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WINNERS’ CircleDealing with CriticalIndustry IssuesBusiness school professors andconsultants have written literallyhundreds of books over theyears on strategic planning andit’s no exaggeration to say thatthe vast majority of them are

pretty much useless for most small business owners andmanagers.

Putting it bluntly, we simply don’t have the time to getinto all the theoretical constructs and minutiae that theyusually come with.

But that doesn’t make strategic planning—particularlyin these challenging times—any less important fortoday’s independents. There’s a real sense right nowthat some profound changes are working their waythrough our industry and that business as usual just isn’tgoing to cut it.

In many ways, that’s what this month’s cover story is allabout.

Writer Jim Rapp reached out to about a dozen dealersacross the country and asked them to highlight the criti-cal issues they’re facing today and share what they’redoing in response.

The folks Jim talked with came up with a list that willprobably be familiar to many of our readers: declining de-mand for traditional products, the need for a superior on-line presence, relentless margin pressures, rising taxesand health insurance costs, etc., etc., etc.

Jim also came up with an approach that is about as farremoved as it gets from the complexities of the theoreti-cians and the business books when it comes to dealingwith critical issues: “Know them. Do something aboutthem. End of story.”

That approach may not win too many Pulitzer prizes butit has a simplicity and practicality that should appeal tojust about any hard-pressed, multi-tasking entrepreneur.

And even if you might start feeling like we’re rounding upthe usual suspects when it comes to critical issues as youread this month’s cover story, that doesn’t make figuringout how you should respond to them any less important.

Know them, do something about them and your story willhave a much happier ending than business as usual islikely to bring.

Ninety Years and Counting for Mid-City Office Products, IL IndependentIt’s going to be a special year for Larry Bridgeland, Greg Otwell and theirteam at Mid-City Office Products in Rockford, Illinois, as their dealershipnot only celebrates its 90th anniversary but also rolls out a comprehen-sive re-branding effort, complete with new logo, tagline—‘We make OF-FICE happen.”—and messaging that highlights its service-intensive,solutions-based value proposition.

Larry is a seasoned industry veteran who got his office products startback in 1979 with another local independent before buying Mid-Cityin 1994.

Today, the dealer-ship is 18 hard-charging industryp r o f e s s i o n a l sstrong, most ofwhom have the same depth of experience as Larry himself.

“We’re almost like a family here and we put a lot of emphasis on theimportance of relationships in the way we service our customers,” Larryexplains.

“We offer competitive prices and stress our local roots as a differentiator inthe market but our primary selling proposition today is our flexible service,backed by a knowledgeable and experienced staff,” he explains. “That’s re-ally how we win against the competition.”

Since 1923, Mid-City has been gathering plenty of evidence to showthe strength of that approach to the market. Adds Larry, “As we tellprospects when we first sit down with them, ‘If we weren’t competitiveand able to meet our customers’ needs, there’s no way we’d still behere after 90 years!’”

New England Office Supply Listed in Boston Area Top 100 Women-Led BusinessesCongratulations are in order for Indira Patel and her team at New Eng-land Office Supply (NEOS) in Braintree, Massachusetts, which was re-cently ranked among the Boston area’s Top 100 Women-LedBusinesses by the Boston Business Journal.

Indira’s story shows just how much opportunity the office productsspace continues to offer hard-charging entrepreneurs.

She came to the U.S. in 1971 as a student and after earning her MBA,embarked on a career in the health care field.

“I just got tired of working for someone else and thought running myown office products business was going to be much easier than it ac-tually turned out to be,” she recalls with a wry smile.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 2

Continued on page 4

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 4

Winners’ Circle. continued from page 2

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Key to her management style, Indira explains, is a strong commit-ment to hiring top talent.

“When we hire someone, I want them to know more than I do intheir particular area of expertise,” she says. “We want people whowill bring with them new ideas and approaches to take the com-pany to the next level.”

Evidently, her team has been doing just that and then some. Busi-ness picked up nicely last year, she reports, and the expectation for2013 is for more of the same. “We want to grow by at least 10-15%if not more this year and I’m confident we’ll do that,” she predicts

Wist Office Products, Tempe Dealer, Endorsed byArizona’s Largest Trade Association as Office Supplies PartnerWhile a distressingly large number of local chambers of com-merce and similar organizations continue to see no contradictionbetween their heartfelt expressions of support for local small busi-nesses and their sweetheart deals with the national big boxes, theArizona Small Business Association (ASBA) showed last monthjust how easy it is to walk the walk and talk the talk at the sametime when they announced a new partnership with Tempe-basedWist Office Products.

Under the partnership, ASBA members will receive exclusivediscounts on their office supplies purchases in a way that not

only provides them with attractive savings but also helps keepmore of their hard-earned dollars in Arizona to support the localeconomy.

“ASBA’s primary focus is helping and supporting small busi-nesses here in Arizona,” said Rick Murray, CEO of ASBA. “Any-time we can provide our members the best discounts and serviceswhile also supporting another local Arizona small business is awin-win for everyone—especially the local economy.”

Added Wist business development director Sam Richard, “In ad-dition to keeping three times as much money in the Arizona econ-omy compared to our competitors, being local means that wehold ourselves to a higher standard. These aren’t just our cus-tomers, they are our neighbors, too.

“Being a third-generation family-owned company is more to usthan just a postcard from the past. It’s a way of saying to our cus-tomers that we care about the community in which we all live,work and play,” said Sam.

Kershaws, Spokane, WA Dealer, Earns ‘Best OfficeSupply Company’ Honors In Spokane, Washington last month, Diane Mangano and herteam at Kershaw’s, Inc. were popping the champagne after earn-ing honors from a local business magazine as best office supplycompany in their market.

Kershaw’s beat out all the big three, not to mention one or twoContinued on page 6

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January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 6

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strong independents, in a poll of the readersof Inland Business CATALYST magazine, amonthly publication with a circulation ofsome 18,000 business owners and execu-tives in the greater Spokane market.

And to add a little more icing to the cake,they also picked up a bronze medal in the“Best Office Furniture Company” category.

Kershaw’s has a long and distinguishedhistory of service to the Spokane businesscommunity that goes all the way back to1900 and, says office manager CarolynBehrens, the local connection has becomeincreasingly important in recent years.

“We really stress our roots as a locallyowned and operated business and are verymuch involved in supporting local busi-nesses and Spokane’s own ‘Buy Local’campaign,” explains Carolyn. “We’re alsovery fortunate to have loyal, long-term cus-tomers who appreciate good service andthe opportunity to help keep dollars circu-lating in the community.”

Like most dealers, the folks at Kershaw’s

have found business challenging in recentyears but, Carolyn reports, things have beenpicking up of late, particularly on the furni-ture front, and the Kersahw’s team is feeling“fairly optimistic” about the year ahead.

Interstate Office Products, SDIndependent, Named ‘Best Placefor Office Furniture and Supplies’Hat’s off to Gary Gaspar and his team atInterstate Office Products in Sioux Falls,South Dakota, recently named “BestPlace to Buy Office Furniture and Sup-plies” by readers of the Sioux Falls Busi-ness Journal.

Interstate beat out both OfficeMax andStaples to win the honor, which was votedon by the magazine’s readers.

And what made the difference? “It’s reallyour people who make it happen,” saidGary, who pointed proudly to a hard-work-ing team of long-time employees, includingmany industry veterans.

Business has been very good of late, Garyreports. The Sioux Falls market is generallystrong—the local unemployment rate isjust 3.7%—and the overall environment ispro-business, he adds.

Interstate is a Steelcase dealer—it earnedthe coveted Steelcase Platinum Partnerdesignation last year—and furniture salesin particular have been very positive, withall signs so far pointing to more of thesame in 2013, he reports.

Office Furniture Partnership, NJDealer, is Kimball Office SelectDealership of the Year Congratulations are in order for the folks atOffice Furniture Partnership (OFP) in Mor-ristown, New Jersey, who were recentlyhonored by Kimball Office as its SelectDealership of the Year.

“Office Furniture Partnership is an ex-tremely strong and well established deal-ership in our northeast region, and we are

Continued on page 8

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Story. continued from page XWinners’ Circle. continued from page 6

excited to announce that they were one of our most successfuldealerships throughout the 2011-12 year,” said Greg Wittlinger,director of sales, east. “We look forward to their continued suc-cess and furthering our partnership.”

The furniture market hasn’t exactly been a bed of roses for anyonein recent years but that hasn’t stopped OFP from scoring someimpressive wins that include noteworthy projects such as the NewYork Giants, Daiichi Sankyo, Nestle, Avis and many others.

“We are thrilled to have earned Kimball Office’s recognition asSelect Dealer of the Year,” said OFP principal Bob Rigby. “To-gether with Kimball Office, our clients are offered intelligent de-sign concepts with furniture products manufactured for long-termsolutions.”

That long-term perspective also comes into play for the dealershipin its efforts to encourage and support future designers.

