Corporate decided to test this in markets to see real numbers.Ran a program to see winning together bonuses vs new program,they ran it with low sph on purpose to get a threshold. Then looked at the costs vs department sales and just kept ticking the number up in the program to get to the point where we save, and if someone and department does it we win too! Nice job.....It is what it is!
5 replies (most recent on top)
To Mr or Mrs "Contrary to opinion" post ID @1qev+16yWlOFg, It's not opinion in my market. Try going into the Lowe's DC lookup tool (which can be found under appliance essentials) and enter 1598 for the store number (not my store but is my market) and start checking stock at the servicing ADC/BDC location (3374) and you will find next to nothing. We fall into what is currently the largest XDT market the Lowe's currently has. Approximately 68 stores are on this single XDT delivery hub. On this "new" system the vast majority of our appliance inventory is deliberately stripped from the stores (less OTR's and Dishwashers) and are now kept at the servicing ADC. Orders when tendered convert from Genesis into a Sterling order and are sent to the XDT location (3434 in our case) for fulfillment. The XDT then initiates a "pull" from the servicing ADC the night before scheduled delivery and the ADC ships directly to the XDT location for pickup by the 3rd party delivery service. It's my understanding that there are approximately 9 markets scattered throughout the US that are now running on this "new" ADC/XDT appliance distribution system with MORE TO COME. The market my store falls into is the single largest by far and is experiencing the worst issues company wide (corporate has even acknowledged this in the past).
The stores themselves do not get restocked with appliances unless you manually force the sale to stay at the store (which takes some effort as the software's default is the transfer the order out) and them manually phone in the inventory request to Order Replenishment (as 5.3 no longer works for appliances in XDT markets). Stores not on the XDT system still get restocked at a higher priority than XDT linked stores. Before we went on this system (about a year ago) we easily made our numbers. I typically averaged about 150K in sales per rolling 4 weeks but my numbers started to drop in 2019 once we transitioned to this "new" system. If your market is still on the old system all I can say is enjoy it while it lasts as it is my understanding that it's Marvin's plan is to adopt the ADC/XDT & 3rd party delivery process throughout the company. Due to the consistent lack of inventory at my servicing ADC I would estimate that we are now loosing approximately 50% of the sales we would otherwise easily achieve yet we as sales specialists are now being penalized for the company's lack of inventory and piss poor implementation of this "new" system.
PS. I was hired back when we earned SPIFFS/Commissions and was making in the 65-70K range prior to corporate changing the original sales structure. As of Feb of this year I am now grossing less than 40K and am working harder than I ever have to make this "new" company forced ADC/XDT system work for my CUSTOMERS. So please forgive me if I do not show the same level of enthusiasm for this new joke of a bonus structure as all I can say is Lowe's certainly has not done right by me or many of the other tenured sales specialists that were originally hired in at a low starting base pay under the original bonus structure.
Your management staff will now use your hourly rate against you. “You are paid well, and the company wants a return on their investment” hear it twice now...glorious leadership !
Contrary to opinion, these numbers are attainable. Northeast Ohio store here with little competition in the area. We have 3 Appliance Specialists and all three will make bonus. SPH is $730. Low man hit $812 while the high man hit $977. Department is at 150% to plan.
As for appliances, least we forget we have practically NO INVENTORY TO SELL. Some of that is due to the pandemic, but a lot of our perpetual out of stocks was due to piss poor planning by corporate even before the pandemic started. But God forbid corporate miss any opportunity to do more stock buybacks. Zero chance in hell we will be making either our SPH or our department budgets in the foreseeable future. Blowes can shove it!
I saw where the appliance budget went up to a $750 sph goal. That is $120,000 a month just to hit the sales goal. Pretty much impossible with worklist, irps, pulling pick up laters, covering other departments, phone calls, pulling next day deliveries, and our inventory numbers are so far off you have to track down everything you sale. $120000 a month is not happening!!