{"id":5481,"date":"2013-07-16T09:26:25","date_gmt":"2013-07-16T13:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=5481"},"modified":"2013-07-16T09:31:41","modified_gmt":"2013-07-16T13:31:41","slug":"flower-power-turns-glens-falls-dealership-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2013\/07\/flower-power-turns-glens-falls-dealership-green\/","title":{"rendered":"Flower Power Turns Glens Falls Dealership Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hippie<\/a>All it took was a little flower power for Tim Seeley of Seeley Office Systems in Glens Falls, New York, to see the green light.<\/p>\n

After\u00a0Tim became involved with a girl with a hippie sensibility his realized the family owned dealership could take that ‘green’ message to market and truly make a difference while gaining customers at the same time.<\/p>\n

Based on what he\u2019s seen across the industry, many dealers do a nice job of talking ‘green’ and offer toner recycling, but few are truly ‘green’ themselves. That\u2019s why the Seeley approach is different. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like don\u2019t talk about, be about it,\u201d says Tim.<\/p>\n

Another obstacle to making a ‘green’ pitch when it comes to toner recycling is that there\u2019s still some uncertainty when it comes to determining if those collecting the cartridges are legitimately recycling people\u2019s toners. \u201cA lot of these private companies can do whatever they want, the customer doesn\u2019t actually know,\u201d contends Tim.<\/p>\n

He admits recycling toner cartridges is a lot of work, especially now that Seeley has added five large accounts. \u201cEvery week we have about 100 toners out back that we have to box and ship out,\u201d reports Tim.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s not a unique approach by any stretch, he recommends that dealers looking to leverage ‘green’ in their customer base, do it internally first. \u201cBe as ‘green’ as you can be,\u201d he suggests. \u201cThere\u2019s some real nice karma that comes out of that and all of a sudden you\u2019re living that and your message to the customer is focused on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Seeley made it happen internally, they could better talk the talk because they were now walking the walk.<\/p>\n

The goal for Seeley is to use local vendors as their first choice for recycling the toner cartridges whenever possible. Focusing on \u2018green\u2019 has opened the door to Seeley whereas if they were knocking on the door and trying to sell hardware they\u2019d have been met with more resistance.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also discovered that they don\u2019t necessarily need to start by talking to purchasing or a CFO, there\u2019s other contacts within some organizations that are often more receptive to this \u2018green\u2019 message. Indeed, although it may have been an uphill battle selling their managed print program with the toner recycling via the traditional route, presenting it to an organization\u2019s \u2018green\u2019 team or a member of the \u2018green\u2019 team has been much more beneficial.<\/p>\n

\u201cPurchasing would say, \u2018Yeah we could do it and save money,\u2019 and then IT would say, \u2018It\u2019s not worth it, [recycling\/MPS programs] don\u2019t work,\u2019\u201d recalls Tim. \u201cWhen you\u2019re coming at it with the \u2018green\u2019 team and they usually have senior VPs on it, they\u2019re dying to find projects where they can poke themselves and say, \u2018Look we\u2019re green.\u2019 Now you\u2019re coming at it from a completely different angle.\u201d<\/p>\n

This approach is expanding Seeley\u2019s contact list within these organizations, many of whom are not in positions that one would think of as a traditional contact for an office technology dealer. For example, at one client he deals with the senior director of support services.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s basically in charge of all the food; how does he have anything to do with decisions on toners?\u201d asks Tim. \u201cWell, he\u2019s the head of the \u2018green\u2019 team. They can be the most obscure position, but because they\u2019re on this committee and they\u2019ve been given the power to do things that are \u2018green\u2019, it changes the way we go about forming relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeley\u2019s \u2018green\u2019 message continues to focus on the toner cartridges and how and how they enable organizations to do business locally and save money. \u201cThere\u2019s not too many products out there that legitimately save money,\u201d opines Tim.<\/p>\n

