If there’s one thing that’s consistent about the Unishippers Franchise ownership experience, it’s that your days are never boring or predictable. That makes it hard to outline a “typical” day, but here’s just one example of an actual day for one franchise owner:
8:00 am: Drop my son off at school. He reminds me of his soccer game at 6:00 pm. I promise to be there on time.
8:30 am: Arrive at the office. My two employees are already there, and both are on the phone helping customers. When they are finished, we quickly review outstanding issues from the day before, and prioritize our needs for the day. We build in flexibility so we can respond to customer needs as soon as they arise, but we make sure that our day is structured around the “sacred selling time” – those hours of the day when you are most likely to make contact with the decision maker. We want to make sure that we always keep that portion of the day centered on selling, whether it’s making cold calls or meeting with confirmed appointments.
9:00 am: I head out with our new sales rep for two confirmed appointments. In the car, we review the needs of each company again, and rehearse our strategy and sales pitch.
11:30 am: After one very successful meeting, and one that will require a bit more follow up, I check in with the office and find that everything is under control.
12:00 pm: Lunch with one of our biggest customers. They’ve had a few complicated shipping projects over the last couple of weeks, and I just want to make sure that everything is going well. I’m relieved (but not surprised) to hear that my team has gone above and beyond to help them out in a couple of tough situations.
1:30 pm: Back in the office. I spend the next hour making cold calls, and trying to set up appointments for the next couple of days. I’m successful in setting up two sales visits, and both are with the decision maker. Cold calling can be difficult, but perseverance almost always results in appointments.
2:30 pm: Conference call with the Technology Support team at Corporate. They are introducing some new enhancements to an online shipping tool, and I want to make sure I understand it completely.
3:00 pm: The shipping day is in full swing, and the phones are ringing like crazy. I jump in, and answer several calls from customers. Most are just routine requests, and can be handled fairly easily. I like to be involved with the day-to-day interactions with our customers, so I’m happy to handle phone duty when we’re busy. Besides, my sales representatives are all out at appointments, taking advantage of the last few hours of the sacred selling time.
4:30 pm: I sit down to review the monthly reports. I make note of three customers who have had significant drops in their shipping volume. I make an appointment with one of them, and leave messages for the other two.
5:30 pm: The team is finishing the last projects of the day, and everything seems to be in order. I head out the door for the all-important soccer game, knowing that tomorrow will bring something completely different.
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