will Atkinson from Cap Retail who got bought by POS Nation.
00:39:37.918 –> 00:39:44.698
Roddy: His dad founded the business and the way that he did it was, he ran a boat supply store and he was technically savvy.
00:39:44.698 –> 00:39:48.978
Roddy: And so to get to get boat parts, he built a computer inventory system.
00:39:48.978 –> 00:39:51.618
Roddy: And so you can imagine the kind of people who are buying boat parts, right?
00:39:51.678 –> 00:39:55.618
Roddy: There are a lot of business owners and they would be like, I’d like to get a boat party, go over his computer.
00:39:55.618 –> 00:39:56.438
Roddy: Like, what is that?
00:39:56.438 –> 00:39:57.558
Roddy: What are you doing there?
00:39:57.558 –> 00:40:02.518
Roddy: And that’s how Cap Retail started as he started doing applications for all sorts of other folks.
00:40:02.518 –> 00:40:09.318
Roddy: But again, it starts with one boat supply store on, you know, somewhere in Texas or wherever that was.
00:40:09.318 –> 00:40:13.098
Roddy: So Brett, so we’ve talked a lot about the history of the industry.
00:40:13.098 –> 00:40:19.738
Roddy: I want to ask you, like based on your experience and everything you see today, what do you think the future holds for the retail IT channel?
00:40:20.158 –> 00:40:27.618
Roddy: And then what actions should we take as an industry, as a community to ensure the best future possible for the channel?
00:40:28.738 –> 00:40:33.518
Van Riper: Well, I mentioned one of the things that, there’s a couple of things.
00:40:33.518 –> 00:40:51.158
Van Riper: It’s, I see the, you know, the end user marketplace is changing, becoming very Costco, Amazon-like, or, you know, I’m sure you’ve seen Bucky’s, you know, now all of a sudden we have super stores that are gas stations, right?
00:40:51.158 –> 00:41:09.778
Van Riper: And, and so everything’s getting, you know, bigger, you know, they have to have, you know, an environment, you know, you think, you know, you think about like, Dick’s Sporting Goods taking over, you know, being a sporting goods store, right?
00:41:09.838 –> 00:41:10.358
Roddy: Sure.
00:41:10.358 –> 00:41:13.958
Van Riper: No longer just, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s experiential.
00:41:13.958 –> 00:41:43.918
Van Riper: It’s, you know, so the end user marketplace is, is evolving, changing, becoming, and the good thing is, is there’s a lot of components and electronic devices and things that are going to need to be, you know, used in there to, to manage, you know, as an Epson person, you know, projectors come into play right now as we’re, you know, where we’re placing printers.
00:41:43.918 –> 00:41:52.918
Van Riper: And then also, you know, we have multiple different receipt print or report printers and that type of thing that are going to come into play.
00:41:52.918 –> 00:41:59.918
Van Riper: So that provides some excitement, I guess, for the future.
00:42:02.958 –> 00:42:12.258
Van Riper: On our side or on the business side of things, on the point of sale side, credit card companies are becoming very interesting.
00:42:12.258 –> 00:42:22.338
Van Riper: You know, they’re buying a lot of point of sale space to sell more credit card transactions.
00:42:23.458 –> 00:42:26.878
Van Riper: And some people are going to benefit from that.
00:42:26.958 –> 00:42:29.058
Van Riper: And some people are not.
00:42:29.058 –> 00:42:34.938
Van Riper: And so that one, I’m not quite sure that’s a total 100% positive.
00:42:36.518 –> 00:42:50.018
Van Riper: You know, again, you know, they’re a transaction-based company and their idea of a reliable product may not be as important to the end user as the end user thinks it is.
00:42:50.018 –> 00:43:05.038
Van Riper: So I’m not positive, but I do hopefully see that as an evolution, is that the credit card part of the transaction is taking a much more prevalent place in the point of sale transaction area.
00:43:05.038 –> 00:43:09.558
Van Riper: And I’m not positive that that’s great, but it is what’s happening.
00:43:09.558 –> 00:43:11.438
Roddy: Well, it seems like the market will figure it out.
00:43:11.438 –> 00:43:12.678
Roddy: Like that’s kind of what we’ve seen.
00:43:12.678 –> 00:43:17.398
Roddy: And so sometimes folks have said, right, these credit card companies and they come with a lower end solution.
