Jerry Blaine
Jerry Blaine isn’t satisfied.
He owns one of the top office technology dealerships in the country, he’s got one of the most tenured sales forces in the industry, and business is good. What’s not to like?
“An area where we need to improve is acquiring new clients,” says Blaine.
Other than that, all’s well. “The last couple of quarters have been very encouraging,” adds Blaine. “In general, things are very good and the future is looking good.”
Clearly, LDI, headquartered in Jericho, NY and with offices in New York, New Jersey, and Southern California, is doing something right. That means concentrating on core competencies, continuing to provide what clients are looking for, even though Blaine says that sounds like a pat response, and overall execution.
LDI does a super job of retaining clients and is adept at rolling with the changing flow of the imaging industry. They’re also doing well with MPS thanks in large part to a strategy that revolves around identifying the most appropriate clients for MPS, particularly those that appreciate the value that LDI brings to the MPS table. If they don’t, LDI won’t lowball the deal like some of the competition to get the business.
It’s been a wild and wonderful ride for Blaine and company since launching LDI in 1999 and growing it into a $55+ million dealership. When asked to identify the biggest difference in the company today compared to when LDI first opened their doors, Blaine says it’s not as pronounced as one might think.
“We started from scratch and had 100 people inside of a year and a half. Virtually all of them are still here as is all of the key management.”
Picking a niche (color) and running with it was a clever strategy, especially given the dealership’s New York metropolitan area location. So was taking advantage of new solutions and technology. Again, that may not sound so different from what many other dealers have done over the years, but how many have been as successful as LDI in such a short period of time?
“We’re still focused on color although that business has changed substantially,” states Blaine. “That’s a real competency for us. We moved fairly well into production and attached to production is being out front in terms of document management and the software opportunities that are available for us to offer to our clients.”
In a world where everyone is constantly buzzing about solutions, that’s always been a focus at LDI whether for high-end color graphics or traditional office applications. Historically, when it comes to solutions, LDI has been ahead of its manufacturers with some of those solutions which have become standards in the industry.
A prime example is eCopy going back to before it was acquired by Nuance. “That’s a de facto standard for send-through technology and we were one of the first to have it before the manufacturers even saw it,” boasts Blaine.
Incidently, that’s even before Canon who was the first OEM to partner with eCopy.
The New York market is a competitive one and although LDI competes with other independent dealers, including other successful ones, Blaine says his primary competitors are often OEM direct, such as Canon, Konica Minolta, and Xerox. “The most surprising one we compete with is HP, which drives me nuts,” acknowledges Blaine.
Can he compete with HP? “Not if they don’t want us to,” he quips.
Why do customers ultimately choose LDI?
“We can evaluate client applications and needs and respond with a completely independent solution,” responds Blaine. “That’s our first value prop and we feel that with the lineup and the relationships we have with the manufacturers we have on both the hardware and software side, that we have the most complete offering.”
Second on Blaine’s list is the availability and accountability of the boutique-like service that customers receive from LDI. “We have a wonderful history of large account fleet management that goes back to when we started the company. We’ve parlayed that into a much more local flavor on both coasts. Nonetheless the ability the client has to directly communicate with us or how we are so much out front in communicating with clients [is something clients appreciate].”
That connection with clients is paramount to LDI’s success and the dealership is adept at keeping clients up to date on trends and new technologies and how those might their businesses. “We’re very forward about that and not just looking to the end of the contract and saying it’s time to renew,” notes Blaine. “We’re in continuous communication.”
One novel way that LDI keeps those lines of communication open is via Solutions Seminars that often take place in its midtown Manhattan office. The inspiration behind those seminars was to position LDI as thought leaders and share with clients the fact that the movers and shakers in business are coming to them and asking for LDI’s opinions on both current and developing products. Besides sharing this information with clients, the Solutions Seminars allow clients to voice their opinions about the technology and solutions that LDI sells or their technology and solutions partners are bringing to market.
A recent Nuance seminar was targeted to the legal market, for example. Blaine doesn’t have a particular favorite among the many seminars he’s hosted and feels that LDI has done well with most of them. “But the ones most interesting to me were the couple we’ve done on ‘green’, and specifically as it relates to the overall industry and then to the individual vertical markets,” recalls Blaine. “These were the most informative and thought provoking even though the least amount of business came out of those.”
In a business where dealers tend to have a revolving door when it comes to sales reps, LDI is one of the exceptions to the rule. Why?
“First thing is the philosophy that you expect people to make a commitment to you as an employer and in turn what’s fair is you make a commitment to them,” says Blaine. “We do that and we make sure that we hire the right people for the right positions. We understand what their needs are and then make sure that they’re a good fit to begin with. Whatever their personal aspirations are we want them to fit in with that.”
Also important are what Blaine calls “solid citizens,” meaning that they’re interested not only in their job but their communities as well so the two cultures line up.
“We give our folks a lot of autonomy and opportunity to go with what they think will best serve us and our clients,” adds Blaine. “When you talk to a lot of people in our company, it’s like talking to five or six CEOs; everybody is running what they need to run. That’s not to say we don’t have a management team, we do, but it’s very participatory and it’s not based on any one personality.”
Blaine takes pride in what he’s built and acknowledges that what he did in 1999 is not so easy to accomplish in 2013. “I come from way back and have been in this business longer than anybody and seen it in terms of how it provided a wonderful opportunity for young people to grow, from smaller to larger companies. In that respect that part of it at least in the current state is behind us. It’s very difficult to start a company and there are a lot of barriers to entry in the business.”
There is no status quo at LDI and the company continues to evolve while still being rooted in the color market. The next frontier that LDI hopes to conquer is IT.
“There are significant opportunities that will open up over the next couple of years combining the imaging and printing side with the more traditional IT side,” states Blaine.
In the fourth quarter of this year LDI will launch a full managed cloud IT offering as they delve more deeply into the IT services world. It’s still way too soon to say much more about that new direction other than Blaine is optimistic about the opportunity and how it’s going to positively impact LDI’s business.
Speaking of new frontiers, expect to see LDI in some additional markets in the not-too-distant future as well.
“The third thing I’d say is that as a result of things we don’t even know yet we may be involved in many other opportunities to increase our presence in our current client base, including mobile products or other types of technology products that manufacturers are going to offer that would be classified now as specialty items that are being distributed through other channels,” reveals Blaine. “Specifically I’m talking about digital signage and medical as our manufacturers become more involved in that as well.
After countless years in the industry, Blaine still loves it and can’t imagine a time when he doesn’t get up in the morning to go to work. “I have a great balance in my life. It’s still wonderful; I enjoy the business and the team very much.”
