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.