Sixty Years and Counting for Keeton’s Office & Art Supply, Florida DealerStill not sure there’s room for independent, family-owned and operatedbusinesses in today’s office products market? Just head on down toBradenton, Florida, where Brice Hoopingarner and his team at Keeton’sOffice & Art Supply are getting ready to celebrate their 60th year of con-tinuous service to the local business community.

The dealership was founded in 1951 by Brice’s father-in-law William Kee-ton and has been home to the family ever since.

In addition to Brice, brother Brent, currently vice president, has been partof the Keeton’s story for 37 years and six other family members are alsoactive in the business today.

As its name suggests, art supplies are an important part of the mix atKeeton’s and the dealership maintains a retail store that also hosts a fullschedule of art workshops and training sessions.

Right now, the Keeton’s team is busy planning suitable anniversary fes-tivities, reports customer service manager and marketing coordinatorCole Hoopingarner.

“We read a story in INDEPENDENT DEALER last year about KennedyOffice Supply and their “Fifty Days of Giveaways” to mark their anniver-sary, so we’re planning on a similar campaign, to celebrate our sixtyyears,” explains Cole.

Keeton’s will be giving the effort an additional Buy Local twist, with allthe giveaways coming in the form of gift certificates and similar goodiesfrom locally owned and operated companies like themselves.

Also on the agenda: hosting the local chamber’s Business After Hoursnetworking event later this month. and holding its own Anniversary Ven-dor Expo in October.

Like just about any business in Florida, Keeton’s has found things challengingat best in recent years but, says Cole, he and the rest of the team are feeling

good about the year ahead.

“We’ve brought in a new com-mercial sales manager with 25years’ experience at Fedex andwe’re pushing our cleaning andbreakroom products hard to sellmore to existing customers,” hereports. Plus, the dealership hasbeen hot and heavy on the socialmedia front, with over 430 Face-book friends already and growing.

Introducing‘Logos forHope,’ NewDealer-CentricFundraiser forCity of Hope

This month sees the beginning of a new, dealer-centric fundraiser from INDEPENDENT DEALERon behalf of City of Hope, one of the country’stop research and treatment centers for cancer, di-abetes and other life-threatening diseases and afavorite cause of our industry for close to thirtyyears.

It’s called “Logos for Hope” and here’s how itworks:

n Starting this month and runningthroughout the year, dealers and theirbusiness partners can “buy” a logo that will appear on a special “Logos for Hope”page in INDEPENDENT DEALER. You’ll findour first Logos for Hope contributors on thefollowing page.

n Each logo is just $250, with 100% of yourcontribution going directly to support theCity of Hope.

n To make your contribution and uploadyour logo, all you have to do is visithttp://idealercentral.com/Pages/logos_for_Hope.

Diseases like cancer hit all of us, regardless ofwhat kind of business we run. Your support of“Logos for Hope” will help bring us all closer to acure and show once again, that when it comes tosupporting worthy causes, no one does it betterthan today’s independents!

THE

WINNERS’ Circle

2011

1951

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 2

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Since 1983, the office products industry has served as a key fundraiserfor the City of Hope, one of the country’s leading research and treatmentcenter for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. AtINDEPENDENT DEALER, we’re proud to join with the fine companiesrepresented on this page who are supporting our new “Logos for Hope”campaign. To find out how you can add your support, click here.

R

STATIONERSSTATIONERS

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 3

Congratulations—and here’s to the next 60years for the Hoopingarners and their team!

Twin Cities Dealer Jennifer SmithHonored by Women’s BusinessDevelopment CenterIn Minneapolis, congratulations are also verymuch in order for Innovative Office Solutionsand its president and CEO Jennifer Smith,who was honored by the Women's BusinessDevelopment Center of Minnesota as its2010 women's business enterprise (WBE).

Jennifer was recognized for her company'ssuccess in leveraging its WBE status to se-cure business and for her contributions to thecommunity, especially her dedication to sup-porting other women business owners.

Since becoming WBE-certified in 2007, In-novative’s revenues have grown over 210%and are projected to reach $40 million in 2011.

“I was honored to receive this award on be-half of my team at Innovative,” said Jen-nifer. “It’s great to receive recognition forthe great year we had in 2010, despite astruggling economy.”

Wist Office Products, AZ Dealer,Wins Major Contract with LocalPower CompanyIn Arizona last month, it was very much acase of “Power to the People,” as Ian Wistand his team at Wist Office Products cele-brated the addition of the Salt River Project(SRP), the state’s second largest utilitycompany, to their growing list of happy cus-tomers.

Wist won SRP’s office supply and tonercontract, which had been in the hands ofour good friends at Staples for the pastseven years. The new contract runs for aninitial three years with options to renew andis valued at some $3.4 million.

The state’s largest power company, ArizonaPublic Service, made the switch from Sta-ples to Wist about 18 months ago, so Ianand his team already have a solid trackrecord when it comes to meeting the needsof large utility companies.

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Innovative Office Solutions CEO Jennifer Smithreceived the Women’s Business Enterprise of the

Year Award from the Women's BusinessDevelopment Center of Minnesota at a special

ceremony last month.

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 4

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And what made the difference with SRPthis time around?

“Persistence had a lot to do with it,” Iansays. “We lost out seven years ago to Sta-ples but we continued to keep in touch withSRP and maintain the relationship.” Overtime, he says, SRP buyers came to value theadvantages only a local customer servicepresence can provide and liked the idea ofbeing able to keep dollars in the communityby doing business with a locally owned andoperated company.

“They also didn’t feel they could necessarilymonitor their office supplies spend as wellas they wanted to with a big box becauseof issues related to discontinued items,product substitutions, etc.,” he adds.

Wist started servicing the contract lastmonth and, Ian reports, the dealership hastaken on the additional business “withoutmissing a beat.”

Atlanta Dealer Artlite Takes to the Clouds to Find IT SavingsNo two independents are alike but if there’sone thing they all share it’s the need to usetechnology wherever possible to run as ef-ficiently and productively as possible.

In Atlanta, Bert Light and his team at ArtliteOffice Supply have come up with an inno-vative way to do just that by taking their IToperations and moving them onto a cloudcomputing platform by which they accessa key range of applications and functional-ity through the Internet.

Since January, Bert has been moving vari-ous parts of Artlite’s IT operations onto thecloud with the help of a local serviceprovider and, he reports happily, it’s not only

given him and the rest of the team 24/7 ac-cess to their system and key business infor-mation from any machine with a web browser.It’s also generated some sizable savings andfreed up valuable time.

“Right now, we’re running our DDMS sys-tem, the Microsoft Office Suite and Mi-crosoft Outlook on the cloud and it’s allworking very smoothly,” he says. On top ofall that, Bert adds, his total costs are abouthalf of what he was paying for an in-houseIT manager.

OFFICE PRODUCTS COMPANYA Higher Class of Service!

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 6

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The Supply Room Companies,Virginia Dealer, Steps Up Coffeeand Breakroom EffortsAshland, Virginia-based The Supply RoomCompanies moved its coffee service busi-ness to the next level recently, with the ac-quisition of the Southern and CentralVirginia locations of Joe Ragan’s OfficeProducts and Coffee Service, a long-timeplayer in the coffee service businessthroughout the state.

The move adds about 400 new customersto the dealership’s book of business, re-ports The Supply Room’s Addison Jones,in addition to giving its existing sales forcean opportunity to generate incrementalsales with existing customers.

“We had been talking about stepping upour efforts in the coffee and breakroom areaand had already been involved with JoeRagan through their private label bottledwater business,” says Addison. “Joe Raganand The Supply Room share many of thesame values and it has been a good fit.”

W I N N E R S ʼ C I R C L E CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

GOT NEWS? email Simon

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 8

WHO IS TRODAT?

For nearly 100 years Trodat has been at the forefront of innovation in the rubber stamp industry. With over 200 million

units sold, the Trodat Printy is the best-selling self-inking stamp in the world. Combined with the industry leading uTypia online

ordering system, and the advanced stamp production capabilities of the Trotec laser systems, Trodat has the most complete

program for stamp makers to produce and sell custom rubber stamps via office dealers.

Now Trodat is creating an easier way for office dealers to provide custom stamps to their customers by integrating uTypia with

ECinteractive® Web storefronts from ECi Software Solutions. More than 400 independent office dealers use ECinteractive to reach

hundreds of thousands of organizations in business, education, government and more. Until now, custom stamps were not a part of

this solution, creating an extra layer of effort to sell these products. The integration will now provide these office dealers an easy

way to sell stamps through their local stamp maker, and hopefully help to increase sales of this high margin product.

For more information on the upcoming integration between ECinteractive and Trodat’s uTypia system, please contact

Jennifer Niziolek at jennifer.niziolek@trodat.net.

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by Jim Rapp

You may not have heard ofTemple, Texas, population60,000, but you can becertain that everyone inTemple, Texas, has heard ofPerry Office Plus. That’s partly because it’s been around since1920, but mostly because Harry Macey,who bought the business in 1994, has builtit into a powerhouse, growing five timesover, to become the largest independentdealer in central Texas.

Harry and his wife Debbie were born andraised in the area—he from Temple, andshe from the nearby town of Belton—butafter college they moved away. He becamea banker and she a teacher.

Both wanted to get back to family in Temple,so when they had the opportunity to buy alocal dealership, they jumped at the chance.

In addition to their warehouse and centraloffice in Temple, they operate retail storesin Belton and Killeen, Texas, and a furnitureshowroom in Waco.

It’s Our PeopleHarry says that the company’s success isdue totally to “our absolutely incredibleteam.” He just can’t stop praising his peo-ple. Many are long-time employees, somewho were with the company when hebought it 17 years ago.

“Our success is a testament to the crew wehave here,” says Harry proudly. “Each personhas his or her own special talents and skills.”

Perry Office Plus makes “Buy Local” a re-ally big deal, and they reinforce the mes-sage by pointing out that all their people arelocal, too. From the message on the sidesof all their trucks—“Chain? Nope. We’reLocal,”—to their website, which states:

“Our people make the difference.Our team is a professional staff ofcentral Texans who live here, too.We place importance on the com-pany core values of service, integrityand community.”

Take a look at their website and you’ll seethe names of the people in each depart-ment, and if you lived in Temple, Texas, yousurely would know them.

Community ServiceThe Maceys and many of their employeesare heavily involved in local community ac-tivities. Their website lists a dozen or moreorganizations—schools, nonprofits andbusiness groups. They are particularlyproud of their partnership with HON, givingaway $25,000 worth of furniture each yearto non-profits and schools.

Looking to the future, Harry Macey seestremendous opportunity for growth. “We’relooking to expand our footprint in centralTexas, particularly in underserved areas,” heproclaims. “We have many federal govern-ment installations nearby, including Fort Hoodand a Veterans Administration hospital. Theis.group contracts should be very helpful.”

When our discussion ended, Macey saidonce again, “Don’t forget to tell the readersabout our terrific people. They’re the oneswho deserve all the credit.”

