Anyone who has spent appreciable time in the office technology industry is familiar with the tale of Rick Lambert, the onetime sales stalwart for IKON Office Solutions and now a sales coach (selltoWIN) and digital marketing mentor (IN2communications) with myriad products designed to bolster businesses (and their sales crew’s) effectiveness in selling.
But let’s not discount the hockey factor. How’s that, you ask? Well, it’s also widely known that Lambert was a rink rat growing up, and later a fifth-round draft pick by the Edmonton Oilers during the Wayne Gretzky era. There’s an interesting analogy to be found between the NHL and sales.
Pro hockey has a handful of standout teams and a small core of underdeveloped franchises. For a vast majority of teams, however, it’s a sea of parity, with only slight differences separating one from another. Even just a single point can spell the difference between making the playoffs and hitting the golf course early.
Office technology dealers are selling the same major products, for the most part, flying under the flag of 10 or so manufacturers. In that regard, parity exists here as well. There are the mega-dealers at the top, the mom-and-pop/lifestyle businesses on the lower end, and a middle chock full of dealers that seek to differentiate in a sea of sameness. Lambert’s role is to push his clients over the top and break free from the pack.
These days, Lambert counsels sales professionals on finding that edge and closing the deal. “We win when our customers win,” said Lambert, a 2024 ENX Magazine Difference Maker. “I love what I do and we have such a talented team of great people. I enjoy creating fresh, innovative strategies that drive results for our customers.”
Puck Drop
A business major at the University of New Hampshire and a four-year member of its hockey team, Lambert played one season with two teams in the East Coast Hockey League. He pivoted to sales with Xerox and in 1989 claimed the OEM’s Rookie of the Year designation to kick off a nearly five-year stretch with the manufacturer. He then migrated to the dealer side, spending two years at London Photocopy, a Sharp dealer in Ontario, Canada, followed by two more years with IKON Office Solutions, where he had P&L responsibility for the firm’s $30 million sales and service divisions.
It was in 1998 when Lambert’s career truly flowered with the launch of selltoWIN.com. More than 50,000 sales and MSP reps have benefitted from his live events and countless more have leveraged his on-demand training systems. In2communications.com—a vehicle for the inbound/digital buyer model—was born in 2008, and Lambert now offers a combination of sales coaching and digital marketing to “leverage the next generation of lead generation,” he quipped.
As such, Lambert is a bit of a unicorn in the industry. “I’m a practitioner, not just an advisor,” he said. “I am the only one in the industry that provides both sales training and digital marketing. It’s the combination of the two that drive the biggest results. Most just do training or marketing, not both. So my ability to diagnose, prescribe, implement and make an impact comes from a more holistic revenue generation perspective, which equals a bigger impact.”
One of the turning points for Lambert came in 2001, when selltoWIN inked a seven-figure agreement with Xerox to coach 1,500 of their agents throughout the United States and Canada. “This confirmed our live event and on-demand training model and broke the mold of traditional corporate training,” he noted. “The program drove over $20 million in revenue.”
It was a Xerox sales manager, Ron Smith, who shared with Lambert some of the foundational principles of the sales game. Chief among them was the notion that people buy from people they like and trust. Another nugget: get information before you give information. Both have served Lambert well.
“This advice has proven helpful in sales and in business conversations,” he added.
Building Statistics
The last two years have provided some nice wins. A campaign IN2communications devised for telecom sector client Windstream Wholesale captured a “Best Global Marketing Campaign” award. IN2communications was also named the Official Marketing Partner for the Executive Connection Summit. Lambert’s firm was also tabbed to create and launch Quench’s corporate sales training program to instruct office equipment dealers on selling its water systems.
Lambert’s already increased his own odds of winning in 2025 with the planned release of a new suite of lead generation, cross-selling, recruiting and new hire on-boarding services to enable success for dealer partners. These tools will be reflective of industry best practices.
There’s no threat of Lambert becoming complacent or resting on his laurels. The entrepreneurial spirit thrives at in2communications, where team members share an “idea of the day” with an aim of helping customers win.
“This keeps us current and provides a fresh flow of new ideas to take our game to the next level,” he added.
Lambert doesn’t long for the game of hockey—if anything, he’s hitting the ice more frequently. He plays January through December, logging three games per week during the winter months. When he’s not scoring on the ice or in coaching sessions, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two teenage children (“They’re the best sales reps I know,” he noted) and enjoying the family’s lake house on Lake Huron.