Recently OFP partnered with Kimball Office to offer teams of de-sign students from Kean University and the New Jersey Instituteof Technology (NJIT) the opportunity to reinvent a piece of KimballOffice seating, as long as it matched the design aesthetic of anassigned decade.

Two winning teams were chosen, one from each school, and wereawarded $1,000 scholarships.

Western Office Technologies, NE Dealer, Picks Up Big Healthcare Contract WinIn Norfolk, Nebraska, Steve McNally and his team at Western Of-fice Technologies are celebrating the arrival of a significant newsupplies contract with a regional healthcare system that had longbeen in the hands of Chicago-based big box OfficeMax.

Steve and his team are no strangers to the healthcare market. Be-fore this win, they were already servicing two other large health-care accounts.

The opportunity to add this latest win to their healthcare book ofbusiness came when a new CEO was appointed and Steve se-cured an opportunity to introduce his dealership and the servicesthey offered.

“There’s an all-too common assumption that just because we’rea local business, we can’t offer the same kind of pricing and serv-ice as the national players,” Steve laments.

“Fortunately, we were able to point to our existing healthcare busi-ness as evidence of our ability to serve that market effectively andwhen we told them we could provide desktop delivery—whichwas something they weren’t getting from OfficeMax—the conver-sation started to get really interesting!”

Continued on page 10

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The new CEO and his team also liked the idea of buying from alocally owned and operated business. “We find the smaller, moreregional companies in the healthcare market are good targets foran independent like us,” says Steve. “They understand the eco-nomics of supporting local companies—our people are their pa-tients, after all—and they tend to be more receptive to the idea ofa local business partner.”

It helped too that Western went in with a strong high-service,problem-solving value proposition. “On a contract like this, we’relooking to evaluate their current purchasing practices and proce-dures and develop ways to streamline them and add new valueand that was something they also appreciated,” he points out.

The contract runs for three years and has an initial annual valueof $250,000-300,000, with the potential for a whole lot more asmore branch locations of the system are phased in.

Guernsey Office Products Acquires Office ProductsDiv. of Phillips Office SolutionsDavid Guernsey and his team at Dulles, Virginia-based GuernseyOffice Products are starting the new year off with a bang followingtheir acquisition, through an asset sale transaction, of the officeproducts division of Phillips Office Solutions.

“This is a truly significant event,” commented David Guernsey, “aswe combine two virtually identical cultures selling identical prod-

uct categories and in the process create a substantially larger or-ganization with a much enlarged trading footprint.”

The acquisition grows the Guernsey organization by another 40%,David indicated. “We think it’s very important to develop scaleand take advantage of opportunities where we can do it right,” hesaid, citing the opportunity to gain a high caliber team of sea-soned industry professionals and what he described as “a perfectfit for us geographically” as key benefits for his dealership.

The Guernsey organization will maintain sales, warehousing andadministration out of locations in Middletown, Pennsylvania,where Phillips is headquartered, as well as Hunt Valley, Marylandand Greencastle, Pennsylvania.

Market coverage will include central and eastern Pennsylvania,the Baltimore market in Maryland, select western Maryland mar-kets and a portion of northeast West Virginia.

Guernsey already covers the Virginia Beach and Richmond, Vir-ginia markets in addition to its home base in the Washington, DC-Baltimore corridor.

All personnel formerly with the Phillips’ OP division will transitionemployment to Guernsey, Guernsey said in a press release. In ad-dition, Guernsey has acquired a limited IP license to use thePhillips Office Solutions name, URL, and main telephone number.

In effect, there will be no substantive changes to operations, the

Continued on page 12

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 10

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company said, though it indicated varioussynergies and integrations will be imple-mented in the coming year.

Peter Phillips, president and CEO ofPhillips Office Solutions, said he felt hehad found the perfect home for the muchvalued staff members of his OP division.Phillips further commented that his firmwould continue in the document manage-ment and workplace interiors markets.

Eakes Office Plus, NE Dealer, Opens New Showroom in Lincoln

That old nugget about one door opening asanother closes had a special meaning lastmonth for Mark Miller and his team at GrandIsland, Nebraska-based Eakes Office Plus,as the dealership cut the ribbon on a newshowroom for its Lincoln operation.

The new showroom was formerly a post of-fice and when it closed, Mark and his teamsaw a welcome opportunity to expand.

The building now houses a brand new of-fice furniture and copier showroom forEakes, as well as providing a base for itslocal sales offices.

Monte Rasmussen, managing partner ofthe Lincoln store, told a local newspaperEakes needed more space, after operatingout of a 3,000-square-foot sales office forseveral years.

The former post office space certainly of-fers that. It has 15,000 square feet on themain level, which is split 50-50 betweenretail showroom space and office space,and another 7,500 square feet on thelower level that’s used as warehousespace.

Though a former post office doesn’t seemlike an ideal site to convert to retail, Ras-mussen said the combination of main level

floor space and lower-level warehouse spacewas perfect for Eakes’ needs. “It’s workedout just super,” he told the newspaper.

In addition to the Lincoln location, Eakescurrently has 10 other stores, all in smallerNebraska cities.

NY Independent Hummel’s OfficePlus Acquires CNY Office Products In Mohawk, New York, the folks at Hum-mel’s Office Plus were shopping for morethan Christmas presents last month, asthey added Cortland, New York–basedCNY Office Products to the operation.

Following the deal, CNY will change itsname to Hummel’s Office Plus and con-tinue to operate from its existing location.

“The merging of our two long-establishedfamily businesses is truly exciting,” Hum-mel’s CEO Justin Hummel said. “We ad-mire the industry expertise andenthusiasm of the CNY Office Productsteam and their excellent long-term rela-tionships with their customers. We areeager to build upon each dealer’s uniqueheritage, while focusing on the commongoal of supporting our customers’ needs.”

David Stark founded CNY Office Products23 years ago and he and his wife Lynn,who joined the company in 1991, havegrown the business based on the tradi-tional, service-focused independentmodel.

Hummel’s similar business philosophy,Stark said, made it the right choice as anew owner when he made the decision tosell. “Both companies embody the sameideals about service and commitment thatCNY Office Products does,” he said.

Following the merger, David will officiallyretire while Lynn will remain with Hummel’son a part-time basis. In addition, Hum-mel’s will retain all of CNY’s employees,the company said.

Our team is truly excited to have CNY joinHummel’s,” Justin said. “It opens up an-other market for us, just south of Syracusewith some solid growth potential.”

Business overall at the dealership has alsobeen in a growth mode, Justin reports.“We were very pleasantly surprised by2012 and looking at a sales gain upwards

of 5%,” he said.

Next year looks well set for more of thesame, with the dealership adding threenew members to the outside sales teamand putting some other new initiatives inplace to keep the momentum going.

Kim Duncan, Founder of OH DealerElements IV Interiors, RetiresAfter 33 years in the commercial furnish-ings industry, Kim Duncan, one of the orig-inal founders of Dayton, Ohio-basedElements IV Interiors, is retiring from the in-dustry.

Kim started her career at Ramsey Busi-ness Interiors in Dayton. After seven yearsin design and four years in commercialsales, Kim and three other partners starteda new Haworth dealership in Dayton solelyto support Wright Patterson Air ForceBase.

Within six months, the dealership had ex-panded its reach to hospitals, financial in-stitutions and other commercial clientsthroughout southwest Ohio and northernKentucky.

Over the past 22 years, Elements IV Interi-ors has grown steadily and been recog-nized by the INC 500/5000 List on threeoccasions (1993, 1995 and 2009).

Other accolades include the 2012 BBBEclipse Integrity Award, the Dayton Busi-ness Journal’s 2005 Minority Business ofthe Year and in 2012 the Community Sup-porter Business of the Year for communityoutreach. Kim was also recognized earlierthis year by the Dayton Area Chamber ofCommerce as its 2011 Volunteer of theYear.

Kim attributes her ability to retire to herconfidence in her business partner of nine-years, Mark Williams, along with a wellthought-out and executed successionplan.

“Under Mark’s continued leadership, I lookforward to seeing the company’s successand wish to thank him and all of our team-mates at Elements IV Interiors for theircommitment to each other, our clients andme personally,” said Kim.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 12

Winners’ Circle. continued from page 10

Continued on page 14

For 100 years, City of Hope has provided compassion and innovative treatments for people facing life-threatening diseases. During the past 30 years, the National Office Products Industry has raised more than $100 million for City of Hope’s mission. Thanks to your help, City of Hope has created four leading cancer drugs, conducts thousands of clinical trials and has saved millions of lives. Your involvement can and does make a difference!

SAVE THE DATE

2013EVENTCALENDARMonday and Tuesday, March 11 and 12City of Hope Tour and Dinner Reception Hosted by the National Office Products Council

City of Hope Duarte, Calif.

Wednesday and Thursday, May 1 and 2Bob Parker Memorial Golf Outing at Kiawah Island Hosted by Office Depot

Kiawah Island Resort, Ocean CourseKiawah Island, S.C.

