March 2019 Office Technology

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CONTENTS Volume 25 • No. 9

FEATURE ARTICLES 10

Strategies for Success: Part 2 That driving, eternal quest for ‘cash cows’

DEALERS HELPING DEALERS Measuring Success Dealers share top service team metrics

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Compiled by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

Compiled by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

What do you believe will be the areas of greatest opportunity for office technology dealers in 2019? Perhaps comments shared by your fellow dealers will give you new insights into potential “cash cows” for your business.

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Social Selling It can be very effective when done correctly

How do your fellow dealers determine service team success?

AIMED VIEWPOINT Central Business Systems Inc. Using ‘total technology’ & acquisition for growth

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by Elizabeth Marvel Office Technology Magazine

by Gil Cargill Sales Acceleration Coach

Social selling is a phenomenon that is virtually impossible to ignore these days. I believe that social selling, when done correctly, is an extraordinarily effective augmentation to your selling efforts.

Central Business Systems Inc. has seen significant growth.

P R I N C I PA L I S S U E S Canon: A Briefing Executives meet with industry media & analysts

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by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

COURTS & CAPITOLS 28

Ensuring Compliance 2019 brings new laws & regulations

by Robert C. Goldberg BTA General Counsel

The new year has brought a host of new laws and regulations affecting how to manage your employees. Complying with the law and treating employees fairly and equitably has always been a dealer objective.

DEALERSHIP SPOTLIGHT 32

James Imaging Systems Wisconsin dealership targeting $40 million

by Brent Hoskins Office Technology Magazine

Tom Tegeder’s story is not unlike that of many other office technology dealers. He worked his way up in the dealership founded by his father, James, and, today, he is president of the company.

On Feb. 11-12, Canon executives met with industry media and analysts.

SELLING SOLUTIONS A Positive Sales Culture Create one inside your company in three steps

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by Troy Harrison Troy Harrison & Associates

Learn how to build a positive sales culture in three steps.

D E PA R T M E N T S Business Technology Association

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• BTA Education Calendar • BTA Highlights

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Executive Director’s Page

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BTA President’s Message

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Advertiser Index

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S PAGE

Questions for Your Fellow BTA Dealers?

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regularly hear from Business Technology Association (BTA) dealer members that one of the most important benefits they get from the association is the opportunity to connect with fellow dealers to share ideas and strategies for their businesses. With this in mind, in October 2018 we started a monthly department in Office Technology magazine called Dealers Helping Dealers. This resource allows dealers to submit business-related questions to BTA via email. We then share those questions with the full dealer membership and ask them to respond with their guidance.

For this issue of Office Technology, we asked about the top metrics dealers have in place to measure the success of their service teams. Below is a sampling of answers received. More answers to this question appear on page 34. For a full list of all the questions and responses we have received so far, visit www.bta.org/DealersHelping Dealers. You will need your BTA username and password to access this resource. n “Parts usage, callbacks and incompletes (total first-call efficiency).” — Steve Clapp, owner, North American Office Solutions, Orlando, Florida n “Recall percentage, customer feedback and closure rate of calls.” — Adam Gregory, president, Advanced Business Solutions LLC, Jacksonville, Florida n “Percentage of calls fixed on the first call, response time and number of ‘three in 30.’ ‘Three in 30’ refers to times where we have had three service calls on that particular unit in any 30-day period. We feel that if we do, the tech has not done what he needed to do to either fix the machine or give it the thorough ‘once-over.’ If he had inspected the unit more

thoroughly, an additional problem might have been recognized, thus avoiding an unnecessary service call.” — Neville Chaney, president, WJ Office, Boone, North Carolina n “First-call efficiency, average account response times and major account response times.” — Dean Boring, president & CEO, Boring Business Systems, Lakeland, Florida n “First-call effectiveness, net calls per day and service gross margin.” — Bob Evans, partner, Function4, Sugar Land, Texas n “Customer retention. Clicks between calls. Customers are surveyed regularly.” — Dan Castaneda, general manager, International Copy Machine Center, El Paso, Texas n “e-automate, BEI and the financial benchmarks.” — Ray Fuentes, president, Edwards Business Systems/Virginia Business Systems, Wyomissing, Pennsylvania n “We just partnered with BEI and feel like that will be a great tool.” — Dave Carson, president, Plus Inc., Greenville, South Carolina n “We use the information from Forza.”

— Chip Miceli, president, Pulse Technology, Elk Grove Village, Illinois n “e-automate’s service statistics.” — Don Risser, president, Advanced Laser Printer Service & Supplies Inc., Emigsville, Pennsylvania n “We use both BEI and CEO Juice.” — Jeff Cousins, president, Kraft Business Systems, Kentwood, Michigan n “CEO Juice used in conjunction with e-automate.” — George Peckham, president, Office Systems of Texas, Houston, Texas n “Profitability, and click and revenue growth.” — John Eckstrom, president, Carolina Business Equipment Inc., Columbia, South Carolina If you have a question for your fellow dealers, email it to me at brent@bta.org with the subject line: “Dealers Helping Dealers.” I will then share your question with the full dealer membership with a request for guidance. n — Brent Hoskins

Executive Director/BTA Editor/Office Technology Brent Hoskins brent@bta.org (816) 303-4040 Associate Editor Elizabeth Marvel elizabeth@bta.org (816) 303-4060 Contributing Writers Gil Cargill, Sales Acceleration Coach www.gilcargill.com Robert C. Goldberg, General Counsel Business Technology Association Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates www.troyharrison.com

Business Technology Association 12411 Wornall Road Kansas City, MO 64145 (816) 941-3100 www.bta.org Member Services: (800) 505-2821 BTA Legal Hotline: (800) 869-6688 Valerie Briseno Marketing Director valerie@bta.org Brian Smith Membership Sales Representative brian@bta.org Photo Credits: Bigstockphoto. Cover created by Bruce Quade, Brand X Studio. ©2019 by the Business Technology Association. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of published material. However, the publisher assumes no liability for errors in articles nor are opinions expressed necessarily those of the publisher.

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BTA PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Looking for Service Supervisor Training?

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n October 2018, the Business Technology Association (BTA) held its inaugural BTA Service Success Training, led by service management coach Ken Edmonds. This web-based training for service supervisors and managers addresses the fundamentals of supervision and management of the service team. Lasting 15 weeks and meeting twice a week for about an hour (depending on the subject and level of participant discussion), the training program approaches the art and science of dealer service management at a near-college level. Online live lecture and discussion allows attendees to continue working in their jobs while learning at the same time.

Topics covered include: an introduction to supervision and management; leading and improving the team; working with other departments; service department costs; identifying areas for improvement; time management; dealing with customers; understanding and using service metrics; and the service role in the dealership. By the end of the training, attendees will have a better understanding of their service departments and the actions they can take to increase productivity and profitability, while boosting their teams’ morale and competence.

The sessions will also be recorded, so those who cannot attend a session can watch a video to cover what was missed. There will also be graded quizzes and a final test.

BTA Service Success Training attendees have shared great feedback: n “I want to thank Ken Edmonds for this course and the way it was organized. I know my company can benefit 70 to 80 percent from the content of this course. I have a much better understanding of the copier

industry from the service and sales sides, and how they need to work as a team for the company. This course has given me the ability to use the tools and resources to improve my performance and be a better service supervisor, and to advance to service manager in the future. I highly recommend this course for everyone in management or in a leadership role.” — Matthew Nevitt, Appalachia Business Communications of Kingsport Inc., Johnson City, Tennessee n “I found the BTA Service Success Training class to be quite helpful. It provided me a specific definition of the service manager’s role, as that was not provided when I accepted this position. It has helped me think like a service manager, grow in leading the service team, interface with clients and other departments, and emphasize the growth of my team. I believe this class can help both new service managers and those with years of experience, and it is worth far more than the cost of tuition.” — Jim Grose, Terrell’s Office Solutions, Bozeman, Montana n “I want to say that I found the training to be a valuable tool in the formation of my mission as a manager. It was also informative to hear about the shared challenges between fellow managers in a platform away from the corporate hierarchy. It was also meaningful to me to recognize situations that had been discussed in class and how they played out in the daily operation of my responsibilities.”

— Charles Ombima, Marco, Detroit, Michigan Heed the words of your peers and register your service supervisors and managers for the next BTA Service Success Training, which starts April 2. Member tuition is $995 and BTA members may use their $150 educational discount received with membership.

