A new leadership team re-energizes this 26-year-old dealership.
Above: Precision Copy Products Clairton, Pennsylvania headquarters.
One year ago, a new and transformative chapter began at Precision Copy Products in Clairton, Pennsylvania. That’s when Mike Vaughn and Vinnie DeLeonibus joined Lynn Pickford to form the dealership’s executive leadership team. The company was initially acquired in 2001 by Pickford and her husband, Tom, who passed away in 2022, along with partner Julie Bubanovich. In 2023, Bubanovich began transitioning into retirement but remains an important part of Precision’s success.
Precision Copy Products’ executive team, Mike Vaughn, Lynn Pickford, and Vinnie DeLeonibus.
Career Paths
Pickford started as a receptionist in the copier business in 1986 out of high school. That’s where she met her husband. Although Pickford has never had a sales role, she brings unique talents to the dealership, where she serves as the company president. While working as an admin, she attended nursing school but didn’t have an opportunity to pursue that career. Instead, she applied the psychology training from those nursing studies to her career, working in and running a dealership. “It has come in handy,” acknowledged Pickford.
“She reads people better than anybody I’ve ever met,” observed Vaughn.
DeLeonibus and Vaughn previously worked together at the Wilson Group in Pittsburgh. In his three years as the VP of sales, Vaughn led a sales team of six reps to average over $12 million in annual revenue. DeLeonibus was with the firm for over 10 years, leading its education portfolio, which has grown to $25 million over the past seven years. Before that, both had distinguished careers in the office technology industry.
DeLeonibus and Vaughn have worked side by side for years.
For DeLeonibus, that included sales positions at another dealership and as a branch sales manager for Konica Minolta. Vaughn has spent much of his career in sales, including 20 years with ComDoc/Global Imaging Systems/Xerox. However, the pair’s relationship goes back to Washington & Jefferson College, where they played football together.
Product Lines
Precision Copy Products served as a Kyocera dealer until 2003 when it switched to Sharp. Since then, Sharp has been its only A3 line. The company also sells Brother A4. Pickford and her management team liked Sharp because of its developing product line and the training and support they received. “They’ve been great ever since,” said Pickford.
Precision Copy Products is highly valued by its A3 OEM, Sharp.
“Their dedication to the dealership model has helped us from a support standpoint,” added Vaughn. “We’ve gone through a lot of changes over the last year. Their support has been huge for our growth and a great reason to stick with them as a sole provider.”
The dealership also sells FP Mailing Solutions postage meters and ACDI Energy Solutions EV chargers and has a thriving certified pre-owned (CPO) equipment business. Sharp’s Fujifilm-made production print hardware is next on Precision Copy Products’ diversification agenda. “They’re jumping into the production world with their partnership with Fuji, and we couldn’t be more excited about it,” said Vaughn. “I have a background selling Xerox production products. It will be extremely exciting to see what they’re doing with the five-color press coming out in the next few weeks. Our ability to service, support, and sell it will be a great opportunity for us to grow the business.”
One area Precision Copy Products doesn’t have immediate plans to diversify is IT services. “You need people and a business model to support the customer correctly,” said Vaughn. “We’re focused on growing our business with what we know. We know traditional copiers, printers, and postage meters, which are equipment that we could fix. That’s our focus today. Will we get there someday? Who knows? You never say never, but as of right now, as everybody else is moving to IT, we want to stick to our lane.”
A Shared Vision
When asked how business has been in 2024, Pickford replied, “2024 has been awesome. We’re up about 276% in equipment sales. We’ve added new product lines and diversified, getting us into many new places. We couldn’t be happier.”
As DeLeonibus explained, Pickford’s vision for moving the dealership forward aligns nicely with what he and Vaughn have done in the past at their previous companies. DeLeonibus, for example, experienced success selling Sharp Aquos boards into the education market. Postage meters, another door opener, has led to MFP sales. DeLeonibus referenced one of Precision Copy Products veteran sales reps who recently called on a large municipality, inquiring about replacing their aging postage meters. That turned into $120,000 in MFP sales.
“Our business has been very successful and profitable selling into smaller accounts, such as smaller churches,” noted DeLeonibus. However, because of his and Vaughn’s background selling into larger accounts, Precision Copy Products will now pursue bigger ticket opportunities in education and even larger businesses. “We’ve utilized the technical expertise at Sharp as well as our personal experience and relationships to get into bigger opportunities. It’s been a collection of diversifying the product mix and our focus that has led to rapid growth,” said DeLeonibus.
