Sales Leads: What's the Point?

Our OCSs have to submit sales leads also. The problem is they sometimes just get a company name and address & turn the lead in and when?IF they are contacted the customer has no idea what's going on.
 

backinbrown

respect my authority
whats the point?

Well for me i feel if i turn in sales leads ive done my part to help keep us employed.

i might ask five customers if i talk to them and get knowhere ill make a note spent 5 min's talking to so and so. if they question my time i brake out my notes.

all we can do is turn them in UPS needs to step up and fix the problem on there end, but it think i should at least try to turn in leads it only benefiets us.jmho
 

Tiny Panda

Well-Known Member
I got 27 sales leads last year and got nothing from any of them, here in the UK we are 2-3 times more expensive than the domestic shipping companies but we just get told "UPS offer a premium service" people arent interested in that, they want a cheap reliable service, we can offer the reliability but not the price.
Now they're chasing leads again with hugely reduced rates to get the volume from the domestic carriers. Managed to get one open last week after having to chase the sales exec because he wasnt returning their calls. How are we supposed to do it if they cant do their own job?
 

jme2278

New Member
You have to be kidding me. BD is understaffed. Drivers should be concerned with their stops per hour and not what BD is doing.
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
A little off thread, but here goes. I am on a mostly residential route and don't get the chance to turn in many leads. Last week, one of my three pickup accounts called me in the morning and asked if I could take a 180 pound box. I tell her no, but she can go on Worldship and have UPS Freight get it. The customer does this before lunch, and gets a call from the driver asking for directions. When I got back to the Center that night, I turned it in as a Sales Lead. Turns out UPSF misses the pickup, the driver had five hours to get there after he called for directions. I guess this one won't get sold......
 

backinbrown

respect my authority
A little off thread, but here goes. I am on a mostly residential route and don't get the chance to turn in many leads. Last week, one of my three pickup accounts called me in the morning and asked if I could take a 180 pound box. I tell her no, but she can go on Worldship and have UPS Freight get it. The customer does this before lunch, and gets a call from the driver asking for directions. When I got back to the Center that night, I turned it in as a Sales Lead. Turns out UPSF misses the pickup, the driver had five hours to get there after he called for directions. I guess this one won't get sold......


now you follow up sell it say that is unheard of and we hope they will still consider us their nmb 1 shipping service
 

BrownSuit

Well-Known Member
suit, I believe EVERYONE should be out riding with drivers INCLUDING on road and center managers, looking for volume, sometimes a different person approaching the customer rather than the driver or rep can be a good thing. I think many on here are just frustrated with the overall attitude of some mgt regarding the leads. If it is such a tight economy, wouldnt a on car sup be better dedicated to riding in business areas checking on the competition than doing observations on drivers...right there it tells many that they really dont care. Its a TEAM effort and theres no excuse for it.

This is long and I'm getting on my soapbox, so please accept my apologies now . . .

"In Theory" part of the check rides with your OCS should be pointing out areas where you might pick up a sales lead or two or be able to talk to a customer. We all know that these ride alongs don't happen as often as they should and when you do see them, they are usually more concerned about measuring your route to calculate your SPORH and make sure that you are following the methods than revenue.

Revenue is something that the Center Manager is held accountable to and they are responsible for helping to grow the revenue as it is part of the center's balanced scorecard.

It is a TEAM effort and sadly sometimes part of the team fails the lead providers. I understand the attitude of many here and honestly don't blame you, I can only ask as a fellow UPSer and stockholder that you don't give up. Our competition isn't doing this, FedEx and the USPS don't have a sales lead program. DHL . . . well . . .

I've heard complaints from BD about some of the leads that are submitted, no contact information, no name, no comments, disconnected phone numbers, leads for other shipping companies (FedEx, DHL, USPS), leads for our own divisions, people submitting leads for entire strip malls at the same time, the list goes on. While these are valid concerns they should be dealt with on an individual basis and while the process as a whole should not be stereotyped, just as you all are stereotyping it as broken and a lack of follow through, sometimes BD does the same stereotyping the leads as garbage. No matter what the content, this should not change their outlook or excuse the lack of responsiveness that has been raised here to the leads. It is even more important though that the leads that are submitted are valid.

I do know that BD is being held to higher standards, but as stated earlier, it may be too little too late. I also know that there seems to be some miscommunication as to the importance of replacing people from BD when they quit/are promoted/fired. I've heard from one level that we should not only be replacing these people, but should be hiring more of them to avoid some of the contact concerns mentioned earlier. At other levels, I hear that there is no money in the budget or it's impossible to find people, the later of which I find hard to believe.

So the other thing that I would encourage is that if you are in operations and have a college degree, go through the MAPP process. If you don't have a college degree, I know it's hard with the workload, but look into letting UPS pay for it. I'm honestly sick and tired of hearing "there aren't enough qualified people"

So while there are problems that do need to be fixed, it is important to keep submitting the leads. It's not going to get fixed overnight, just as the over 9.5 dispatches aren't going to stop and the cutting of routes isn't going to stop overnight. But we also aren't going to come out of a recession overnight and it is important that when we do come out, it is as a stronger company.
 

PASinterference

Yes, I know I'm working late.
We have a hotline in our district to set up "hot" leads.You can call and talk to a rep and immediately get an account set up with a shipper number.Its the only way I have been able to get an acct set up with any success.It eliminates the middle man who couldn't care less if the acct gets set up.
 

backinbrown

respect my authority
We have a hotline in our district to set up "hot" leads.You can call and talk to a rep and immediately get an account set up with a shipper number.Its the only way I have been able to get an acct set up with any success.It eliminates the middle man who couldn't care less if the acct gets set up.

when do you call them on company time?
 

backinbrown

respect my authority
It is a TEAM effort and sadly sometimes part of the team fails the lead providers. I understand the attitude of many here and honestly don't blame you, I can only ask as a fellow UPSer and stockholder that you don't give up. Our competition isn't doing this, FedEx and the USPS don't have a sales lead program. DHL . . .





