Troy Turner is a living, breathing embodiment of the Southern Gentleman—he’s an entrepreneurial businessman with multiple interests, a family man, a lover of horses (after all, he hails from Kentucky) and a person who prioritizes the needs of others before his own. He has managed to wrap virtually all of those qualities into Commonwealth Technology, the Lexington, KY-based dealership that has grown to an impressive $25 million performer in less than 30 years.
Turner’s office technology journey began in modest fashion, selling used and refurbished copiers from an 800-square-foot space in 1989. After three years of repairing and reselling, Turner managed to land a reseller agreement with KYOCERA (Canon and Konica Minolta would later follow). In 2006, Commonwealth Technology expanded into IKON’s customer base following IKON’s sale to Ricoh.
By 2014, Turner had diversified his business interests, expanding into real estate development, and also owned a country club with his father. Commonwealth Technology had amassed $14.5 million in annual sales while Turner himself had reached a crossroads. He needed a partner to take his dealership to the next level, and found an ideal teammate in Visual Edge Technology (VET), which had garnered a reputation for acquiring the nation’s top performers while enabling their dealers to operate autonomously.
Commonwealth Technology President Troy Turner hoists the Renn Zaphiropoulos Entrepreneur of the Year Award, presented in 2017 by parent company Visual Edge Technology
Buoyed by acquisitions that augmented its MFP and MNS offerings, Commonwealth Technology has added more than $10 million in sales since joining VET, yet continues to enjoy organic growth at an impressive clip. Turner—who last year captured VET’s Renn Zaphiropoulos Entrepreneur of the Year Award—and Barb Isert, vice president of operations, sat down with ENX Magazine to provide insight into the key factors behind Commonwealth Technology’s growth and the values-based family atmosphere that has become a hallmark of the dealership.
How was business in 2017?
Turner: Commonwealth had an outstanding year, with organic growth increasing 19 percent over 2016. That was driven by obtaining some large nationwide accounts. The overall economy has been favorable, which has also contributed to our performance. A portion of that growth came from production printing, with a lot of big equipment deployments across the country.
What does Commonwealth Technology pride itself on?
Turner: Simply put, it’s about doing what’s right for the customer. It’s a model we believe in; if you do what’s right for your employees and customers, everything else really falls into place. We always seek to do whatever it takes to keep a customer and do right by them. That allows you to maintain them and develop a good name within your marketplace. Clients are assured that when something goes wrong, our employees will do whatever it takes to make it right.
What was the driving force behind joining Visual Edge Technology (VET) in 2014? What has this enabled your dealership to accomplish, and how would you characterize your relationship with VET?
Turner: We’ve been courted by many direct manufacturers over the years, especially by companies who use acquisition to grow their business. I own and operate several other businesses besides Commonwealth Technology. With my available bandwidth, I just felt that I had grown Commonwealth as much as I could, given my other business interests. I met with Visual Edge’s Michael Brigner and Brian Frank and we started having conversations. I really liked their strategy and what they were trying to accomplish. Then I was introduced to Austin Vanchieri, the CEO of Visual Edge, and knew that this was the company that I wanted to partner with. They have been men of their word and have exceeded my expectations. Visual Edge has been absolutely true to their word with everything they promised. From our perspective, it’s been a great partnership and my employees have been extremely happy. Through this relationship, we continue to grow and use some of the strategies that they bring to the table. It’s helped to grow our overall business.
What’s great about Visual Edge is they listen. They look for quality companies to acquire, and there were a lot of great things that we did, so we were able to share our ideas with them. It really comes down to sharing knowledge and best practices, which really helps both of us. It’s been a good marriage for both sides.
Commonwealth Technology’s Lexington office
Late in 2015, VET helped facilitate Commonwealth’s acquisition of LEXNET, bolstering your managed network services offering. What benefits has Commonwealth reaped for its MNS platform?
Isert: These are two industries that have a lot in common, but also a lot of differences. The integration was easy for me; I had a managed IT background prior to joining Commonwealth. LEXNET had a pretty good client base and brought along the tools, processes, experience and knowledge to be successful. We started integrating the solutions with the copier side and working with those reps. It really wasn’t a difficult challenge bringing those teams together. Having them come on board, with clients and experience, was definitely the preferable way to get into managed IT services.
Turner: It helped to bring a higher comfort level to our current customers and it gave (LEXNET) the opportunity to get deeper and wider into our customer base. The union had its challenges. In the copier/MFP world, the installation process is a pretty quick turnaround. But when it comes to the managed network side of it, it’s a slower process. Trying to get the teams to come together on the selling side is probably the biggest struggle we’ve had. We now have a pretty good system in place that is starting to take hold. They speak a different language than the MFP/copier guys, and it takes time to marry those together. Managed network services is definitely not an overnight success.
