CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Bad News from El Paso

Check out the website of the Greater El Paso Chamber ofCommerce and you’ll find the proud claim that “Small Busi-ness is BIG Business at The Greater El Paso Chamber ofCommerce.”

According to the website, the chamber is “focused on en-hancing the business community in El Paso” and is “oppor-tunity focused, integrity based, supporting community andmilitary partnerships to enhance the economic prosperity ofthe region.”

Sadly, however, all that doesn’t seem to be much more thanempty marketing copy these days, if the organization’s re-cent decision to endorse Office Depot as their preferred sup-plier offers any indication.

The chamber’s president told the local newspaper they hadheld off putting such a deal together before now because,he said, “There was a proliferation of small office producttype stores that existed at the time and clearly that’s not thecase in today’s environment.”

That’s got to be news for the 24 small business locationsthat show up on El Paso’s yellowpages.com website whenyou search for office supplies.

We suspect most of them have been long-time chambermembers and right now they’re probably wondering what ex-actly the chamber thinks it’s giving them for their annual dues.

Forget about Office Depot’s recent pattern of payments to stateand local government customers across the country to settleallegations of overcharging and other contract irregularities.

Ignore the fact that independents—and there are some out-standing ones in El Paso—figured out quite some time agohow to compete on price against the big boxes and havebeen doing just that with considerable success when theplaying field is fair and level.

Focus instead on the sheer hypocrisy of an organization thathas no problem undermining small business members thathave supported it for years if it means an opportunity to gochasing a few extra bucks for its coffers.

Opportunity focused? Maybe. Integrity based? You’ve gotto be kidding!

THE

WINNERS’ CircleDavid Guernsey, N. VA Dealer, Inducted into Local Chamber Business Hall of Fame

David Guernsey (center) and some of the Guernsey team at his inductioninto his local Business Hall of Fame (Photo: courtesy Arlington, VA Cham-ber of Commerce).

Congratulations are very much in order for David Guernsey, presi-dent and CEO of Guernsey Office Products in Dulles, Virginia, fol-lowing his recent induction by the Arlington (Virginia) Chamber ofCommerce into its Business Hall of Fame.

Induction into the Arlington Business Hall of Fame honors men andwomen who have demonstrated a long record of successful man-agement, expertise and business skills, along with notable achieve-ments and exceptional civic and community involvement, theChamber said.

Given David’s achievements, both within his own community and inour industry, the award is certainly well deserved.

Within the industry, he is a former NOPA president, served as thedriving force behind the creation of the BPGI international dealergroup consortium and has held leadership positions with Independ-ent Stationers, TriMega and Pinnacle Associates.

In the broader business sphere, David currently serves as chairmanof the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation’sleading small business association.

David founded his dealership in Arlington in 1971 and was based inthe county for more than 20 years.

“The Guernsey organization has its roots in Arlington and thereforethe recognition carries a very special meaning for me,” he said.

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 2

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Apex Office Products, Tampa, Hosts 2012 Consumer Show

Apex Office Products’ mascot, CC the cost-cutting kangaroo, was onhand to welcome attendees at its recent consumer show.

These are bitter-sweet days for Tampa-based Apex Office Products.As they mourn the loss of their president and co-founder Aurelio“Junior” Llorente, who died May 24, age 69 (see June issue), theyalso look back with pride on a hugely successful 2012 ConsumerProducts Show and Expo, held just weeks before he died.

The event drew close to 500 customers and prospects and featuredthe very latest from some 30 manufacturers. Also on hand to welcomeguests was Apex’s new mascot, CC the cost-cutting kangaroo.

Apex pulled out all the stops for this year’s show, with several inno-vative features such as a “Partners’ Wall,” where nearly 100 Apexcustomers wrote comments about the outstanding service and

value they receive from the dealership, a chartered bus shuttle tobring in visitors from outlying markets and a grand prize of a cruisefor two to the Bahamas.

In addition, the dealership partnered with the local Meals on Wheelsorganization, providing it with a table at the show and donating anexecutive chair to be raffled off as a fundraiser.

Apex also brought in a local shredding company who set up on siteto provide an opportunity to dispose of confidential businessrecords safely. Even better, visitors could also earn extra door prizeraffle tickets by bringing along big box catalogs for shredding, too!

“This year’s show was an outstanding success,” reports VP Shan-non Evans. “Traffic was steady throughout and our vendors reportedvisitors were spending quality time and asking serious questionsrather than just chasing down samples.”

Sad times, indeed, for the Apex team, with the passing of theirleader. But if this year’s show offers any indication, the House thatJunior Built remains in very capable hands, and the proud traditionshe put in place in the course of a career that spanned more than 30years look set to continue strong for many years to come.

California Retailer Lori Webster Named District ‘Small Businesswoman of the Year’They’re icing up the champagne at Webster’s Fine Stationers in Altadena, California, after Lori Webster, who owns the store with her

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husband Scott, was named “OutstandingSmall Businesswoman of the Year” in herCongressional district.

The award highlights Lori’s significant pro-fessional accomplishments as well as heroutstanding community commitment.

Webster’s itself has a history that goes allthe way back to 1923. Originally founded asa small pharmacy, the business evolvedover the years into a complex of intercon-nected stores, including the pharmacy, aliquor store, a stationery and office productsstore, a Hallmark Gold Crown, a video rentalstore, a scrapbooking store and a UPS/FedEx shipping outlet.

Lori and Scott bought the stationery depart-ment in 2007 and put in place a 2,600 sq.ft. retail store offering a boutique shoppingexperience featuring fine stationery, giftsand home décor items.

The store also features works from localartists and authors and enthusiastically pro-motes other locally owned and operated busi-nesses.

“We were committed to a vision thatstressed collaboration and community in-volvement from Day One,” says Lori.

Evidently, the hard work of Lori and herteam to support the community at large hasnot gone unnoticed. Our congratulations toher and the entire Webster’s organization!

OH Dealer Garrigans.com Offers‘Pay It Forward’ ScholarshipProgram for Local High SchoolStudentsIn Springfield, Ohio, Joe and Julie Garriganand their team at Garrigans.com have comeup with an innovative way to support deserv-ing local students and help make their com-munity a better place through their annual“Pay It Forward” scholarship awards program.

The program provides a $500 scholarshipto a local high school senior who must havea minimum 3.0 GPA and a record of ex-tracurricular activities and community/vol-unteer service. In addition, applicants mustsubmit a short essay on how they wouldmake Springfield a better place.

“We launched the program about five yearsago as a way to engage young students inour community and give back at the sametime,” explains Joe.

The program is just one way in which Garri-gans supports aspiring young students. Thedealership has also worked with internsfrom the local business school, enlistingthem on new business development effortsand other programs.

Herald Office Solutions, SC Dealer, Earns ‘Best Place for OfficeSupplies’ HonorsThe folks at the Sumter, South Carolina loca-tion of Herald Office Solutions are walkingaround with just a little more spring in theirstep these days, after earning honors lastmonth as their community’s “Best Place forOffice Supplies.”

The award was voted on by readers of thelocal newspaper, who rated Herald topsover the likes of big box competitors OfficeDepot and Staples.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 6

Winner’s Circle continued from page 4

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“We have an outstanding group of hard-working industry profes-sionals in Sumter and this award recognizes the terrific job they aredoing,” commented Herald’s Thomas Jordan.

“Danny Young, our manager in Sumter, has been part of the Heraldfamily for close to 30 years and he and his team deserve a lot ofcredit for this special recognition.”

NJ Dealer MACO Office Source Celebrates 60 Years

Sharon and Ricky Reissman received a special commemorative plaquefrom NOPA at their recent consumer show to honor their dealership’s60th anniversary.

Congratulations are in order for Ricky and Sharon Reissman andtheir team at MACO Office Source in Union City, New Jersey, whorecently celebrated their dealership’s 60th anniversary with a special“MACO Speedway Event.”

Ricky and Sharon went all out for their 200-plus plus attendees withfood, drinks, an ice sculpture and a furniture and office productsshowcase with giveaways for all those in attendance.

Special guests United Stationers account manager Bob Cetta andNOPA marketing and communications director Alicia Ellis congrat-ulated MACO on their longevity and success in the industry.

“To have not only survived but thrived as an independent officeproducts dealer is a great accomplishment,” said Ellis, who pre-sented the Reissmans with a celebratory plague.

“It is committed owners, loyal employees, supportive industry part-ners and clients who understand the value of relationships, the qual-ity of service and the drive of the independent dealer that have beenkey to MACO’s past and will surely continue to drive the company’ssuccess for many more years,” Ellis added.

In Boone, NC, WJ's Della Smith Earns ‘Amazing Customer Service’ AwardWhen it comes to outstanding customer service in the office prod-ucts space, nobody does it better than today’s independents!

Case in point: Della Smith at WJ Office in Boone, North Carolina. Dellawas recently honored by the Boone Area Chamber Of Commerce,who gave her their 2012 Award for Amazing Customer Service and,says WJ president Neville Chaney, the honor could not have gone toa more deserving individual!

“Della has been a tremendous asset for our dealership for almost

20 years,” says Neville. “She not only knows how to save our cus-tomers money on their office supplies purchases, but also is a veryempathetic person who has become a good friend of many of thefolks she works with.”

DBI, MI Independent, Hosts 2012 Office ExpoIt was showtime in Lansing, Michigan recently, where George Sny-der and his team at independent dealer DBI held their annual OfficeExpo.

The event drew over 200 customers and prospects and featured 20vendor stations highlighting the latest industry products and offeringplenty of free samples.

Emphasizing its status as a locally-owned and operated business,DBI turned to local a local catering company, baker and winery toprovide delectable treats for attendees.

Also on hand, plenty of door prizes including iPods, iPads, printers,designer task lighting and a variety of office supplies and gift cards.

“We have heard nothing but positive feedback from everyone whoattended,” commented George. The Expo was a great success andwe always look forward to showcasing DBI and our preferred ven-dors to the Lansing area market."

