inside - Confluence

CONTENT
Page 2
Human Resources
Page 3
Partners of the
Month
Page 4
Recruiting
Page 5
New Faces
Page 6
Finance &
Accounting
Page 7
Vendor Spotlight
Page 9
Case Study
Page 10
Operations
Page 11
Partner
Feature
Page 13
Marketing
Page 14
Anniversaries
Page 15
Techie Talk
September 2016
INSIDE
11816 Lackland Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63146
“Indoff Provides
Solutions to Your
Business Challenges.”
President’s Prose
by Jim Malkus, Indoff President & CEO
Greetings and welcome to fall! I hope you are enjoying good health, good fortune and good
weather wherever you may be.
We’ve been publishing this newsletter for over 15 years, and sometimes I get asked why?
It’s a fair amount of work, there are issues without much substance (say, like this article)
and people wonder if we couldn’t do something better with our time. My answer always
remains the same – it’s an important piece of our overall effort to keep everyone informed
about what’s going on at Indoff.
It’s a small thing, but I believe success in life is grounded in doing the small things consistently and doing them well. Because we are a virtual company, we work hard at keeping
everyone informed and connected.
• Our list servers are extraordinarily valuable as sourcing tools – access thousands of
years of knowledge with a single e-mail
• Partner Support weekly tips and monthly newsletter help share answers to common
questions
• Facebook posts let our Partners see what’s going on at Corporate
• Never ending vendor posts – that we archive so we can find that one item when we
need to three years later
• Accounting’s billing reminders and A/R’s aging notes
• Daily tweets give shout outs to Partners and vendors on nice projects
• Vendor quizzes let everyone participate in something fun
• Lexy and Adam’s monthly marketing tip to help Partners find resources or try new
tactics
• National Sales Meetings, while not a “little” thing, are vitally important to maintaining
a sense of community
• The weekly large job posts – a recent addition – congratulate the overachievers and
hopefully stir some curiosity regarding what’s selling now
• Our list servers also function as virtual water coolers – share successes, funny stories,
even tragedies – but know your Indoff “family” is there to support you
• Perhaps most importantly, the list servers allow us all to know when Cherrie Bledsoe is
“OOTO” – out of the office
All of these little things add up to a remarkably cohesive company where we all at least
have the opportunity to feel included and to know what is going on at Indoff. Our results
through August are outstanding, and I thank everyone for all you do – big and little – for
Indoff!
INSIDE
Human Resources
by Robin Migdal, Indoff VP of Human Resources
Hi everyone and welcome to Fall! The months approaching often whiz by in a
flurry of activities - football, Halloween, Thanksgiving , Christmas, Hanukkah, or
whatever special holiday you observe – so now is a good time to get your
finances in order and prepare for the New Year. Here are a few end-of-year
financial tasks you can start on now:
1. Schedule a meeting with your financial planner or accountant. The end of the
year is always a good time for a financial checkup. A financial planner can help
you segment and prioritize goals for 2017.
2. Donate to charity. Dec. 31 is the deadline for charitable contributions you plan
to deduct from your 2016 tax return. Instead of donating cash, call your local
homeless shelters and clean out your closets!
“Now is a good
time to get your
finances in order
and prepare for
the New Year.”
3. Max out retirement contributions. You have until December 31, 2016 to make
final contributions to your Indoff 401K Retirement Saving Plan. The 2016 401(k)
contribution limit is $18,000 and $6,000 for catch-up contributions for those age
50 and older.
4. Check your beneficiaries. You should review your beneficiaries on your
retirement accounts or insurance policies. It is a good idea to do this at least
annually because someone may have died, or you may have gotten divorced.
5. Adjust your tax withholding. If you have gotten married, divorced or had kids
in 2016, then you probably need to update your withholding and make
adjustments to your W4.
National Sales Meeting – April 2017
Our sales meeting will be held here in St. Louis, April 20th through April 23rd.
at the Hyatt Regency at the Arch. Invites will be sent via e-mail towards the
end January after final sales figures are in for 2016 (in general, sales volume of
$20,000 per month is the cut-off, and most new Partners who have started since
October 2015 will also be invited). Please mark your calendars to attend this
very important meeting!