* Harry Macey, President* Supplies, Furniture, Retail* Founded: 1920* Employees: 42* Partners: is.group, United Stationers* Online Sales: 72%* www.perryop.com

Secrets of Success

Perry Office Plus: Where Service, Integrity and Community Are Core Values

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 10

make a differenceTODAY!Since 1983, the office products industry has served as a key

fundraiser for City of Hope, one of the country's leading

research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and

other life-threatening diseases.

Now, there's a new and innovative way for independent

office products dealers and their business partners to give

their support to the cause through INDEPENDENT

DEALER's logos for Hope campaign.

You can show your support for City of Hope by buying a

logo that will appear on a special logos for Hope page in

INDEPENDENT DEALER.

Each logo is just $250 each with 100% of your contribution

going to the City of Hope.

Diseases like cancer hit all of us, regardless of what kind of

business we run. Your support of logos for Hope will help

bring us all closer to a cure and show that when it comes to

supporting worthy causes, no one does it better than

today's independents!

RESEARCH | TREATMENT | EDUCATION

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

If you have news to share - email it toSimon@IDealerCentral.comFlorida Newspaper Blasts Former Office

Depot CEO Odland for Severance Package; IRS Ruling Turns 2010 Profit into $46 Million LossAn editorial in the Palm Beach Post last month had fierce criticism forformer Office Depot CEO Steve Odland for the severance package hereceived after resigning last November.

The editorial, by Jac Wilder VerSteeg for The Post’s Editorial Board,was posted on the newspaper’s web site and then withdrawn after Of-fice Depot disputed some of its claims.

The newspaper then posted a revised version, which follows:

“Steve Odland, who resigned Nov. 1 as chairman and CEO ofBoca Raton-based Office Depot, will get an $11.15 million sev-erance—not a bad reward for a job well done. Except that Mr.Odland didn’t do his job well.

During Mr. Odland’s five years at Office Depot, the stockplummeted after an initial spike. The company also has en-dured multiple investigations into its pricing practices. Lastyear, Office Depot refunded $4.5 million to Florida customers, in-cluding schools, state agencies and cities, to settle a probe begunin 2008 by Attorney General Bill McCollum. Settlements in otherstates also have cost millions.

Neither Office Depot nor Mr. Odland admitted wrongdoing. Inan e-mail to The Post, Office Depot General Counsel ElisaGarcia depicted Mr. Odland as a reformer. “Mr. Odland hadno involvement in the government contract mistakes,” shesaid. “In fact, he led efforts to put in place best practice con-tract compliance programs to ensure we do not repeat these mis-takes. He also led efforts to retrain the entire sales team. Toinsinuate that he had anything to do with these issues is wrongon many levels.”

The Post requested a timeline to document Mr. Odland’s efforts.Brian Levine, vice president of corporate communications, repliedin an e-mail: “While I can’t provide a detailed timeline, I can tell youthat we implemented several initiatives including establishing adedicated contract compliance team, enhancing our IT systems,proactively auditing customer contracts, etc. Additionally, we didmake changes to strengthen our organizational structure, and weconducted extensive training.”

All that, and Office Depot can’t provide a detailed timeline to doc-ument Mr. Odland’s intervention? And the old pricing issue lingers.Office Depot announced last month that the Justice Departmenthas opened its own investigation.

Mr. Odland also was involved in another ethics problem four yearsago. To lower expectations about the company’s performance, Of-fice Depot officials made improper calls to stock analysts. Ms. Gar-cia emphasized that Mr. Odland did not call any analysts, but Mr.Levine confirmed that Mr. Odland helped create talking points tobe used in conversations with analysts, and directed or encouragedemployees to make the calls. Last year, Mr. Odland paid a $50,000penalty, as did another executive, and Office Depot paid a $1 millionfine—all without admitting or denying the allegations.

CEOs like Mr. Odland who collect seven-figure salaries and perksbear significant responsibility when their companies engage in ac-tivities that result in expensive settlements. If CEOs claim not to bedirectly responsible for what they didn’t know about, they shouldbe held accountable for being ignorant of serious problems in thecompanies they are paid to oversee.

There’s a lot of talk about holding public employees accountablelike workers in the private sector. Mr. Odland’s case shows that theprivate sector can be a bad model for accountability when the em-ployee is a CEO.”

Adding further to Office Depot’s woes, the company also an-nounced last month a ruling by the IRS has turned the $33 millionprofit it previously reported for 2010 into a $46 million loss.

Office Depot said the IRS denied its claim to carry back certain taxlosses to prior tax years, reducing full-year tax benefits by approx-imately $80 million.

For more on Office Depot’s problems with its state and local gov-ernment office supply contracts, visit the Office Depot State Con-tract Watch section of the INDEPENDENT DEALER web site.

www.idealercentral.com/Pages/Watch_List

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 12

House of Doolittle®

Ninety Years Old and Living the “Green Dream”

1751 Nicholas Blvd.Elk Grove Village, IL 60007800.621.9546 Fax: 888.621.6660

E-mail: sales@houseofdoolittle.comwww.houseofdoolittle.com

Founded in 1919, in Chicago, House of Doolittle® has been offeringquality calendar products for more than 90 years. The Doolittle productline has been green now for more than 20 years with more than 200 recycled products made in the USA.

In 1988 House of Doolittleʼs® GREEN DREAM began. We started looking seriously at our processess and our materials and seeking outways to make our products in a more environmentally responsible way. It was clear that converting our operation to one that used recycled materials was something we needed to do!

Products that keep tomorrow in mind. Manufacturing recycled productsuses less energy than goods made from virgin materials. Buying recycled products keeps recycling programs going and saves natural resources.

Since 1990 our ENTIRE product line has been made using recycledpaper. This is true of the over 200 appointment planners, desk pads,wall calendars and laminated wall planners currently being offered byHouse of Doolittle®. The quality is better than ever and we have con-verted all of these products without adding cost to the product. We con-tinue to be on the leading edge utilizing the most Eco-Friendly materialsand manufacturing processes.

The majority of our products are made using 100% post-consumer fiber paper that is processed chlorine-free (PCF). We print all our products using soy-based inks and are made in the USA. House ofDoolittle® donates 5% of our profits to organizations that are working to create a more sustainable environment.

House of Doolittle® offers a dozen themes sized to fit your calendar needs:• Desk Pad Calendars • Appointment Planners• Wall Calendars • Doodle Pads• Laminated Wall Planners • Plan-A-Boards• Academic Products

To see more recycled calendar products visit our website: www.houseofdoolittle.com

100% Recycled Products • 100% Post-Consumer Paper • Made in the USA

AOPD’s Honors The Office City’sBill Jones, OPMA’s MikeMetchikoff, Elects New Board ofDirectorsAt its recent 2011 Annual Meeting (see thereport in last month’s issue), the AOPD na-tional accounts dealer marketing grouphonored two members for their long-timesupport of the organization and the inde-pendent community.

Bill Jones from The Office City and AOPD’simmediate past president received thisyear’s President’s Award (Dealer Category),while Mike Metchikoff of OPMA receivedthe President’s Award in the Business Part-ner/Strategic Marketing Partner category.

Also at the meeting, AOPD memberselected their new Board of Directors. The2011 AOPD Board of Directors are:

• Chairman of the Board/Director - Bill Jones, The Office City

• President - Karen Bogart, Convenience Office Supply

• Vice President - Pat Crowley, S&T Office Products

• Treasurer - Frank Fera, Bulldog Office Products

• Secretary - Jim Butterfield, Smith & Butterfield

• Director - Mark Leazer, Forms & Supply

• Director – Addison Jones, The Supply Room Companies

Independent Stationers Partnerswith Acsellerate, CompletesRegional Meetings for NationalAccounts ProgramThe Independent Stationers dealer group,formerly known as is.group, last month an-nounced it has selected ECi Acsellerate’sanalytic and customer relationship man-agement (CRM) tool to support its nationalaccounts program.

The group said the combination of powerfulanalytics, advanced reporting and inte-grated CRM will provide Independent Sta-tioners’ dealer members visibility intocustomer data from its national accounts e-commerce platform, enabling dealers to

identify opportunities, track performance,increase sales and implement successfulretention strategies.

“Independent Stationers is very excitedabout our enhanced relationship with Ac-sellerate, providing our national accountssales force with a common platform thatenables greater efficiencies in communica-tion, reporting and visibility to their cus-tomer information,” stated Kevin France,vice president of national accounts for In-dependent Stationers.

“We are excited about our partnership withIndependent Stationers and look forward toworking together to provide the national ac-counts team and dealers with the toolsnecessary to grow their national accountprogram,” said Jen Johnson, vice presidentof Acsellerate.

Separately, Independent Stationers an-nounced the completion of its first round of2011 National Accounts regional meetingsacross the country.

The two-day meetings were held in Balti-more, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Oakland

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APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 14

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and Los Angeles and drew representationfrom over 260 dealer members and theirsales managers.

In addition, Group Purchasing Organizations(GPOs) were introduced as part of theCHAMPS national program rollout as well ascontinued discussion about U.S. Communi-ties and the future direction of the Independ-ent Stationers National Account Program.

Office Partners on the Move,Gains Veteran-OwnedCertificationThe Office Partners buying group hasmoved to a new headquarters location. De-tails are as follows:

3522 Vann Road, Suite 104Birmingham, AL 35235New phone: 205-655-8888; New fax: 205-655-4240

The new location brings the organizationcloser to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Inter-national Airport and Atlanta, notes OfficePartners president Jim Hebert.

In addition to its new home, Office Partners

also recently gained certification as a Vet-eran-owned company and is in the processof securing its own GSA office furniturecontract, also with Veteran-owned status,Hebert reported.

The Phillips Group Joins Pinnacle AffiliatesThe Pinnacle Affiliates dealer group an-nounced last month the addition of ThePhillips Group, Middletown, Pennsylvania,as its latest dealer member.

Phillips, established in 1940, serves centralPennsylvania and Maryland.

David Guernsey, Pinnacle’s chairman, said,“We are delighted to welcome Phillips intoPinnacle. They are a highly progressive andbattle tested large office products dealer.With the addition of Phillips, Pinnacle nowprovides extensive east coast coverage fromNew York State down through the Carolinas.”

Phillips brings the total number of largedealer members in Pinnacle Affiliates to14. For more information, visit www.pinnacleaffiliates.com.

S.P. Richards Names San AntonioDistribution Center of the YearWholesaler S.P. Richards recently namedits San Antonio, Texas location its 2010 Dis-tribution Center of the Year. The award,which was presented at the company’s re-cent national sales meeting, recognizes theS.P. Richards distribution center thatachieves the highest combined results in anumber of key performance metrics includ-ing service levels, order accuracy, inventoryaccuracy, inventory turn, sales, profits andemployee productivity.

Tim Gough, San Antonio Distribution Cen-ter general manager during 2010, acceptedthe award on behalf of all of the branch em-ployees. "We have a special group of peo-ple in our San Antonio facility”, said Gough.“They take tremendous pride in providingthe absolute best level of support for ourcustomers.”

Rick Toppin, S.P. Richards president andCOO, added, “The Distribution Center of theYear is the most prestigious honor we award

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APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 16

within our organization. Every year the performance bar is raisedand the San Antonio Distribution Center team set the standard forexcellence in 2010 against some worthy competition. We congrat-ulate all of our employees at the San Antonio Distribution Center.”

