Alan Schwartz & Van Seretis, co-owners of Premium Digital
Meet Alan Schwartz and Van Seretis, co-owners of Premium Digital in Pine Brook, NJ, an office technology dealership they founded in 2010, after splitting from two other partners whom they had started a business with in 1999.
Premium Digital has some solid partnerships with the likes of Konica Minolta, Muratec, Panasonic, Ademero and Neopost, and is growing steadily, proving that an entrepreneurial spirit and an intense focus on the customer can overcome some of the toughest obstacles.
Schwartz was a kid when he got his start in the office technology business while Seretis entered the industry out of college. Schwartz began in Pitney Bowes’ copier division as a technician in 1985 at the tender age of 18 while a high school senior on a work study program. He’d attend school for half a day, vo-tech the other half, then spend the other four days working for Pitney Bowes with the understanding that he would continue his studies in the electronics field. He was a lucky young man, especially since Pitney Bowes was paying for his education to attend trade school at night.
After completing 2½ years of night school and discovering there was a ceiling as far as how much money he could make as a tech, Schwartz shifted to sales and became the youngest person ever hired as a sales representative at Pitney Bowes.
He was a success out of the gate and named Pitney Bowes “Rookie of the Year” his first year while ranking in the top 5 percent of all Pitney Bowes’ sales people in the country. In the last three years of his Pitney Bowes career, he was awarded Senior Sales Representative of the Year twice and was the top salesman in the country for his classification.
It was during his tenure at Pitney Bowes where he met his future business partner Van Seretis in 1995. The two were introduced by Seretis’ cousin, a close friend of Schwartz who had been one of his sales mentors.
“We knew we were going to be great friends from the minute we met and he has become the brother I never had,” states Schwartz.
By the time he had met Schwartz, Seretis already had an affinity for sales having worked for Vector Marketing, a division of Cutco Knives, throughout college. After graduating from Seton Hall University with a finance degree, Seretis felt the combination of his finance background along with his sales background would be a great fit for Pitney Bowes. Apparently they did too and during his four years there he was “Rookie of the Year” his first year and consistently placed in the top five percent of all of the sales reps in his division throughout the country. Together with Schwartz they achieved the prestigious Sales Leadership Conference award every year from Pitney Bowes.
“I knew I could achieve all my goals I set in this field, because with a strong background of hard work ethic learned from my parents who were immigrants from Greece, I felt I was able to work hard in an industry that is difficult to break through,” states Seretis.
In 1999 they left to start their own dealership with two other partners. That relationship continued until 2010 when the two amicably split off to start a new dealership with an IT Services and document management component.
With the back story established, let’s talk to Schwartz and Seretis about the industry, their dealership, and their strategies for capturing IT Services and document management business.
First I have to ask, what do you like best about this business?
Schwartz: It’s our great customer base. We both have clients from our first year in the field to this day. I don’t know too many people who can say that. We started one of our major accounts with one of our smallest machines that used to have the moving tops on them and now two of our largest accounts have over 60 machines. They’ve grown with us and we’ve grown with them. We love the challenge of the win along with the way technology has changed over the years.
Seretis: I enjoy the competition and selling, and I love the industry. It’s changed from when I started in the analog days. There’s scanning, the document management side, IT solutions, and that’s where we’re growing as a company. That’s the most intriguing thing for me about this business. The future is unknown, it keeps growing and growing, and in sales your income can too. What you put into it is what you get out of it, so the harder you work, the more you’ll achieve.
I get the impression the two of you get along well?
Schwartz: We’re like brothers. My strengths are his weaknesses and his strengths are my weaknesses. It’s been a great fit for the both of us.
Seretis: I’ve been with Alan for 21 years and we get along great. We run the company, we keep an upbeat feeling with all our employees and we rarely have disagreements. If we do, we move on. We have mutual respect for each other; we’re friends outside of work, our families are friends, and this is just another complement to our friendship that will last a lifetime.
