It’s hard to believe we are already in the fourth quarter of 2020, the home stretch. I know many of us would like to forget 2020 for many obvious reasons, but the Spacesaver Group has again shown its resiliency and fight. We are blessed to be having a very solid year due to all your hard work and FOCUS. Thank you!
With that being said, we are in the final stages of planning and budgeting for 2021. Due to the uncertainty in many of our major vertical markets, specifically Library and Education, Public Safety, and Museums, we are forecasting a slight decline in our top line sales in 2021. However, we have a very solid strategic plan that will not only address 2021 but will lay the foundation for the future and our collective growth. I will share our key initiatives and plans with you next month.
I am also confident that you are seeing the positive changes we have made at Spacesaver to strengthen our collaboration and focus on our Area Contractor network. Let’s finish the year strong together, and as always, let us know how we can help.
Wishing all safety and health.
Mark Haubenschild | President/CEO
Spacesaver Scorecard
We are now officially in the fourth quarter and, as most great teams do, are set up for a fantastic finish. We closed out September on the upswing and still have a lot of good opportunities that we expect to win together. This is truly a testament to the Spacesaver Group and the FOCUS this team has on success.
For incoming orders, we had nine Area Contractors exceed their quota. While the team at Diversified Storage Solution entered nearly $1M ($963,107 to be exact) for 272% of quota, it was Systems and Space that set the bar in September, booking just under $1.5M (481% of quota). We now have 13 Area Contractors exceeding their YTD incoming order quota – an increase from 12 in August – and two more that are in striking distance.
We had an even better September for shipments, exceeding quota as a group (103.7%) and a season high of 15 Area Contractors over their monthly quota. Leading the way by shipping $1.7M (208% of quota) was Southwest Solutions Group followed by Donnegan Systems with just under $750K (191% of quota). Of the 15 Area Contractors over monthly quota, we had 4 finish above 300% – Spacesaver Specialists, Storage Solutions of Alberta, Storagelogic, Kanstor. We now sit around 90% of YTD quota as a Group, with 11 Area Contractors on pace and 3 more over 90% YTD. We are in the fourth quarter – time to seal the win!
And, that’s not even the last of the good news. Have you heard that we’re going into “extra innings” for the Triple Crown? We’re extending the challenge to the end of 2020, keeping all the same categories for you to win, but only for powered mobile systems. More details are coming soon, as well as an invitation to a webinar where we will announce a new powered mobile marketing and outreach campaign. Stay tuned for that!
“Go the extra mile – it’s never crowded.”
The Team has FOCUS
The inaugural From the Fort was distributed in April, where we announced our FOCUS rally cry and started a series of articles detailing our plans to keep Purpose, Teamwork, Customers, Collaboration, Innovation, and Excellence top of mind. We developed a roadmap to success for 2020, invested the time and resources to deliver on the plan, and have seen significant success across the board.
A few key accomplishments that have led to that success include: several new (or improved) Spacesaver product launches, increased engagement with our entire distribution network, vertical market leadership, go-to-market strategies, development of new sales tools, trainings and discussion forums, brand awareness with the AEC (architecture, engineering and construction) community, and so much more. Most importantly, we have remained flexible during the trying times of 2020 while maintaining our FOCUS at the end goal.
This past year has most definitely challenged us in ways we haven’t been challenged before. But, it has made us stronger, more resilient, and better prepared to plan for 2021. We are more FOCUSed than ever and are in the midst of preparing for the year to come—a year that will continue to be centered around those six themes that make the Spacesaver Group the best in the industry.
Vertical Market Updates
Library and Education
When things work like they’re supposed to, it’s easy to take them for granted. But we think the exceptional reliability of Spacesaver’s powered mobile systems should be celebrated! Our new campaign, The Power of Reliability, launches this month, so be on the lookout for new sales tools and exciting announcements designed to drive home the message of reliability in our powered mobile systems.
GIFT CARD REMINDER: We’re offering a $25 Amazon gift card to the first five sales reps who book and give our high-bay product presentation with our in-house expert Hannah Bare. It’s a win-win-win for you: Hannah will give the bulk of the presentation, while you get the leads and the gift card!
Shout-out to Karl Warner and the service technicians at Spacesaver Interiors, who were instrumental in a major sale to the United States Senate Library! Like many aging powered Spacesaver systems, the library’s system had been working reliably for decades, but electronic parts were no longer available to service it. Technicians proactively advised staff, who gained approval for the electronics update from the Architect of the Capitol. “The long-term relationship our service technicians developed with the customer was instrumental in securing this order,” Karl said.
Museum
The Viking Preservation Cabinet 920 Series is simply the best museum cabinet on the market, and we recently launched a new campaign centered on its versatility. Watch the webinar, view the collection of sales tools and materials, and share our recent posts on social media!
