editorial

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 2

Are You Making the Mostof Your Service Edge?

PS:

Last month, your humble editor had the good for-tune to attend AOPD’s 2009 Annual Meeting in PalmSprings and as you can see from our report else-where in this issue, it was a terrific get together, witha strong program of speakers on key industry topicsand plenty of opportunities for dealers and theirbusiness partners to work on ways to keep growingand profitable in tough markets.

Getting there, however, was a very different story.

Bad weather forced our plane to be re-routed fromPalm Springs to LAX. Upon landing, we got no indi-cation as to how we might get to our original desti-nation until reaching the baggage claim area, wherepassengers lucky enough to be in hearing rangewere told buses would take us the rest of the wayand would be along in about 25 minutes.

Ninety minutes later, with almost nothing in the wayof progress reports while we waited, we boardedthe buses for a two-hour ride to Palm Springs andfinally got to the meeting hotel three hours later thanplanned.

All of us have more than our fair share of bad airlinestories and my own little adventure last month willcertainly not be the last. But as I thought about itlater, several points came to mind that seemedworth sharing for this month’s editorial.

First of all, and how sad it is, most of us today prettymuch take this level of customer service for grantedand with few exceptions, are reconciled to viewingit as the norm. If you’re looking for reasons why ouronce-proud legacy airlines are having so much trou-ble these days, the customer service they providemight well be a good place to start.

The second and more important point is this: Thegenerally woeful level of service that we all have toendure is creating some tremendous opportunitiesfor anyone who can actually provide a superior cus-

tomer service experience.

If you’re an office manager or purchasing agent, forexample, the last thing you want to do is spend timeworrying about whether or not you’ve got enoughpaper or toner or note pads to keep your peoplehappy and productive.

The best thing that can happen to you is to find asupplier you can depend on … someone who offersquality products, is easy to do business with andwho can be trusted to do whatever it takes to keepthings running smoothly for you, no matter what un-expected needs or emergencies might come along.

The final point, even more important, is this: As anindependent, you know your ability to out-serviceyour competition represents a huge edge in themarketplace. But do your people know? Are yousending a message out to everyone in your organi-zation—from senior management to your ware-house and delivery people and your recep-tionist—that they all have a critical role to play increating a superior service experience for thosepeople who matter most in your world: your cus-tomers?

Stating the obvious? Maybe. But it’s no less validfor all that, and certainly something to think about,particularly in these challenging times.

For a truly inspiring presentation on serv-ice, check out www.stservicemovie.com.And thanks to Joe Williams of Mon-ValleyOffice Equipment in Charleroi, Pennsylva-nia, for finding it.

THE

WINNERS’CircleSpecial Awards and Honors Keep Coming for Freeman’sNancy Balkcom

In Atlanta, Nancy Balkcom and her team at Freeman Forms andSupplies and MySupplies.com have got plenty to celebrate, aftera flurry of special awards and recognition over the past fewmonths that has surely sent Nancy searching through the catalogsfor a new display case or two.

Kudos started coming back in October last year, when Nancy wasnamed a finalist in the annual Stevie Awards for Women inBusiness.

Described by the New York Post as "the business world's ownOscars,” the awards honor women executives and entrepreneursand are selected by a panel of independent business owners andexecutives drawn from around the world. Nancy was selectedfrom among more than 1,200 entries submitted for considerationin 50 different categories.

In November, the Greater Women's Business Council (GWBC), anon-profit organization for certified Women's Business Enterprisesin Georgia and the Carolinas, added to the honor roll, when theypresented Nancy with their 2008 Trailblazer Award.

Trailblazers, in the words of the award citation, are “outstanding

entrepreneurial women.” The award honors their participation inthe free enterprise system and their risk taking and innovation andrecognizes their community and business leadership.

The honors continue this month at Enterprising Womenmagazine’s annual Enterprising Women of the Year AwardsCelebration, where Nancy was nominated for Enterprising Womanof the Year in the “Businesses with $5-10 Million in AnnualRevenues” category.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 3

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All the special attention hasn’t stopped Nancy and her team fromkeeping business at the dealership humming, however. “We’re stillmaking money so far this year,” she reports happily. “We’reactually optimistic about 2009 and looking to hire more sales staffto keep the momentum going,” she adds.

Tejas Office Products, Houston Dealer, Hits theHeadlines for Community Involvement

Congratulations to Lupe Fraga and his team at Houston-basedTejas Office Products for some outstanding PR last month in oneof Houston’s leading publications serving the Hispanic community.

Lupe and his family were featured on the cover of Familias Latinas,a bi-monthly magazine with a circulation of over 25,000 in thegreater Houston market.

Inside: a two-page spread on the Fraga family, highlighting theircontributions to the community and presenting their perspectiveson the special benefits and challenges of being part of asuccessful family business.

In addition to Lupe, wife Irene, daughters Michele and Alisa andson Stephen are all involved in the business, along with Irene’syounger brother and Alisa’s husband.

Virtually all of them are also involved in community activities of onekind of another, ranging from the United Way and local Chamberto local family and child care providers, inner city school projects

and more.

“It’s important to give back to the city that has given me and myfamily so much,” Lupe told the magazine. “Serving other familiesis rewarding for all involved. We find great satisfaction in helpingother families and we encourage others to become activelyinvolved in causes they’re passionate about.”

New Mexico Office Products Dealer Marks FiftiethAnniversary

Congratulations also go to Mario Martinez and his team at NewMexico Office Products, who this year are celebrating a veryspecial milestone—their fiftieth year of continuous operations.

Mario’s dealership was founded in 1959 by his father, Celso, asEspanola Typewriter Service. Today, the dealership operates outof a 3,000 sq. ft. distribution center and retail store and maintainsa separate web site at www.DiscountSupplies.biz.

As one of the country’s first cities—it was founded by Spanishexplorers in 1598—and a location less than 20 miles from LosAlamos National Labs, Espanola offers a unique blend of historyand hi tech and serves as an economic hub for much of northcentral New Mexico,

It’s not a booming market by any means, but, says Mario, businesshas been steady for the dealership, which goes to market with abroad, one-stop shop value proposition.

In addition to its basic supplies and furniture business, NewMexico Office Products sells ad specialties and promotionproducts, trophies and awards, breakroom and cleaning products,business machines, IT equipment and more. And Mario and histeam also broker printing!

While exact details are still being finalized, Mario says thedealership will be celebrating the anniversary with specialpromotions throughout the year and hosting an open house torecognize loyal customers.

“My dad started this business on the strength of an 8th-gradeeducation and a fierce work ethic,” Mario recalls. “We’ve gonefrom selling typewriters out of a retail store to marketing anincredibly broad product mix through our new online cyberspacestore. Despite all the competition, we’re still here and looking togrow. It’s a great story!”

In Texas, Independent Beats Out Big BoxCompetition to Earn ‘Vendor of the Year’ Honors

We’ve often made the point that when it comes to outstandingcustomer service and value, nobody does it better than today’sindependents. But you certainly don’t have to take our word for it!

Just ask the buyers for the City of Garland just outside of Dallas.Each year they select a Silver Star Vendor of the Year to recognizeexcellence and outstanding customer service among theirsuppliers.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 5

Winner’s Circle: continued from page 3

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The city buys from several different office products resellers, includingour friends at Staples and Corporate Express. But guess who walkedaway with the 2008 award when it was presented last November?

None other than Suzi Darr, an inside sales rep at Office ProductsWarehouse in Irving and one proud independent!

Buyers evaluated all vendors on a range of criteria that includedbasic honesty in all matters, compliance with City terms, productknowledge, problem solving ability and more.

Suzi was the top vote getter, thanks to her extensive officeproducts experience—she’ll be starting her 27th year in theindustry in May—and that unique, independent commitment toworld-class service that no other kind of office products resellercan match.

“We really believe in old school customer service at our dealershipand that makes a big difference,” says Suzi proudly. And there’s abunch of happy buyers in Garland who couldn’t agree more!

Downturn … What Downturn? Huntington Business Products, NY Dealer, Opens100-Plus New Accounts in Six Months

The headlines may still be full of gloom and doom in the economy,but in Huntington, New York, Dave Garbus and his team atHuntington Business Products Centre have made a firm decision:They’re just not going to participate!

Using a business development process created by David Fosslerof SWMC (www.salesworksmarketingcentral.com), Dave and histeam have signed up a grand total of 111 new accounts in just thepast six months.

The process utilizes an 11 x 17 flyer as a drop-off and/or mailer tohelp market Huntington’s capabilities and expertise and highlightsits ability to reduce office expenses for customers.

Key message points focus on overall savings, excellence inservice and outstanding customer satisfaction, in contrast to thecommodity sale-priced flyers they previously used when trying toopen new accounts.

“I am very pleased with the tremendous impact this campaign hashad on the acquisition of new accounts,” says Dave. “The HBPCNews Page presents a professional image for our company thatoffers office solutions not just low prices. Our proactive approach,unique company message and strong presentation skills haveallowed our sales team to secure over 60% of our proposals, andhas become a great revenue source during the current economicconditions.”

For more information, e-mail SalesWorksMarketingCentral(info@salesworksmarketingcentral.com) or contact Dave Fosslerat 717-371-7491.

Sayes Office Supply, Louisiana Dealer, Keeps Sales Momentum Going, Opens New Distribution Facility

It’s been a busy couple of months for Kenny Sayes and his teamat Sayes Office Supply in Alexandria, Louisiana.

In December, we reported on Kenny’s meeting with PresidentGeorge W. Bush as part of the President’s outreach effort on thegovernment’s response to the credit crisis.

December also saw Kenny and his team move distributionoperations into a new facility that basically doubles theirwarehouse space and provides an opportunity to more thandouble their current furniture showroom.

