Perfect Colours Profiles: Colin McDonagh - Sales manager stationary division for Perfect Office

Describe your typical day at Perfect Colours?

I tend to get in at 8:30 and grab a cup of coffee otherwise I can’t function! I then get my colleague who heads up customer service to look at what we’ve done from the day before and sort out what’s outstanding. After that we liaise with the warehouse, because most customers have specific requirements, so we’ll get in early to make sure they’re met and we’ll plan our day around that.

How does Perfect Colours enable you to carry out your job?

Many, to be fair. When you start they give you structure. We’ve got a really good accounts team and warehouse that we liaise with and the company’s really focussed on making sure our clients are number one. We’re put on a platform to do what we do best and retain business, so our managing directors do give us a lot of advice but they also back you when things go wrong. In any business things always go wrong from time to time, but our managers are very understanding and still give us that platform to perform.

What is one interesting thing about Perfect Colours that people on the outside wouldn’t know?

People believe that Perfect Colours is predominantly large-format print. What they don’t realise is that we do everything under one roof. It’s so important to our customers that they’re aware of this. For instance we do print, large-format, manage print service, stationary products and all of this is under one roof! We really are the one stop shop – its hassle free and we offer a complete solution. Sometimes people don’t know that unless we tell them, and and we definitely need to get the word out.

What would you want customers to know about Perfect Colours and what differentiates you guys from other resellers out there?

A lot of companies sell just stationary, just print, just large format, just recycling services, and we can save customers a lot of time by using one supplier. You can cut back on the amount of time that you have to order, cut back on invoicing – everything can be consolidated to one invoice and one easy website. That’s what sets us apart from other companies by miles.

How would you describe the team dynamics?

Everyone knows each other in the office well. We’re a medium sized business so we still have that family mentality – we have great banter with each other and it really works that everyone gets along.

Whose job would you borrow for the day and why?

I’d take the managing directors job; he gets paid more! Seriously, it’s his business and he gets to oversee everyone, but he also goes to visit a lot of clients. He has a very customer focussed role and I think that’s something I would really enjoy.

Do any particular memories stick out of when you’ve dealt with customer?

We dealt with a company in London Bridge they were using quite a lot of companies at the same time and they were paying so much money for different suppliers, it was ridiculous. We went in there, offered them a complete solution and implemented that by getting everything set up on their website favourite lists, so rather than using all the different companies they had one with a complete list of products to order from, that cut back their work massively. Almost half of their day was spent looking up products and prices, and when I went into see them after the quarterly period to see how things were going, the lady gave me a huge hug! We had saved her so much time and hassle – pricing wasn’t even a part of the conversation, it was just the fact that I’d saved her so much time and effort.