Non-member tuition is $1,425 and includes a one-year BTA dealer membership. To learn more and register, visit www.bta.org/SST. n — John Eckstrom

2018-2019 Board of Directors President John Eckstrom Carolina Business Equipment Inc. Columbia, South Carolina johne@cbesc.com President-Elect Bob Evans Function4 Sugar Land, Texas bobevans@function-4.com Vice President Tim Renegar Kelly Office Solutions Winston-Salem, North Carolina trenegar@kellyofficesolutions.com BTA East Tim Seeley Jr. Seeley Office Systems Inc. Glens Falls, NY tseeleyjr@seeleyoffice.com Don Risser Advanced Laser Printer Service & Supplies Inc. Emigsville, PA drisser@alpslaser.com BTA Mid-America Greg Quirk JQ Office Equipment Omaha, Nebraska gquirk@jqoffice.com DJ Hastings Hogland Office Equipment Lubbock, TX dj@hoglandofficeworks.com BTA Southeast David Polimeni RITE Technology Sarasota, Florida dpolimeni@ritefl.com Michael Hicks Electronic Business Machines Inc. Lexington, KY mhicks@ebmky.com BTA West Mike Brandon ABC Office Equipment Co. Inc. Spokane, Washington mbrandon@abcoe.com Joe Escamilla Document Systems Oxnard, CA jescamilla@documentsystems.com Immediate Past President Dan Castaneda International Copy Machine Center El Paso, Texas dan@icmc-elp.com Ex-Officio/General Counsel Robert C. Goldberg Schoenberg Finkel Newman & Rosenberg LLC Chicago, Illinois robert.goldberg@sfnr.com

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Strategies for Success: Part 2 That driving, eternal quest for ‘cash cows’ Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

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hat do you believe will be the areas of greatest opportunity for office technology dealers in 2019?

What do you believe will be the best strategies for success in pursuing those opportunities? Recently, Office Technology magazine asked these questions of dealers via an email survey. The first set of responses appeared in the February issue. Following are the remaining responses received. Perhaps comments shared by your fellow dealers will give you new insights into potential “cash cows” for your business.

Opportunities: At the end of each year, I find myself reflecting on much of the information gathered throughout the year. I am sure many of you have read numerous articles, listened to OEMs, vendors and dealers, and sat through many hours of seminars and webinars that all shared what the greatest opportunities are or will be. Tom Peters said: “Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence, only in constant improvement and constant change.”

The greatest opportunity is going to come by change and growth. This is brought about in many ways. To many, it’s through mergers and acquisitions. To others it will be changing OEMs, vendors or ERP software. But the thing we all have in common is that we are looking for the “greatest opportunity.” I am convinced that the greatest opportunity will continue to be from both organic growth and mergers/acquisitions.

Strategies: The best strategy for growing organically, if you’re not doing mergers/acquisitions, is working out the best (or better) programs with your OEMs and vendors. Find out how much of your market you have and go after that. I was in a meeting and the founder of a successful company asked: “Who here has 100 percent of your market? What about 50 percent of your market? What would your company look like if you gained another 10 percent of your territory?” He went on to say that many of us have forgotten the strategy of saturation. Some people say the market is too saturated. To me, that’s great, because I now know who and

what we’re competing against as we climb our mountain. Claiming it’s too saturated is simply giving up, and that’s not a strategy.

D.J. Hastings, president Hogland Office Equipment, Lubbock, Texas Opportunities: The greatest opportunity for office technology dealers is to focus on our technology that can improve our customers’ businesses. We are a technologydriven industry, offering both hardware and software to help companies run more effectively. Focus on what we offer!

Strategies: We have to know our products, but as someone pointed out to me recently, the best place to start is by ensuring our sales team members understand business processes. If they do not know how to read a financial statement or do not have business acumen, customers will not believe we know how to make their businesses run better and we will be pushed aside.

Debra Dennis, vice president of support services CopyPro Inc., Greenville, North Carolina Opportunities: I believe that the greatest opportunities are in the A4 arena. I believe that the reason for this is threefold: (1) Most prints are going to A4 and 11-by-17 is near extinction; (2) Significant steps have been made to lower CPP on A4 devices, making them equal competitors to the A3 in terms of the cost of supplies; and (3) A4 devices are now being manufactured with all of the apps and functionality of A3 machines, making decisions based on ROI lean heavily toward A4 purchases.

Strategies: (1) Cloud fleet management: Not only is this the most significant tool for technicians to use, but it is a gamechanger when demonstrating the functionality of the tool during in-house demonstrations to prospective customers.

(2) I believe that discussing and earning the trust of the customer base in the area of security, especially within the internet of things, is a strategy. Manufacturers have made it a point to boost security features on their devices. It is imperative that

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a production specialist. In the past, we dealers develop a talk track that speaks to “Lastly, as manufacturers would avoid these clients or walk away. the significance of these enhancements The reason for this was, as a small dealerduring the sales process. (3) Lastly, as have dipped their toes ship, the production space is nearly immanufacturers have dipped their toes into AI, we need to possible to get into because of high startinto AI [artificial intelligence], we need to embrace this technology up costs. When I got to ProCopy in 2010, embrace this technology and discuss it, and discuss it, sell it and we were a $3-million dealership with 12 sell it and train for it, as it most definitely train for it, as it ... is now employees. Canon required us to send is now on the cutting edge, but soon will two techs and an analyst to a six-week be developed to help run many of the comon the cutting edge ... “ class. There was no way we could send mon functions within a business.

25 percent of our workforce. Even as we David Varney, service director grew to $6 million and to $9 million, the opportunity cost for a Millennium Business Systems, Cincinnati, Ohio small dealership never outpaces the risk. Plus, we were growOpportunities: Without question, our biggest oppor- ing so fast in Segments 1 to 4 that stepping out of our strength tunity is in production units. It is the only segment of the and comfort zone simply wasn’t needed to fuel our growth. market that is growing; one production unit generates the We passed $20 million around the same time we partnered aftermarket of 12 to 15 “regular” placements. We are only with Oval and Flex Technology Group and were coming off one year into our production initiative and are starting to a flat year. Now we had the size and the resources behind us to start a production program. In 2018, we placed 16 producsee some impressive results.

Strategies: Having our sales reps target the prospects that tion units, which accounted for 4 percent of our overall sales. fit in the production space and supporting their efforts with This year we are budgeting production at 7 to 10 percent.

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Because of the size of the contracts continued focus on acquisitions, as this “As a dealer, if you (which often have less competition than is one of the top priorities for the growth the smaller segments, thus allowing for of the independent dealer. are not in production, margin increase), we added a production Strategies: As a dealer, if you are not you should investigate specialist as an overlay position and saw in production, you should investigate getting into that space, no decrease to our overall sales margins. getting into that space, but make sure but make sure you have My advice to dealers would be to invest you have a plan and the right people a plan and the right in production before MNS. At least it is in and products to be successful. I would the print family and can net the same or recommend that a dealer visit a successpeople and products ... ” better growth numbers. ful dealership in the production space Mike McGuirk, president and learn as much as possible about the ProCopy, a Flex Technology Group company successes, as well as the pitfalls. In reference to managed IT Tempe, Arizona services, I think that it is best to acquire an IT company and grow that business through your existing customer base.

Opportunities: In our market, document management There are numerous IT companies that would make good and digital conversion services are expected to produce a acquisitions and add value in a short time. It is important new growth opportunity in 2019. to note that, as an IT company, you are really developing a Strategies: Start small, possibly with your own in-house business within your business, and the model for success is project, build capability and operational competence, and different from the copier business. I believe that MPS still has gradually expand your service and reputation in the area. room to grow and that, again, if you are not in that part of the Offer the service in bite-sized portions — a box or a filing business, you need to get into it quickly. There are numerous cabinet at a time — to fit budgets and get projects started. dealerships that are successful with MPS and, again, a visit to Charmaine Waterman, CEO share information and processes will help to get you started, RL Mark & Company Ltd., St. Michael, Barbados but move fast. The jury is still out on device as a service, but I think we have to be aware of the possibility that this may beOpportunities: We feel that an MPS offering is the direct come the new model for how companies acquire their prod[source for] future growth. Also, network services is defi- ucts, service and supplies going forward. The trend seems to nitely an additional growth opportunity. be a simplified, all-you-can-eat-for-one-price approach.

Strategies: We have aligned ourselves with several manuHunter McCarty, executive vice president facturers that provide printers and MFPs, along with A3 prodRJ Young Co., Nashville, Tennessee ucts, for the complete print capture of our customers’ needs.