Enjoy the changing leaves and cooler weather ahead, and thank you for
everything you do for Indoff!
Indoff Sales Partners of the Month
Congratulations to our top Partners from each division!
July
August
Material Handling:
Staci Deaton
$550,357
Material Handling:
Darrin Wicks
$1,276,141
Commercial Interiors:
Beth Ocker
$382,107
Commercial Interiors:
Dave Morrow
$349,583
Business Products:
Sheila Hoffman
$130,032
Business Products:
Darrell Reed
$112,689
Promotional Products:
Kristy Long
$201,461
Promotional Products:
Kristy Long
$187,715
Allied:
Lee Key
$352,749
Allied:
Chris Koeneman
$308,059
INSIDE
Recruiting
by Angela Suntrup, Indoff VP of Recruiting
I hope everyone had a great summer! Can you believe fall is here and
Halloween and Thanksgiving are around the corner?
The first 8 months have been very good for the Recruiting Department. The
class of 2016 has written over $3.6M in sales! Our Recruiting goal is to hire a
class that generates $5M+ in sales. We need your help to hit our 2016
Recruiting goal!
The majority of the prospects we initially talk to do not come on board after
we first contact them. Constant and consistent recruiting calls, emails, mailings,
social media announcements etc. are necessary to get our Recruiting message
out. It is equally important that we grow our database of prospects for future
Indoff hires.
“If you know of an
experienced and
QUALIFIED sales
professional in any
of our divisions
who you think
would make an
excellend Indoff
Partner, please
call or email me!”
Adding quality Partners to Indoff benefits us all. If you know of an experienced
and QUALIFIED sales professional in any of our divisions who you think would
make an excellent Indoff Partner, please call or email me ! You could earn up to
$10,000(see below)! Qualified sales professionals have 3 to 5 years of
outside sales experience in one of our divisions, a transferable customer base,
yearly sales of at least $350k ($200k for Promotional Products) and the ability
to work independently. Here is our current referral plan:
o $1,000 when the referral’s billed gross profits exceed $1,000 (same as always)
o $1,500 when the referral’s billed gross profits exceed $25,000
o $2,500 when the referral’s billed gross profits exceed $50,000
o $2,500 when the referral’s billed gross profits exceed $75,000
o $2,500 when the referral’s billed gross profits exceed $100,000
o These payments are based on the first year’s results only
Maybe you know a good prospect (someone with no experience in one of our
divisions) that you would like to bring on board and mentor. As an investment
in the process, Indoff will pay 60% for the new hire’s commission rate for the
first year; we suggest a split of 40% to the new hire and 20% to the mentorinPartner, but it is 100% your decision.
Maybe you are thinking about retirement and have a qualified individual you
would like to bring on board. Find and help us hire a qualified replacement and
earn significant overrides on your accounts after you retire. The new Partner will
receive 50% commission and the referring Partner will receive a 20%
commission override on the new Partner for 2 years! This option is designed to
help retiring Partners financially as they approach retirement and benefits the
company by adding quality Partners.
Welcome!
Meet the new Additions to Indoff!
Scott Morgan
Business Products
Pfafftown, NC
Jeff Brooks
Energy Solutions
Las Vegas, NV
Kaitie Herbranson
Corporate
INSIDE
Finance & Accounting
by Julie Frank, Indoff Executive VP & CEO
Where did summer go? I’m sure all of you are asking yourselves the same
question. From the record sales our Partners have booked over the past few
months, I’m thinking many of you forgot to take that summer vacation! With
almost nine months down and four to go, we are hoping the momentum keeps
going so that we exceed the $142 million secured and $140 million billed in
2015. YTD through August we were up on secured and billed by 2% and 4%,
respectively.
