A sales lead is as good as a .........

[wisedragonfly]

I turned in a lead 2 weeks ago. The owner of the company gave me the business card of the person in charge of shipping. I stapled the business card to the sales lead. I checked the status online yesterday. Lead Closed. Could not contact customer.

Give the lead information to the sales rep and have them follow up. Inside Sales tries 3 times to make customer contact, just like a delivery attempt. After leaving 3 messages, the lead is closed. There could be other issues causing the lead to be closed as "unable to contact", as well.

 

[wisedragonfly]

A lot more people with Brownmonstors story than Upstate's. Upstate, you got the good sales people, the rest of us got the rest of them. Too bad. UPS should have some kind of followip with the UPSer who submitted the lead to see what is or can be resolved. I want to "grow the business", believe me I do, but they make it a lot harder than it should be.

I understand your concerns, helenofcalifornia. Did you know that your leads are posted on the upsers.com web site?

In my region we have mandated Take Charge Committee's. Drivers can get involved with Take Charge and perhaps get some of their issues resolved. I'm always more than willing to help my drivers out, whenever I can. Leads can be reopened and sold, if after a follow-up it is warranted.

 

[hurricanegunner]

The last time I turned in a lead, the rep never even called the people, let alone visited them. I refuse to turn them in now. You're on your own sales reps. Good luck!

 

[helenofcalifornia]

Wish you were in my area of the woods, WDF! We have one OMS at the center who is good at following up on sales leads if you ask her. Lately, she has been swamped with extra work. And I just heard something out of her mouth to the tune of "three more years until I retire!" Never thought I would ever hear those words out of her, but she is a beat dog these days.

This is our life at UPS in 2009! Oh, for the good old days of 1980. Everyone was getting the same wages (PTers and FTers), no OSHA on our butts, pizza and beer, the economy was buzzing, everyone was smoking doobies in the open, (jk!!!), there were no OMS's yet, UPS was expanding, no FEDEX on the scene (just Roadway-they were coming to get us!!!), no shorts either, etc.

You do great work WDF, wish there were more like you that really care to make the difference to even one employee. Atta girl!!!

 

[wisedragonfly]

Wish you were in my area of the woods, WDF! We have one OMS at the center who is good at following up on sales leads if you ask her. Lately, she has been swamped with extra work. And I just heard something out of her mouth to the tune of "three more years until I retire!" Never thought I would ever hear those words out of her, but she is a beat dog these days.

This is our life at UPS in 2009! Oh, for the good old days of 1980. Everyone was getting the same wages (PTers and FTers), no OSHA on our butts, pizza and beer, the economy was buzzing, everyone was smoking doobies in the open, (jk!!!), there were no OMS's yet, UPS was expanding, no FEDEX on the scene (just Roadway-they were coming to get us!!!), no shorts either, etc.

You do great work WDF, wish there were more like you that really care to make the difference to even one employee. Atta girl!!!

Thank you, for the atta girl, helenofcalifornia!


I'm always willing to help, where I can.

 

[helenofcalifornia]

tP.S. One of the shippers that had "no volume" opportunities set themselves up online with their own UPS shipping number and shipped an international Monday. Will I get credit for it with the sales lead I submitted? Who knows now. They said the person who called them on the phone was "slow and uniformed.". Isn't that what we have been saying? Again, Upstate has all the good sales people; we got the rest.

UPS, this is one of the main reasons we don't submit sales leads; you got dummies answering the phones. Be like WDF and crank call them to see what kind of answers you get. My customers totally dissatisfied with her answers. I want to grow the business, but you are making it hard.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Helen, get their shipper number and get with your BD people and they should be able to ensure that you get credit for the account. They may not be able to back date to get you the credit for the international pkg but you will get credit from the date that the lead is shown as sold forward.