Steve Schwarz Named General Manager, United Stationers’ Furniture Division United Stationers has appointed Steve Schwarz general managerof United Stationers’ Furniture Division. Schwarz will lead the de-velopment and execution of the division’s strategy as it expandsits programs and services for furniture product resellers. He re-ports to Todd Shelton, president, United Stationers Supply.

Schwarz brings significant office products and furniture industryexperience to the role, including a 20+ year professional historywith United Stationers. Prior to leaving United in 2001, he wasexecutive vice president, United Stationers, and president of thecompany’s Supply Division.

After leaving United, Schwarz held various leadership roles includ-ing co-chairman/business partner at Prime Office Company, sen-ior vice president, strategic markets for OfficeMax and executivevice president, corporate development and strategy for CloverTechnologies Group. Most recently, he was principal/co-owner ofDMC Group, a business-to-business consulting firm.

“Steve’s strong perspective, experience and relationships within theoffice products and furniture industries will be a valuable asset to

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In Memoriam:Jim MacKerrow of United Stationers

Long-time United Stationers employee Jim MacKerrow diedlast month. He was 62.

A 40-year veteran of United, MacKerrow most recently servedas district sales manager for the wholesaler’s Pacific Northwestarea. Previously, he held various positions in sales and opera-tions with the company. He began his long and distinguishedindustry career with Zellerbach Paper.

“Jim was an industry veteran and trusted advisor of our deal-ers,” said Cody Phipps, United’s president and COO. “He ex-emplified the best of personal and professional qualities, andhe was highly respected. He will be greatly missed by all hisfriends and colleagues.”

A four-time winner of United’s prestigious Blue Diamond salesachievement award, MacKerrow was widely known as a mentorand friend to many United associates and office products deal-ers. He was an avid golfer.

MacKerrow is survived by his wife of 41 years, Nancy, twodaughters and six grandchildren.

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 17

United,” said Shelton. “His longstanding proximity and insight to theindependent dealer, big box retail and business-to-business environ-ment uniquely positions our Furniture Division for future success.”

Supplies Network Names New Marketing ManagerIT consumables wholesaler Supplies Network has announced theappointment of Holly Sue Kerns as its new marketing manager.

Kerns will lead the marketing department in the planning of nationalmarketing campaigns and be responsible for company branding,public relations, advertising, promotions, special events, and sales-support programs. She will be a member of the executive team andreport directly to president Greg Welchans.

Kerns joins Supplies Network from Boise-based Kerns Brand Mar-keting, where she ran her own marketing firm. Prior to owning herown firm, Kerns was marketing director at Blackfin Technology andsenior account manager at Oliver Russell and Wirestone.

Her extensive client list includes HP, Bally Technologies, and Mi-crosoft, as well as clients in the hospitality and gaming industries.

SalesTactix and Wendover Corporation AnnounceNew Partnership Sales research company Wendover Corporation announced lastmonth a new partnership with business development specialistsSalesTactix that it said is designed to provide office products andoffice furniture salespeople with a new and powerful source of po-tential new business opportunities.

Under the agreement, Wendover will provide dealers with leads onlocal businesses that are getting ready to relocate, while SalesTac-tix will reach out to those organizations and set appointments forthe dealer sales person to meet with the prospect at the appropri-ate time.

“Combining Wendover’s ability to deliver the most detailed and ac-curate information on businesses getting ready to relocate withSalesTactix’s expertise in reaching out to prospects to make ap-pointments with key decision makers represents a genuine win-win forthe dealer,” commented Wendover CEO Larry Dillon. “It allows sales-people to concentrate on what they do best—closing the deal—andprovides a powerful new resource for the dealer at a time when newbusiness development is more important than ever.”

Added Ketchum, “The beauty of using Wendover as our base ofprospects is that they also provide many medium and small projectsthat close quickly and allow our clients to maintain an ongoing ROI.”

For more information, contact Tom Ketchum at SalesTactix (Tel:949-466-5718; E-mail: tom.ketchum@salestactix.com).

Fiftieth Dealer Goes Live with a Stratus Web SiteCongratulations to Andy Ballard and Kurt Kegans of technologyprovider Stratus Business Solutions, who last month announcedthe 50th dealer to publish a Stratus web site since the company’sfounding in March of 2010.

The dealer in question, OP Plus in Jackson Mississippi, incorpo-rated the Stratus site with its ECinteractive web storefront atwww.officeproductsplus.com.

A Stratus web site is designed to surround and complement thedealer’s own ecommerce system with additional marketing toolsoffered by wholesalers and buying groups.

It includes pages about dealer products and services and ties inthe dealer’s message and Internet branding.

For more information, contact Andy Ballard at 855-727-2568, ext.111 or send an e-mail to info@stratusbusinesssolutions.com.

AmpliVox Supports EarthquakePreparedness EventAmpliVox Sound Systems, mak-ers of portable sound and PA sys-tems, podiums and lecterns, AVcarts and more, has signed on asa supporter of the first CentralU.S. Great ShakeOut, a specialevent that promotes earthquake preparedness for local govern-ments, civic organizations and individuals.

Launched in California in 2008, the Great ShakeOut is an interna-tional initiative practiced in several earthquake-prone regions. TheCentral U.S. ShakeOut, scheduled for April 28, will offer trainingprograms in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ala-bama, Mississippi and Arkansas.

The AmpliVox product line includes a variety of emergency soundsystem products, such as megaphones and portable PA systems,which are widely used by law enforcement and emergency servicepersonnel to communicate information to crowds of people.

ECi Acquires FMAudit, Managed Print Services Solution ProviderDealer technology provider eCommerce Industries (ECi) lastmonth announced it has acquired FMAudit, a managed printservices solution provider whose suite of print assessment, re-mote meter, supply and service data applications provides real-time information that empowers organizations to automatelabor-intensive business processes.

“We are excited to include FMAudit’s powerful solutions and tal-ented team in the ECi portfolio of companies,” said Trevor Grue-newald, COO of ECi. “Adding FMAudit to the suite of solutionsavailable for our customers fits perfectly within our businessstrategy of providing our existing and prospective customers a‘one-stop shop’ service. Customers using FMAudit have experi-enced tremendous results by implementing the ability to reduceoverhead, automate service and increase sales in their dealer-ships.”

“We believe this is a great opportunity for FMAudit to further ex-ceed our goals for aggressive growth and we are excited to be-come part of the ECi family,” said Kevin Tetu, president and founderof FMAudit. “This transaction will enable FMAudit to significantlyenhance our customer offerings by helping us deliver high-valuesolutions to the market faster and with more seamless integration.”

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APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 18

Marcal Selects RepForce USA to Represent its SmallSteps Office Products Line NationallyMarcal Manufacturing, makers of paper goods from 100% recy-cled paper, has named RepForce USA as the exclusive third-party national sales representative for its Marcal Small Stepsoffice products line, excluding the New England/Upstate NewYork region.

The line includes 100% recycled bath tissue, paper towels, nap-kins and facial tissue.

RepForce USA’s leadership includes John L. Motley, III—president,Robert Enk—director, West Region; Rick Flounders—director, EastRegion; Stan Brown—director, Southwest Region; Bill Cvik—direc-tor, Central Region and Scott Kor—director, National Sales.

West Point Expands Bio-Based Cartridge Line, Adds to Sales Team in CanadaWest Point Products has expanded production of its AgriTone bio-based cartridge line. Initially available for only a select group of HPworkgroup laser printers, West Point has added several new productsto its lineup and increased production across the category.

AgriTone premium replacement cartridges are available for the HPLaserJet 1000/1200, HP LaserJet 1010/1012, HP LaserJet 1300, HPLaserJet 4000/4050, HP LaserJet 4100, HP LaserJet 4200, HP Laser-Jet 4250/4350, HP LaserJet 4300 and the HP LaserJet 4345mfp seriesof printers and MFPs.

High Yield versions are available for the HP LaserJet 1000/1200,HP LaserJet 1300, HP LaserJet 4000/4050, HP LaserJet 4100 andthe HP LaserJet 4250/4350.

Separately, West Point announced the addition of industry veteran ElioPerconti to its Canadian sales team, where he will be responsible forthe growth of West Point’s Axess Managed Print Services program inthe Canadian market.

Depot America and Image1 Form DepotInternationalDepot America and Image1, both manufacturers and distributorsof fuser and printer maintenance kits, laser printer parts and refur-bished printers, have announced they are joining together to forma single entity: Depot International.

Following Clover Holdings’ acquisition of Depot America in Decem-ber 2010, the two companies have worked closely together on de-veloping a global strategy.

John Tiano, president of Depot International responsible for global op-erations, commented, “With the combined technical expertise, opera-tional strength, and distribution capabilities of Depot America andImage1, we are positioning ourselves as the global leader in the printerparts industry. The breadth and reach of this combined organizationwill elevate the level of service we are able to offer our customers, andwill immediately make Depot International a global powerhouse in theprinter parts industry.”

Quality Park Hosts ‘Curling for a Cure’ Fundraiser for City of Hope

Quality Park Products recently held its fourth annual “Curling for aCure” fundraiser in support of the City of Hope cancer researchand treatment center.

City of Hope brings hope to millions of people battling life’s mostdevastating diseases, including cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, andother serious illnesses and has been adopted by much of the in-dustry as one its most favored charities.

This year’s event, which drew record-breaking attendance of over90 people with 74 people curling, raised nearly $16,000 for City ofHope. “Everyone had a great time and Quality Park is grateful tothe many people who participated, donated, and sponsored thisgreat event,” commented Quality Park president Steve Kouroupas.

I N D U S T RY N E W S CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19

Quality Park president Steve Kouroupas (left) and City of Hope’s Matt Dodd havegot close to 16,000 good reasons to be smiling after QP’s fourth annual ‘Curlingfor a Cure’ fundraiser

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 19

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NOPA to Host April 27 ‘CapitolHill Day Fly-In’ Event inWashingtonLast month’s issue of INDEPENDENT DEALER highlighted key el-ements of NOPA’s 2011 government advocacy program, includingsupport for three important legislative initiatives and a full-courtpress to convince the Obama Administration to change course onits Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI).

On April 27, NOPA will host a critical “fly-in” event to allow inde-pendent dealers to make their voices heard on Capitol Hill on thesecritical advocacy issues, all of which will require strong congres-sional support and action to succeed.

Any independent who sells or has recently sold office products tofederal government customers has a huge stake in the success ofthis event and the advocacy initiatives that will be NOPA’s focuson April 27.

With an unprecedented push from the White House, the federalmarket is quickly changing in ways that are leading toward a majorconsolidation of the federal office products supply base.

At the same time, with a new Congress in town, there is a need toeducate freshmen members and major new opportunities to gainsupport for federal contracting reforms on a bipartisan basis.

The schedule is compact and simple. NOPA will host a specialbriefing and working lunch on Wednesday, April 27 starting at 11:15AM to prepare attendees for scheduled meetings with their electedofficials that afternoon.

NOPA will then bring all participants back together at the end of theday for a closing reception and informal debrief on meeting results.

