{"id":7021,"date":"2014-06-11T11:50:50","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T15:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=7021"},"modified":"2014-06-11T11:58:43","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T15:58:43","slug":"twiis-and-print4pay-hotels-top-sales-reps-of-2014-lee-pietrowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/feature-articles\/2014\/06\/twiis-and-print4pay-hotels-top-sales-reps-of-2014-lee-pietrowski\/","title":{"rendered":"TWII\u2019s and Print4Pay Hotel’s Top Sales Reps of 2014: Lee Pietrowski"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lee<\/a>

Lee Pietrowski has made a difference at Imagetec L.P. by selling 75-100 production units a year.<\/p><\/div>\n

Name: <\/strong>Lee Pietrowski<\/p>\n

Title:<\/strong> VP Sales, K-12<\/p>\n

Company:\u00a0<\/strong> Imagetec, L.P., McHenry, IL<\/p>\n

Years in industry:<\/strong> 30<\/p>\n

New business revenue: <\/strong>$342,460<\/p>\n

Gross revenue:<\/strong> $3,057,000<\/p>\n

Units placed:<\/strong> 170 copiers and 107 printers\/other = 277<\/p>\n

What they\u2019re saying about Lee:<\/strong> \u201cLee sells between 75 and 100 production print units a year and has since 2000,\u201d reports Rich Cucco, managing partner at Imagetec L.P. \u201cHe has been extremely successful because of his dedication to ensuring each client gets the return on investment that was outlined in his proposal. He has amazing long-term relationships with hundreds of school Superintendents throughout the Chicagoland area. Lee is a true professional and has a great work ethic, ethical sales focus and is an expert in high speed document management. I have been in the industry 35 years and have worked with and been associated with hundreds of sales professionals; Lee is the best and has sustained this level of success for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

After nearly three decades selling office technology, Lee Pietrowski, VP of sales for K-12 at Imagetec L.P. in McHenry, IL, still gets up every morning and sets off to do what he does so well. Why not, it\u2019s a business that\u2019s been good to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if the economy is good or bad, if you sell correctly and have a good work ethic, you\u2019ll always put food on your table,\u201d says Pietrowski. \u201cThis career has been very good for me. My family never went hungry. There are always opportunities and people are going to need copiers whether the economy is down or up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pietrowski has been smack dab in the middle of a number of transitions in this industry during his career, including the all-important analog to digital transition of the nineties, which he says wasn\u2019t always as smooth as everyone would have liked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it went from analog to digital and everything started connecting it was a gray area for the marketplace,\u201d recalls Pietrowski. \u201cThere were many challenges in schools and companies that had multiple printing platforms whereas the system integration was difficult. It was a learning process for the manufacturers and copier dealers to move into that and it was a hit or miss thing [initially], but they kept revamping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he found it an exciting time to be selling this new technology. \u201cIt was an exciting time when that transformation happened. You were able to have a talk track with clients as opposed to \u2018here\u2019s a copier, here\u2019s what mine does, mine has this, theirs has this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Although his focus is primarily on the K-12 market, Pietrowski also has a fair amount of corporate clients. That\u2019s been more by design opposed to accident. He belongs to several organizations that are focused on education and attends conferences where he networks with other people from other companies who sometimes become prospects, and then customers. \u201cYou start talking to people and they say \u2018I need to start talking to you\u2019 and that\u2019s helped me branch out into the private sector,\u201d reports Pietrowski.<\/p>\n

Prior to sales, he spent seven years managing the in-plant print shop for Hammond Organ Corp. That print shop background helped his career in copier sales. \u201cKnowing the quality, the jobs done, how they were produced, you could talk the language with printers, that\u2019s why I basically started getting involved in it,\u201d notes Pietrowski. \u201cThen I redirected myself into education. I had an educational client call me one time and when I found out what they do, how they operate, it took off from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, selling did not come naturally to Pietrowski when he first started and he was fired from his first copier sales job after 90 days. \u201cI had never been fired in my life and I\u2019d been working since I was a kid. I thought this was the most embarrassing thing in the world. I told the two owners of the company, \u2018I\u2019ve never been fired, give me 30 days, I\u2019ll work straight commission and I can guarantee you I\u2019ll get the job done.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In 30 days he had more sales then anyone in the history of the company in a one-month time period.<\/p>\n

The difference was taking a more direct approach to closing. \u201cOne of the problems with salespeople is sometimes they don\u2019t know how to close a deal or ask for it,\u201d opines Pietrowski. \u201cWhen your back is against the wall and you have pride, you\u2019re not afraid to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the origin of how he became a go getter. \u201cIt was just saying, \u2018here\u2019s a great deal for you let\u2019s close it up now.\u2019 It was as if a light bulb had clicked on. After I did the first two like that I got it and said this is the way it has to be done. Don\u2019t wait for the customer to act, don\u2019t take \u2018let me think about it,\u2019 it was just a straight \u2018let\u2019s get it done now and this way it\u2019s off your plate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though he\u2019s been in the industry a long time, Pietrowski continues to learn new things every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest mistake sales people make is they worry about the competition too much. If you stay focused on the message you\u2019re trying to relate to the client and you don\u2019t lie and squirm as most of us never do and be totally honest with the client up front it makes the job much easier because you\u2019re more focused on what your company does for you and what you\u2019re going to do for the client. People are not necessarily looking at what\u2019s right for the client or the right fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many of his peers in the industry, he relaxes by playing golf and is good enough to have played in a few Pro-Am tournaments. \u201cIt\u2019s a fun sport because you\u2019re really only playing against yourself and once you get on the golf course it\u2019s peaceful and you can think about a whole slew of things where you don\u2019t get aggravated,\u201d explains Pietrowski.<\/p>\n