Peter Nauditt, president Opportunities: Solutions continue to climb the ladder in Royal Business Systems Inc., Spokane, Washington our space. Dealers must continue to look at adding new technology solutions to their product offerings if they expect to Opportunities: I believe the greatest opportunity con- continue growing. Security continues to be the most glaring tinues to be with software solutions, not only because they area of concern for almost every business and vertical marare profitable, but because they create a “sticky” customer ket. Cybersecurity, along with physical security, continue to that will be reluctant to switch vendors. be huge opportunities to capitalize on. With the continued Strategies: I believe sales reps should embrace solutions, threat of active shooters in schools, safety is at the forefront of learn them and look for implementation opportunities dur- every educational institution. Our state alone has set aside $40 ing customer walk-throughs. This will separate them from million to help schools become safer places for our children to the competition during the sale by adding value to their offer- attend. So, those dealerships that have developed and invested ings and possibly exclude the competition from future sales. in IT infrastructures can go after helping these schools by proKevin Franklin, sales manager viding security solutions such as intrusion solutions, access Cunningham Business Systems LLC, Alexandria, Louisiana control, smart camera integration, distress alert stations, etc.

Strategies: A dealer’s client base and current relationships Opportunities: For BTA dealers, I feel that the greatest are the best opportunities to extend these new solutions and opportunities will be in production (especially color), man- grow these new revenue streams. With these trusted partaged IT services and the continued evolution of managed nerships, technology and these new solutions are the very print services, including the concept of device as a service. best strategies to help develop this business. Also, increase I also feel that, for the larger dealership, there needs to be a bundling digital copiers, managed print services, interactive 14 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ma r c h 2 0 1 9

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they have been acquired, try attracting new customers. This can be much easier when there has been a disruption. The acquisition of a competitor by a mega dealership or manufacturer causes change, and customers will be receptive to your story. Also, sales representatives from acquired competitors tend to become dissatisfied quickly, giving you a chance to accrue new talent capable of helping your dealership attract those customers.

(3) Wide format, large format, production print and label printing are growing and expanding. Label printing alone has been increasing 6 to 8 percent a year. To capitalize on these areas, it is imperative that you have a product specialist on staff. Our product specialist is an analyst for high-volume, wide-format label printing, as well as our document solutions. To make inroads in this, you need someone who owns these areas and continuously communicates this information to the sales reps to ensure it is at the forefront

“To solidify your customer base, consistently conduct ongoing account reviews with current customers ... touch these customers every 90 days ... ”

Opportunities: The most significant opportunities for the traditional office technology dealer in 2019 can be summed up in the three parameters of your business: (1) Solidifying your base; (2) Expanding into your competitors’ bases; and (3) Wide format, large format, production print and label printing. With each of those parameters, there is a strategy to follow for your business to run smoothly and be successful throughout the year.

Strategies: (1) To solidify your customer base, consistently conduct ongoing account reviews with current customers. To do this, you will need to touch these customers every 90 days so they continually see the value and service they are receiving.

(2) To expand into your competitors’ bases, especially if

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of their minds and they are consistently the sales process once the opportunities looking for these opportunities with have been discovered.

“We continue to prove each customer.

Tarek Hafiz, president to ourselves that there The opportunities for the year can be CBE Office Solutions, Irvine, California is no substitute for successfully achieved by using some of hard work, cold calling these strategies and others implemented Opportunities: In 2019, the greatest and getting a into your businesses. Keep your goals opportunities for office technology dealclear and the road to meeting those goals ers surround managed services, more face-to-face with plainly laid out for your staff members to specifically in managed IT and software net-new opportunities.” follow in order to be successful in 2019. solutions. Our ability to deliver solutions Tim Renegar, president to clients in the following areas will be Kelly Office Solutions, Winston-Salem, North Carolina powerful and beneficial: n Tackling our clients’ networks and data security needs.

Opportunities: I believe the greatest opportunities in n Ensuring secure connections to cloud applications.

2019 for all dealers will be to diversify and to make their n Helping clients with workflow solutions that impact current core businesses stronger. The dealership that can their businesses. diversify and supply multiple products and services will be n Securing BYOD applications. stronger and win more business than the dealership that n Expanding document management into more than cannot. Dealers must [individually] choose how they will di- search and retrieve. versify, but they should add something new to their product Strategies: Some of the best strategies for success inmixes. However, to fuel that growth and to protect what they clude the following: already have, dealers should also pursue tracks to make their n You have to have a bulletproof go-to-market message. core offerings stronger and to grow those businesses. n Build the infrastructure to support the efforts of the Strategies: A thorough business plan is needed first be- sales force. fore you try to diversify. Once that decision is made and your n Train your teams — ­ not just today, but constantly as business plan is completed, you need improved processes to new products and challenges enter the marketplace. make it successful. Talking with other successful dealers is n Help become the trusted advisor and authority in this always helpful, along with hiring new talent versus trying space through social media marketing, blogs and technolto train current employees on the new technology. Lastly, a ogy showcases, as well as other forms of marketing. good marketing plan to keep and grow your core business is n Have fun and listen to the customer. essential to profitable growth. Otherwise, you may grow in Rich Brandenburg, senior vice president of sales your new offering, but your core erodes and the net result is Donnellon McCarthy, Cincinnati, Ohio not positive. You must be able to grow both at the same time in order to succeed.

Opportunities: I think for each dealership it could be Frank Shoaf, president different, but for us at Hendrix Business Systems Inc., it is Central Business Systems Inc., Lexington, Kentucky our continued focus on production products. We have found that adding production products to our current customer Opportunities: We BTA dealers have the greatest oppor- base and to our net-new opportunities has provided tretunity within our existing customer bases. These customers mendous growth for our dealership. know us, love our services and have built trust with us. We Bringing production to your dealership is not for the faint now have the opportunity to provide these existing custom- of heart, but if you commit the proper amount of resources ers with services to fulfill their IT needs. Our proven suc- to it, you can be very successful. We have found that bringing cessful model is based on providing excellent localized ser- these types of products to customers greatly aids a seamless vices, and now we can do the same in the IT arena. transition of their A3, A4, MPS and software needs. We have Strategies: The best strategy to expand the services we seen substantial growth of all the core areas of our business provide to our existing customers is to train our salespeople due to the addition of production. We continue to prove to to ask the right questions. We need our salespeople to look ourselves that there is no substitute for hard work, cold callfor and find the opportunities. Then we need to hire special- ing and getting a face-to-face with net-new opportunities. ists in the different services we are trying to promote. Our We are finding that most people still buy from people they typical salesperson should not try to sell everything, but can build trust in and with. rather our IT team should have specialists who can continue Strategies: I believe the strategy for the future is to remain 18 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ma r c h 2 0 1 9

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completely focused on providing the best growth. And, as in 2018, we expect entercustomer support possible for our core prise content management [ECM] and “Focus on your ideal business offerings. With that said, pick cloud solutions to also continue to be client profile. Go after the main core units of your dealership areas of growth for GFC [Gordon Flesch profit share, not market and keep improving the delivery to your Co.]. With MPS, managed IT and ECM, share. Attract, engage customers. I think, at times, dealers try we’ve been able to help customers imwith and develop your to be good at too many things at once, alprove business processes, and as more though I agree we need to become an imcompanies look for efficiencies, we plan people. Focus on the who portant partner to our customers (stickito be positioned to help them. for 2019, not the what.” ness). But we also need to protect — to Strategies: In all of these areas we the highest degree possible — our core have been hiring new, dedicated sales offerings to earn that necessary trust with our clients. This is teams and post-sale specialists who can help successfully what will continue to provide opportunities to become more bring new customers into the GFC family and help those sticky to them and with them. customers achieve long-term, strategic success. It’s a major I also believe it is time for us all to look hard at ink. We investment in terms of time, money, education and staffing, must begin to understand and learn about the new products but we have always believed in developing hands-on, perand how they will affect our industry. I urge each dealer to sonal relationships with our clients. We are also investing get involved with a new ink product this year to begin learn- in new production product lines available from our manuing and to find the areas where, as dealers, we can lead the facturers, as well as building new, state-of-the-art produccharge in bringing them to the marketplace, as we always do. tion showrooms for new, high-end equipment. We’re excited Roger Hendrix, president about the new products and services available and we’re goHendrix Business Systems Inc., Matthews, North Carolina ing to put a lot of resources behind them.