Hiring & Retention
The team at Precision Copy Products works hard together but also takes time out from time to time to have fun together.
By any standard in the office technology industry, Precision Copy Products would be considered a small dealership with 20 employees, including six who joined the dealership in the past year. Historically, turnover has been minimal. “If I had to give a percentage, maybe 2% in the last 10 years,” estimated Pickford. “Most of our employees are long-term other than those we just added because of growth. We are very committed to our employees, and they’re committed to us.”
She described the culture at Precision Copy Products as family, flexible, and fun. “It’s important for us that everybody is in a good space, feels respected, and knows they can submit ideas,” said Pickford.
“As Mike and I began talking with Lynn and discussing her vision for Precision and how we fit into it, the number one non-negotiable in her mind, and Mike’s and mine, is that the culture of our business will not change,” said DeLeonibus. “There’s a culture of mutual respect among all employees. We address that if we feel that it’s potentially not following those lines. We support Lynn a hundred percent that the culture will never change.”
Halloween is another opportunity for employees of Precision Copy Products to kick back and have fun even when they are
taking care of business.
Vaughn noted that he and DeLeonibus feel most impressed by the exceptional quality of the people already at the company when they joined a year ago. “The employees are great, hardworking people dedicated to the organization,” he said. “They were excited about the prospect of something new.” That something new, which energized the sales team, included diversifying the company’s product offerings and setting new sales goals.
The Challenges
No matter the size of the dealership or the type of business, challenges always exist. “If there’s no challenges, you’re not growing,” said Pickford. “Our challenges are getting new personnel trained, navigating these new product lines, navigating the things we’ve never done before, and introducing them to our team. And, of course, the standard in the industry, the decrease in CPC charges.”
Ensuring that the company grows as efficiently and profitably as possible presents another challenge. For DeLeonibus, that means investing money in payroll and healthcare expenses, which are up. “We’ve made it a focus to tighten up every other aspect of our business, working with our manufacturer programs, leasing programs, and healthcare programs to ensure we’re running the most efficient business, so it’ll be sustainable and grow over the long term.”
The dealership also is asking employees to do a lot more than they were a year ago to keep pace with that growth. “It’s a constant thing to make sure that they feel that we appreciate what they’re doing for us every day because we know we’re asking them to do more,” said DeLeonibus.
Market Reach
Pittsburgh, like any municipal market, is a competitive one. Still, a small dealer with the right talent can compete effectively. “We’ve done a great job with the three of us and our team focusing on how we can put our best foot forward every day,” said Vaughn. “We know we’re going to compete with people we know. We know how they sell. But if we tell the story of Lynn, Vinnie, and I, how this business is growing, and what we do every day, we don’t have competition when we can talk to people.”
“Pittsburgh is a small town in a big city that gravitates towards locally owned businesses,” added DeLeonibus. “That story resonates when we talk about truly being a partner to a local organization that does good in the community. The story is compelling to everybody.”
Although most of its business is in the Pittsburgh area, the dealership recently hired someone with experience selling in the panhandle of West Virginia. “West Virginia is an interesting area for us because there’s a lot of business down that way,” said Vaughn. “If we can get ingrained in that community, it could be interesting.”
“We have talked as a team that we would look at the right time to expand,” added DeLeonibus, underscoring Vaughn’s comments about moving into West Virginia and eastern Pennsylvania. “Now, again, all in due time and what makes sense, but right now, we need to focus more on downtown Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas throughout Allegheny and the surrounding counties,” said DeLeonibus.
What’s Next for Precision Copy Products?
“There’s so much that’s next for Precision Copy Products—continued growth, continued employee investment,” said Pickford. “We are going on our first President’s Club trip in 2025. We’re looking forward to the future and growing with Sharp and growing our team.”
“We want to get to the top of the list,” added DeLeonibus about being one of Pittsburgh’s best workplaces. “We were just rated number sixth best place to work in Pittsburgh by the Pittsburgh Business Times. We strive daily to get to that number one spot. We want to continue moving forward, doing everything Lynn said, but continue to be recognized by our employees as a great workplace.”
“The sky’s the limit for this group,” concluded Vaughn. “Every day, I look forward to coming into work, continuing to grow and diversify, and having a lot of fun doing it.”