Tuesday and Wednesday, June 18 and 19Honoree Golf Outing at Kohler Hosted by ACCO Brands

Kohler Resort, The Straights CourseKohler, Wis.

Wednesday, September 25Howard Wolf Golf Classic Sponsored by United Stationers

Cantigny Golf Club Wheaton, Ill.

Thursday, September 26Spirit of Life Gala

Navy Pier Chicago, Ill.

Bob Keller, chairman and chief executive officer of ACCO Brands Corporation and City of Hope’s 2013 Spirit of Life® honoree, encourages you to continue your legacy of support by participating in industry activities, large and small.

For more information on how to get involved, please visit www.cityofhope.org/nopi or call City of Hope at 866-905-HOPE

Get Involved

• Host or participate in a City of Hope golf outing• Create a product promotion• Start an employee giving program• Make a personal gift through Legions of Hope

or Friends for Hope

Bob KellerChairman and Chief Executive OfficerACCO Brands Corporation2013 Spirit of Life Honoree

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City of Hope saved the lives of two generations in the Reuter family — father and daughter who received bone marrow transplants a decade apart.

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January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 14

Independents Give Back for the HolidaysTo nobody’s great surprise, independents were out in force thisholiday season and taking advantage of a wealth of opportunitiesto help those in need. Unfortunately, we don’t have space to coverthem all, but this selection of dealers who were doing good thingslast month shows once again that when it comes to giving back tothe community, nobody does it better than today’s independents!

In Tacoma, Washington, the team at Chuckals Office Products,along with a group of hard-charging volunteers, continued what hasbecome an annual tradition by gathering in the dealership’s ware-house to put together meals for families in need. This year’s efforthelped make the holiday season brighter for over 450 families.

In Birmingham, Alabama, Bruce Office Supply & Furniture servedas a collection point for a toy drive in support of a local childcareand family services non-profit. The effort brought in several hun-dred toys from employees and customers for children ages 2-5.

Redmond, Washington-based Keeney’s Office Supply also got intothe gift business last month, as employees bought toys, books, cloth-ing and more for clients of a local family services non-profit that pro-vided some festive cheer for over 100 local families in need.

Several local non-profits were helped this holiday season by thefolks at Temple, Texas-based Perry Office Plus. Close to 90% ofemployees at the dealership contribute $2 a week to a year-longgiving fund and when December rolled around, they voted onthree deserving causes to receive the proceeds. This year, eachof the organizations selected received a $1,000 check. In addition,the Perry team used a raffle at their annual Christmas party to col-lect over 900 lbs of food items for a local food bank.

Winners’ Circle. continued from page 12

Continued on page 15

In Chesapeake VA, Coastal Office & Promo Products providedcollection services for the local Marine Corps Toys for Tots cam-paign. Drivers Brian Hetherington and Andrew Hess made over80 different pick-ups over a two week period.

In Yorba Linda, California, employees at Office Solutions stayed afterhours to fill 500 backpacks with school supplies and toiletries forhomeless children as part of a special “Sharing the Spirit” givingcampaign. The dealership posted their efforts on YouTube(www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxbIXK-TA64).

In Meridian, Idaho, Office Value provided collection services forthe third year in a row for Operation Wish Book, a state-wide pro-gram that aims to give the gift of reading to children in need. Thedealership collected approximately 500 books from employeesand customers which were distributed with the help of the localSalvation Army.

Hat’s off to these and the many other independents who went theextra mile and then some to help those in their communities inneed of some holiday cheer!

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 15

Winners’ Circle. continued from page 14

Joe Franks of Office Pro, Corinth, MSJoe Michael Franks, co-owner of Office Pro in Corinth, Mississippi, died December 31, 2012 athis home. He was 53.

Joe founded Office Pro with his business partner, John Mercier, and served as its sales man-ager.

Locally, he held leadership positions with many organizations, including Main Street Corinth,the city’s “Buy Local” group. He recently received a special award for outstanding service toMain Street Corinth. Joe also was a member of the Kiwanis Club of Corinth and served as its

2005-6 president. He was also recognized as Kiwanian of the Year in 2006.

Joe was an avid barbecue griller and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he led a team in Long Beach, Mississippi,just outside of Gulfport, that over a five-week period provided food for hurricane victims, an effort that at its peak, served some2,000 meals a day.

Joe is survived by his wife, Sharon Patrick Franks; a daughter, Erin Grier Moss and her husband, Jeremy; a son, Zack Grier andKrystal and Audrey; grandchildren Brynn and Presley Moss, all of Corinth; and a host of other family and friends.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Mattie T. Franks Memorial Nursing Scholarship Fund, c/o of Northeast MississippiCommunity College Foundation, 101 Cunningham Dr., Booneville, MS 38829.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 16

Eaton Office Supply is making aname for itself in western New Yorkand western Pennsylvania, withrapid growth and an increasingshare of the market.

“We’ve had growth every year ina very flat market,” states presi-dent Bruce Eaton. “We are ag-gressive, take some risks, andmake investments that don’t al-ways have immediate payback.”

Bruce and his brother James arethe third generation to operate thebusiness, taking over from theirfather in 1977.

The company operates from sixlocations, with warehouse andfurniture showrooms in each.

“We have over 3,000 active cus-tomers,” Bruce explains, “and wetry to be the single source foreverything they need. We also sellto just about every customer cat-egory, including education, man-ufacturing, agriculture, real estate,legal and financial.”

Planning Ahead“We plan for the long term, setting specific goals and measuring ourselves on a monthly basis. I’man analytical individual. We measure everything and we get everyone involved in the process.

“Everyone who works here is very familiar with our philosophy—we want to be the model independ-ent office products dealer and we want to provide the best buying experience for our customers.

“Every year we sit down with our managers and their people, get feedback and identify, through a traditional strategic planning process,what we need to accomplish in the next 24-36 months. We then create a formal plan and set goals, objectives and actions and everymonth we measure ourselves against these goals and objectives.”

The company employs specialists in each product category—jan/san, beverages, MPS, for example—who are constantly looking foropportunities in the marketplace.

“We’ve made some large investments over the last few years and we are now beginning to see a return on this investment,” addsBruce. “One example is managed print services, which we started three years ago and which is now bearing fruit.”

As the company approaches its 100th anniversary, Bruce Eaton sees nothing but growth and increasing market share, which he be-lieves will also be true for independent dealers across the country.

SECRETS OF SUCCESS:Eaton Office Supply Company, Amherst, New York

by Jim Rapp

n Bruce C. Eaton, President

n James C. Eaton, CFO

n Supplies, furniture,equipment, school, coffee and breakroom, MPS

n Founded: 1915

n Sales: $36 million

n Employees: 135

n Partners: TriMega, AOPD, Steelcase

n Online Sales: 55%

n www.eatonofficesupply.com

Bruce Eaton (left) andhis brother andcompany CFO Jim atone of their furnitureshowrooms

Steady Growth While Building Market Share

Chances are that more than just a fewreaders of the New York Times are thinkingtwice about shopping at Staples thesedays, after two recent articles by theTimes’ David Segal reported on allegationsby Staples managers and sales staff ofhigh pressure sales tactics by the com-pany on computer service plans.

Staples, according to employees that Segalcited, has in place a set of incentives thatmake it unpleasant, to put it mildly, forstaffers to sell a computer without add-ons,particularly a service plan.

Natasja Shah, a former Staples manager,told Segal the company has a systemcalled Market Basket that tracks how manydollars’ worth of add-ons each staffer sells.

“The average needs to be $200,” Shah toldSegal, and if the sales staff doesn’t meetthat goal, she said disciplinary action thatcan lead up to termination will follow.

In his reporting, Segal presented a con-densed and edited posting from a websitecalled my3cents.com which recounted oneconsumer’s experiences when he tried tobuy an Acer computer Staples had adver-tised for $449.

“Upon my arrival,” Segal quotes the con-sumer, “I found an associate who informedme that the laptops were in stock. However,before he would get me one, he proceededto try to sell me his ‘protection plan.’

“Now, for a number of reasons, including myown knowledge of computers, as well asready access to free computer repair serv-ices, I declined this. The sales associate in-dicated that it was O.K., and then walkedaway to, I assumed, get my computer.

“He returned with the store’s general man-ager, who again proceeded to aggressivelypush the protection plan onto me. He wasextremely rude, implying that I was ‘cheap’

for not adding the plan. He walked awaywhen I finally maintained that I did not wantit. Then I heard him call the sales associateover and tell him something. Momentslater, the sales associate informed me thatthe laptop was not in stock after all.”

As Segal tells the story, the would-be cus-tomer then calls a second Staples, where asalesman says, yes, we have that $449 Acer.

