Management company provides profitable methodologies

Servco Management knows the methods of making copier dealerships profitable.

When it comes to making copier dealerships profitable, "nobody can do what we do," stated J. J. Morrison, CEO of Servco Management Inc. The West Palm Beach, FL-based company specializes in training established copier dealerships with valuable skills to improve the bottom line.

According to Morrison, almost every dealership is ready to lose 30 to 60 percent of their present active account base primarily because dealers do not know how to maintain and upgrade their customers. "Companies need to realize the potential that current accounts can produce," said Morrison. "The copier market is mature; there just aren't as many new sales to be had. There are only your customers and your competitor's customers. You must find ways to keep the customers you currently have and find new ways to create revenue."

When Servco is retained by a company, they address the entire business including sales, service, management, accounts receivables, telemarketing, and when ready, acquisitions. As well, Servco provides an in-house representative to implement the programs and to insure a smooth transition for obtaining the desired results.

With more than 25 years in business, Servco has come up with seven programs designed to restructure, refocus and retrain dealerships to be productive and profitable.

Manning the phones

The first phase usually installed by Servco is the Telephone Activity Center (TAC). Its main purpose is to utilize telephone power to cover advertising, sales leads, public relations, information gathering and selling.

Servco boasts that their sales people can be productive within one week of training. Their trained telephone personnel will search out competitive placements and look for any information that determines if an account is a prospective buyer. Personnel will find and prequalify prospects, allowing the salespeople to spend 50 percent more time selling and, because they are dealing with what they know to be prospects, increasing sales.

As well, Morrison reports that their telephone personnel can sell contracts and consumable products at the rate of $3,000-$10,000 per day, per person.

Service is key

According to Morrison, one-third of a company's base accounts are old, overburdened and in need of replacement and if you do not address these customer's needs, the competition will. "There is no sense in bringing in new accounts through the front door when your competition is taking them out the backdoor," said Morrison.

The second step to reorganization is the development of a Technical Training Center and the training of service technicians on how to pull in old troublesome equipment for overhaul. Servco estimates that a company can increase additional revenues by $20,000 per month from equipment overhaul revenues while reducing excess inventory and call backs in the field.

The third program is the Machine Program. This program works in correlation with the service department. While a customer's equipment is being overhauled, a loaner is provided. Servco believes, that with a correct presentation, your salesman can sell 50% of the loaner machines within three days of the loan.

Running smoothly

Program Four is Management Training where Servco teaches managers how to be managers and how to keep all of the programs running in a constant and consistently profitable fashion. Organization, control and the generation of profits are the team's goals.

The fifth program is designed to help a dealership to develop a Reporting System to Management enabling the monitoring of each department and to see how, through their combined efforts, the company has grown and profited.

Morrison estimates that easily one-third of all dealerships are in financial trouble and are at risk of closing. Servco trains their customers on how to pick up their competitor's accounts, supply base, service base and people to double and triple their base number of accounts and profits.

Finally, with a secure account base, the last program is designed to make additional use of your customers and your telephone sales staff with the distribution of additional office consumable products.

Cases in point

Servco is certainly not lacking in supporters, either. Duane Irvin, now retired from Automatic Business Systems in New Mexico, stated, "Servco provided my company with everything we needed to become profitable. The week that Mr. Morrison worked with my company, no one slept. It was the most exciting meeting, seminar, training I had ever seen."

When asked about the long term effects of Servco's services, Irvin said, "things went so well, that IKON Office Solutions came in and made an offer I couldn't refuse. I made a pretty penny on the deal and could afford to retire. That was my goal." As well, Irvin felt that the fees for Servco's programs were worth it. "For what I paid Servco for their work, I would say that I made it back-10 fold."

Steve Demshick, executive vice president of PGD, an Ivyland, PA copier dealership stated that PGD gained $177,214 in increased net profits due to Servco's programs in just eight weeks. "Thanks to Servco's programs, our sales have increased by 58 percent and service revenues increased to 71 percent," said Demshick. "It was absolutely worth using Servco."

Too good to be true

By now you may be wondering "what's the catch?" As with any opportunity, there are risks involved. Counteracting these risks are just a few of Servco's guarantees.

Servco guarantees to increase your profits in excess of their fees or you owe nothing. It is their conviction that unless they can produce immediate financial results, they are of no value. As well, they believe their programs to be so strong that they will only work with one dealership per marketing area and will offer that dealership exclusivity.

"To put it simply, there is a price war going on between dealerships. They are starving for profitability," Morrison told Office World News. "Servco has the means to put money on the table. Our programs are state of the art and we are a proven profit producer."

For more information on Servco and its services, call (800) 517-7900 or contact Servco on the web at www.servcomanagement.com.

Copyright B U S Publishing Group, Inc. Apr 1998
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved