Rich Cicha is a Regional Sales Manager at Bell and Howell and has been with the company for 6 years. As such, we thought we’d take an opportunity to talk with him about what his time at Bell and Howell has been like and get some insights into things he’s experienced. Rich has been heavily involved in the production mail industry throughout his career and we hope you find the following conversation insightful.

Can you explain your primary focus as a Regional Sales Manager with Bell and Howell?

I handle roughly 75 accounts along the East Coast, helping customers acquire hardware, software, print mail, and packaging options from us. I’m a resource for them and do my best to assist them in determining which of our solutions can best suit their needs.

What do you enjoy most about working with your customers?

The variety of challenges I help my customers address keeps me on my feet! You may not think it’d be terribly complicated dealing with mail inserting solutions, but many times our customers come to us with particularly unique situations that force me and the team to think creatively. I’m certainly not doing the same thing all day long!

Is there a recent customer success story that you can tell us about?

One of our customers was looking at supply chain challenges making it difficult to source envelopes, as well as their labor situation. We were able to provide them with one of our high-speed Inveloper solutions that creates envelopes on-demand using a continuous plain-paper process. Not only were we able to solve a couple of problems for them, but the unique mailpiece design could allow them to take advantage of a few new applications.

To read more about this solution, click here.

What have you gained through working at Bell and Howell?

I’ve been in the mailing industry for probably 25 years – half of that in operations, half in sales. I was an end-user, I’ve outsourced work to a vendor, and then I become a vendor. I’ve been through all the iterations and have I’ve seen a good part of the industry. So, what I’ve gained is just the experience of knowing what’s behind the curtains. You look at products differently whether you’re a customer or a supplier, and knowing these things helps me understand our customer’s challenges better.

What do you enjoy about your job?

It’s what I mentioned earlier… you really are trying to fix problems. The fact that there’s constant change – dealing with diverse customers and communicating with people in different areas of the country all the time. Every day is different and that’s what I enjoy about the job!

Is there anything that customers should be looking forward to in Bell and Howell’s near future?

I think the fact that we now have increased access to packaging equipment can be useful for fulfillment folks and warehousing professionals. It’s not necessarily putting pieces of paper into envelopes but putting items into packages. I think that’s exciting.

Then our IQ software gives visibility to customers on the floor. It’s providing detailed insights and real-time data on their machine’s performance and employee data. We see this as being very beneficial for the industry.

What do you enjoy doing outside of the workday?

When I’m not working, I really enjoy doing some traveling. I have three daughters and like spending time with my family, as well as playing golf when the weather allows. It’s a limited season up here where I live outside Philadelphia, but I do like playing a little from time to time.

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