Team, It’s hard to believe it’s already mid-February, we’ve celebrated Valentine’s Day, and survived Superbowl LVI. But the good news is that spring is right around the corner and we got to see all our Principals and Sales Managers at our Virtual Principals Meeting today. We have so much to share with you regarding our plans for 2022 and the investments we continue to make in our business and to support all our Area Contractors.
Most importantly, a huge congratulations to all 2020/2021 Challenge of Champions winners and Area Contractor Performance Achievers! We look forward to giving you your much deserved recognition. You are all truly the best of the best!
I look forward to seeing you all, and remember, life is short and unpredictable so give thanks every day, eat the cake, and take the time to do what you love to do.
Best, Mark Haubenschild | President/CEO
Spacesaver Scorecard
We are already halfway through the first quarter of 2022 and several Area Contractors are already making noise! Bradford Systems WI (477%), Midwest Storage Solutions (339%), Spacesaver Systems Maritime (227%), Spacesaver Specialists (214%), and Systems & Space (212%) are off to a great start, all exceeding 200% of their January incoming order goals. Bradford Systems entered over $1.3M in new orders and Patterson Pope submitted nearly $1.2M across all their PARs. As a Group, we are just under 83%, but with several major impact projects in the pipeline we are confident to make up the necessary ground as we head through 2022.
For shipments, the Group sits at 83% as well, with The Casper Corp leading the way with 235% of January quota shipped. Patterson Pope led the collective rankings, with nearly $1.5M invoiced. We had 11 PARs exceed their monthly shipment quota and with a strong backlog scheduled, we expect to continue to climb toward 100% each month.
Looking forward to another incredible year with the Spacesaver Group!
Reignite Renew Revision
Rally cry: a phrase or belief that encourages people to unite and to act in support of a particular mission or idea.
IGNITE: to give life or energy to something
NEW: made, introduced, discovered, or recently re-discovered
VISION: the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom
As we enter our 50th year in business (stay tuned for anniversary celebration plans coming soon!), there’s no better time to invest in INGNITING a NEW VISION. Spacesaver has been at the forefront of space optimization and storage solutions since 1972. Our focus now needs to be about how we continue to be the thought leaders and hold the #1 spot in the industry for the next 50 years. From paper storage to cannabis cultivation and beyond—we will have to be creative in meeting emerging needs of our customers. We will have to anticipate and adapt to our rapidly changing world.
How will the Spacesaver Group do this? Stay tuned for the details of our 2022 Strategic Initiatives that we will share via Principals Meeting on February 23, a town hall meeting recording from Mark, and individual department/team meetings with your Management Team.
Vertical Market Updates
Museum
Building Museums Symposium is coming up March 15-17 in Washington DC. This is a key show for us to reach the AEC community as well as connect with museum specialists to learn about all the different considerations when building a museum. This conference is hosted by Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (the eastern division of AAM). We will have a booth at the show and will bring back our lessons learned. Stay tuned!
Monthly Museum Market Calls
Next call: March 22 @ 10AM CST
Nantucket Drawers and Trays: A Place for Everything. As you know, we launched this versatile system that brings countless storage options to any market. It works seamlessly with all our accessories in our 4-Post shelving line…and as your customers’ needs change, you can easily mix, match, add, and rearrange. In case you haven’t checked it out, we have several sales tools and materials to help you promote Nantucket in all your markets. Do you have feedback about this product? What are you doing to promote it in your respective territory? We’d love to hear from you.
Agriculture
If you haven’t been watching the latest happenings in the cannabis market, you may have fallen a bit behind. More states are legalizing, more licenses are being issued, and the market continues to grow and evolve. To capitalize on this movement, we’re continuing to proactively push to this market. We are in the midst of a comprehensive outreach plan that includes (but is not limited to): email campaigns targeted at states coming into the industry, general email outreach, social media, blogs, channel outreach, and outbound Business Development campaign. Plus, we recently put the final touches on a GROW Mobile System walkthrough video and are hosting a live GROW Product Presentation Webinar on Tuesday, March 22. Interested in learning more about our continued efforts? Watch for an invite in April for a webinar to take a glimpse at the campaign and collaborate on how you might put them to use in your territory.
As the cannabis industry grows, you may be noticing an influx of regional tradeshows targeting cultivators and dispensaries. Clearly Spacesaver can’t make it to every show, but if you’re hoping to gain some exposure at one of these local events, let us know. We have GROW pull-up banners and materials we can share with you for your display.
Military
Navigating the rules and processes for purchasing equipment and goods in the military can get a bit overwhelming—even for the most seasoned personnel. To help make this process just a bit easier, we published a blog that summarizes four procurement options for customers to use when choosing Spacesaver. Check out this blog, share it on your social channels, and forward it along to your military contacts.
We know that the weeks, months, years go by far too quickly these days. So, we figured no better time than to remind you of all the information, sales tools, and marketing and outreach efforts we’ve created to help you promote and sell our Spacesaver Deployable Solutions. Whether it’s an email campaign, social media, advertising, sell sheets, lookbooks, or more—we have a full collection of materials. Have feedback on this product family or need help selling it in your market? Contact Pete Rooney today!