We’ve also invested heavily in managed IT and managed Opportunities: Unified communications, production content and have been hiring personnel to help drive sales print, production inkjet, managed print, managed IT, secu- opportunities, improve our ability to complete projects and rity as a service, SaaS [software as a service]. enhance support for our clients. The bottom line is that we Strategies: Focus on your ideal client profile. Go after will be expanding our entire team of account executives profit share, not market share. Attract, engage with and de- and business consultants throughout 2019 in order to serve velop your people. Focus on the who for 2019, not the what. our customers’ needs with the most professional, qualified Attract the right people to get on the bus (and it would prob- team in the business. ably help you to get a few people off your bus who don’t want Tom Flesch, CEO to go the same direction as you). Tell your team what your Gordon Flesch Co. Inc., Dublin, Ohio 10-year plan is and the role each person plays in delivering that goal. Let them know what they do every day is critical Opportunities: I would say there are quite a few opporto the success of the team. Ring the bell more often. Ring tunities available for the dealer community in 2019, and I the bell for top non-user appointments. Ring the bell for an believe the one with the easiest and most potential is manNPS over 90 percent. Ring the bell for FCE in service. Ring aged print services. I think when we all look at how many the bell for birthdays, milestones and sometimes just to cel- devices we have under what is true MPS (and not a version ebrate the opportunity you have to work together. of it), they comprise a small percentage of our overall busiBrett Butler, CEO ness. If we look at what MPS is comprised of, to me, this is Excel Office Services, Los Angeles, California one of the easiest ways to grow our business. Four opportunities are: managed print services; managed network serOpportunities: In 2019, we believe production, man- vices; acquisitions (this needs to be a strategy regardless of aged print, managed IT services and managed content will whether you want to buy or sell); and workflow solutions/ continue to be our greatest areas of growth. In the produc- document management. tion print business, there is new equipment we’re excited Strategies: All four opportunities need to have a dediabout and we’re building production print showcase facili- cated focus. If that means having one person responsible ties in 2019. We were also pleased with the growth in our for the success of this business sector, then that is what you managed print services (MPS) and managed IT businesses, should do. At a minimum, the president/CEO of the comwhich grew substantially in 2018. To build on that, we are pany must be leading these initiatives. investing in new technology, staff and services for continued We need to acknowledge sales that take place in these 22 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ma r c h 2 0 1 9

Cover Story Mar 19.indd 6

2/28/19 11:34 AM

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other opportunity sectors with the same what one area is your greatest strength? consistency that we do on the copier side.

Are you truly an expert in this area? If “Security ... is a very Of course, compensation plans must be not, become the expert. Is there a verhot topic right now. in alignment with this new culture. tical where you are a subject-matter We should not abandon Since some of these opportunities reexpert? An expert provider of services? our core MFP business, quire a team sales approach, the review Focus your expansion effort toward the but that alone will and reward process must be in alignstrengths that will provide you momenment with team selling. tum to excel in growing your core businot pay the bills for Most of us derive the majority of our ness and your new lines of revenue. much longer.” revenue from the copier side of the busiStrategies: Customer education is ness and we have a tendency to reward the number-one key strategy for IT serand recognize these activities. We need to change the culture vices to take off in 2019. Add to that a commitment to exceland acknowledge these other opportunities with the same lent customer service. Many SMBs struggle to keep up with consistency that we do on the copier side of the business. the endless challenges they face in managing their technoloMost importantly, compensation plans must be in align- gy resources. Dealerships that address those needs, provide ment with this new team-selling culture. education and guidance for their clients, and become trustLarry Weiss, president ed advisors will certainly be rewarded in the marketplace.

Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office, New York City, New York Bob Abbott, director of business development DCA Imaging Systems, Lanham, Maryland Opportunities: Once again I feel the managed services opportunity looks very good, both in print and IT. Leveraging Opportunities: Managed IT and software solutions for our existing relationships with our clients who have already additional services. Focus on production print and health partnered with us is very important and it is a little easier to care to bring in accounts where volume is still growing in open the conversation. Security — meaning network, print our print business. and endpoint — is a very hot topic right now. We should not Strategies: We partnered with an MNS provider in 2016 abandon our core MFP business, but that alone will not pay to start offering managed IT services. This allowed us to the bills for much longer. Pressures from multiple directions learn the business. We started our internal IT department have made the hardware business a tough place to play. in the second half of 2017 and have plans to add additional Strategies: Mining your existing clients for opportunities help-desk technicians in 2019. We added cloud-based phone will help keep the competition from gaining a foothold in your systems to our MNS offerings in 2018 and have had good reaccounts. That being said, it is vital that dealers continue to sults not only selling phone systems, but also getting addiwin new business and expand their client bases. Getting your tional IT services bundled with the phone systems. foot in the door with a new account by having the relief for pain We hired a dedicated production print sales rep and two points such as security and workflow will be the key to win- dedicated production print service techs in 2017, which ning the consultative sale. Training for your employees will drastically increased our unit placements in the last six ensure they are asking the right people the right questions. months of 2018. Based on the success of the production print Erik Crane, president specialist, we decided to use the same strategy in health CPI Technologies, Spring field, Missouri care and hired a dedicated health-care specialist in the last quarter of 2018 to help us get better market penetration.

Opportunities: The areas of greatest opportunity for Bob Evans, partner 2019: bundled customer business solutions. Not just MFPs, Function4, Sugar Land, Texas but IT, workflow, mailing, etc., to meet customer needs.

Strategies: The best strategy for success is increased inOpportunities: Disruptive change to the industry is teractions with potential customers. It’s a simple answer, near. Both MFP and mailing equipment dealers must adopt but it is a basic task that has to be done. new technologies to stay competitive. Inkjet is the future. If Greg Quirk, owner & CEO you have not already, fill your product line gaps and explore JQ Office Equipment, Omaha, Nebraska the inkjet market. The inkjet market is proven and reliable.

Printing costs will drop. I do believe the Epson Workforce Opportunities: Managed IT services is a key opportunity Pro and Enterprise series’ are already disrupting the marfor the traditional office technology dealership. Other than ket as we know it. Dealers are starting to walk away from selling MFPs, printers and the multiple services you offer, unprofitable relationships. From now forward, it will be 24 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo gy m a g.c om | Ma r c h 2 0 1 9

Cover Story Mar 19.indd 7

2/28/19 11:34 AM

about creative repackaging with the decline, digital continues to evolve. Like right product mix to drive gross profits. the combo meal in the fast-food world, “If you are not What does this look like? IT will be in wouldn’t it be nice for us dealers to proobsessed with crushing the mix whether in-house, through allivide the whole package? The printing, B2B digital strategies ance partnerships or strategic acquisithe scanning, the departmental routing, in 2019, you will lose ... tions. There will be acquisitions in both digital archiving and retrieval all in one We are in a calm IT and the mailing equipment dealers. package. Opportunity knocks!

FP Mailing Solutions has a complete Strategies: (1) For e-commerce, find before the social mailing equipment product offering for a reputable vendor that can give the media storm.” additional revenue opportunities and total solution for website and e-comexpansion into competitive customer lomerce, coupled with a solid internal cations through dealership acquisitions. marketing staff. (2) For the document workflow solution, Strategies: If you are not obsessed with crushing B2B dig- figure out how to tie the document life cycle together in one ital strategies in 2019, you will lose. Disruption of the entire nice, feasible, reliable package. marketplace will happen. We are in a calm before the social Jerry Jehn, president media storm. The business models will change. Ninety-five Waltz Business Solutions percent of dealers don’t get how their customers are influenced Crestwood Hills, Kentucky n through the internet. Your customers and prospects are on Brent Hoskins, executive director of the social media. In 2018, I turned into a LinkedIn Influencer. My Business Technology Association, is editor connections rocketed from 1,500 to more than 10,000 connecof Office Technology magazine. He can be tions, with more than 4,500 prospects and customers located reached at brent@bta.org or (816) 303-4040. in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, area. It does not matter what you think; change or be driven out of business by the early adopters. Digital strategies tied to digital inbound, outbound and telemarketing systems will be the future of the industry.

Craig Wasilchak, president & CEO Alternative Business Automation Solutions Arlington, Texas Opportunities: Solutions offerings. More and more companies seem to be looking to reduce IT infrastructure (print servers, etc.) and reduce expenses with print management offerings such as PaperCut. While these solutions may not make a financial dent in hardware sales, they’ll help to enable hardware sales and secure long-term clients.