“I walked in and found the exact personwhom I spoke to eight minutes earlier. Thestore was virtually empty. I asked him if Ihad just spoken to him about the Acer lap-top and he confirmed that he was the per-son. I asked him if they were indeed instock, and he indicated that they were. Ithen asked if he could please go get one,because I definitely wanted one. And then,before he goes back to get one, he asksme if I want the service plan.”

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 17

Office Depot will soon succumb to competitive pressures and beforced to liquidate, Motley Fool analyst Ted Cooper predicted lastmonth in a scathing analysis of the Florida big box and the chal-lenges it faces.

The brick-and-mortar office supply retail space is dominated byStaples, says Cooper and since it and competitors Office Depotand OfficeMax all sell the same products, the only differentiatoris pricing.

That means, Cooper contends, only the low-cost provider canoutlast the price wars and subsequent margin compression that

come with intense industry competition and Staples’ size, unfor-tunately for Office Depot and OfficeMax, gives it an enormous ad-vantage over the two struggling companies.

Cooper contends Office Depot’s only hope of survival evaporatedin the middle of the last decade, when Staples’ sales reached newhighs as Office Depot’s plummeted.

“Office Depot cannot possibly match the economies of scale inpricing and distribution that comes with a higher revenue figureand the disparity between the two companies will only grow largeras Office Depot’s same-store sales continue to decline and Sta-ples continues to grow,” Cooper adds.

In addition, Cooper points out, the brick-and-mortar retailers facecompetition from the likes of Amazon and warehouse clubs likeWal-Mart’s Sam’s Club and Costco.

Nothing in Office Depot’s plans for the future convinces me thatthe company will turn itself around,” says Cooper. “Instead,” heconcludes, “investors would be wise to let Office Depot die on itsown instead of allowing it to kill their portfolio as well.”

Office Depot Will Be Gone by 2015, Says Motley Fool Analyst

New York Times Blasts Staples for Hard Sell Sales Tactics

Continued on page 18

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

You know the rest, comments Segal. “Aftera quick check of inventory, the salesmanreturns to say the Acers are all gone.”

Shah and several other current and formerStaples employees also told Segal Staplesactively encouraged them to sell war-ranties on items already covered by man-ufacturers.

“Epson has a sticker that they put on thefloor of the store, about how they’ve gotthe best warranty in the business,” one for-mer manager told Segal. “You’re supposedto stand on the sticker. And if they askabout the manufacturer’s warranty”—which is also described on the box—”you’re supposed to say that Epson is inthe business of making money, Staples isin the business of taking care of you. Andthat you’ll have to ship the product back toEpson and Epson might reject the claim.”

Segal sent a Staples spokesperson detailsof these charges who e-mailed back astatement that read, in part: “Staples is

committed to providing excellent cus-tomer service and making shopping easyfor our customers. We do this best bymaking sure our customers are informedabout the options that are available tothem. Furthermore, we expect our associ-ates to behave ethically and use soundjudgment.”

At the same time, though, Segal indicatedthat current and former Staples employeeshe spoke to said Staples has not alteredits expectation that associates sell $200worth of extras per computer and he ar-gued that meeting goals like that requiresa sell so hard that walking the customer,or variations of what could be called salesavoidance techniques, are all but in-evitable.

“It’s kind of like demanding that someonedrive from Boston to New York in undertwo hours, with this warning: Don’t breakthe speed limit,” Segal concluded.

United Stationers AnnouncesMonthly Update Schedule forProduct and Pricing Content,Launches Email Plus, New E-Mail Marketing ProgramEffective this month, wholesaler UnitedStationers is transitioning from a quarterlyto a monthly schedule for updates on itsproducts, pricing and content.

With today’s accelerating product changesin the marketplace, monthly content syn-dication will help resellers to realize salesopportunities and ultimately drive cus-tomer satisfaction, United said.

“The world of quarterly item and pricechanges in the office products industry islong gone,” said Laura Gale, vice presi-dent, enterprise content management,United Stationers. “United Stationers con-tinues to upgrade our content, as we aimto provide the most robust and up-to-dateoffering in the industry.”

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 18

Industry News continued from page 17

Continued on page 19

As manufacturers respond to rapid mar-ketplace change, monthly syndication willpublish more frequent updates to productcontent and availability, United said.

Accurate product descriptions and priceswill be available more quickly, therebyhelping to ensure customer comprehen-sion and boost satisfaction.

In addition, United said it has startedadding more products from non-traditionalsuppliers that do not always fit into a quar-terly cycle. Monthly syndication will facili-tate incremental sales opportunities forresellers who want to market to specificniches, said Gale.

For resellers who want price and itemchanges on a more frequent basis thanmonthly, United Stationers’ ICAPS (ItemContent and Pricing Service) will e-mailthem on an as needed basis.

Additional content enhancements for 2013include URL’s for supplier product videosand expanded product selling points tohelp customers gain a richer understand-ing of products prior to purchase.

Separately, United announced the intro-duction of Email Plus, a new e-mail mar-keting program which United said isdesigned to provide “a robust self-serviceoffering to serve business and office prod-ucts dealers’ needs for leading edge e-mail marketing.”

Email Plus will empower users to customizeUnited Stationers’ eDeals program, expandemail marketing efforts, integrate e-mailbranding, and manage all e-mail sends andlists within one system, United said.

eDeals customization options includeswapping out products and offers, addinglinks, inserting personalized messages,changing images and more.

Additionally, the expanded program willallow dealers to create and send emailsfrom 100+ templates, including e-invita-tions, e-newsletters, e-postcards, andalerts. Email Plus will ultimately integrateone’s brand across all e-mails, United said.

ECi Software Solutions Named to Tech 200 by Business Research FirmDealer technology provider ECi SoftwareSolutions has been ranked the 176thfastest-growing U.S.-based tech companyby Lead 411, a business research firmbased in California.

“We are thrilled with this recognition,” saidRon Books, president and CEO of ECi.“Our company has done really well in therankings this year. Our employees’ abilityto provide outstanding technology solu-tions and equally outstanding customerservice and support has kept the momen-tum going at ECi.”

Lead 411 ranked the 2012 Tech 200 basedon revenue percentage growth from 2009to 2011. Applicants had to be a privatelyheld business in the U.S. that earned morethan $1 million in the past year.

In addition to the Tech 200 listing, ECi lastyear was also named to the Inc. 5000 forthe fourth consecutive year and the 2012Fast Tech list of companies in North Texasand recognized as one of the Top 100companies in Fort Worth.

Ten Years and Counting for Red CheetahCongratulations are in order for AndrewMorgan and his team at Austin, Texas-based Red Cheetah, which this year cele-brates its tenth year of service to thedealer community.

At the time the company got started, Mor-gan was an independent dealer himselfand after looking for an e-commerce sys-tem to support his ambitious growth plans,he and current Red Cheetah chief informa-tion officer Brian Ernst decided to writetheir own.

“We deployed it at our dealership and sawsuch great metrics that we decided to sellthe dealership and start our own softwarecompany,” Morgan recalls.

And why the Red Cheetah name? “Wewanted something that would depictspeed and strength and be very ‘sticky’from a marketing perspective,” he ex-plains. “And we knew we could continue toleverage the name as the company grew.”

Evidently, Morgan and his team chosewell. Today, he reports, Red Cheetah hasa customer base of some 500 independ-ents and a team of 29 hard-working indus-try professionals.

“We’ve had a tremendous run over thepast ten years, due in large part to a fan-tastic team who bring many years of in-dustry experience to the table and who arecommitted to maintaining our ‘dealer first’perspective,” says Morgan.

Morgan also attributes the company’sgrowth to what he calls “our continued un-derstanding of the urgency of the dealer’smoment.”

“We have been fortunate to hire folks whohave in-depth knowledge of our dealersand how they operate and who know howto ask the most pertinent question at thecorrect time to get the right solution,” hesays proudly.

Morgan and his team aren’t planning anybig event to mark the anniversary. And, henotes, Red Cheetah will be skipping a yearfor its regular Coalition system user con-ference and holding the next one in 2014,to support industry-wide efforts currentlyunderway to move to fewer, bigger events.

But the anniversary year will see an impor-tant new initiative from Red Cheetah as itre-brands under a new marketing umbrellaof “Proven. Powerful. Enduring.”

“Red Cheetah has shown all three of thosequalities from Day One and we will con-tinue to do so,” Morgan states. “We’veseen a lot of changes over the past tenyears but one thing that remains just asstrong as it was when we started is our be-lief in independent dealers and the tremen-dous entrepreneurial spirit that drivesthem.”

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 19

Continued on page 20

Industry News continued from page 18

Office Snax Introduces ‘9 to 5,” New Coffee Line Blended for the OfficeBreak room products manufacturer Office Snax has introduced thelatest addition to its coffee line-up, “9 to 5”, a medium-roast, Ara-bica coffee, available in both full strength and half-caffeine cans.

“There are so many good coffees out there, you almost can’tmiss,” the company said in a statement. “However, most of themare blended for the household market. Office Snax’s ‘9 to 5’ cof-fee is blended for the office, which means it’s formulated to lastlonger on the warming plate without loss of flavor or consistency.“9 to 5” was designed to beat the national brands in price andtaste. And it does.”