Added DBI vice president and co-owner Steve Klaver, “Here atDBI, we are a local business talking to people who live and workhere. We’re not looking for a one time sale, we’re looking for along term partnership. These are things people cannot get from abig box store and hopefully our customers see that and see avalue in it”.

Re-Branding Effort Underway for Yuletide Office Solutions, Memphis Dealer

New truck wraps are an important part of the re-branding effort currentlyunderway at Yuletide Office Solutions in Memphis.

These are exciting times for Chris Miller and his team at Yuletide Of-fice Solutions in Memphis. The dealership is in the midst of a com-prehensive re-branding effort that is impacting virtually every aspectof their operations.

The latest phase: new wraps for Yuletide’s trucks featuring the deal-ership’s new logo. Still to come: new sales materials, a new websiteand the grand opening event for Yuletide’s new furniture showroom.

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 8

Winner’s Circle continued from page 6

When I asked Rick Voigt why his Today’s

Business Products was one of the most

successful and fastest-growing

independents in the country, his answer

was straightforward. “If you’re going to

go anywhere in this business, you’ve got

to have the right people on the bus, and I

do. That’s what it’s all about.”

Then Rick proceeded to sing the praises

of his managers—John Quinones, who

operates the furniture business, sales

manager Patty Kilban, business analyst

Karen Ferrell and many others.

“If you have good leaders and good

managers you can trust, you’ll go

places—in this business or any

business,” he stated emphatically.

I’m sure much of the company’s success

came from Rick and his father Don, when

they started the business from scratch 28

years ago.

Over the years, they’ve been in and out

of the copier business—right now,

they’re out—and become a major player

in the mid-market furniture business.

They opened a furniture showroom in

2003 with a full service offering, from

design to installation.

They’ve also been active on the

acquisition trail. Since 2004, Today’s has

added four other dealers in the Cleveland

market, with Euclid Office Supply being

the most recent, in April of this year.

“Our furniture group had a sales increase

of 50% last year and we anticipate, with

the addition of Euclid, that we will have

an even greater footprint in the northeast

Ohio furniture market,” said John

Quinones.

Today’s operates from a

40,000 square foot

headquarters in the

Cleveland suburb of

Parma, with a 13,000

square foot furniture

showroom.

The company has

received a number of

awards from TriMega, the

most recent being the

greatest percentage of

sales increase in 2011.

Also taking pride of

place in the dealership’s

trophy case: Rick’s

award last year as

“Rotarian of the

Decade” from his local

Rotary Club, a “World

Class Customer Service

Award” from Smart Business magazine

three years in a row and recognition as

one of the top midmarket companies in

northeastern Ohio by Crain’s Cleveland

Business magazine.

And what does the future hold? “I see

nothing but growth,” Rick says

enthusiastically. “We will continue to look

for acquisitions, but our long-term

success will depend on how well we use

all of the great resources available to

us—the TriMega programs like ‘Point

Nationwide, ‘S.P. Richards’ ‘My Analyst,’

and most important of all, having the

right people on the bus.”

Sounds like a winner to me!

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 10

Secrets of SuccessIt’s All About Having the Right People on the Busby Jim Rapp

• Today’s Business Products, Parma, Ohio(Cleveland)

• Richard (Rick) Voigt, President and CEO• John Quinones, Vice President• New and used furniture, supplies, coffee

and breakroom• Founded: 1984• Sales: $13 million• Employees: 42• Partners: TriMega, S.P. Richards• Online Sales: Supplies 60%• www.todaysbusinessproducts.com

If you have news to share - email it toSimon@IDealerCentral.com

Maybe we can begin with an update on Red Cheetah in general.How’s business these days?

MORGAN: Our business right now is very, very good. We rolled outour new GPS program at our annual user meeting last March andresponse has been tremendous.

There are currently 250 dealers— that’s about half of our total dealerbase—who are fully utilizing the first suite of services we introducedand who are generating superior results both in terms of top linesales growth and gross profit.

Their average order size is $26 higher than the rest of our dealersand their gross profit is four points higher. Those numbers speakfor themselves.

How do the services you’re offering under the GPS umbrella relateto what’s available today from the wholesalers and the buyinggroups?

MORGAN: First of all, I don’t think we are competing with either thebuying groups or the wholesalers. We are a service provider and wehave no desire to be either a buying group or a wholesaler.

Where we differ from them is in our ability to integrate all of our mer-chandising and marketing across the entire channel. That’s becauseas a technology provider, we sit on top of all of the dealer data andcontrol the purchasing experience and access to the marketplace.

TriMega’s recent announcement of a new jan-san program andUnited’s recent announcement of their Smart Marketing for 2013are good examples of great intentions but they are both non-inte-grated, stand alone solutions and as such, they are missing a mas-sive market opportunity.

I take the point that you’re not a buying group or wholesaler, butnevertheless, there are a number of services that you’re offeringunder GPS that are very similar to what the wholesalers and thebuying groups are offering.

MORGAN: If you look at what’s been happening, it’s not a questionof us as service providers competing with these other players.Rather, the wholesalers have attempted to become serviceproviders—United Stationers’ purchase of MBS Dev is an obviousexample—and the buying groups, through efforts such as Smart-Express from TriMega, have done the same thing.

What we’re attempting to do is offer an integrated option that bringstogether under a single program sell-side merchandising, web an-alytics, financial reporting, etc., so that if a dealer is under pene-trated in jan-san, for example, we can help them grow that categoryon multiple levels.

There is absolutely no overlap [between the wholesalers and buyinggroups] whatsoever. The wholesaler can still fulfill that order. If the

CONTINUED ON PAGE 13

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 12

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:

Andrew Morgan of Red Cheetah

As chief executive officer of Austin, Texas-based Red Cheetah, Andrew Morgan headsup a company that provides more than 500 independent dealers with their businesssystem. But as he made clear when we talked to him recently, Morgan see technologytoday as just the entry point for Red Cheetah. “Technology,” he told us, “is just tablestakes and we have to offer a whole lot more for us to succeed and for our dealers tosucceed.”

For Morgan, that “whole lot more” translates into Red Cheetah’s new Guided PartnerServices program (GPS), a broad suite of technology-related service offerings that in-cludes merchandising, marketing and other sell-side support designed to drive thedealer’s top line growth and boost margins.

In the following interview, Morgan discusses GPS and other new Red Cheetah programsand offers his own perspective on the current state of dealer technology and other keyissues for independents.

dealer is a buying group member, they canstill buy in bulk. We’re not limiting any ofthat. All we are doing is helping our dealersmaximize their business.

Let’s look at technology from a broaderperspective. What in your view separatesa best practices dealer from the rest of thepack in terms of their technology use?

MORGAN: Thoughtful expansion. The mostsuccessful dealers we see are the ones whoare constantly working on expanding theirexisting customer base and who are con-stantly working on conversion to e-com-merce ordering and soft cost reduction.

There are no quick fixes in this economy.Successful dealers have a great sales plan,they know how to sell e-commerce andthey’re deploying the merchandising andthe email campaigns to push the right prod-ucts at the right time, just like the powerchannel is doing.

What’s the most effective thing you wouldrecommend to dealers to help them makethe most of their technology investment?

MORGAN: Learn how to better sell the e-commerce experience. I see a tremendousamount of dealers who are still flounderingand trying to convert that 60 or 70% of theirbusiness that’s still coming in over thephone or, heaven forbid, by fax.

They have to learn how to sell e-commerce.That means offering a solution that has atrue custom feel. It means creating what Icall a loaded system that’s not just about fa-vorites or a couple of contract items. It’salso about creating sales by putting differentproducts in front of the customer, it’s aboutcreating incentives to increase page views,offering premiums, reward systems andanything else you can use to build brandloyalty through the shopping experience.

What do you see as the next big thing onthe technology front?

MORGAN: For Red Cheetah, there are twoimportant new programs that we are fo-cused on today.

When we rolled out GPS in March, we alsolaunched a new program called Supplier Di-

rect. GPS focuses downstream from thedealer to the end user, while Supplier Directis an upstream initiative that focuses on therelationship between the dealer and themanufacturer.

This unique combination is wanted by sup-pliers and needed by resellers—and theservice providers are in a unique position todeliver it. What has never been available tothe suppliers, or that had to be sold to them,is now readily available and greatly benefitsthe dealers and purchasers.

Supplier Direct operates on two levels. Froma merchandising and marketing standpoint,Supplier Direct aims to get the manufacturermore involved in market access and thepoint of sale.

We’re finding the suppliers want to engagecloser with the independent dealers and theend user and we can make that happenthrough Supplier Direct.

The other dimension on which Supplier Di-rect operates is on the purchasing side.Again, we’re not competing with either the

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JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 13

INDUSTRY NEWS continued from page 12

buying groups or the wholesalers on this.Rather, we’re doing the same kind of thingthat we’ve seen with Amazon, Office Depotand the rest and that’s offering significantproduct expansion.

Let’s use Ghent, one of our Supplier Directpartners, as an example. Ghent sells about2,700 SKUs, but the wholesalers only carryand market about 100 of those items.

Supplier Direct gives the dealer and theircustomers the opportunity to see and pur-chase all 2,700. But the dealer still owns therelationship with Ghent. We provide the pur-chasing opportunity but Ghent bills them di-rectly and they pay Ghent directly.

There’s no duplication of anything thewholesaler or the buying group are doing.It’s just an opportunity for us to make the lifeof the independent dealer better and moreprofitable and that’s why we’re here.

Let’s finish up with a little crystal ball gaz-ing. What do you see for the industry saythree years down the road?

MORGAN: There is a tremendous amountof flurry in the dealer technology spacetoday, as we’re seeing more and more ac-tivity, both from the wholesalers and thebuying groups.

Ultimately, I think things will go one of twoways. Either we will see a tidal wave of con-solidation as the wholesalers buy up theservice providers or there will be a new levelof integration in the technology space on ascale that we’re haven’t seen before.

