Team, This is a follow up to my “Spacesaver Recovery Efforts” update sent to all Area Contractor Principals and Sales Managers on July 27, 2021.
We are making positive progress to our plan and are on track to recover on-time delivery to budget levels and lead time reduction to goals by mid-October. In fact, we have already reduced lead times on mobile and shelving to 14 weeks and storage to 17 weeks. You can anticipate another reduction in the very near future.
Thank you to those who were able to partner with us to move orders scheduled to ship in August and September out to later in the fourth quarter. This has really helped our Operations Team on our recovery efforts.
One area of improvement we are working on is timely communication to you of orders not shipping on the day scheduled. The first phase of this improvement plan is to notify you earlier in the day if there is a delay to a scheduled shipment. Our target for notification is shortly after noon CT each business day. The second phase of this will be to provide you with 1-3 business day notification, which will be implemented by the end of September at the very latest. Also, we are upgrading our ERP system by the end of 2022; at this time, we will explore even more improvements to our notification system.
I have set the expectations with our internal teams; they understand the implications timely communication has on our Area Contractor’s ability to properly manage their installations and customer expectations.
Finally, we are almost finished with our Strategic Planning process for 2022. One of the most important initiatives is our three-year plan to improve operations through investments in capital to automate as much as possible to reduce dependency on labor, and to improve quality, lead-times, and capacity.
I will be sharing elements of our 2022 Strategic Plan with you in each of the remaining months of 2021.
Thank you for being great partners, I am very excited for our future!
Please stay safe, Mark Haubenschild | President/CEO
Congratulations to our Area Contractor teams that have a Spacesaver Group anniversary in July & August!
Storage Solutions of Alberta (24 years)
Modern Office Systems (38 years)
Spacesaver Scorecard
It’s hard to believe we are already in the back half of the year; summer is winding down and school is about to start up…and that means it’s football season! The excitement of training camp and all the hope that surrounds each team, whether it is NFL or NCAA, everyone is currently tied for first place and home field advantage throughout the playoffs! Yes, I am overly optimistic about the potential for my team, but aren’t we all?
Speaking of excitement, have you seen what the Spacesaver Group has been doing in 2021? After a record-setting June for incoming orders, they maintained the momentum in July, pushing the total to 111% of YTD quota. We now have 22 PARs exceeding their YTD incoming order quota and with a $900K+ July, Henderson-Johnson pushed their annual total to nearly 250% of quota! Patterson Pope leads the way with over $11M booked in 2021 and both Southwest Solutions Group ($5.7M) and Bradford Systems ($5.3M) are over $5M each. We have 6 PARs at/over 150% YTD incoming order quota–simply AMAZING!
Shipments are slowly catching up. Our total is now over 90% YTD, with 12 PARs over 116% YTD quota for shipments. The current backlog with estimated ship dates will put us over quota for the year, as long as we meet some very attainable minimum order months moving forward.
It has been an unbelievable year for so many reasons, but the Spacesaver Group’s dedication, commitment, and resilience is the catalyst for our success. Thank you all for the remarkable year. Let’s finish the race!
The Team has FOCUS: SUPERIORITY
To be superior is to be better than the rest—higher in rank, the leader, unrivaled, exceptional. It’s easy to self-proclaim superiority, but what about when someone else verifies that? That’s exactly what Spacesaver has done! In a recent brand equity project, using a third-party research firm, we have substantiated that Spacesaver is indeed the market leader and the most recognized brand in our industry. Through blind surveys and panel discussions, we garnered a lot of great information—both what to be proud of and where we need to do some more homework. What does this mean for Spacesaver Group? It’s the official kick off to our Spacesaver Branding Project—and the beginning of putting more structure around how we protect the Spacesaver brand, grow our brand equity, and take ahold of more market share. Stay tuned as the project gains momentum and reach out to Amanda Wollin if you’re interested in getting in on the fun.
Vertical Market Updates
Agriculture
It’s been a record summer for GROW sales! We’re excited to see our efforts bearing fruit (or buds, as the case may be). There’s no shortage of activity on our end to help you land those deals, and we’re expanding our product line! We recently launched our new GROW Drying System, which saves time and preserves plant quality during the post-harvest drying process. Watch the launch webinar and share the new sales tools, including the teaser video!
We’re also continuing to call and send targeted emails into newly legalized states. Actual implementation might be a year or two out in some of these states, but we’re getting in touch early to build trust and name recognition with potential clients.
As always, you can feel free to contact Greg Sayre for insights and advice in this market.
GROWing Relationships
Congrats to Glen Kalley at Patterson Pope, who parlayed a Spacesaver website lead into a half-million-dollar sale and the potential for much more! Over the past year, Glen has built a relationship with a cannabis consultant who visited our website and was nurtured by our Business Development team. Glen gave the consultant the information he needed to convince a client to order Spacesaver rails and carriages in two locations (the customer will supply a unique racking system for growing in soil, so they don’t need racking). The client ordered around 200 37’ carriages and rail for a total of $593,000 Spacesaver net for this location, and they expect to build more locations soon.
Military
In-person events are back! The recent Warrior West in San Diego and Warrior East in Virginia Beach were our first in-person shows in over a year and our partners at ADS pulled out all the stops! We hosted a happy hour event at our ballpark suite in San Diego, and we enjoyed a large, more traditional layout in Virginia Beach. Our featured products included an ActivRAC mobile system, tactical readiness lockers, and our new shipboard Universal Weapons Rack. The timing was perfect as year-end deadlines approach, and we had a lot of quality conversations.