You started the latest incarnation of the business in 2010, what’s the biggest difference between the Premium Digital of today and the Premium Digital prior to 2010?
Schwartz: The biggest difference between the Premium Digital of today versus the Premium Digital prior to 2010 is that we had two other partners and we were doing business as a DBA and wanted to market our own identity and brand with our own ideas for the future.
Seretis: Being on the younger side, the way I look at it is we have a three-year goal, a five-year goal, and a 10-year goal. Eight, nine years ago we were moving boxes. We knew that wasn’t going to last for the rest of our lives so we got into the IT side as well as document management.
How’s business in 2015?
Schwartz: Fantastic. We are having one of our best years ever. We’ve been investing in our company and it’s paying off. We have been actively using SEO lead generation companies, telemarketing, and we continue to do the basics like cold calling and face-to-face selling. Today, everyone is getting the same message via e-mail or direct mail. I think people are getting numb to it and just deleting it even if they know you. That’s why we feel face to face is still the way to go. People buy from people they like and e-mails and phone calls work, but don’t have that personal touch, which we believe is priceless. This is why we’re having a successful 2015. You can never forget the basics.
Seretis: We’ve been looking at 8-12 percent growth every year and we’re growing at 32 percent this year. We’re doing well with document management and selling the new Muratec products. That’s been a great partnership. Having people like Jim D’Emidio, the president of Muratec, along with Christopher Wilson, our DSM from Muratec, has helped us grow our company in many ways because they have guided us in the right direction for the future. 2015 was especially great because it was an honor to receive the award as ENX Magazine Elite Dealer for 2015. It takes a whole team effort to achieve it. Without our great staff of employees from the front desk to the warehouse and all in between, we wouldn’t be able to achieve this award.
What’s going right for you in document management?
Schwartz: We have a great document management partner, Ademero Content Central. The reason we chose them is because we feel that they offer a great all-in-one product at an aggressive price point along with 24/7 support. We’re one of their top resellers on the Northeast Coast. It’s a flexible product so it could be built to any client’s needs. We have five user systems in attorney’s offices all the way up to a deal at the United Nations. We have some large insurance companies and restaurant companies that love the product.
Seretis: We have a document management specialist in our office that understands the product and the workflow concept. He handles the accounts like a copier sales specialist which means face to face meetings along with webinars so he can make an assessment with the client by reading their body language. This gives him the opportunity to see if the client likes the system or not. It is a longer sales cycle, but if done properly, it pays off.
What segments of your business would you like to see do better?
Schwartz: MPS, Wide Format, and production scanners. We haven’t been able to dedicate enough resources to these areas. We try to grow strategically without putting our reputation at stake. As we have demand, we bring on resources instead of bringing on resources and hoping demand comes. We’re trying to be strategic about it because our reputation is everything. Our renewal rate is somewhere in the 90 percent range. For us it’s always been about service.
Seretis: Print management, we haven’t done a lot of that before and we’re starting to get more into that.
How would you describe your customers?
Schwartz & Seretis: We both feel our customers encompass a wide range of vertical markets, from non-profits to Fortune 500 companies. We have clients that range from two employees to thousands of employees. They might start with a standalone scanner, then grow into multiple MFPs, then start talking to us about the mailroom equipment or we might set them up with a whiteboard. Next thing you know, they’re asking us, “What else do you sell?”
You’re a smaller dealer, why do customers choose you over larger competitors?
Schwartz: The reason why customers choose to do business with Premium Digital over the larger companies is because of the personalized services we provide. We treat all of our clients as if they’re our only customer and we treat them as we would want to be treated from a vendor. We treat everybody in the company like they’re the president because it’s a respect issue number one, and number two you never know where that person might wind up in that company. They remember that. We’ve had some success stories where the guy in the mailroom became the director of finance. And all the people that didn’t give him the time of day were thrown out the door and Van and I stuck around. It’s the little things you do as a successful businessman or sales owner that make all the difference.
We also support many of our customers’ own interests as well as help raise money for our non-profits.
