{"id":65079,"date":"2025-05-30T15:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T22:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=65079"},"modified":"2025-05-31T00:24:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T07:24:15","slug":"targeted-marketing-wealth-of-resources-enable-perry-protech-to-propel-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/dealer-spotlight\/2025\/05\/targeted-marketing-wealth-of-resources-enable-perry-protech-to-propel-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Targeted Marketing, Wealth of Resources Enable PERRY proTECH to Propel Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An oft-cited statistic from office technology marketing suggests that prospects today are at least 60% of the way into the buyer\u2019s journey when they engage dealers. The actual number isn\u2019t as important as the prime takeaway, which is that buyers have already done a great deal of homework. They don\u2019t require hand-holding as much as assurance that your company is capable of delivering on value and promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
President and CEO Patrick Summers delivers the keynote address at the Lima\/Allen County Chamber of Commerce’s 22nd awards gala honoring business and local leaders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is why PERRY proTECH continuously seeks to bolster its brand awareness. The Lima, Ohio-based dealer, with six satellite locations throughout the Buckeye State and Indiana, already boasts a high profile within the industry, backed by 300 team members. But companies that celebrate their 60th anniversary, as is the case with PERRY proTECH, can\u2019t survive that long by employing outdated marketing strategies and\/or misreading the needs of their customer base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, President and CEO Patrick Summers knows leveraging his dealer\u2019s resources is one critical step in corralling prospects deep in their buyer\u2019s journey. \u201cYou need to have the right resources\u2014the pre-sales people, sales, analysts and production service engineers\u2014with the right kind of marketing wrapped around it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A managed service provider, PERRY proTECH is a multi-line dealer offering Ricoh, Lexmark, Konica Minolta and Kyocera boxes as well as Duplo (finishing) and Mimaki (wide-format) equipment. Its market reach includes much of Ohio, eastern Indiana and southern Michigan, and while the dealer pulls in up-and-down-the-street business, its big three client verticals are education, health care and business services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strong Growth in Production and IT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managed IT and production print are the twin fortes of PERRY proTECH. The latter provided a company-best 17% year-over-year increase, while the former continues to grow on the strength of security applications (more on both shortly). Both played significant roles in ensuring that 2024 wasn\u2019t a letdown year coming off a 2023 that saw a large number of backlog orders fulfilled. In order to accomplish this, the dealer had to \u201crecalibrate and make sure we got back to the roots of our business.\u201d Q1 of 2025 was equally successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The company has changed how it markets itself, moving from broad advertising to more targeted efforts. About two years ago, a newly hired in-house marketing professional began using tools such as HubSpot to run focused campaigns. These include direct mail, social media, email marketing, and events that highlight specific technologies such as IT or flatbed printing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re into laser direct marketing campaigns geared toward certain types of businesses who we know have the needs and wants for the technology we\u2019re trying to sell,\u201d Summers said. \u201cWe may have a two-month marketing campaign on social media, and by using tools such as HubSpot, we can host a technology show in one of our locations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These new, targeted events now draw 50 to 100 interested businesses at each location\u2014a noticeable increase\u2014and lead to quick sales since they\u2019ve been seeing the content for months. Summers says it\u2019s not just about showing products anymore; it\u2019s about demonstrating expertise and giving people a reason to trust them and the team. A prime example of this saw PERRY proTECH make four sales of highlighted technologies within a few days of the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople aren\u2019t attending just because they want to see what we\u2019re selling,\u201d he noted. \u201cThey\u2019re coming because we\u2019re going to be focusing on flatbed printing, IT or another particular technology. We\u2019re also seeing different show attendees; it\u2019s not just buyers and procurement people. We want brand awareness in our marketplaces. Buyers today are doing more research than ever, and we need to be readily providing them with relevant information. The goal was to create an outbound strategy that creates inbound leads.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also sought to expand the bandwidth of sales\u2014it\u2019s about ensuring our talent is focused on the right opportunities,\u201d he added. \u201cWhen we can get them to come to us\/engage us, it\u2019s better for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
