How does your acquisition and follow-up integration strategy work? How does Converge make dozens of companies work together?

In 2017, I went through the CRN Solution Provider 500 list. I went through all the companies between $75 and $200 million in sales. Because we all know each other and we all hang out at the vendor conferences, I ranked them by culture-first, then by customer, then geography, and then capabilities.

But culture is really the most important thing. Smaller companies have this younger and funner culture. Our values are integrity, number one—because if I shake your hand, I mean it. Number two is work hard and play hard. Your channel people understand that. More deals get done on a golf course or in a bar than they do in a boardroom. We spend so much time together that you better enjoy each other’s company. That’s our culture. And winnings our third value. We have fun and we hang out together. So we are personal people that understand our clients and our customers problems. They don’t talk about the problems in the boardroom.

Especially during the pandemic, we find a way to get it done. Some companies were dear in the headlights, but the nimble, the small, the local [survived]—and that’s what we want to do is: be large, but act local. We’re about getting that combination right.

We never change brand or comp plan the first year. We make sure the salespeople make more money. We make sure the customers know that they’re still being serviced the same way it was before.