Monthly Military Market Calls
Next call: March 31 (last Thursday of every month)
News Flash: DOD approves $770 billion budget. Not only was the annual budget overwhelmingly passed by the House and Senate, but there continues to be signals that the Department of Defense is a priority area for spending in Fiscal Year 2022. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 was executed on December 27, 2021 and means customers have a good idea of what funding their unit will receive this year. Contrary to a Continuing Resolution, there is less buying hesitancy when a Defense bill has passed congressional legislation—barring any national emergencies that would lead to a shift in priorities (such as war).
(Virtual) High Fives
Congrats to Jane Glass from Patterson-Pope, whose innovative ideas paid off with a $493,000 Spacesaver NET opportunity at Hurlburt Field in the Florida panhandle! Jane was subcontracted by a general contractor in a new design-build facility needed by Air Force Special Operations Command. Jane leveraged her A&D and interior design relationships along with unique specification to secure the deal. While the TUSC application cannot be utilized on a government network computer, a Powered Eclipse System along with the TUSC application was exactly what the customer wanted for access and inventory control. Jane proposed a remote desktop, stand-alone computer application external to the DOD network as the perfect solution for the customer. Nice work providing the end user and your customer(s) with legendary customer service and expertise!
Library and Education
Tradeshows aren’t just about setting up a booth and collecting leads—it’s also about learning the latest trends within that industry, networking with peers, checking out the latest and greatest products and solutions out there, and so much more. At the turn of the year, the American Football Coaches Association opened their annual tradeshow to in-person and used it to celebrate 100 years of serving the industry. While we were there, we learned what coaches are talking about and how Spacesaver’s roster of solutions is ready for a win. To learn more, check out (and share) our recent blog about the show.
Monthly Education/Library Market Calls
Next call: April 29 @ 1PM CST
It’s that time of year again—time for folks throughout the educational world to plan for their summer projects. A time to take advantage of no (or fewer) students on the grounds so they can more easily work on facilities and projects. That means now is the time to reach out to those customers and get orders placed so they have what they need in time. Our marketing team is hard at work building new marketing content and outreach materials that will go live in the next few weeks—including an aggressive outbound Business Development blitz, emails, social media, advertising, and more.
K-12
The K-12 Education Market is the newest focus target audience for Spacesaver. Historically a segment under Library and Higher Education, we continued to see organic growth with the audience. In 2022, you will see a much more proactive approach from Spacesaver in targeting the audiences within K-12—including athletics, libraries and media centers, fine arts, buildings and facilities, and the AEC community that serves this market. The solutions we bring to this market include everything from high-density mobile, cantilever, 4-post, Nantucket, Day Use Lockers, to library carts and movable walls. The year has just begun, but we’re already working hard to execute on our 2022 go-to-market plans. Some initiatives you’ll see related to this market include Area Contractor collaboration, market research, how to make it easier to promote and sell library carts, content building (case studies, videos, blogs, and more), contracts promotion, outbound campaigns, summer planning campaign, and so much more. Stay on the lookout as these initiatives and deliverables come to life.
Success Story
Ryan Mawhinney, Bradford Systems, recently revisited with an existing customer and they bought another high-density mobile system. After completing a successful installation at Homestead Highschool last summer, the Athletic Director asked Ryan to design a second system for the coaches’ office, just in case they had leftover funding after the year ended. He designed a budget-friendly system…and the customer jumped at the chance to proceed with the project. Sourcewell, being an easy procurement tool, played a key role with this project as well. Nice work, Ryan!
Major Projects
The Major Projects team has had a busy start to the year, bidding on—AND WINNING—several large projects across all markets. The recent activity has included everything from large electrical updates in the Library and Education market, Public Safety bids in partnership with Southwest Solutions Group, and a handful of $5+ million-dollar high-bay projects! The project management side of the team has also been hard at work wrapping up installations and signing off with happy customers. The most recent success has been the Boston Public Library Rare Books Archival Shelving, led by Project Manager Jen Coates and installed by Donnegan Systems. Way to go team!
Noteworthy Retirement
After several years of service to Spacesaver and our Area Contractors, Joe Church has officially retired as our Quality and Field Service Manager. We thank Joe for his years of dedication and commitment to the Spacesaver Group. Effective immediately, Don Pupp has been promoted to Field Service Manager. Don is a proven performer and trainer for the group, and we wish him much success as he leads this team.
Marketing Minute
Momentum is what the entire Spacesaver team has been talking about lately. The foundation we’ve set is paying off and we’re seeing the results—including a record-setting year 2021 for Marketing, Business Development, and Channel teams. Below is an illustration of that success. Last year, we had 25% more new visitors to our website and our page views increased by nearly 20%. We executed 275 email campaigns, sending 1.2 million emails total. Our social media exposure garnered us more than 6 million brand impressions and we doubled our exposure on Google. We launched three new AIA-accredited continuing education courses, and delivered 112 presentations to more than 2,000 attendees. All this work has generated 22,000 marketing qualified leads—with 5,800 sales-ready opportunities sent to the Area Contractors and $16.7 million in sales influenced by our Business Development team.
THIS JUST IN! Kyle Kopplin joined Spacesaver as a Content Marketing Specialist on January 31 and in this role will be developing content for use in a variety of targeted media channels. He brings more than a decade of Marketing and Communications experience to the team, with a focus on project management and strategy. Kyle is looking forward to working with Spacesaver’s distribution network to help build the brand and awareness of Spacesaver and its trusted products. Be on the lookout for emails and calls from Kyle as we get back to case study development, project news, blogs, and more!