00:43:17.398 –> 00:43:21.178
Roddy: And I just remember that when that first came out, a lot of people are like, I’m not going to sell that solution.
00:43:21.178 –> 00:43:25.158
Roddy: But they’re like the solution, like we talked about earlier, the solution is going to get better, right?
00:43:25.158 –> 00:43:28.678
Roddy: It’s going to get more reliable as they invest more time into it.
00:43:28.678 –> 00:43:35.698
Roddy: So it seems like finding that right sweet spot that serves the customer, serves that end user, and also serves the solution provider as well.
00:43:35.698 –> 00:43:38.378
Roddy: We’ll figure it out over time.
00:43:38.638 –> 00:43:40.038
Van Riper: It should evolve, yes.
00:43:40.038 –> 00:43:41.298
Roddy: Yeah.
00:43:41.298 –> 00:43:42.338
Roddy: Last question for you.
00:43:42.338 –> 00:43:44.378
Roddy: I want to close with a leadership question.
00:43:44.378 –> 00:43:46.618
Roddy: So you talked about, you said you’re near retirement.
00:43:46.618 –> 00:43:48.658
Roddy: You talked about your history.
00:43:48.658 –> 00:43:52.838
Roddy: Who were some leaders you looked up to as mentors and really have helped shape your career?
00:43:53.578 –> 00:43:55.258
Roddy: Who are they and what did they do?
00:43:55.258 –> 00:43:58.978
Roddy: What do they say that’s had a lasting impact on you, Brett?
00:43:58.978 –> 00:44:04.078
Van Riper: Well, I saw your question.
00:44:04.078 –> 00:44:08.498
Van Riper: So I’m a work to live guy.
00:44:08.498 –> 00:44:09.638
Van Riper: I think there are two people.
00:44:09.638 –> 00:44:17.838
Van Riper: So that means that I work to make a living, as opposed to living to work.
00:44:17.918 –> 00:44:30.518
Van Riper: So the people that I have noticed that I’ve been impressed with in this organization are people that are very interested in their personal and family life.
00:44:30.518 –> 00:44:38.838
Van Riper: And so when I think about people like that, I think about, you know, guys like Art Julien.
00:44:38.838 –> 00:44:40.438
Van Riper: I don’t know if you’re familiar with Art.
00:44:40.498 –> 00:44:41.858
Roddy: Yeah, from CBS Northstar.
00:44:41.858 –> 00:44:42.318
Roddy: Yep.
00:44:42.318 –> 00:44:50.358
Van Riper: Yeah, and his son Jeremy Julien and then Wim Platt and Brian Pedraza.
00:44:50.358 –> 00:44:52.758
Roddy: Yeah, from RDS.
00:44:52.758 –> 00:44:59.278
Van Riper: Yeah, there’s Brian Mayfield from Techordation.
00:44:59.278 –> 00:45:02.778
Van Riper: These are people that run very, very successful businesses.
00:45:03.118 –> 00:45:15.018
Van Riper: Very, you know, they were their their businesses are loaded with family-oriented environments within their own business, right?
00:45:15.018 –> 00:45:16.218
Van Riper: They care about their people.
00:45:16.218 –> 00:45:17.858
Van Riper: They care about their business.
00:45:17.858 –> 00:45:28.078
Van Riper: But more importantly, they care about their personal time and and and running, but not letting their business run their life.
00:45:29.218 –> 00:45:39.318
Van Riper: You know, on a professional person, the person I’ve been most impressed with is probably Mike Bauer.
00:45:40.658 –> 00:45:42.358
Roddy: The CEO of ScanSource.
00:45:42.358 –> 00:46:01.758
Van Riper: Yeah, he brought an idea to the point of sale industry that I can tell you probably one in, even on the vendor side, one in 10 believed it was going to be successful.
00:46:01.758 –> 00:46:05.818
Van Riper: And he steamrolled this entire segment.
00:46:05.818 –> 00:46:13.738
Van Riper: He brought this capability, this leveraging of different vendors and the leveraging of the resellers.
00:46:14.798 –> 00:46:21.478
Van Riper: And the thing that I got to see from inside out is he ran his organization.
00:46:21.758 –> 00:46:32.718
Van Riper: He did things inside their organization where I, you know, not only were his employees killing it financially, they were having a great time doing it.