PERRY proTECH team members celebrate the “reopening” of the company’s Toledo office following the branch’s office remodel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Production equipment has been a consistent growth vehicle for PERRY proTECH. Summers notes it\u2019s an area the dealership tracks on a monthly, weekly and daily basis. Again here, he feels it\u2019s a matter of having the right resources\u2014presales, sales, production analysts and production engineers, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe measure production monthly; whether it\u2019s revenue, clicks or units placed, we manage it and make it visible,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really about the people. It\u2019s ingrained throughout our entire footprint, something we emphasize every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vertical Targeting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While print-for-pay has long been the vertical hunting ground, Summers sees PERRY proTECH\u2019s prime targets as manufacturing, industrial print and in-plants. One common denominator is companies seeking to automate their processes. Another entails companies that previously outsourced their printing needs and now want to bring the jobs in-house\u2014ultimately providing a higher ROI and reducing the added turnaround time that generally accompanies outsourced work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
PERRY proTECH’s accounting department<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here, too, marketing has played a role in facilitating production sales. \u201cOur marketing department is really changing where we\u2019re finding some of these opportunities,\u201d Summers added. \u201cMarketing inside of companies is really a one-to-one strategy, and our production is being sold to a lot of clients so they can do one-to-one marketing with their prospects. We still sell production product\u2014whether it\u2019s education, health care or even commercial print\u2014but we\u2019re seeing more and more regular-old companies becoming more sophisticated inside their marketing departments or inside their print shops. I believe marketing inside companies is driving some of this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managed IT is another cornerstone offering for PERRY proTECH. Its managed network services feature server and network monitoring, firewall protection and Microsoft 365 management. Cybersecurity is another major part of the dealer\u2019s offering, from multi-factor identification to endpoint protection, data backup and mobile threat defense. Security awareness training, vulnerability scanning and cybersecurity consultation make for a well-rounded platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe specialize in anything related to a network, whether it\u2019s cybersecurity, the technologies that wrap around it, or the tools or software that help people protect their information,\u201d Summers related \u201cWe have agreements with clients where we\u2019re their IT business; it\u2019s 100% outsourced to us. With other clients, we work directly with their IT staff. We can serve them at whatever level they require.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

AI\u2019s Future Role<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summers believes PERRY proTECH is just scratching the surface when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) and expects it to become more important in meeting rising customer expectations. The company is starting to use AI in customer service, sales and marketing, and current applications include scripting, proposals, correspondence and messaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re at the tip of the iceberg with AI,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re on step one of 100. I think a lot of dealers are searching for the right platform that would allow them to do more with less. Today\u2019s world is moving awfully fast, and customers have high expectations. Being in the business that we\u2019re in, we have to be able to exceed these expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kayla Metzger, events and marketing manager, is flanked by Lexmark’s Doug Dixon (left) and PERRY proTECH’s Jeff Carmichael, the latter of whom serves as the dealer’s Translation Assistant specialist, a tool created by the OEM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s been a few years since PERRY proTECH completed an acquisition, Summers is always on the lookout for sellers that could represent a strategic fit for the company. He believes the next 24 months will be most telling, given the volume of change that\u2019s taking place in the manufacturer community and with potentially more on the horizon. Maintaining viability moving forward, for OEMs and dealers, will test resourcefulness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Enjoying the pristine sands of Cabo San Lucas are Don Pierce, vice president of sales; John Rees, Toledo general sales manager), Pat Summers, President and CEO; and Becky Taylor, vice president and CFO. Rees is shown with his sales manager of the year award during the company\u2019s 2024 president\u2019s club excursion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou need to have the right resources, whether it\u2019s financial or people, to remain in business,\u201d Summers added. \u201cWe\u2019ll continue to look for opportunities to acquire businesses, and geographically, we\u2019re really not