The new distribution facility is about five miles south of the mainSayes location and features 36,000 sq. ft. of space, six loadingbays and a ramp so that trucks can drive right inside the buildingto unload.

The move garnered Kenny some terrific publicity, including a 3-minute spot on the local 6 O’Clock News and a very nice write upin the local newspaper.

Despite all the gloom and doom in the headlines, business hasbeen good in Alexandria, Kenny reports. Sales last year at thedealership were up over 15% and Kenny and his team posted thesame kind of double-digit year-over-year gains in January.

Winner’s Circle: continued from pag 5

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MARCH 2009

What’s their secret? “We’re just being very aggressive in themarketplace, putting a lot more emphasis on accountability andleaving no stone unturned,” says Kenny, who credits new salesmanager Diana Deville for much of the dealership’s recent stronggrowth.

Kansas City Dealer Builds Business with IT-Oriented One-Stop Model

A lot of dealers talk about positioning themselves as one-stopshops for their customers but few do it quite as well as VirgieDillard and her team at Missouri Office Systems & Supplies inKansas City, Missouri.

Virgie started out selling computer and office supplies andbusiness machines back in 1993, but as competition from the bigboxes and the Internet grew, she decided her mix would have tochange in order to keep growing.

“I realized we needed to find niches where the big box storeswouldn’t go and technology seemed a logical choice,” she recalls.

Virgie brought in an experienced IT sales professional and with thehelp of a growing network of IT-related distributors and serviceproviders, moved into the computer hardware and customsoftware business.

Today, she reports, technology products and services account forover half of the dealership’s total business. In addition todistributors like Synnex and Supplies Network, key businesspartners include a local Internet security company and a computerservice and repair shop.

“We take the view that if you can’t do it yourself, then findsomeone who can and partner with them,” Virgie explains. Alsoamong Virgie’s key partners is the TriMega dealer group that Virgiesays plays a key role in securing pricing that keeps hercompetitive.

“We go to market as a one-stop resource but we don’t go outthere on our own,” Virgie explains. “Having professionalsalespeople who know IT and make a point of keeping up with allthe changes has been critical to our growth. But so have thepartnerships we’ve developed over the years with companies thatkeep us competitive and provide products and services that wecan’t.”

With Virgie’s business staying strong despite a weakeningeconomy, it looks like a pretty good model for just about anydealership. Something to think about if you’re taking the one-stoproute yourself.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 8

Winner’s Circle: continued from page 7

by Jim Rapp

“I’ve been in this industry for more than 40 yearsand I’m more excited now about the future ofindependents than I’ve ever been,” says DavidWickman, president of Newtown Office Supply.

Setting aside the current economic problems,Wickman believes that independents can gain alarger share of the total market in the next fewyears if they keep on doing what they’ve beendoing: mainly using technology in every aspect oftheir business and conducting persistent andaggressive marketing programs.

Wickman and his partner Norman White havebeen doing that with great success, with a 35%sales growth in 2008 over 2007. This growthincludes sales from the acquisition of two smalldealers, Shirley Office Supply and Tri-State DataProducts, but they’ve shown considerable growthwith their broadening geographic coverage, whichincludes the Philadelphia market and southernNew Jersey. “We did $6.5 million in 2008 and ournew slogan is ‘$9 million in ’09,’ says Wickman.

“There was never a time when I was not in theindustry,” he comments. “I started as a stock boy

for a dealer in Van Nuys, California, when I was inhigh school. I continued working there while goingto college. I fell in love with the switchboardoperator, Dorree, we married and moved back toher hometown in Pennsylvania. That was 1976. Iworked as a manufacturers’ rep and then for aschool and office supply wholesaler, AcademyPaper, where we built the business from $3 millionto $15 million.”

In 1988, Wickman, along with partner JohnNordling, bought a small retail stationer inNewtown, Pennsylvania, with annual sales of$400,000.

“The timing was not good,” he recalls, “becauseStaples and Office Depot were just coming intothe market. We had some pretty rough years, butwe built the business to $4 million by the year2000.”

In 2006, partner John Nordling retired, and soldhis share to Norman White, an industry veteran,previously with United Stationers and senior vicepresident of marketing for Allied Office Products.

“Norman has really energized our business,” saysWickman, “modernizing our entire computersystem and developing a first rate web site, to

mention just a few of his contributions.”

Their web site has become very popular withcustomers, and if you take a look, you’llunderstand why. Currently, it’s featuring the “DirtyDozen,” a group of popular cleaning products.Also on show: a discussion of recycling andreusing office supplies, a “Dare to Compare” pagelisting their prices vs. Staples on 15 popular items.

Visitors can also enjoy a number of generalinterest articles that cover topics such as “WhichPet is Right for You,” to “Dinner and Cocktails withMorgan,” featuring recipes from their charmingmascot Morgan, who appears on all theiradvertising.

“We are very involved in our community,”Wickman says proudly, “contributing to andworking with a variety of charities. All theproceeds from the cartridges we pick up fromcustomers, for example, go to the Bucks CountyWomen’s Fund. We belong to five Chambers ofCommerce and The Rotary Club and our peoplework with a number of charitable organizations inboth Pennsylvania and New Jersey.”

Congratulations on another success story thatmakes all of us very proud!

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 9

Newtown Office SupplyNewtown, Pennsylvania

David Wickman, President (l)Norman White, Vice President (r)

n Supplies, Furniture, Printing, Beverage Service

n Founded: 1982n Sales: $6.5 millionn Employees: 27n Partners: TriMega, United Stationersn Online Sales: 40%n Web: www.newtownofficesupply.com

Newtown Office Supply Shakes Up the MarketDavid Wickman and Norman White Put New Life Into an Old Line Dealer

Technology’s pace isn’t slowing. That’s why you need a wholesale supplier that’s continuously working on new solutions, to keep you moving in speed with all the potential advantages.

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edgments, invoices, Advance Shipping Notices (ASNs), and more.

Make sure you have the right partner to keep you in pace with technology – ask your United Account Manager how you can leverage all we have to offer.

Technology Keeps Marching On – Keep Pace with the Right Partner

Office Depot last month releasedearnings for its most recent quarter andthe numbers speak for themselves: Thecompany posted a loss of $0.73 pershare (excluding one-time items),compared to the investment analysts’consensus forecast of a 6 cents pershare loss. Sales for the quarter camein at $3.27 billion (down 15% from thesame quarter last year), compared toanalysts’ expectations of $3.47 billion.

Adding more fuel to the fire, OfficeDepot’s quarterly 10-K report, releasedat the same time as the earnings report,suggested that the problems associatedwith its state contracts are starting tospread to the federal level.

Office Depot said is it is cooperatingwith the U.S. Dept. of Defense, the Dept.of Education and the General ServicesAdministration on “joint investigationsthat are being conducted in coordinationwith the Dept. of Justice regarding ourpricing practices that relate to sales tocertain federal agencies.”

Not surprisingly, recent postings ononline message boards by stockholdersand current employees are bleak, to saythe least. Here’s a representativesample from the yahoo.com web site:

“Is it not time to cut BSD loose fromOffice Depot? Our retail image is beinghurt by the multiple fraud and over-charging investigations of BSD govern-ment contracts in Florida, Illinois,Missouri and North Carolina. Our retailside never had these types of ethicsproblems until BSD came along.Instead of cutting costs at our core

business which is retail, cut the BSDproblem child loose from Office Depot,along with CEO Steve Odland.”

“I wish we never had BSD, they takeaway from our store resources, andhave done nothing but damage theimage of our company. I am tired ofseeing articles about investigations ofBSD, whistle-blowers and such. Selloff BSD (if anyone would even wantthem), and invest the money in ourstores. Our store associates worknights, weekends and holidays, andhave supported OD through thick andthin. BSD reps make big paychecks,and in the end their wheeling anddealing may cost us the company. Iagree, we are a retail company, and weshould cut BSD loose. Then we canget back to what we do best, and nothear about the constant fraudinvestigations of BSD.”

“Our BSD rep stole our four best storeaccounts by promising them lowerpricing. Two of the accounts cameback to us after 6 months because wewere selling paper for less at our store.They felt they were misled by theirBSD rep.”

“We have the same problem at ourstores with the BSD reps, poachingour best accounts by promising thembig discounts, and then after a fewmonths the pricing is the same as ourstore, but we lost the sales. It is alwaysour store’s best customers they steal,and then upset by not giving them thediscounts promised.”

“I must at admit we in BSD always sort

of looked down on the stores, but withhow horrible things have gotten atBSD, I wish I had applied for a storemanager position when I had achance. No one in my office thinkstheir job is safe right now. The threeAMs with government accounts areabout to have nervous breakdownswith the daily questions they get fromtheir accounts about all the fraudinvestigations going on in other states.These are not good days at OfficeDepot, I expect that most of our officewill be gone by summer, and that wewill probably lose one of our RSDs andone or two of our DSMs. ApparentlyHR is gearing up for massiveseverence (sic) package distributionsto the field.”

Meanwhile, investigations continueinto the company’s practices onseveral of its state contracts. Fordetails, visit the Office Depot StateContract Watch section of thewww.idealercentral.com web site.

Buy Local Effort Underway inAlabama

Still not convinced that a strong BuyLocal message can really make adifference with your customers? Youmight just want to take a trip down to FortPayne, Alabama, about 50 miles south ofChattanooga, where local countyadministrator Matt Sharp is launching aneffort to get county buyers to authorize alocal supply bid to buy office suppliesfrom local vendors.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 11

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

Bad News Continues for Office Depot;Message Board Postings Turn EvenBleaker on Latest Quarter Results

MARCH Industry News: Special Late Breaking Insert

As we went to press, the internal auditor’soffice for the city of Pembroke Pines,Florida, reported it had uncovered over$17,000 in overcharges by Office Depotrelative to the city’s purchases under theU.S. Communities Government PurchasingAlliance contract.

