Key To POS Sales Growth? More Yesses

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

This veteran POS dealer turned his business around by aligning with vendors that enabled him to stop saying “no” to customer requests.

No. Few words are simpler, and yet few more powerful. For 30-year veteran POS professional Patrick White, the word has also proven a catalyst for change. In fact, the two most pivotal points in his career were incited by reactions to the word, no.

Like most local POS salesman, White spent the 1980’s and early 1990’s working for a reputable dealer, selling battle-tested electronic cash registers to small retail and hospitality businesses. Small business was thriving then, and things were going fine. Then, along came touch screen, PC-based POS. Restaurants immediately liked it. The company he worked for didn’t. “In regards to the electronic cash register, my former employer maintained a ‘don’t fix what’s not broken’ philosophy,” explains White. “They refused to move the product to a touch platform.” Recognizing that touch was the future, White took a big risk. When his former company said no to a market opportunity, White decided to say yes. He left the company and in 2004, launched Data Tech POS, Inc. He was the sole employee and the President, and he would sell touch screen systems.