To keep it affordable and convenient, NOPA has booked rooms atthe Hyatt Regency Crystal City Hotel in Arlington, VA, with free shut-tle service from Reagan National Airport located just one mile away.

Capitol Hill Day Fly-In participants will use the Crystal City Metrorailstation (a few blocks away) to travel to meetings on Capitol Hill.

Dealers and their independent channel business partners can reg-ister for this event and make their hotel reservations using theNOPA website.

NOPA is preparing advance briefing materials and talking points

on each advocacy issue for use in congressional meetings that itwill schedule on behalf of participants.

Given the urgency of action on these issues—and on FSSI in par-ticular—NOPA believes a late-April fly-is necessary to increase thelikelihood of desired congressional action this spring and earlysummer.

Contact Chris Bates, NOPA president (cbates@nopanet.org; Tel:703/549-9040, x 100), with any questions or suggestions regardingthis important event.

Register Now for 2011 OFDADealer Strategies Conference,September 24-27NOPA’s sister association, the Office Furniture Dealers Association(OFDA), will host its annual Dealer Strategies Conference at theMarriott Starr Pass Resort in Tucson, AZ September 24-27.

Dealers who sell a significant amount of office furniture and partic-ipate in commercial, government and/or institutional market proj-ects are invited to participate in this year’s event, whose theme is“Transform Your Business for Future Success.”

Highlights of this year’s conference include: n Keynote Speaker Jaynie Smith, author, consultant andprofessional speaker on identifying your primary competitiveadvantages and aligning your organization to market and selleffectively around them.n In-depth interactive workshops on implementing closed-loop marketing in your dealership, with furniture dealer andother small business case studies explored, and on leading

CONTINUED ON PAGE 25

NOPAnews

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 23

WHERE NEED MEETS

CAPABILITY

Whatever your marketing needs may be—catalogs, Web sites, photography—OPMAcan meet them.

A full-service marketing and advertising agency,OPMA features the largest in-house designand copywriting staff specializing in officeproducts promotion. We serve everyone fromindependent dealers to global manufacturerswith an untiring dedication to excellence.

OPMA is also on the forefront of electronic market-ing, crucial in today’s budget-conscious economy,offering such innovative tools as AD-Links™, whichproduces emailable, customizable flyers, andFlipLink, which transforms printed materials andPDFs into a dynamic electronic version.

Your marketing needs.Our marketing capabilities.Isn’t it time they meet?

OPMA points your marketingin the right direction.

4211 N. Division | Comstock Park, MI 49321 | (616) 785-6061 | www.opma.com

organizational change in an economic environment in whichchange is the only constant.n Additional general session programs, including a panel oftop executives from leading furniture manufacturingcompanies who will address changing customerexpectations and dealer roles, and another panel ofarchitectural, interior design and facility management expertswho will discuss emerging trends in corporate andgovernment workplace design strategies and relatedinvestments.

In addition to these sessions, OFDA’s 2011 conference will offer

15-16 interactive breakouts covering industry and general business

best practices that will help conference participants transform their

thinking in four key management areas:

n Strategic planning and leadershipn Sales/new business development and marketingn Operations and technology implementationn Organization development and succession planning

The meeting offers valuable educational content and networking op-

portunities for dealer principals as well as sales, marketing and oper-

ations managers who wish to remain ahead of their peers in finding

new opportunities and understanding emerging best practices.

Here are highlights of the 90-minute breakout session topics cur-

rently planned:

n Creating a sustainable business model/entry into new linesof businessn Leveraging technology to transform business processesand boost profitsn Dealer benchmarking: Applying 2011 OFDA survey resultsto drive improved profitabilityn Practical LinkedIn training for novice and experiencedusers n Low-cost/high-impact marketing/branding using socialmedia and local media outreachn Collaborative operations streamlining for dealers andinstallersn Strategic talent management for long-term businesssuccessn Customer loyalty management—more critical than evern Panel of dealer development executives from leadingfurniture manufacturers who will discuss recent trends indealership ownership transitions and key success factors

Dealers may register to attend the premier educational and net-working conference for office furniture dealers at:

http://www.ofdanet.org/2011-Conference-Online-Registration.

N O PA N E W S CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23

Your Presence on Capitol Hill is Urgently Needed to Support Your Business and Industry

Join NOPA to Advocate for Restored Access to the Federal Market for All Independents:

Participate in Congressional Meetings to Urge Changes in FSSI Implementation

Support Introduced Legislation to Curb

-

Seek Passage of Bill to Ensure Full Recognition of Purchasing from Dealer Groups

Urge Congress to Introduce Legislation to Reform JWOD/AbilityOne Program

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APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 25

Business Source® — The only brand of office productsavailable exclusively through Independent Dealers!

Contact your S.P. Richards Sales Representative for information.

This is a true story. A hardware storelocated in a Midwestern city of 200,000hired a consultant to look at their entireoperation and see how best to grow theirbusiness. The consultant stood on a

downtown street corner, clipboard inhand, and asked passers-by if they knewwhere this particular hardware store waslocated, if they had ever shopped thereand what they thought about it.

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 27

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Who? What? Why?Building Your Brand in aNoisyMarketplaceby Jim Rapp

Branding:

After quizzing about 30 people, the consult-ant presented his findings to the storeowner, who was shocked at what he heard.

Nearly half had never heard of the store. Ofthe others, only a few were store cus-tomers. To make matters worse, some ofthe respondents mentioned other hardwarestores in town, particularly chain stores,even though some had never been insidethe stores they mentioned.

The hardware store in question had been inthe same location for over 20 years and theowners thought they had been quite success-ful. What they didn’t know and what the con-sultant couldn’t really tell them was this: “Howmuch more successful would they have beenif more people had actually heard about thestore and had a reasonable understanding ofwho they were and what they did?”

Obviously, comparisons between hardwareretailers and office products dealers only goso far. Most dealers, for example, don’thave a store and hardware companies typi-cally rely less on business-to-business sales.

But that doesn’t make the kind of exercisethe hardware store’s consultant wentthrough any less important in the officeproducts world. What would this consultantlearn if he stood on a street corner in yourtown and asked about your business? Theanswer would tell you a lot about how wellyou’ve “branded” your business.

Getting Your NameOut ThereBranding means getting name recognitionin the markets you serve—who you are,what business you are in, and most impor-tant, what’s your reputation—what comesto a person’s mind when they hear yourcompany’s name?

While your reputation is important with cus-tomers, it’s even more important withprospects. Consider how much easier itwould be for your salespeople if the peoplethey see on every cold call would haveheard of your organization and better still ifthey’d heard good things.

For most dealers, the number of potentialcustomers is endless. So the question be-comes not only how to best brand yourbusiness, but just as important, how to getyour message out to the broader commu-nity you serve.

Not an easy task. The big boxes have a strongretail presence and a massive advertisingbudget. Most independents have neither.

The dealers who are doing a good job ofbranding their business are those that havefigured out a way to leverage precious re-sources on multiple levels. They come to amarket with a program that includes logos,signage, advertising, uniforms, communityservice and much, much more. And ofcourse, the Internet is becoming increas-ingly important in this effort—not just be-cause it’s inexpensive, but also becausemore and more of the folks they really wantto reach depend on the Internet as their pri-mary communications platform and infor-mation source.

Differentiate YourselfWhat makes you different from your com-petitors? If you can describe that in a fewwords, if it’s both true and believable andyou go all out to tell everyone—and keeptelling them—you’ve gone a long way to-ward becoming a leader in your market.

Although good service is a major sellingpoint for independents, it’s hard for a per-son to visualize unless they’ve experiencedit. It’s too general. Anyone can claim it. Youneed to explain it, provide examples andoffer testimonials.

Staples has had great success with its“Easy” button, but any independent canmake life just as easy for customers andprospects as they can. And while you maynot be able to match Staples’ budget, youcan certainly match their message.

A good way to start is to make a list of allthe ways you are different from your com-petitors, then select the strongest ones topromote. They might range from your peo-ple, their experience, knowledge and skills,the increased responsiveness that comes

from a local customer service presence,next day delivery, flexible returns policy,company history, awards, specific commu-nity involvement, being Green—even yourspecific location (we’re out in the ware-house district, where rents are low!)

It’s something to remember you by andhopefully to want to do business with you.

Marketing consultant Brent Niemuth, whodraws on 20-plus years of helping compa-nies like Microsoft, Walt Disney and Amer-ican Express with their branding, says thatany business should practice the threeBEs—be different, be consistent and berepetitive.

A good example of being different is Oakland,California dealer “Give Something Back.” Thename says it all. They donate over half of theirprofits to local nonprofit organizations. Cus-tomers get to vote on the charities that willshare in the funds. In 2010, they gave awaymore than half a million dollars.

They’re also a totally Green business. Forevery case of recycled paper they sell, onedollar goes to a local food bank. Take a lookat their web site (www.givesomething-back.com) and check out their messaging.The tagline on the home page—“WhereValue Meets Values”—delivers their basicvalue proposition in a clever, concise andeasy to remember way. And as the “Newsand Kudos” section of their web site indi-cates, they don’t hold back when it comesto taking that message to the marketplace.

Start with the Business Community“It’s discouraging,” one dealer told me, “try-ing to get the recognition that the big boyshave. We call on prospects, even those thathave bought from us in the past, and wehear, ‘Who did you say you were? PK OfficeProducts, or KP Office Products. Probablyhas something to do with offices, right?’”

Does that sound familiar? Buyers changeall the time. It’s a constant, never-endingbattle to create and maintain name recog-nition. If you want local brand identity, you

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have to get your name out in front of more than customers and prospec-tive customers.

By whatever means, your business needs to be known to the generalpublic, and a good place to start is with the business community.

Many independents do a great job working with Chambers of Commerce,Lions and Rotary Clubs and become more effective if they really get in-volved, rather than just being passive, checkbook members.

Some customers sponsor a specific charity and dealers have learned thatif they support the charity, they also help themselves—not only with thatparticular business, but also with everyone else touched in some way bythat particular charity.

The communication platform of choice for businesses today is the Inter-net and its importance is growing rapidly. This is a plus for independentsbecause the cost is extremely low. Getting attention is increasingly diffi-cult, so you need to be very professional in everything you do, from youronline ordering system, to your web site and e-mail messages. Play toyour strengths, avoid a me-too approach where you end up soundingjust like your competitors and find the best ways to say, “We are yourlocal product experts and solution providers.”

Social media—Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others—have becomesuch a part of just about everyone’s daily life, that it would be foolish toignore them. Even worse would be to try and maintain a Facebook orLinkedIn presence without committing the appropriate resources. At aminimum, every dealer should have someone on staff responsible formanaging the effort.

Logo, Tagline EverywhereLogos provide instant recognition. If they also indicate in some way thetype of business you’re in, or what you stand for, so much the better. Ifalongside your logo you show a tagline, motto, banner, or whatever you

Rebranding a Dealership, West Texas StyleRebranding a dealership that’s been around for anylength of time is never easy. But when you’re facedwith the task of taking three separate businesses—each with their own separate names and identities——and bringing them under a common umbrella, thetask becomes daunting, indeed.

That was the challenge facing the owners and man-agement team at Sewco, Inc. in West Texas, alsoknown (in Lubbock and Midland) as Hester’s and asElliott/Russell (in Amarillo).

