SAM & PRINTER ANNOUNCEMENT

[Augustus]

I know this has been a matter of great debate so I had a chat with my contact in IT today on the price of the printer for SAM.


He has had many advisors asking if they can function without paying the £317 for the printer.

What was told to advisors when they were first offered SAM has not been mentioned to the advisors looking to take SAM now and rather just a 'hard sell' applied.

Nobody likes the hard sell so here is the actual deal you get for your money.




The devise is free on a year data contract with Vodafone.
This is similar to the deals you get on new pay monthly handsets as they know they get the usage out of you so offer the phone as 'free' - like our fitting


What we are paying for is this :-

The blue tooth version of the brother micro printer
A 256MB SD card with the SAM software on
The correct case to protect it while still allowing full use
A small supply of paper packets to start you off

Plus, and this is really the most important part:-

ALL further software licences on upgrades.

SAM still has alot of growing to be done and in the last 10 months I've seen 4/5 software upgrades so far.

Hillarys has taken on the costs of the software re-programming to make SAM easier for us to use and to have more features.

On the whole it's not a bad deal and when you consider that they set it up so you can pay monthly, it's a real good deal.


I've changed my tune on it anyway !

P.

[uptonparker]

I'm constantly suprised at the amount of moaning some advisors do about having to shell out a few quid for items that will make their lifes easier.I do understand that if you are part time it's not quite the same,but for full time agents,I don't get it.It appears to me that Hillarys give us just about everything they can to make life easier,there are certain things they cannot give us(sam,clothing)as we are self employed and the powers that be will not allow it,you're either self employed or your not,no half way house.At the end of the day it's your business and branded workwear etc.promotes your business.I know you can't sell your business on if you retire etc.,but the only answer to that is if it's offered as a franchise and I guess that would be more than a few quid.I know that everything is not perfect,but a bit of PMA will go along way to help.

[JoY]

In reply to Uptonparker.....

:)I like my job with Hillarys...but

How exactly are we "running our own business"?

:(Hillarys pay us what they want, and not what we invoice them.
:(We are expected to do the job the way they want us to, and not how we want to do it.
:(We have to accept all changes they make (diary, SAM, silly offers, discounts for their cok-ups)etc.
They can replace us at a moments notice, and add new advisors in our areas without even telling us.

Where as they

:(Don't have to supply our tools
:(Don't have to pay our NI
:(Don't have to pay us holiday pay
:(Don't have to pay sick pay
:(Can get rid of us when they like
:(Take commission back if they give "their" customers refunds/discounts

And as you rightly say, we have no business to sell, and the customers remain Hillarys customers, and not ours.

[JoY]

So... are you saying that without the printer, Hillarys would not give us the upgrades on SAM? Surely, they want us to have SAM to increase Hillarys profits, and to save them money. It's not for our convenience, is it?

[Augustus]

I know what your saying and yes hillarys do have alot more to gain if we use SAM ( zero queries etc )

it has always been a fine line with being self employed.

But the harsh facts are that we do work in this business and SAM does make life a little easier.

I don't knwo where we would stand on the software updates but again these things are there to improve SAM and help us out further.

P.

[glen]

Hi,

I think it would be crazy if anyone opted not to get printer with SAM, having to write out receipts for deposits etc. after using high tech device would I think be embarrassing.

Anyway when you use the blue tooth printer it impresses customers when they see this printed receipt being done for them and it is a handy size for customer to put in wallet / purse for reminder of fitting date arranged.

Glen

Small price to pay for looking professional ;D

[aikido]

JOY & MICK You have got in one I aggree with all you say No way are we self employed in the real meaning of the word.

Hillarys control every aspect of our (I don't think so) Business.

I have been with Hillarys for over 14 years and now feel less important to them then ever befor

I have very little say in my own business.

All the best to you both

[Augustus]

I've got 7 1/2 years behind me and while we do try and move with the times it can be hard to comply with their ' demands' all the time.

Threats if you don't want to do eve/weekends of another agent being taken on is blackmail.

When we were all asked to take on a second line for a fax machine I refused. It just didn't seem a like I needed it.


P.

[uptonparker]

apologies to one and all if I upset anyone with my previous post on this subject.I agree with most of the points that Joy and Mick have put forward,but I am always one for looking for the positives and try to ignore the negatives as much as poss.(and yes there are negatives).It seems to me that the only way we could get it to work on a truly s/e basis is to start our own business's which would bring with it all the added problems that go with it,staff(possible),premises,v.a.t. etc,etc. To have something to"sell on" at the end of our time with Hillarys we would need to buy into it as a franchise(average going rate for most franchises,not necessarily blinds,is,I beklieve,around £15000,stand to be correct on that).We have very few overheads.I personally make a very good living from it,and against what the average man down here earns,I earn plenty to cover my holidays and insurance for sick pay.
As I said earlier I do agree with most of your points,but genuinely feel that the good out weighs the bad by a fair margin.Hey,but if we all thought the same,what a dull world.

