[00:00:05] Speaker A: How you doing?
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Good. How are you, Adam?
[00:00:07] Speaker A: I’m great. Thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: No problem.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: So excited to have you dive in and chat with all the fun things happening at HP and on our new podcast, Distribution Unpacked.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: It’s my pleasure to be here.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Awesome. So what are some of the trends you’re seeing currently right now in outlook for 2020?
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I’ll look for 2026. I’ll be honest. It’s. It’s a, it’s a challenging marketplace right now. There’s a lot of new things going on.
You’d call them a challenge, but also an opportunity with anything like that. Right.
I’d say the biggest one right now for us is the emergence of online marketplaces that are taking business away from our traditional sales motion in the channel with SP Richards and those like you. So a lot of that looks like clones familiar with that. So basically copycat type cartridges, imitation supplies, toner and ink that kind of use the HP brand to deceive consumers into buying what they think might be HP because of the attractive price. And it looks very, very similar. Right. And so you have a lot of our partners, our common customers, losing some business where end users are going out independently because of that easy sale online and the attractive price. So it’s, it’s really important now that we, this is the opportunity to educate, you know, make sure people are aware because that’s what we found. In most cases, folks aren’t aware they’re not buying original hp and there’s inherent risks, both with quality, but also security and just service calls bad experience. Right. Because you don’t really know what’s out there.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: So what is HP doing to combat that?
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Well, for our qualified partners, those in our ecosystem, we make sure that they’re also following the rules.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: For those that aren’t, it comes down to, you know, I don’t want to get in all the legal mumbo jumbo. Right. But it’s making sure that not infringing on any copyright, you know, laws or trademark laws, things like that.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: That’s super interesting. When, when we think about the outlook, when you think about supplies and print and stuff like that, are you seeing a shift into different markets or verticals than you guys have seen before? Like is, you know, education growing faster
[00:02:32] Speaker B: than healthcare versus it, it basically follows the trend of, of each vertical. So a lot of growth in healthcare, you know, just as that expands and the healthcare service industry, you know, around the insurance and the, not just providers, but also education, our education and healthcare as well, to a lesser extent on our air quality messaging.
So especially when we talk about HP original versus Reman or imitation or clones virtually, we have studies that show virtually all those imitation cartridges do not pass the globally standard EP Eco logo for indoor air quality. So when you think about electronic devices, they emit VOCs, right. The volatile organic compounds. And that can be harmful to your health. And we take that very seriously. It’s one of our pillars in our value proposition, one of our five pillars.
So we take it very seriously and take steps to guarantee that our products are not going to be harmful to you.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: That’s awesome. That’s very cool. You don’t think about that stuff.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: When you think about printing, you don’t think about that.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: But I think it makes sense. One of the things we look at from a customer success perspective is how can our customers win with your products and your solutions. So obviously there’s a lot of work that goes on to be an authorized seller of HP and stuff like that. But you know, if I’m a SP customer and I’m listening to this and I want to get more engaged, what are some ways that our customers can leverage the great HP brand?
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: And win with current end users and kind of shift them away from maybe a competitor or something of that nature.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Right, right. And you mentioned it, the HP brand. I mean that’s why, that’s why it’s so hard to become HP authorized because we hold partners to a very high standard to maintain that, that brand quality, that brand perception out there. So I’d say the first thing is to make sure that leverage our brand. Right.
If, if there’s a competitive pressure out there from a, maybe it’s a price or, or something else, rely on the HP quality first print, every print. It’s going to be fine all the time. Right. And so that’s one thing.
And just also highlight the risks. Especially if we’re talking again about imitation products or clone products. It’s really not, it may be worth it at that transaction, at that initial buy, but the long term costs around more service calls. A bad experience reflects badly on the partner that sold them that product. Right.
On their reputation. So it just kind of trickles down from there.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: That makes sense. That makes total sense. So a big thing for us as we look into 2026 is really we’re not doing a rebranded SP, but we’re looking at launching a new tagline and things of that nature. And the thing that we’re looking at is how do you simplify complexity and listen, there’s a lot of complexity in
[00:05:22] Speaker B: both of our businesses and any large organization.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: It happens. But how do we work to make it a better experience and remove that friction for not only us at sp, but also for our customers and on more to our supplier partners like you. So, you know, what are some things that we, we can work together. What are some things you’re seeing that a customer can work toward to help simplify that complexity into the new year?
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. I mean, I’ll tell you, as much as I love to sell the value of hp, I spent a lot of time talking about, you know, getting through that complexity, trying to boil it down. And I’ll just say, first and foremost, we have a lot of resources at your disposal. You know, myself, starting with myself, but then I’ll pull in whoever I need.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: To, to, you know, break that barrier for anyone at SP or any of your customers as well.
Having said that, there’s always all these situations are very unique. So just bring them to us and that’ll help us both on that instance, that one instance, but also everything that’s similar to that in the future.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: That’s great. That’s great. Well, hey, thanks for joining us today.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: It was good to hear some new and exciting things happening at hp.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Well, first, I also want to say thank you to sp. Your business is skyrocketing with us in the last several months.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: That’s awesome.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: And I know it’s not easy with that much growth, but we appreciate it and we’re in it together and we’re enjoying it. Yeah.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Thanks again.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: You got it.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Awesome.