“With almost nine
months down and
four to go, we are
hoping the
As fall rolls into St. Louis, we are enjoying the end of a “so-so” baseball season
and the beginning to college football and marching bands (yes, both of my
boys play in a band). You may have noticed I didn’t say Pro football as we so
graciously gave up our team for our West Coast Partners (all I can say is good
luck with that!). I did recognize the looks of confusion and despair on the faces
of the Rams’ fans in their Monday night opener – I’d like to say hang in there, it
will get better, but it’s been a long 13 years since last we saw happy Rams fans…
I’m sure all of you are as tired of political commercials and campaigns as I am
by now. We expected to see the election have more of an impact on sales this
year, but it seems even businesses don’t know what to make of the circus just
yet. With any luck we will continue to see the orders and payments flowing
from our customers all the way through year-end. Your hard work and
dedication is really paying off this year and I wish you all continued success.
Vendor Spotlight:
Auora Storage
Aurora Storage Products has been working with our valued Indoff Partners for decades to
supply them with custom designed storage systems manufactured in the U.S. We offer
a range of unique products for varying storage applications and complete design support
to maximize space and minimize cost for Indoff’s clients. Aurora’s team of regional sales
managers and sales specialists are there to help Indoff Partners with product selection
and project assistance.
From commercial office, to schools and universities, to healthcare, or industrial storage,
Aurora can meet your storage needs with products such as 4-Post Shelving and Library
Shelving, High Density Mobile Systems, Side-to-Side Lateral Mobile, Times-2 Rotary
Cabinets, Aurora Wire Shelving and Wood-Tek, an elegant wood-clad storage system.
Shared Department Storage
Times-2 Rotary Cabinets
Small Parts Storage – Automotive
Times-2 Rotary Cabinets
Law Library
Wood-Tek Library Shelving
Education – Athletic Storage
Aurora Mechanical Mobile
Healthcare – Catheter Storage
Aurora Wire Shelving
Dental Office
Times-2 Rotary Cabinets
Western Territory
For more information go to:
www.aurorastorage.com
For design assistance:
[email protected]
Toll free: 800-277-1699
Case Study:
Medical Transportation Management Inc.
Featuring:
MTM, Inc. provides medical transportation management, care coordination services,
ambulance coordination, and assessments & travel training nationwide.
Objective:
Steve has completed a total of nine full floor remote facilities for MTM and
several existing location enhancements and furnishings improvements. MTM
reached out to him for this project, with the goal of supplying their facility with
furniture to optimize their space.
Solution
The scope of these full facility outfitting’s are: large private office suites,
administrative workstations, call center
workstations, reception area to include
Objective:
custom reception stations, Falcon/Thonet lounge seating and tables, large
training rooms, conference rooms, mother’s rooms, break rooms, often some
items within the exercise rooms, filing, storage and seating for everything listed
above. The furniture used throughout the country is Friant for all private office
furniture, all workstation furniture and most task seating. For conference rooms,
break rooms and training rooms Steve used Falcon tables and Sitmatic seating
and for filing uses Great Openings, who paint the filing and storage and lockers to
exactly match the trim on the Friant workstations.
Benefits:
Everything is tied together quite nicely from a design standpoint. These pieces allow
MTM to utilize their space in the most efficent manner possible.
This case study featured a project completed by Indoff Partner, Steve Brandt.
If you would like a case study created, please contact
Lexy Kettler at [email protected].
INSIDE
Operations
by Pam Hake, Indoff VP of Operations
Hello out there in all the corners of the Indoff World. While looking for
inspiration for this newsletter article, I looked back at previous newsletter
articles. I didn’t get any flashes of inspiration, until I read a Corporate.gen post
from Kevin Flynn.
“Even if you don’t
have experience
selling products in
other industries,
we have many
other Indofffians
who can help you
and it pays to
explore the
opportunity.”
Now if you have stopped laughing long enough to read the rest of my article,
maybe you will be inspired too. Kevin talked about something near and dear
to my heart - Indoff Partners working together to cross sell. This is something I
always touch on when trying to give Partners ideas to increase their sales, along
with the indispensability (yes that is a word) of a one stop shop for customers.
A real example is always better than an abstract thought from Corporate
trying to inspire the team, so here is Kevin’s comment:
“I had recently provided new office furniture to a car dealership here in East
Texas and they just loved the project, a surprise I know. Anyway, they called
me last week to help “Reorganize their Parts Department, too’, see attached
overwhelming photo. I knew instantly I was in way, way, over my head…so, I
called Duane Young in Dallas. Duane drove out, met them, took measurements,
showed videos, and taught them about how to ‘Reorganize their Parts
Department’, it was impressive. Now, Indoff will get to provide: a plan, A quote,
and hopefully win this project that otherwise would have gone to someone else.
