While never considering himself a moonlighting author, Erik Crane already has a working title for a book chronicling his 30 years in the office technology business. It remains to be seen if “This is Not Good” will ever be available from Barnes and Noble or Amazon, but the president and CEO of CPI Technologies, an office technology dealership based in Springfield, Missouri, has certainly witnessed the bizarre, absurd and even downright scary elements of doing business in the nation’s heartland.
One might surmise that a company with holdings in Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas would carve out a largely uneventful and nondescript business experience, but Crane has endured his share of atypical moments along the way. Take the time Crane’s father-in-law (and company founder) Vernon Starks saw the copier he was delivering zip past him on the road and crash into a light post. Starks had driven over railroad tracks and the copier—which was strapped to a cart with wheels—popped out the back of the car and began rolling behind him. Starks pulled over just in time to watch the copier fly past and meet its untimely demise, but that’s bound to happen when a machine greatly exceeds its rated speed.
That pales in comparison to the time Starks and Crane needed to repossess a refurbished color machine from a customer who had stopped making payments. While the men were attempting to roll the machine out the front door, the proprietor—who was using the unit to make insert copies for bootlegged videos—leveled a gun at them.
“He told us in no uncertain terms that he was going to remove our heads from our bodies,” Crane recalled, substituting more family-friendly verbiage. “We did get the machine out the door, and he locked it behind us.”
Runaway copiers and gun-toting lunatics might be the exception in his business, but Crane’s career has been anything but boring. Founded in 1963, CPI Technologies weathered the pandemic and entered the second half of 2021 on a roll, charting 20% growth over its 2019 performance based on the first half of this year. It’s experiencing significant upticks in managed IT and solutions, with VoIP phone systems adding a spark to its traditional stable of Xerox, HP and Toshiba hardware offerings.
The $10 million dealership serves an 80-county swath through Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, with offices in Pittsburg, Wichita and Iola, Kansas (its original headquarters); Joplin, Missouri and Mountain Home, Arkansas, along with its current headquarters in Springfield, Missouri. In addition to the aforementioned MFPs, managed IT, solutions and phones, CPI Technologies offers technology addressing document management, network security, mailing equipment, interactive displays, computer hardware and software, paper-handling equipment and shredders.
Power Couple
Crane and his wife, Heidi (the company’s COO) officially acquired CPI Technologies (formerly Copy Products) from Vern and Toni Starks in 2018. Heidi Crane has worked in the family business virtually all her life, and the newlywed Cranes opened the Springfield office in 1992 after Erik decided to forego another career opportunity.
The ownership transfer was mostly symbolic; this next-generation leadership team had long since left its imprint on the company by developing managed IT and creating CPI Technologies’ own leasing company. The latter proved significant during the pandemic, allowing the dealer to craft terms to address specific financial needs of customers and enable payment arrangements to help them get through the toughest stretch of the shutdown.
The pandemic set CPI Technologies back by about 8%, but managed IT services provided a great deal of traction, as did network and document security. Document management tools such as PaperCut and DocuWare also helped to stem the decline in traditional hardware business, and the dealer enjoyed significant takedowns with large education and health care contracts.
“Leases came up, and we were able to secure that business again, which allowed us to have a lot of work to keep people busy with deliveries and setups,” Crane observed. “We found the leases were the key to continued revenue for CPI. Overage billings were down by 80%, so having those continued level billings and bundled leases allowed us to sustain the revenue stream.”
Crane notes that the national surge in consumer confidence is being felt among his client base. Many customers quickly identified their technology deficiencies during the pandemic, including the need for VoIP and having communications follow end-users to their remote office setups. Some traditional areas of strength—government, schools and hospitals—are looking to optimize and streamline their processes to the same degree as pre-pandemic. The legal and manufacturing sectors have ramped up activity, while churches and religious organizations are still taking a more cautionary approach.
For the client base that is mostly rural, Crane points out that the government, education and health care sectors tend to be among the largest employers, thus making them the cornerstones for business success. The bid-out contracts may not be as lucrative, but are linchpins to scaling within those communities.
Close Quarters
“Everybody who is employed at the hospital or city hall, they have spouses who work somewhere and go to church somewhere, so being able to get our foot in those doors and secure that business—even though it might not be highly profitable—allows us to have that name recognition in the rural communities,” he said. “This makes getting other business that can be profitable a little bit easier. That’s why it’s so key for us, especially in rural territories.”
Naturally, being a family-owned and operated dealership plays well in tight-knit communities, and access to Crane (“I give out my cell phone number a lot”) for questions and resolution needs is critical for establishing long-term relationships. That philosophy is shared throughout the dealership, which enjoys an average employee tenure of 17 years. CPI Technologies’ commitment to training and dedication to top-flight service complements good business practices and a team mindset. That’s further underscored by the company’s CPI@One program, which encourages and compensates employees for community interaction and involvement.