even concerned much about where they\u2019re located. But it needs to be a good fit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any additions would need to be complementary to growth, and the best candidates should offer a combination of MFP and managed IT or specialize in one or the other. The companies he won\u2019t consider deviate sharply from PERRY proTECH\u2019s product and service catalog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company invests heavily in employee training and customer service in part because Summers believes the key to growth is delivering great service and hiring talented people. As an employee-owned company, everyone at PERRY proTECH benefits when the company succeeds. That ownership helps drive commitment, low turnover and strong culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a dealer that works under an employee stock ownership plan (see sidebar), driving stock value will continue to be a main priority. Fulfilling the tenets of the annual business plan, from growth to continued training in 2025, will go a long way toward checking off the desired boxes. There are certain performance aspects of PERRY proTECH\u2019s business that are measured \u201cmaniacally,\u201d and Summers is relentless in making sure these metrics tell the real story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The dealer’s central Ohio team celebrates being capturing a Columbus Business First “Best Places to Work” award in 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything we do is about growing through service, products and people,\u201d he noted. \u201cAnd the only way to grow your company is through great service to your customers. Every conversation we have and every time we have a meeting, the focus is on how we continue to deliver the highest level of support for our customers and how we continue to grow through products, services and people development. Nothing is more important than the benefits we offer to our customers and the advantages we provide that enable them to grow their companies and reach their goals. If we help our customers succeed, we\u2019ll grow too.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PERRY proTECH Employees Take Ownership in their Company\u2014Literally
<\/strong>
If one were to ask the employees of PERRY proTECH\u2014all 300 of them\u2014what the greatest benefits are in working under an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), company CEO Patrick Summers cautions there could be as many as 300 different responses. As for the top executive, Summers sees it as an \u201cunbelievable cultural flag to rally around,\u201d and there\u2019s little doubt that it\u2019s a common thread among all the team members.

One could easily assess that having your financial fortunes tied into that of the company is a motivating factor. And the opportunity to build a tidy nest egg for retirement is compelling. Certainly, one doesn\u2019t have to work under an ESOP to achieve both. However, that feeling of having a shared stake\u2014in tandem with Summers\u2019 cultural flag\u2014has undoubtedly provided the foundation for its success.

Considering the extremely low rate of turnover at PERRY proTECH, the program, implemented in the mid-1980s (before becoming 100% ESOP a decade later), certainly resonates throughout the organization. \u201cPeople stick around because they know the power the ESOP will have in the future for them individually,\u201d Summers pointed out.

There\u2019s a sizable core of team members who\u2019ve logged 20, 30 and even 40 years with the firm. This validates Summers\u2019 belief that the ESOP is woven into the fabric of the culture.

\u201cIt\u2019s just a very powerful thing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An oft-cited statistic from office technology marketing suggests that prospects today are at least 60% of the way into the buyer\u2019s journey when they engage dealers. The actual number isn\u2019t as important as the prime takeaway, which is that buyers have already done a great deal of homework. They don\u2019t require hand-holding as much as assurance that your company is capable of delivering on value and promises. This is why PERRY proTECH continuously seeks to bolster its brand awareness. The Lima, Ohio-based dealer, with six satellite locations throughout the Buckeye State and Indiana, already boasts a high profile within the industry, backed by 300 team members. But companies that celebrate their 60th anniversary, as is the case with PERRY proTECH, can\u2019t survive that long by employing outdated marketing strategies and\/or misreading the needs of their customer base. As such, President and CEO Patrick Summers knows leveraging his dealer\u2019s resources is one critical step in corralling prospects deep in their buyer\u2019s journey. \u201cYou need to have the right resources\u2014the pre-sales people, sales, analysts and production service engineers\u2014with the right kind of marketing wrapped around it,\u201d he said. A managed service provider, PERRY proTECH is a multi-line dealer offering Ricoh, Lexmark, Konica Minolta and Kyocera boxes as well as Duplo (finishing) and Mimaki (wide-format) equipment. Its market reach includes much of Ohio, eastern Indiana and southern Michigan, and while the dealer pulls in up-and-down-the-street business, its big three client verticals are education, health care and business services. Strong Growth in Production and IT Managed IT and production print are the twin fortes of PERRY proTECH. The latter provided a company-best 17% year-over-year increase, while the former continues to grow on the strength of security applications (more on both shortly). Both played significant roles in ensuring that 2024 wasn\u2019t a letdown year coming off a 2023 that saw a large number of backlog orders fulfilled. In order to accomplish this, the dealer had to \u201crecalibrate and make sure we got back to the roots of our business.