The lesson here is that if you do a great job on your part, there is always more
Indoff, as a team, can do, including lighting. Thanks Duane for time, talent, and
wisdom. A job well done!“ -Kevin Flynn
Of course I followed up with an ancient quote from Aristotle (the philosopher,
not our own Aristotle McDaniel), “The whole is greater than the sum of its
parts.” That old saying is especially true of Indoff. Even if you don’t have
experience selling products in other industries, we have many other
Indoffians who can help you and it pays to explore the opportunity.
The more items a customer can get from a single source (namely us), the
more likely they are to call you the next time they have a need.
Thanks to all of our Partners, for all that you do all year long. It really does
matter. And thanks to Kevin Flynn for inspiring me. Have a wonderful fall
season…until next time!
“New” Partner Feature
On the Blog
1. What made you decide to join Indoff?
Susan Sivils
Commercial
Interiors
FREEDOM & RESPECT. I was with my former employer for 24 years so making a move
was a big decision for me. The company I worked for sold 2 years ago and even
though my boss remained as branch manager, I was becoming increasingly unhappy
with my employers and boss due to their lack of respect for me. Sometimes in life
it takes a major event to make you realize how unhappy you are and what a rut
you’ve been letting yourself remain in. That happened for me in early Feb. when I
was treated very unfairly on a commission and as they say that was, “The straw that
broke the camels back”! I realized I was ready for a change so I started looking for
another employer.
I remembered I’d gotten a recruiting email from Indoff back in the fall (which I had not deleted - my subconscious must have been trying to tell me something), so I hunted it down and contacted Angela. The
more I talked to Indoff the more interested I became. I had offers from other dealers in town which I also
considered but Indoff kept coming up at the top of my list as I evaluated the opportunities. As I weighed
all my options, I realized I wanted and needed the freedom that being an Indoff partner would allow me to
have with my business. The commission rate was fabulous as well. When I reviewed my prior years sales
& profit margins and realized I would’ve made 2 -3 times as much money the last three years it became an
easy decision! Indoff was the place for me! The freedom to set my own work hours, work from home or
my office, determine how I want to price product to my customers, etc. are just a few of the advantages I’ve
found working for Indoff. Everyone at the corporate office has been so supportive, encouraging and they
recognize my achievements! I haven’t had that kind of treatment from an employer in years! When I made
the list of people who had over a $100,000.00 in sales in May I was so shocked that Diane in customer support sent me a congratulations email! It had been so long since I’d received recognition for my
achievements, I felt like a kindergartener who was praised for learning to write their name. I’m so much
happier that my husband jokes and tells people, “ I feel like I’ve had a divorce and married a new woman.”
It is true I feel like a new person since starting to work for Indoff. I am so blessed that God sent me this
opportunity to work for a company like Indoff.
2. What is your biggest career goal for 2016?
I would like my sales to average at least $75,000.00 a month by the end of the year!
3. What advice would you give someone considering joining Indoff?
If you are a self motivated person there is no better place to work than Indoff - join as fast as you can
because you are costing yourself money! If you are not self-motivated, join anyway. As soon as you receive
your first commission check you’ll become self-motivated.
4. What kind of sales have you completed in the past?
Corporate business is the largest sector of my business; banks, private offices, administrative offices, etc.
I also do healthcare and education primarily in the administrative offices, public spaces, conference
areas, etc. I do a lot of space planning and CAD drawings. I also love to do the interior finish selections
on projects. I do some government work mainly for local county and city offices. I don’t like all the red
tape that comes with Federal government work so I do very little of it.
