Date: Thur June 1 2000
To: moving@avatar-moving.com
From: "Archie C. White, III" <ArchieW@acwhite.com>
Subject: RE: AMS-Forum IT'S WAKE UP TIME!
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[ Return To The Hall of Fame ]The problem with the moving business is discounts. The problems with discounts is commissioned sales people.
The solution, put future sales people on a decent salary, car allowance. Give them guidelines of discounts and service features you want them to sell. Expect to book maybe 1 shipment out of 6-8 compared to 1 out of 3 you currently do. But when they book one, it will be profitable.
Commissioned sales people just have too much at stake to not book shipments, no matter what the discount. They don't book, they don't eat. If you limit the discount, they just play games with the weight on bound estimates, so that’s no help.
COD discounts is what has pulled national account discounts up too. The accounts see one time buyers getting better deals that they do for their loyalty and volume, and they are correctly unhappy.
Take a guy fresh from school, teach him the basics, show him how to put a knot in a necktie, and turn him loose with a clipboard. Pay him $600 a week and car allowance, and maybe, maybe some kind of performance bonus at year end and see what he does. Even if he don't book much, remember how many times you spend $600 a week doing overbound packing for free, or moving free weight, when commissioned salespeople cut it too close.
Or you can do what I used to do, wait until Ed Birch fires somebody and hire them immediately. Come on Ed, we need some new blood around here.
Archie White
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