Another reason they choose to do business with us is because of our quick response. We compare ourselves to a speed boat versus a cruise ship. A cruise ship turns very slow whereas a speed boat can maneuver very quickly. The larger companies have many layers to go through as compared to us which can be resolved with a phone call.
Seretis: We come across as their trusted advisor. We don’t want to come across as their typical salesman, walking in with a briefcase and saying, “Have I got a deal for you today.” And we don’t nickel and dime our clients. We feel give a little and you’ll receive a lot more. We like to keep it as personal as we can so our customers feel part of our family once they award us the contract. We want our customers to feel as we feel when we purchase products. Both Alan and I try to bring some fun into the client’s office by making them laugh and not only speak about business but also get to know as many people in their company as we can.
What do your IT services offerings include?
Schwartz: We offer the full suite of IT services to complement the products and services that we already sell and support. This allows us to not to only offer equipment, but once we earn the client’s trust, we now can go wider into our customer base and increase our offerings.
Our experienced team of IT professionals can perform a multitude of functions from remote diagnostics and resolution of service issues to desktop installation and repair. We are skilled in the areas of off-site storage, disaster recovery, pro-active monitoring, special project work, vendor management, and cloud services.
What’s the secret to successfully offering IT services?
Schwartz: We believe the secret to successfully offering IT services is first from the customers’ perspective, not paying for resources you don’t need while still retaining the capacity to deal with spikes in demand for the services that we offer. The flexibility of this model means you can avoid becoming locked into excessive hardware capacity without compromising your access to computing power.
Our experienced team watches over the Cloud day and night, letting our clients concentrate on running their business. It’s immediately scalable because a true cloud computing model allows you to add and remove resources as you need them. By using this model, clients avoid both the expensive capital expenditure and lengthy tie-ins to leases or other long term financial obligations. The “burstable” nature of dynamic servers allows their organization to plan for peak periods without having to pay for additional processing power when it’s not needed. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to over subscribe to meet peak demand or to cope with unexpected events. They can simply add or remove resources whenever they need to, instantly, seamlessly, and on demand.
Are there any new product segments that you’re considering adding to the mix?
Seretis: We have been looking into continuous label printers with Muratec. We think that could be a profitable product for us and a good product for some of our manufacturing customers. We’re also planning on expanding our mailing equipment product line. With mail volume down it is a great opportunity for us. We came from that background and we have found that some customers pay more for their equipment than they actually spend on their postage and we can show them better places to invest their monthly outlay. We’re also looking to push more production scanners.
What do you do for fun when you’re not working?
Schwartz: I enjoy spending time with my family, doing projects around the house, and working on cars.
Seretis: I enjoy spending time with my family, going to the beach, musicals in NYC, playing golf and various sports and especially coaching my children’s sports. It’s a passion of mine to coach and watch my kids on the ball field.
Here’s a fun question for you, if you had to choose your last meal, what’s on the menu?
Schwartz: Sushi and filet mignon.
Seretis: Soft shell crab Français style over linguini finishing off with some nice Greek pastries.
Another fun question, what’s the best place you’ve ever gone on vacation (location and date)?
Schwartz: The best place we’ve been to was Turks and Caicos.
Seretis: The best place I’ve been was in 2006 the Virgin Islands. St. Thomas was pristine and stunning as was St. Johns.
What can we expect from Premium in 2016?
Schwartz: Premium Digital is very excited for 2016 and what the future holds. We are honored to be chosen as an ENX Magazine Elite Dealer for 2015 and look forward to achieving that honor again in the future. We’re going to keep doing what works and continue growing and investing back into the company.
Seretis: In 2016 and in the near future our goals are to maintain double-digit growth annually and to acquire other companies that could complement our current products. In addition, we want to further assist corporations with future technological offerings that will help businesses stay strong in an ever changing economy. Finally, we want to be known as “The Office Equipment Provider You Can Trust” in the entire Metropolitan Area.
