COMPANY NEWSLETTER ARTICLE - HOW WE WORK

Uline Dispenser Article: Published May/June 2014 How We Work - “The Quotes Department” Vice President of Customer Development Brian Shenker and Director of Inside Sales Stephanie Sim gave an informative overview of the Quotes Department at CORP’s April 28 How We Work Presentation. With 28 years of experience working in Quotes, Stephanie has seen the number of weekly quotes grow from six to 2,550. “It’s no different now than it was back then,” she says. Being in Quotes is wonderful - you get to do so many things and talk to so many different kinds of people, but it’s a tough job to learn.” Handling the large volume of quotes is no small task for quotes representatives as they must learn to work with customers in many different core markets. Brian explained how Quotes significantly contributes to Uline’s bottom line.

• Accounts for $186 million in direct sales each year.

• Influences $740 million in yearly sales.

By comparing the Quotes Department to a 7-Eleven, Brian demonstrated that although there is not much margin, Quotes brings in a lot of other sales. About 7% of Uline’s accounts involve quotes and 20% of Uline’s customers have asked for quotes. He noted that the number of quotes keeps growing for Canada and, especially, Mexico. While Quotes has received some bizarre requests, including purple footballs, body bags, toe tags and even a train caboose, the addition of shopping carts and the TradeMaster Cart to the Spring/Summer Catalog initiated in Quotes.

• Recently, some important changes were made to increase efficiency:Implemented several new quoting guidelines.

• Placed minimum value of $300 on a custom quote.

“We’re always looking for ways to make it less complicated,” said Stephanie.