Smile celebrates 20 years, wins the California state contract, and continues to set high standards in managed services – all on its own terms.
Smile’s reception area at the company’s Sacramento, California, headquarters
The year 2017 has been a monumental one for Smile Business Products, Inc. (Smile) and the company’s founder and CEO Joe Reeves, a technology pioneer in our industry. The dealership, led by its fearless, yet thorough leader, celebrated Smile’s 20th anniversary on June 16 and recently won the California state contract.
However, anyone who knows Reeves well in the industry probably isn’t surprised to hear of the aforementioned milestone and accomplishment given his track record of leadership, innovation, success, and contributions year after year since he started in the industry over 35 years ago.
Headquartered in Sacramento, California, Smile – one of Sharp’s top dedicated dealers – has grown over the past 20 years to include five branches that service 29 counties in northern California and six counties in Nevada. Given Reeves’ accomplishments, this certainly isn’t the first time his name has been included in our pages. However, after spending an afternoon into the evening with Reeves on June 29 in his Sacramento office, his story remains compelling.
Smile’s reception area at the company’s Sacramento, California, headquarters
Reeves’ Rise
Reeves graduated from University of California, Davis. Even though it’s obvious this industry thought-leader is intelligent and driven, he readily admits he didn’t have the highest GPA. Still, Reeves went on to become one of the university’s top post-graduate performers – selling copiers – within a few years of commencement. With his first successes under his belt, one of his professors even requested that he come back to the classroom to speak about sales. Reeves would walk into the lecture hall in a three-piece suit””as this was back in 1982 when virtually everyone in business dressed much more formally.
“I’d say, this is what you’re going to have to look like when you graduate,” Reeves said. Then, he would quip, “Get over it.”
According to Reeves, his shock-oriented tactic worked seamlessly and allow him to deftly move on to begin establishing a connection and identifying with the audience.
Smile’s showroom (angle 1)
“Five years ago, I walked around [this campus] with a ponytail and a full beard,” Reeves would tell the students. “I rode into school on my bike towing a surfboard; I totally get it. Then, I decided I needed to make money.”
At this point in the class, Reeves would have his captive audience.
“Not all of us are straight-A students, so I’m here to talk to you about sales,” Reeves would say as he wrote his own GPA on the chalkboard. “And don’t confuse sales with marketing. What I’m talking about is pounding the street and cold calling.”
This statement may have lost their attention and respect for a brief moment, but the next thing he’d write was his prior year salary, which put him far beyond even the top 1 percentile of nationwide household incomes back then.
Smile’s showroom (angle 2)
“I make more in a month than your parents make in a year,” Reeves recounted saying. “And I’ve been out of college for a year and half and I sell copy machines. I would like your attention for the next hour and a half.”
The students were all ears.
After his presentation, Reeves opened the discussion to questions, the most common being, well, I’m not interested in copiers.
“I’m not talking about copiers; I’m talking about sales,” Reeves had a habit of saying. “And the beautiful thing about sales is, regardless of what you’re passionate about – take medical equipment for example – the person who sells medical equipment makes more than the person who invented it and more than the doctor that uses it.”
3rd from left: Joe Reeves sits on a Sharp Dealer Council panel during Sharp’s relationships@work dealer meeting in December 2015.
Reeves didn’t open his lectures in this manner out of arrogance, but as a way to honestly and effectively engage the students and try to help those from his alma mater that were in the same position he was in just a short time prior.
Since his days as a guest speaker in the classroom, Reeves has encountered countless sales reps in the industry””some of whom work for Smile’s competitors””who were in the audience for one of his lectures and continue to be grateful for his presentation. After listening to him recount this experience, I know I certainly would be.
By the time Reeves reached his late 30s, he was the youngest of 18 Alco presidents who ran an operating group larger than ACopy (now more commonly known as IKON). His group generated $800 million in revenue, and Reeves was the most successful of all 18. Needless to say, several more tenured reps were reporting to him and this caused some friction. But, this was during the painful transition from analog to digital in the mid-90s. Regardless of any opinions of Reeves, many of those that worked for him, as well as leaders of other operating groups, recognized him as not only the youngest, but also the most progressive and asked for his input.