“As a whole, these elements make us a different and better choice for our customers,” Crane added.
The IT division’s contribution to CPI Technologies’ overall success cannot be overstated. It’s taken off significantly in the past 24 months, and has proven to be a conversation starter and leverage to gain foray into accounts that were once prohibitive. While Crane is loath to abandon the dealer’s roots that paved the way for success, having fully committed MFP and IT reps bringing in leads for both sides of the house and recognizing managed IT as a going-forward strength is critical for paving the way to future growth.
Crane plans to double down on his IT offerings, already fortifying his IT staff and looking to add more capable employees in the near future. He’s offering aggressive compensation plans and commission sharing for ferreting out IT leads. Having patience with the often-lengthy buying cycle and decision-making process goes a long way in a discipline that can generally take five years of hard work before yielding substantial, profitable results.
“Playing the long game is another thing that’s allowed us to get some success going a little bit earlier,” Crane said. “We started the program about five years ago and had some early success, but not like we wanted. So we did a little revamping and had some personnel changes. Now it’s really starting to take off for us. We’re getting our IT people in front of the right folks to make inroads and earn sales.”
Timing was everything on the VoIP front, as CPI Technologies began making headway just prior to the onset of the pandemic. The dealer found an ideal phone system partner in Crexendo, which provided a simple, effective selling proposition for CPI’s reps and made for a smooth, quick ramp-up process. Having reps quickly learn the ins and outs of VoIP helped CPI pitch into new accounts that often relied on other vendors for their MFP or office needs. That credibility, Crane believes, will go a long way toward increasing wallet share among the new accounts in the not-too-distant future.
“We saw a little bit of a spike during the pandemic, but now that clients are feeling more confident, we’re seeing a huge spike in technology purchases of all kinds,” he noted, pointing to increased interactive display business among schools, financial institutions and the manufacturing space, and Formax products for mailing and paper handling needs.
Marketing Mavens
CPI Technologies has made great strides in marketing its brand through the sponsorship of virtual and in-person events. With many events featuring both in-person and virtual components, having the CPI logo reach both audiences has increased exposure. In addition to backing Chamber of Commerce and technology events, CPI supported the Price Cutter Charity Championship PGA tournament in Springfield, which is supporting 51 children’s charities in southwest Missouri. The dealer is also active with local schools, including Missouri State, Missouri Southern, Pittsburg State and Emporia State, among other smaller colleges and high schools.
“We feel it’s important to be involved in every CPI location at the local level, sponsoring golf tournaments, county fairs and school athletic programs,” Crane said. “Even things as nonlinear as a car show or a barbecue contest. We’re getting that logo out wherever we can, because we’re looking for that top-of-mind recognition. These events needed our support during the pandemic more than ever, and we were glad to be there for them.”
Crane hails from a coaching family and takes great pride in seeing the growth of team members as they hone their skills and excel in meeting personal and professional goals. “We strive for a very tight team culture,” he said. “This is a very competitive market, and we’re all driven in our own way, but we have to be focused in the right direction; otherwise, none of us move forward. That’s one of the things that I think makes CPI a great place to work—we have to be on same page. If we have competing goals, then we achieve nothing.”
If the first half of 2021 is any indication, Crane can’t wait to see what the future holds. In addition to bolstering the IT staff, he’ll be on the lookout for a larger facility in Springfield to house the headquarters. He’s not interested in spreading out his geographic footprint, but is exploring the addition of an IT company or two within the region, as well as a few acquisition prospects on the MFP side.
While Crane doesn’t fancy having another weapon brandished in front of his face anytime soon, the excitement he derives from the CPI Technologies experience keeps him looking ahead with optimism. “We have to keep setting the bar higher for ourselves and expect more in order to stay at the top of our game,” he said. “It’s an evolve-or-perish situation that we’re in. The hardest part about being No. 1 isn’t getting there, it’s staying there.”
From Kitchen Table to Corner Office, Cranes Make Business, Marriage Work
The year was 1992, and Erik Crane was looking at a career opportunity that was far away. But he was also a newlywed, and his in-laws, Vernon and Antonette Starks, wanted to have their daughter (Erik’s wife), Heidi, closer to home. The solution: the Cranes opened a new branch of the family business, Copy Products, in Springfield, Missouri.
Thirty years later, Erik still feels they made the right decision. But a husband and wife executive tandem can be a bit of a challenge, particularly when it comes to separating work life from home life.
“Leaving work at work is difficult—you don’t want to have conversations at the dinner table about work issues and ideas,” he noted. “It’s all about having patience and understanding, realizing that we want the same thing and want to get to the same place. We’re in this together.”
Maintaining that work/life balance can be difficult for individuals, let alone married couples. Keeping those boundaries clear has been the key to happiness inside and outside the office.
“You may still feel like you’re at work, and your mind may be in that space,” he added. “But when we’re at home, it’s a reminder of the reasons why we work.”