The audit was conducted in response to in-formation provided by David Sherwin, aformer Office Depot employee who cur-rently enjoys protection as a whistleblowerunder Florida law. Sherwin alleged thatstate and local buyers using the U. S.Communities Office Depot contract to pur-chase office supplies were not being billedaccording to contract specifications andwere being overcharged as a result.

In a March 3 memorandum to the Pem-broke Pines city commissioners and citymanager, internal auditor Aner Gonzalezsaid her audit revealed “the City and Char-ter Schools were not being billed accordingto the specifications of the contract whichresulted in overcharges for office andclassroom supplies.”

Gonzalez said the total overcharges duringthe period audited (from November 6, 2006to December 31, 2008) amounted to a totalof $17,177.64 or over 3% of the city’s andcharter schools’ annual purchases fromOffice Depot.

Gonzalez reported that testing and inter-views conducted in connection with theaudit revealed that the city’s Office Depotcontract had been changed from Option 1pricing under the U.S. Communities con-tract to Option 2 in October 2007. “Whenaudit staff asked Office Depot to provideproof in writing that the City authorized thepricing change, Office Depot could provideno such documentation,” Gonzalez said inher memorandum.

Gonzalez told the Pembroke Pines com-missioners and the city manager that auditstaff are recommending the city immedi-ately request payment from Office Depotfor the overcharged invoices and also said

they should continue toclosely monitor the OfficeDepot contract “to ensurefrom this point forward theCity is invoiced according tothe specifications of the con-tract.”

Pembroke Pines city and charterschool buyers spend on average$387,000 a year with Office Depot,Gonzalez reported.

The Pembroke Pines auditor’s report fol-lows similar findings of overcharges andpricing irregularities related to OfficeDepot’s state and local office supplies con-tracts in several other states and local gov-ernments across the country. They include:

CALIFORNIA: Office Depot repaid thestate $2.5 million after an audit foundovercharges and state lawmakers helda three-hour hearing where they raisedconcerns both about pricing issuesand whether or not the Office Depotstate contract actually helps any smallbusinesses, as was claimed when thecontract was awarded.

FLORIDA: The state’s attorney generalis currently conducting an investiga-tion into alleged “bait and switch” tac-tics by Office Depot in its officesupplies contract with state and localgovernment and auditors in Florida’sLee County found Office Depot over-charged the county by almost$60,000.

GEORGIA: The state terminated its of-fice supplies contract with OfficeDepot after state officials found foundmismarked items on the company’sstate ordering web site months after itwas notified there were problems.“This supplier simply failed to per-form,” a state official told the AtlantaConstitution at the time the contractwas suspended.

MISSOURI: The state’s attorney gen-

eral sent a civil investigative demandto Office Depot, and said he has infor-mation that the company has engagedin “deception, fraud, false promise,misrepresentation, unfair practices,and/or the concealment, suppression,or omission of material facts in con-nection with the sale of office productsto Missouri government entities andnonprofit or charitable entities."

NEBRASKA: The state’s auditorcharged Office Depot with “playingfast and loose with the privilege ofdoing business with the State” afteruncovering problems with the statecontract “from the very first OfficeDepot invoice to the present.”

NORTH CAROLINA: The state’s audi-tor charged Office Depot violated theterms of the statewide office suppliesterm contract and overcharged stateagencies approximately $294,413.“The vendor inflated retail prices for itsstore brand products and failed tooffer the State the lowest availableprices as required by the contract,” theauditor said.

Audits of Office Depot contracts are be-lieved to be currently either underway orunder consideration in several other states,including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Illi-nois, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvaniaand Texas.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Special Insert

In Pembroke Pines, Fla, City Auditor’sReport Uncovers Over $17,000 inOvercharges by Office Depot

http://www.bmiusa.com

“I want to try to help the local economy,” Sharp told the localTimes-Journal newspaper. “I think buying from DeKalb Countywould be great.”

That’s certainly nothing we’re going to argue with, particularlysince the newspaper said the County currently buys its officesupplies through a bid with the “National Association ofCounties” (Presumably, Office Depot’s U.S. Communitiescontract).

Sharp told the newspaper if there are local vendors that canmeet the county’s needs, it just makes sense to buy locally.

“If local vendors can compete with the prices we are payingnow, I would rather buy from them,” Sharp said.

“If we can help out the economy in our area, that’s what I thinkwe should do.”

Want to find out more about how you can promote a strong“Buy Local” message in your market? Visit the Buy LocalCentral section of the www.idealercentral.com for acustomizable PowerPoint presentation you can downloadand links to Buy Local research, dealer case studies andrelated organizations.

Left to right: Incoming AOPD president Bill Jones, The Office

City; outgoing president TimMcDermott, Skags OfficeProducts, and executive

director Bud Mundt.

AOPD Celebrates Sales Growth andNew Accounts atAnnual Meeting

Question: What do youcall an organization thatkeeps growing salesand adding major newaccounts despite someof the worst businessconditions in living memory?

If you’re in the office products industry, you might just callit AOPD. The St. Charles, Illinois-based dealer marketinggroup, which specializes in servicing national accountsthrough independents, held its 31st annual meeting lastmonth in Palm Springs and despite all the trials andtribulations of the current economy, AOPD dealers and theirbusiness partners found plenty to celebrate.

“We have the resources and the knowledge to generatesolid growth while our big box competitors stumble,”outgoing AOPD president Tim McDermott told the group.The organization grew sales by 6% last year and addedover forty new regional and national accounts, McDermottreported. “Despite the downturn, all AOPD metrics are upand poised for continued growth,” he said defiantly.

This year’s program offered plenty of new ideas andsuggestions on opportunities to keep the group’s growthcurve moving in the right direction.

In addition to three days of one-on-one sessions betweendealers and their business partners, the meeting featured presentations by industry consultant andINDEPENDENT DEALER contributor Tom Buxton, GOPD’sRick Marlette and Peter Frost of the Proficiency Group.

AOPD members also heard from their fellow dealers onAOPD contract success stories, opportunities in coffee andjanitorial products and ways to use the AOPD program andthe wholesalers’ drop-ship options for maximum value.

Also on the program: an update on AOPD’s governmentsales and a session from three of the group’s supplierpartners on best practices for selling solutions.

AOPD members also elected new officersat the meeting. They included:

n Bill Jones, The Office City, Redwood City,California—president

n Tim McDermott, Skags Office Products, Miami—chairman

n Karen Bogart, Convenience Office Supply, Austin—vicepresident

n Frank Fera, Bulldog Office Products, Pittsburgh—treasurer

n Melinda Schuur, AAA Business Supplies& Interiors, San Francisco—secretary

n Mark Leazer, Forms & Supply, Charlotte,North Carolina—director

n Jim Butterfield, Smith & Butterfield,Evansville, Indiana—director

In addition, AOPD presented two President’s Awards at themeeting, special honors in recognition of outstanding supportfor the organization and the dealer community.

The Dealer award went to Addison Jones of The Supply RoomCompanies in Ashland, Virginia, while the Manufacturer awardwent to Tom Sullivan of Smead.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 13

Industry News: continued from page 11

continued on page 15

http://www.aopd.com

“This was without a doubt one of our most successfulmeetings ever,” commented AOPD executive director BudMundt. “As independents, we are looking at an exceptionalwindow of opportunity, even with a very poor economy, andour members are clearly focused and committed to makingthe most of it all.”

S.P. Richards Names Jack Reagan VP ofMerchandising

Industry veteran Jack Reaganhas joined S.P. RichardsCompany as vice president,merchandising. In his newposition, Reagan will assumecategory management respon-sibility for the company’soffice supplies and furnituresegments.

Reagan was formerly executive vice president ofActionEmco, and concurrently held the position of presidentof Advantage Marketing Wholesalers. Prior to ActionEmco,

Reagan held senior merchandising and purchasing roles atBT Office Products and Harry Strauss & Sons.

Senior vice president, merchandising Steve Lynn com-mented, “We’re extremely pleased to have an executive ofthe caliber of Jack Reagan join our team. He brings anincredible amount of experience and talent to the role. Jackhas an in-depth understanding of our customers and is wellrespected within the vendor community.”

Reagan added, “I’m very excited about being part of theSPR team and working with ourvendors and customers onjoint initiatives to grow ourmutual sales.”

WorkPlace FurnishingsDealer Group NamesNew President and CEO

The WorkPlace Furnishingsdealer group (WPF) hasnamed Gregory A. Nemchickas its new president and

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 15

Industry News: continued from page 13

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CEO. Nemchick joins WPF fromRichmond, VA-based Chasen’sBusiness Interiors, where he served asvice president of sales. He succeedsformer president Dennis J. Insogna,who died in December 2007.

An industry veteran with over 20 years’office furniture experience, Nemchickwas regional manager with HermanMiller before joining Chasen’s. He hasalso held senior sales and manage-ment positions with OM Workspaceand Lesker Office Furniture.

“We’re delighted to welcome someonewith the industry experience andexpertise that Greg Nemchick bringsto WorkPlace Furnishings,” commentedWPF chairman Bob Carlson of MarcoOffice Products, St. Cloud, Minnesota.

“Greg has an exceptional track recordof success in the contract furnitureindustry, both on the dealer andmanufacturing side, and with his

leadership, we’re confident WPF ispoised to deliver even more value toour dealer members and supplierpartners.”

Said Nemchick, “Like many in theindustry, I have watched with greatinterest the path the WorkPlaceFurnishings organization has taken inrecent years and its evolution into atruly unique resource for progressivedealers today.

“With a dealer membership base whosequality is second to none and thesupport provided by an outstandinggroup of industry manufacturers, WPFhas an exceptional foundation to buildon as we move to the next level, andI’m very much looking forward tobeing part of the team to take usthere.”