Office Snax also highlighted the new line’s environmentally-friendly aspect, with cans that are made from 100% recycled pa-perboard and coffee that comes with no artificial flavors, colorsor preservatives.

Office Snax also said its new “9-5” coffee will not be sold in retailstores and like other Office Snax items, is available exclusively tothe office products industry.

In addition, Office Snax announced “9 to 5” is available from bothUnited Stationers and S.P. Richards and is featured on the frontcover of its mini brochure, which is always available to officeproducts dealers, completely free of charge.

Parts Now and Print-Rite North America Form Distribution Partnership In a move designed to further expand its imaging supplies prod-uct line, Parts Now has partnered with Print-Rite North Americafor the distribution of Print-Rite aftermarket laser toner cartridges.

“After careful profiling of leading industry manufacturers and rig-orous product testing, we have identified Print-Rite as a highquality, cost-effective complement to our remanufactured lasertoner portfolio,” stated Bob Hovey, director of product manage-ment at Parts Now.

“Supplies continue to be the single biggest cost in a reseller’sMPS or hardware and supplies program offering”, said Hovey.“With this latest supplies line expansion, we now provide resellersthe freedom to pick and choose SKUs that will help them increasetheir overall program profitability.”

A robust line of Print-Rite remanufactured monochrome lasertoner SKUs is now available through Parts Now, with online or-dering, order tracking, desktop and next day delivery across theUnited States, the company said.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 20

Industry News continued from page 19

Office Snax ‘9-5’ Coffee is flavorful, aromatic & smooth. A perfect way to start your day! We are EXCLUSIVE to the Office ProductsChannel, which means you won’t find our coffee in any mass retail outlets. We’re trying to do our part to help save the planet, soit’s important to note that our composite cans are made from 100% recycled paperboard. With no artificial flavors, colors orpreservatives, Office Snax ‘9-5’ coffee gives you a fresh rich cup of Office Snax coffee all day, every day!

Item #OFX-00058Full Strength

Item #OFX-00059Half Caffeine

NEWITEMS

AVAILABLENOW

Continued on page 21

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 21

Victor Technology Launches PilePossibilities, New PaperOrganization SystemDesktop accessory and calculator manu-facturer Victor Technology has launchedPile Possibilities, a new collection of desk-top organization products that caters todesktop paper pilers. Products in the newline include:

n Pile Stacker, a stackable, acrylic organ-izer that once placed over a pile, createsa new pile surface and additional workingspace.

n Pile Separator, which slides between pa-pers and includes an angled ledge at the topfor easy identification of a pile’s contents.

n Pile Tab, which slides between piles to di-vide it into sections and includes a tab

cutout for easy viewing and labeling of apile’s contents.

n Pile Band, an elastic band with an acrylicpiece that secures and labels piles.

n Pile Tile, a glass tile that sits atop a pile,allowing quick identification.

For more information, visit www.pilepossibilities.com.

West Point Products LaunchesAxess SalesPro, New MPS Sales Training ProgramWest Point Products last month an-nounced the release of Axess SalesPro,which it described as an interactive, onlinesales training program designed to assistdealers develop and implement a compre-hensive MPS sales process.

Structured to allow dealers’ employees tolearn on their own schedule, Axess Sale-sPro features a comprehensive educationalcurriculum, supporting documents and ref-erence materials, built-in quizzes, and ex-tensive reporting to allow managers to track

employees’ progress, the company said.

“Axess SalesPro was developed to helpdealers meet their training needs, with indepth and actionable content in an onlineformat, which will help the dealer managetheir training costs by eliminating the needto travel” said Ray Loisel, senior vice pres-ident, MPS, for West Point Products.

“This training will empower sales reps to havethe knowledge and the materials they need toimplement a proven sales process,” he added.

The program is being offered to dealers ona subscription basis, including an optionfor unlimited seats to extend training to allemployees. In addition, managers can optto receive daily or weekly reports to seehow well employees are learning the ma-terial presented.

“We developed Axess SalesPro with the deal-ers’ success in MPS sales as our goal,” saidTom Day, president of West Point Products.“This is another way we are adding value toour customers and helping them grow.”

Industry News continued from page 20

Continued on page 22

Industry News continued from page 21

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 22

Mary Cunningham, Tabbies co-ownerMary A. Cunningham, co-owner of filing, indexing and labelingproducts manufacturer Tabbies, died December 6. She was 89.

Her husband, Walter F. Cunningham, founded Tabbies in 1955and she performed many duties in the company, including theoffice of Secretary-Treasurer.

Upon Walter’s death in 1985, Mary became the co-owner withher son, Dennis W. Cunningham, and continued to perform manyof the office functions. She officially retired from the businessin 2010.

The company is now in the good hands of Dennis (president),grandson Chris Cunningham (vice president) and granddaugh-ter Cheri Miroballi (vice president–sales).

Mary was the beloved wife of the late Walter; loving mother ofSylvia M. (Russell) Kingsley and Dennis W. (Laurie) Cunningham;cherished grandmother of Lisa (Kenneth Carlson) Kingsley, KurtKingsley, Christopher Cunningham and Cheryl Miroballi; great-grandmother of Hannah and Emma Carlson, and dear sister ofJenny Russo and the late James Vanadia.

It is suggested that memorial contributions in her name bemade to the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org).

Steve Tiso of AOK/McGourty & AlexanderSteve Tiso, a manufacturer’s representative with AOK/McGourty& Alexander, died December 13, 2012 in Carver, Massachusetts.He was 57.

Steve had nearly forty years’ experience in the office productsarena with the past 14 years serving with AOK/McGourty &Alexander. He was previously national accounts manager forMaxell and also worked as a territory representative for bothFellowes and Pentel of America.

Steve was the loving husband of Joan (Donnarumma) Tiso. Heis survived by his son, Matthew and daughter, Bethany and herhusband Dan Morgado. He was also the oldest brother of foursiblings: Jackie Cummings, Michael, Christopher and Anthony.

Expressions of sympathy may be sent to his family at 66 Pur-chase Street, Carver, MA 02330.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made tothe Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, Inc., 460 SouthRiver Street, Marshfield, MA 02050.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 23

Scam Alert!

1. Please do not sell to anyoneunsolicited. We all know how hard it isto gain new accounts, so unsolicitedsales request are almost always thefirst sign of a scam.

2. Please do not sell to anyone out ofstate, unless they are a branch officefor one of your clients or you knowthem personally, or you wereprospecting them.

3. Items such as electronics, HP printersor OEM toner or ink are a deadgiveaway. Crooks prefer thembecause they are easy to convert tocash.

4. Look out for general titles andgreetings on e-mails received (e.g.,Hello Sales or From Vice President).

5. Gmail, Comcast and other personale-mail addresses should be a REDFLAG.

6. Just because someone has a creditcard, does not make it a legalpurchase. Crooks use stolen creditcard numbers all the time. TheSELLER (Business) is responsible, notthe credit card holder.

7. Even when the credit card islegitimate, it is almost always aSCAM. The credit card holder just didnot know their card was taken.

8. Good thieves have active websitesthat look great, with legitimatebusiness names that they “borrow”from active businesses, active phonenumbers, excellent references (bogusbanks and suppliers with realnumbers and people answeringphones) and they show upimpressively on Google searches.

9. Be alert and on your guard at all timeswhen signing new business, even in-state.

If you don’t have similar guidelines inyour own dealership, now might be agood time to send these around. Ourthanks, again, to John Givens, for hishelp.

Scam Alert!Scam Alert!Scam Alert!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALERT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scam Alert!

Credit card fraud and similar scams continue to plague theindustry and the need for vigilance on the part of dealersand their sales and customer service teams remains justas strong as ever.

Our thanks go to John Givens of Source Office Productsin Golden, Colorado, for his help in raising awareness ofthis growing problem. John put the following guidelinestogether for his own team and has kindly allowed us toshare them with our readers.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 24

On December 28, NOPA submitted com-ments to California’s Department of GeneralServices (DGS) regarding its revised pro-posed rule to implement recently enactedlegislation (Senate Bill 1510-Wright, amend-ing Section 999 of the State’s Military andVeterans Code) to strengthen the State’sso-called “CUF” (Commercially UsefulFunction) government contracting law.

The amendments, effective January 1,2013, clarify the obligations of contractorsand subcontractors with respect to theCUF law and strengthen CUF oversight au-thority and the responsibilities of stateagencies that award contracts.

NOPA’s comments address several DGS-proposed changes to Title 2, Division 2,Chapter 3, Subchapter 10.5, Section1896.60 et seq., Disabled Veteran BusinessEnterprise Participation Program regulations.