Strategies: Training. Having all staff members, from service to sales, able to see opportunities for solutions is crucial to identifying projects and developing proficiency in this area.

Brian Boogaard, vice president TEAM Solutions Group, Sherman Oaks, California Opportunities: (1) E-commerce. Could the majority of tomorrow’s business solutions prospects do 90 percent of their homework on the purchase of a product or service on the internet? If so, we need to change the way we go to market with our products. Those of us who understand that mentality will strive to provide a “different” website experience for the prospect — one that will allow them to purchase smaller products, supplies and services with the push of a button. Are we ready?

If so, perhaps open doors of growth opportunity could follow.

(2) The document workflow revolution. As print continues to www.offi cetechnol ogymag.c om | M a rc h 2019 | 25

Cover Story Mar 19.indd 8

2/28/19 2:57 PM

Social Selling It can be very effective when done correctly by: Gil Cargill, Sales Acceleration Coach

S

ocial selling is a phenomenon that is virtually impossible to ignore these days. You cannot pick up a salesoriented magazine or go to a sales-oriented website without finding praises being sung about the practice of social selling. The purpose of this article is not to put any cold water on this phenomenon. As a matter of fact, I believe that social selling, when done correctly, is an extraordinarily effective augmentation to your selling efforts. However, the fly in the ointment is the phrase “when done correctly.”

Social selling is not to be confused with face-to-face selling. Today’s modern office technology dealership must solve business problems. Social selling is extraordinarily powerful at identifying people who perceive they have business operating condition problems that may be impacted by your products and services. But in my experience, it is very difficult to analyze workflows, business operating conditions and productivity issues in order to present a customized solution for a client through social selling.

If you have read any of my other articles, you know that my definition of a “solution” is a combination of people (your team), processes (developed and deployed by your team) and, finally, your product (or service). These are the three Ps — people, process and product.

When your proposals present a customized blend of your team members’ capabilities, the processes you use to solve or improve business operating conditions and the products you deploy to resolve those issues, you will be engaged in pure consultative selling, your margins will be higher and your sales cycles shorter. Engaging in consultative selling requires a salesperson to understand the impact that his (or her) solution will provide to a client’s company.

Therefore, your proposals should discuss the beneficial and permanent impact that your solution will have on one or more of your prospect’s business operating conditions.

If you employ social selling to identify those prospects and then good, old-fashioned, face-to-face selling to ascertain and solve those problems, you will have a one-two punch that is extremely effective.

One of the things I have observed since this phenomenon

took hold is that many salespeople try to hide behind social selling. When they are asked, “What are you doing?” they may reply with something like “Updating my LinkedIn profile.” Or, they may say they are utilizing Facebook or any one of myriad other social selling platforms. While all this work must be done to optimize the results from social selling, I believe it should not be done by salespeople.

Ideally, salespeople should have a calendar full of qualified first appointments/first meetings with prospects who have surfaced or have been identified via social selling.

More and more often today, top-performing sales forces are recognizing the need to separate the task of selling from prospecting. One aspect of prospecting is to operate on all of the social selling platforms.

I advise you to take a hint from the top producers and the most profitable dealers in the United States and hire young men and women to manage your social selling activity in order to give your salespeople more selling time. While they are doing that, your salespeople (who understand how the solutions go together) should be engaged in selling to qualified prospects and not trying to find qualified prospects.

26 | ­w w w. o f f ic et ec hno lo g y m a g.c om | Ma r c h 2 0 1 9

Cargill Mar 19.indd 1

2/28/19 11:41 AM

inspected and metrically managed. Also One of the best strategies that I have ensure that you are coaching your SDR implemented with my clients is the conIt [social selling] is one to find qualified, interested prospects for cept of creating a sales development repof many strategies and your sales force to sell to through the varresentative (SDR). The SDR is responsible tactics that will bring ious social selling platforms. As always, I for maintaining your company’s image qualified prospects to wish you good luck and good selling. n on social media, as well as following up the surface for you, After concluding a sales and on all of the marketing activity, inquiries, management career at IBM, visits to your website, etc. This is an enbut it should not be Gil Cargill launched his own consulting try-level job that will not cost your comdone by salespeople. practice in 1978. He has spent the past 41 pany very much money. But, when propyears as a consultant, speaker and trainer, erly implemented, the SDR position will helping thousands of businesses achieve dramatic and be a moneymaker and a game-changer for your company. permanent improvements in sales productivity.

At its heart, social selling is searching for someone to sell Cargill has taught salespeople across diverse industries to. It is one of many strategies and tactics that will bring the importance of developing sales qualified prospects to the surface for you, but it should not processes, the advantages of implementing be done by salespeople. Salespeople should sell. Everyone new technology and the benefits else should do everything else — and one of the components of tracking sales performance. of the phrase “everything else” is prospecting.

He can be reached at To sum it up, I am not asking anyone to give up on so(310) 305-7198, ext. 111, or gil@gilcargill.com. cial selling, but make sure that your social selling activities Visit www.gilcargill.com.

— as with all other business development activities — are

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COURTS & CAPITOLS

Ensuring Compliance 2019 brings new laws & regulations by: Robert C. Goldberg, general counsel for the Business Technology Association

T

he new year has brought a host of new laws and regulations affecting how to manage your employees. The new Congress is also poised to expand employee rights and employer responsibilities. Complying with the law and treating employees fairly and equitably has always been a dealer objective. To continue that mission, here are several areas for your attention. n Salary History — Since 2016, 10 states and 10 local governments have adopted laws banning inquiries as to an applicant’s salary history. The rationale behind these restrictions is one’s salary history tends to limit compensation and may not reflect the value of the services being provided. It is further thought that reliance on past and present pay levels contributes to pay disparity between men and women, and women of color in particular. Consider removing any salary history question from your employment application. n Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) Accommodations — The ADA requires employers to make “reasonable accommodations” for employees with special needs. Courts and regulators express different standards as to what is reasonable. The requirements are going to become more challenging as employees request permission to bring emotional support animals to the workplace, seek flexible schedules and have remote work options. The line between accommodation under the law and abuse of the law is growing closer. n Marijuana — Many states have passed laws allowing the sale of medical marijuana. Fewer, but a growing number, allow recreational marijuana use. Employers face new challenges in drug testing and addressing requests for accommodation from medical users. Meanwhile, possession of marijuana remains a federal offense. Review your policy and procedure manual for compliance with current requirements. n Sexual Harassment — Sexual harassment has always been a workplace concern. The #MeToo movement has broadened the scope and time period for complaints. Consider bringing in a consultant to discuss proper behavior, lodging a complaint, investigating a complaint and resolving the matter. n Off-the-Clock Suits — As previously discussed in this column, regularly communicating with employees after hours may result in a claim for overtime compensation. Cell phone and computer records easily establish hours worked. Dealers should have definite policies on overtime work and enforce them. Remember, outside salespeople are exempt from overtime requirements. The biggest concern is technicians who may work

longer to complete a call or file reports at the end of the day. n Social Media — Employers are increasingly expected to act as the Facebook and Twitter police. With cyberbullying and textual harassment moving into the workplace, dealers will continue to face difficult decisions on when and how to terminate employees for something said on social media about another employee or the company itself. This is another opportunity for a clearly stated company policy. n Paid Sick Leave — States and cities continue to pass laws requiring different levels of paid sick leave. Check both your state and city to determine what the requirements are.

Establish if there are rules regarding carryover time from year to year and/or the cash value for unused time. If your dealership has offices in more than one location, the rules may vary among your employees. Typically, a dealer will choose the most generous policy and apply it to everyone. n Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) — The FMLA has always been a difficult regulation to understand. If you have fewer than 50 employees, you can ignore the federal act, but you may be subject to a state act. Employees have used the FMLA seeking intermittent leave for headaches, sore backs and other lingering conditions that can turn into a permanent license to be absent at will. A well-written and enforced policy can aid in these situations.

Employment law is complex with ample room for mistakes. BTA members should utilize the BTA Legal Hotline for guidance in these areas. n Robert C. Goldberg is general counsel for the Business Technology Association.

He can be reached at robert.goldberg@sfnr.com.

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Goldberg Mar 19.indd 1

2/27/19 4:40 PM

EDUCATION CALENDAR April 2

BTA Service Success Training Taught by veteran service manager Ken Edmonds, BTA Service Success Training is the first training program that addresses the fundamentals of supervision and management. Those who take this 15-week, 30-session online course will have a better understanding of their service departments, and the actions they can take to increase productivity and profitability while boosting their teams’ morale and competence. Visit www.bta.org/ServiceSuccess to register.