BSA Sets Dates and Location for 2009 Forum

The Business Solutions Association(BSA), the new industry associationformed by the merger of the OfficeProducts Wholesalers Association(OPWA) and the Office ProductsRepresentatives Association (OPRA),has announced the dates and locationfor its annual meeting. The BSA 2009Forum is scheduled for October 5-9 atthe Ginn Reunion Resort in Orlando.

Program chair Mike Wilbur ofShachihata said the location wasselected because of its convenience,large number of competitive flightsand competitive airfares. “We alsoselected the first week of October aftersurveying our members and otherindustry events,” he added. “Our goalwas to find an open period of timewhere there were little or no conflicts,and this set of dates satisfied the

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 16

Industry News: continued from page 15

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requirement.”

The Reunion Resort is within 25minutes of the Orlando Airport and hasthe facilities and accommodations fora first class meeting with veryreasonable room rates for BSAmembers and guests, Wilbur pointedout. “If a company reserves a three-bedroom villa and brings three peopleto use each bedroom, the room rate isless than $100 per night—an amazingrate even given our economy,” Wilbursaid.

For more details, contact CJ Summersat BSA (cjsummers@clemonsmgmt.com).

Executive Coach Krista Moore Launches NewWeb Site for K.Coaching

Krista Moore, an industry consultant,executive coach and regular contributorto INDEPENDENT DEALER, has an-nounced the launch of a newly

designed web site for her K.Coachingtraining company.

Located at www.kcoaching.com, thenew site is designed to be a resourcecenter for business owners, salesleaders and sales reps, and offers freearticles, sales tips, videos andnetworking forums.

Features include easy access toMoore’s coaching and consultingprograms, training, speaking topicsand products available for purchase.The site also offers up-to-the minutenews, mini-learning video clips, andonline registration for K.Coaching’straining programs and webinar series.

In addition, the site will soon feature“on-demand” training modules that willallow businesses to click and orderweb-based interactive training whenthey want it, rather than working arounda pre-set training schedule. With on-demand training, K.Coaching’s clients

can receive Moore’s webinar training attheir convenience, the company said.

“We are pleased to make our fullcollection of products and servicesavailable as we celebrate our seventhyear in business,” said Moore. “Ourgoal was to make readily available toour current and potential clients theresources, products and services thatwill help them achieve theirorganizational goals. The feedbackthus far, has been tremendous.”

New Reps for Kleer-Fax in Metro New York

Kleer-Fax, makers of filing andindexing supplies and accessoriesamong other items, has announcedthe appointment of the ADMA reporganization to cover the New YorkMetro area for the company.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 17

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continued on page 18

New Reps for HPFI in Arizona and Southern Nevada

HPFI (High Point Furniture Industries) has appointedSouthwest Sales Associates, based in Avondale, Arizona, torepresent the company's products in Arizona and southernNevada. Daniel Guerrero, Ralph Green, Terry Van Lent andJames Wilber III will be covering this territory.

"I am pleased to have this exceptionally professional salesteam as a part of the HPFI team," said Mike Wissman, HPFI’svice president of sales and marketing. “With their ability tofocus on the continually expanding HPFI product line,Southwest Sales will be able to offer casegoods, seating andhealthcare expertise to the A&D community and our dealerpartners, as well as provide the outstanding customerservice for which HPFI has become known."

Pyramid Technologies Names New Sales andMarketing VP

Time recording products manufacturer PyramidTechnologies has hired Robert Lennon as vice president ofsales and marketing.

Lennon brings to Pyramid 15 years experience in sales at

companies that include Nestle USA, Energizer USA, PrimoWater and Del Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Pyramid,Lennon served as national sales manager for task lightingmanufacturer Bayco Products.

As part of his responsibilities, Lennon will oversee Pyramid’snew relationship with The Highlands Group reporganization.

Independents Outperform Chains over Holidays,Survey Finds

Independent retailers outperformed many of their big boxcompetitors over the holiday season, according to a surveyby the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR).

While holiday sales at independent stores surveyed weredown an average of 5% from the same time period in 2007,that still compared favorably to steeper declines posted bychains such as Barnes & Noble (-7.7%), Best Buy (-6.5%),Borders (-14.0%), JC Penney (-8.1%), Macy's (-7.5%), TheGap (-14.0%), and Williams-Sonoma (-24.2%).

For more information, visithttp://newrules.org/retail/news_slug.php?slugid=379.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 18

Industry News: continued from page 17

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NOPA is perhaps best known for its fed-

eral government advocacy on behalf of in-

dependents. This advocacy agenda,

however, has grown dramatically in the

past few years with the addition of involve-

ment in several state government and

even local government and public univer-

sity contracting battles in concert with

dealer members.

At the federal level – with a new Adminis-

tration and Congress in town – there are

significant new opportunities to push for a

long-overdue leveling of the contracting

playing field to allow competitive independ-

ents to sell more to the U.S. Government.

This year is shaping up to be a critical one

for independents in Washington, in several

state capitals and at the local government

level.

NOPA is gearing up with this month’s Gov-

ernment Affairs Conference in Washington

that will address all of these issues, and

also provide participating members with a

timely opportunity to connect with their

U.S. representatives and senators to high-

light the industry’s federal legislative and

regulatory agenda.

The federal agenda includes highlighting

the urgency of small business health insur-

ance reform, the need to eliminate small

business “fronts” and establish effective

congressional oversight of the JWOD/Abil-

ityOne purchasing preference program.

We will also be working to elevate the U.S.

Small Business Administration to Cabinet

status to help drive more effective small-

business initiatives.

The just-enacted economic stimulus bill

includes provisions that will boost or rein-

vigorate federal, state and local govern-

ment, health care, and public education

spending this year and beyond.

New sales opportunities aheadLarge companies in all industries are posi-

tioning themselves to benefit from this new

spending, and so should independents.

NOPA and its members will be tracking

these developments and the new sales

opportunities they will offer in the months

ahead.

At the state and local levels, there also is

much to be encouraged about this year:

North and South Carolina have awarded

most or all of their new state office sup-

plies contracts to independents, Georgia

is evaluating strong bids from independent

dealers on its contract now and California

and Texas are showing serious, renewed

interest in working with NOPA and its

members on their state contracts.

Several hundred million dollars in state

government purchasing are at stake in

these states alone over the next few years,

and this business is now – realistically – up

for grabs for committed dealers and their

business partners to capture.

Other states will follow as political recog-

nition of the substantial positive economic

multiplier effects of a “buy local” govern-

ment purchasing approach spreads.

One of the most exciting developments in

the advocacy sphere is now playing out at

the state and local levels as a result of a

truly herculean effort by a former Office

Depot employee (David Sherwin) who is

now a protected ‘whistle-blower’ in Florida.

Three states (Florida, Missouri and North

Carolina) are investigating allegations of

serious pricing abuses under the national

U.S. Communities contract on which Of-

fice Depot is the sole-source supplier.

NOPA has helped ensure nationwide cov-

erage of these investigations as well as the

previous state contract audits that docu-

mented these practices in five states. In-

dependents can readily download key

public documents they can use to stimu-

late a fundamental rethinking of ‘strategic’

sole-source contracting in their own states

and local market areas through the NOPA

web site (www.nopanet.org) and this pub-

lication’s (www.idealercentral.com),

In short, there has never been a better time

to consider how your company can partic-

ipate in government business opportunities

– broadly defined – and to become active

in NOPA as a means to learn from other

successful dealers who are active in these

markets today. Contact Chris Bates, NOPA

president (cbates@nopanet.org; Tel:

703/549-9040, x 100) for more information.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 20

NOPAnewsNOPA’s Government Affairs Agenda – Will 2009 Be a Year of Big Victories?

Inspiring Life

Join esteemed members of the National Office

Products Industry for the annual Bob Parker

Memorial Golf Outing commemorating former

City of Hope Spirit of Life® honoree and National

Office Products chairman, Bob Parker.

His legacy and your generous support continue

to help City of Hope save more lives.

To register, visit www.cityofhope.org/nopi,

contact Cathleen Tighe at 866-905-HOPE or

e-mail ctighe@coh.org

The Bob Parker Memorial Golf Outing at Pinehurst

May 11 to 12, 2009Pinehurst Resort, Pinehurst, NC

Bob Parker, former Spirit ofLife® honoree and NationalOffice Products Industrychairman

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 22

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Independents Reap the Rewards of the Latest Technology

Let’s talk technology. It’s impossible to conduct business

today without it and remain competitive. And good news

for independents, there’s a wealth of technology providers

to choose from, depending on what you want to

accomplish or what part of your business you want to

automate. Recently, we talked to a dozen different dealers

and asked them how they’re using technology to grow

sales and/or operate more efficiently. Here’s what they had

to say.

Reliant and DDMS: Making the Most of the Most TechnologyThe more technology Reliant Business Products in Houstonbrings into its operation, the better its business processes. Forthe past 17 years Reliant has been using the DDMS BusinessManagement System from ECi, and as far as information systemsmanager Steven Woodall is concerned, DDMS has the most

robust feature set and is the most cost-effective solutionavailable.

“We use just about everything that a single dealer locationwould use,” says Woodall. About the only thing Reliantdoesn’t use DDMS for is payroll since that function isoutsourced.

The DDMS Business Management System automatesproduct distribution, sales and service, and managementof project-oriented sales that may require trackingmultiple delivery dates as well as other relatedinformation. It combines back-office functionality (orderentry, purchasing, inventory control, accounting, etc.) withspecialized features.

Woodall is a big fan of the system’s Bill Complete feature,which is ideal for government accounts and organizationsthat pay via credit card.

“If I have five tickets on back order, which is rare,”Woodall explains, “Bill Complete will merge all ticketsunder one and bill the customer for one invoice rather

than five separate invoices once the file ticket is complete.”