“Hester’s and Elliott/Russell are both names that goback over 100 years in their own specific markets, butmaintaining separate identities for the various parts ofour company made marketing very confusing and ex-panding into new parts of our trading became a lotmore difficult than it needed to be,” explains VP ofsales Tommy Sansom.

In addition, Tommy pointed out, each of the separateoperations had its own separate culture with no realsense of common identity and that too was an increas-ingly important concern.

Last summer, the Sewco team decided it was time todo something about it and began work on a compre-hensive re-branding effort to bring all the dealership’svarious operations under a common identify and work-ing off the same playbook.

To support the effort, the Sewco team, with the helpof first-call wholesaler United Stationers, brought in theBond Group, a marketing communications firm withextensive experience on dealer rebranding.

Six months later, the dealership’s multiple personalitieswere a thing of the past, replaced by a new name andtagline and completely new graphics and messagingthemes.

The new name—Officewise Furniture & Supply—makes instantly clear just what business the dealershipis in, while its tagline—Smart solutions for the workdayworld—eloquently expresses its basic value proposi-tion.

And the initial reaction?

“We conducted two separate rollouts of the newbrand—one internally for our people and then, a sec-ond to our customers and the market in general,”

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want to call it, the viewer learns a little more. An excellent example isAlpha Office Products in Cumming, Georgia. Take a look at their web site:www.alphaofficega.com

Their logo is a green frog holding a pencil and their byline is “The NaturalOffice.” This tells you a lot about the business right away. The little greenfrog appears everywhere—on their promotional material, trucks, invoices,Internet, etc.

Another excellent logo is Office Peeps in Watertown, South Dakota:www.officepeeps.com

Peeps stands for people, who aredescribed on the dealership’s website as “the heart and soul, brainsand brawn, meat and potatoes, ofthe company.” Their logo—a smil-ing fellow with glasses and bowtie, and the tagline, “Solutions andSavings With a Smile”—cleverlymakes the point that this is a busi-ness that puts a premium on thepersonal touch.

To go along with the smile, the Office Peeps web site shows the pictureof each department manager, along with their phone extension and e-mail address to make it as easy as possible for customers andprospects to reach them.

Garvey’s Office Products, Niles (Chicago) Illinois, also bring their peo-ple into the picture. Their web site shows 15 employees—drivers andwarehouse personnel, with their photos and with a little about eachone. A sample: photo with these words, “Meet Jorge, has worked atGarvey’s for over 7 years, who thinks there’s nothing better thanChicago Pizza and a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.”

The Garvey brand is further burnished through constant reminders thatit’s a family business (seven are family members), plenty of testimonialsand their extensive recycling program. See it at www.getgarveys.com,with their logo and tagline, “The Nice Guys in Office Supplies.”

Newtown Office Supply, Newtown, Pennsylvania (www.newtownoffice-supply.com) takes a different approach to build recognition, with amascot named “Morgan.” This lady appears everywhere, a cartoonsketch, along with these words, “Relax…ordering office supplies iseasy,” signed Morgan.

The company also produces a magazine called “Solutions” which cov-ers topics like business lunch etiquette, dating a coworker, boostingyour energy and even choosing a summer camp for your children.

They also use a survey service offered by Constant Contact. This getsa lot of response and builds loyalty. A recent question, “What is yourcompany’s position on Green, environmentally friendly products?”

The survey not only makes the point that Newtown is a company gen-uinely interested in what its customers think. Responses have also helpedthe dealership develop its own Green marketing efforts.

Here are a few other dealer taglines that work well:

CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

Tommy explains. “The feedback from both has beenvery positive.”

“We’re already seeing encouraging signs of a new andunified company culture as a result of the re-brandingwhile our salespeople like it because it gives them anew reason to get out in front of customers andprospects,” he reports.

“And our customers have been very supportive be-cause they understand why we made the change andlike the kind of message we’re sending to the market-place.”

Right now, of course, the rollout is still in the initialstages and Tommy is quick to stress that rebrandingis very much a process and not an event. But given thesize of the challenge he and the rest of the manage-ment team at the dealership were facing, they’re feelingvery good about the change.

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 30

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n Supplying Tools for Business—Greenville Office Supply

n Better Service, Bigger Smiles—Bruce Office Supply & Furniture

n Service, Selection and Savings—Atlantic Laser Office Products

n It’s Our Business to Make Your BusinessEasy!—SunDANCE Office Supply

n Accomplish More—Kramer & Leonard

n Better Solutions for Business—AAABusiness Supplies & Interiors

n Helping Business Do Business–Payless Office Products

n Ingenuity at Work—Innovative OfficeSolutions

n We Can Do That!—Guernsey OfficeProducts

n Solutions in Good Supply—PreferredOffice Products

n A Company’s Best Friend Since1968—Bulldog Office Products

n Local Folks, Local Service—BuffaloBusiness Products

Give Me That BlueCow ServiceWhen you go to Rexburg, Idaho, or there-abouts, you’ll see a lot of blue cows. But

you won’t find them in the fields.Instead, they show up on bill-boards, on the sides of trucks andon the web site and catalogs ofPorter’s Office City, the leading of-fice products dealer in easternIdaho.

“Why choose a blue cow for yourlogo,” I asked. Mark explains,“Last year we hired a marketingcompany to help us develop ourbrand. They said we should dothree things: choose an animal fora logo; choose a spokesperson forthe company, and select a toy that can bestrepresent the company.”

“We chose a cow because we’ve been giv-ing out “Cows” toffee candy with every orderfor years and we made it a blue cow becauseblue has always been our color. We chose ourdelivery truck as the toy.”

“So now you always see the blue cow withour name, and the byline ‘Think Beyond theBig Box.’”

Out only six months, the blue cow is getting alot of attention from customers and a lot of otherpeople, says Mark. “Just what we wanted.”

The Porter sales team has also been hand-ing out stress balls in the shape of a cow

with the company logo on them, as well asfree water bottles with the blue cow brandto folks who stop by their stores.

Also in the works: a “Blue Cow Storybook”which will not only feature plenty of cus-tomers with good things to say aboutPorters, but also stories from the cus-tomers of other local independent busi-nesses who have had a positive experiencecompared with big box service.

C O V E R CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30

Touching All theBasesSuccessful branding means touchingall the bases, and an excellent exam-ple is Lonesource, a rapidly growingdealership headquartered in Cary,North Carolina, with branches inGreensboro, Charlotte, Atlanta,Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanooga.Everything they do and say is a co-ordinated effort for maximum atten-tion, from their memorable name“Lonesource,” that ties to their tagline,“The only source you need. Period.”Beneath their name and tagline arethese words: “Customers First. Company Second. People Al-ways. At Lonesource, we are committed to always honoring ourword.”Their mission statement is 11 words long, and again, itʼs aboutthe customer: “To develop relationships with companies so that

they think of Lonesource first when-ever they need anything.”Several years ago the company madean all-out effort to build brand recogni-tion, with a distinctive color and logo.“We chose black because itʼs seldomused and therefore stands out wher-ever used,” explained CEO Brad King.“All our delivery vehicles are black, aswell as our marketing material, evendriver uniforms, We named our cata-log, ʻThe Black Book.ʼSuperimposed on a black backgroundis a green arrow, to signify the pointeron a computer screen. “The bulk ofcustomer orders are online,” Brad said.

When you go to their web site, www.lonesource.com, Brad willgreet you in person, and repeat the companyʼs message.They also have a news page, along with the name and phonenumber of the person to contact if you, the customer, havenews you want to share. Great idea!

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 31

CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

Liberty’s 10 BrandPromises“I didn’t have a good idea of what brandingwas all about until I attended an S.P.Richards conference several years ago andheard a presentation on the topic by brand-ing guru Rick Barrera,” explains Sam Youngof Liberty Office Products in Houston. “Itwas then that I realized ‘Branding’ reallycomes down to what your customers thinkabout you, and I had no idea what theythought.”

Sam decided it was time to do somethingabout it. “It wasn’t a complicated process,”he remembers. “We went out to customers,former customers and our employees andasked them, ‘What do you think of when youhear the name of Liberty Office Products?’”

But that was just the beginning. Otherquestions from Barrera probed for informa-tion in ways that weren’t so obvious. “Whatemotions do you feel when you buy fromus,” for example. Or, “What are the biggestchallenges you face going forward?”

By the time they were finished, they had an-swers in hand from over 100 customersand what those answers told them playeda key role in redefining the dealership in themarketplace.

From the survey results, Liberty developedwhat they call “Liberty’s 10 Brand Prom-ises, What Our Customers Really Want.”

Sam and his team place these10 Promiseseverywhere—on their web site, on their officewalls, even on their business cards. Their peo-ple can recite them. It’s the first thing they talkabout when making a presentation.

Liberty’s brand promises are simple anddirect:

n We save you moneyn We save you timen We get it donen We do it quickn We do what we sayn We fix problems fastn We deliver next day, or same day if

necessaryn Returns are always easyn We make you feel confident, happy

and relievedn Our people are always available,

helpful and friendly.

Growing Importance ofYour Web SiteThe Internet is the “place to go” for justabout any information a person could pos-sibly want and it seems that just abouteveryone is using it. Your web site shouldbe attractive, inviting and easy to navigate.

As industry consultant Trish Brock pointedout in her recent article, “Web Sites andOther Marketing Efforts” (January 2011, IN-DEPENDENT DEALER) your web site isoften a customer’s first interaction with yourdealership.

If it looks amateurish or doesn’t provide in-formation the visitor is looking for, they’llquickly move on.

Many times all they want to know is thatyou sell the item or items they’re looking for,and how they can place an order. Your siteshould list critical information of the first

panel—phone, fax, location,hours, e-mail addresses andhopefully, a live online chatnumber.

After you have the basicscovered, then you can con-centrate on specific contentand design. Wholesalers,dealer groups, manufacturersand reps are all more thanwilling to help with content—for web sites and e-mail mar-keting. And organizations likeOPMA—with its Adlinks on-line flyer program—can alsohelp.

Search engine optimization is also key.When someone searches on “office prod-ucts” in your market, what do they see?

Are you listed? What is your page ranking?How many times are you listed? Your rank-ing is based on many factors, not just thenumber of times someone looks at yoursite. Other factors, include the number oftimes your name appears anywhere on thenet, including the social media, news items,blogs, advertising, etc. Internet consultantswho specialize in this area can help you im-prove page ranking.

Tying It All TogetherBuilding your brand means tying everythingtogether in a coordinated effort to gainrecognition in the markets you serve. Yourname should be just as well-known in yourtown as your competitors’, and that in-cludes the big boxes.

While it may be a lot to hope that every manand woman on the street knows your name,it’s not too much to expect every busi-nessperson in town knows who you are,and hopefully has heard something goodabout you.

Community involvement is one of the bestways to accomplish this. Independents out-perform the big boxes in this area, yet don’talways get the recognition they deserve.

Part of your branding plan should includeboth the company and employee involve-ment in community service, and your gooddeeds should be broadcast far and wide—on your web site, your advertising, e-mailsnewsletters and press releases.

