As you may be aware, Samsung’s wireless division will be launching its latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S5, on April 11, 2014. This will create a significant influx of consumer traffic to wireless retailers like Verizon. Given our current talent pool, we should be especially well positioned to satisfy their temporary staffing needs to accommodate this sales rush.

Samsung is currently the largest tech company in the world (Vincent, 2013, para. 2), and the Galaxy line is the best-selling Android phone series on the market today (Investor’s Business Daily, 2014, para. 1). They are undoubtedly eager to cement their position. As such, their marketing machine is already pushing the product into the consciousness of the public. In fact, it has been reported that Ellen DeGeneres’ recent Oscar celebrity selfie that crashed twitter, was a publicity stunt created by Samsung (Guynn, 2014, para. 2).

THE HISTORY OF VERIZON

With almost 145 million customers, Verizon is the 16th ranked fortune 500 company.  Close to 108 million of those are just Verizon wireless customers. Verizon Communications, Inc., was formed on June 30, 2000, with the merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp. While Verizon may seem like a fairly new company, the two companies prior to the merger have roots traced back to the beginnings of the telephone business. It has a diverse workforce of nearly 195,000 employees, serving over 140 countries.

GTE prior to the merger was one of the largest telecommunications companies with over $25 billion in revenues in a single year. In addition to serving Canada and the Dominican Republic, as well as Puerto Rico and Venezuela through affiliates, GTE was a leading wireless operator in the U.S. As impressive as that may be, Bell Atlantic was even larger than GTE, with over $33 billion in revenue that same year. Bell Atlantic’s wireless unit was one of the largest and most successful serving customers in the U.S. as well as international investments in Latin America, Europe and the Pacific Rim.

With these two power house companies merged, combined with the acquisition of Alltel Corp. in 2009 they created the largest wireless service provider in the U.S., as measured by the total number of customers. “Verizon’s revenue totaled $115.8 billion in 2012” (The History of Verizon Wireless, 2014). Verizon today is a global leader in broad-band and other wireless communications that services to mass markets, business, government and wholesale customers.

THE SCOPE OF VERIZON’S STAFFING PROBLEM

As the nation’s largest cellular service provider (USA Telecommunications Report, 2011, p.70) Verizon Wireless will undoubtedly receive a significant influx of business on the release date, which they are undoubtedly prepared for. Given their recent closure of five service centers, which effectively laid off 5,200 back office support staff (Davidson, 2014, para. 1), they will be inadequately prepared to handle the service side of all that new business. Given that many of those employees are now in our talent pool, we should be uniquely positioned to provide them with additional temporary staffing to meet their demands.

HOW WE FIT IN

As I’m sure you know we have seen a fairly significant uptick in job applicants who list either customer service or cell phone repair experience, many of whom have listed Verizon as a previous employer. Once we couple their need with our supply and with our proven track record of supporting companies through volatile staffing challenges, one can see the potential for an extremely lucrative partnership.

SUMMARY

?     Impending Samsung launch will create increased sales demand for wireless providers.

?     This increased sales demand will necessitate more robust customer service and technical support requirements for wireless providers.

?     Given the time frame, Verizon Wireless will likely not be able to adequately fulfill its staffing needs.

?     We already have many of the needed skilled workers on our applicant rosters

We already have the infrastructure in place to make this happen, and it will require almost no change to our standard operating procedure. We already have access to the necessary talent pool, and will require very little additional effort. Once we present them with our proposal, I’m certain they too will see the immediate benefit to them.

Using the information about the company you gathered during week four and the information about Kelly Services from the website and the case study, write a 1-2 page sales letter which includes a visual aid to a decision-maker at the company your team researched and convince him/her to use Kelly Services. The sales letter should focus on the features and benefits that Kelly can offer to your targeted company and should include a visual aid.

Each member of the team is to submit the agreed upon sales letter and the team participation memo to the Dropbox. Organize your letter according to the strategies presented in Chapter 10. For our purposes, assume that Kelly Services does not have competition from other companies. The sales letter should include the following:

• Assess customer needs. Include information from the case such as background information, supplier awards, and importance of outsourcing.
• Determine key selling points and benefits
• Anticipate purchasing objections
• Use the AIDA model
• Maintain legal and ethical standards, and demonstrate your awareness by writing a message tailored for your business

For your visual aid, you will need more than an attractive picture. Create a table or achart that helps convey your sales message. For example, you might include a table that succinctly displays the types of employees Kelly Services offers, a table that highlights employer and employee benefits, or a pie chart showing the percentage of Fortune 500 companies that use Kelly Services, or a graph showing another important statistic. Your visual aid should be attractively designed and should adhere to the guidelines set forth in