Alpine Communications – Going from good to great to sold

Alpine asked their Grow coach to stay on board and help them work more strategically, develop a strong team of A players, and become the No.1 IT infrastructure services provider.

In 2014, Jason Kozinsky was in the process of selling his company, Alpine, to EOH Industrial Technologies. Anyone who’s had to sell a business knows it is a somewhat complicated process. We’re going to reveal the radical journey that Jason went on to start, improve, and position Alpine towards success, and ultimately to sell it to EOH.

Jason started Alpine at the tender age of 27 in 2003 with his partner, Gary Tattersall. Having previously worked together as highly successful salespeople at an IT company, they wanted to run their own business and started Alpine to enjoy greater control over the delivery of the customer experience and service.

Run by the two men, Alpine initially offered IT infrastructure and electronic services solutions to a few clients who knew the pair’s track record and wanted more of the same excellence. Over the years, they increased their loyal customer base, grew the company to 27 employees, and brought in about R30 million a year. The company became one of the strongest competitors in the market when it came to IT infrastructure services.

“Success doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen on its own. It’s a journey that takes the right people. We know that ours has been successful because we relied on a partnership that constantly focused on what was best for our business in the moment and for the future.”

After a few years, Gary and Jason realised that as salespeople, they didn’t have the know-how to run a successfully expanding business. Explains Jason, “We were battling with certain aspects of the business, specifically with operations function (who would do the installations) and the management aspects of sales.”

After spotting an ad from Grow for a business coaching seminar, they made a point of attending and had an immediate sense that Grow was the answer. They needed guidance – and Grow could help them. They weren’t wrong and as they implemented efficient and strategic policies, procedures, and systems, they noticed an almost instant impact on the business’ performance.

More than that, they were freed up to think about the company’s vision and asked their Grow coach to stay on board and help them work more strategically, develop a strong team of A players, and become the No.1 IT infrastructure services provider in the market.

In the beginning, they kept it simple and defined their work systems and processes to improve their management of the business, by clearly defining their sales process and operational process by creating accountable steps for individual projects, and upgraded their accounting system to be able to better manage individual project profitability.

In short, they took hold of their business and then turned their attention to their team. Says Jason, “Here our coach helped us with a crucial missing link that we sorely needed to address, which was a quality team.” The three focused on hiring and developing quality people who could slot in well with their new business approach and do their part to add value and grow the business.

Things started went from alright to good to incredible, however, this didn’t mean that Jason and Gary could sit back. The two had started to realise that they wanted different things from the business and it was time to rely on their Grow coach to help them set a new course.

Having worked together tirelessly on the business for 8 years, Gary wanted to pull back, however Jason wanted to aggressively explore different opportunities for Alpine. Thankfully, by this stage, they had developed a strong relationship with their coach, whom they trusted to help them achieve what was best for them and Alpine.

Cue Jason purchasing Alpine from Gary and becoming the sole owner. Says Jason, “This was a sensitive process which Grow facilitated, ensuring an amicable parting of ways, for which I am appreciative because Gary has been instrumental in building Alpine and whose partnership I will forever be grateful.”

Grow’s support didn’t stop there. As an exceptional salesperson and unbelievable builder of relationships, Jason was good at what he did. But with Gary gone, he was operating on his own and had to get more involved in the business. Says Jason, “I needed help to understand the numbers and manage my team as the business continued to grow and relied heavily on my coach during this time.” Their hard work paid off and with the right support, he quickly became more adept at running the business and with improved systems, workflow, financial control, process flow, and a sound team, he was also free to increase sales, look after customers, and manage projects.