Windows Activation

I have a rudimentary question but we're a relatively small shop and haven't had to deal with Windows licensing where imaging is concerned until now (our first mass deployment of Windows 7). My training and research instruct me to NOT begin with an activated Windows 7 license as a model/reference machine. Problem is, all our machines are shipped OEM from Dell with the license activated. Consequently, I don't have a unit available that's not activated to begin building a model/reference machine. Not sure how to overcome this other than to bite the bullet, image as activated, and clean up the mess manually upon imaging the targets.

Any thoughts on getting around this? Appreciate any advice.