Right now, Red Cheetah is one of about fiveservice providers who are in active due dili-gence on the idea of creating a ServiceProviders Alliance. Our goal is to create bet-ter integration throughout the channel—from the supplier all the way through to theend user.

If it works the way we hope it will, such anorganization would help create some stan-dardization and uniformity all the waythrough the channel and help take addi-tional costs out of distribution. We’re in thevery early stages of that effort and it offerstremendous potential in my view.

Meanwhile, I think we will continue to seeattempts from all sides to get into the tech-nology space to gain the edge on data and

access to the marketplace. Forget about thenext three years, I think the next twelvemonths are going to be very interesting!

AOPD Announces 2013 AnnualMeeting Details, Timing Changefor City of Hope PromotionThe American Office Products Distributorsnational accounts marketing network(AOPD) has announced the dates andvenue for its 2013 Annual Meeting.

The meeting will take place February 18-22at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort &Spa in San Antonio.

In addition, AOPD announced it is movingits 2013 City of Hope promotion to the sec-ond quarter.

“We believe the move will allow our dealersand business partners to utilize the annualmeeting as a platform to kick-off this pro-gram, which has generated over $300,000for City of Hope over the past six years,”commented AOPD executive director BudMundt.

Independent Stationers to Resign from BPGI The Independent Stationers dealer groupannounced last month it is resigning fromthe Business Products Group Internationaldealer group consortium (BPGI), effectiveDecember 31.

Independent Stationers was a foundingmember of BPGI, which was formed in themid-1990s to leverage collective dealerbuying power under a global umbrella.

Its departure means BPGI’s sole NorthAmerican member after December 31 willbe the Novexco organization in Canada.The TriMega Purchasing Association, also afounding member, resigned from BPGI inJanuary.

IS president and CEO Mike Gentile said thegroup’s decision to resign was based pri-marily on changing business conditions inthe U.S. and IS’s intention to pursue a dif-ferent business model.

“The current BPGI operating model hasn’t

changed in 15 years,” Gentile charged.“There’s a need within our industry forgreater collaboration with our suppliers, withour wholesalers and with other dealergroups and not strictly on the buy side,”said Gentile.

“We need to add more value to the relation-ships with all the players within the inde-pendent dealer community. What that willultimately look like is something that we’reworking on now but clearly, it needs to gobeyond just the buy side of the business,”he added.

In announcing the decision to its members,IS said the change will bring no loss of pro-gram dollars or rebates, nor added cost ofgoods and will mean greater flexibility to ex-pand programs with current and potentialnew vendors.

“We wish the other member groups in BPGIall the very best, as they continue to workto bring value to their respective groups, intheir respective nations,” Gentile said.“There are many initiatives that could still beaddressed by a collective dealer organiza-tion not specifically related to purchasepower. It is our hope and desire that we mayat some point in the future continue to worktogether on other dealer group issues notcurrently encompassed by the BPGI organ-ization.”

TriMega Launches New Jan-San ProgramThe TriMega Purchasing Association dealergroup last month launched the orange proj-ect, a new program designed to help itsmembers make the most of the rapidlyemerging opportunities in the janitorial andsanitation and breakroom products market.

“The commercial Jan/San market is a $25billion business that offers tremendous po-tential to independent office products deal-ers,” commented TriMega president CharlieCleary.

“The Orange Project from TriMega gives ourdealers what they need to succeed—theright Jan/San products—both nationalname brands and private label ‘fighter’brands, outstanding wholesaler support, amulti-faceted nationwide marketing effort

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 14

INDUSTRY NEWS continued from page 13

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

and a comprehensive training program thattogether represent a powerful new salesand profit engine for a critical market for ourmembers.”

TriMega is rolling out the new program inthree phases, Cleary explained. Phase One,which began last month, offers a full line oftowel and tissue, liners, chemicals, equip-ment and breakroom products in both na-tionally-branded and private label SKUs.

The program is supported by the industry’stop two national wholesalers and ongoingtraining and marketing programs fromTriMega, the group said.

Also supporting the program is a new Or-ange Proejct microsite for TriMega mem-bers to access suppliers programs, trainingand promotional activities specific to thecategory.

Phase Two is scheduled to be rolled out atTriMega’s national convention in Octoberand will see the addition of a quarterly enduser Jan/San sales flyer and rollout of a na-tionwide promotional campaign.

Phase Three, set for the first quarter of2013, will offer special promotions from in-dividual Jan/San suppliers and also see theaddition of several new direct ship suppliersto the program.

For more information: www.trimega.org.

NOPA, BSA Announce 2012Scholarship RecipientsTwo of the industry’s leading associationshave announced winners of their annualscholarship awards for the 2012-2013 aca-demic year.

NOPA announced the following winners ofits scholarships, awarded in conjunctionwith the Office Furniture Dealers Alliance(NOPA and OFDA are both membership di-visions of the Independent Office Productsand Furniture Dealers Association (IOPFDA),which administers the scholarship program).

This year's NOPA scholarship winners in-clude:

n Eric Gebeke (Charles G. Stott & Co. Scholarship),sponsored by 3M Stationery Productsn Amanda Sani (United Stationers Scholarship),sponsored by Parron Hall Office Interiorsn Jason LaFave (Richard J. Kilpatrick Scholarship),sponsored by Haworth

n Angela Copes (Douglas K. & Doreen E. ChapmanScholarship), sponsored by MarylandOffice Interiors

n Alissa Ramburger (Avery Dennison Scholarship),sponsored by National Office Furniture

n Joseph Dyer (3M Scholarship), sponsored by ECiSoftware Solutions

n Nicholas Boustead (Gerald Weiner Memorial Scholarship),sponsored by United Stationers

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 15

INDUSTRY NEWS continued from page 14

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n Julie Moorad (NOPA District 8 Scholarship),sponsored by Imago Associates

n Julie Orenstein (George A. Thompson MemorialScholarship), sponsored by DGPMInvestments

n Lindsay Podsiadlik (Howard andBarbara Wolf Scholarship), sponsoredby Detroit Pencil Co.

n Megan Locatis (QuartetManufacturing Scholarship), sponsoredby Haworth

n Ashley Holland (Office FurnitureRecyclers Forum Scholarship),sponsored by Kennedy Office

n Evan Clare (Barry Coyle MemorialScholarship), sponsored by OfficeEnvironments Co.

The Educational Foundation of theBusiness Solutions Association (BSA) alsoannounced the winners of its 2012scholarships last month. They are:

n Joseph Dyer (in honor of Toshiyuki Horie, Pentel ofAmerica), sponsored by ECi SoftwareSolutions

n Eric Gebeke (in honor of David Anderson, RichardsPen Shop), sponsored by 3M

n Sophie Grus, sponsored by Esselte Corporation

n Taylor Frazier, sponsored by Esselte Corporation

n Erik Spilling, sponsored by Pilot Pen Corporation

n Kala Westbrook, sponsored by S.P. Richards

n Kathryn Whittaker, sponsored by Professional SalesAssociates

n Justin Bartz, sponsored by MeadWestvaco

n Christopher Ambrus, sponsored by Zebra Pen

n Christopher Creamer, sponsored by MeadWestvaco

n Ashleigh Castin, sponsored by S.P. Richards

n Johnny Kerins, sponsored by Sealed Air Corporation

For more information on the associations’scholarship programs, visitwww.businesssolutionsassociation.com orwww.nopanet.org.

ECi Offers Custom Stamps andSigns Through Cosco Microsite onECinteractive, Rolls Out NewEnhancements for SuppliesNetwork PSN on BritanniaDealer technology provider ECi SoftwareSolutions has announced the availability ofthe latest vendor integration with its ECin-teractive Web storefront: a microsite featur-ing custom stamps and signs from CoscoIndustries.

Whenever shoppers select Cosco items likestamps, embossers or signs on an ECinter-active site, the Cosco microsite now auto-matically opens so they can create exactlythe product they want.

“This new tool in partnership with ECi willsimplify an age old process by creating apoint-and-click solution,” commented MikeWilbur, Cosco’s senior vice president ofbusiness development “Our customers’ op-erational efficiencies will increase along withtheir ROI. Their profitability can only be en-hanced, since human error will be greatlydecreased.”

Separately, ECI announced its Britanniasubsidiary has introduced new enhance-ments to its Private Supply Network (PSN)to offer more streamlined purchasing fromIT wholesaler Supplies Network (SN).

New features include:

n Bulk P/Os: A single SN purchaseorder can combine multiple end-customer orders, rather than havingeach order shipped separately.

n Vendor Notes: Britannia order entryand purchasing users can alert the SNrep to handling or delivery instructions.

n Expanded Business Logic: New ruleshandle backordered items, costvariations and unrecognized partnumbers.

n Line Item Comments: Item-specificmessages appear on packing slips or onSN’s custom desktop delivery labels.

n Wrap and Label: SN can pre-sort,pack, and label orders by customer,saving the dealer the cost and labor ofdoing so.

n Account-Specific Identifiers: TheBritannia system transmits purchaseorder identifiers for each separateSupplies Network account a companymay have, such as for expanded oracquired store locations.

United Stationers Unveils 2013Marketing Power Program,Launches HON Voi Microsite Wholesaler United Stationers has addedseveral new features to its Marketing Power2013 dealer marketing program for thecoming year. New additions include en-hanced email marketing capabilities, a newCustomer Experience SmartMap, an im-proved Marketing Planner and a newmonthly Smart Growth flyer.

"New market forces are at play, and it's im-portant that resellers recognize and respondto them," said Todd Shelton, president,United Stationers Supply. "For example,United's research highlights a buying influ-ence called the 'Empowered User,' whotypically bypasses a company's purchasingdepartment and directly buys what theyneed from their own chosen sources. Theseempowered users currently purchase 61%of what the typical company buys, so thosepurchases are not going through the pur-chasing department."

Another new market force is Customer Ex-perience Expectations, which is drivingbusiness-to-business buyers in the direc-tion of what many consumers are alreadyexperiencing: intuitive, content-rich web-sites that are visually appealing, engagingwith interactive content, simple navigation,promotional offers and deals, and dynamicproduct suggestions.