Seeley has saved one client $30,000 a year via their toner recycling program.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother fascinating thing about green is that the larger companies are not incentivized to go \u2018green\u2019 at all. Even though they say they are, they\u2019re not,\u201d adds Tim. \u201cIf you\u2019re with Staples, WB Mason, or OfficeMax, any of these big giants, they have so many arrangements with HP and Brother that they\u2019re not incentivized to sell green.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds that everyone is chasing these savings but that\u2019s not necessarily true with these larger competitors in the toner space. \u201cThey\u2019re telling people \u2018Don\u2019t mess with that stuff, it doesn\u2019t work,\u2019 but they\u2019re getting big kickbacks from these OEM suppliers. There\u2019s just so much opportunity for a local supplier and it makes sense. A lot of the companies we\u2019ve picked up, they\u2019re current supplier, not only were they not featuring it, the manufacturer prices were outrageously high because they\u2019re not trying to sell it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Seeley Office Systems approach is allowing them to maintain a healthy profit margin while being green. Tim feels that this is an approach more dealers should consider.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreen is awesome. We\u2019re all looking for these new revenue opportunities and it just kind of shows you when you\u2019re focused on doing the right thing for yourself and the environment these opportunities arise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All it took was a little flower power for Tim Seeley of Seeley Office Systems in Glens Falls, New York, to see the green light. After\u00a0Tim became involved with a girl with a hippie sensibility his realized the family owned dealership could take that ‘green’ message to market and truly make a difference while gaining customers at the same time. Based on what he\u2019s seen across the industry, many dealers do a nice job of talking ‘green’ and offer toner recycling, but few are truly ‘green’ themselves. That\u2019s why the Seeley approach is different. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like don\u2019t talk about, be about it,\u201d says Tim. Another obstacle to making a ‘green’ pitch when it comes to toner recycling is that there\u2019s still some uncertainty when it comes to determining if those collecting the cartridges are legitimately recycling people\u2019s toners. \u201cA lot of these private companies can do whatever they want, the customer doesn\u2019t actually know,\u201d contends Tim. He admits recycling toner cartridges is a lot of work, especially now that Seeley has added five large accounts. \u201cEvery week we have about 100 toners out back that we have to box and ship out,\u201d reports Tim. Although it\u2019s not a unique approach by any stretch, he recommends that dealers looking to leverage ‘green’ in their customer base, do it internally first. \u201cBe as ‘green’ as you can be,\u201d he suggests. \u201cThere\u2019s some real nice karma that comes out of that and all of a sudden you\u2019re living that and your message to the customer is focused on it.\u201d Once Seeley made it happen internally, they could better talk the talk because they were now walking the walk. The goal for Seeley is to use local vendors as their first choice for recycling the toner cartridges whenever possible. Focusing on \u2018green\u2019 has opened the door to Seeley whereas if they were knocking on the door and trying to sell hardware they\u2019d have been met with more resistance. They\u2019ve also discovered that they don\u2019t necessarily need to start by talking to purchasing or a CFO, there\u2019s other contacts within some organizations that are often more receptive to this \u2018green\u2019 message. Indeed, although it may have been an uphill battle selling their managed print program with the toner recycling via the traditional route, presenting it to an organization\u2019s \u2018green\u2019 team or a member of the \u2018green\u2019 team has been much more beneficial. \u201cPurchasing would say, \u2018Yeah we could do it and save money,\u2019 and then IT would say, \u2018It\u2019s not worth it, [recycling\/MPS programs] don\u2019t work,\u2019\u201d recalls Tim. \u201cWhen you\u2019re coming at it with the \u2018green\u2019 team and they usually have senior VPs on it, they\u2019re dying to find projects where they can poke themselves and say, \u2018Look we\u2019re green.\u2019 Now you\u2019re coming at it from a completely different angle.\u201d This approach is expanding Seeley\u2019s contact list within these organizations, many of whom are not in positions that one would think of as a traditional contact for an office technology dealer. For example, at one client he deals with the senior director of support services. \u201cHe\u2019s basically in charge of all the food; how does he have anything to do with decisions on toners?\u201d asks Tim. \u201cWell, he\u2019s the head of the \u2018green\u2019 team. They can be the most obscure position, but because they\u2019re on this committee and they\u2019ve been given the power to do things that are \u2018green\u2019, it changes the way we go about forming relationships.\u201d Seeley\u2019s \u2018green\u2019 message continues to focus on the toner cartridges and how and how they enable organizations to do business locally and save money. \u201cThere\u2019s not too many products out there that legitimately save money,\u201d opines Tim. Seeley has saved one client $30,000 a year via their toner recycling program. \u201cAnother fascinating thing about green is that the larger companies are not incentivized to go \u2018green\u2019 at all. Even though they say they are, they\u2019re not,\u201d adds Tim. \u201cIf you\u2019re with Staples, WB Mason, or OfficeMax, any of these big giants, they have so many arrangements with HP and Brother that they\u2019re not incentivized to sell green.\u201d He adds that everyone is chasing these savings but that\u2019s not necessarily true with these larger competitors in the toner space. \u201cThey\u2019re telling people \u2018Don\u2019t mess with that stuff, it doesn\u2019t work,\u2019 but they\u2019re getting big kickbacks from these OEM suppliers. There\u2019s just so much opportunity for a local supplier and it makes sense. A lot of the companies we\u2019ve picked up, they\u2019re current supplier, not only were they not featuring it, the manufacturer prices were outrageously high because they\u2019re not trying to sell it.\u201d The Seeley Office Systems approach is allowing them to maintain a healthy profit margin while being green. Tim feels that this is an approach more dealers should consider. \u201cGreen is awesome. We\u2019re all looking for these new revenue opportunities and it just kind of shows you when you\u2019re focused on doing the right thing for yourself and the environment these opportunities arise.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[657,656],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5481"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5490,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions\/5490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}