In its letter (contact NOPA president ChrisBates at cbates@nopanet.org for a copy),NOPA voices strong support for the objec-tives of recently passed state legislation inCalifornia to strengthen the state’s CUFlaw and notes that full implementation ofthe proposed regulations is of vital impor-tance to small businesses throughout thestate that faithfully comply with the currentCUF law and have broadly supported itsstrengthening and vigorous enforcement.

The NOPA letter also emphasizes that thekey measure of success will be the extentto which DGS consistently encouragesstate agencies to take the stronger CUF re-quirements and auditing procedures seri-ously, since that is where the responsibilityresides for doing so.

The association recommends that DGSregularly monitor state agencies’ actions

with respect to implementation of thestronger CUF requirements.

In addition, NOPA urges DGS to includenew language in the proposed regulationto highlight the importance in the course ofa CUF determination, review or compli-ance audit of considering whether a statecontractor, subcontractor or supplier hascontrol over contract-related accounts re-ceivable and accounts payable.

NOPA notes that during consideration ofthe CUF-law changes these factors wereexplicitly discussed and DGS provided as-surances to NOPA members that such fac-tors would be incorporated into DGS’simplementing regulations to the extentthey were not incorporated directly into theCUF-law amendments.

NOPAnews

NOPA Monitoring GSA Actions on Multiple Award ScheduleProgram and Use of Industrial Funding Fee

On December 28, the General ServicesAdministration (GSA) announced it has de-cided to withdraw a planned overhaul ofacquisition regulations (rewrite of GSARPart 538, FSS Contracting) governing theFederal Supply Schedule (FSS) program infavor of a new approach to modernizingthe program.

The so-called “modernization effort” willcontinue through a series of new GeneralServices Acquisition Regulation (GSAR)cases that GSA will open to “focus on theareas that require immediate modernizationto maintain currency in the FSS program.”

According to the notice, the new GSA ini-tiative also will focus on how to “strategi-cally position the FSS program to meet

the current and future needs of orderingactivities.”

Significant changes in the initial Part 538rewrite, originally outlined in an advancenotice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM)on January. 26, 2009 (91 FCR 72, 2/3/09),included:

• Revision of Subpart 538.272, MAS PriceReductions, to ensure contractors under-stand the importance of maintaining thenegotiated price/discount relationship dur-ing the contract period.

• Addition of Subpart 538.15, Negotiationand Award of Contracts, to provide clarityto FSS contracting offices regarding con-tract evaluation and award.

• Addition of Subpart 538.43, ContractModifications, to provide guidance to con-tractors when initiating a modification re-quest to the government.

GSA received 36 public comments in re-sponse to the 2009 ANPRM. The Decem-ber 28, 2012 notice justifies the withdrawalof the ANPRM stating: “Due to the varietyof issues addressed in the GSAR Part 538Rewrite, and strong stakeholder interest,the General Services Administration be-lieves that an agency review of the currentimplementation plan for this GSAR case isappropriate.” NOPA will be closely moni-toring GSA’s future proposals in theseareas.

NOPA Submits Comment on CaliforniaAnti-Passthrough CUF Rulemaking

Continued on page 25

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 25

NOPA News continued from page 24

As a separate but related matter, GSA is is-suing a proposed rule to clarify that the In-dustrial Funding Fee (IFF), a charge appliedfor the use of Multiple Award Schedule(MAS) contracts, can be used to fund oroffset losses associated with other FederalAcquisition Service programs.

The notice of proposed rulemaking(NPRM), also published on December 28,responds to recommendations from theagency inspector general on improvingtransparency and making organizationalchanges under the 2006 GSA Moderniza-tion Act (Pub. L. No. 109-313).

GSA currently levies a 0.75% IFF on regu-lar MAS program transactions, but a sig-nificantly higher 2.0% administrative feeunder the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initia-tive (FSSI) office supplies acquisition pro-gram.

Recently, there has been speculation thatGSA might realign its administrative feestructure in light of growing congressionalawareness that these fees are generating

significant net revenues to the agencyabove the costs of program administration.

Last February, GSA’s inspector general rec-ommended more transparency regardinguse of the IFF, including changes in the 2006agency restructuring law that gave GSAmore latitude in determining how to use netoperating revenue from the MAS Program.

This includes offsetting losses in other FASprograms or funding initiatives benefittingother FAS programs, the proposed rulesays.

Currently, GSAR 552.238-74 states thatthe “IFF reimburses the Federal SupplyService for the costs of operating the Fed-eral Supply Schedules Program and re-coups its operating costs from orderingactivities.”

GSA notes in the NPRM that “Essentially,use of MAS Program revenue may extendbeyond mere MAS Program cost recov-ery…In the past, this information was notformally communicated to MAS Programcustomers.”

GSA emphasized that the proposed rule“is separate and apart” from the agency’srecent announcement “that it will reviewand develop recommendations on theoverall fee structure for the MAS Programin an effort to create savings for GSAcustomers.”

Both the withdrawn rule and the proposedrule are part of an extensive initiativelaunched in 2006 to rewrite the GSA Ac-quisition Manual (GSAM).

The stated goals of the undertaking are toimprove consistency with the Federal Ac-quisition Regulation and implementstreamlined and innovative acquisition pro-cedures. The GSAM incorporates theGSAR and internal agency acquisition poli-cies, some of which have not been madepublic in the past.

For further information on these issues,contact Chris Bates at NOPA (PH:703.549.9040, x 100; E-mail:cbates@nopanet.org.

-

800.542.6672 www.nopanet.org

Your BusinessYour Business Your IndustryYour Industry

Your AssociationYour Association

“This thing has been going on for so long I’ve given up thinking that

customers will start buying like they once did.”

That phrase pretty much sums up the thinking of most independentsaround the country in this, our sixth annual “How’s Business?” sur-vey of dealers.

We first reported a weakening of the economy in the latter part of2007, and while there have been positive signs of recovery sincethen, most dealers we talked with recently are not exactly opti-mistic about 2013.

For some, the presidential election was a disappointment, be-cause they believe taxes will rise and government regulations willincrease with the present administration.

They are particularly concerned about the new healthcare laws,since their costs may increase, even though coverage will im-prove. Because premiums have increased at double digit ratesover the past few years, many dealers have reduced coverage ormoved more of the cost to employees, and some provide no cov-erage at all. This will be a totally new expense for them.

As I write this in December, there’s also been no resolution to the“fiscal cliff” controversy in Congress, adding further to the un-certainty.

AChanging

Marketplace

“We need to sort out the things we can do something about fromthose we can’t,” states Jim Entwistle of Village Office Supply inSomerset, New Jersey.

“You can blame everything on the economy, and say, ‘Well, thereare fewer employees at a particular customer so that’s whythey’re buying less and when the economy gets better then or-ders will increase.’ If you take that attitude, you’ll wait yourselfright out of business, he warns.”

Like many others dealers we talked with, Jim points out that cus-tomers are buying fewer office products per employee than in thepast, as the digital office comes into full bloom.

Less paper use means less of everything else, from pencils toprinters.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 26

Continued on page 27

by Jim Rapp

“The speed of change is accelerating,” Jimnotes. “The iPad and smart phone meanthat more and more of our business isbeing conducted electronically and mo-bile, both internally and externally.

“We need to sell as many of the peripheralproducts and services as we can—thetoner cartridges of today, but also what-ever replaces them in the future—equip-ment and software—and I include serviceas well.

“We have to be a lot more creative in oursales approach—offer more products andservices that help customers with thechanges taking place in their workplaces.”

Neville Cheney of WJ Office City in Boone,North Carolina, tells us that the economyin his area has improved, while competi-tion has increased dramatically.

“It’s difficult to maintain margins with theonslaught of Amazon and other strictly on-line sellers,” says Neville. “I’m addingmore services and products every month.We’ve done some office moves and willadd coffee service shortly. We’re also look-ing at MPS.

“Some furniture manufacturers are biddingdirectly on government contracts. Ourbusiness has suffered as a result.

“Out of state competitors now ship equip-ment into North Carolina untaxed, whileour own customers pay both a sales taxand a personal property tax,” he laments.

Neville contends independents have tocontinually look at ways to improve, andthat if you’re just hanging on, you’ll even-tually lose your grip.

He then described some of the things thatare in the works at WJ Office City

• Hired director of marketing, who willalso handle social media

• Hired an experienced person to dolead generation

• Found better prices from non tradi-tional sources.

“I’ve been in business 43 years and I’venever seen an economy like this last solong,” says David Guernsey, president andCEO of Guernsey Office Products inDulles, Virginia. He is also chairman of theboard of the National Federation of Inde-pendent Business (NFIB) and has an ex-cellent overview of both our industry andsmall business in general.

“The most critical issue facing officeproducts dealers today is reduced de-mand for traditional office products,”David maintains. “Less paper use, moreelectronics, the entire document manage-ment and storage process without a sin-gle piece of paper—that’s the future wehave to deal with.

“We’ve concluded that we have to in-crease market share if we want to buildour business, while at the same time ex-panding our offerings. Our current plans,which cover the next three years, call forfinding many other consumables to sell,including breakroom and related products.