 

[sexyupsman]

When I first switched over to UPS from FE we did not have the volume we currently have. This did not stop my driver from suggesting to do a switchover trial. I did what he said and have never looked back. The volume went from 2-3 packages to now we send well over 200 packages a week. My salesrep has been a great help. It is true, some salesreps can sell anything while others cant sell themselves.

 

[tiegirl]

SLIM (sales) lead ca be very difficult to work. For one we are not given enough time to really work a sales lead with all the other mandated work that has to be done or you lose your job. Another reason is most sales leads are very happy with their current carrier and most people do not like change. Think about this. I do banking with a bank that offers free checking, online banking and bill paying as well as Saturday banking and I like the people that work at that bank at all branches I bank with. Let's say another bank called me to tell me how great they were and they wanted my business. Well, I, like most people would not be likely to listen to much of what that sales person would have to say. I am happy with what I have even if you can offer the same thing and I do not want to change even if I get a token of your appreciation. People do not like change. Business people make changes when they have issues with their current carriers. Not when a UPS driver submits a sales lead that says the account is aware of the lead and I call and get this, " I cannot believe Joe would do this to me. Why would he give you my phone number. Do not call me again. I ship what I ship the way I want to ship it and I do not need your help" . She was correct she ships about $20 a week with UPS and she did not need my help. Every now and again there is that diamond in the rough and a new account is created that will ship UPS. But you just would not believe how much work is neccessary to get an account to ship with UPS. I work as hard as I can for a sales lead and at all cost will place the lead into producing to reward the driver.

I recently submitted some good sales leads that came back as "volume not there," "no chance of shipping."

And I got to thinking, maybe it's not me, but the sales people. There are some sales people who could sell a drowning person some water, and then there are the sales people who couldn't sell a drowning person a life jacket. I bet the centers/hubs that get a lot of new business have excellent sales people who know what they are doing. Us small centers, maybe we get what's left over?

I don't want to dis sales, because Gods knows it's a hard job and I know I sure wouldn't be any good at it. But all the people who submit leads that are rejected can't be all wrong, can they?

 

[hellfire]

SLIM (sales) lead ca be very difficult to work. For one we are not given enough time to really work a sales lead with all the other mandated work that has to be done or you lose your job. Another reason is most sales leads are very happy with their current carrier and most people do not like change. Think about this. I do banking with a bank that offers free checking, online banking and bill paying as well as Saturday banking and I like the people that work at that bank at all branches I bank with. Let's say another bank called me to tell me how great they were and they wanted my business. Well, I, like most people would not be likely to listen to much of what that sales person would have to say. I am happy with what I have even if you can offer the same thing and I do not want to change even if I get a token of your appreciation. People do not like change. Business people make changes when they have issues with their current carriers. Not when a UPS driver submits a sales lead that says the account is aware of the lead and I call and get this, " I cannot believe Joe would do this to me. Why would he give you my phone number. Do not call me again. I ship what I ship the way I want to ship it and I do not need your help" . She was correct she ships about $20 a week with UPS and she did not need my help. Every now and again there is that diamond in the rough and a new account is created that will ship UPS. But you just would not believe how much work is neccessary to get an account to ship with UPS. I work as hard as I can for a sales lead and at all cost will place the lead into producing to reward the driver.

wow,, dead on and way too honest....i thank you for your honesty

 

[wisedragonfly]

Helen, get their shipper number and get with your BD people and they should be able to ensure that you get credit for the account. They may not be able to back date to get you the credit for the international pkg but you will get credit from the date that the lead is shown as sold forward.

Helenofcalifornia, I agree with UpstateNYUPSer.
BD, or better yet the PDA, should be able to help you with the problem.

If you were in my district, I think you would get the international shipment that was shipped, as well. But, districts are all different. You'll need to see what the policy is in your district.

Regardless of the differences in districts, I think you can get credit for the volume that the customer shipped and continues to ship over the next 13 weeks, if the acct was opened after your lead was submitted. Don't wait, push it now, while everything is fresh.