10

BTA Building My Business Webinar: “Retaining Top Talent: Stay Interviews” Has this ever happened to you? You see potential in an employee, he (or she) is a great culture fit and you believe he will be part of your long-term strategy. Then he accepts a position somewhere else. Prevent this situation by learning about an effective retention method: stay interviews. In this webinar, led by Denise Miller of PathShare HR Services at GreatAmerica Financial Services, you will gain insights into: A complete understanding of the stay interview as a method for retaining your employees; how to uncover potential concerns before the exit interview to alleviate avoidable pain points before they become problems; and best practices to designing and executing stay interviews and stay plans. Visit www.bta.org/BMB to register.

May 23

BTA Building My Business Webinar: “Cultivating Your Culture” Establishing and maintaining a positive company culture must be front and center in order for companies to succeed today. In this webinar, led by Arial Harland of PathShare HR Services at GreatAmerica Financial Services, you will gain insights into: What is culture?: How culture weaves throughout your entire organizational system; Why culture matters: How focusing on culture today will positively impact your organization for years to come; and Building your company culture: How to align your organizational system to support your desired culture. Visit www.bta.org/BMB to register.

June

19-20 ProFinance 3.0

Blue Ash, Ohio (a Cincinnati suburb) Over the last 17 years, the principles of ProFinance have dramatically improved the performance of hundreds of dealerships. Now, with color, connectivity, software, managed print services (MPS) and managed network services (MNS), the business has changed — and ProFinance has changed with it. Taught by John Hey and Todd Johnson of Strategic Business Associates, ProFinance 3.0 incorporates these changes into the industry model, including benchmarks for MPS. Visit www.bta.org/ProFinance to register.

For more information, visit www.bta.org/Education or call (800) 843-5059.

www.offi cetechnol ogymag.c om | M a rc h 2019 | 29

Calendar Mar 19.indd 1

2/27/19 4:43 PM

BTA HIGHLIGHTS BTA would like to welcome the following new members to the association:

Dealer Members A D Solutions Inc., Orlando, FL Ford Business Machines Inc., Connellsville, PA US Globe Corp., Garden City Park, NY Genco Office Systems, Naples, FL Southwest Office Systems Inc., Dallas, TX Vendor Members Anita Lead, Winterville, NC Cross Research LLC, Millburn, NJ For full contact information of these new members, visit www.bta.org.

For the benefit of its dealer members, each month BTA features two of its vendor members in this space.

ITD Print Solutions, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, is an industry leader in OEM replacement toners and cartridges, providing both brand-name OEM and OEM-compatible toner cartridges, including its own exclusive Rhinotek brand. Rhinotek-brand monochrome and color toner cartridges are manufactured to exact specifications, providing both high quality and significant savings to ITD’s customers. Over its more than 30-year history, the Rhinotek brand has evolved to become the only branded, OEM-compatible toner on the market. www.itdprintsolutions.com

Market Analytics Tool

The Market Analytics Tool (MAT) from Keypoint Intelligence is a data visualization tool that gives dealers access to print volume, establishment and installed base data by state, county, ZIP code and vertical markets. Interactive graphs, charts and maps give dealers the ability to zero in on exactly what they are looking for.

Dealers can utilize the MAT to track areas with high print volumes, for example, or to see which verticals are printing the most in their areas. Use the tool for tasks such as: sales territory planning; focusing on the right target markets; growing vertical-market business; and more. The MAT starts at $250 for BTA members — 50 percent off the market price!

Visit www.bta.org/KeypointMAT for more information.

KB RollerTech, founded in 1987, is a strategic development partner for copier and printer manufacturers worldwide. The company employs more than 200 people in its locations throughout the world. Thanks to its presence in the United States, Europe and Asia, KB offers its customers first-class service. It provides customized solutions to satisfy the unique requirements of digital printer designs. KB’s product lines focus on transfer and fusing in toner-based electrophotographic digital printers. Today, KB RollerTech manufactures more than two million parts annually between its two production sites in Germany and Thailand. www.kbrt.de/en

For information on BTA member benefits, visit www.bta.org/MemberBenefits.

A full list of BTA vendor members can be found online at www.bta.org.

For more information, visit www.bta.org.

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Highlights Mar 19.indd 1

2/27/19 4:46 PM

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www.offi cetechnol ogymag. c om | M a rc h 2019 | 31

2/21/19 9:29 AM

DEALERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

James Imaging Systems Wisconsin dealership targeting $40 million by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

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om Tegeder’s story is not unlike that of many other office technology dealers. He worked his way up in the dealership founded by his father, James. In fact, he quips, he started in the direct mail department. “We would sit around the kitchen table; one of us would fold, one would stuff, one would lick the envelopes and one of us would put the stamps on,” he says. “Every Saturday, we would handle the direct mail for James Office Equipment; it was a true family business.”

Tegeder’s father had worked for Apeco (American Photocopy Equipment Co.), but decided that rather than being transferred away from the family’s home state of Wisconsin, he would prefer to establish his own dealership which, like so many others, was initially operated out of his home and station wagon. It was 1976. Ultimately, of course, the dealership moved into its own building. Tegeder, meanwhile, continued to work for his father. “I started with, you know, cleaning the toilets and sweeping the warehouse,” he says. “Eventually, I worked in the parts department, handled a little bit of service, did some accounting and then moved into sales.”

Fast-forward to 1984. Sadly, Tegeder’s story took a sharp turn that year with the passing of his father. The dealership was left to Tegeder’s mother, Lola, who was assisted by his uncle, John Tegeder. In 1989, John passed away as well. “Then, it was just my mom, me and my brother, and he wanted a career in aviation, so he left the business,” he says. “It ended up with my mom owning 51 percent of the business and me owning 49 percent.”

Fast-forward again, this time to the present. Today, Lola still works in the dealership, serving as CEO; she remains the owner of the Brookfield, Wisconsin, building that is home to what is now James Imaging Systems. Tegeder serves as president. Meanwhile, the dealership, with 103 employees, has seen substantial growth. In fact, recently, the building’s warehouse space was doubled with an 11,000-square-foot addition, while the office space was expanded by about 7,500 square feet. “We now have enough space that we think we can operate at $40 million out of this location; today, we are at $20 million,” Tegeder says. “Yes, $40 million is the goal. We think we can do that.”

How did the dealership reach $20 million? Tegeder says the substantial growth was due, in part, to the acquisition of five other companies along the way. The first acquisition was a competitive dealership, also selling Toshiba imaging devices, which, today, represent approximately 80 percent of James Imaging Systems’ unit placements. What started with Tegeder agreeing to drop off some toner that the competitive dealership

Above: James Imaging Systems headquarters in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Right: Lola and Tom Tegeder break ground on new additions to the dealership’s warehouse and office space. was in “desperate need” of, turned into lunch with the owner, who was “thinking about an exit strategy.”

The “best things” to come out of that first acquisition and the four that followed “were the customer bases and the people,” Tegeder says, noting that he still employs staff members from all five of the acquired companies. “Some of our top-performing people came from those acquisitions. It has been a great source of people for us; it’s been a great way to acquire talent. These new employees have been wonderful additions to our existing, phenomenal staff.”

Tegeder says that pursuing acquisitions as a strategy for company growth will continue. “Yes, absolutely,” he says. “I’m seeing more smaller dealers getting squeezed by pricing or they’re just nearing retirement, but they don’t have anybody to pass the business on to. I think there’s great opportunity for acquisitions within the market.”

Actually, Tegeder sees acquisitions as the “fastest and least expensive” path to company growth. How so? Citing the most recent company acquisition — at around $5 million in annual revenues — as an example, he notes that it would have been more time consuming and taxing on company resources to “fight it out” in sales and service, and “wait for that residual” by pursuing the $5 million organically. “If you have a profitable dealership, you can get some economic efficiency out of an acquisition,” he says. “You don’t necessarily need everything that

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Dealership Spotlight Mar 19.indd 1

2/28/19 11:59 AM

and, more specifically, the association’s Sethey have, but if you are growing, you need lect Dealer Group (SDG). “Being a member to hire those positions anyway.”

