SALES & MARKETING: RICHARD LICATA – Page 3
We have 3 sales rookies heading into the busy season each having less than 1 year’s sales experience in the field. So I am sure there are going to be some bumps in the road as these salespeople gain practical experience and iron out any kinks. This transition all started in August of last year when Matt Schore decided to move closer to his family in Bourbonnais and get involved in his family’s business. Matt was with us for 9 years and has proven to be a highly skilled salesperson; ranked as high as 31st in the Allied system.
Matt was replaced by Anthony Licata who has been previously working in consumer sales as the Sales Administrator. Fortunately, Anthony did that job for 2 years gaining a lot of sales and estimating experience. This experience served him well as he has been doing a great job filling in the void left by Matt. Anthony is heading into the summer season already ranked 60th in the Allied System. Anthony, however, has not experienced a busy season in outside sales and is already feeling the pressure of the 12 hour work days.
After 28 years of loyal service, Jackie Pryszcz retired from Reebie in February of this year. Jackie was extremely versatile in her role, booking business over the phone, out of area moves, and in-home sales as well.
Jackie was replaced by Stephen Salemi. As you know, Stephen is the grandson of the late Dominic Salemi, whom our most prestigious award is named after. Stephen has had no prior moving experience but has a lot of sales experience in other industries. So he has been challenged to learn this business in a short period of time and just recently started selling in the field on May 1st.
If that wasn’t enough, we also had Thomas Chemasko who just recently retired on May 31st. Tom joined out team in 2012 after running his own agency, Blue Van in DeKalb, for 30 years.
Tom has been replaced by Andrew Matthews who we hired right out of college. So Andrew doesn’t have any selling experience. But what he does have is firsthand knowledge of our industry being a packer and mover during his summer breaks while attending college. Andrew is a very competitive hard working individual who played Lacrosse for Kevin Griffin at Marmion High School and then 4 years at the college level.
So needless to say, this will add an additional challenge to our busy season. I am confident the new sales team members have the training they need to get started on a solid foundation. But with any new personal, there is a learning curve they will need to work through, not to mention dealing with the unforeseen problems and issues that come up. So do your best to be patient if things aren’t done exactly how we like them and explain what they did wrong and how it impacts our business. We were all new at one time and we appreciated it when someone took the take the time to explain things when needed.