\u201d Q1 of 2025 was equally successful. The company has changed how it markets itself, moving from broad advertising to more targeted efforts. About two years ago, a newly hired in-house marketing professional began using tools such as HubSpot to run focused campaigns. These include direct mail, social media, email marketing, and events that highlight specific technologies such as IT or flatbed printing. \u201cWe\u2019re into laser direct marketing campaigns geared toward certain types of businesses who we know have the needs and wants for the technology we\u2019re trying to sell,\u201d Summers said. \u201cWe may have a two-month marketing campaign on social media, and by using tools such as HubSpot, we can host a technology show in one of our locations.\u201d These new, targeted events now draw 50 to 100 interested businesses at each location\u2014a noticeable increase\u2014and lead to quick sales since they\u2019ve been seeing the content for months. Summers says it\u2019s not just about showing products anymore; it\u2019s about demonstrating expertise and giving people a reason to trust them and the team. A prime example of this saw PERRY proTECH make four sales of highlighted technologies within a few days of the event. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t attending just because they want to see what we\u2019re selling,\u201d he noted. \u201cThey\u2019re coming because we\u2019re going to be focusing on flatbed printing, IT or another particular technology. We\u2019re also seeing different show attendees; it\u2019s not just buyers and procurement people. We want brand awareness in our marketplaces. Buyers today are doing more research than ever, and we need to be readily providing them with relevant information. The goal was to create an outbound strategy that creates inbound leads.\u201d \u201cWe also sought to expand the bandwidth of sales\u2014it\u2019s about ensuring our talent is focused on the right opportunities,\u201d he added. \u201cWhen we can get them to come to us\/engage us, it\u2019s better for everyone.\u201d Production equipment has been a consistent growth vehicle for PERRY proTECH. Summers notes it\u2019s an area the dealership tracks on a monthly, weekly and daily basis. Again here, he feels it\u2019s a matter of having the right resources\u2014presales, sales, production analysts and production engineers, among others. \u201cWe measure production monthly; whether it\u2019s revenue, clicks or units placed, we manage it and make it visible,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really about the people. It\u2019s ingrained throughout our entire footprint, something we emphasize every day.\u201d Vertical Targeting While print-for-pay has long been the vertical hunting ground, Summers sees PERRY proTECH\u2019s prime targets as manufacturing, industrial print and in-plants. One common denominator is companies seeking to automate their processes. Another entails companies that previously outsourced their printing needs and now want to bring the jobs in-house\u2014ultimately providing a higher ROI and reducing the added turnaround time that generally accompanies outsourced work. Here, too, marketing has played a role in facilitating production sales. \u201cOur marketing department is really changing where we\u2019re finding some of these opportunities,\u201d Summers added. \u201cMarketing inside of companies is really a one-to-one strategy, and our production is being sold to a lot of clients so they can do one-to-one marketing with their prospects. We still sell production product\u2014whether it\u2019s education, health care or even commercial print\u2014but we\u2019re seeing more and more regular-old companies becoming more sophisticated inside their marketing departments or inside their print shops. I believe marketing inside companies is driving some of this.\u201d Managed IT is another cornerstone offering for PERRY proTECH. Its managed network services feature server and network monitoring, firewall protection and Microsoft 365 management. Cybersecurity is another major part of the dealer\u2019s offering, from multi-factor identification to endpoint protection, data backup and mobile threat defense. Security awareness training, vulnerability scanning and cybersecurity consultation make for a well-rounded platform. \u201cWe specialize in anything related to a network, whether it\u2019s cybersecurity, the technologies that wrap around it, or the tools or software that help people protect their information,\u201d Summers related \u201cWe have agreements with clients where we\u2019re their IT business; it\u2019s 100% outsourced to us. With other clients, we work directly with their IT staff. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1643],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65079"}],"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\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65079"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65134,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65079\/revisions\/65134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}