Reliant also uses ECi’s RouteTrak hand-held signature captureand proof of delivery device, as well as the RoutePerfect deliveryrouting and management solution. “Those two products save usroughly about 4.5 man-hours each day,” reveals Woodall.

RouteTrak provides Reliant with Fedex or UPS-like technology

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capabilities. The driver collects the signature on the RouteTrakdevice, and when he comes back in the evening those capturedsignatures flow into the DDMS system for immediate retrieval thefollowing day.

Now when a customer calls claiming they didn’t receive theirorder, Reliant’s customer service personnel can pull up the orderfrom the DDMS system and notify the customer when theproducts were delivered, how many pieces were delivered, andwho signed for it. If the customer requests a copy of the signature,customer service staff can simply access that on the system ande-mail it to them directly from their computers.

RouteTrak also helps Reliant collect piece counts each morning,scanning them as they’re loaded into Reliant’s delivery eachmorning. When drivers make their deliveries, they scan the piecesagain to make sure that they are pulling the same amount ofpieces off the truck that were loaded on earlier in the day.

“Trucks used to come back all the time where they had two orthree deliveries they left off, or they left one box off of a five boxdelivery,” notes Woodall. “We don’t have that problem anymore.”

Meanwhile, RoutePerfect allows Reliant to meet the needs ofcustomers who request deliveries at a specific time of day. At the

same time, the system identifies the most efficient routes aroundthose pre-identified delivery times. On one route, RoutePerfectsaved Reliant nearly 100 miles a day in drive time.

But that’s not all. Last November Reliant went live with theECinteractive web storefront, making it a lot easier for customersto place orders online.

“Customers can find products much easier and there’s definitelya lot more detail using United Stationers’ SmartSearchcapabilities,” says Woodall. “It’s made my customers a lothappier, I can tell you that.”

Most e-commerce systems Woodall looked at allowed you to filterand limit somebody to a contract list or what ECi calls a laundrylist, but it wasn’t searchable. With ECinteractive, customers cansearch their contracts and the system responds with only thoseproducts that are on contract. This feature has helped Reliant winthree new accounts because its competitor couldn’t offer thesame search capabilities, Woodall reports.

“The combination of DDMS and ECinteractive allow me to meetcustomer’s needs and gain new accounts,” states Woodall.“That’s a big plus, especially in this new economy and it’s goingto be a feature we’re going to be using more and more often.”

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NuCycle and Britannia: Evolving with TechnologyNuCycle Technologies is a shining example of how technologycan help a business grow. When a new owner took over thecompany in 2007, a decision was made to bring the company’stechnology into the 21st century. The first order of business: anew web site for electronic commerce.

Britannia’s Business Management System and its BritLinkintegrated web storefront were chosen as a cost-effective meansto achieve that goal. Implementing BritLink allowed NuCycle toeffectively partner with wholesaler S.P. Richards with almost

immediate benefits. Sales grew 12% in the final quarterof 2007 after experiencing declining or flat sales for theprevious three years. In 2008, NuCycle Technologies’business grew by more than 10%.

“We were looking for a certain price point for our volume,”explains COO Robert Menard in discussing the reasonsfor their choice of technology partner. “There were lessexpensive systems with a lot less features andtremendously more expensive systems with morefeatures. We decided on a happy medium. We feltBritannia was the most robust and offered the bestvalue.”

Initially, the company simply wanted an operational website. Since the site is hosted by Britannia, NuCyclewouldn’t have to worry about any administrative issuesrelated to the site. Menard and his team also likedBritLink’s ability to generate coupons and its powerfulwholesaler connection.

“By integrating with S.P. Richards, we now have a pre-priced catalog whereas before a customer had to call and askwhat their price was,” explains Menard. “We provide quotes muchfaster than in the past,” he beams. “Quotes are made in real time,rather than our old system of telling callers, ‘We’ll have a salesperson get back to you.’”

“Taking advantage of Britannia’s CCR (Competitive CrossReference) program that compares Staples and Office Depotretail prices has allowed us to set a very nice basis of pricing fora tremendous number of items and show value to clients whowanted to move from just purchasing toner cartridges to buyingall of their office supplies from us,” Menard added.

Flatt Stationers and SSI: Managing Multiple Locations With FlairDoug Flatt and his team at Flatt Stationers, a 70+ year-old, family-owned business with locations in Mexia and Fairfield, Texas,recently took a giant step into the 21st century when they wentlive with the SSI system.

The decision to switch to SSI wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction,with Flatt searching far and wide for an affordablebusiness management solution and feature-rich front end.

“SSI has turned out to be a good fit for us,” he says. Theability to manage Flatt’s separate locations has been thebiggest advantage of SSI. Those locations are operatedalmost like separate entities.

“The software has allowed us in a relatively easy way toconsolidate all of those operations,” says Flatt. “We wereable to consolidate accounts receivable, accountspayable and payroll. It wasn’t a difficult process, but wecan still run financial statements by location.”

From an internal perspective, SSI has made it a lot easierfor Flatt to order from their primary supplier, UnitedStationers. He’s also bullish on the system’s reportingcapabilities. More than anything, SSI has enhanced Flatt’simage with customers.

“With SSI, the way that customers perceive us haschanged dramatically,” Flatt reports. “They see that we’re

making big strides and even though it sounds simple, just beingable to offer an online solution for them to order supplies issomething that they really appreciate.”

SSI has also had a dramatic impact on the company’s internaloperations. “SSI has helped us get our ducks in a roworganizationally and structurally and put us in a position this yearto focus on sales and grow the business,” concludes Flatt.

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Allen Impact and MBS Dev: Making the Most of a Flexible SolutionWhen Allen Impact Services LLC, a combined services companyoperating out of Beltsville, Maryland, was looking to improve its

business processes and encourage more customers toorder online, they turned to MBS Dev and its OfficeProducts Vertical Extension (OPVE) for MicrosoftDynamics AX.

The company supplies services to two local dealerships,Impact Office Products and George W. Allen Co. Bothcompanies were searching for a system that could helpthem grow, leverage the various aspects of theirbusiness, provide increased functionality and enhancecommunication with sales reps, customers, and internalusers. They were also looking for a solution to help raiseonline orders to 80%.

For Bill Ratcliffe, president of Allen Impact Services, the MBSDev system provided a compelling solution. “It’s no longer aone-size-fits-all world,” says Ratcliffe. “Every customer hasspecific requirements and we can deal with thoserequirements much quicker and easier.”

Tim Flynn, president of Impact Office Products, isimpressed by the system’s content management

capabilities, particularly the way it integrates the informationprovided by Impact’s wholesalers.“The wholesalers have dramatically improved their content

BF Molz and BMI: The Appeal of Instant AnalysisFor Norma Anthony, COO of BF Molz in Moorestown, New Jersey,one of the most important requirements of operating in a fiercelycompetitive industry like office products is the ability to analyzedetailed business data sooner rather than later. That was one keyreason, she says, why the dealership moved to the OP Revelationsystem from Business Management International (BMI).

“Our new system is a Microsoft product so everything flows easilyinto a Microsoft spreadsheet. You just click a button.” In addition,Anthony went with BMI because it was a complete system.

“We used different packages before, but this time wewanted a one-source solution, just as we are a one-sourcesolution as an independent dealer,” states Anthony.

“We wanted a contact management system, web site, andfinancial program all in one package. We didn’t want to useQuickbooks or GoldMine or another [company’s product forour] web site. That’s one of the biggest reasons we choseOP Revelation. We found a lot of the solution providers outthere couldn’t give you the whole package.”

Adds Anthony, “I wanted software that would give me theinformation I needed. If I wanted to know how many widgetswe sold or find out that we weren’t selling enough of onecommodity over the next, I could analyze my data withouthaving to depend on some other software product to comein and give me the information I needed.”

BF Molz is also leveraging their new site’s marketing andpromotional capabilities, which has been instrumental inincreasing average order size. The new site also providesthe company with greater control, especially on first-in-

search capabilities for customer product searches.

Customers also seem enamored with the site’s search capabilitiesand the budget tools, Anthony reports. “As an independent, youcome up against price every single day,” she says. “It’s what’sforemost in everybody’s mind, especially with this economy. Whatpeople don’t realize is that you can buy 1,000 pens for .50 cents,but if your company is buying too many of them, it really doesn’tmatter what you’re paying. That’s why the budget tools areimportant. It takes price out of the loop and starts to make thecompany realize, ‘I’m in control of what I’m spending….so whynot put a limit on what everybody can spend?’”

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SunDANCE and Red Cheetah: A More Efficient StorefrontAt SunDANCE Office Supply in Broken ArrowOklahoma, Red Cheetah’s Office Front V2 e-commerce solution has been helping to growsales and provide superior customer servicesince October 2005. The results have beenimpressive. SunDANCE has grown its onlinebusiness from 26% back then to 40% today.

The system’s ease of use has been a hugeasset, says SunDANCE general manager AllenSaunders. “It’s just so easy for a customer to goin and save an order, create a favorites list, anddo similar things that are pretty far advanced interms of technology but still easy for them,” saysSaunders.

Saunders also finds the search options today

much more userfriendly. “We canmake the site look alot more like the bigbox stores in the waythat the systemsearches for itemsusing key words andthings like that,” saysSaunders.

The ability to custo-mize pricing for eachcustomer is anotherasset. “It’s nice [when]the wholesalers comeout with a matrix-typecatalog, but some-times you needpricing that you cancustomize for yoursituation,” explains

Saunders. “It’s easy to go in and make changeswith Red Cheetah.”

Red Cheetah’s back-end support is anotherbenefit. “They listen to us if we don’t like theway something is done in the system,” saysSaunders, who can identify several changesmade to the system as a result of hissuggestions. For example, Sundance wanted tochange the way a customer’s phone numberwas displayed when an order was entered.