Speaking of fiscal year-end, our Military year-end campaign is going full steam ahead with new content, targeted social media ads, traditional advertising, emails, and calls and other Business Development outbound efforts going in to the top 10 bases and the Army National Guard. We also encourage you to share our fiscal year-end Info Sheet and our blog post, which focuses on Spacesaver’s deployment solutions. Your prospects have money and they must spend it soon, so get on base and find it!
Monthly Military Market Calls
Next call: Thursday, August 26 at 1:30pm CST (last Thursday of every month)
How can we help you get in on year-end spending? Contact Pete Rooney to strategize.
Networking for the Win
Kudos to Ken Stone at Patterson Pope, who got in early and sold 800 lockers to Camp Johnson at Camp Lejeune! About two years ago he sent drawings and specs to an architect during the earliest design phases of a new Bachelors’ Enlisted Quarters facility. The architect included the drawings and specs in the FF&E package, and Ken kept in close touch with furniture dealers who bid on the package throughout the process. Ken’s close attention to detail resulted in a sale totaling $677,365 Spacesaver net.
Library and Education
It’s August, and that means back to school! In hopes of encouraging safer in-person learning, the American Rescue Plan provides funding for schools, universities, and other institutions to create more space for social distancing, storing PPE, purchasing and storing new learning devices, and more. That means every educational institution in your territory, from the smallest elementary schools to the largest campuses, have money to spend on storage! And don’t forget that ARP funding is also available to businesses, museums, and other institutions! Share our blog post and watch for an invite coming soon for a webinar in a few weeks.
We can help schools and universities in other ways, too: Spacesaver is the “Cadillac” of athletic equipment storage, and we continue to build on our reputation. We presented to 300 people at the annual Athletic Equipment Managers Association’s AEMA virtual event in June! We highlighted our mobile products, Day Use Lockers, and athletic installations, and of course we emphasized our industry-leading reputation.
Bi-monthly Library & Education Market Calls
Next call: August 27th (last Friday of every month)
Although we’re tried and true in athletics, the K-12 submarket is a newer target. Our efforts are already paying off: we had an all-time record month with over $750,000 in K-12 incoming orders in June. Watch for our 2022 Go to Market plans to see how we’ll target this audience in the coming year.
As always, you can contact Zak Hermans anytime with questions, comments, or insights.
Specifying Success
Congratulations to Cheryl Stacey at Donnegan Systems, who used her networking savvy to convince an architect to specify Spacesaver powered mobile systems. Here’s how she did it: in addition to developing a design layout for the architect, she also provided him with a document listing minimum performance requirements to ensure the customer would get exactly what they were expecting. The document emphasized that all parts provided must be Spacesaver branded parts as certified by the manufacturer to retain the UL System listing. When the general contractor’s bid package was released, her minimum performance documents were included, and she landed the sale worth $206,730 Spacesaver net.
Museum
We’re excited to announce that the new Nantucket Drawers and Trays have been added to our Sourcewell contracts! Viking 920 Series Cabinets and Flat File Cabinets are also on Sourcewell, offering a legal way to help your clients bypass the cumbersome procurement process and get competitive pricing on our high-quality products. Check out our Good – Better – Best comparison and other Nantucket sales tools!
Monthly Museum Market Calls
Next call: August 17 (third Tuesday of every month)
For those of you who are new to the Museum market or who need help with the basics, remember that our Museum Solutions video series offers timely training on topics like museum cabinets, Nantucket, and art racks. Check out the full series here!
As always, contact Ben Adamitus for insights into the museum market.
Contracts for the Win
Shoutout to Kristi Schneider at Bradford Systems, who leveraged the Omnia Partners contract, professional relationships, and Spacesaver’s excellent reputation to close a large sale at Indiana University. The new museum’s faculty and staff wanted to go with Spacesaver, but pricing was a major concern for the university’s procurement office. Kristi was able to demonstrate that purchasing off the Omnia Partners contract would enable them to get the products they wanted at competitive rates, all while bypassing the time-consuming bid process. The sale resulted in around $500,000 Spacesaver net.
Marketing Minute
SpaceNET has always been your one-stop-shop for all things Spacesaver—but we’ve completely revamped the system to make it easier and faster for you to use. Thank you to everyone that attended our rollout webinar and congratulations to our Fireworks Game winners: Ty Ohl, Kendra Breeden, Mike Hisman, JJ Theys, and Ron Gromala. If you haven’t already bookmarked the new and improved SpaceNET, do it today!
You asked, we’ve delivered! Over the last year we have heard from several of you a need for a new and improved healthcare-focused AIA-accredited presentation. We’re excited to share that we are rolling out this new asset the first week of September! Please be on the lookout for a webinar invitation and join us for a first look at this awesome presentation.
Did you know that our Dodge lead generation tool gives us visibility to thousands of projects that Spacesaver could be a perfect fit for? Did you also know that our Business Development Team regularly shares bid opportunities with you and has given you access to the tool so you can more easily and quickly find all that information? Check out our training video to learn how to navigate the tool and uncover sales opportunities for your team!
Save the Date
August 2021
August 17
Conference Call
Museum Market Call
August 26
Conference Call
Military Market Call
August 27
Conference Call
Education/Library Market Call
September 2021
September 2
Zoom Webinar
Introduction to our New Healthcare AIA HSW/CEU Course