Smile carries Epson’s SureColor T52700 Dual Roll Edition Printer.
At the end of his first year, after which Reeves’ group won all the awards for being the most profitable, he knew Alco was going to divest itself from the Sharp line. Sharp was not about to authorize another dealer in Sacramento, given the company’s long and successful history with Les Olson Company at the time. However, four months later, Alco and Sharp went their separate way, and Reeves subsequently became the first (and youngest) president to resign from Alco and then compete with his former company.
Flash forward to 20 years later. Smile has reached the nearly $50 million revenue mark.
Innovation and Service with a Smile
Smile carries Muratec’s Precision Label Series.
Smile’s core business initially was – and still is – anchored by the sale and service of Sharp A3 MFPs. However, the company offers end-to-end business technology products and services from Dell, Docuware, Epson, HP, Lexmark, Fujitsu, Muratec, Panasonic and more that set Smile apart. The company’s core business both benefits from””and is augmented by – the continued evolution of its managed services offerings. This is indeed the case with several dealerships today. However, given a variety of sources aside from my discussion with Reeves – including our own Dealer Survey data – Smile is one of the top leaders in managed services in terms of revenue.
While Smile plans on leveraging services, in part, to continue growing its core business, the dealership is also positioning itself against sole managed-service providers and preparing itself for the future, as Smile proactively grows with its clients and vice-versa. As an example, Sharon Yoder of Yoder & Yoder Co., CPA, initially hired Smile in 2006 to convert hard copy files to electronic files. Today, Smile provides services and support for Yoder & Co.’s server, desktop computers, and software; phone and voice-mail system; and copier and driver issues. Smile also provides backup and recovery services for the firm.
Smile Networking Operating Center (NOC)
The significance of Smile’s IT and managed-services business was underscored by the substantial amount of time Reeves allocated for me to spend with Bob Lewis, Smile’s director of IT and Managed Services. In addition to spending time with him, both with and separately from Reeves during the day, Reeves only invited Lewis to join the two of us for dinner that evening.
As both Reeves and Lewis would attest, one of Smile’s key differentiation points is its Networking Operating Center (NOC), which Smile built on its own as opposed to simply partnering or acquiring.
“[When you build your own NOC], you and your customers know exactly who’s supporting their network and where they are located,” Reeves said.
Smile’s NOC encompasses Lewis’ support team of help-desk engineers who provide timely support for all levels of IT services. These include MFPs, computers, telephone systems, and more. The dealership’s NOC has the consistent ability to resolve inquiries from the majority of calls within 20 minutes and completes 25% of all service calls throughout the company.
Smile Mobile Showroom (Exterior)
One of the tools Reeves and Lewis shared with me was Smile’s video-chat capability the company and its customers leverage to trouble-shooting problems.
“On any desktop that we support, the Smile icon is in [the computer’s] toolbar,” Reeves said. “There is a touchscreen and it opens up a chat.”
This tool is just one of many innovative applications and ideas currently in use or in the ideation stage, which hints at Reeves’s creativity and commitment.
Reeves, along with Lewis and the rest of the Smile team, remains dedicated to exceeding customer expectations.
Although the NOC adds the first line of defense for client response, Smile’s’ highly trained field technicians provide a two-hour service response time for on-site visits, resulting in a 91% first-time call completion rate. According to Reeves, all Smile’s hardware-service technicians are factory-trained with an average industry tenure of 25 years, and most recently, the service department was presented with the Sharp Platform-Level Service Dealer Award.
Smile Mobile Showroom (Interior)
“I would never have guessed, even in 20 years ago, we could receive the trifecta of awards from Sharp: Hyakuman Kai Elite, Dealer Excellence Award, and Platinum Services Level Dealer Award,” Reeves said.
After spending time with Reeves, I can attest that he is passionate, direct, and fun. Reeves is also humble and thoughtful. He doesn’t seek attention, particularly from the press, as he never wants his enthusiasm and success to be mistaken for self-importance or egotism.
Without hesitation, I can say Reeves comes across as truly genuine. If you haven’t met Reeves or had the opportunity to get to know him, seek him out. Any of our readers – or any entrepreneur or businessperson, in general – can learn from him, just as I did.
