Dealer Spotlight
Stargel Office Solutions: Taking Care of Customers Through the Storm
S
tarted in 1987 by President and owner Jack Stargel as a typewriter company, Stargel Office Solutions is now celebrating its 30th year in business as a complete office technology partner, servicing the Houston metro area with annual revenue around $21 million. Stargel Office Solutions’ primary hardware vendor is Toshiba, Lexmark and HP, and they partner with Collabrance and Continuum for their Managed Network Services. As a self-described “traditional” company, Stargel offers flexibility and attention to detail the way only an independent dealership can. They are a recipient of Toshiba’s coveted Dealer of the Year Award, are recognized by GreatAmerica as a Prestige Dealer and were one of ENX Magazine’s 2015 and 2016 Elite Dealers. Houston is known for its oil and gas industry, and with falling oil and gas prices and subsequent buying freezes, it hasn’t been easy staying even-keeled. But Stargel has focused on working closely with their customers as consultants, putting their needs first, and taking care of their own employees. With an average tenure of 9.5 years for sales reps, 10 years for over 40 technicians and almost 16 years for their manager base, they put honesty, integrity and passion first, whether serving their customers or their own people. We spoke further with T.J. DeBello, VP of Sales and Marketing, about T.J. DeBello, VP of Sales and core values, how to keep Marketing, 30
•
www.enxmag.com | March 2017
good employees and staying on course in uncertain times. How is business this year? Where do you see your greatest opportunities for growth? DeBELLO: The greatest opportunities are definitely on the MNS and MPS side. We’re hoping for the oil prices to go up in 2017 and hiring on that side of the house. We’re hoping for 15-20 percent growth [in MNS], and in MPS, because we have a solid base there already. We’re hoping 10 percent on that side, conservatively. On the MNS side we’re billing about $800K a year in recurring revenue now for two years, and we’re thinking we can get that over $1 million, $1.2 million this year. On the MPS side we bill about $2.8 million so incrementally that’s a little tougher to grow as fast. Our goal is to grow that to $3.1 million. How is the Managed Services segment of your business? Is it going the way you hoped? DeBELLO: Yes. Last year we were looking to grow MPS faster, and it grew 8 percent, but the MNS side grew 30-40 percent, because we hadn’t been around that long and made a significant jump. We added 26 clients, so we really geared up at the end of 2015 and made a big push. A lot of reps helped to buy in, generating leads, and we had a dedicated MNS rep, finally. Once we got ramped up we were probably selling two to three deals a month the last six or seven months. What was your dealership’s most significant accomplishment last year?
Jack Stargel, President and owner
DeBELLO: Surviving all the companies going out of business! [laugh]. Our biggest accomplishment was to stay even and improve profits by being creative. We tried to help organizations that were in buying freezes or trying to consolidate. We tried our best to be a consultant. A lot of these oil and gas companies affect the churches in the surrounding area that don’t get as many donations. One of the largest churches in the U.S. is one of our customers and they even put a buying freeze on because of the economy. We didn’t lose any sales reps—we added sales reps—and we increased our profit margins over 2015 even though our revenue was flat overall. Just being able to regroup, help our customers out, and make sure we were set up to grow in 2017 was our mission and we accomplished that. What was one of your biggest wins in 2016? DeBELLO: We had a couple. We had a sports team that we landed, that was $700K in revenue, and then we had a clinic that split off from another company. That was a $620K deal, and included $125K worth of digital continued on page 32
We Saw It In ENX Magazine