“Previously you needed to leave that screen andgo to a different screen to look up that phonenumber,” notes Saunders. “It seems like a tinydetail, but it was a nuisance for us and we madea pitch to them and within a couple of weeksthey had it implemented.”

management and this systemcan take advantage of that veryeasily,” says Flynn.

He also finds the ability tomake updates and customizethe site to Impact’s customersmuch easier. “Because thissolution is so flexible andcomes with so many toggleswitches that you can use toturn features on and off at theend user level, it was muchmore appealing to customers,”says Ratcliffe.

Allen Impact looks to set everynew customer up on theCustomer Connect e-com-merce system, whether commercialor government, as soon asthey sign on, so they canimmediately start orderingonline. Prior to implementingOPVE, 32-35 percent of thecompany’s orders were comingin online. That number is nowin the low sixties.

The system’s flexibility has alsoenhanced the approval process atthe customer end, which can gothree deep or more if a customerprefers. Another advantage is OPVE’ssales portal, Sales Rep Connect,which allows Impact’s sales staff toaccess detailed customer informationfrom their laptops.

“They can pull an enormousamount of customer information[from the Sales Rep Connectsystem] and immediately passthat along to the customer,” notesFlynn. “It also allows them toupdate their customers’ accountprofiles and pricing structures.

But that’s not all. OPVE ishelping Impact meet its goal ofgenerating 90% of its billselectronically. In December2007 when they first went livewith the system it was at zero,today it’s well over 50%.

“Customers love it becausethey can electronically take ourbilling and incorporate it intotheir system so they don’t haveto do detailed processing,”says Ratcliffe. “That’s beenone of the biggest gains andmethods of payback for ourinvestment in the system.”

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WallenbrockOffice Supplyand IBA: Sprucing UpTheir ImageGleyn Wallenbrock IIIof Wallenbrock OfficeSupply in Ft. Myers,Florida. doesn’t kissand tell. Otherwise,he’d be a lot moreforthcoming abouthow he’s using IBA’sImagePlus+ back-office system and its

Innovative and Thalerus: Faster Ordering = Quicker DeliveriesAt Burnsville, Minnesota-based Innovative Office Solutions, fully70% of its $16 million business is generated online. That kind ofvolume and a nationwide customer base requires advancedtechnology to ensure that Innovative Office Solutions meets itscustomers’ daily office supplies and furniture needs.

After outgrowing its proprietary online ordering system severalyears ago, the decision was made to implement a more robustsystem. At first Innovative attempted to combine another vendor’sback-end system with the Vendere standalone web storefrontsystem from Thalerus.

Inevitably, the problems associated with trying to work off

different systems from different solutions providerscreated stumbling blocks and the decision was made touse Thalerus for both the front and back end.

Turns out it was the ideal system for what the companywanted to accomplish and a big hit with customers.

“Customers like the system,” reports Jason Player, vicepresident of marketing and sales support. “It’s simple,has good functionality and it’s quick.”

For Player the biggest benefits of Vendere are its speedand flexibility.   “Speed is always a priority with ourcustomers, and the flexibility fits well with our businessmodel” he says.

Thalerus also provides hosting capabilities, enablingInnovative to focus on selling. In addition to Vendere,Innovative also uses Thalerus’ Vibe business

management software as its back-end system.

Vibe is an Internet-based GUI application that covers all ofInnovative’s back-end functions, including order entry, customerservice, purchasing, price maintenance, and transmittinginformation to the company’s wholesalers.

There’s a reason that Innovative is doing $16 million in businessa year. Although they can’t give all the credit to Thalerus, Playeracknowledges that partnering with the right technology companyallows Innovative to do what it does best—sell more officesupplies and office furniture while keeping its customerssatisfied.   

e-commerce ordering system. He will say this, though: “Althoughwe are one of their smaller customers, we are probably theiroldest and I believe the one with the most custom modifications.”

Wallenbrock keeps things close to the vest primarily because hedoesn’t want his competitors to find out how a small dealer canlook so big. IBA’s ImagePlus+ has allowed him to do that becauseIBA doesn’t hesitate to take Wallenbrock’s suggestions and workthem into the system. Whatever they’re doing it’s working.

“Because of their system, we can easily handle well over $4million in sales with just three non-driver employees and me,”explains Wallenbrock.

“Our sales rep’s primary sales tool is our web site. Over 90% ofour sales dollars come in through the web site and that meansour two CSRs’ primary responsibilities are product expertise andcustomer service.”

Wallenbrock rattles off the elements of his web site: Mega store

pricing to compare against; mini catalog search engines,including a permanent sale catalog; color coding of permanentsale items; one-year history (updated daily) of the customer’s (orcompany’s cost center) purchases, provided in a quick list thatthey can use to place orders and that they can drill down usingcategories with the most recent shown first; a page and linelookup that allows customers who prefer to use the catalog ratherthan a search engine to see current pricing in the exact format asthe catalog; the ability for a large customer to customize the website after login.

“The Mega stores spend millions updating their web sites andindependent dealers can’t afford to do that,” Wallenbrock pointsout. “Presently we are spending less than one-third of what mostsimilar sized companies are spending on their front- and back-end systems, and according to my customers, we have a muchbetter web site than the Mega stores.”

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Superior and Longbow: Mining the Web for E-Mail SuperiorityThanks to technology, anything the big boxes can do,independent dealers can do just as well and maybe even better.That’s what Superior Business Products in Albany, New York, hasfound thanks in large part to the GoldMine CRM package from

Longbow Consulting.

Superior leverages all the capabilities of the package, butwhere it reaps the biggest rewards is in e-mail marketing.This capability has changed the way the companytouches its customer base, says president Ray Seefeld.

Combining GoldMine with the Constant Contact e-mailbroadcast service, Superior can now e-mail up to 1,500customers and prospects in the blink of an eye. Andthose e-mails look every bit as professional as the onesfrom Superior’s larger competitors and include full-colorillustrations touting the company’s latest promotions.

Campaigns can even be targeted to specific customers.For example, when running a promotion for a specific tonercartridge, Superior can identify everyone on their e-maillist who uses that cartridge and then send promotional e-mails only to them.

Customer feedback validates GoldMine’s power. “Thefeedback we get the most is how professional it is and they’resurprised that we, as a small, local company, can do things likethis,” says Seefeld.

“In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter what theindustry is,” he contends. “Staples is doing things like this, but

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 29

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so is Target and Best Buy, so it kind of elevates us into thediscussion with Fortune 500-type companies.”

Superior’s staff enjoys the benefits of GoldMine too. All sales repscoordinate their schedules through GoldMine and the programprovides them and customer service staff with easy access tocritical customer information.

“You’re never more than a couple of clicks away from whatever

kind of information you want—whether it’s what you talked abouton the last visit, who your competition is, when your contact’sbirthday is, or the name of the contact’s kids,” says Seefeld.

One feature Superior has found particularly helpful is the ability todownload all the activity that transpired during the day from theDDMS system into GoldMine.

“It gives us instant communication and we’re acting on pertinentinformation as opposed to something that happened lastmonth or last quarter, or last year,” Seefeld says.

Still, when asked to identify the biggest benefit ofGoldMine, Seefeld goes back to its e-mail capabilities. “Itprovides a systematic approach to touch your customersand uses today’s technology to be more efficient,productive, and profitable,” he says.

“Technology has vastly improved and become vastlymore important. Regardless of the economy, you have tomove forward and stay on top of things. It’s all aboutefficiency in your processes and simplifying tasks.”

Office Advantage and Acsellerate: Making the Most of Critical Sales Intelligence Office Advantage co-owners Steve Jewett and RodManson know a good technology tool when they see one.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 30

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Midwest and sales-i: Knowledge is PowerIn a business built on relationships, successand failure often hinges on how well youknow your customers and their buyinghabits. The difference for Midwest OfficeSupply in Springfield, Illinois, at least sincelast October, has been sales-i, a salessupport service that monitors customerbehavior and purchasing patterns,identifying when, why, where, and how they

buy their products and services.

No longer do Midwest sales reps have to waituntil the end of the month to gauge customerbuying patterns. That information shows upevery Monday morning on their smart phonesvia text and e-mail alerts from sales-i. Thisinformation allows them to better connectwith customers while identifying cross andup-selling opportunities.

“We try to give our sales people as muchinformation as we can so they can besuccessful in the field,” says SteveDeMarco, managing partner. “Sales-iprovides a real in-depth account snapshot.”

Not only does sales-i provide sales repswith critical sales information, it’s alsobecome an important part of Midwest’smarketing efforts. The program pinpointsinactive accounts or accounts that haven’tordered specific products from Midwestfor some time, so that these accounts canthen be targeted with e-mails and specialincentives to get them back on board.

Midwest’s sales reps have learned thatknowledge is power and sales-i providesthem with an extensive array ofknowledge, which has been particularlyuseful when conducting customer reviews.

“Using the information from sales-i, we’reable to sit down with each customer, andtry to get more business and marketshare,” says DeMarco. “In thesechallenging times, you really need to stayon top of what’s going on in the market.”

This is their second go around in the independent dealer arenaafter serving time in the power channel.

They brought in Acsellerate a year and a half ago in response toa growing need for their sales reps to access a wide range ofcustomer information from Office Advantage’s back-endcomputer system in an understandable format.

Acsellerate, they report, was a refreshing change from whatthey’d been accustomed to while working in the big box world.

“The tools that the power channel had weren’t nearly assophisticated or relevant,” says Jewett. “Acsellerate is a superiorproduct because it’s web-based, easily accessible, and relevantto a salesperson in our industry,” states Jewett.

Acsellerate provides Jewett, Manson and their sales reps with theinformation they need to be successful. “Sales reps want to knowwho ordered yesterday, what they ordered, what they paid for it,what the gross margin was, and if there are any problems withthe order,” says Manson.