In response to these market influences, the2013 program features enhanced emailmarketing capabilities such as eDeals Ad-vanced, which links the consumer from the

CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 16

INDUSTRY NEWS continued from page 15

reseller's email to a hosted Web landingpage shopping cart, with orders thenemailed directly to the dealer.

Another new email program, United eMail Plus,provides over 100 editable HTML templates forresellers who want to create their own promo-tions, special pricing and messages.

Also new: a Customer ExperienceSmartMap that illustrates every aspect of areseller's marketing mix from outbound ac-quisition campaigns, sales calls, in-personsales presentations and Web presence tooutbound SEO and social media word-of-mouth recommendations.

Marketing Power 2013's new MarketingPlanner has been redesigned in a detailedworkbook format that guides resellers'strategic planning process, while a newmonthly Smart Growth Flyer provides an ex-panded assortment of high-margin, crosscategory products to help drive the sellingmix beyond just commodities.

Separately, Uniteds’ Furniture Division an-nounced it has teamed up with The HONCompany to develop a new HON furniture

microsite to sell HON’s Voi product line.

The new site includes enhanced, interactivecontent about Voi desks and storage solu-tions and features an easy-to-use VoiBuilder application which allows visitors tocustomize their workspace by selectingtheir desired aesthetic, footprint size andamount of storage.

For additional information, contact yourlocal United Stationers account manager.

Carolina Wholesale ExpandsInventory of Remanufactured HPPrinter HardwareCarolina Wholesale last month announcedit has expanded its inventory of MPS Readyremanufactured printers from Printersdirectfrom one to four distribution centers.

After 18 months of distributing MPS Readyremanufactured printers, Carolina Whole-sale Group (which also includes ArlingtonIndustries) has made the commitment toquadruple its investment in inventory of

MPS Ready remanufactured printers, thecompany said.

MPS Ready remanufactured printers areavailable through Carolina Wholesale and itsdistribution centers in Charlotte, North Car-olina; Waukegan, Illinois; Bristol, Pennsylva-nia, and Carson, California, with service toall 50 states.

Acme United Acquires Assets of C-Thru RulerAcme United Corporation last month an-nounced the acquisition of selected assets ofThe C-Thru Ruler Company, makers of draft-ing, measuring, lettering and stencil products.

Acme will not be purchasing C-Thru’s scrap-booking business, which was part of thecompany and will be operated separately.

C-Thru Ruler’s non-scrapbooking revenuesin 2011 were approximately $2.7 million,Acme said. Acme purchased the inventory,tooling, brands, and other intellectual prop-erty for approximately $1.47 million. The

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 17

INDUSTRY NEWS continued from page 16

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company said the acquisition is expected tobe accretive in 2012.

Walter C. Johnsen, Acme United chairmanand CEO said, “The C-Thru product line ex-tends the offering of our Westcott cuttingand measuring tools. Its customer basestrengthens our presence in the school andcraft markets. We believe there are substan-tial opportunities to expand its productplacement in our craft, home, hardware andoffice distribution channels.”

Johnsen added that the acquisition will belargely absorbed by existing staff and facil-ities within Acme United.

Clover Issues Third AnnualSustainability ReportClover Holdings, parent company of CloverTechnology, West Point Products and otherindustry brands, recently issued its third an-nual sustainability report. The report exam-ines the environmental impact of Clover’sglobal collections, remanufacturing, and re-

cycling operations as well as its key socialimpacts.

Report findings include:

• Clover collected over 76 million unitsincluding cartridges, cell phones, smallelectronics and printer components.

• Clover’s ink cartridges contain 97%post-consumer recycled content.

• Clover's reuse efforts diverted over 33million pounds of material from landfill.

“We appreciate that our role as industryleaders should be marked not only by fiscalsuccess but by environmental steward-ship,” “said Jim Cerkleski, CEO of Clover.

“By collecting more, we were able to ensure56 million pounds of material was kept fromlandfill. By adding facilities in new geo-graphic locations, we reduced the distancetraveled by our collections which signifi-cantly lessened the carbon impact of thatmovement. By growing our operations inthe consumer electronics space, we wereable to provide an environmentally respon-

sible solution for potentially hazardouswaste products and the assurance that ourcustomer’s personal data would be safelymanaged,” he added.

OPMA Hires NewCopywriter/ProofreaderOffice Products Marketing & Advertising(OPMA) last month announced AshlieHarper has been hired as a copywriter/proofreader. Harper will be responsible forwriting, proofreading, and coordinatingassorted print and electronic marketingprojects.

Harper has been working as a freelancerwith Good Goers Mission-Based AdventureTravels, The Awesome Mitten, and Center-point Press, performing a variety of dutiesranging from writing to web design.

She is a graduate of Western MichiganUniversity, with a Bachelor of Science inEnglish, and Advertising and Promotion.

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 18

INDUSTRY NEWS continued from page 17

Last month, Charles Forman, executive vice

president of the Independent Stationers

dealer group, and Mike Tucker, president of

independent dealer George W. Allen Com-

pany, testified on Capitol Hill before a sub-

committee of the House Committee on Small

Business on the impacts of the second-gen-

eration Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative

(FSSI OS2) on office products dealers.

Tucker is chairman of the Independent

Office Products and Furniture Dealers

Association (IOPFDA) and a recent past

NOPA board chair. Forman is a current di-

rector serving on the NOPA board.

Steven J. Kempf, commissioner of the Fed-

eral Acquisition Service, General Services

Administration (GSA), and William T. Woods,

director, acquisition and sourcing manage-

ment for the General Accountability Office

(GAO), also testified.

Both addressed implementation of the FSSI

on office supplies, while Kempf also out-

lined changes in GSA’s Multiple Award

Schedules (MAS) programs, including addi-

tional moratoriums on acceptance of new

schedule contract applications and a new

“Demand-Based Model.”

Tucker reported on how implementation of

FSSI on a broad government basis has had

an “abrupt and widespread impact on small

businesses in our industry.”

He acknowledged that the FSSI program

“has generated new opportunities for some

capable small businesses in our industry,”

but emphasized ”there are many other deal-

ers who have invested with government en-

couragement to obtain their own Schedule

75 GSA contracts, only to see their current

opportunities dramatically reduced as a re-

sult of FSSI.”

He added that “GSA did not undertake a

small business impact study before launch-

ing its second-generation FSSI for office

supplies.”

Forman noted the growing success of Inde-

pendent Stationers’ member dealers who

are participating under the organization’s

FSSI blanket purchase agreement (BPA),

awarded in June 2010.

“We understand and acknowledge the

common complaints expressed by those

small businesses not possessing an FSSI

OS2 BPA and we believe we are a solution

for those small businesses that fit our

dealer-owned cooperative model, to sell to

the federal government agencies through

the FSSI OS2 BPA purchasing vehicle,”

stated Forman.

Independent Stationers is the only dealer

group organization that received an FSSI

award and has maintained a GSA Schedule

group contract for its dealer members more

than 10 years.

For those dealers who do maintain their

own GSA Schedule contracts, Tucker high-

lighted the need for flexible guidance from

GSA for non-awarded dealers serving as

‘authorized participating dealers’ (APDs) on

behalf of prime contractors receiving FSSI

BPA awards.

“APDs should be subject to reasonable

ground rules, but this should not mean they

must give up their rights to compete for

non-FSSI federal business opportunities

using their regular GSA schedule con-

tracts,” Tucker advised.

After monitoring FSSI implementation and

seeing its far-ranging impacts, the NOPA

board of governors agreed last year to urge

the President to issue a Statement of Ad-

ministration Policy (SAP) “that restores full

competition within the federal market for our

industry’s products,” said Tucker.

“This approach, if communicated and im-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 19

NOPAnewsNOPA Members Testify at Capitol Hill Hearing on Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative, GSA Schedule Program

plemented broadly, will help ensure genuine, ongoing choice of pro-

curement vehicles within agencies and will help the administration

achieve the overall budgetary savings it hopes to achieve through

the FSSI program,” he contended.

The subcommittee questioned FAS commissioner Kempf about the

new Demand Based Model which GSA is applying in an effort to

align the number of individual vendor MAS contracts in each indus-

try/product category (Special Item Number – SIN) with expected

growth (or lack thereof) in government procurement opportunities.

Schedule 75, for office supplies, is currently under a two-year mora-

torium, through September 30, 2012, which could be extended.

GSA has recently announced several new moratoriums on other

commodity SINs impacting other industries as part of this new MAS

management strategy.

Kempf also identified GSA’s six current federal strategic sourcing

initiatives and in response to subcommittee questions noted that

only the office supplies FSSI involved and impacted a large number

of small businesses.

The GAO is conducting a comparative study, expected to be re-

leased in the fall, of all six FSSI programs and their impacts on small

business and government procurement costs in an effort to deter-

mine the circumstances under which such programs are most and

least likely to meet stated goals.

Looking ahead, Tucker and Forman both encouraged advance di-

alogue with industry “to acknowledge and address the small busi-

ness impacts of strategic sourcing.”

They called for an approach based on high levels of ongoing com-

petition and flexibility in purchasing programs as ways to achieve

government cost-savings and customer service goals, while reduc-

ing risks of small business job losses in industries impacted by

strategic sourcing initiatives.

This summer and fall, NOPA’s government affairs committee and

board will be discussing future industry advocacy and communica-

tions initiatives to maximize federal market opportunities for asso-

ciation members.

Visit NOPA’s website (www.nopanet.org/NOPA-Government-Advo-cacy) for NOPA position statements on these and other current ad-vocacy issues or contact NOPA president Chris Bates atcbates@nopanet.org; Tel: 703.549.9040, x 100 with any questions,comments or suggestions regarding NOPA’s advocacy initiatives.

-

800.542.6672 www.nopanet.org

Your BusinessYour Business Your IndustryYour Industry

Your AssociationYour Association

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 20

NOPA continued from page 19

If you’re an office products dealer there’s noneed to take social media personally onlyand use it just for keeping in touch with fam-ily and friends.

