Q: How did you begin working at Alpine Packaging?
Scott: I was born and raised here in Pennsylvania. So I’m very familiar with the area being that Alpine is located here in North Versailles, just outside Pittsburgh. I live about 25 minutes from here.
I’m married with a daughter. I graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a degree in marketing, which led me to sales. I have worked for about 17 years with different manufacturers of various products, mainly in sales, sometimes in marketing, but mostly in sales. But it was the 5 years of experience in pressure-sensitive labels and printed packaging that led me to my start with Alpine about a year ago now.
Q: What does your day-to-day role as an inside sales representative look like?
Scott: I wanted to get back into labels and printed packaging. I had been out of it for a year or two. And Alpine had a position open in sales, and I knew after my first interview that it was a perfect opportunity for me. I might be entering orders sometimes. I might be supporting existing customers on any given day. We wear a lot of different hats around here. But primarily, my day-to-day, I work to reach out to new prospects, that have label and packaging business to see if Alpine would be a good fit as a supplier.
You know, perhaps what I enjoy the most is traveling. You know, I really do enjoy traveling to see new prospects and customers in person and help them bring their products to market. Nothing’s quite like face-to-face interaction in meetings with customers and prospects.
Q: How would you describe the culture at Alpine, especially as a family-owned business?
Scott: The culture is one of those things that drew me to Alpine. I knew right away those first couple interviews when I came in person, and I talked to Jan and I talked to Chad and Chase and everybody. I’ve worked for large companies. I’ve worked for family-owned companies before, and I’ve always been drawn to smaller businesses and family-owned companies. Alpine has a culture of communication, helpfulness, you know, just generally doing the right thing for both the people internally here and for our customers.
Q: What’s one aspect of working here that makes it feel different from a large corporation?
Scott: I enjoy the camaraderie with my office mates when I’m here. Everybody feels like family here. First thing that popped in my mind was the open-door policy here. I can see the owner’s office from where I sit. So if I have an issue or one of my customers has an issue, I can bring it right to our ownership or other members of management for that matter, pretty quickly.
Less emails, less phone calls, more conversations in person about how we can help our customers. In my experience, that’s not always the case with the larger corporations I’ve worked for. It’s definitely the biggest difference.
Q: How do you approach building relationships with customers?
Scott: I try to listen and connect with them and listen to what they they’re telling me other needs and what the issues are sometimes is related to their labels and packaging and try to assess if Alpine’s capabilities would be a good solution for those needs and issues. So one of the things that I’ve found connects me most with customers seems to be when I can solve one of those issues.
Whether it’s a lead time issue with their current supplier or it’s a quality issue with their current supplier, production issues with the labels they’re getting from their current supplier, or even pricing. You know? Nothing brings me together more with my customers than finding solutions for them. I always try to just listen and then be the solution to their problems. I think that they typically find that they are a priority for us.
Q: What do you find customers appreciate most about working with a family-owned company?
Scott: They’re not just another customer. Regardless of the size, whether we’re printing thousands of labels for them or millions of labels for them. You know, I think customers find out that the customer service we provide, whether that’s from me, who is the face of the company when I’m talking to a customer or it’s management or whether it’s production, whether it’s shipping, they’re a priority for everybody. And that’s, again, not always the case with larger companies.
Q: How does Alpine support your growth and learning in your role?
Scott: They’ve always been very supportive. I sat with Jan, the owner of the company here for what felt like months when I first started here, was doing some thorough training in learning about their processes here. I came in with a little bit of knowledge of pressure sensitive label, like I said, about 4 or 5 years. I knew a lot about flexiographic printing. I knew a lot about digital printing of labels and packaging in general.
I didn’t need as much training on that as I needed to learn about the processes here and understand the expectations and the expectations of our customers as well. I think they’ve been very supportive in in helping me grow in this role here over the 1st year, including that training and then being consistent with helping me understand our capabilities and how they can help our customers. The general gaining of the knowledge because it’s very important in this industry, in the pressure sensor label industry, in packaging in general, that the sales reps and the people out talking to customers are knowledgeable. They’ve really helped me build that knowledge base.
Q: Can you share an example of a time when you felt particularly supported by the Alpine team or management?
Scott: I think of one of those first trips that I made to go see customers and prospects. That first trip involved going to see a large brewery here in the Pittsburgh area. And I had some knowledge of breweries and what their requirements were for labels on cans and things of that nature. But I knew that one of our owners, Chad, who’s also the sales manager here, he has a lot of brewery accounts, especially in this Pittsburgh area. He would have a good insight and knowledge of what they need, but also, he would have a lot of insight and knowledge on our capabilities and how that translates to the brewery industry here, especially locally in Pittsburgh.
I asked him to come along with me, and he didn’t hesitate, and he offered us his support. And we went on that trip together, and he was very helpful in those meetings. Not just the brewery meeting, but all the couple other meetings we went to that on that sales trip. That’s just one example, and that’s continued out throughout my time here at, Alpine. They’ve been very supportive.
Q: What’s one of your favorite moments or experiences working here?
Scott: One of the first things I think of that was a great experience immediately was I had only worked here about a week. I started last November, and they invited me to their company Christmas party, which they didn’t have to do. I was new. But Jan was nice enough to do that and invite me to the party. It was great opportunity to bond with my new coworkers and have some fun, because it can be awkward for a new person integrating themselves into the social fabric of a company when you’re new. But, it was a great icebreaker going to the party. I appreciated that, considering I was only here a week.
Tubby. Tubby is our unofficial alpine mascot. He is the owner’s dog, and it’s fun having him in the office every day. He brings a lot of fun and joy to the office. So that’s a fun moment or experience here.
Q: Why would someone want to work at Alpine?
Scott: If someone wants to work for a family-owned company, all those advantages that I already talked about, for working for a smaller family-owned company. If you want to work at a family-owned company where they’re going to value your contribution, which is I always feel valued here.
You want to feel like part of a team that’s closely knit, and you want to work for a company that’s producing a quality product for their customers, it’s a great place to work. It’s really been a good experience through the 1st year here.
Q: If someone were considering buying from Alpine or joining your team, what would you want them to know?
Scott: There’s a lot of things we do well. We’re very fast. We have good lead times, so we can help our customers bring their products to market pretty quickly. We have a lot of different capabilities and flexibilities to support label orders whether it be thousands of labels or millions of labels. We have unique label finishes and capabilities. We have graphic design support for our customers, which is pretty unique in the industry. We have 52 plus years as industry experts, but I think the biggest thing that I try to convey to customers, and this probably would apply to anyone that wants to work here as well, would be that at Alpine we care about our people here internally.
We care about our customers. We care about the products we produce for our customers. Every customer here is a priority customer. They’re not just a number. So that’s what I would tell anybody that wants to be an Alpine customer.
Q: What makes working at Alpine special to you?
Scott: I think it’s important to have fun with people you work with. Sometimes it makes it makes things easier, and it makes the work worth it. That’s one thing I would say that Alpine is we have some, fun people here. We like to work hard, but we also like to play hard.
