Chad Alban, sales manager at Stratix Systems.
Name: Chad Alban
Title: Sales Manager
Company: Stratix Systems, Wyomissing, PA
Years in industry: 17.5
New business revenue: $155,500
Gross revenue: $885,724
Units placed: 106
What they’re saying about Chad: “Chad is also the sales manager for the Wyomissing office in PA. Not only did he have a great year, he also had three of his reps garner Presidents Club,” reports Tim Cunningham, VP of sales.
After logging 15 years with another Pennsylvania-based dealership, Chad Alban took a chance and accepted a position with Stratix Systems where he’s been loving life for the past 2½ years. “I made the transition because of the opportunity and the direction where industry is heading and because of how Stratix is diversifying and offering other products and services beyond the traditional.”
Alban has been selling ever since graduating college with a degree in business management. “I had no idea what I wanted to do when I graduated and then found out about an opportunity selling copiers and gave it a shot,” he says.
Turns out that Alban was right on target with his career choice although he wouldn’t be here today if he hadn’t taken the initiative to learn all he could about the industry and what it takes to be successful. “Coming out of college you don’t know what to expect in the business world,” he notes. “What was surprising is the prospecting aspect, the entrepreneurship you need along with the passion to go out and get it done for yourself. If you don’t have the proper resources, you only have yourself to blame and some people don’t understand that.”
Alban understood that from the start. “I was green, but I was tenacious from the get go and wasn’t going to give up.”
It took Alban a good solid year before he felt comfortable selling office technology. But he stuck with it. “I saw other people being successful doing this and I said, why can’t I?”
He remembers his first sale, a Victor calculator that he sold to a garage, which turned out to be a horrendous experience because they wanted to give it back after three weeks.
His biggest sale to date was 150 devices to the Bon-Ton Stores. “That was rewarding because of the implementation,” he explains. “They struggled with all their store locations and whenever they migrated to a new vendor they had challenges. That was something I honed in on, making that transition seamless for them. It ended up not being the cheapest [option for them], but I got the sale.”
He emphasizes the importance of learning as much as one can about the industry, about the companies he’s selling to, and of course the products he sells.
The constant evolution taking place throughout the industry is what appeals to him. “The technology aspect can be a differentiator for you and those who educate themselves and pursue that personal development, because there is so much to learn, are the ones who succeed.”
Alban is an example of someone who has succeeded. He remembers when he started in 1996 selling the Konica Minolta KM7050. “It was the latest and greatest networked copier even though it didn’t work in most cases,” he laughs.
Since then he’s seen digital technology evolve and improve, and the networking aspect become somewhat routine since those early days when it was a hit or miss proposition.
Now that he’s sales manager he gets to experience a whole new set of challenges. “From a management perspective, it’s recruiting and finding the right people,” he laments. “Unfortunately, that’s always going to be a challenge. From a sales perspective, we’re still in a commodity driven market selling copiers and it even carries over to the IT side. The challenge is trying to find your key differentiators, especially when you’re going after new business. A lot of our current customers understand the service and support we provide from a value standpoint, but sometimes it’s hard to convey that message and get away from that commodity sale.”
Alban is philosophical about his career and why he’s survived in this industry for 17+ years, which is something he shares with his young reps. “The first year is a challenge. I tell reps when they come in here if they do the things that are asked of them, improve their skills and knowledge of the industry and the products and stick with it and build that database and relationships, you can be successful. You need to be tenacious and put in the work.”
And that tenaciousness describes Alban to a T.
