Race for a $Billion, a campaign to raise $1 billion in estimated annualized revenue for the Postal Service through sales leads from employees, is underway.
The Small Business Sales team is organizing the effort, which began in the fall and will continue through the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. The campaign aims to build on last year’s success, when employees submitted sales leads that generated more than $990 million in estimated annualized revenue.
“To reach this new milestone, we need every employee to participate,” said Mary Anderson, small-business engagement director at USPS headquarters in Washington, DC. “This is your opportunity to help the Postal Service make history.”
Sales leads can come from virtually anywhere — a new restaurant in town, a home-based business owner who uses a USPS competitor to ship his or her products, or a shopkeeper seeking new ways to advertise his or her wares.
Employees who spot these kinds of opportunities can use one of five programs to submit the lead: Customer Connect (for letter carriers), Clerks Care (for distribution clerks, machine clerks and retail associates), Mail Handlers (for mail handlers), Rural Reach (for rural carriers) and Submit a Lead (for everyone else, including Executive and Administrative Schedule employees).
For example, Michael Domino, a retail associate at the Richmond, IL, Post Office, recently spoke to a friend who mentioned that her employer was in the market for a new shipper.
After Domino used Clerks Care to submit the lead, a USPS business development specialist contacted the company, explained the organization’s shipping options and closed the sale, which generated $921,600 in new estimated annualized revenue.
“It couldn’t have been easier,” Domino said.
The Sales Blue page has more information about each lead generation program, including instructions on participating.
Throughout the Race for a $Billion campaign, the Small Business Sales team will provide service talks, handouts and other materials to help local business development specialists encourage employees to submit leads.
The team will also publish a weekly report on Blue that shows how each district is faring in the challenge. The latest report shows the top three performers are the Central Plains, San Diego and Bay-Valley districts.
Said Anderson: “This is going to be a long race, but I know our employees will help the Postal Service cross the finish line.”