In alignment with this campaign, we’re investing in advertising partnerships with the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and the American Institute for Conservation (AIC). With a combined reach of over 63,000 museum professionals, these partnerships provide an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of the 920 Series.
As we drive more leads your way, we want to make sure you have all the tools and knowledge you need to assist potential clients. This month Ben is working with our Area Contractors to identify specific training and discussions relevant to your teams, which will in turn determine the topics for future webinars.
In the meantime, you can find up-to-date museum market resources on SpaceNET:
Would you like to share your thoughts or insights? Contact Ben Adamitus.
Complete Solutions for a Growing Museum
Congratulations to Ken Blundell at Donnegan Systems, who is helping the Bruce Museum dramatically expand storage capacity for its diverse and growing collections. Ken worked with the museum’s project planning team for the past four years on a major renovation and expansion project, and they designed three collections areas filled with a variety of Spacesaver’s museum products for art objects and natural history specimens. The sale resulted in $165,000 Spacesaver net.
Military
Building relationships with architects and designers is a great way to get on the inside track on military projects. The military presentation we launched last month makes it easy to reach out, and now we’re sweetening the pot! The first five Spacesaver reps who book and give the presentation will receive a $25 Amazon gift card upon submitting the attendance documentation. If you missed our initial announcement and webinar, you can watch the recording here. As always, contact Laura Parker with any questions related to the AEC (architecture, engineering, and design) community.
We’re also casting a wider net by partnering with the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) and the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) on new marketing and outreach initiatives. With a combined reach of over 320,000 people, these organizations will help us expand brand awareness with a focus on business development.
Want to learn more about selling into this market? Contact Pete Rooney for ideas!
Million-Dollar Military Sale
Shout-out to Ken Stone at Patterson Pope, who recently closed a million-dollar military project! Patterson Pope has been working with the top-secret client for decades, and Ken worked with designers to create detailed drawings for storing parachutes, weapons, medical supplies, tools, and a variety of other items throughout the facilities. The project went out to bid, but Ken got the win! He credits the $1,053,649 Spacesaver net sale to the client’s familiarity with Spacesaver and the detailed drawings he was able to provide. “It takes a team of people to win a project like this,” Ken said. “It’s a win for the joint Patterson Pope and Spacesaver team.”
Agriculture
Since the middle of April, we’ve been working with Cannabis Business Times, MJBizDaily, and National Cannabis Industry Association to grow our market outreach through advertising initiatives. The three publications combined have been driving an average of more than 300 new clicks a week with a continuous growth in brand awareness through our #GrowMoreWithUs campaign.
When those leads come your way, our Return on Investment calculator helps you estimate how quickly GROW systems can pay for themselves. You can find the calculator here on SpaceNET.
We also continue to refine processes with our partner, Hawthorne Gardening Co., to streamline lead-sharing and increase sales. A new (and easier) project registration process is coming soon!
Want to GROW your sales in this market? Greg Sayre is always here to help!
Leader of the Pack
Shout-out to Justin Story at Southwest Solutions Group for leading the Agriculture Market with incoming orders so far in 2020. Justin has shown exceptional willingness to dive into this new market, learn about his clients’ challenges and needs, and design creative solutions. To date, his efforts have resulted in $423,000 Spacesaver net. Congratulations!
Marketing Minute
Content is not King. It is the Kingdom! And, this content is here for your team to use, share, and distribute to your customers. Here is a snapshot of some of the content we’ve developed in recent months and it’s all on our Media Room via SpaceNET.
200+ email campaigns, resulting in 300,000 emails being sent.
80,000 visitors to our site to check out this new content.
Since March, we have more than doubled our Facebook following, implemented an IGTV channel and have had 19,000 video views on our YouTube channel.
20 paid social media campaigns, resulting in: more than 830,000 people reached, 1.3 million ad impressions, nearly 8,000 visits to our website.
A big thank you to those who submitted photos to our 2020 Photo Contest! We received over 1500 assets…WOW! Congratulations to our 5 randomly choosen winners who each will receive a $100 Amazon gift card: Karl Warner, Andrew Bethke, Curt Rogers, Robert Ferguson, and Craig Zirbel! We can’t wait to start using these assets in our campaigns, email, and social media efforts!
So, we have all this content, what matters now is what we do with it and that is why Marketing has invested in a new tool, ZoomInfo – the leading B2B customer contact database. As part of our go-to-market planning, we identified the need to grow our marketing databases and expand our options for implementing outbound business development campaigns. We also identified the need to identify and target the broader AEC community, further build and refresh our existing customer contacts, and attain more customer intelligence. ZoomInfo will help us do all of these things. Want to learn more? Contact Amanda Wollin.
Save the Date
Below are some dates to put on your calendars. We are also starting to compile our 2021 tradeshow calendar, knowing everyone involved has had to be flexible in these planning efforts. As we know more about in-person and virtual events, we will keep you posted here and will update our tradeshow calendar on SpaceNET .