For many dealers, all the pieces are in placefor a great branding effort, but they haven’tyet pulled them all together to create a sin-gle, unified message.

Others need to refresh their brand, as theirbusinesses have changed, with new prod-ucts and services, new people, expandedterritory and new types of customers.

If you’re a dealer with a brand that needswork, there’s no better time to get startedthan right now. Whether you like it not, youalready have a brand. The question is,who’s defining it: you and the rest of yourteam or other forces outside your controlwho are taking advantage of your neglect?

C O V E R CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31

APRIL 2011INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 32

For ecommerce solutions that will have YOU talking, contact your United Stationers Account Manager today.

United Smart Search has created a faster and more pleasant shopping experience, and customers are buying the products

we want them to buy.

– Steven Isett, Phillips Office Products

United’s re-shaping of our brand, including our website, has helped a double-digit

increase in sales – even in the recession.– Bill Jones, The Office City

MBS Dev has provided efficiency and control to our internal operations, while elevating our customer experience.

– Harry Macey, Perry Office Plus

eDeals have driven people to our website and increased sales – including products that historically we have not sold much of, such as hardware.

– David Fain, Fain Enterprises

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Next month sees Vision 2011, United Stationers’ gathering of the

dealer clans, when several thousand independents will be heading

to Orlando for three days of industry education, information and

networking, along with an office products expo featuring some of

the industry’s top manufacturers, technology providers and more!

The theme for this year’s show—Time to Get LOUD!—reflects the

growing strength and confidence of independents in the market

and, says United Stationers Supply Co. president Todd Shelton,

celebrates dealers’ past success and an exciting future together.

“This year, we may be looking back on a challenging economic en-

vironment, yet the independent dealer channel found creative news

ways to thrive and dealers are building stronger brands, relation-

ships, and business models,” says Todd. “We eagerly anticipate a

great turnout and a spectacular event."

On the following pages, we preview some of the special features

and events dealers can expect to find in Orlando next month.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 36

United Gears Up to Get Good and Loud at Vision 2011 May 16-19; Shingle Creek Resort, Orlando

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 34

http://www.navigator-usa.com

CONTINUED ON PAGE 37

Social Media Strategist Jay Baer, Guerilla MarketerChris Zane to be Featured at Vision 2011 Noted social media strategist Jay Baer and marketing expert ChrisZane are among the featured speakers at the Vision 2011 conference.

An expert on social media and author of “The Now Revolution,” Baerwill keynote the opening general session on Tuesday morning, May 17.

“Social media has grown at a blinding speed and influences all lev-els of business decisions,” said Laura Gale, United Stationers vicepresident of marketing. “It is vital that businesses incorporate socialmedia into their strategies, because that’s where customers arecreating dialogs and marketers need to be part of those conversa-tions. Social media will be a key focus of Vision 2011, and we’re

excited to havesomeone withJay Baer’s cre-dentials as partof the line-up.”

H e a d l i n i n gWednesday’sgeneral sessionis Chris Zane, apower entre-preneur whobought his firstbike shop atage 16 and be-

fore turning 30, had built Zane’s Cycles into the largest bicycleshop in Connecticut.

Zane’s unique approach to marketing includes strategies such as con-tinual learning, the lifetime value of a customer, guerrilla marketing,bootstrapping, community-relations, cost-controlled customer serviceand image branding.

Most recently, he was inducted into the Junior Achievement Busi-ness Leader Hall of Fame, named the 2008 Customer Championby 1 to1 magazine and received the 2009 CT Climate ChangeLeadership Award.

He is also the author of Reinventing the Wheel, The Science of Cre-ating Lifetime Customers.

United Stationers Offers Enhanced Opportunities forFurniture Dealers in OrlandoWhile furniture sales slowed for many during the recent recession,the downturn represented a perfect time for United Stationers toreconfirm its commitment to furniture, says Melinda Myers, directorof category marketing for United Stationers Furniture Division.

Over the past year, she points out, United’s Furniture Division hasfocused on providing dealers with additional products and tools tohelp them grow furniture sales in these challenging economic timesand to prepare them to take full advantage when trading conditionspick up.

V I S I O N P R E V I E W CONTINUED FROM PAGE 34

Speakers, Jay Baer (left) and Chris Zane (right)

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APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 36

CONTINUED ON PAGE 38

“We’re concentrating on making sure our furniture product portfolioconsists of the right types of products,” says Myers. “We’re alsoworking to make those products available to the dealers within thetimeframes they need and their customers expect.”

Responding to that challenge, the Furniture Division has expandedits furniture offerings. Meeting dealer expectations requires a con-tinuous review of United’s stocking strategy in its 31 national dis-tribution facilities to meet the overnight demands of the moretransactional buyer.

At the same time it requires an expansion of special-order capa-bilities so that dealers know they can come to United for verticalmarket product needs, whether they’re just getting started in theseniche markets or are already well established.

“We now offer an expanded selection of furniture brands and canprovide product support to dealers with their industrial healthcareand home or remote office product needs,” adds Myers. In JanuaryUnited launched a new furniture information web site, findmorefur-niture.com. Dealers can link to this site so their customers andprospects can view the full depth of available furniture products.

This expanded portfolio of product is being made available to deal-ers without the need for an enrolment process, participation fee orpurchase-volume commitment sometimes required by other pro-grams.

United has also enhanced the capabilities of its furniture layout and

proposal tool, United Visual Planner, and added the complete elec-tronic catalogs of popular-selling brands including HON and basyxby HON, The Mayline Group, and Global–The Total Office.

United’s proprietary Alera brand is another furniture option. “Thelingering economic climate continues to make Alera an attractivealternative for people looking to invest in high quality office furniturewithout hurting their budget. We enjoyed double-digit growth in2010,” says Geneva Savage, Alera brand manager. “We’ll continueto promote the brand aggressively along with the value it brings to ourdealers and their consumers—including next-day availability.”

All Alera products are available from United’s nationwide distribu-tion network, which includes back-up inventory in its Memphis andSacramento facilities.

Simultaneously, the Alera offering is being expan ded. “Already in2011 the Alera brand has been expanded with the introduction of60 new products including a reception series and the expandedValencia laminate line,” adds Savage.

United Stationers Furniture Division management is convinced thatfurniture will continue to be a robust opportunity for United dealers.The expansion of special-order furniture products, the continuedstrength of the Alera brand, and enhanced reseller tools will all bewaiting for dealers in Orlando.

V I S I O N P R E V I E W CONTINUED FROM PAGE 36

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 37

CONTINUED ON PAGE 39

Education Sessions &PresentationsThe education and training program for Vi-sion 2011 is designed to cover a broadrange of key industry topics, organizedaround three different tracks for sales, mar-keting and management. Here’s a briefoverview of the conference sessions:

n SALES TRACKTargeting and Acquiring the RightCustomers

Speaker: Phil Barnette, Manager-UDT,United Stationers

Acquiring the right customer that fitsyour company is critically important.Learn how to identify ideal prospects, toleverage statistical data and market siz-ing and discover how to confirm com-patibility for continued profitability.

Who Should Attend: Owners & Man-agers, Sales Managers, Salespeople

Growing Customers of Value

Speaker: Jeff Gardner, President, Maxi-mum Performance Group

Learn how to identify your value oppor-tunities! Through a 6-point process, youwill discover which customers representthe biggest opportunities for growthand how to get more value from thecustomers you already have.

Who Should Attend: Owners & Managers,Sales Managers, Salespeople

Owning the Breakroom

Speaker: Mike Miller, VP General Mer-chandising Manager-JanSan, United Sta-tioners

Get the edge on proven best practices,competitors and category innovations--everything you’ll need to drill deeperinto current accounts and win theireveryday break room essentials busi-ness

Who Should Attend: Owners & Man-agers, Sales Managers, Salespeople,Marketing Managers

Navigating the Government and Pub-lic Sector Markets

Speaker: David Haugh, Director-PublicSector Management Group, United Sta-tioners

This session will provide an overview ofthe strategic consultative support thatis available to eligible public sector-fo-cused resellers from United Stationers.as well as a fellow independent dealer'ssuccess story about achieving huge bidsuccess.

Who Should Attend: Dealers who arecurrently selling in the GovernmentSector (Federal, State or Local) andlooking to grow their business, Owners& Managers

V I S I O N P R E V I E W CONTINUED FROM PAGE 37

800.327.4359 www.pmcompany.com

PM Company is a proud partner of United Stationers.PM Company offers sustainable paper rolls and money handling products that are:

SFI, FSC, or PEFC Forestry Certified BPA Free Made with recycled and degradable materials

Visit us at booth #416 at United Stationers’

Vision 2011 to learn more.

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 38

The Managed Print Recipe for Suc-cessSpeakers: Doug Nash, VP-TechnologySolutions and Services, United Stationersand Joe Capasso, Manager-HQueue MPSProgram, United Stationers

Find out what it takes to be successfulselling managed print in today's envi-ronment and walk away with a betterunderstanding of what your businesscan look like under an effective man-aged print service model.

Who Should Attend: Owners & Man-agers, Sales Managers, Salespeople

n MARKETING TRACK E-mail Best Practices Speakers: Keith Ruehl, Channel Market-ing Manager, USSCO Dianne Lucca,Manager-E-mail Marketing, USSCO ExactTarget, USSCO's E-mail Service Provider

Whether you're a beginner or more ex-perienced e-mail marketer, you candrive more revenue with United Station-ers' robust e-mail marketing capability.Don't miss this session, loaded with key

learninqs about this critical tool.

Who Should Attend: Owners & Man-agers, Marketing Managers

How to Successfully Deploy UnitedContent and Smart SearchSpeakers: Mark Hammershick, VP eCom-merce, United Stationers and Brian Leo,Director of Marketing Technology, UnitedStationers

United Smart Search enables you todrive enhanced revenue by leveragingrich content on 40,000 items, View itsbest-in-class technology in action. andlearn what it can do for you!

Who Should Attend: Owners & Man-agers, Marketing Managers, IT Man-agers

You Can Be a Social Media Rock Star: Storytelling and Humanization forSmall Business Speaker: Jay Baer, Social Media StrategyConsultant, Founder - Convince and Con-vert, and co-author of The Now Revolu-tion

Let social media expert Jay Baer showyou that social media isn't so differentfrom the marketing you're used to.Learn to break through buzzwords andcreate company stories and authenticcustomer connections that truly buildyour business.

Who Should Attend: Owners & Man-agers, Marketing Managers

Top Lessons in Branding: The Do's andDon'ts for Any Brand Speakers: Megan Ogden, Sr. Manager-Mar-keting Ideation and Creative, United Station-ers, Mark Evans, Director of Marketing,United Stationers.

From the experts who really understandbranding for the office supply dealer,learn how to create a great brand expe-rience for increased customer and em-ployee engagement and a stronger,more profitable business.

Who Should Attend: Owners & Man-agers, Marketing Managers

V I S I O N P R E V I E W CONTINUED FROM PAGE 38

CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 39

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The Paradigm Shift: Purchasing in Today's Office Speaker: Shar VanBoskirk, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester Re-search

The economy, the business environment and the emergence ofnew technology are prompting changes in consumer behavior.Understand and respond to these changes and maintain yourcompetitive edge through valuable insights from consumer be-havior expert Shar VanBoskirk.

