Today’s message is from the heart, focused on giving thanks both personally and professionally to all of you, our Area Contractors and the industry’s best sales professionals.
I not only thank you for the business you share with us every month, but just as important and most noticeable is the way we are working together. Our constant engagement opportunities are making a difference in driving our initiatives and strategies: vertical market leadership, marketing tribe partnership, Channel 1450 collaboration, product launches and training, one-on-one business planning meetings, and business development efforts…just to name a few.
The Spacesaver Group is resilient and, regardless of the challenge, always steps up and looks for opportunity within the storm. This year it is the rising cost of steel and other commodities. Never ideal, but a reality. Our price increase will not cover all our costs at Spacesaver this year due to timing and protection of orders, so we will be adjusting other spending in order to support you and our most important initiatives.
The proof of all our efforts is in the results: through first quarter we are ahead of sales and order plan and expect the second quarter to remain strong.
As many of you know, I have been personally battling COVID-19 pneumonia and its after-effects. The last 50+ days have proven to be the biggest challenge of my life. I can’t thank you all enough for the outpouring of support and prayers. It has made a huge impact on me and my recovery. I will never take you and all you do for granted. During this time, I have been totally engaged in the business daily and will continue to do so until my doctors give me the go-ahead to return to working from “The Fort.”
Mark Haubenschild | President/CEO
Spacesaver Scorecard
Spring is officially here: March Madness crowned its champ (congrats to everyone who had Baylor in their pool), baseball has started (even if a few opening day games were played in the snow), and the NFL draft is in a few weeks (it’s always football season!). And the Spacesaver Group continued the path to quota, closing out the first quarter by crushing our incoming order goals!
Southwest Solutions Group was at the top in March for incoming orders, booking over $1.34M (179% of quota), which now has them at 129% of their YTD quota. Patterson Pope was right behind, entering just over $1M in orders for their PARs in March, leading the team of 18 PARs over their monthly quota. The full group came in at 118% of monthly quota, driving us to nearly 90% YTD as a team. We now have 14 ACs over their YTD quota for incoming orders, and 4 more over 90%. This upward trend has us all looking forward to the summer heat!
For March shipments, we finished at 91.5% and our YTD rose slightly to 85.5%. With the increase in orders entered, we will continue our trajectory to getting over quota for the year. Patterson Pope ($1.45M) and McMurray Stern ($785,000) were our monthly leaders for shipments, with 13 PARs all exceeding their monthly quota. Through the first quarter, Systems & Space is growing their lead, currently sitting at 232% by shipping over $2M. We now have 10 PARs over their YTD quota…but if we keep entering orders like we did in March, our shipments will follow.
Thank you all for the commitment to success. You make the Spacesaver Group the BEST in the business!
The Team has FOCUS: Resilience
Re·sil·ience | noun | the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness
There isn’t a better word for our entire Spacesaver Group than RESILIENCE. This past year has been nothing short of difficult; tough on all of us for several different reasons. We continue to face a world-wide pandemic, our customers faced harsh financial impacts, many of us have been forced to work remotely, some of us faced health issues related to the pandemic, and more. As the one-year anniversary of our world shutting down passed a few weeks ago, our team at The Fort reflected on how we all pushed through. Turning the page to 2021, our year is off to a rock-solid start and it’s because of the resilience of the entire Spacesaver Group. Your hard work, dedication, and toughness that we can celebrate a very successful first quarter!
Vertical Market Updates
Agriculture
Did you miss our latest accessories announcement? We’re offering more products to easily help growers integrate accessories like lighting and plumbing with our GROW Mobile System. Check out our collection of new and updated sales tools, collateral, photo and video assets, and more.
As cannabis legalization expands, so does our outreach! We’ve invested in new prospecting tools that help us target growers in states that have recently legalized cannabis cultivation. Interest and use of cannabis continues to grow—and we all need to be ready to help meet the demand. Let us know if you need help getting ready to serve this market as legalization expands!
If you have questions of your own, Greg Sayre is here to help! Reach out if you’d like him to jump on a call, join a client meeting, or help you learn more about our products.
High Times in Canada
High fives to Rob McClelland at Spacesaver Solutions Inc., who recently closed on the first Spacesaver GROW sale in Canada! Rob credits promptness, attention to detail, and effective use of technology to land a fully remote sale during the pandemic. The client reached out via the web site about a year ago, and Rob worked with the customer over the next eight months, explaining options and fine-tuning the final system design via phone and video calls. Rob met virtually with the entire team for the new build, including the engineers supplying the drainage system, the electricians, and the HVAC contractor. The sale resulted in $26,600 (USD) Spacesaver net with the potential for three more phases in the future.
