Connecting IT firms to clients

PAUL RUGGERI, president of Pro Source LLC, separates his company from other telemarketing firms in a number of ways, including 
limiting his workers’ phone time to ensure greater focus. /
PAUL RUGGERI, president of Pro Source LLC, separates his company from other telemarketing firms in a number of ways, including limiting his workers’ phone time to ensure greater focus. /

For more than 30 years, Paul Ruggeri set aside a teaching degree and focused on his math and analytical skills to land jobs at established corporate giants such as IBM Corp. and Wang Laboratories Inc. Now, he’s finally putting that degree to use, sort of, by educating his own staff.
Ruggeri is founder of Pro Source LLC, a Coventry-based virtual business he runs out of his home office. Staffed by 20 telemarketers, Pro Source connects its clients in the Information Technology sector with future customers.
Launched in 2002, the company has employees located throughout the nation. Each has a solid business background with no less than 10 years experience. That way, according to Ruggeri, callers are able to provide clients with a professional experience.
Ruggeri likes to hire employees who have their own entrepreneurial spirit. They use his client list, of which more than 95 percent are IT vendors selling hardware, software or services.
Pro Source is different than your average telemarketing business in that it provides business-to-business telemarketing for clients and does not target the average consumer.
Still, Ruggeri admits it takes five to seven calls to get through the gatekeepers of businesses to a company’s decision-makers.
Once a caller makes a connection, an executive briefing or conference call is scheduled.
“We have to be able to articulate value proposition and get them excited about why it’s beneficial to them,” Ruggeri said. “Once they understand the value then they drive the message back [to the appropriate person].”
Pro Source measures the effectiveness of its initial contacts and conference calls through end results.
For example, Pro Source set up more than 200 executive briefing calls over 18 months for Parlano, one of its clients. Parlano, which has since been acquired by Microsoft, attributed more than $2.7 million in sales to new clients to briefings set up by Pro Source.
There are several things that set Pro Source apart from its competitors, according to Ruggeri.
Pro Source limits telemarketers to 24 hours of calls per week to keep them focused and able to make a good first impression with every call.
Ruggeri also works with callers on scripts and uses his education in teaching to coach his callers.
“These differences translate to our being able to get more calls for clients, which ultimately leads to our clients closing business more often, and sooner rather than later.”
For clients, Pro Source offers 90-day agreements for specific telemarketing campaigns for seminars and other events.
A Massachusetts native, Ruggeri’s business career began with a job in Providence as a systems engineer for IBM in 1974. He ultimately worked in a variety of roles for the computer giant.
“IBM had proven to be a great first step in the business world, where I learned more in my first year with intense training than I did in four years of college,” Ruggeri said in a recent interview. “The professional values instilled at that time remain with me to this day.”
In order to move into management, however, Ruggeri would have had to relocate his family.
“We decided it was more important to not disrupt the upbringing of our son and it would be better to take a lateral move from the very secure IBM to computer competitor Wang Laboratories,” Ruggeri said. “Physically, the parking lots of these two competitors were adjacent, but the culture was like night and day.”
Ruggeri’s lateral move provided experience in sales and management, including working for the vice president of worldwide marketing, which allowed him to travel the world.
When Wang slowly began to shrink from 35,000 employees to 18,000, Ruggeri decided it was time to leave.
The next decade was spent working for three small market-research companies, Computer Intelligence, Into-Stat and Infonetics.
From 1995 to 2002, Ruggeri worked at his home office in Coventry for Infonetics, but when the telecommunications industry went bust at the turn of the millennium, Ruggeri’s time at Infonetics came to an end as the company began to reduce its workforce.
Things only became more challenging in Ruggeri’s personal life as his father died less than one month later.
“Nervous, but with the full encouragement and support from my family, I went into my own business,” he said. “I thought there was a need in the business world to have experienced telemarketers to call on businesses.”
The growth of his business proves he was right. And working from home has its perks, for him and his employees.
“I have enjoyed the independence, self sufficiency, and control over my own destiny,” said Ruggeri, who’s been married to his wife, Pat, for 35 years. •
company profile
PRO SOURCE LLC
Owner: Paul Ruggeri
Type of Business: Business-to-business telemarketing
Location: Coventry
Employees: 20
Year Established: 2002
Annual Revenue: WND

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