When not playing golf or working he\u2019s into car racing. While we were talking he was preparing for a Memorial Day weekend trip to the Indy 500. Beyond that he contributes his time to the various schools and school associations he sells to. He\u2019s also enjoys mentoring young reps in the company and sharing his knowledge on sales, sales strategy, solutions strategy and effective relationship selling with the entire team.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s another reason that Imagetec\u2019s owner Rich Cucco says, \u201cLee is truly one of the best in our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Name: Lee Pietrowski Title: VP Sales, K-12 Company:\u00a0 Imagetec, L.P., McHenry, IL Years in industry: 30 New business revenue: $342,460 Gross revenue: $3,057,000 Units placed: 170 copiers and 107 printers\/other = 277 What they\u2019re saying about Lee: \u201cLee sells between 75 and 100 production print units a year and has since 2000,\u201d reports Rich Cucco, managing partner at Imagetec L.P. \u201cHe has been extremely successful because of his dedication to ensuring each client gets the return on investment that was outlined in his proposal. He has amazing long-term relationships with hundreds of school Superintendents throughout the Chicagoland area. Lee is a true professional and has a great work ethic, ethical sales focus and is an expert in high speed document management. I have been in the industry 35 years and have worked with and been associated with hundreds of sales professionals; Lee is the best and has sustained this level of success for decades.\u201d After nearly three decades selling office technology, Lee Pietrowski, VP of sales for K-12 at Imagetec L.P. in McHenry, IL, still gets up every morning and sets off to do what he does so well. Why not, it\u2019s a business that\u2019s been good to him. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if the economy is good or bad, if you sell correctly and have a good work ethic, you\u2019ll always put food on your table,\u201d says Pietrowski. \u201cThis career has been very good for me. My family never went hungry. There are always opportunities and people are going to need copiers whether the economy is down or up.\u201d Pietrowski has been smack dab in the middle of a number of transitions in this industry during his career, including the all-important analog to digital transition of the nineties, which he says wasn\u2019t always as smooth as everyone would have liked. \u201cWhen it went from analog to digital and everything started connecting it was a gray area for the marketplace,\u201d recalls Pietrowski. \u201cThere were many challenges in schools and companies that had multiple printing platforms whereas the system integration was difficult. It was a learning process for the manufacturers and copier dealers to move into that and it was a hit or miss thing [initially], but they kept revamping.\u201d Still, he found it an exciting time to be selling this new technology. \u201cIt was an exciting time when that transformation happened. You were able to have a talk track with clients as opposed to \u2018here\u2019s a copier, here\u2019s what mine does, mine has this, theirs has this.\u2019\u201d Although his focus is primarily on the K-12 market, Pietrowski also has a fair amount of corporate clients. That\u2019s been more by design opposed to accident. He belongs to several organizations that are focused on education and attends conferences where he networks with other people from other companies who sometimes become prospects, and then customers. \u201cYou start talking to people and they say \u2018I need to start talking to you\u2019 and that\u2019s helped me branch out into the private sector,\u201d reports Pietrowski. Prior to sales, he spent seven years managing the in-plant print shop for Hammond Organ Corp. That print shop background helped his career in copier sales. \u201cKnowing the quality, the jobs done, how they were produced, you could talk the language with printers, that\u2019s why I basically started getting involved in it,\u201d notes Pietrowski. \u201cThen I redirected myself into education. I had an educational client call me one time and when I found out what they do, how they operate, it took off from there.\u201d However, selling did not come naturally to Pietrowski when he first started and he was fired from his first copier sales job after 90 days. \u201cI had never been fired in my life and I\u2019d been working since I was a kid. I thought this was the most embarrassing thing in the world. I told the two owners of the company, \u2018I\u2019ve never been fired, give me 30 days, I\u2019ll work straight commission and I can guarantee you I\u2019ll get the job done.\u2019\u201d In 30 days he had more sales then anyone in the history of the company in a one-month time period. The difference was taking a more direct approach to closing. \u201cOne of the problems with salespeople is sometimes they don\u2019t know how to close a deal or ask for it,\u201d opines Pietrowski. \u201cWhen your back is against the wall and you have pride, you\u2019re not afraid to do that.\u201d That\u2019s the origin of how he became a go getter. \u201cIt was just saying, \u2018here\u2019s a great deal for you let\u2019s close it up now.\u2019 It was as if a light bulb had clicked on. After I did the first two like that I got it and said this is the way it has to be done. Don\u2019t wait for the customer to act, don\u2019t take \u2018let me think about it,\u2019 it was just a straight \u2018let\u2019s get it done now and this way it\u2019s off your plate.\u2019\u201d Even though he\u2019s been in the industry a long time, Pietrowski continues to learn new things every day. \u201cThe biggest mistake sales people make is they worry about the competition too much. If you stay focused on the message you\u2019re trying to relate to the client and you don\u2019t lie and squirm as most of us never do and be totally honest with the client up front it makes the job much easier because you\u2019re more focused on what your company does for you and what you\u2019re going to do for the client. People are not necessarily looking at what\u2019s right for the client or the right fit.\u201d Like many of his peers in the industry, he relaxes by playing golf and is good enough to have played in a few Pro-Am tournaments. \u201cIt\u2019s a fun sport because you\u2019re really only playing against yourself and once you get on the golf course it\u2019s peaceful and you can think about a whole slew of things where you don\u2019t get aggravated,\u201d explains Pietrowski. When not playing golf or working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82],"tags":[1475,1429,1476,1477],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7028,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7021\/revisions\/7028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}