When you’re a smaller office technology dealership at least in terms of revenues, you try harder. That’s the story of Jerry DiMartino, CEO of Quality Business Systems in Towson, MD. He founded his dealership in 2001 and has seen it grow to 35 employees. In addition to Kyocera and CopyStar products, Quality Business Systems sells printers, mailing equipment, and document management systems. They also provide multi-tiered data and telecom IT support services.
DiMartino shares with us how he got into the business, his strategies for growing his dealership, and how he competes against larger, more well-funded office technology dealerships and direct operations. Any doubts about whether or not the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in 2013, is easily dispelled after talking to DiMartino.
How did you get into the business?
DiMartino: I went into the copy industry right from college in 1984. I’ve worked for local dealers and national companies. I learned the business by progressing through stints as a down-the-street rep, major account rep, sales manager, and VP of sales. After 17 years of helping grow these local dealerships and national companies, my wife and I started our own business.
How’s business been this year?
DiMartino: We’re growing and expanding and hiring new employees. We’ve been growing at 20 percent a year. This year we already hired nine employees in all departments. I just signed a purchase contract for a 20,000-square foot building that we hope to move into by the first quarter 2014. We are heading in the right direction.
What’s the biggest difference between Quality Business Solutions today and the Quality Business Solutions of 2001?
DiMartino: The business today is more technology-driven in terms of running our business and better supporting our clients. We’re using software to help reduce service calls, collect meter readings and manage operational workflow.
What software do you use?
DiMartino: OMD, MWA, SharePoint, Soaring and DocStar to name a few.
Who are your customers?
DiMartino: We focus on local customers with 1-100 copiers, so it’s more “down-the-street” business. We’ve made a decision to not go after pubic school, university or municipal contracts. We have the means to bid on, win and maintain these contracts, and by doing so, we certainly can increase our revenue; but there’s a price for that. The down-the-street business gives us a niche where we can more clearly focus on clients’ needs and respond to service requests in one to three hours. By going after those bids, we would place that type of service in jeopardy. We do have major accounts for which we provide machines across the United States and Canada, but our reputation was built on local sales and service. Many of our local customers, especially those in health care, are expanding and asking us for machines for their new locations. We’d rather keep our service promise and reputation by staying with our local customers.
What was the inspiration for offering IT services and when did you first begin offering that?
DiMartino: We wanted to be able to take care of our client’s total office needs. Many times, customers would call us to report that changes were made on their PC or network and now they can’t scan or print. We would respond and find that it’s not a copier issue, but a PC or network issue. More often than not, we wouldn’t have the access to change the settings to bring them back to where they needed to be. That meant that either we or our customers would have to go back and forth with the IT providers, who generally are unfamiliar with our machines. We would also get many requests from our customers about whether we provided IT services. The logic behind their requests is that we provide great service with copiers, maybe we also do that with IT support.
After deciding to launch a new IT services business unit, we hired an experienced IT director to lead a team of IT professionals. We now provide all levels of data and telecom services including network infrastructure and desktop support, network administration, backup services, Internet presence consultation, telecom systems maintenance and much more. Our IT customers now have one company to call for their IT and office equipment needs and are extremely happy with the service both departments provide.
What’s the biggest challenge of offering IT services?
DiMartino: Many clients and prospects are wary of someone new touching their networks. Many have IT providers with which they are not happy, but they know their resources are known by the provider. Or some may have a friend or relative doing their IT work. In both cases, the challenge is to demonstrate the logic in switching.
Our IT director visits our customers with the salespeople. We’re well known for office equipment, but a lot of them didn’t know we provide IT support. During the customer meetings, we discuss our services, our personnel and their certifications and the many levels and types of support we provide. Through these meetings, our customers gain the confidence they need to make a mutually-beneficial decision.
Is that opening doors to new customers or is most of that business with existing customers?
DiMartino: Of course, as we achieve more IT business, we achieve more referrals. That’s one reason we also picked up postage machines. The copier industry is very competitive. When a copier rep shows up the prospect usually says, “We have a copier, we’re fine, we’re in a contract, goodbye,” but when you say you’d like to talk to them about their IT services, especially if they are unhappy with the current provider, you have a better chance of getting in the door.
You’re a smaller dealer, revenue wise, which means you have to work harder to compete with the bigger dealers out there, why do you think your customers choose you over them?
DiMartino: We provide flexibility with leasing and pricing, and each of our employees has made a commitment to be responsive and provide the customer with personal service. Our technicians regularly do courtesy calls. My experience has been that not many companies have time to do that. We offer more reliability, better customer service, more follow up, and quicker response time over the larger vendors.
Also, I’m involved on a daily basis with our clients. The buck stops with me. If an issue occurs, I make sure it gets resolved quickly. We keep 98 percent of our clients and I’m very proud of our retention rate. Very few leave; they may go out of business or move, or slow pay and I have to let them go. They rarely leave because of service or because they can save money elsewhere.
I understand that you visit larger dealerships to see how they’ve positioned their foundation for sales growth of their organization. That sounds unusual to me. Do they really open their doors to another dealer and share best practices?
DiMartino: My wife and I visit out-of-state dealers. These successful dealers are willing to share best practices with us because they don’t view us as competitors. They let us walk around, talk with their people, observe the operations and it provides us with ideas and examples. Many times, we also see things to avoid. The process helps us with envisioning where to go next.
What’s the best thing about running a copier dealership?
DiMartino: I’ve always enjoyed helping companies resolve their issues. We’ve helped our clients grow their businesses and it’s very rewarding. We help them streamline their operations, enhance their bottom line, increase workflow through scanning and tracking, and back up their data. It makes them more efficient in their office and it makes me feel good.
What do you do to relax?
DiMartino: I spend time with my kids and family, and I do a lot of yard work.
What gives you hope for the future of Quality Business Solutions?
DiMartino: I’ve been fortunate to have my son involved in the company. He’s our sales manager and has a passion for this business as well. My daughter just graduated college and hopefully she’ll come into the business too. My other son is starting college. The future of Quality is having our children help grow it and guide it.