2016
Holiday Schedule:
Thursday
November 24
Thanksgiving
Friday
November 25
Thanksgiving
Monday
December 26
Christmas
Monday
January 2, 2017
New Years
INSIDE
Marketing
by Adam Heck, Indoff Marketing Manager
Hello Partners,
Adam Heck
Marketing Manager
As most of you have heard, we are going to be upping the email marketing tools
we offer to Partners. Instead of sending you marketing pieces to use in your own
email campaigns, we are now going to handle the sending and tracking of emails
internally for any Partners that are interested. This will allow Partners currently
spending time on email marketing to put that time to other marketing efforts, and
Partners who previously were not email marketing will be able to very easily
participate. We see this as the next step we can take to help you increase sales
while building awareness of Indoff. No other company offers the combination of a
one stop shop for everything a business would need, and a network of
experienced professional Sales Partners, and we believe this will help us spread
the word.
While spending a lot more time creating and sending email marketing pieces, we
also will have more time to help you with bigger projects that come up. We can
help you with customer presentations, customizing print marketing, putting
together case studies, social media efforts, and putting together an ordering site
Lexy Kettler
Marketing Coordinator for large customers. We call this a company store site, but really it’s a way to help
large customer’s stream line standard orders.
Kaitie Herbranson
E-Marketing Coord.
If you have a large customer that has multiple locations and multiple purchasers,
we can easily set up a website that offers a limited number of standard items the
customer will need to purchase on a regular basis. Some Partners currently have
these sites and get large numbers of online orders with minimal effort after the
initial site setup. We talk you about your needs and the types of items you want
on the site, you provide us the catalog items you want on the site, we create and
maintain the site. A customer/company store site can also be used for a
presentation of your capabilities when talking with a new or existing customer. If
you have any customers you would like to present this to, or have any questions
about how it would work, please let us know.
Stay tuned for further information on the new email marketing program in the
near future. As always, let us know if there are any marketing projects we can
assist you with.
Happy Anniversary!
20 Years:
Chris Hamm
Commercial Interiors
Julie Frank
Corporate
Did you Know You Can Follow Indoff on
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn?
Stay connected with Indoff by following us on social media! You can find us on several social
media platforms via the usernames provided below:
Facebook: Indoff Incorporated
Twitter: @Indoff_Inc
LinkedIn: Indoff, Inc
Some of the content you can expect to see includes: a monthly vendor quiz (with the chance
to win one of two $50 Visa gift cards), vendor videos, vendor/product spotlights, articles
relating to your sales division, events at the corporate office and much more!
@Indoff Incorporated
@indoff_inc
Indoff, Inc
INSIDE
Techie Talk
by Shawn Faulkingham, Chief Information Officer
It’s the end of the summer! I am ready for my favorite season...fall. I love the
change in the trees and weather; always the best time to be out in the woods to
enjoy and reflect about the world around us. I always do as much hiking as I can
during this season as there is so much to see!!!
Let’s bring you up to date with projects in IT:
New Confluence:
Shawn Faulkingham
Chief Information
Officer
We have completed the Orders and Reports sections in the new Confluence. You
should be able put in orders and view your reports through the new Confluence.
Please make sure you are using it as much as possible and let us know if you
find anything that may not be working correctly. Next for Confluence is working
on the Alerting functionality, then on to Accounts, Catalogs and Contracts. The
new interface is fantastic and works smoothly with other devices like tablets and
phones!
cXML:
We are currently looking into being able to do Punchout and cXML with customers. This technology would allow customers to order from an Indoff Marketing
Site and be able to automatically have it downloaded and processed in their
accounting system and billed. We feel that this could be a strong selling point
when talking / prospecting with larger customers that have several locations and
have this capability.
Security and 2-step authentication:
Colin Faulkingham
Chief Technology
Officer
We continue to monitor the Security landscape to insure that Indoff Systems
are protected. One of the best ways to protect your email is to use the 2-step
authentication that our email has in order to protect your emails, contact lists
and keep from being hacked. If you don’t already have it, please do so as soon as
possible. We will be calling you if you do not have it setup; it will be mandatory
by the end of the year. Call us if you have questions!
Business Continuity:
We are working to make sure that we have a solid implementation plan in case
we have a disaster with our Data Center here in Saint Louis. Backups are already
“vaulted” to a Data Center in Bethlehem, PA; we want to make sure that we can
get back up and running as quickly as possible.
I hope you all had a great summer! Thanks for all that you do!
Shawn, Colin, Courtney, David and Jerome