daily feature

Four years ago, Deborah Jo Royer, a salesperson for a Toshiba copier and fax dealer in Irvine, CA, made a cold call to Hilton Hotels management. Convinced that a Toshiba fax machine belonged in every Hilton hotel room in the world, Royer was determined to close that sale. So she kept calling.While that fax idea never materialized, another deal did.At 40 of Hilton's new Garden Inn hotels, business centers offer free use of office machines and document processing. Thanks to Deborah Jo Royer's persistence, Coast to Coast Business Equipment in Orange County, CA, made the sales of the Toshiba machines to 40 of the franchised Garden Inn developers. The Toshiba dealer nearest to the local Garden Inn handles installation, service and supplies."We just got orders for a slew of new Hilton Garden Inn hotels," says Royer, national

nt manager for Coast to Coast, "and we're anticipating that business from additional Hilton product lines will materialize for us over the next five years, and not just in this country, but wherever these hotels open in North America."Projections call for more than 200 Hilton Garden Inn hotels to open or be under development by the end of the year 2000. Based on positive reviews of the Toshiba machines in the Garden Inns, Hilton endorses Toshiba products to developers of the new extended-stay Hilton Residential Suites.The ball got rolling when Royer placed that first cold call four years ago. As Hilton developed the Garden Inn concept, the corporation reviewed several manufacturers before deciding to endorse the Toshiba 3560 copier and TF631 facsimile. The final decision to buy Toshiba lies with each developer.