00:46:33.518 –> 00:46:45.518
Van Riper: He never didn’t take a moment to stop, you know, sales activities, to let a vendor, you know, do an activity inside that made his people feel good.
00:46:45.518 –> 00:46:50.218
Van Riper: You know, whether it was a barbecue or, you know, I did a Christmas party there.
00:46:50.218 –> 00:46:59.618
Van Riper: But he was always supportive of the environment within the company being very positive.
00:46:59.618 –> 00:47:00.918
Van Riper: And that’s me.
00:47:00.918 –> 00:47:10.398
Van Riper: I mean, I, you know, like I said, I’m more into the relationships than I have been in the sales activity that I’ve done.
00:47:10.398 –> 00:47:13.978
Van Riper: And, you know, there’s been, I have a lot of good friends in this area.
00:47:15.798 –> 00:47:22.098
Roddy: Yeah, it’s interesting to say that to close on that is, I actually just met with a vendor yesterday and was talking about that.
00:47:22.378 –> 00:47:30.118
Roddy: They had a new leadership person take over and we were talking about, you know, they’re involved with the RSPA over the past 25 years.
00:47:30.118 –> 00:47:31.818
Roddy: And they were talking about doing more sponsorships.
00:47:31.818 –> 00:47:35.318
Roddy: And I was like, you know what, we can take your money, like, that’d be great.
00:47:35.318 –> 00:47:42.078
Roddy: But boy, the people, like I said, just looking back on what your organization has done, it’s the people and their involvement in lifting up other people.
00:47:42.638 –> 00:47:44.918
Roddy: That’s what really makes a difference.
00:47:44.918 –> 00:47:46.478
Roddy: Again, I don’t say that to our sponsors.
00:47:46.478 –> 00:47:48.658
Roddy: It’d be like, and don’t spend any money on it, just hang out.
00:47:48.658 –> 00:47:49.878
Roddy: But it’s got to be both.
00:47:49.878 –> 00:47:52.978
Roddy: And that’s what it seems like is a lesson here in the channel.
00:47:52.978 –> 00:47:57.218
Roddy: You don’t go from, I have a business to I’m going to close more business.
00:47:57.218 –> 00:48:02.218
Roddy: You’ve got to build those meaningful relationships along the way to help the other person, not just to help yourself.
00:48:02.218 –> 00:48:03.878
Roddy: That’s really what it sounds like you’re saying.
00:48:03.878 –> 00:48:09.598
Roddy: You’re saying is the folks who’ve had a lasting impact on you, they care about other people first.
00:48:09.598 –> 00:48:11.638
Roddy: And then you have the bottom lines coming next.
00:48:11.718 –> 00:48:13.378
Roddy: If I’m understanding correctly.
00:48:13.378 –> 00:48:14.618
Van Riper: Yeah.
00:48:14.618 –> 00:48:19.118
Van Riper: Epson’s paid a lot of bills for me in my life.
00:48:19.118 –> 00:48:25.758
Van Riper: But the relationships that the company has provided me is what lasts.
00:48:25.758 –> 00:48:28.818
Van Riper: That’s the important part.
00:48:30.938 –> 00:48:31.878
Roddy: Very well said.
00:48:31.878 –> 00:48:34.138
Roddy: Well, that does it for this episode of The Trusted Advisor.
00:48:34.138 –> 00:48:41.118
Roddy: If you enjoyed our discussion, be sure to subscribe to the RSPA YouTube channel and The Trusted Advisor podcast so you never miss an episode.
00:48:41.378 –> 00:48:45.838
Roddy: Before we go, big thanks again to Brett Van Riper for sharing his wisdom with us today.
00:48:45.838 –> 00:48:54.158
Roddy: Thanks also to RSPA Marketing Director, Chris Arnold for his production work, Joseph McDade for our music, and last but not least, thanks so much to you for listening.
00:48:54.158 –> 00:49:01.438
Roddy: Our goal at the RSPA is to excite the success of our members in the retail technology ecosystem by providing knowledge and connections.
00:49:01.438 –> 00:49:05.438
Roddy: For more information, please visit our website at gorspa.org.
00:49:05.438 –> 00:49:08.898
Roddy: Thanks for listening and goodbye everybody.