Acsellerate also shows sales reps where they are against theirquota on a daily basis without the need to run reports. Sales repscan even look up returns and immediately find out why somethingwas returned, then take that information and use it to reduce

future returns. This easy access to information enables OfficeAdvantage’s sales personnel to be more proactive.

“When they run that customer business review and see that theydidn’t order janitorial and break room supplies, or toner, they nowhave an opportunity to open up a conversation with thatcustomer,” says Jewett.

“Acsellerate’s budgeting tools allows owners and sales managersto instantly know if we’re hitting our goals,” adds Manson. “Everyday I can see where we are trending. I might map in a goal thatsays we’re going to grow by 33%, then on a daily basis, I knowwhether or not we’re achieving it.”

Implementing new technology can be frustrating and challenging,but Office Advantage’s sales reps didn’t balk when introduced toAcsellerate.

“I’ve never had a system before that salespeople actively andwillingly used on a daily basis without some kind of priorcoercion,” says Manson. “I can see that they log in, they’rechecking what’s going on, and I think that’s a testament toAcsellerate’s relevance.”

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 31

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Minton Jones and GOPD:A Perfect MatchMinton Jones, an office products and office furniture dealershipbased in Norcross, Georgia, has been serving customers for 46 yearsand is proof positive that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Not content to simply conduct business as usual, the company

leverages the best that its DDMS system has to offer, aswell as GOPD’s web-based technology and its 411 WebTools, which provide real-time information to sales repsand customers, enabling Minton Jones to match or beatcompetitors’ prices.

During the past six months the company has beenconverting customers to a new and improved site whosefoundation is GOPD’s OP24-7 Shopping Cart.

“We’ve got about 95% of our online customers on it nowand it’s really been good,” notes Chip Jones, president.“Customers are giving it great reviews.”

The biggest benefit to date has been an influx of largerorders with the average order size rising from an averageof $137 to nearly $180. “We’re up as far as ourpercentage of Internet orders too—about 50% from37%,” adds Jones.

Another benefit is GOPD’s Match or Beat program, which allowsMinton Jones to match or beat pricing from Staples, Office Depotand OfficeMax. The company is also winning customers backfrom those competitors because they like Minton Jones’ new sitebetter, Jones reports.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 32

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Bill Kuhn, principal of William E. Kuhn & Associates, is a noted industry consultant, writer, and speaker with over 35 years of industry experience. Heconsults with dealer principals and their management teams in areas of strategic planning, leadership and organizational development, marketing,financial management, valuation and merger/acquisition. For more information, contact Bill by phone 303-322-8233, fax 303-331-9032, or e-mail:BillKuhn1@cs.com.

I may sound like a broken record quoting PeterDrucker as often as I do, but it bears repeatingonce again in today’s economy: “In turbulenttimes, the balance sheet becomes more impor-tant than the income statement…liquidity ismore important than earnings.”

I repeat this sage—albeit all too obvious—ad-vice because the majority of dealers today stillfocus much more on the income statement thanthe balance sheet.

Your financial strength is based upon your bal-ance sheet. The dealers of today who are in aprecarious position typically got there becauseof a lack of liquidity. Survival is heavily depend-ent upon cash availability.

I propose ten action items that should becomeabsolute requirements in managing and runningyour dealership if you plan to survive, grow, andprosper.

The first four are the subject of this column,managing the asset side of your balance sheet.The remaining six action items will be coveredin next month’s column.

1. Assess your current performance against mean-ingful benchmarks of liquidity and leverage. Yourcurrent ratio (that is, current assets divided bycurrent liabilities) measures the extent to whichyour fairly liquid assets exceed your currentdebt. Ideally, this ratio should be around 1.8:1 to2:1. Anything below 1.5:1 should be of seriousconcern.

A key liquidity figure is net working capital (cur-rent assets minus current liabilities), which is ameasure of your capacity to pay off current ob-ligations when due. That number will vary basedupon volume and performance, but it should beat least one-half of your current liabilities.

Your average collection period (days receivableoutstanding) should not exceed 40 days, and 35days is preferable.

Inventory turn will vary depending upon whetheryou have a stock or stockless system; however,in today’s economy, a higher turn is often adealer goal in order to shorten the working cap-ital cycle (as explained in point #2 below).

Your debt-to-equity ratio, i.e. leverage, shouldbe no greater than 1.5 to 1. Our entire econ-omy—driven by both businesses and individu-als—has operated far too long on too muchcredit and excessive risk.

2. Focus on asset turn and reducing your workingcapital requirements. The greater your assets, thegreater the cost of maintaining those assets,such as handling, paperwork, insurance, collec-tion, and interest. Slow collections and over-in-ventory create cash dilution. In contrast, greaterturnover can lower costs and improve cash flow,which favorably affects both your balance sheetand your income statement!

Financial management is not merely managingdollars; it’s managing time. The working capitalcycle is the model by which to address timemanagement: the flow of funds from an initialorder through inventory, delivery, billing, and col-lection. The faster the velocity (the greater therevolutions) of the working capital cycle, the bet-ter the cash flow for your business.

Compute how many times your cycle revolveseach year. I’ve seen revolutions of seven to eighttimes (roughly every 45 to 50 days) to as low asthree times a year (every four months). Carefullyanalyze your cycle and identify lags and possibleareas for improvement.

3. Manage receivables. On average, 45% of assets are tied up in receivables. For dealerswith no retail stores, the average is over 50%.Selling on credit is lending money to your cus-

tomers with you being their interest-free banker.Begin by asking yourself, who controls yourcash: you or your customers?

Managing receivables involves two compo-nents: credit and collection. Establish credit lim-its and terms in a carefully written andwell-communicated policy. Change limits as re-quired; in today’s economy, things change veryquickly. Once written, communicate and enforceyour credit policies.

Managing collections means preparing amonthly (or more frequent) aging report by cus-tomer, then aggressively pursuing overdue ac-counts. The best way to keep a receivable outof the 90-day column is to keep it out of the 60-day column; the best way to prevent this is tokeep it out of the 30-day past due column.

Establish a collection program to ensure thatregular, persistent follow-up begins soon afteran account falls past due. And keep sales peo-ple informed of their customers’ payment histo-ries.

4. Understand inventory priorities—managementprecedes control. Inventory management is a sen-ior management responsibility; inventory controlcan be delegated to lower organizational levels.Inventory turn is as important as gross profit;today, dealers cannot afford to be over-invento-ried.

Inventory is not merely a question of investment(dollars); it’s a question of the items you carry,which requires an item-by-item analysis. It’s alsoa function of time (back to the all-importantworking capital cycle). Get everyone to supportyour inventory program, which includes trainingsales people on what you want them to sell.

Next month’s column will cover the six remaining actionitems, some of the more challenging, yet highly criticalaspects of managing liquidity and your balance sheet.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 33

Ten Essential Action Items for Managing Your Balance Sheet (part 1)

By Bill Kuhn

Everyone knows the importance of establishing aplan for business growth for 2009. But manybusiness owners and sales leaders find itfrustrating when their best laid plans are notexecuted and fail to yield the expected andanticipated results.

If you find yourself in this predicament, askyourself the following questions:

n Was your plan or idea well communicated,both orally and in writing?

n Did you delegate effectively? Did everyoneunderstand who was responsible for what?

n Does everyone know what needed to be done,and within what time frame?

n Did you have a system to measure, monitor,and hold people accountable?

n Are they feeling motivated and empowered?

Many independents are developing wonderfulideas full of great intent, but their ability to executeon these ideas is clearly the biggest challenge wehave seen them face. To address this, we wouldlike to share a best practice that K.Coaching hascreated, and that many independents are nowusing successfully. The best practice goes by theacronym DOGOM: Description, Objective, Goal,Owner, Measurement/Monitoring. DOGOM is aplanning format that helps you take your idea—the “what to do”—and clearly communicate the“why” and “how” to do it.

The following explains how to use DOGOM to putsome real meat on the bones of your great ideas,and also includes examples of objectives, goals,and means of measurement. Your own DOGOM,of course, is more specifically shaped to yoursubject. But we think that once you’ve embracedthis concept and completed a DOGOM for your

business, you won’t go back to any other method.

Description: Describe your idea in writing—the“what to do.” This should be a one or twoparagraph statement of your strategy. At thisstage, you don’t need to include specificobjectives or goals; these will be defined inupcoming steps. The description should simplybe a general statement of intent—clear, concise,and easy to understand by anyone outside of yourcompany or industry.

Objective: Create bulleted items of what you wantto achieve. List in specific terms your intentions,reasons, and expectations for the execution ofyour strategy. For example:

n Introduce additional product categories intocurrent customer base

n Grow business along an unprofitabledelivery route

n Ensure customer retention and loyalty

Goal: Goals should be measurable, realistic, andattainable. Your goals should be quantifiable: citespecific numbers and dates for completion. Forexample:

n 50 new furniture orders within currentcustomer base by August 30

n 100 new customers in Zip Code 27587before December 30

n Grow customer retention rate from 80% to90% in 2009

Owner: Identify a single individual who isultimately responsible for the success of thestrategy—the owner. This person should beintimately involved in the strategy, as well asleading the team and holding them accountable

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 34

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The “How to Do” Behind the “What to Do”

Krista Moore is Presidentof K Coaching, LLC an

executive coaching andconsulting practice that

has helped literallyhundreds of independent

dealers maximize their fullpotential through

enhancing theirmanagement systems,

sales training, andleadership development.

For more information, visitthe K Coaching web sites

at www.kcoaching.com,for coaching and

consulting programs andwww.opwebinar.com for

the latest online trainingcourses.

for meeting the specific goals andobjectives for which they’re responsible.