“We continue to increase our service offer-ings and will be testing others in comingmonths. We are about to launch a newjan/san program, not just items thatwholesalers offer, but something we be-lieve will have the kind of horsepowerthat’s necessary to penetrate this market.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” states Ian Wist ofWist Office Products in Tempe.

“We’re dealing with a shrinking basket,from file folders to file cabinets,” Ian says.

“The technology sector is changing whatpeople use every day and that means thesales of gross profit rich items are declin-ing today, and I believe they will declineeven further in the coming years.

“All of us independents have to rethinkthings—what other verticals can we getinto—coffee, janitorial, MPS, printing, etc?That’s what we’ve been trying to do forsome time. We sell some printers andwhile there’s not a lot on money in that, wealso do repairs, have technicians on staff,and sell maintenance contracts, which isnot only profitable, but keeps us close tothe customer.

“We also see school supplies as a contin-uing good market, even though much of itis sold on slim margin contracts”

In all our conversations with industry exec-utives and dealers, there’s an air of cautionand few are ready to talk about makingmajor investments to grow their business.

“The two major concerns today are thecosts associated with the new healthcarelaw and how rewriting the tax code will af-fect both businesses and individuals,” ex-plains David Guernsey.

“There’s an air of uncertainty associatedwith all of this, and whenever there’s un-certainty, it’s my experience that businessfolks circle the wagons and go into a hold-ing pattern, and that’s not good for officeproduct and furniture spending.”

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 27

Critical Issues. continued from page 26

Continued on page 28

A Shrinking

Basket

The Cost of

Uncertainty

“I estimate that the new healthcare law willincrease my annual costs as much as$1,000 per employee,” comments RaySeefeld of Superior Business Products,Schenectady, New York.

“Every dealer knows that the cost of doingbusiness is increasing, and we have to findways to counteract that. I’m optimisticabout the future. We always have to do thebasic stuff right, have a good sales team.You have to constantly reinvent yourself,your team, your processes—that’s wherethe savings are,” Ray points out.

“We try to educate our customers, showthem the value we bring to the occasion.In the great scheme of things, it comesdown to relationships. Customers buy frompeople they like and trust. We just hopethat we’re the people they like and trust.”

“Dealers have to find ways to increasemargins and reduce expenses, because allof us will most likely have an increased taxburden and rising healthcare costs,” statesEd Stephens of Stephens Office Supply inHouston.

“I’m looking forward to another growthyear, while doing everything I can to rein inexpenses and increase margins,” Ed con-tinues. “Looking down the road, I havesome concern about the new online sell-ers, although they haven’t had any notice-able effect on our business so far.

“Finding good people is increasingly diffi-cult. Hiring salespeople from competitors,especially the big boxes, hasn’t worked forus. We still have to convince the ‘brought’customers that they should buy from us.”

Prescott Tuesley, Yakima Bindery andPrinting Company, Yakima, Washington,reports a fairly slow 2012, with the localeconomy limping along and no immediatesigns of recovery.

“Office supplies is the strongest part of ourbusiness, while printing and other serviceshave dropped off “ he reports.

“A big worry is healthcare premiums. Itseems no one knows exactly how this willplay out. We provide full coverage for em-ployees now, but we could be priced outof the market.”

Some dealers are increasingly unhappywith their traditional sources of supply,particularly manufacturers..

“It’s unfortunate that we don’t get the rep-resentation from manufacturers that weused to get,” states Chris Ryan, Tech Of-fice Plus in Brooklyn, New York.

“We get lots of help from the IndependentStationers buying group and S.P. Richardsprograms, but we miss the manufacturerincentives that helped us compete in amarketplace where competition is gettingmore and more fierce every day. W.B.Mason has entered our market with veryaggressive pricing and lots of free stuff,while Staples is giving discounts off thebottom of invoices for entire orders, whichwe have not seen in the past.”

“We’re still pretty optimistic about 2013,”Chris explains, “in spite of heightenedcompetition. We have the best reps in thebusiness and we’re developing some newmarketing programs that will help us reachour $11 million sales goal.”

Chip Pike of Bensenville, Illinois-basedTwist Office Products says 2013 isgoing to be a great year for them, buthe’s also got more than just a few wor-ries to deal with.

“We’re concerned about the lack of man-ufacturer support and to some extent whatappears to be a lack of competition withonly two wholesalers,” Chip cautions.“We’re a TriMega member, and they are abright spot on the supply side.

“I know there’s some concern about Ama-zon and others, but we will take them onall day long. We personalize our relation-ship with customers that the Amazons cannever do. Dealers have to embrace all thedifferent ways customers want to buy orthey’ll fall by the way side.”

While dealers face many challenges in theyear ahead and the economy is uncertain,independents are succeeding and growingand most are optimistic about the future.

Says John Reid of SPC Office Products inGuymon, Oklahoma, “We have some con-cern about the Amazon type competitors,but I don’t see them giving anything away.

“We have a good website and we’re ac-tively trying to educate the people here inrural American to use it. What we’re see-ing, though, is that our customers mostlystill want to order as in the past. They stilllike to talk with our salespeople, but at thesame time we know that some are buyingonline from Staples or Quill.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 28

Critical Issues. continued from page 27

Continued on page 29

We Can Compete

Taxes andHealthcarePremiums

“Our six retail stores are doing very well and complement ourcommercial business. 2012 will be the best year in our 62-yearhistory and 2013 will be even better,” he forecasts.

Independents face many challenges today. These are uncertaintimes, but I can’t help noticing that the most successful onestalk about what they’re doing to face those challenges.

An e-mail to Steve Danziger of AAA Business Supplies and In-teriors in San Francisco asking his views on the critical issuesfacing dealers provided a particularly compelling example. Hereare Steve’s exact words:

“The critical issues we believe we face are to:

1. Create new business development oriented sales programsfor people new to office products.

2. Improve our overall marketing efforts, including capturingmore information about individual users and decision mak-ers within our existing customer base and prospects, to en-able us to do more targeted marketing.

3. Launch our own full blown MPS program.

4. Expand deeper into jan/san sales.”

Critical issues? Know them. Do something about them.

End of story!

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 29

Critical Issues. continued from page 28

Critical issues?

KNOW THEM.DO SOMETHING

about them.

END OF STORY!

Of course, I get “busy.” In fact, I get busy myself. Yet, when I startdigging into what people are busy with, it’s usually a proof of theold saying, “Work expands to fill the time allotted.”

The trouble is that “busy” doesn’t carry with it any time priority orsense of the value of time. I’ve always looked at what I call the“Hard Forty” philosophy of sales jobs. Most sales jobs can beperformed well, even excellently, with an expenditure of fortygood, hard-working hours per week.

Yet salespeople will routinely spend 50-60 hours a week on theirjobs and not excel. How can that be? Usually, it’s becausethey’re “busy.”

Understanding how to succeed in sales involves getting awayfrom “busy” and it means understanding the value of time andthe different activities that we do.

There’s a definite hierarchy to the time we spend and how weshould prioritize it and salespeople who fail to understand this hi-erarchy will probably fail at selling.

Face Time: The most valuable time we spend in any given timeperiod is face-to-face time with customers or prospects. Further,the most valuable face time we can spend is spent having a sub-stantive discussion with our customers.

If you’re discovering needs and presenting solutions—or any otheractivity that moves customers through a sales funnel—you’remaking the most of your time. Unfortunately, most professionalsalespeople spend less than eight hours per week on this activity!

Don’t believe me? There’s an easy way to check this. Go to a dis-count store and pick up a cheap stopwatch. Stick it in your pocket.

On your first sales call, reach into your pocket and push the“start/stop” button. When the call ends, hit “stop.” Don’t hit thereset button but when your next call starts, repeat the process.

At the end of the week, take a look at the number. You’ll be sur-prised at how little time you spend in quality conversations with

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 30

Continued on page 31

You’re Busy …Doing What Exactly?

By Troy Harrison

If there’s a constant refrain I hear as I train salespeople and consult withtheir bosses, it’s “Troy, I can’t possibly do more! I’m just too darn busy!”

customers. If you want better results, you need to maximize thistime.

Time Spent Setting Up Face Time: To expect to spend100% face time is unrealistic, of course. We have to spend sometime getting customers and prospects to see us. This time—phone or e-mail—is the second highest-value time we’re goingto spend in a week.

One reason that salespeople fail is that they don’t appropriately budgetand plan for this time. Prospecting seldom happens unplanned. Makingan appointment with yourself is the best way to make sure this happens.

It also helps avoid the “time allotted” trap, as well, since puttingyourself under pressure to do a quantity of calls in a short timemakes the best use of your time.

Time Spent Improving Yourself: There’s a definite value toinvesting time in yourself and your own skills. I did that earlier lastyear, by going to a speaker coaching program and it was someof the most valuable time I spent in 2012. The time you spend im-proving your sales skills, your personal knowledge, your skill withsales tools, etc., has a high value.

