A View From The Trenches Erven Sewell of Copy Products Company Tells It Like It Is While it’s always illuminating to speak with those at the helm of an office technology dealership, it can be equally illuminating speaking to those individuals who are in the trenches selling and demoing and doing all those things necessary to help make a dealership successful. This month I had the luxury to interview Erven Sewell, market sales manager for Copy Products Company in Panama City, Florida. Copy Products Company has six locations altogether, four in Florida and two in Alabama. The company covers practically the whole panhandle of Florida and into South Alabama. The company is led by President Roger Wallace and employs a team of tenured reps who average 15 years in the business. Copy Products Company represents Sharp and Ricoh and has been in business since 1971. Sewell, who joined the company in 2000, has logged 25 years in copier sales, including stints with two different dealerships that were eventually acquired by Danka. His perspective on the company and the industry is from ground level, which makes it all the more valuable.                                                                                              Erven Sewell -  Copy Products Co. How did you end up with Copy Products Company? Sewell: I was with a company that was bought by Danka; that was interesting and things evolved, and I went to work for another company and they were bought by Danka. After that I said, ‘Man I just can’t shake this Danka thing.’ I had worked with some independent dealers in between the Danka stuff that were less than ‘Class A’ guys. I finally said, ‘I have to get out of the copier business,’ and went to work for State Farm insurance. I was then wooed away from that. I really loved copiers and have toner in my blood as we all say. I tried it with a small company that couldn’t support me. Fortunately, I had worked with a Copy Products rep helping him close out some equipment we had prior to that, and he told me if you’re ever interested, call. I never forgot that so I called and he put me in touch with the regional rep. That was over ten years ago. How’s business? Sewell: This year it’s great. We were on the fringe of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Locally we had a land boom and bust in 2006. The recession hit us in 2007, and then the BP oil spill last year. Through all of that we maintained, but 2011 is starting off to be a great year. Why do you think business is doing so well? Sewell: The people at Copy Products will outwork everybody. I think it’s our longevity—we’ve been around since 1971. I think that speaks volumes. And we fought off a lot of competition—bigger outfits, bigger conglomerates. I think it’s our longevity and willingness to work. That’s most of it. We have great products—that goes without saying, but I think it’s the consistency of us being here quite awhile. Who are your customers? Sewell: We run the gamut. We’ve got copiers in every type of business and organization, from churches to one of our clients who claims to be the world’s largest nightclub. We’ve got everything from doctors, lawyers, government offices, banks…my largest account has 125 copiers and my second largest has 100, so we’ve got the Mom & Pops and some pretty major players in the area. Why do they like doing business with Copy Products Company? Sewell: Our president, Roger Wallace, has always had a philosophy that we have a great product that we offer at a fair price and I think that’s a sound business practice. I also look at most of my customers almost as family. Most of them have my cell phone number. I will deliver copiers on the weekend if one goes down. I’ve delivered toner on Friday night if somebody calls with a critical need and it’s an around the clock type business. I think they love our willingness to do that. I know a lot of my competition won’t do that. We had unfortunately lost a major auto dealership in town because they were bought by a national company and were told they had to buy nationally. Last Friday one of their copiers went down and this national company wouldn’t help them except to say, ‘You won’t have an operating copier for 2-3 days until the part gets here.’ Well one of their managers came by and talked to me and asked if we could help because they can’t be down all weekend without a copier. We took a loaner over to them and they’re not even our account. It’s just a relationship we have with them even though they can’t actively use us because of arrangements with their parent company. We’re willing to go the extra mile. Who are your competitors? Sewell: My two biggest competitors whom I fear, and I use that term kind of loosely, are Kyocera and Copystar. Why those two? Sewell: They have a national program for parts. That’s a real advantage where they’re provided those parts that they don’t have to provide with their own budget. If I had that, I’d wear it out morning, noon, and night, using it to my advantage. Are you competing much with Ricoh direct or IKON? Sewell: No, IKON is here in some major settings and that’s strictly because of an out of town type thing. But we’re really not. It’s not something we’re working on the street against every day. What percentage of your business is Ricoh and what percentage is Sharp? Sewell: It’s about 70 percent Sharp and 30 percent Ricoh. We’ve had Sharp for the longest period and won some national awards based on the size of our company and volume of sales with Sharp. We’ve done well with Sharp. Has that changed much over the past few years and do you see that changing going forward? Sewell: Ricoh’s up and down. A few years back when Sharp might have had a shortcoming in a certain area, Ricoh was there. To be honest with you, Ricoh’s got great products, and what I’ve seen from Sharp, Sharp has some amazing products coming at us. How have you done with Sharp’s A4 products? Sewell: I’ve done great! I’ve personally placed more than 20 in our marketplace. Sharp came out with it first, and Ricoh has recently launched theirs and I’ve already placed a couple of those. Everybody loves it and I like what I’ve seen of it. Were you difficult to convince as to the viability of A4? Sewell: I don’t think I had to be convinced. What it boiled down to me was just finding that place they would go where the customer would not feel handcuffed. What’s been the biggest challenge of selling A4? Sewell: The biggest challenge of selling A4 was that fear of the customer in the back of their mind that one day they may have to do 11 x 17. We’ve been able to place these things as a secondary unit, not a primary unit, in multiple settings, or even offices that have been told, ‘You’re not going to do 11 x 17.’ That’s becoming more common. Based on that, we haven’t had a problem. If you put it in the wrong place you’re going to have a problem. Are you surprised at your success with A4? Sewell: I wouldn’t say surprised, I’ve been pleased at the acceptance of our customers when you explain to them the purpose of it and the advantages of it, that they’re not compromising anything. It’s not a second-class unit, like I heard some people in my industry say, or that it was going to be less than what they’d get in a traditional A3. What do you wish you knew when you first started selling A4 products that you know now? Sewell: The one thing I’ve learned, like everything in sales, is once you educate your customer or prospect and you put all the cards on the table, then everything goes fine. It’s those times when you maybe try to sell to someone what you want them to have, that’s when it seems to backfire on you. I’ve already been a big proponent when we’ve had specialty spiffs or been told we’re pushing this product over that product, but I’m still going to offer my customer what’s in the best interests for their needs and for their company. We still try to do the same thing. Sometimes you get these new products that are just so hot you’re just itching to place one, but you have to do what’s best for the customer. Are you doing much with services, particularly managed print? Sewell: We’ve done some services in general. We’ve done some things with DRIVVE. Sharp has their open system architecture and the DRIVVE software. We’ve done that for years. I’ve dabbled with managed print services some. Thinking back, when I was with Danka, they had their old ACCESS program, which was a cost per copy program. That was limited to copiers, and I did know of another office within Danka that had extended that to printers, and I’m sure it wasn’t the scientific approach. In fact the ACCESS program took a lot of hits for all the wrong reasons, but it exposed us to the concept there’s a cost per copy and you can do a lot of things with it. Based loosely on that concept, it has been for a long time a matter of refining that and the explosion of it and the science going in behind all this is just amazing. How are you making that transition into services and what percentage of your business do you think that will be in the next three to five years? Sewell: We’ve got our feet in the water and in April we’re having a two-day in-house training session. I think we’re about to make a huge commitment to it. Are customers asking much about it at this point? Sewell: A few are—a few of the bigger players that may go to conventions in their industry and attend a seminar on what’s available. They’ve asked about it, but on the other hand, they haven’t been so eager that we have to do something with it now at the risk of losing the account. None of that’s happened. People are obviously looking at anything that will help their bottom line and manage things better. Are you looking forward to adding the MPS component to your services offerings? Sewell: I’m excited about it. It’s going to be a good thing. I just attended Sharp’s National Dealer meeting and saw the new user interface. What do you think of it? Sewell: It’s like the iPhone of copiers; it’s amazing what you can do with it. Flipping the pages, dragging and dropping, you kind of shake your head, and say this stuff just goes on and on. It’s customizable, programmable, and interactive to a point. I just couldn’t believe it when I saw it. It’s just astounding what it can do. Sharp was also touting Professional AV products. Has that information filtered down to you yet and do you see an opportunity there or do you think Copy Products Company will take a more ‘wait and see’ approach to that product category? Sewell: One of the reps that recently retired from our company had always been a big proponent of Sharp AV products and their line of projectors. He’s probably placed more than 100 projectors and we kind of let him run with that because he was so good at it. He worked a lot with the military. We have three large military installations in our territory and they were just gaga about this kind of stuff. Sharp’s always had a hand in electronics for sure, even working with Nintendo back in the ‘80s, and the LCD technology they kind of pioneered, and they’ve simply taken the concept and ran with it all the way not to their Aquos and Quantro [TVs]. To me it’s just a natural progression for them and just another channel they can use to their advantage and incorporate with so many other things they do. We haven’t heard that much about it directly, but I’m certainly not surprised by what I’ve read about what’s coming. What’s the biggest difference in the office technology business today compared to when you first started 25 years ago? Sewell: Customers are a lot smarter than they used to be. You can’t just go in and have your way with them, not that I ever tried to do that, but I know a lot of people who did. They’re savvier and so accustomed to technology doing so many things. This new display is going to change things. I don’t think people will really understand it until they see it. It’s going to change the game quite a bit. After 25 years are you still having fun? Sewell: I still love what I do. The biggest thing I get enjoyment out of and it’s been that way since day one, is when you can help a customer solve a problem or work something out for them that’s going to cut out three or four unnecessary steps of what they’re trying to do in their business plan or company. Things like the look on someone’s face years ago when they saw they could reduce or enlarge, I’ll never forget that, or when the moving document feeder went away and it became stationary. People were just astounded when they saw that technology advancement. We’re kind of spoiled now, we’ve seen so many changes in so many different areas and people just aren’t wowed like they used to be. They’ve almost come to expect things. But it’s just the satisfaction of always being able to help the customer. That’s what gets me fired up. I still love what I do and have fun doing it. My dad was in sales and he told me there’s going to be peaks and valleys, you’ve just got to remember the peaks and forget the valleys. Sometimes it’s hard to get over some things but it’s just the reward of helping people one on one. Scott Cullen has been writing about the office technology industry since 1986. He’s still having fun too, especially when talking to the dealer community.