Military
Year to date we’ve passed along 2,000 military points of contact (yes, you read that right: 2,000 prospects) throughout the Spacesaver Group via the highly targeted BGOV prospecting tool. Have you followed up with the military contacts we’ve sent you in your territory? Whether you’re a newcomer to the military market or a seasoned sales rep, contact Pete to make a plan and leverage the tools we’ve invested in.
Increasing readiness, reducing footprint, and preventing property loss: these three goals are top of mind for military personnel, and our new deployment video that’s coming soon shows how we help out with all three. Did you miss the recent product launch for the Rapid Readiness Box that’s featured in the video? Watch the webinar recording and check out the sales tools.
Monthly Military Tribe Calls
Next call: April 29th (last Thursday of every month)
As always, contact Pete Rooney to learn more about purchasing options, your prospects’ roles, and all things military.
Creative Purchasing
Congrats to Scott Srodes at Spacesaver Intermountain, who tapped into a creative procurement solution to land a sale and get his clients exactly what they wanted. Scott designed custom FreeStyle lockers for Air Force pilots at Nellis Air Force base, and he wanted to avoid the project going out to bid. He asked Pete Rooney for advice, and Pete suggested that the client tap into a Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) partnership to sole-source the project. “It was so easy for me,” Scott said. “They handled the whole thing and I got the PO. Now the first question I ask my prospects is, ‘How will you procure this?’ And I ask to talk to their RA, or records administrator.” This project resulted in $35,000 Spacesaver net.
Library and Education
Higher education athletics are “rebounding,” and we’re not just talking about the recent March Madness tournament! With spring football happening now and a return to campus planned for the fall, campuses are buzzing with activity. Make appointments to get in front of your contacts and be sure to let us know if you’d like assistance.
We can help with storage off campus, too. Our new AIA presentation about our high-bay shelving solution shows how high-bay shelving helps libraries, police departments, and museums free up space in valuable real estate while keeping stored items safe, secure, and accessible. Watch the launch webinar recording or access the presentation directly.
Bi-Monthly Library & Education Market Calls
Next call: April 30th (last Friday of every month)
As always, you can contact Zak Hermans anytime with questions, comments, or insights.
Big Win in Overtime
Kudos to Andy Meadows and Robb Muley at Patterson Pope, who parlayed teamwork and perseverance into a major win! When a new training facility was announced at the University of Florida, the Patterson Pope team jumped at the chance to get in early. The football equipment manager knew from the start that he wanted Spacesaver, and Andy worked closely with him and the architects for three years to fine-tune drawings and plans. But then they hit a snag: the construction project was awarded to a contractor, and he put Andy’s drawings out to bid. Andy worked with Spacesaver to get aggressive pricing and recently won the project, resulting in $94,875 Spacesaver net.
Museum
Visible storage is a growing trend in museums, and we recently released a case study that shows how Spacesaver’s collections storage solutions are just as beautiful as they are functional. Be sure to check out the online version, which contains video demonstrations of the products moving, as well as the PDF printable version.
Monthly Museum Market Calls
Next call: May 18th (no call in April)
As always, contact Ben Adamitus for assistance with any questions or concerns.
Complete Solutions
Hats off to Brent Sheffield at McMurray Stern, who nursed along a project at California State University–Long Beach for more than a year. He was initially approached by a furniture dealer who had worked with McMurray Stern and Spacesaver on previous projects. The client needed nested lateral art racks and flat-file cabinets, and although they were sold on Spacesaver’s art racks, they needed some convincing on the cabinets. In the end, they were won over by Spacesaver’s size flexibility, quality, and ability to match the cabinets to the color of the art racks. This project resulted in $50,000 Spacesaver net.
Marketing Minute
With one quarter down we still have lots of opportunity left in the year for brand awareness and lead generation, and we have already invested in working with the top trade associations and publications that our key audiences turn to. In doing so, throughout the year, you are going to see Spacesaver in the following:
Watch for us in a plethora of print advertisements, e-newsletter spots, in-article web ads, run-of-site ads, and more! The Spacesaver Marketing Team continues to develop tools to put in your toolbelt and there’s no shortage of cool things to check out. Take a few moments to look at some of the materials we’ve posted related to our powered mobile systems, AIA-accredited presentations, and new product presentations.