Who Should Attend: Owners & Managers, Marketing Managers

n MANAGEMENT TRACK Strategies for Developing and Managing an Engaged Work-force Speakers: Barbara Kennedy, Sr. VP Human Resources, UnitedStationers and Bill Donahue, VP-Human Resources, United Sta-tioners

Companies with a highly engaged workforce significantly out-perform other companies, both financially and in customer sat-isfaction. Get invaluable insights into how to better engage youremployees and improve morale and performance.

Who Should Attend: Owners & Managers, Sales Managers

Recruiting, Selecting and On-Boarding Effective Sales TalentSpeaker: Tye Maner, President and Founder, Tye Maner Group,and Author of “Forget Patience, Let's Sell Something: EssentialSelling Skills for Winning More Clients Now!"

Discover exactly where the recruitment and on-boardingprocess often goes wrong and how you can make sure to getit right from thought-leader Tye Maner. Included are techniquesfor evaluating potential hires...and how they evaluate you.

Who Should Attend: Owners & Managers, Sales Managers

Discover the Secrets to Being a Successful Reseller via United Dealer Training. Speaker: Phil Barnette, Manager-UDT, United Stationers

Today's sales professionals need to be highly skilled managersof business relationships, earning the trust of their customers.United Dealer Training gives you everything necessary to buildcredibility, earn trust, compete and win!

Who Should Attend: Owners & Managers, Sales Managers,Salespeople, Marketing Managers

Sustainability and Social Responsibility: New Rules Mean NewOpportunities Speaker: Carol O'Hern, Director of Sustainability, United Stationers

Manufacturers, resellers and consumers are increasing theircommitment to sustainability. Get up to date on this importantsubject that’s becoming more than just an initiative, but a wayof life.

Who Should Attend: Owners & Managers, Sales Managers,Salespeople, Marketing Managers

V I S I O N P R E V I E W CONTINUED FROM PAGE 39

www.marcalsmal lsteps .com

“I always use my coffee mug from home”

“I think before I print”

“I prefer 100% recycled paper products for my office facilities”

Be an Environmental Hero in Your Workplace

This Earth Day and Everyday

This Earth Day

This Earth Day

This Earth Day

print”before I “I think

from home”my coffee mug “I always use

and EverydayThis Earth Day

and EverydThis Earth Day

and EverydayThis Earth Day

amsacram.www

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office facilities”products for my recycled paper “I prefer 100%

moc.spetsll

office facilities”products for my recycled paper “I prefer 100%

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 40

CONTINUED ON PAGE 43

Succession Planning; What's Important and Why It's NotToo Early to Start Speaker: Harry McCabe, Creator-"7 Steps to Succession", andAuthor of “PASS IT ON: The Entrepreneur's Succession Play-book”

There are key steps to help owners, at virtually any stage in theirbusiness careers, plan for the future. Learn why a successionplan is important and discover how to begin creating one fromownership transfer expert Harry McCabe.

Who Should Attend: Owners

Vision 2011 At A GlanceMonday, May 16, 2011

All Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Arrivals

7:00 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Welcome Reception

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

6:30 a.m.-7:30 a.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Buffet Breakfast

8:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . General Session with

Keynote Speaker Jay Baer

10:45 a.m.-11:45 a.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seminars

11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lunch

1:00p.m.–5:30 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seminars

7:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . Reception sponsored by HP

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

7:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Buffet Breakfast

8:30 a.m.-11:15 a.m. . . . . General Session with Keynote Speaker

Chris Zane

11:30 a.m.–4:30p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trade Show

11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lunch

7:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Concert—Hard Rock Cafe

Thursday, May 19, 2011

7:00 a.m.-8:45am . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Buffet Breakfast

All Day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Departures

V I S I O N P R E V I E W CONTINUED FROM PAGE 40

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Get the latest Plantronics news! Register at: plantronics.com/connectnews

Visit us at Booth #337. See our latest products and help celebrate our 50th Anniversary.

© 2011 Plantronics, Inc. All rights reserved. Plantronics, the logo design and Simply Smarter Communications are trademarks or registered trademarks of Plantronics, Inc.

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Accentra, Inc/Paper Pro . . . . . . . 911

ACCO Brands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Acme United Corp . . . . . . . . . . . 712

Acroprint Time Recorder Co. . . . 335

Acsellerate Solutions, LLC . . . . . 334

Advantus Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Alera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1135

Alliance Rubber Co. . . . . . . . . . . 307

AmpliVox Sound Systems. . . . . 1015

Animated Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . 1101

Appointments Direct . . . . . . . . . 108

Artistic/Softalk/Glolite Nudell . . . 634

Avery Dennison . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713

Avery Dennision RBIS/MonarchProducts & Services. . . . . . . . . . 817

Balt/Best-Rite . . . . . . . . . 1004/1006

basyx by HON . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1019

BIC USA, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 422/424

The Board Dudes/Mega Brands . 630

Boardwalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . 913/915

Boise Cascade Corp . . . . . . 228/230

Bretford Manufacturing, Inc.. . . 1110

Britannia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Brother International . . . . . . . . . 223

Burnes of Boston . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Bush Business Furniture . 1034/1036

Business Management Int'l. (BMI) . . . 101/103

C-Line Products, Inc. . . . . . . . . . 426

Canon USA Inc. . . . . . . . . . . 707/709

Carl Manufacturing USA Inc. . . . 927

City of Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . 400/402

Clover Distributing, LLC. . . . 118/120

Cosco Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . 929

COSCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1008/1010

COSCO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616

Crayola, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

DDMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

DMI Office Furniture . . . . 1030/1032

Deflecto Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . 822/824

Digital Gateway Inc. . . . . . . . . . . 104

Diversey, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635

Dixon Ticonderoga. . . . . . . . . . . 116

Domtar Paper Co. . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Durable Office Products . . . . . . . 836

Duracell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 914/916

ECi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Elmer's Products Inc. . . . . . . . . . 723

Energizer Battery Co. . . . . . . . . . 325

Epson America, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . 825

ES Robbins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632

Esselte Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . 423/425

Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828

Falcon Safety Products Inc. . . . . 323

Fellowes Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . 404/406

Fireking International . . . 1011/1013

Fiskars Brands Inc. . . . . . . . . . . 517

Five Star Distributors . . . . . . . . . 438

Fortune Web Marketing . . . . . . . 903

GOPD, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

GP Professional and Dixie Foodservice Solutions . . . . . 531/533

Global–The Total Office . . 1119/1218

Go-Jo Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters . . . . . . . . . 206/208

Grupo Portucel Soporcel (Navigator Paper) . 222/224

Gussco Manufacturing (SJ Paper) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

HP Ink and Printing Group . . . . . 523

HSM of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Heritage Bag Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

Highpoint Furniture Industries . 1112

HON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1018/1020

V I S I O N P R E V I E W CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41

CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

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APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 43

The Hoover Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808

House of Doolittle. . . . . . . . . . . . 522

is.group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

Iceberg Enterprises . . . . . . . . . 1111

Identity Group (Redi-Tag) . . . . . . 815

Imation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633

Innovative Business Assoc. . . . . 434

Innovera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417/516

International Paper . . . . . . . 714/716

Kantek Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

Katun Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Kimberly Clark . . . . . . . . . . 922/924

Kleer-Fax Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630

Lathem Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

La-Z-Boy Contract . . . . . . . . . . 1138

Lee Products Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . 737

Lexmark International . . . . . . . . 310

Linea Italia . . . . . . . . . . . 1131/1230

Logitech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Longbow Consulting . . . . . . . . . 637

MBS Dev . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828

MMF Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739

Marcal Manufacturing . . . . . . . . 112

Martin Home Furnishings . . . . . 1114

Martin Yale Industries. . . . . . . . . 213

Master Caster . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1038

Maxell Corp. of America . . . . . . . 217

The Mayline Group . . . . . 1012/1014

McDowell-Craig . . . . . . . . . . . . 1039

Meadwestvaco . . . . . . . . . . 607/609

Millennium Mat Co. . . . . . . . . . . 725

NCR Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734

NIB/NISH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

NOPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

National Office Furniture . . . . . 1103

Nekoosa Coated Products . . . . . 639

OPMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Office Partners Inc. . . . . . . . . . . 902

Office Snax, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

OfficeWare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Oki Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

P & G Professional . . . . . . . 914/916

PM Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Pacon Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732

Pentel of America, Ltd. . . . . . . . . 631

Pilot Pen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708

Plantronics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Printronix/Tally Genicom. . . . . . . 901

Quality Park Products . . . . . 615/617

Red Cheetah Software . . . . . . . . 202

Rediform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Redi-Tag (Identity Group) . . . . . . 131

Royal Sovereign. . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Rubbermaid Commercial Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

SJ Paper (Gussco Manufacturing) . . . . . . . 105

Safco Products Co. . . . . . 1024/1026/1028

Sales-i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Samsill Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900

Samsonite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905

Sanford Brands . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807

Saunders Mfg. Co. . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Sealed Air Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Seiko Instruments USA. . . . . . . . 200

Sharp Electronics . . . . . . . . 611/613

ShurTech Brands . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Smead Manufacturing Co. . 410/412

Sony Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Southworth Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Stanley Bostitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . 806

Storex Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Systems Solutions Ltd.. . . . . . . . 535

Tarifold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Telefield NA, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 838

Tennsco Corp.. . . . . . . . . 1105/1107

Thalerus Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

3M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Tombow USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

Tops Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

TriMega Purchasing Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

USSCOo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

United Stationers Furniture Division. . . . . . . . . . . 1101

Universal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314/316

Velcro USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710

Verbatim Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823

Victor Technology . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Virco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1000/1002

Wausau Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730

Weblink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Webster Industries. . . . . . . . . . . 330

Xerox Supplies North America . . 909

Zebra Pen Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . 925

V I S I O N P R E V I E W CONTINUED FROM PAGE 43

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 44

“Into every life, a little rain must fall.”Well, if you’re in the general area ofKansas City, “a little” has passed a longtime ago. I’m seriously considering con-structing an ark. That said, this col-umn deals more with the figurativerain that salespeople must dealwith, i.e., unhappy or complainingcustomers.

Here’s the truth: We all screw up. Everysalesperson, every company, every cus-tomer service department—we all mess upfrom time to time.

What separates truly successful compa-nies—and truly good customer relation-ships—is the ability to recover fromscrew-ups.

If you handle the customer correctly whenhe’s angry and dissatisfied, you can actu-ally lay the groundwork for a stronger rela-tionship than you had before. Here are thefive keys to a successful recovery:

>> Understand. When a customercalls in and something is going wrong,there’s a great chance that they will be ontheir worst behavior. You have to under-stand and allow for that.

Some of what the customer says will be sub-stantive and relate directly to the problem athand, and some of it is simply venting.

The best strategy is to let the customervent, while picking through the words tofind the root of the problem.

While you’re at it, show understanding forhow this failure on your company’s part hasaffected the customer personally. Sayyou’re sorry—and really mean it.

>> Fall on your sword. Whensomething goes wrong, it’s a natural im-pulse to look for someone to blame. It’seven more natural to look for someoneELSE to blame.