[mellisa]

Dear All

I have been asked to give a brief response as to where we are with SAM and how it will affect you all.

Both ourselves and advisors have worked hard to produce a device that I really believe is as beneficial to advisors as it is to Hillarys. This was my stated goal from the outset as you are self-employed and therefore there has to be benefits for you and your business. As SAM has moved forward, in all honesty it has passed all my expectations in terms of performance, results and feedback and we have therefore moved faster on the roll out than we originally intended to.

So what are the benefits, well as I said they impact us both so here are the key ones for all of us:

- Reduced order inputting costs for us
- Reduced DORs and Order queries (vitually none with SAM)
- Reduced Customer Service issues
- Increased Conversion Levels over non SAM Advisor population - every single week
- Increased Average Order Values and Average Blind Values over non SAM Advisor Population - every single week
- Reduced discounting levels over non SAM Advisor Population - every single week
- Visibility of diary constantly and significantly reduced faxing (I worked out with an advisor the other day that here alone the device paid for itself in a year)
- Self generated leads will be on it next
- Customer's love it
- Increased credit and debit sales and increased deposit levels
- Faster commission payments.
- Improved communications with you, we can run fabrics lower because we can stop selling them on the device in a few hours
- We are now working on a fleet of reports that you will be able to access personally via the web
- I believe everyone of our advisor (no matter what level of previous IT skills they had before)

We have invested heavily in SAM and we have brokered a deal for advisors that I think is tremendous (it is not an option not to have the printer, it is integral to the purchase and once you have the device you will be able to see this). This deal was so good, we transfered our own mobiles to the same deal.

You are all self-employed, and yet we do not ask you to invest heavily into your business (such as a franchise would) but for any business to grow you need to invest to build your business, and by this I mean invest time and money. I know that you business will benefit from SAM, as will mine. But I also know that in terms of ensuring we are the market leader at all times we need to adapt and grow to the changing market place. As a national brand we need to show a consistency of service, that is why we introduced the Sales Bag, the Centralised Call handling, fits at sale and the Sales Habits, whilst some individuals may have been doing these activities extremely well in the past, we know from our customers that this was not always the case and we needed to improve our perfomance overall.

SAM is the next step in this progression and we are now moving to a new phase with it. No new advisors will be taken on unless they sign up to SAM (they are also being asked to invest in necessary tools, clothing etc). We will move to having all advisors on SAM and I am afraid that if people are unwilling to go onto SAM, we will need to review their future with Hillarys in the next 6 months. I know this will give some advisors cause for concern, but that's why I want you to start this debate with your FSM now. If you have concerns about whether you could use SAM, ask your FSM to let you play on their SAM device. If believe you will be unable to use SAM because your IT skills are limited(although this really has not been a problem) we will support you every step of the way.

I know that with every roll out of every initiative you will always have some people who will wait to the last minute. I say to all of you who are doing this, "Why? You lose money every day you don't use it."

I am aware that that is not the answer some of you wanted, but I hope you appreciate that we do want you on SAM as we benefit but we also 100% believe that you will too.

kindest regards

Mellisa

[JoY]

Many thanks for that Melissa..... I personally agree with all of it, but for the still SAMless advisors,

"within 6 months" is still a bit vague.

Does that mean they have a job for at least 6 months if they don't take SAM? Or That they may not have a job next month?

[phugly]

Hi Melissa, I also agree with everything you say, all I need now is some leads

[mellisa]

Joy

In answer to your question. All will be reviewed in the next 6 months, some will leave earlier and some later (I do have a number of advisors who are retiring in the next 6 months, so there is little point in moving these advisors to SAM).

By the end of this month we will have 570 of 800 advisors using SAM, by the end of 2005 it will be over 630 advisors (we slow training down over the Christmas period). January and February we hope to train the remaining advisors.

I hope not to lose a single advisor because they are not convinced by SAM as my team and I are willing to spend the time sharing with advisors why the device is right for them. However I am realistic and if we have to lose some advisors, then so be it but I would like them to give us the opportunity to demonstrate why we think it would be right for them.

The best advice I can give an advisor who is unsure is to talk to you guys who have the device, you are the best advert (as are your results) we have.

[aikido]

Thank you Melissa,
I am about to train for sam but have no sale leads in my diary

[mellisa]

Phugly

Good news, we are going to be running a promotion in South Wales (not 4 for £99) in October. Make sure we have plenty of availability for you to accomodate the leads.

kr

Mellisa