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: City of Roanoke

The Account Representative: Jamie Rhodes

Conveying differentiators often takes time. It’s certainly an effort that sales professionals like Jamie Rhodes are more than willing to take on. It’s what they do. With her background in training, Jamie is adeptly skilled to not only speak to so many of the elements that make Datamax different, but stand in front of the device and confidently demonstrate its unique technological advantages.

Sometimes, though, savvy must be matched by sweat equity. The years of unanswered phone calls? The radio silence from the get-go? That takes something else. That is the simple but hard-earned art of never giving up. 

The Business Challenge

Jamie has had City of Roanoke on her radar as a Top 50 Account for quite some time. She’s been calling on it for years, but the IT person there wouldn’t answer her calls… simple as that. It can be frustrating, but not a final deterrent for Jamie.

It never hurts to pop in. In an impromptu in-person visit in August, Jamie learned that the city had hired a new IT director. Visiting with some end users there, she learned that they were going to be going out for copier bids later in the year.

“I kept calling this new IT person, and finally, after 5 or 6 times, he actually picked up the phone and said that he was taking bids,” Jamie recalls.

The game was on.

The Thought Process

Their number one factor in their bidding process, being a government entity, was unsurprisingly price. Jamie was unable to do a thorough walk-through but based on the information provided by city, put together what she felt was a competitive bid that would at lease move Datamax to the next level.

“They basically just sent me the specs of what they currently had, current volumes, and had me put a proposal together,” Jamie said. “We did make the top three in price, so the next step was for the top three to perform a demo for the proposed equipment,” Jamie said.

This was where Jamie (with her background) and Datamax (as a true value-add organization) shined. Jamie explained that Datamax does things “a little differently” when it comes to demos. The team did a pre-site survey before bringing equipment on site, as well as gathering all the network information beforehand, so that when the equipment was delivered it was plug and play.

“We got word that one of the competitors delivered the machine and it took four hours to complete the setup,” Jamie said. “When we got there we did training with the staff members and even customized a home screen to simplify things for them. We even put the City of Roanoke logo on the background of the device screen.”

There were other hard benefits to Jamie’s package: The booklet finishers for Canon now came with tri-fold, which was huge for their billing department to stop manually folding invoices and automate such a routine process. They set them up with automated supply replenishment, something very important to the IT director.

But the demo? That was huge.

“(Being a former trainer) makes a huge difference. It gives me more confidence in the ability to answer questions faster and easier, and to customize everything for them. They loved it,” Jamie said.

The Prevailing Results

In the end, 14 MFPs were added to the City of Roanoke fleet. What started as a “price war” prevailed in Datamax’s way because of unique value adds, expertise, and a local touch.

But let’s, for a second, reflect on the onset of this “war,” which started long before a competitor ever showed up. The tenacity it took to get someone to pick up the phone. That was all Jamie, and her innate ability to Never, Ever Give Up.