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DEALER PROFILE
Matt Goodall and
Steve Davis
Office Evolution, a Develop single-
line dealership based in Semington,
Trowbridge, was the brainchild of
Matt Goodall, who at the time was
an Account Manager for Olivetti,
and Steve Davis, formerly Managing
Director of a sales and marketing
agency.
“It was the right time and we were in
the right place,” explains Davis. “There
wasn’t much competition in our area and
we both agreed that colour was going to
be big, so we came up with a plan and
decided to go for it. Matt would head
up the service side of the business and I
would assume responsibility for sales.”
The duo set-up shop using Goodall’s
double garage as an office and converting
Davis’ garage into a storeroom. Fourteen
months in, they bought a unit in
Semington, where they are still based,
shortly afterwards leasing additional space
to store equipment, consumables and
spare parts.
In his former role Goodall had had
dealings with DSales and was familiar with
the Develop brand. “We were impressed
with the range and the brand’s strength in
colour and so we arranged to meet them
at a service station in Birmingham. On the
journey there, all we could think about
was convincing them to sign us up as a
reseller,” he remembers. “It was only some
time later that we discovered they had
pinned all their hopes on us signing with
them!”
“We didn’t buy a base; we started from
scratch,” explains Davis. “It was tough
at the beginning; we were out all of the
time at appointments and winning new
business. It wasn’t practical a lot of the
time to get back to the office and email
over orders.”
“What was great about working with
DSales,” adds Goodall, “was that we could
phone them between appointments, place
an order and know the devices would be
with us the next day. That really worked for
us; we could confidently make promises
to new customers knowing that we could
deliver on those promises.”
Office Evolution predominantly serves
customers within a 50 to 60 mile radius
of its base, but it also has a number of
national accounts, including some in
Ireland. “As part of the wider DSales
community, we’re able to utilise other
partners who are geographically closer
to support us in servicing those devices,”
adds Goodall.
Top Ten
Office Evolution is DSales’ longest serving
dealer. It has retained the Develop Dealer
of the Year South-West title every year
since DSales launched its annual awards
and remains one of the distributor’s top
ten dealerships. Last year, it won the
Wiltshire Business of the Year Award.
Office Evolution is wholly focused on
customer service. Perhaps uniquely in the
industry, sales staff aren’t paid commission.
“We do account management,” explains
Davis. “We work for our customers,
providing them with the solution they
need, as opposed to the one that’s going
to pay the most commission.”
Customer retention levels are really
high. According to Davis, Office Evolution
typically gains 50 to 60 new accounts
each year and loses no more than one or
two. “We’d rather invest more money in
One night over dinner, two neighbours came up with a plan to set up a copier
dealership. Ten years on, the business and the friendship are both thriving.
A business
built on trust
retaining our existing clients,” he says.
Around 97% of all sales are colour-led,
with mono devices constituting a small
part of the total business. Solutions sales
continue to gain traction. “We’ve enjoyed
success with Papercut and follow-me print,
as well as Develop’s own convert+share
and store+find software, which we use
ourselves,” says Davis.
He adds that turnover has increased
steadily by 10-15% year-on-year, even
during the recession. “We were lucky
that we weren’t badly affected. I think we
continued to thrive as we’re not selling
a luxury item; if your printer or copier
breaks, then you need to replace it – it’s as
simple as that. What we did do, however,
was to focus even more on retaining the
customers we had, and in some cases we
even did the financing ourselves.”
Davis expects Office Evolution’s annual
turnover to reach £1.6 million this year,
rising to £2 million within the next couple.
“We are in a strong position to reach this
target very quickly. We have a complete
range of hardware and software and we
put around 90% of leased deals through
Grenke, our preferred finance partner.”
Over the next 10 years, Davis and
Goodall plan to expand the existing
team, which includes a three-strong sales
team, five service engineers, as well as
back office and admin support staff, and
are exploring Apprenticeships in a bid to
attract new, fresh talent.
“Service is an important part of our
business and having the right people
in a customer-facing role is key for us,”
explains Goodall. “Our engineers have an
IT background and we train them up to
maintain and service the hardware. The
two worlds are becoming increasingly
inter-connected and expertise in IT is
becoming ever more important.”
The duo
set-up
shop using
Goodall’s
double
garage as an
office and
converting
Davis’
garage into a
storeroom.