Indeed, more and office products dealersare finding social media offers a huge busi-ness benefit and discovering how sites likeFacebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn andother emerging social media outlets canbring increased exposure and touch cus-tomers and prospects in new and excitingways.

At Garrigans Office Plus in Dayton, Ohio,Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and ConstantContact are integrated into an all-inclusivesocial media strategy.

For example, Facebook is used for promotingweekly specials, Twitter for promoting clear-ance items, and LinkedIn for prospecting.

Response from Garrigans’ customers has

been positive and growing numbers are ‘lik-ing’ their Facebook page and receiving Twit-ter tweets. It didn’t happen overnight though.

“It took time to get them to interact with usand see the value,” reports Libby Scott,business development and social mediamanager at the dealership.

Since social media is still in its infancythere’s bound to be some lessons learnedand Scott, just 23 years old and savvier thanthe average office supplies person when itcomes to social media, has learned her les-sons well.

“The biggest lesson is that Facebookchanges and coping with the new timelinehas been a hurdle because there’s no longerthat “fan gate” where people had to like it tosee what was behind our page. Now every-thing we do is focused on making sure theyinteract [with us],” she says.

For customers whodon’t have a Face-book page Garrig-ans has created an e-mail template with aPowerPoint attachment offering step-by-step screen shots on how to create a Face-book page.

“Some people aren’t as savvy as others butwhen you really break it down for them, theyend up doing it,” says Scott.

Without a doubt one of the biggest chal-lenges in the social media realm is consis-tent and relevant posts. Garrigans usesHootSuite, a subscription program that al-lows subscribers to manage unlimited so-cial networks and profiles under oneinterface.

It also lets them schedule Facebook postsand Twitter messages, track trending topics,

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 21

ByScott

Cullen

keywords and mentions and integrate socialanalytics for measuring engagement andcampaign success.

“I can load everything we’re going to postfor the next two months and it doesn’t haveto be updated daily so it takes minimaltime,” notes Scott.

Garrigans’ social media efforts have beenrecognized locally and they’ve recently beennominated to participate in the Dayton Busi-ness Journal’s Social Madness competition.

They’re one of 60 Dayton-area companiesparticipating in a competition that is takingplace in 43 cities nationwide. “It measuresa company’s social media presence and thewinner gets $10,000 to donate to the charityof their choice,” says Scott. “We’re trying to

encourage our customers to vote for us onthe Social Madness page and remain activeon all our social media platforms.”

Metro Office Supply in Festus, Missouri, hasposted close to 200 videos on YouTube.Most offer tips and demonstrations such ashow to use an office chair, how to changethe toner in a copier or how to change out abattery backup. “There’s no real end as faras the different types of videos you can do,”says Chris Hagan, one of Metro’s owners.

Social media has done a lot to raise Metro’sprofile. “I’ll be 100 miles away at a gas sta-tion and people will come up to me and say,‘I saw your video on YouTube or Face-book,’” states Hagan.

One of the challenges anyone faces whenusing social media is translating it into dol-lars. “It’s kind of scary,” laments Hagan.“You do a video on battery backups but no-

body calls to say, ‘I need a new battery’even though you have 300 peoplewatching the entire 45-second clip.”

Despite all that, though, Hagansees his YouTube efforts as acost-effective means of gettingthe Metro name out there.

“I can do a video now and severalhundred people are going to seeit, where before it cost $25,000 todo a video and put it on televisionfor hundreds of thousands of peo-ple to see. People do see it, theylike it, they talk about it, but itdoesn’t necessarily translate into

people spending money on officeproducts.”

That hasn’t stopped Hagan from post-ing videos. He understands he’s ahead of thecurve and learning as he goes along. Onelesson learned is that timing is everything.“There’s an enormous amount of people onFacebook between 8 and 10 at night and ifyou post something at that time literally thou-sands of people see it,” he contends.

He’s also discovered the value of the per-sonal touch, which can be just as en-gaging as a promotion on the MetroFacebook page.

The most popular post Metro has ever donewas when Hagan got his hair cut as a char-ity fundraiser. “We saw a gigantic spike inpeople coming to look at our Facebookpage,” he recalls.

What’s also been effective in engaging cus-tomers and prospects is old photos. LatelyHagan has been tagging people in old pho-tos related to the dealership and postingthose on Facebook. “All of a sudden itshows up on their page and everyone startscommenting on it,” he reports.

Twist Office Products in Bensenville, Illinoisand the Twin Cities has a Facebook page, aTwitter account, a LinkedIn page, a blog,and have now added Pinterest to the mix.“We’re trying to envelope all of it,” saysowner Wendy Pike.

For Twist, the point of social media is to en-gage customers. “We send out an e-blastevery week and it has links to Twitter andFacebook so they can connect with us thatway,” reports Pike.

A recent promotion found Twist showcasingtheir latest line of office chairs at a tabletopshow aimed at administrative assistants. At-tendees who agreed to have their photostaken sitting in the chairs and posted on theTwist Facebook page were entered into adrawing to win a chair.

Although Pike was one of the first on herblock to have a Facebook page, she’s smartenough to realize she and her employeescan’t keep up with it all themselves.

That’s why she hired two college interns tohelp her enhance her social media efforts.They write content, assist with promos, filmcustomers at customer events, and postthose on Twist’s Website and Facebook page.

Before Twist was posting videos created bytheir vendors, now they’re creating theirown content. It’s what Pike calls “Twist TV.”

“We broadcast helpful hints and fun stuffyou can do with office supplies. We want tomake it fun and fresh, and get the Twistname out there,” she says.

The challenge with social media is keepingup with it all—not only the posts, but staying

CONTINUED ON PAGE 23

SOCIAL MEDIA continued from page 21

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 22

ahead of the changes and trends. That’s an-other reason for interns. “We wanted to at-tract some young ideas and a freshapproach,” says Pike.

Besides keeping up with the changes,Pike’s looking forward to better leveragingthe capabilities of social media by trackingresults and putting measurements in place.

Social media is all about engaging the cus-tomer and Twist makes an effort to like andfollow those customers who also have aFacebook page and Twitter account. “Wetry to engage them in a conversation byseeing in our feed what they’re talking aboutand how can we promote what they’redoing,” says Pike. “We might re-tweet or re-post things they do like a Christmas toydrive. We want to show them that we’re in-terested in what’s important to them.”

On the tweets side of things, the focus is onpersonal and fun stuff like announcing that aTwist employee just had a baby. “Lots of cus-tomers commented on that,” reveals Pike.

“The hard part ismaking sure youdon’t spend too

much time on it, butenough time,”

says Pike.

Friends Business Source in Findlay, Ohiofirst dipped their toes into the social mediapool in 2009 beginning with Facebook andthen YouTube. What they’ve discovered isthat it’s different social media strokes for dif-ferent folks.

“People’s expectations are different for eachsocial media avenue,” notes Betsy Hughes,vice president of sales and marketing. “Youcan’t post the same thing on Pinterest thatyou would on Twitter or Facebook. You cancertainly link all of them and post the same

thing but in different ways.”

Friends uses a variety of social media, in-cluding Vimeo and YouTube, for postingvideos. They use both because even thoughYouTube has the second largest search en-gine in the world, it’s blocked so they can’tuse it for promoting specials.

Videos posted on YouTube must be more in-formational or fun, like Friends’ Office Crash-ers program where they visit a differentcustomer’s office once a month to give themballoons and a gift basket. They also posthow-to videos focusing on office suppliessuch as how to get a stain out of a carpet withchemicals from their janitorial line.

Vimeo, says Hughes, is not as picky aboutwhat you can post. “We post more onVimeo because it’s the best way to getthings out to our customers from 8-5 andit’s not blocked,” she adds.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 23

COVER STORY continued from page 22

The secret to effectively using social mediain Hughes’s opinion is making it of value tocustomers.

One example of an effective Facebook pro-motion is Friends’ Fast Cash Friday effort.When a customer places an order on Fridaythey go into a drawing for a $50 Visa card.“We also ask those individuals who win towrite a blurb about us and like us,” saysHughes. “It seems to be working.”

Friends also makes a point of adding a strongpersonal touch to their social media messag-ing. “We post different things we do here atour office like birthdays and holiday celebra-tions,” says Hughes. “Customers really like tosee that. It humanizes our company.”

Friends has been doing this long enoughthat they’ve learned from their mistakes. “Alot of posts we just threw up there weren’tthat effective,” notes Hughes. “You justcan’t put stuff that just interests you. It’s notabout you. It’s not about your company. It’sjust like in a real relationship. How do youbecome somebody’s friend? How do youengage somebody? How do you network?You can’t just say, ‘I’m awesome, youshould like me, I can offer you this, I’m yourvalue add.’ It’s all about the customer andthat’s why we use the analytics because wewant to find out what interests the customerand that provides more interaction.”

The learning continues at Friends. “We’restill trying to figure out how to make it evenbetter by using Constant Contact and Wikipages and creating HTML code within ourFacebook page to make it more interactive,more entertaining, and more exciting,” re-ports Hughes.

A recent post highlighted the dealership’sWRITE (We Reward Innovative Teaching En-deavors) Program Grant winners. Educationclients submitted essays to Friends on howthey could improve their classroom if theyhad products from Friends BusinessSource. “We delivered the first grant yester-day and the teacher almost started crying,”notes Hughes.

Nobody’s crying at EZ Office Products inMadison, Wisconsin, now that they’ve gotmuch of this social media thing figured out.

“The end game is engagement, getting cus-tomers to react positively or negatively towhat you post or communicate,” statesRose Molz, president.

EZ Office Products’s employees are an im-portant element of their social media cam-paign. “[Customers] are interested inlearning more about what we do outside ofpens, Post-It Notes and pencils,” says Molz.

Also effective is posting pictures of commu-nity activities whether it’s a charitable event,a fundraiser sponsored by the dealership, agolf outing or a ribbon cutting.

“Things that get other people into the pic-ture, not just EZ Office Products, are reallyeffective,” notes Molz.

Contests, as other dealers using socialmedia have discovered, are also an effectiveway to pump up the ‘likes.’ “It’s much morechallenging to get people to like you onFacebook on a B2B level than it is ona C2C (consumer to consumer) levelbecause a lot of people still don’tuse Facebook,” she says.

One popular contest EZ sponsorsis the Administrative Professionalof the Year. The winner receives acrystal award along with two tick-ets to the Indianapolis 500 andhotel accommodations.

The contest not only drew a lot of at-tention to some outstanding office pro-fessionals, but also helped expand EZOffice Products’ friends and fan base.

Molz has had some help in fine-tuning hersocial media efforts, most notably from For-tune Web Marketing and Demand Metric.Asked about some of the mistakes shemade when she first began delving into thesocial media sphere, she responds, “Focus-ing only on office products or office furni-ture… not effective.”

Why’s that? “Because the whole purposefor whatever social media channel a busi-ness uses is to get people to engage andinteract. They can find a product on Google;they don’t use social channels for that.”

Another thing Molz has learned to do withthe help of Fortune Web is to center her so-

cial media efforts around a theme that’sconsistent across all social media channels.She cautions, though, against using theexact same approach with each socialmedia channel.

Dale Mahabir, creative and social directorfor Fortune Web Marketing, spends a lot oftime monitoring the social media realm,keeping abreast of trends and new devel-opments.

Something new that has started showing upon some of his client’s Facebook pages ispromoted posts. “If you’re willing to pay $5,and I think it goes up in $5 intervals, you canpromote your post so that it stays at the topof people’s news feeds and reaches a largerbase than it normally would,” reports Mahabir.

For example, take a Fortune Web client with500 Facebook friends. “Had we been willingto pay $5 for one of her posts to be spon-sored it would have reached 600-700 morepeople,” Mahabir estimates. “The more youare willing to pay the more people you canreach.”

There are plenty of misconceptions floatingaround about what social media can do andMahabir clears up a few. “One thing a lot ofour dealers struggle with is trying to quantify

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JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 24

COVER STORY continued from page 24

social media and determine the ROI,” ac-knowledges Mahabir.

Determining the ROI of social media is anongoing debate. But, he maintains, anequally important question is, ‘What’s theROI on ignoring social media?’”

He adds, “You have to look at the intrinsicbenefits of social media and the explicit ben-efits of brand recognition, reaching a wideraudience, sales, discounts, things of that na-ture. That said, the second thing we seedealers misinterpreting about social media isthey want to post as often as possible aboutwhatever sale or great product they have.That strategy doesn’t work. You need a vari-ety of different posts. You want to ask ques-tions. You want to engage your audience.”

Mahabir recommends Facebook polls as apromotional tool. “If you’re offering freebiesor promos you can actually ask your Face-book fan base what they would like to seefrom you and that level of engagement al-ways brings in more likes. It gets people fol-lowing your page more and gets your statusupdates to the tops of people’s news pages.”

He cautions against over posting which canlead to customers unfriending you or worse,blocking your posts. If you’re blocked, hepoints out, the customer still shows as yourfriend and you don’t know you’re not reach-ing them anymore.

Mahabir considers Twitter the second bestthing to Facebook. “You need to be directand to the point but a lot of strategies forFacebook can be carried over to Twitter.You don’t want to barrage people, but youdo want to engage them. If somebodysends you a message or responds to some-thing you posted, you should respond.That’s true for all social media channels.”

As for as other social media outlets, he citesGoogle+, a competitor to Facebook. Heconsiders it a good social network but rightnow, not enough people are on it. “We stillrecommend our clients have a Google+profile and be involved with it to a certainextent for the purpose of search engine op-timization.”

The other outlet of interest is Pinterest. “It’sgaining momentum, but there may be a littlelag time before the office supply industry getshold of it and uses it for their client base,”suggests Mahabir. “Right now is the besttime so you’re ahead of the curve on that.”

Wayne Breitbarth, an office furniture dealerand social media consultant, author andspeaker, is bullish on LinkedIn for new busi-ness development.

LinkedIn, he maintains, can help you findnew customers by using the friends in yourLinkedIn network to introduce you to theirfriends and connections who may be deci-sion makers in their businesses.

“Half of LinkedIn’s power is the search ca-pability,” says Breitbarth. “The second halfis making sure that employees and compa-nies have good LinkedIn profiles so theycan be found with the right keywords.

Adds Breitbarth, “When we work on a fur-niture project it’s rare when we don’t have afriend that doesn’t know somebody in thebusiness here in Milwaukee. It’s almostmaking cold calling obsolete.”

His dealership’s biggest social media-drivensuccess story involves a prospect wherethey had no previous relationship with acompany until LinkedIn paved the way.

They used the search function on LinkedInand discovered that one of their sales repswas connected to a doctor in Madison, 90miles away, who used to play golf with theCEO of a Milwaukee company that wasconstructing a new building.

Through that doctor, they made the connec-tion with the CEO and ended up as one ofthe two vendors selected to furnish thebuilding.

“You can go home put your shorts on andhave a beer and do this,” states Breitbarth.“That’s the beauty of LinkedIn, it’s a form ofbranding, networking, marketing you can doat home while you’re sitting there watchinga baseball game. How good is that?”

Breitbarth has learned some valuable les-sons about social media. “Because social

media looks and smells and feels like mar-keting, those of us who have been market-ing a long time go right to that part of it andwe turn people off,” he contends. “It doesmarket real well but you have to earn yourmarketing position by sharing great infor-mation about the things you do and the in-dustry and educational opportunities.”

When it comes to status updates he recom-mends dealers follow the 60/30/10 rule.

“Sixty percent of your status updatesshould come from other people in your in-dustry—experts in your industry, articlesthey’ve written, checklists, white papers.Thirty percent is stuff your own companyhas developed—educational training, forexample—and only 10% should be flat, in-your-face marketing. People will not beturned off by that because 9 out of 10 timesyou’re not advertising.”

Mandy Pusatera grew up in the office prod-ucts industry and her parents owned an in-dependent office supplies dealership. As amillennial, she’s well versed in social mediaand when she’s not writing columns on thesubject for INDEPENDENT DEALER, sheserves as in-house social media guru forThe Highlands Group rep organization.

Pusatera’s background gives her a uniqueperspective on how dealers can best leveragesocial media. She says Facebook ads are finebut posts and communications that are moreconversational are particularly effective.

For example, a dealer marketing Exit signsmight start with a post or a poll asking cus-tomers if their business has an evacuationplan. That post might also include links toevacuation plans and then a statement like,“And don’t forget to have working signs,”which for all intents and purposes is a subtlesales pitch.

We asked Pusatera about the most fre-quently asked questions she hears fromdealers. Number one is, How do I get peo-ple to like my page?

“You can read 15,000 articles that tell youthey know exactly how to do it,” says Pusat-era. “Nobody knows exactly how to do it

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JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 25

COVER STORY continued from page 24

because nobody knows who you’re goingafter. You know who you’re going after.”

She contends it’s a trial and error process.“The methods to get someone to like yourpage in Florida may not work in California,”maintains Pusatera. “You need to have con-versational content regardless. Some peo-ple are going to be motivated by a contest,some will be motivated by the personal fac-tor that goes with social networking.”

If you’re part of a family-owned dealership,she recommends including informationabout the members of the company tomake customers feel included. “There’s nosingle method or approach that’s going towork with every person. I don’t think any-body can tell you for sure.”

The other thing she hears from dealers is, “Idon’t have the time.”

“It’s a valid complaint because social mediatakes up more time than people realize,”says Pusatera.

The most useful advice she has is to engagethe customer on an ongoing basis. “Don’tpost something or send out an e-mail andthen come back in a month hoping you’vegot 100 likes,” she urges.

“Social networking is all about engagement,it’s all about joining the conversation, andthe only way you’re going to get somebodywho isn’t a customer of yours to like yourpage is to go where they are and start talk-ing to them. You don’t go to a Chamber ofCommerce page and say, ‘Come check outmy products,’ you go there and talk aboutwhatever people are talking about. You waituntil there’s a topic that allows you to bringup your company in a certain way.”

Pusatera recommends dealers not obsessabout content creation or go out and hiresomeone just to do social media. If theydon’t use an organization like The HighlandsGroup for content, she suggests searchingonline for content that doesn’t have any-thing to do with the office products industry.

The person responsible for this might besomeone in the office who is already re-sponsible for the dealership’s online pres-ence, she suggests. Maybe they spend anhour a day online copying and pasting somesort of worthwhile post. That, she says, mayonly take 10 minutes.

“The other 50 minutes can be spent engagingand drawing people in as opposed to spend-ing two hours on content creation when youdon’t really know if anybody’s going to go tothe page to begin with,” she argues.

If you’re a dealer with limited time on yourhands you have to “like” that. But whetheryou’ve got no time, limited time, or all thetime in the world, this is absolutely no timeto ignore the marketing and branding po-tential of social media.

Office Products Women in Leadership (OPWIL) is a professional organization connecting women in leadership roles within the Office Products industry. Together we can learn, develop and grow while forming professional connections and developing lasting friendships.

Join our conversation on Facebook and LinkedIn for more information.

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COVER STORY continued from page 25

Discovering New Therapies: After successful treatment for leukemia, Gus Perez is back pursuing his work as a firefighter — and his passion as a surfer. The innovative treatments that led him to City of Hope include hundreds of promising ideas currently in clinical trials. Drugs like Herceptin, Rituxan, Avastin and Erbitux — used by patients around the world — resulted from City of Hope’s pioneering research.

From now until September 30, the Post-it® Brand of 3Mwill double your giving power by matching dollar for dollar every online donation made throughwww.cityofhope.org/postitmatch up to $100,000!

Join City of Hope’s National Office Products Industry in the fight to prevent, treat and ultimately cure cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

To have your donation doubled, visit www.cityofhope.org/postitmatch.

