Kevin Simmons (Director of Sales – St. Louis), a 35-year industry veteran, has been a key member of the GFI Digital team for 15 years. After graduating with his sociology degree from Mizzou in 1986, Kevin started working in sales at Mirex, a copy machine company. His career journey continued in the copier industry at companies like Modern Business Systems and Ikon. In 2006, Kevin brought his expertise to GFI Digital. His knowledge and experience leads our flagship market—St. Louis—and some of our company’s top sales performers.
Kevin has been on the front lines for the evolution of office technology and has been assiduous in keeping himself and his employees knowledgeable as it changes. He says when he started his career in the copier industry, everything was analog and rasterized images. There weren’t local networks and local printers and the first color copier he sold printed at a rate of 5 pages a minute. “Printers can do everything now. The capabilities are incredible,” Kevin says. Focused on learning, Kevin promotes ongoing training for our sales professionals as part of an initiative to be the experts of our industry.
This type of leadership is a big part of GFI Digital’s success over the years. Kevin emphasizes that GFI Digital’s service is what sets it apart from other companies. Whether the service is coming from a technician, engineer, administrator, or sales professional, it is always top notch. He said, “Our salespeople maintain regular communication with their customers. Some [sales professionals] on my team talk to their customers nearly every day and have had a relationship with them for a long time.” “People buy from people,” [not companies,] is something you will often hear Kevin say when he is encouraging his teams. He thinks GFI Digital being a local private company is a great asset to our customers.
Kevin loves working with the employees here and mentions how personable they are. Sales professionals at GFI Digital lift each other up and cheer each other on. “Anytime someone gets a net new customer, we are so proud. New customers are so exciting!” Kevin says.
2022 will be Kevin’s first year of retirement! When asked what he will miss most about GFI Digital, he responded saying “the people.” Kevin has been a part of many employee gatherings and trips that have been extremely memorable. “We have lots of great people here with great tenure and experience. Many have worked here for a long time not only for the perks, but because they genuinely love their job,” Kevin adds.
Although we will miss having Kevin around the office every day, everyone at GFI Digital wishes him much happiness in this next chapter!
Today, a few employees in the St. Louis location surprised Kevin with balloons and cookie cake in his office in honor of his last day:
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