SALES & MARKETING: RICHARD LICATA – Page 3
March was an extremely busy month of projects and events at Reebie Storage & Moving. To kick off the month, on a record breaking coldest day ever in March for Chicago, we hosted the Allied CEO Forum. It was 3 days of intense meetings, interviews, and constructive feedback. Not to mention it was also 3 days of entertainment in the evenings to make sure our guests got their fill of the Chicago nightlife. The group made numerous recommendations on how we can improve as an agency. But as helpful as they were, I know they gained just as much in return. The bright start in all this is our warehouse. It is a prime example of how a warehouse should look like and how to do it right. Following those meetings, we immediately joined up with the Professional Sales Conference in downtown Chicago. This was also a jam packed couple of days; full of meetings, nighttime entertainment, and awards. The sales staff left those meeting fully charged from motivational speakers and sizing up the salespeople from around the nation. Tim Granata was also recognized as Allied’s Top producer for Allied Express shipments.
But March wasn’t just about meetings and entertainment. In preparation for the busy season, we crammed at lot of new programs and procedures that enable us to do business smarter, not harder. Among those is an app that automatically emails and then texts our customers to remind them of their upcoming appointment with their sales consultant. This minimizes the number of last minute cancellations and no shows that is unproductive to our sales team. Another items that we are just rolling out is our DocuSign program for Local moves. For years we been handling this business in a very lose manner, never getting anything formally signed and agreed to prior to the move. We were able to get away with that because of our superior service and not giving our customers any reason for a dispute. But business should not be conducted on trust alone. It should stem from trust, but also be verified. So we developed a new procedure at Reebie by having our customers sign off electronically on the services they agree to. Amongst those, they will be asked to verify the type of valuation they prefer and to authorization the charges to their credit card. This should help eliminate any confusion or misunderstanding between the salesperson and the customer during the sales process.
Finally, I would like to welcome our newest member of the Reebie Sales Team, Stephen Salemi. You might recognize his last name. He is the grandson of the late Dominic Salemi who, along with Sal, was indispensable to my father in building the company. That is why our most prestigious award, the Dominic Salemi Award, is named after him. Stephen is a highly motivated individual who brings much valued sales experience with him to assist us in growing our consumer business. Stephen will be replacing our dear friend and beloved employee Jackie Pryszcz. Jackie has retired after her 28 years of loyal service. I know we all miss Jackie and she will always be remembered fondly for her hard work, grace, and congeniality.