Client education: TRI educates its customers while increasing revenue to over $1 million.

An educated consumer makes the best customer, should be TRI's credo. Since its inception in 1991, TRI (formerly known as ToneRecycle Inc.) has seen sales double on a yearly basis. According to Vice President of Finance Ron Armant, who co-founded the firm, it was all part of the company's initial business plan. The key to TRI's phenomenal success is service and high-quality products.

Armant, who worked as a financial analyst at Honeywell Corp., got the idea of launching the company, which sells recycled toner cartridges for laser printers, from reading an ad in a computer magazine. Introduced to fellow Honeywell employee Joseph Thomas, the two paired up with Tom Waddell and a silent partner, both of whom are white, to launch the company. Thomas is president and Waddell is vice president of operations. The business is 56% black-owned.

In 1994, TRI had sales of $600,000. The following year the numbers doubled to $1.2 million. By the end of this year, Armant estimates that sales will exceed $2.5 million. The partners set plans and sales goals, recognizing that they had a major challenge to meet: the recycled toner cartridge industry was new and corporate clients were few. "There was a lot of misconception about recycled toner cartridges not being as good as new toner cartridges," recalls Armant. To educate potential clients to the recycling advantage - that recycled toner cartridges can cut costs by nearly 50% and are safe for the environment - TRI hosted seminars for the sales staffs of various office supply clients.

To land corporate clients, the partners used several approaches. They networked, joined the Minority Development Council and made cold calls and pitches. Ultimately, it was the cold calls and pitches that got them to the bidding stage. "We literally worked our way up the pecking order," recalls Armant, a 1989 accounting graduate of Tuskegee University. 3M, a major multinational manufacturer of office supplies and household products, was TRI's first major client. Soon to follow were U.S. Office Products, Boise Cascade and most recently, Office Depot.

For General Office Products, a company under the U.S. Office Products umbrella, it was TRI's cost-savings capabilities and creative approach that won them over. Brad Knopf, General Office Product's purchasing manager, says one of TRI's strengths is that it "educated our sales staff on the advantages of recycled toner cartridges. Our sales force has some 20,000 products to keep track of, but TRI helps them to keep focused on their product through weekly updates. From the start they had our sales staff pumped up on their product."

This hands-on approach is part of TRI's customer education strategy. Branching out to offer a larger product line to expand its existing client base, TRI now offers computer and laser printer repairs and PCs and laptops.

"We look at our customers as being in a partnership with us," says Armant of TRI's business philosophy. "It is important that we meet, have lunch and frequently talk with them in order for us to know and understand their changing needs. It may sound simple, but we believe in doing the basics, and doing them well."