The Week in Imaging’s 2011 Elite Dealer of the Year

Martin Group

www.martingroup.com

Lake Geneva, WI

Year Founded: 1980

No. of Employees: 30

Approximate Yearly Revenues: $5 million

Recent Performance: Grew 20 percent the last three years.

This Year’s Big Win: Winning back their biggest school district client, who is also one of the largest school districts in Wisconsin.

Primary Vendors/Product Lines: Konica Minolta, Muratec, HP, Objectif Lune, Nuance, Prism, EasyLink eFax service, Martin Yale/Intimus shredders

In an era where small dealerships are particularly vulnerable, Martin Group in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin continues to hold its own growing at a 20 percent clip the past three years while continuing to differentiate themselves from competitors by offering exceptional service. Clients—and Martin Group doesn’t believe in using the word ‘customers’ because that term implies a temporary transaction—value the company’s honesty, integrity, and professionalism. It must be working because it’s extremely difficult for a dealership of this size can survive even in a small market with well-heeled competition attacking them from every imaginable angle possible.

John Stensland, President of Martin Group

The service that Martin Group delivers is exemplified by their service department which sets a standard for excellence. Acknowledging that all dealers say they have great service, Martin Group lays out some compelling numbers to back that claim up:

• They continue to invest in training. One of their service technicians recently won his second Konica Minolta Gold Seal training award, scoring 100 percent on his exam.
• They’ve won the Konica Minolta Pro-Tech service certification award for the sixth consecutive year and every year they’ve participated in the program.
• Their service team’s first call effectiveness hit a record 64 percent in May and have held a steady monthly team average of around 60 percent for the last two years, consistently higher than their team goal of 50 percent and the industry average of 36 percent.
• Service techs average 18.6 years of experience in the industry.
•  Initial call response time continues to drop with a current average of 2.51 hours down from 3.25 hours in 2010.

Clients can expect Martin Group to be committed to their Performance Promises, which documents exactly what they will do and won’t do to provide clients with the best service anywhere. These definable, quantifiable promises were unveiled in 2009 and continue to be the centerpiece of the organization’s dedication to service. Check it out at www.martingroup.com/support_center.

Another reason Martin Group stands out for us is their strategic relationship with OfficePro, an office supply company based in Janesville, Wisconsin. That’s unique in our view. The businesses remain separate companies but they’ve partnered to provide complete office services to clients, essentially one-stop shopping for area office administrators. In support of the alliance, Martin Group moved their Rock County office to OfficePro’s Janesville location so they could share a joint showroom floor. In addition to office technology, this alliance now allows Martin Group clients to purchase office supplies, new and used office furniture, and other products that a traditional office technology dealer doesn’t carry. They’ve even hired two hybrid sales reps who represent both companies in under-served territories.

What we also love about Martin Group is their Cheese Head Toner. This is a dealer that remanufactures their own printer toner. This was born out of a relationship between Martin Group’s president, John Stensland, and Jamin Arn, president of OfficePro. With Janesville having the highest unemployment rate in the state, Stensland and Arn decided to invest in Janesville by locating their manufacturing facility there and hiring local people. Today, Cheese Head Toner remanufactures laser printer cartridges for resale to dealers only. It also handles used cartridge returns from end users for remanufacturing or recycling.

Cheese Head Toner is a key component of Martin Group’s OneSource Managed Print Services programs. By remanufacturing their own toner cartridges, Martin Group is in complete control of the quality and not at the mercy of a third party’s processes. As a result they can keep costs to clients, including shipping low.

We are also impressed by Martin Group’s OneSource managed print services program. Clients can select the OneSource program that’s best for them from the following options:

• OneSource Silver – For smaller offices with only a few printers, Martin Group provides a quotation on laser printer cartridges. If the client buys from them, the program provides free repair, parts, and labor should any printers need service. There is no contract to sign and no analysis of usage. What clients receive is immediate savings on current toner costs and future repair costs.
• OneSource Gold – Martin Group analyzes a customer’s fleet of printers and, based on their volume, and types of printers, offers a cost-per-copy program that provides free repair, parts, supplies, and labor should any printer need service. Program terms run from one to five years.
• OneSource Platinum – This is the same program as Gold except Martin Group purchases the customer’s fleet of printers from them so that keeping the fleet current with technology and performance is Martin Group’s responsibility.

Martin Group is so confident in the OneSource program that they guarantee clients this will save them a minimum of 10 percent on their current printing costs.

It’s not all business at the dealership, they also do an admirable job of giving back to the community. In addition to a corporate commitment to local, grass roots organizations and schools, they’re also a major sponsor of their hometown community’s biggest fundraiser, The Venetian Festival. But that’s not all, they are huge supporters of the various Chambers of Commerce in the markets they serve, and employees are particularly generous with their contributions of time and resources through community service and volunteer work.

The bottom line is Martin Group is more than just an Elite Dealer in our view. With their commitment to ethical business practices, effective and efficient customer service, a commitment to community service, their long-term client relationships, and unique programs and forward-thinking marketing, this is a dealer who we also celebrate as The Week in Imaging’s Dealer of the Year.