Measurement/Monitoring: This stepdefines accountability for the differentaspects of strategy execution. It can betied to reports and metrics, but shouldcontain reward and recognition foraccomplishments. Your measurementsand monitoring should be clear andconsistent. For example:

n Create a contest and scoreboardin the conference room and updateit weekly

n Sales funnel report, managing andmonitoring sales process withtargeted prospects in Zip Code25787

n Review retention rates andcommunicate retention reports ona quarterly basis

Create Company DOGOMsDOGOMs should be used to clearlydefine a specific strategy. Your DOGOMshould not try to address multiplestrategies, nor should it be complicated;

limit your DOGOM to one or two pages.The DOGOM is a written format whereyou can commit your creative ideas topaper in order to share and collaboratewith others.

But the DOGOM is not the kind of planyou create on your own and then e-mailto everyone as a set of instructions.Hold team meetings around thedevelopment of your DOGOM; expressyour ideas, solicit input, delegate tasks,and gain commitment. We have alsoseen sales teams, once they have setstrategy, use the DOGOM to come upwith more tactical plans. Collaborationbuilds camaraderie, allows everyone tofeel a part of the plan, and empowersthem to execute and make it happen.

Creating Individual DOGOMsA sales rep can take this exact formatand build his own DOGOM. This gives arep the format to establish what theyknow they need to do differently to growtheir business, and puts it in a tacticalform. For example, for a sales rep whowants to start prospecting more, a

DOGOM gives him the framework forspecifically establishing goals andobjectives. The rep can define howmany new accounts he will open and inwhat time frame. He can statespecifically how he intends to takeownership, and measure and monitorhis progress.

One of the greatest advantages of usingthe DOGOM lies in its ability to helpcompanies better communicateexpectations. The DOGOM provides aconcrete frame of reference andaccountability. In one brief, concisedocument, you can establish thespecific ways and means forcharacterizing your ideas, pursuingthem, creating responsible ownership,and measuring success.

K.Coaching hopes that you will embracethis approach and share it throughoutyour organization. As with so many otherindependents we have worked with, letthe DOGOM become a part of yourculture and language: “Did you do aDOGOM on that?”

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 35

Krista Moore: continued from page 34

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to Get

Why is it that most ideas designed to cut overhead orraise profits cost money to implement?

Whether it’s buying a GPS system to ensure that yourdrivers are spending their time profitably or hiring aconsultant (ouch! This one hits a bit close to home),cutting costs often involves a significant outlay of cash!

What if I told you that you were already in possession(I hope) of an item that could cut your overhead andkeep your customers more loyal to you, while increas-ing your profitability?

And what if I also mentioned that increasing the use ofthis tool need not cost you an extra dime and wouldsave you money from the first day you and your salesreps introduced it to customers?

So, what is this magical talisman that can reduce youroverhead immediately? Drum roll, please! It is the In-ternet ordering system that many of your customersuse to purchase from you right now!

However, unless you are receiving over 60% of yourorders through this medium, your company is not sav-ing the money it could if you had it fully implemented.

But I can already hear the objections. “Tom,” you say,“don’t you know that there are issues with Internet or-dering including:

n My customers want to talk to a live per-son.

n My reps must see their customers everyweek or two to keep them loyal.

n Our web site isn’t as good as the “BigGuys.”

Let me address these one at a time.

Your customers may want to talk to a live person, butthe larger companies (both publically and privatelyheld) have grown their market share faster than thosewho use mostly phone and fax.

Not using the Internet may have helped you retain afew of your current customers, but the industry-leadingcompanies are taking market share every day fromthose dealers that don’t force their reps to lead withonline options.

They understand that as important as having a regularcontact might be to an end user, less time will bewasted when social exchanges during the orderingprocess are minimized.

Ironically, if your customer wants to talk to their chosencontact about something important without being sub-jected to voicemail “hell,” the best thing you could doto enable quick response from your customer serviceteam is to push more orders onto the web.

In the last paragraph, I alluded to the biggest problemthat dealers have had growing their Internet orderingpercentage. Ownership and sales management havebeen too afraid of their reps to force them to put cus-tomers online.

Many reps who have been in the business for over 10years think that visiting their customer every week ortwo is the key to account longevity.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 36

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The Cost-Cutting

Tool You Already Own

By Tom Buxton

These “Route Runners” visit their samecontacts week after week and monthafter month in order to retain the rela-tionship with the buyer and watch fordanger signals within their accounts.

There are just a few problems with thisstrategy, however. Most reps don’t at-tempt to penetrate the account muchpast their contact and possibly that per-son’s boss.

Therefore, competitors often bypass thecontact (which is quite often a low levelperson) and move towards managementor ownership.

Managers, especially in this economy,are looking for efficiencies and observ-ing a rep coming in regularly to socializewith her employees may not accomplishthat goal.

In their own defense, reps may state thattheir company’s Internet offering is notadequate, because it does not have thebells and whistles of competing sys-tems.

They may be correct in this assertionand the company certainly has a re-sponsibility to push its provider to up-grade its service or purchase anotherback office system.

However, as long as your online systemhas a favorites list, your reps have thecapability needed to help their cus-tomers become more efficient and fur-ther insulate them from the competition.

Most customers order numerous itemsat least once a month, which shouldmake it easy for the rep to create a list.Once trained on your system the cus-tomer will only need to call the rep or

customer service with questions or ex-ceptions.

If this concept could work with even halfthe customers your reps currently callon, imagine all the extra time they mighthave!

They could get to know managers andaccounting folks during account reviewswith current customers. They mighteven have some time (Heaven forbid) tofollow up on referrals or make a cold callor two!

Do you see how all of this could saveyou money and possibly expand yourbusiness as well? To succeed in the dif-ficult months ahead, we will need tochange the way we conduct our busi-ness and your Internet system, usedcorrectly, is a major key to doing justthat.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 37

Tom Buxton: continued from page 36

Tom Buxton is founder and CEO of InterBiz Group, a consulting firm that works withindependent office products dealers to help increase sales and profitability, for more

information, visit www.interbizgroup.com.

Dave is a true industry veteran—he’s

been selling office products at Superior

for twenty years and has become one

of the dealership’s top producers. But

even when he’s out pounding the streets

for Superior, Dave’s thoughts will still

move far away from office products—

would you believe maybe 10,000 feet

away?

Dave Bertrand is a skydiver and has been

for over 30 years. Back in 1976, he

jumped out of a plane for the first time—a

gift from a friend in return for a favor. That

first jump was relatively modest—just

3,500 ft. on a static line—but, says Dave,

it was a life-changing experience.

“You really can’t describe the feeling sky-

diving gives you,” he says. “But as most

skydivers will tell you, it’s when you really

find out why birds sing!”

That first jump left Dave ready for more

and some 3,000 dives later, he’s still out

there about three days a week during the

season—between April and November—

ready to throw himself and about 25 lbs.

of equipment out of an aircraft for an

adrenaline-surging 60 seconds of free-

falling excitement.

Oddly enough, he hasn’t had a great deal

of success passing on his love of the sport

to his friends and colleagues at Superior.

“Dave has asked me to go up with him

many times,” says Superior’s president

Ray Seefeld, “But even though he’s an

outstanding sales professional, I still like

the idea of keeping my own feet on the

ground!”

While the team at Superior may be a

tough sell, that hasn’t stopped Dave

from building up a nice skydiving busi-

ness of his own. In addition to his office

products career, Dave is a proud co-

owner of Mohawk Valley Skydiving

(www.mohawkvalleyskydiving.com), and

a licensed instructor for would-be sky-

divers.

So next time a particularly demanding

customer gets you down or if you feel

like you’ve seen one big box Sunday in-

sert too many, give Dave a call. He’d be

more than happy to take you far away

from the stresses and pressures of the

office products world—for at least 60

seconds!

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 38

The Other Side of

Dave Bertrand of Superior Business Products

Ever have the kind of day that leaves you wishing you were a thousand

miles away from anything remotely to do with office products? Why not get in touch

with Dave Bertrand at Superior Business Products in Schenectady, NY?

He might just have a suggestion for you!

Open virtually any big box catalog today and you’ll find theyall take a similar approach to pricing: Buy 3, 6 or 12 of anitem instead of just one and you, the customer, get a niceprice break.

It’s called tier pricing and if the big boxes do it, why shouldn’tindependents give it a try?

This year, our dealership is doing just that. Working with S.P.Richards, we have published our own Select catalog, featur-ing tier-pricing on the top commodity items, and have beendistributing it since January.

It is not only keeping us competitive, but is also bringing innew business and increasing our own productivity and prof-itability.

Our customers like being able to enjoy the same kind of pricebreaks for ordering in quantity that they can get from our bigbox friends. At the same time, the tier-priced book is increas-ing our average order size, cutting down on the number oftrips we make to each customer and making us more effi-cient in the warehouse.

We are saving on repack boxes and it’s much easier for ourwarehouse team to pull a shippable carton of 12 binders right

off the shelf instead of repacking smaller quantities.

The catalog is also proving very effective from a marketingstandpoint. We go into prospects and tell them we'll putthem on End Column Pricing for the first 120 days, no matterwhat quantity they purchase.

If they maintain $1,000 (or whatever the number) per month,they stay on End Column regardless of quantity. If not, thenthey need to meet the quantity breaks to get the lower price.

The result: An approach that we find has worked very wellas a way to generate initial interest from potential new ac-counts.

Obviously, a tier-priced approach is not for every dealer. ButOffice Depot, Staples, Quill and W.B. Mason use it and pre-sumably it works for them. Based on our own experience,we believe it can work for independents, too.

In these challenging times, that’s particularly good news andcertainly something worth thinking about as you put yourown marketing plans together for the rest of the year.

Questions or feedback? Please drop me an e-mail atcfranco@amerprint.com.

MARCH 2009 INDEPENDENT DEALER Page 39

TheLASTword

By Chris Franco, PresidentAmerican Printing & Office SuppliesKingston, NY

Time for a Tier-Priced Dealer Catalog?