Employees enjoy an outing aboard the CQ Princess in Louisville, KY, during Commonwealth Technology’s 2017 Christmas party
Tell us a little about your foray into production printing equipment. Why did you view this area as a strong opportunity to add profit margin?
Turner: When we added Canon in 2006, part of our agreement was for us to sell production gear in the state of Kentucky. The deal gave us a leg up on the competition that did not sell production. We felt we could be a one-stop shop and it would really bolster our opportunity to capture more business. Today, production printing equipment accounts for about 20-25 percent of total revenue. It’s been a big success and allows us to handle bigger clients that need both production and fleet products. It’s certainly a point of differentiation. We serve CRDs, in-plants, print-for-pay, commercial printing, education and universities/colleges, with dedicated staff that work in some of those locations.
How has Commonwealth Technology been able to attain a strong foothold in the production printing market? What have been some of the challenges in this regard?
Turner: It all starts with quality talent. I would highly recommend that any dealers who are getting into production gear hire dedicated specialists for that product. It’s a completely different sale than the up-and-down-the-street fleet products. We have dedicated technicians who excel in first-call effectiveness and response time who are willing to work longer hours when needed. That’s been a major part of our success. We immediately brought on people with previous production experience and hired specialists who did nothing but sell production equipment.
Commonwealth Technology’s sales team presents a proposal to a client
It didn’t take us long to be successful because I invested a tremendous amount of money in the specialists up front. It took about six to nine months to ramp up and establish a foothold, and we had immediate success after that. The biggest challenge is that it takes time to develop a rapport with clients. Overall, you’ve got to be dedicated to it and assemble a quality staff to take care of these clients.
Is there a product or solution that you are looking to add in the near future?
Turner: On the managed network services side, we’re looking at getting into more cloud-based services, along with the possibility of adding telephony and more backup services.
What was your dealership’s biggest win last year?
Turner: We secured a pair of deals with nationally-known companies that are based in Kentucky. One is a major food chain with thousands of restaurants where we did a nationwide installation of MFPs. Another is a racing, gaming and entertainment corporation where we supplied products for their 13 locations across the country.
What do you look for in your employees? How do you recruit and retain good ones?
Turner: We believe team play is the most important role our employees fill. Titles in our organization really don’t mean anything for the most part. It’s all about team play; we’re all in the same boat. It’s the mindset where you do what’s right when no one is looking. We look for people who have good moral values, want to work hard, be part of a team and understand they can’t do it all by themselves. It has to be for the good of everyone involved. We’ve had pretty good success with that and boast an excellent retention rate.
What was your biggest challenge in the past year?
Turner: We seek to create a good working environment for our employees. While we do well in that regard, there’s always room for improvement. Our goal is to foster an environment where it’s an exciting, family-like atmosphere.
Isert: We’ve experienced a lot of growth, so retaining an atmosphere where “everybody knows your name” can be a challenge.
What are your goals for 2018?
Turner: It’s really geared toward staying on a double-digit growth path and ensuring all employees are on board with our “everyone else first” mentality. As long as we focus on those areas, we’ll continue to succeed well into the future. We’re continuing to expand in the production printing arena and are looking to offer more software solutions on the products.
How do you view the industry changing in the future and what are you doing to adapt?
Turner: The old days of going out and selling an MFP is a thing of the past. With today’s devices having so many solutions available, we need to slow down and take a deeper dive into our customers to determine their needs. It’s our job to educate them regarding the solutions we have in our industry. People are expecting more and more from their devices because they intertwine with their day-to-day workflows.
What do you enjoy most about your job? What are your least favorite aspects of it?
Turner: The employees are family to me, and that’s the reason I still do this work. I also love our customers, many of whom are like family as well. That’s really what drives me. And I love the challenge of the business and it continues to change every day.
As for the least liked, that is tough. I’m an optimistic person by nature. We’ve had the unfortunate situation of losing some employees over the last few years. It’s a tough battle when you work alongside people you know well for eight to ten hours a day, then to lose them…that’s the biggest negative. Commonwealth is all about the family experience.
Outside of work, what do you do for fun?
Turner: I enjoy boating and own a horse farm. I have five daughters, so spending time with them keeps me occupied. Multitasking with the many businesses I have is actually a lot of fun and I love the challenge that comes with it. While I’ve been blessed to be able to multitask projects for many years, I’ve been fortunate to have many good people surrounding me who help manage these businesses.
