Providing an on-point, creative solution that increases a client’s return on technology investment and produces the Raving Results we constantly seek to deliver.

The Client: East Texas School Districts

The Account Representative: Keith Judy, Ariel DeLong, and more!

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For Josh Sims, serving area school districts hits close to home.

The East Texas Area Sales Manager’s college degree is in secondary education. His mom’s a teacher. Aunts, cousins, his grandfather? All teachers. As such, he’s heard all the comments over the years about office equipment… from the teachers’ perspective.

"It’s funny. When I talk to them about copiers, the only time they talk about it is when something’s gone wrong with it,” Josh says. “For the schools in East Texas to be pleased with their equipment, their service, and have no complaints? That’s rewarding. Teachers have enough headaches. A copier should not be one of them.”

Datamax as a whole enjoys a fabulous reputation with school systems at large. East Texas is no exception. Beyond some of the decades-long relationships established with ISDs, our current reps there (and of course our service teams!) work hard to keep those bonds tight, and to ensure that when it comes to all the headaches endured by teachers, staff, and students throughout a school year, a copier isn’t one of them.

Kaylee Lynn has four school districts currently in the middle of contracts. Just recently, Josh, with the help of Service Manager Justin Harper and his deep-seated relationships with the school, secured 48 machines with Whitehouse ISD. And both Keith Judy and Ariel DeLong worked hard over the summer to ensure Tatum ISD (11 machines), New Diana ISD (12 machines) and Gladewater ISD (16 machines) renewed their well-established relationship with Datamax.

What does it take to secure and sustain a dedicated partnership with a district?

It takes Relationship Building.

It starts here. No one knows this better than a chiseled veteran like Keith Judy.

His first contact with Gladewater ISD was in 2002. He established rapport with key contacts there and (save a 5-year contract with Xerox, after which the district returned to Keith) has been with Datamax ever since. He’s served White Oak ISD for 20 years, Union Grove for 15+, and Ore City for 13 years. Within that timeframe among all these districts, there’s only been one request for proposal sent out.

Talk about strong partnerships. Wow.

“Schools are not unique in that it’s all relationship building. You need to be in front of the Director of Finance. You need to sneak an introduction with the Superintendent, and you will likely spend most of your time with the Business Manager. You sell them on service. You sell them on quality equipment. And then you make yourself available to them,” Keith said.

It could be a reassessment of equipment placement. It could be an invoicing issue. It could just be dropping by and delivering a bottle of toner. Just be available.

Keith offers this nugget as well: DON’T burn bridges. No matter what.

“(In 2008) when Gladewater went with Xerox, I accepted that and knew that there’s nothing you can do except don’t burn that bridge. So I said, ‘when this contract comes around again, please include me.’ And I was here when they came back,” Keith said.

It Takes a Solid Plan.

“The selling part of it is fun. There has to be a strategy in what they need and what the configuration of the machine looks like. What machines they keep in comparison to new ones brought in is always a discussion,” Josh said. “With school districts, you have to deal with IT and business officials. You have to stay active with all parties and keep the plan straight.”

It Takes a Team.

DIR pricing isn’t DIY at Datamax.

When Ariel DeLong moved to her new East Texas Territory this spring, she jumped headfirst into preparing a renewal with Tatum ISD. Within her first week here, discussions were already underway internally as a competitor was trying to get into the conversation. What was Ariel’s basic strategy? A solution that’s completely on point and at a good, fair price. She dialed in on a CPC agreement that would better accommodate both the high volume months (during school) and the low ones (during the summer). The district loved it.

But what about the DIR contract pricing, which has some serious nuances? Enter the industry “jack of all trades,” Robert Baker.

“Robert has been a great resource with DIR. He’s obviously been doing this for years, and he’s a wealth of knowledge,” Ariel said.

Credit, of course, also goes to the service teams who interact with and maintain the devices for these schools on a regular basis within a five-year span. Schools simply rely on their devices. When they’re up and running consistently, they’re ultimately happy.

“ISDs, in particular, don’t take our partnership with them for granted. They realize it’s crucial that they have the ability to print and share documents on a daily basis for them to function,” Ariel said. “I think they realize that having quality service, quality equipment is really, really important.”

It takes an entire team to provide that.