“Being a member of of BTA and SDG has helped tremendousMeanwhile, Tegeder also has his eye on BTA and SDG has ly,” Tegeder says. “The willingness of other further increasing the number of customhelped tremendously. dealers in our industry to share ideas and ers under a managed print service (MPS) The willingness of other best practices is huge. So is having the help program. “I see great opportunity there,” he dealers in our industry of [BTA General Counsel] Bob Goldberg; he says. “We do about $3 million in managed has saved dealers millions and millions of print services each year; that is growing at to share ideas and best dollars. We are very fortunate to have this around 10 percent a year. So, roughly 15 perpractices is huge.” type of association behind the dealers.” cent of our business is MPS. I feel that could Along with embracing the right allibe 40 percent of our business in the future.”

As he looks to the future, Tegeder also cites three key factors ances, Tegeder says his dealership embraces a high level of that he says will continue to contribute to the success of his customer service, which also contributes to its ongoing sucdealership. First is the guidance of John Hey and Todd Johnson cess. “We’re more outwardly focused than we are inwardly foof Strategic Business Associates. Second is his alliance with cused,” he says. “When the client calls in and needs help, it’s Toshiba. In fact, James Imaging Systems was the company’s got to be about them and not us. So, if it’s a quarter to five on a 2018 Dealer of the Year. “The people at Toshiba are really great Friday night and they need toner, we’re going to run toner out people,” he says. “I honestly mean that; I would welcome them to them, going above and beyond the client’s expectations.” n as my neighbor.”

Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology The third ongoing contributor to the dealership’s success Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine. is membership in the Business Technology Association (BTA) He can be reached at (816) 303-4040 or brent@bta.org.

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Dealership Spotlight Mar 19.indd 2

2/28/19 11:59 AM

DEALERS HELPING DEALERS

Measuring Success Dealers share top service team metrics Compiled by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

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ollowing is another of the questions submitted by a dealer member as part of BTA’s Dealers Helping Dealers resource, and many of the answers received. These answers and others can be found in the members-only section of the BTA website. Visit www.bta.org/Dealers HelpingDealers. You will need your username and password to access this member resource.

What are the top three metrics you have in place to measure your service team to determine if you are being successful?

“Copy between call, calls per day and profitability reports on machines.”

Daniel Bombard, owner/general manager Yuma Office Equipment, Yuma, Arizona “Contribution, contribution, contribution.”

Tom Callinan, president FlexPrint, Mesa, Arizona “First-call effectiveness, parts usage and net repair time.”

Jerry Jehn, president Waltz Business Solutions, Crestview Hills, Kentucky “Net Promoter Score, first-call effectiveness and how many parts per fix they use.”

Brett Butler, CEO Excel Office Services, Los Angeles, California “Callbacks, incompletes and first-call effectiveness are probably the top three metrics we look at regarding our technician effectiveness. We use Pros Elite metrics, which include much more detail and give a very comprehensive overview of our service department.”

Tim Renegar, president Kelly Office Solutions, Winston-Salem, North Carolina “We use the Net Promoter Score [NPS] survey after every service call and are so proud of our current 94 NPS rating.

Many dealers use average response time, as do we, and we are currently running at 3.3 hours. We have found first-time fix to

be one of the best stats and we are running at 74 percent. We have a war room with more than 30 charts updated monthly for a wide variety of statistics.”

Darren Metz, CEO Novatech, Memphis, Tennessee “We use CEO Juice and BEI Services for reporting and pull information from both to monitor things like first-call efficiency, response time and parts usage. We then track them all with an end-user survey, tied to Net Promoter Score.”

Sam Stone, president Stone’s Office Equipment Co. Inc., Richmond, Virginia “Response times, customer survey feedback and profit/loss.”

Hunter McCarty, COO RJ Young Co., Nashville, Tennessee “Response time, rescheduled calls and first-time fix (total emergency or corrective maintenance calls less callbacks less rescheduled equals first-time fix greater than 70 percent).”

Mike Brandon, president & CEO ABC Office Equipment Co., Spokane, Washington “First call, rescheduled/repeat and parts used.”

D.J. Hastings, president Hogland Office Equipment, Lubbock, Texas “Response times, first-call effectiveness and recalls.”

Greg Quirk, owner & CEO JQ Office Equipment of Omaha Inc., Omaha, Nebraska “Gross calls per day, accounted time, first-call effectiveness.”

Erik Crane, president CPI Technologies, Spring field, Missouri Do you have a question to ask your fellow dealers? Email it to brent@bta.org with the subject line: “Dealers Helping Dealers.” Office Technology will share your question with the full dealer membership with a request for guidance from your fellow dealers. n Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine.

He can be reached at brent@bta.org or (816) 303-4040.

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DHD Mar 19.indd 1

2/27/19 4:47 PM

AIMED VIEWPOINT

Central Business Systems Inc. Using ‘total technology’ & acquisition for growth by: Elizabeth Marvel, Office Technology Magazine

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IMED member Central Business Systems Inc. (CBS), headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, has seen significant growth over the past eight years. CBS President Frank Shoaf attributes this growth to his company’s “total technology” approach and its acquisition strategy.

Originally named The PH Owens Co., CBS was established more than 70 years ago by founder Paul Owens in Somerset, Kentucky. When the company moved to Lexington not long after its founding, Owens changed its name to Central Business Systems Inc. The company sold and serviced typewriters until 1980, when it became a Hasler mailing equipment dealership.

Shoaf joined the company in 1997 after selling for Pitney Bowes out of college. “I wanted to work in a smaller environment where I could be more involved in the running of the business and not just selling equipment,” Shoaf says. “I left Pitney Bowes and joined the local Hasler dealership, which was Central Business Systems Inc. My first role with CBS was as a sales rep, and then I became a selling sales manager. After a few years, I got a small percentage of ownership in CBS and eventually bought the business in 2004.”

Today, the company has offices in three locations: its headquarters in Lexington; Louisville, Kentucky; and Charleston, West Virginia. CBS employs more than 30 people and its territory covers most of Kentucky, all of West Virginia and small areas of southern Indiana and southeast Ohio. While the company still sells mailing equipment from Neopost and Hasler, it has also moved into adjacent areas — copier/MFPs and printers, as well as IT services and solutions.

According to Shoaf, the bulk of CBS’s business (about 65 percent) still comes from the mailing side of the business, but document solutions make up about 15 percent and IT services about 10 percent. Supplies make up the final 10 percent.

“We have been selling and servicing Neopost/Hasler mailing equipment for almost 40 years and it has been a great ride,” Shoaf says. “But the industry changed and we decided to change with it. We still have a vibrant mailing business, but we charted a new course about eight years ago when we added copiers and printers in our main market of Lexington.

“Four years ago we added IT services to the product mix,” he continues. “We can now supply a business with all of its office technology needs. This ‘total technology’ approach to business is what separates us from the competition. We have expertise in all aspects of office technology and can share that with clients.

I think customers are looking for ways to be more efficient in

Frank Shoaf (bottom right) with some of his team members from CBS’s Lexington, Kentucky, headquarters. their businesses and processes, and partnering with a company that can supply all of their office technology can help them achieve that goal. So, we have become that ‘total technology’ company and we have seen excellent results so far.”

While the “total technology” approach has been a large factor in CBS’s success, its acquisition strategy has also played an important role. CBS acquired Campbell Business Machines in December 2018, giving the company its location in West Virginia. Shoaf says the process took about six months, and all of Campbell’s employees came over to CBS in the acquisition.

“Our business plan over the past eight years has been all about growth, and acquisitions are a key part of that strategy,” Shoaf says. “We will continue to look at small companies to acquire in any market we serve and in any product line we already support. The acquisition of Campbell was just part of this plan and it was good timing.

“Since Campbell was a mailing-only dealership, it gives us new customers to sell or upgrade all of our mailing products to,” he continues. “More importantly, it gives us the chance to sell all of our other products and services to these customers.

We are only two months into the acquisition and there have been challenges getting the data in our database, but things are very positive and, overall, better than we expected.” n Elizabeth Marvel is associate editor of Office Technology magazine. She can be reached at elizabeth@bta.org or (816) 303-4060. www.offi cetechnol ogymag. c om | M a rc h 2019 | 35

AIMED Mar 19.indd 1

2/27/19 4:49 PM

PRINCIPAL ISSUES

Canon: A Briefing Executives meet with industry media & analysts by: Brent Hoskins, Office Technology Magazine

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n Feb. 11-12, Canon executives met with industry media and analysts with the goal of highlighting the company’s latest technology, products and services, as well as, in part, providing an update on the company’s revenues and the dealer channel. The meeting took place at the Waterstone Resort and Marina in Boca Raton, Florida.

“I am very optimistic about our indus- Sam Yoshida try,” said Sam Yoshida, executive vice president and general manager of the Business Information Communications Group (BICG) at Canon U.S.A. Inc. and vice chairman of Canon Solutions America Inc., as he opened the meeting. “I still believe this is a very healthy industry.”

Yoshida reported that Canon achieved $35.6 billion in revenue worldwide in 2018, slightly less than in 2017, with net Mason Olds income of $2.3 billion, a 3-percent increase over 2017. He also noted that the company’s debt ratio is 8.2 percent. “Five years ago, this was zero and we were always criticized [by shareholders] for having too much cash ...

In the last four to five years, we have diversified, investing in new areas outside of our traditional business space.”

The “office” product category (e.g., MFPs, printers) accounted for 46 percent of Canon’s 2018 global revenue, followed by the “consumer” product category (e.g., cameras, lenses) at 26 percent, which experienced a “double-digit” decline in 2018, Yoshida reported. The final two product categories accounting for the balance of Canon’s global revenues: “industry/others” (e.g., semiconductor equipment, document scanners) and “medical” (e.g., ultrasound, X-ray).

Focusing specifically on Canon’s U.S. business, “we’re happy to show a strong revenue growth in 2018, where the industry probably contracted a little bit,” Yoshida said. “Our independent dealer channel achieved another year of growth and another record; seven consecutive years. Also, our direct [sales] subsidiary, Canon Solutions America, achieved record revenue for 2018.”

The growth in the dealer channel is “actually phenomenal, because when you think about the seven-year period, we also lost many dealers through acquisitions,” Yoshida said. “We

were still able to grow every year for the last seven years. It just shows you the health of this channel — the breadth and the revenue that we are fortunate to enjoy as a result of [the channel].”

In his presentation, Mason Olds, senior vice president and general manager of sales for BICG, also commented on Canon’s dealer channel and the rise in dealership acquisitions. “As you know, it’s not that easy,” he said. “Global [Xerox] bought so many of our dealers, a lot of them are joining private equity and KM [Konica Minolta] bought one of our good dealers in Vermont ... Even with that, ‘kind-of-quiet Canon’ continues to do OK with the dealer channel and grew 2 percent last year [revenue growth].”

The influx of private equity companies into the channel is “probably the biggest challenge” Canon currently faces in maintaining the strength of its dealer channel, Olds said, noting that he has met with the representatives of five of the companies. “What I’ve learned from them is this: It’s about money,” he said. However, he noted that he appreciates the industry assessment shared by the companies. “They’re incredibly positive about our industry, the dealer channel and how profitable it is,” he said, saying they also praise “the ‘genius’ who came up with the recurring revenue model.”

Beyond the challenges that dealership acquisitions have presented for Canon, Olds took the opportunity to acknowledge a few challenges that dealers themselves are facing. Noting that it is a “people-to-people” business, “probably the number-one challenge that we have in the dealer channel” is attracting the changing work force to the office technology industry, he said.

“The millennials and people even younger than that, as well as one generation above, don’t necessarily want to go into our industry,” he said, jokingly asking for the meeting attendees’ help. “Please make our industry look a little more sexy.”

Declining page volumes also continue to present a challenge for dealers, Olds said. “The amount of volume that people are doing on equipment on the enterprise side is going down a little bit, and because there are so many competitors out there ... the cost per copy goes down a little bit,” he said, noting that “production is helping us outrun that.” Earlier in his presentation, he emphasized: “In our dealer business — and in our business overall — if you’re not doing well with production, you’re going to struggle to grow.” n Brent Hoskins, executive director of the Business Technology Association, is editor of Office Technology magazine.

He can be reached at brent@bta.org or (816) 303-4040.

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Canon Mar 19.indd 1

2/27/19 4:50 PM

SELLING SOLUTIONS

A Positive Sales Culture Create one inside your company in three steps by: Troy Harrison, Troy Harrison & Associates

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have written a lot about how to build a sales culture, which is the idea that your company is, first and foremost, a sales organization. This only makes sense, because if a company does not sell, its employees have no work to do. That is the macro view of the sales culture — looking over the entire company from the corner office.

So let’s talk about the micro level — the culture within the sales team itself. You can do a great job of building a macro-level sales culture in your company, but still have a toxic sales culture on the micro level.

The culture within the sales force is determined by management attitudes, the mix of personalities, leadership, policies and principles. Essentially, the difference between a toxic culture and a positive culture is this: A toxic culture is one where your people do not enjoy their work; a positive one is one where they do. Following is how you can build a positive sales culture in three steps: Seek Culture, Not Compensation If the Beatles were so rich, why did they break up? The answer is because they did not enjoy being the Beatles anymore and even money was not enough to get keep the band together. Think about it. What would a Beatles reunion in, say, 1979, have been worth financially? I remember some monstrous numbers that were talked about even into the 1990s, with discussion of Julian Lennon taking his dad’s place. And, yet, the reunion never happened.

It never happened because money did not motivate them at that point. This happens with salespeople, too. Good salespeople must be engaged employees. They must love the profession of selling (the activities, not just the result), they must love what they are selling (your products) and they must love who they are selling it for (you). Enough money can overcome any of these three factors — for a while. However, there will be a point on the curve where even huge amounts of money are not enough to get them to keep doing what they are doing.

Do not get me wrong — salespeople should be paid very well for what they are doing. But never assume that the money will overcome a culture that is not supportive, positive and fun for them to be a part of. Good sales cultures respect each individual member of the team and his (or her) contributions. Good sales cultures seek to develop and maximize talents. And good sales cultures create environments that people want to be part of.

Build Collaborative — Not Cutthroat — Competition Most salespeople have competitive impulses. Channeled correctly, those impulses can drive performance and results ever higher. Channeled badly, they can be disastrous and result in high turnover and a toxic culture. Think of your competitive atmosphere like a bowling team. Each member of the team wants to have the highest score in any game, but also wants everyone on the team to perform well so their team can beat the other teams.

A good sales team works the same way — everyone wants the entire team to do well because there are no consequences to any member for a co-worker doing well. I once talked to a vice president of sales for a national company who told me that he directed each of his branch sales managers to fire his weakest person at the end of the year. Supposedly, that was the best way to both motivate salespeople and make the company’s sales teams better. Not surprisingly, this company’s turnover was high.

His idea was that, since no one wanted to be the weakest person, every employee would perform at his best. The problem with this thought is that there are two ways to not be the weakest person. The first is to push your own performance higher. The other is to attempt to push the other guy’s performance down by working on his mindset.

I have seen it before; it is like the old saying when two people are running away from a bear. One says, “I don’t have to outrun the bear — I only have to outrun you.” This kind of management philosophy always leads to high turnover and lower performance. www.offi cetechnol ogymag.c om | M a rc h 2019 | 37

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Your ideal sales team should be one where each member feels good about asking for help — from management and even from other team members. I have managed several sales teams that worked this way and it is fun. You get to hear stories about how the top team members are calling struggling ones at night to offer help and give pep talks. Not surprisingly, these teams also perform the highest overall.

outside the company. Some salespeople can, unfortunately, be denigrating to those support staff members they see as beneath them. Do not hire these people. No matter how good their performance may be, they are not worth the trouble and the negative effect they can have on the performance of everyone else on the team.

What you need to remember in building a positive sales culture is this: The way you treat your salespeople will be reflected in the way they treat their customers. Choose your culture, your managers and your team members wisely. n Troy Harrison is the author of “Sell Like You Mean It!” and “The Pocket Sales Manager,” and is a speaker, consultant and sales navigator. He helps companies build more profitable and productive sales forces. To schedule a free 45-minute Sales Strategy Review, call (913) 645-3603 or email troy@troyharrison.com.

Visit www.troyharrison.com.

The way you treat your salespeople will be reflected in the way they treat their customers.

Choose your culture, your managers and your team members wisely.

Select the Right Personalities Making all of this work takes the right mix of personalities.

This means you need to be strategic about how you hire and ensure that you are getting a good mix. Sometimes you will want to hire to complement and build on existing personalities on your team. Other times, you will want to hire to offset characteristics of your team. Think about your personality mix and go beyond simply hiring for sales skills and qualifications.

Also, hire people who are what I call “good company citizens.” These people naturally treat everyone well, inside and

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