Finding quality team members. Maintaining them. Keeping them happy. Not compromising any of your dealership’s standards. It can be difficult to serve all of these masters, but a combination of strategies and an abundance of sourcing options (such as current employees) can help solve the riddle.
Processes and technology are also vital to establishing a well-rounded business, but employees are clearly the high-value asset in a dealer’s portfolio. This week, we offer part three in our Elite Dealer challenges overview, which has a distinct HR flavor.
The changing of the guard at Southwest Copy Systems wasn’t a challenge per se. The Albuquerque, New Mexico-based company—founded by Mike and Dorothy Contois in 1991—saw its leadership torch passed to Kevin and Alli Simpson. They will be charged with addressing the challenges that accompany growth.
“We have been focused on hiring and building a new, younger team,” the company wrote. “This was needed to continue our growth, especially in the MNS/VoIP area of the business. We see this portion of the business as a great growth area and as we continue to grow, we have to adapt and bring in new ideas.”
Ordinarily, rebranding a company brings with it obstacles to success, and the same can be said for relocating to a new headquarters. But doing both at the same time? That’s quite the high-wire act, one successfully negotiated by CFBT, nee Copier Fax Business Technologies. An abundance of organization, coordination and communication with team members and clients prevented the Tonawanda, New York, dealer from slipping.
“It was well worth the hard work, but it was one of the biggest challenges we have ever had to endure, especially while maintaining what is most important—service for our customers,” the company noted.
Employee Shuffle
Aligning prospective employees with positions has been a tall order for Coordinated Business Systems of Burnsville, Minnesota. The dealer got out in front of this obstacle by adding an internal recruiter as it relates to outreach.
“She [recruiter] has developed documentation to not only define roles, but who should fill them, what they’ve done historically, where they work and what their LinkedIn profile might say,” the dealer reported. “This guides her search and has brought us top-notch talent.”
Given the abundance of transient residents who cycle in and out of the desert town of Las Vegas, addressing employment vacancies is a fluid situation. In order to fill open positions, Advanced Imaging Solutions (AIS) strongly encourages current team members to identify potential candidates and actively submit referrals.
“We also significantly increased the efforts of our managers and HR department to explore all recruitment avenues,” the dealer wrote. “Additionally, we placed a strong emphasis on retaining current staff by fostering a positive and engaging work environment.”
There are sticking points that stymie dealers that are active in the M&A theater, particularly the mega dealers, that can also resonate for lesser revenue performers. Take UBEO Business Services of Austin, Texas, and its quest to align all 25 of its acquired satellites to a single culture. It’s not that the companies they’ve onboarded are broken/demoralized from a cultural standpoint. But having 25 distinct organizations that bring with them their unique histories, families, customers, ways of selling and their interpretation of value makes it difficult to assemble a single culture.
The ultimate goal is to drive success for the companies under the UBEO umbrella as well as the overall organization itself. It extends beyond unifying brands and systems. Ultimately the prime unifier is leadership, communication and strategy.
“Even the original UBEO team members need to know that the fabric and the soul of their organization they built is still there and getting stronger,” the company wrote. “Our leadership team is constantly reinforcing our values, our tactics and commitment to success. With respect to acquisitions, we’ve taken a very soft approach historically, letting the local team raise their hand when they are ready for the UBEO name.
“No matter what brand they operate under, our core values, techniques and strategies are all the same throughout the company. When you join UBEO, you will elevate the way you go to market. You will begin to drive higher margins in bigger deals and play in accounts you never thought were possible. We are one of the only dealers that can compete with manufacturers and in many ways exceed their capabilities, and we are just getting started.”
Service Station
The post-pandemic trend toward clients making fewer copies and prints has spelled lost service revenue for dealers such as KOMAX Business Systems of South Charleston, West Virginia. The dealer has skirted this challenge by expanding its geographic footprint and focusing on different vertical markets.
The upshot is the need for companies to look elsewhere to compensate for the lost revenue. “Additionally, we’ve diversified our portfolio by adding water coolers and EV Chargers,” the dealer wrote. “This allows us to get deeper with our current customers, as well as opening up new opportunities with potential new customers.”
Dealers including Copiers Plus of Fayetteville, North Carolina, found the need to implement workflow automation internally. The company employed a full-team approach making strategic adjustments and maintaining proactive communication.
“By staying committed to high levels of customer service and focusing on customer needs, we successfully navigated the difficulties and continued to provide value,” Copiers Plus reported.
Evolving Needs
With some clients reducing their office footprint as hybrid work continues to grow, it’s fallen upon dealers to address the evolved needs. United Business Technologies of Gaithersburg, Maryland, implemented a strategy of rightsizing customer equipment while ensuring essential features, such as color, software and production-level capabilities were maintained.
“Our approach recognized that a decrease in physical space did not necessarily equate a decline in the need for equipment and resources,” UBT wrote. “By optimizing our offerings, we were able to provide solutions that supported efficient document management and workflow environments within the evolving workplace.”
Lastly, dealers such as Associated Business Technologies of North Salt Lake City are often tasked with competing against mega dealers and manufacturer direct operations. The dealer notes there is a tendency for these competitors to drive the profit out of the equipment sale and aftermarket. The key is establishing a value proposition that supersedes the lowest price.
“We have spent a lot of time on our value proposition educating our team on what makes us different, enhancing value, how to build value into our sales and service and educating our customers that all dealers are not the same nor is all equipment the same,” the company reported.