I agree 100%
 

705red

Browncafe Steward
Red,

The Set expected producing date would be the date that they expect to be able to mark the sales lead sold. It's not perfect, but . . .

It looks like they left a couple of messages for the customer, did you ask them if they had heard from anybody at UPS? Chances are there are messages on their answering machine asking for a call back. At that point they would likely be able to talk about setting them up to ship with us including rates, pickup times, equipment, etc.
Brown what i was saying is, i did the work. This lead was sold! A rep just had to go in and set them up.

If you look at the last date the customer was talked to it was 12/20/08 with a next schedule of 2/20/09? This is business from dhl, that is now using fed ex! And i had them sold, but once again someone else dropped the ball and as a driver im suppose to go out and turn in another lead to GROW the business?
 

upsdude

Well-Known Member
I've heard complaints from BD about some of the leads that are submitted, no contact information, no name, no comments, disconnected phone numbers, leads for other shipping companies (FedEx, DHL, USPS), leads for our own divisions, people submitting leads for entire strip malls at the same time, the list goes on.

Those are called "Get off my back" leads. Example, center manager says a driver might get a warning letter for not submitting a lead. Or, a driver gets his/her job back after a local meeting and is told they had also better be turning in sales leads.

It's OK though, the center met it's sales lead "numbers".
 
It is a TEAM effort and sadly sometimes part of the team fails the lead providers.

A TEAM effort is like a circle, any break in that circle creates a loss.

I've heard complaints from BD about some of the leads that are submitted, no contact information, no name, no comments, disconnected phone numbers, leads for other shipping companies (FedEx, DHL, USPS), leads for our own divisions, people submitting leads for entire strip malls at the same time, the list goes on. While these are valid concerns they should be dealt with on an individual basis and while the process as a whole should not be stereotyped, just as you all are stereotyping it as broken and a lack of follow through, sometimes BD does the same stereotyping the leads as garbage. No matter what the content, this should not change their outlook or excuse the lack of responsiveness that has been raised here to the leads. It is even more important though that the leads that are submitted are valid.

Do you really think drivers would submit bogus leads if the follow through was anywhere close to being as it should be? I really believe that if leads were contacted with a reliable phone call to set a meeting, in a timely manner with potential accounts, there would be more serious leads. Do you realize that when a driver convinces a customer that they need a pickup account and get permission to submit them as a lead, the lack of follow up makes the driver look like a fool? This creates a wall between the driver and the customer that is hard to climb over again and again. When a potential shipper has to wait weeks/months before the first contact the credibility of the driver suffers.

I do realize that most of the time an account rep has more to do than they can possibly get done, but that can't be blamed on the driver. IMHO, sales is one area where UPS should forget MARs and let the reps work a lead to it's fullest potential. I have a feeling that the trainning is very lacking for BD personnel.

So the other thing that I would encourage is that if you are in operations and have a college degree, go through the MAPP process. If you don't have a college degree, I know it's hard with the workload, but look into letting UPS pay for it. I'm honestly sick and tired of hearing "there aren't enough qualified people"

I have a degree, but you couldn't melt me and pour me into BD with UPS.
I have this feeling that there is a reason "there aren't enough qualified people" and it boils down to the structure of UPS's BD program. You just can't make sales by pushing people to make a decission to sign on the dotted line. You have to take them by the hand and gently guide them the way you want them to go.

There may have been a time that all one had to do to get a new customer to sign up was to simply suggest they say yes. Those days are gone forever and clinging to the old ways of BD just doesn't cut the mustard.

So while there are problems that do need to be fixed, it is important to keep submitting the leads. It's not going to get fixed overnight, just as the over 9.5 dispatches aren't going to stop and the cutting of routes isn't going to stop overnight. But we also aren't going to come out of a recession overnight and it is important that when we do come out, it is as a stronger company.
 

BrownBlue

New Jack
I submit leads all the time with no contact name. I figure the sales department gets the address and phone number, and unless we are hiring sales staff that can't use a phone, and neither drive nor walk, then that should be enough. Most of the time they are out of state leads scabbed off a competitors box. It is a little difficult to establish relations with shippers when you are a cover driver primarly covering rural routes, but I'll lay it out for the suits to play it out. Besides I've got enough overtime thanks.:wink2:
 

BrownBlue

New Jack
I'd gladly let them have all my overtime, if I was the one in IdiotEngineering that plans our days from their big fantasy island somewhere in the heavens.
 

stevetheupsguy

sʇǝʌǝʇɥǝndsƃnʎ
Spoke to our area sales rep today. Interesting conversation, in that they are really hitting the bottom, as far as sales is concerned. Did you know that if you submit a sales lead for your area, your rep may have to call another rep to handle it, because it might not be in the same territory? I didn't know this. Or if a customer wants to increase service, the rep that set them up has to handle the new business.

One of the things we covered in our conversation, was that we, as drivers, don't have all that much time to commit to sales. He agreed with this. I also suggested that they go out on the road with us, as has been suggested in this thread. I think that would be good for all parties. The driver could do his wonderful job, filled with great customer service, and the rep could use their sales instincts to drum up interesting leads.

Drivers don't necessarrily have those sales instincts, as they scurry about their days, trying to get done, and the salesperson may see opportunities we may not.
 
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