They had the leading-edge treatments I needed to fight and conquer this life-threatening disease.Gus Perez, patient

I CAME TO CITY OF HOPEBECAUSE

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Remember the days when dealer marketingwas all about feet on the street andprospect phone lists? In all probability, therewill always be a place for outbound effortsof that kind, but increasingly, they are be-coming far less effective than they used tobe.

Cold calling in an office building has be-come almost nonexistent. Salespeopleneed to get by security—and unless theyhave an appointment, that probably won’thappen.

And when they start making those outboundcalls, they find prospects using tools such ascallerID and voice mail to block them out.

Let’s face it: More and more of today’sprospects are looking at traditional out-bound marketing tactics as an intrusion thatthey just don’t need any more.

Fortunately, however, the rapid acceptanceof social media platforms like Twitter, Face-book, LinkedIn and YouTube is creating adramatically different kind of marketing op-

portunity to prospect in excitingnew ways.

Instead of focusing on outboundmarketing, it’s time for dealers tobegin shifting the weight to in-bound marketing and start takingadvantage of social media to findnew business.

The goal of inbound marketing issimple: It’s far more about puttingyour company in a position to befound by prospects and far lessabout trying to find them.

Search engines, blogs and socialmedia put companies in a posi-tion to be found on their website.When this happens, the prospecttakes the initiative, fills out a con-

tact form, becomes a lead and enters intothe sales process.

CRM/sales and marketing automation soft-ware such as SugarCRM andSalesforce.com enable you to automate thisprocess.

A lead record is automatically created andthe prospect enters into an automatedworkflow based on lead variables.

Workflows send out promotional emails andassign tasks, assuring consistent follow upand higher lead conversion ratios.

As leads are nurtured and become cus-tomers, traditional CRM can still help man-age relationships and sales and marketingprocesses.

However, in both lead development andgrowing and retaining existing customers,social CRM is beginning to play a majorrole.

Within current day CRM software lies soft-ware that connects to many different social

media sites. Information on companies andthe people in them give sales people andcompanies valuable resources they can useto build relationships and help drive thesales process overall.

Through these sites, salespeople can furtherconnect with customers and prospects bybecoming Twitter followers and Facebookfans. Relationship-building conversationand collaboration ensues.

Conversations need not only be betweencompanies and their customers. Socialmedia sites offer the opportunity to share inconversations between customers and theircustomers, gathering valuable informationto help companies make positive changes.

All of this new interaction helps raise rela-tionships to an entirely new level and prop-erly used, results in significant competitiveadvantage.

Current day CRM software programs arenow including the capability to link to socialmedia sites and blogs, not from the just theconnecting software mentioned above, butfrom customer and prospect contactrecords directly.

As a new contact record is added, links toTwitter and LinkedIn show up and the con-nection is made.

Modern day CRM software’s marketing au-tomation helps implement inbound market-ing and lead creation and nurturing, and thesocial CRM component helps to grow themand keep them.

The bottom line: It’s time to start making iteasier for prospects to find you on the Weband commit to using social media to learnas much as you can about them and yourcurrent customers to build stronger andmore profitable relationships.

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 28

Neil Saviano is the president of CRM International and the Longbow Consulting Group, providers of CRM and sales forceautomation to the office products industry. Neil can be reached at 978-750-6882, or neil@crminternational.com Or for moreinformation, visit www.longbowcg.com

ARE YOU READY FOR THE

SocialMedia Marketing Revolution?By Neil Saviano

Over the past year, we have discussedsome of the most popular social networksand hopefully provided a clearer under-standing of the vast benefits social mediamarketing offers anyone in the office prod-ucts industry.

In this final chapter of our social media se-ries, we will revisit some of the social mediamarketing tools that we discussed last year.You can utilize these and many more to cre-ate efficient, impactful social media market-ing campaigns.

Stock PhotosDon’t forget! Just because an image isfound online does not mean you can use itwithout purchasing the proper license for it.

Every image that is produced is “finger-printed” and can be tracked even if youhave modified, cropped or recreated it insome way.

If you don’t have the time or the software tocreate your own images, there are plenty ofwebsites you can visit to download royalty-free images and/or images you may use fora small fee. A few of these sites are listedbelow for your convenience:

n Microsoft Design Gallery Live (free)*:Grab royalty-free stock photos, as wellas clip art.

n Flickr Creative Commons Search(free)*: Use these images with attributionin presentations, blogs, etc.

n iStockPhoto*: Purchase images withthe credits you buy (subscription or payas you go). Offers a legal guarantee.

*These images are often still not allowed tobe used for “commercial” purposes such asin company logos, etc., but most can beused in emails and social network posts andfor a variety of other purposes. Be sure tocheck their policies before including imagesin any campaigns.

Photo-Editingn FastStone Image Viewer (free): Unlessyour images need major edits, this quickdownload offers you all the editing ca-pabilities you need, such as basic crop-ping and resizing tools and many more.

n FastStone Capture: With this soft-ware, you can capture screenshots in allshapes and sizes, record videos fromthe web and edit them before saving. Italso has the added benefit of a ScreenColor Picker with the Hex value, Decand RGB code, as well as a Screen PixelRuler. Cost is still just $19.95.

n Skitch (free): For Mac users. You cancapture images, crop them and draw onthem in much the same way as Fast-Stone Capture.

HTML Code Helpn www.w3schools.com (free): Once youdive deeper into social media marketing,you will more than likely see a need forsome basic knowledge of HTML codes. Ipersonally recommend www.w3schools.com.This site contains a wide variety of codetopics, complete with explanations, andyou can even practice for free!

Link Shorteners/Trackingn bit.ly You will need a URL shortener sothat you can still link your customers toyour blog, website articles, etc., evenwhen posting to a site like Twitter that lim-its your amount of characters. Here youcan easily customize the shortened URLto whatever you’d like displayed. The bestthing about using bit.ly is you can add a“+” to the end of any of your bit.ly linksand see how many times it’s been clickedon and by whom.

Management/Analyticsn www.HootSuite.com Hands down thebest social media marketing manage-ment tool to this day. You can managemultiple social media profiles with Hoot-Suite and pre-schedule updates for a cer-tain date and time. Besides the ability tomonitor keywords, HootSuite also allowsyou to analyze statistics and if you up-grade to the Pro version for just $5.99 amonth, you can create custom reports forall your social media pages.

While there are thousands of tools available,these should certainly help you get your so-cial media marketing campaigns off to agreat start. Of course, we encourage you totry new tools as they develop since socialmedia trends and tools change almost daily.

And always remember, no matter what con-tent you choose to post or what tools youchoose to utilize, you must engage…engage…engage!

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 29

Mandy Pusatera is director of the Heads Up e-newsletter for The Highlands Group. To sign up, please visit:http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001A1aP_pJcM6L7XXyDGtQPag%3D%3D

Your Social Media Toolbox Revisited

By Mandy Pusatera

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 30

Are You Really in theGame or Just

Memorizing thePlaybook?

By Troy Harrison

Troy Harrison is the author of “Sell Like You Mean It!” and the President of SalesForce Solutions, a sales training, consult-ing, and recruiting firm. For information on booking speaking/training engagements, consulting, or to sign up for his weekly E-zine, call 913-645-3603, e-mail TroyHarrison@SalesForceSolutions.net, or visit www.SalesForceSolutions.net.

Sometimes, what you DON’T take into asales call is more important than what youdo take in. Sometimes, the stuff that youtake into a call is nothing but extraneoushead-trash that gets in your way—and moreimportantly—gets in your customer’s waywhen they want to talk to you and place anorder.

What brought this to mind was a conversa-tion I had with a young salesperson recently.This person had been through a sales train-ing, not mine, that focused on heavy tech-niques and word games.

The result, in her case, was probably theworst case of training malpractice I’d everseen. She was so focused on rememberingwhat technique to use at what time (andwhat the names of the techniques were) thatshe was unable to have a reasonable con-versation with a customer.

Like a bodybuilder who trains so much thathe becomes muscle-bound and has diffi-culty functioning, she was so technique-bound that she couldn’t just talk with hercustomers. There’s a fix for this, though.

You see, I’ve always preached that salesshould flow as a focused conversation. Thefocus comes from your questions and com-ments; the conversational nature comesfrom never forgetting that you’re talking toanother human being and that your job is tolearn more about him/her and help solveproblems.

If you’re focused on remembering when touse your Double Inverse Outward Question

with a Half Twist, that probably isn’t going tohappen!

We salespeople have trained our customersover the years to spot cheap tactics. Usethe Take-Away, the Firing Horace or theSharp Angle (yep, those all exist) on some-one, and they can spot it a mile away. Andonce you start doing that, you cease to bea person. And you know what? Customerstrust people; they don’t trust cheap tac-tics—or the people who use them.

The other problem with those tactics is that,like a movie script, they only work if cus-tomers know their lines as well as you knowyours!

For instance, let’s look at the Take-Away.This is a technique designed to ‘reverse’ thesales dynamic by forcing the customer to‘prove that they are worthy’ of buying. Youtell the customer that you don’t think yourproduct is right for them, and that makesthem want to buy it so badly that they willsell you on buying. The trouble is that itdoesn’t work, for several reasons.

First, the customer doesn’t know that theyare supposed to be selling you, so manytimes they will simply say, “OK, I under-stand, thanks.” Then if you want the sale,you have to backtrack into selling mode—which makes a liar out of you.

It’s the ultimate Catch-22. Either the cus-tomer trusts you based on what you’vedone up until that point, which means thatthey trust your judgment that they shouldn’tbuy and that means no sale.

Or, they are a bit skeptical of you, spot thecheap tactic for what it is and it reinforcestheir decision not to trust you—which alsomeans no sale.

The second reason it doesn’t work is that, ifyou are telling someone that they shouldn’tbuy something when you really believe thatthey should, you are a liar. There’s no wayto come back from that.