Everything Else: Here’s the big catch-all. “Everything else”could be time spent preparing proposals, writing letters, attendingmeetings or other miscellaneous “stuff” that you do every week.

When I break down the ways salespeople actually spend theirtime, “everything else” is the dominant category. Often, it’s workthat can be moved, rearranged, streamlined or delegated. So whydon’t salespeople do this?

Because nobody tells you “no” in “everything else” time. Still, ifyou want to succeed, this time has to be cut.

Personal Crap: There’s one category that falls even below“everything else.” That’s the personal stuff you do—hitting thedry cleaners, grocery shopping, beers with your buddies, etc.,that falls during the work hours. This can usually be eliminated.

You don’t have access to your customers 24 hours a day. Duringthe hours your customers are accessible, you need to be maxi-mizing your time with them. That’s how average performers be-come stars, and stars become superstars.

If you want 2013 to be better than 2012, it’s time to get to workon not being “busy” and start being productive instead.

Troy Harrison is the author of “Sell Like You Mean It!” and the President ofSalesForce Solutions, a sales training, consulting, and recruiting firm. Forinformation on booking speaking/training engagements, consulting, or tosign up for his weekly E-zine, call 913-645-3603, e-mailTroyHarrison@SalesForceSolutions.net, or visit www.SalesForceSolu-tions.net.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 31

You’re Busy? continued from page 30

A few days ago I had a phone discussion with a dealer principalwho told me about being invited to serve on a panel at a women’ssmall business event to discuss the current economic environ-ment and why it is so hard to excel.

A number of the panel spoke about how good it used to be andlamented that the business world has changed so dramaticallythat being successful in the future will be unbelievably difficult.Her response to all this was both interesting and inspiring.

She asked the group, “When has it not been hard to run a busi-ness of any kind profitably?” She has a great point. In my yearsin business there has never been a time when I found prospectstripping over each other in their haste to buy whatever product Iwas selling.

Can you honestly say that such a time existed for you? How longdid it last?

It always took the will to fight (and plan) in order to succeed and2013 will be no different.

Are you ready? I am concerned that too many independent deal-ers are living on hope—see last month’s column for more onthis—with no specific idea of what they want to accomplish in2013.

Many other dealers say they know what they are doing, but theirplans are based only on past performance.

That is a good place to start, but succeeding in 2013 and beyondwill take a renewed company “Vision” (maybe that is why Unitednames their conference as they do?) and a conviction that thingscan get better in spite of the challenges.

I am going to make the assumption that those of you who haveread this far either agree about the need for change or are at leastwilling to consider the concept. Consequently, the following sug-gestions are for you.

Those dealers or reps who are not ready for change better find away to sell out or fade away, because the good old days are goneand they are not coming back!

Suggestion #1: Determine why you will sell more or less thanlast year. Large furniture projects from last year and accounts thatwill go out to bid early in 2013 should be discounted in your pro-jections by 25-75% depending on circumstances.

Account churn and changing purchasing patterns can reduceyour sales by 5-15% depending upon your percentage oftoner/ink sales and many other factors including HIPAA compli-ance initiatives.

Alternatively, what new lines of business are you going to featureto fill your trucks and are you in the position to grow your businessif you are a rep or grow your sales staff if you are an owner?

If you have no specific plan to grow, create a budget that will en-able you to make money while selling 20% less.

Be better than our government about living within your means.The tax payers (and our grandchildren) won’t be there to bail youout.

Suggestion #2: Devour data! In my experience, there is no backoffice system currently available that lets you know enough aboutthe lines of business, specific products and most importantly mar-gins for those products.

You need an excellent data-mining tool and yes it will cost somemoney. Full disclosure: I consult with Acsellerate, and believe thatit is head and shoulders above any other when it comes to miningmeaningful data that can help you run your business. But don’ttake my word for it.

Check out Sales i or another solution, but whatever you do, findout what you sell and to whom, along with what you aren’t selling.Managing 2013 will be impossible if you don’t.

Suggestion #3: Raise margins now and later! Those of you whoknow me could have predicted that I would make this suggestion.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 32

Continued on page 33

Begin with the End in Mind!

By Tom Buxton

Most of your customers could leave you ifyou are making 5% margin or stay withyou even though you are making 40%margin.

Reps: If you are as important as you be-lieve you are to your customers, theyshould be willing to pay market price orslightly higher for your services.

Owners and or sales managers: Reps areterrible at raising prices and with few ex-ceptions will not do it unless pushed hard.

Push them or change the game so thatthey are no longer in charge of margin, be-cause guess what, we can sell over 50,000separate items. Most customers won’tcompare us on every item and if they do,get a new customer.

Suggestion #4: Find new customers!Do you have a cold calling plan? I didn’tthink so!

The problem we have is that too manyreps like people and don’t like rejection(and who can blame them?).

So, many of them become route runners(a disastrous habit to be discussed an-other day) and don’t pursue new accountsunless they fall into their lap.

No company can grow long-term withoutan account acquisition plan. Get one!

Suggestion #5: Have fun and help yourpeople have fun! I travel about 42 weeksout of the year to various office productsand furniture businesses.

During those travels, I have found that onething inspires sales, margin and personalgrowth more than any other factor.

Some call it an “ethos,” others an atmos-phere, but whatever it is called, when pos-itive attitudes prevail, great things are

more likely to happen.

The power of a good attitude and kindnessto others—both within and outside a com-pany—cannot be overestimated.

Whether you are a rep, an officer or anowner, becoming a positive companystarts with you and over time it can changethe entire business culture.

If you want to win in 2013, start with thislast suggestion first. Begin with the end inmind!

Tom Buxton, founder and CEO of the InterBiz-Group consulting organization, works with inde-pendent office products dealers to help increasesales and profitability. For more information, visitwww.interbizgroup.com.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 33

Begin with the End... continued from page 32

That’s right. You read that correctly.According to the Social Security Administration, ten thousandpeople are retiring from the workforce every day. This isn’t a newfad either. The trend started in late 2011 and the SSA is forecast-ing that the pace won’t slow until 2030.

However, while so-called Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964) areleaving the workforce en masse, younger workers from the GenX (born 1965–1979) and Millennial (born 1980–2000) generationsare eager to take their place in cubicles and corner offices alikeacross the US.

That’s because, while Baby Boomers currently outnumber theircounterparts in the workforce (about 60 million, 50 million and 30million respectively), a proverbial wave is coming. Millennials, cur-rently only 20% of the workforce, have a total population of 5 mil-lion more than the Baby Boomers, setting the stage for the largestgenerational transfer of employment our nation has ever seen.

It should also be mentioned that while Baby Boomers, Gen Xersand Millennials get most of the media attention, there are actuallyfour generations in the workplace today. True, the Traditionalists(born before 1946) represent a limited percentage of the work-force (less than 5%), but selling—and managing—four distinctgroups of individuals is a daunting task nonetheless.

These statistics are important and relevant to the office productsindustry for two important reasons: who we are selling to ischanging and what our own workforces look like is changing.

Much has been written and spoken about the former trend (seethe Boiling the Frog study from OPI, industry conference breakoutsessions, etc.), so I will dedicate the rest of my space here to thelatter.

Some generational differences are obvious.

Setting up a Facebook account for your dealership? Call in theyoungest person on your staff for a tutorial. Looking for an anec-

dote of the years when five-drawer file cabinet sales outpacedthose of flash drives? You probably want a Traditionalist or a BabyBoomer. You get the picture.

Other differences are more subtle, and arguably they are the onesthat require the most attention.

While communication is essential to the human experience, dif-ferent generations have distinct preferences, something that isimportant to know in a sales capacity and also from an ownershipand management perspective.

Boomers prefer face-to-face conversations above all, and are lesslikely to trust those who do not prefer the same.

Gen Xers prefer email communication, but will accept a phonecall or set up a face-to-face meeting if necessary.

Millennials are on-the-go communicators and will text or emailbefore finding it necessary to make a call or spend time face-to-face with a colleague or customer.

Members of Generation X were raised during a time when familiesfirst experienced the double-edged sword of the two-incomehousehold, and as such are more likely to demand work/life bal-ance, and flexibility. In addition, loyalty to a single company is nota hallmark of this generation—or the one that follows it.

Millennials are also looking for constant and immediate feedbackand recognition—they have never experienced a world withoutthe Internet.

Because most Millennials have grown up shaping and cateringtheir individual experiences through technology, they tend to bemore demanding of immediate and senior managers.

Above all, however, it is important that open and honest commu-nication occur between generations in the workforce. Yes, thereare distinctions that shape each unique generation. But at the endof the day the human experience is shared by all. Sales peopleand leaders alike will do well to remember that fact.

January 2013 Independent Dealer Page 34

“Ten thousand people are retiring. Every day.”

Sam Richard is Business Development Director at Wist Office Products in Tempe.