Bridging gap to consumers to make sales

Mobile Phone News, June 15, 1998 by Malcolm E. Spicer, John Sullivan, Ellen B. Mullally

Wireless carriers and manufacturers should know, though, that their services or products don't sell themselves, explained Bob Stockard, president and CEO of Sales Staffers International Inc. (SSII). And in the wrong hands, even the most dazzling, attention-grabbing display won't make a Sale.

SSII's clients are "looking for a presence in the retail stores other than just an end cap," Stockard said. "Every single day the landscape is changing."

...Telecommunications From The Start

Stockard began what became SSII in 1990 as a consultant to MCI [MCIC] to launch long-distance service in 18 states. The firm now conducts sales and marketing operations for 44 clients, including 12 in wireless businesses. "So our roots are in the telecommunications industry," he said.

But while wireline firms can market their services or products as essential consumer needs, their wireless counterparts can't use that as the focal element for sales strategies. "That's not really the predominant message out there," Stockard said. "It's a lifestyle sale."

Wireless firms also are faced with justifying the space their products take up at retail sites. "I think the retailers are pushing the producers very aggressively and heavily to move their products off their shelves. They're challenged with how to make their strategy work," he said. "They've thought about it, but they really haven't thought about the execution of the strategy."

That is where SSII frequently enters a wireless firm's marketing picture. Whether providing sales staff for retail sites, or training employees at those sites, or conducting sales and promotions at special events, SSII's first step is to review and understand the client's goals, then suggest changes in the client's strategy before assuring that SSII and the client agree on the goal.

For retail site projects, SSII meets with retail operators to determine its schedule for working at a site, trains its staff and the retailer's employees on the products to be sold, sells and demonstrates the products, and maintains inventories of the items. Event projects include pre-planning at the sites and assigning SSII personnel according to the profile the client has requested prior to performing sales and promotions work at the events.

Most carriers participate in marketing agreements with retail wireless facilities, such as Sprint PCS' [FON] agreement with RadioShack [TAN] stores and Nextel Communication Inc.'s [NXTL] recently announced agreement with Let's Talk Cellular and Wireless. At those sites, the retailers employ sales staff trained about the functions and capabilities of wireless devices.

Wireless firms have found too much of a margin for error, Stockard said, in relying on department store employees to bridge the gap to sales. "Where there's not enough education is in getting the product into the consumers' hands at the retail level," he said

Wireless firms and other businesses apparently find value in hiring SSII to perform a crucial service rather than develop their own staff resources for the same work. Stockard said it was to SSII's advantage to begin operating in the early 1990s, when many firms were under hiring freezes but needed additional marketing help. While economic conditions have improved and unemployment rates have dropped, SSII's clients continue to prefer outsourcing some sales and marketing work.

Stockard said his firm's services are not new ideas, but "nobody has really been able to pull it together and make it work... When we got into this business, the landscape was littered with agents who were straight commission people. We're not commission people," he explained. "We sort of broke the mold and went and hired employees who we still have today who are responsible for managing customer relations. We literally don't have any competition."

SSII hires employees for individual projects, not as permanent staff members. "What we are finding is that the free agency mentality that hit the world has now transcended into sales and marketing," Stockard said. "We move them from project to project or they take time to raise their kids, or they take time for their aging parents, or they want to work on their golf game or sail around the Caribbean. Those are the kinds of stories that come around my desk."

(If you have suggestions for profiles on marketing programs and innovations in the wireless industry, contact Malcolm Spicer, 301/340-7788 ext. 4170; fax 301/424-2058; e-mail, mspicer@phillips.com.)