Once you’ve lied to your customer—andbelieve me, they will know it—you are for-ever branded as someone not to be trusted.Of course, that’s just one example of thesekinds of tactics; customers spot them all.

So let’s talk about unpacking. In the case ofthe salesperson I’m discussing, my adviceto her was to forget about all those namedtactics, forget about trying to rememberwhat to say when and instead, try and es-tablish a few simple objectives for the call.

Then ask questions that help you achievethose goals, and present the right productsand services. Have conversations with people!

The best thing to unpack from your head ispretty much any sales tactic with a name(like the ones I’ve mentioned earlier; thereare many more).

Named sales tactics are more designed tosell sales training (because the trainer is ‘anauthority’ if they know the tactic and youdon’t) than they are designed to help you sell.

opportunityAs usual, the opinions expressed in the followingcolumn are mine and based mostly upon myobservations. Hopefully, some of them are wrong! But,can I ask a favor? If you read the first part of thiscolumn, which is admittedly depressing, pleasecontinue to the conclusion, because there is a silverlining to this cloud.It is that time of year again. The summer and fall seasons bring ourindustry as many dealer shows as anyone could want—and prob-ably more than some manufacturers can stand.

I am certain that all of them have added great value in the past (Iam working on becoming more politically correct). But too manytimes in recent years attendees have not used the opportunities pro-vided by the wholesalers and dealer groups to improve their busi-nesses.

Too many dealers have spent too much time resting, vacationingand drinking free booze. Far be it from me to suggest that such ac-tivities are always improper, but this year needs to be different.

Why Tom? Why pick this year to rain on our parade and attempt tospoil such a fantastic set of events?

Trust me, I don’t mean to be negative, but from my interactions withdealers and customers this year, I think the office products businessis undergoing more change and yes, decline, than ever before in itshistory.

Sales of C and D items have never approached pre-2008 levels andit is due to more than just a weak economy.

Products like the iPad have allowed companies and individuals touse fewer pens to write with and less toner for printing. This in turnhas resulted in the first long-term reduction in copy paper sales.

Has it ever occurred to you how much of our business model isbased on the sale of copy paper?

When paper consumption suffers, so does our base business andno projection I am familiar with suggests that it will ever increaseagain.

Don’t get me wrong.This is not one more“paperless office” fore-cast. Rather, it is a fore-cast of offices withsignificantly less paperuse. It’s a trend that’scoming sooner ratherthan later and it’s onewith huge implicationsfor our future.

So, now that I have your at-tention, please don’t slit yourwrists. There is hope, but not if youare complacent.

Change is here. It’s big, it’s potentially nasty and it’s whatmakes attending at least one of this year’s dealer shows soimportant.

S.P. Richards’ ABC show is the first of the bunch andis always excellent. D.C. will be a great place to bein spite of the heat. Don’t worry though. If you arethere for the right reasons the heat won’t botheryou at all because you will be inside.

Create a plan to maximize the opportunitiesthat will present themselves. Here are a fewideas that might just help you create momen-tum within your business as you move to-wards greater sales and profitability.

n Set up meetings with non-competingdealers who are finding success withdifferent approaches and figure outhow to apply their ideas to your busi-ness.

n Attend all the training sessions thatyou are signed up for. My IDealer col-league Krista Moore and her team al-ways do an excellent job and be surenot to miss Steve

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 31

CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

Don’t Miss Your

to Go and GrowBy Tom Buxton

Tom Buxton, founder and CEO of the InterBizGroup consulting organization, works with independent office products dealers to help increasesales and profitability. For more information, visit www.interbizgroup.com.

Turner or Sam Richter if there is room. They can save youtime and make you money. (I am sure that the rest of thepresenters are excellent as well, but I am only commentingabout folks I have heard.)

n Spend all the time available at the vendor show. New prod-ucts will be important, but determining what other thingsyou can deliver on your truck is even more critical. Decidewhether you are going to move towards MPS, Jan San,Breakroom, Coffee, Technology, Safety, or Furniture. Don’tchoose all of them, but understand as much as you canabout each potential new line of business and then make adecision.

n Examine the map of vendor sites before you go and com-pare it to your current level of sales in a product line. Arethere vendors that aren’t meeting your needs? Find alterna-tive folks to approach. Are there manufacturers that youhaven’t heard of? Maybe they would be worth checkingout. Look them up in your catalog before you go.

n Decide which 5-10 product categories or lines of businessshould take up the most time and write down questions toask vendors within those categories. (You can create

questions and do analysis while in flight to Washington ifnot before)

n Look for different products from folks you do know. It maybe a cliché to say that new products are the lifeblood of ourindustry but it’s no less true for being a cliché.

n Go light on the drinking! Trust me, I have never seen acocktail party run out of booze so drink slow and networkwith other folks. You just might hear an idea that willchange your company and your future.

There are many more suggestions I could make about your atten-dance at S.P.’s show or any of the others that are coming up in thenear future, but hopefully you get the idea. This is your chance tobe inquisitive and grow sales. Use it!

I am told that the ABC is totally booked, so if you aren’t attending itbe sure to sign up for one or more of I.S.’s, Office Partners’,TriMega’s, or United’s Vision show. The folks who put these on andthe manufacturers that support them need your participation andyou need them more than ever before.

Have a great time and be sure to thank everyone involved by work-ing as hard as they are. You can never know when one or more ofour industry’s greatest educational events might go away.

JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 32

Don’t Miss Your Opportinity to Go and Grow continued from page 31

Independents are working harder than everto get appointments, sell more, and growtheir business in a highly competitive, price-focused environment.

Traditional sales processes and methodsare not working so well anymore, and manyindependent sales reps are losing their driveand their confidence.

Over the past few months we have sharedwith you the K.Coaching approach andmethods for winning new business. This ap-proach has proven itself time and again, andwe have been happy to share it with dealerswho want to change and grow.

In our article in last month’s INDEPENDENTDEALER, “Sell Value Not Price,” we focusedon the importance of truly understandingthe prospect’s business and process needsin order to take the focus away from priceand create obvious value to the prospect.

The key to this approach lies not only inaligning your solution to what a prospectneeds, but in really connecting with theprospect over the business impact they willexperience by making you their primarysupplier or vendor of choice.

This is so important to winning or losingdeals that we believe all sales teams shouldbe required and held accountable for havingprofessional conversations about theirprospects’ business and circumstances—conversations that reach beyond officeproducts and the need for low prices—andknow how to prepare a winning proposaland plan to win.

Embracing the Plan to Win ApproachIf your sales manager has a price mentalityand is accustomed to going to market withjust a price offer, it might be hard to changeyour culture and therefore difficult to growyour business in such a price-centric market.

A sales manager should not accept a salesrep’s claim when he or she says, “All theprospect wants or cares about are lowprices.”

Such a claim is a good indicator that the repdid not conduct the discovery and pre-bidconversation at a high level and in a mannerdesigned to build a professional relationshipand rapport to win the business and keep it.

A sales manager should review the oppor-tunity with his or her sales reps and holdthem accountable for having these types ofhigher level conversations before eventhinking about working up a price quote orbid for the business.

This is the only way sales reps will learn newprofessional conversation methods.

They need to gain a complete understand-ing of a prospect’s needs and circum-stances so that you can put together anaccount strategy and a formal written pro-posal…and not just sell on price.

Strategize How to Win the BusinessAfter you review the opportunity and needswith your sales reps, strategize on what itwill take to close the deal.

Dealers often omit this phase or pursue aprice-only strategy. A price-only strategymay win new business temporarily, only tohave a customer move on to the next lowestbidder.

Instruct your sales reps to complete an Ac-count Strategy Plan Worksheet thatprompts them to approach the prospectmore strategically.

This will increase their likelihood of gainingvaluable insights into a prospect’s businessand help them think about what they needto offer (other than low prices) to win thebusiness.

At K.Coaching we use Account StrategyPlan Worksheets when we coach busi-nesses on winning specific sales opportu-nities or helping implement a winning salesprocess.

This is a great way for a sales manager orbusiness coach to review what the sales repdiscovered and begin to establish yourvalue statements and proposal for closingthe account.

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JULY 2012 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 33

Plan to

By Krista Moore

Krista Moore is president of K.Coaching, Inc, an executive coaching and consulting practice that has helped literally hundreds of independentdealers maximize their full potential through enhancing their sales strategies, sales training and leadership development. For more information,visit K.Coaching’s web site at www.kcoaching.com.

Create Value StatementsThese are statements or talk tracks that youcan use in conversations and in your writtenproposals. They are connecting, reiterating,compelling and aligned specifically to yourprospect’s needs. They are the foundationfor your winning proposition.

“Value Statements” are not to be confusedwith “Power Statements,” which you use toget a prospect’s attention at the beginningof the sales process if you are certain youknow the customer’s situation and businessneeds.

Value Statements should always be writtenfrom the buyer’s perspective.

Make the connection for them about whatyour proposal means to them, the impact itwill have on their business and how you willhelp them achieve their specific businessinitiatives and goals.

Identify the three most urgent needs thatyou have discovered, and the valuable im-pact your products and services will pro-duce and then create a Value Statement foreach of those needs by preparing an offer-ing that includes the following:

• Your demonstrated understanding ofthe need

• A description of what you do and howyou do it

• An explanation of how you do it betterthan anyone else; include some proofpoints

• A benefits statement that describesthe positive impact you will have ontheir business and departmental needs

To clearly connect through Value State-ments, you need to make your prospect“feel” the difference you will make, what itmeans to them, and how it will help themachieve their goals.

We realize this may be a very different ap-proach from the traditional sales conversa-tions about service, price, and product.

It will require management support, salesprocess documentation and sales trainingto truly change from a price centric-com-pany to one that is committed to strategi-cally planning to win new business.

Those dealers that are changing and plan-ning to win are getting more appointments,gaining confidence and winning more deals.That’s why we will continue sharing ourmethodology in upcoming issues of INDE-PENDENT DEALER as we address how toeffectively offer proof points and demon-strate your value.

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Plan to Win continued from page 33