As I noted earlier this month when I first started sharing these big wins from our 2014 Elite Dealers, office technology dealers as a whole thrive on big wins. This year’s group of Elite Dealers is no exception. One of the questions we asked on the nomination form was what was your biggest win of the past 12 months? Here’s how the final 15 of our 62 Elite Dealers responded.
“Flo-Tech continues to win large national accounts when directly competing with OEMs. One that stands out was one of the top accounting firms in the country, with more than 70 locations. Flo-Tech presented a comprehensive solution which included software, hardware, supplies and support which alleviated all of the firm’s pain points. With Flo-Tech’s attention to detail, world class employees, and award winning service program, it was truly a no-brainer for the customer to choose Flo-Tech.” Flo-Tech, Middletown, CT
“We signed a large ecommerce company for all their copiers and printers. The total contract is worth $276K. We worked very, very hard to close this account.” Upstream Office Solutions, Tampa, FL
“Copy Concepts, Inc. was awarded the contract for the Sarasota County Library System’s public-use machines. Our director of sales partnered with GE Capital and Toshiba to work through the intricacies of this complicated RFP and contract, to everyone, including the customer’s, final satisfaction.” Copy Concepts, Inc., Fort Myers, FL
“A 1,300-unit MPS deal for our local school board.” Atlantic Business Systems, Melbourne, FL
“Our biggest win this year was a large machine deal that included document management for an $800 million manufacturing company.” Integrated Office Technology (IOTEC), Santa Fe Springs, CA
We have many multiple machine deals, but the one that comes to mind is a pharmaceutical company. We did not place many machines up front, but the potential for future business is huge. This company called us because they were upset with both of their vendors and wanted to consolidate to one vendor and one brand of equipment. Most of their equipment was owned and it was understood from the beginning that a ‘rip and replace’ strategy was not what they were looking for. The first machine we placed was a light production system. After we placed the first machine the client has called us several times over the last year either to write a service agreement on different systems he wanted to move over or for new equipment. We now have about 35 percent of his overall fleet under contract and there are plans for several other sales and several service opportunities in the near future. To date we have done about $80K in equipment revenue with them and another $10K in service revenue this year. After about four months of partnering with them we have been told we are their partner of choice and all business will come through us from now on.” Vision Office Systems, Charlotte, NC
“We captured the business of a large North Carolina school system and renewed our contract with a state-wide government entity.” Copiers Plus, Fayetteville, NC
“Our dealership’s biggest win this year happened to also be the biggest single takedown in our company’s history. This deal is a true testament of Impact’s proof of concept. We offered a unique suite of services with the help of specialists from our managed print, production print, and strategic services teams to address each of the client’s goals, which included being able to track how much they were printing and the associated costs, be greener, manage all their costs across the board, streamline Managed Print so they didn’t have to order things manually, and provide a document management solution to reduce hardcopy documents.
“The deal will be completed fully in three phases. The first phase, which has already been implemented, included the sale and service of 32 multifunction and three production devices, as well as a maintenance agreement that covers our new devices and their existing 30 devices. We also implemented managed print services to automate the dispatch of service and supplies. The next phases will evaluate the cost of bringing outsourced marketing materials in-house and printing on-demand with high-volume production print machines, and also look into the implementation of Document Management software. The deal we put together for them totaled $760,000, with the potential for more with Phase 2 and 3.” Impact Networking, LLC, Waukegan, IL
“In August 2014, CFBT became the new official office technology partner of the Buffalo Sabres. This meant our products were in the First Niagara Center arena, neighboring offices, as well as in the Buffalo Sabres farm team, the Rochester Americans. This deal led to a large purchase order, combined with great exposure for our company. Our sales team and marketing materials can utilize this partnership to show the strength of our company, and integration to the Buffalo community.” Copier Fax Business Technologies, Buffalo, NY
“Two OutcomeOne Managed Print deals, each totaling over 100 pieces of equipment.” South Coast Copy Systems, Solana Beach, CA
“Our big win is a healthcare company with 15 locations and more than 300 PCs that we are now supporting on a daily basis. We provide them with Help Desk support as well as onsite help for all of their locations and personnel.” Quality Business Solutions, Baltimore, MD
“A $360K sale to one of the fastest growing companies in the nation.” On Demand, Houston, TX
“We have had six net new accounts this year. The combined delivered machines for Dayton Children’s Hospital and Wilson Memorial Hospital was more than 150 MFDs as well as solutions. Green County, Middletown Schools, Troy City Schools, and Burrows Paper added to our list.” Woodhull USA, Springboro, OH
“Our biggest win this year is a client that has been with us for about 15 years, and we have weathered multiple attempts over the years by other vendors to unseat us. However in the most recent upgrade opportunity with them for two production print systems, we faced a battle that was much more competitive than previous upgrades. Not only were we facing the normal local competitors, but we had two much larger Konica Minolta dealers and the local direct Konica Minolta branch trying to unseat us. So now we found ourselves facing two major challenges. The first was the obvious and age-old attempt to ‘buy’ the business by way of very aggressive pricing from the bigger dealers and the direct Konica Minolta branch, versus us, a smaller dealer. We don’t know if it is a sign of the times or the competition just wanted such a high-profile client, but the battle to unseat us had become much more intense. The client shared with us that we were facing a barrage of negative comments on why we were not the best suited to take care of them. The theme of these comments being, ‘bigger is better.’
“In the end we came out on top as we have before, and our client summed everything up by saying that all the claims that we were not the best choice to support them were proven wrong by our track record. The main point of the ‘bigger is better’ barrage was that they have more technicians, which is true. However, if we do some simple math, yes the competition has a larger MIF, and yes they have many more techs. But if you divide MIF by the number of techs, we come out on top. This is because, simply put, our techs are not spread out as ‘thin’ as others.” Martin Group, Geneva, WI
“Winning a customer away from a competitor that they had a long-standing relationship with, leading to placements of 60 machines in 10+ locations.” Ohio Business Machines, Cleveland, OH