If you want to really compound your cus-tomer’s dissatisfaction, blame “thatdarned customer service department”or “the people at the manufacturers.”

Guess what? Your customer is upset atABC Company, and doesn’t give the

slightest rip which department is messingwith his world. He just knows that he cutsthe checks to ABC Company and expectsABC Company to fix it. And, at the mo-ment, YOU are ABC Company. Forgetthrowing someone else under the bus, andget busy fixing the problem.

>> Find solutions, fast. Usu-ally, you can find or devise a solution to theproblem fairly quickly.

Sometimes, however, you must rely onpeople outside your company (for instance,if you’re a dealer and you have to talk to amanufacturer).

Don’t be afraid to be the squeaky wheelthat needs the grease if you’re in that situ-ation. Your customer is counting on you.Most importantly, do not leave your cus-tomer hanging.

What your customer wants most from youis comfort—comfort that their problem is ingood hands with someone who cares.

If you forget to follow up and keep your cus-tomer in the loop, they will think YOU don’tcare. When in doubt, follow up—even if it’s totell them you don’t have an answer yet.

>> Follow up. Too many salespeo-ple think the problem is “solved” when theSALESPERSON says it’s solved. Nonsense.

The problem is solved when the CUSTOMERsays it’s solved, and not until then.

Follow up and confirm their satisfaction, thesame way you confirm that an objection ishandled when you’re selling the business.

>> Make it up to them. Trulysuccessful recovery involves a token of ap-preciation. Your customer needs to knowand remember that they weren’t a hassle toyou.

They need to be convinced that you are trulysorry that the problem happened and thatyou’re determined to make it right with them.

Small tokens of appreciation go a long wayhere. Gift cards or other sincere and valuedgifts will remind the customer that youvalue the relationship.

Ultimately, communication is the key to re-covery. If you are willing and able to com-municate with your customers, yourmisunderstandings will be few and yoursuccesses will be many.

What keeps salespeople from communica-tion is either fear or laziness; fear becauseof what the customer might say (which ishardly ever as bad as you think it might be)or laziness causing procrastination.

Don’t let either one of these be a problem.Do it right and you might be able to strengthenthe relationship. Do it wrong, and you be-come easy prey for your competitors.

Troy Harrison is a salesconsultant, trainer, and theauthor of “Sell Like You MeanIt!” Learn more and subscribeto his weekly E-Zine, theHotSheet, atwww.SalesForceSolutions.net.

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 45

When It Rains, It Doesn’t Have to Pour

By Troy Harrison

A few months ago—as the five of youwho never fail to read my column willrecall—I mentioned I had spent a sig-nificant amount of time and money be-coming familiar with the conceptsbehind Managed Print Services. I alsostated my belief that MPS representsthe single most important change toimpact our channel in the past ten years.

I still believe everything that I statedback then to be true. However, there issomething else you should know: I amnot at all convinced that most officeproducts dealers will become proficientat implementing MPS in time to avoid asignificant loss of their toner business.

The changes MPS will require of yourbusiness model and the size of the in-vestment you will need to make inorder to gain profitability within a shorttimeframe may not fit your plans oryour budget.

I can already hear you saying, “Tom, ifI needed more bad news I could watchTV, thanks for nothing!”

But before you decide to stop readingany further, please absorb the nextsentence: Your business can survivewithout implementing Managed PrintServices and I have seen dealers thatare living proof of the concept. We willtalk more about them towards the endof this column, but for now, just keepthe last sentence in mind.

Would it be ok if we spent a few sen-tences helping you determine whether youshould pursue MPS for your dealership?

First, let’s examine the costs involved.No matter which provider you use andno matter whether you decide to leadwith remanufactured cartridges or OEM,there will be costs to consider. So, askyourself this first question:

Do I have the money to invest in a$50-80K per year employee who willnot come close to paying for them-selves during the first year of employ-ment with my company?

In fact, it may take two years to start to seean ROI if they are good and you are lucky.

If you aren’t willing to spend a bunchon a dedicated MPS specialist butwere hoping to have someone fromyour current sales force moonlight in

the category, ask yourself this follow upquestion:

Do I currently have someone on myteam who could schedule and com-plete a series of “C” level meetings?

Having visited with over 150 dealer-ships during the past few years, I amnot inclined to believe that most of ourreps are trained or comfortable sellingat any level above purchasing.

Of course, there are exceptions to everyrule, but being wrong about this decisionwill cost you a significant amount ofmoney with no guarantee of success.

It could also make your best sales per-son extremely frustrated if you cannotfind adequate training for them to ex-perience a level of success at somepoint during the first year.

In our channel, there are many excel-lent trainers for selling supplies, furni-ture and other broad based productgroups (Some dealers have even al-lowed me to do some training fromtime to time.).

MPS is different, because it is generallysold to a high-level contact and takes amore specific knowledge about levels ofservice, machine capabilities and the va-garies of contract negotiation.

Truthfully, copier people know thespace better than we do and without along-term tutor, your specialist willprobably “stumble and fumble.”

All of our industry providers can help youshorten the learning cycle to some de-gree, but remember, most are in the busi-ness of selling services to you.

If you are going to go down the MPSroad, find someone who has experi-ence selling MPS, can communicatewhat they have learned and will makecalls with your “champion” in the field.

Unless you can find a partner or con-sultant that can provide these types ofservices, don’t waste your money on aspecialist or a hybrid rep.

Here are some more questions to consider:

Do you currently sell over $1 millionper year in OEM and remanufacturedtoner?

You must have volume to leverage if

CONTINUED ON PAGE 47

Maybe YourDealershipShouldn’tGet Involvedin MPS!By Tom Buxton

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 46

you are to succeed at the MPS game.

For example, if you convert 15% to yourMPS program from a one-million-dollar vol-ume during the first year and make an extra15% on that volume, the added margin willnot begin to support the infrastructureneeded to fund your endeavor.

The dealerships that are having the most suc-cess at the present time in moving towardsMPS are those with over $3 million in tonersales and a bankroll to invest in a specialistwho can convert current customers whilesearching for new opportunities.

It also makes the transition much easier ifyour supply dealership doubles as a copierdealer. For those of you who currently sellcopiers, MPS is a no-brainer and you areprobably already quite successful.

But for the rest of us, no matter what any-one tells you, I truly believe a significantforay into MPS is not worth the effort rightnow if you don’t meet the above criteria.

Instead of focusing on a very expensive op-portunity that you may not be able to fund,ask yourself Question Number 4:

Are there other things that you do very well?

In case you have forgotten, at our core weare not office products dealers. Rather, thebest of us are distribution experts. Wesource stuff and ship it to business cus-tomers in a manner that neither UPS norFedEx can manage without incurring ex-tremely high costs.

Toner and ink are just two of the items thatwe ship and although I wish that none ofyou would lose 50% of your current volumein the category, it might happen.

The good news is: You can still survive andthrive. How? Leverage your distributionnetwork to sell lines of business that don’trequire so much upfront investment.

Products like (out-sourced) printing, pro-motional products, coffee, break room, jan-san, furniture and even good old officesupplies are still viable commodities thatwe can sell efficiently.

Within the past few months I have visited anumber of companies throughout NorthAmerica that are growing and extremelyprofitable, even though they sell hardly any

toner or ink. Their margins are up and so istheir bottom line.

Whatever you decide, the market is outthere and whether you sell MPS or otherlines of business, you can still grow!

If you decide not to invest in MPS, yourmanagement team just needs to create aplan to replace the amount of sales lost be-cause of the change in the marketplace.

The enemy isn’t the marketplace. As the clas-sic cartoon character Pogo once suggested,"We have met the enemy, and he is us!"

Is your company a sales machine? Are yourreps consistently competing for new business?

Complacency in our approach to currentcustomers and fear of establishing new re-lationships within the sweet spots that wealready serve—those are our true enemiesand with or without MPS, we ignore themat our peril!

Tom Buxton, founder and CEO of theInterBizGroup consulting organization,works with independent office productsdealers to help increase sales andprofitability. For more information, visitwww.interbizgroup.com.

M AY B E Y O U R D E A L E R S H I P. . . CONTINUED FROM PAGE 46

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 47

Jamie Patrick has the office products in-dustry in his blood. As general manager atthe San Francisco-based dealership thatbears his family’s name, he represents thefourth generation of leadership at a busi-ness whose history and traditions go all theway back to 1873, when it was founded byhis great-grandfather.

Jamie grew up in the office products world,but somewhere along the line, he also dis-covered another calling.

Jamie Patrick is a swimmer, and has beensince he first stepped into a pool to racewhen he was just seven years old.

He was High School All American and anNCAA Division I swimmer at the Universityof Hawaii. But back then there was little in-dication of the direction his swimmingwould take.

Today, he swims, but at a level most of us canbarely imagine and in a way that stretches thevery limits of human endurance.

Jamie Patrick is one of swimming’s iron men.Last year alone, he racked up two swims ofclose to 12 and 18 miles before becoming thefirst person ever to complete a double cross-ing swim of Lake Tahoe. That’s 44 miles ofcontinuous swimming for over 25 hours!

In addition to swimming, he has also com-peted in over 100 triathlon events and 15Ironman triathlons—that’s a 2.4-mile swim,followed by 112 miles on a bike and a 26.2-mile marathon run.

And if that wasn’t enough, he’s also done sev-eral Triple Ironmans—7.8 miles in the water,336 miles on the bike and a 78-mile run to fin-ish. All non-stop for about 40 hours!

“I like to test myself,” says Jamie, with a re-markable sense of understatement. “To mea true competitor is never satisfied and isalways looking to achieve more and to findthings that have never been done before.”

It didn’t take Jamie too long after his LakeTahoe swim to find the next challenge andhe’s already hard at work to make sure he’sgood and ready for it.

Next August, Jamie enters the water onceagain to push himself further than he everhas. He will start out on the SacramentoRiver, just south of the dam at Shasta Lake.

Some 60-65 hours later—if all goes accordingto plan—he will reach his finish line in down-town Sacramento, after a truly epic 240-mileswim. And all that, without a wetsuit!

It’s a journey that defies belief and Jamie is

quick to credit his sponsors for helping tomake it happen. Those sponsors includewholesaler United Stationers, representingour industry, and Endless Pools (www.end-lesspools.com/13972), makers of a swim-ming machine that allows him to prepare bybattling simulated river conditions in a spe-cial tank, literally without leaving his garage.

Somehow, Jamie also finds time to keepthe family business running.

“In some ways, what happens when I’mswimming isn’t that different from being anindependent dealer in the office productsbusiness,” Jamie contends. “In both cases,it’s about having a dream and having thepassion and determination to go after thatdream and turn it into reality.”

After what he’s done in the past few years,there’s not too much doubt about JamiePatrick’s passion and determination. Ifyou’re anywhere near Sacramento next Au-gust, you might just want to head for theriver and get ready to cheer him on.

And if you’d like to find out more or addyour own support, just point your webbrowser to www.swimmingcalifornia.comand prepare to be amazed!

APRIL 2011 INDEPENDENT DEALER PAGE 48

Pushing the Limits of Endurance as an Ultra-Swimmer

Jamie Patrick of Patrick & Co.