Behind The Sale A Spotlight On The Advanced Turf Operations Support Team
Let’s face it; sales are the lifeblood of every business. Sales are the engines that drive companies, and sales directly impact how successful those companies become. Advanced Turf is no different in this regard. Over the last dozen years, we have been extremely fortunate to experience an amazing upward path of growth, and our talented and experienced sales team has been at the core of this evolution.
However, sales alone will not define the true success of a company. That will be determined, in large part, by how happy the customers are and how well we provide service that exceeds their expectations. Do we have the products and services our customers want? Can we get those products to them in a timely and efficient manner? At Advanced Turf, this critically important function is put into the hands of the operations support team.
Advanced Turf realized the important role of the operations side of our business early on in our history, and as our company has grown over the last 12 years, we have invested heavily in buildings, equipment and people so that our operations team has the tools they need to keep pace with the sales side of our business. Our goal is to use these tools to “out-service” our competition and exceed our customers’ expectations on a daily basis. Let’s take a look at how we do that.
BUILDINGS
As our company has grown, so has our product selection. As a matter of fact, this product selection seems to grow daily. We want to give our customers all the tools they need to be successful in their businesses. As you may guess, this takes warehouse space. Currently we have almost 4 acres of warehouse space among our 11 main warehouse locations spread throughout our service area.
EQUIPMENT
We make thousands of deliveries each year and even more transfers between warehouse locations. That is a lot of product moving in and out of our warehouse doors! As you can imagine, this requires a large fleet of vehicles. Currently, we have 12 straight trucks, 3 tractor-trailers, 6 stake-body trucks and half dozen heavy-duty pickup trucks in our operations fleet. We also have 15 “piggy-back” type forklifts for our straight trucks and tractor trailers so we can unload product and put it exactly where our customers want it. That is a lot of rubber on the road every day, taking product to our customers and moving inventory between our warehouses. To give you a little perspective, last year our drivers logged a staggering 750,000 miles and used over 120,000 gallons of fuel!
PEOPLE
Our spacious warehouses and powerful trucks and lifts certainly make our jobs in operations easier, but the real key to our success is our people. As Woody Hayes used to say (yes, I’m a Buckeye), “You win with people.” I am proud to say that Advanced Turf has some of the best operations personnel in the business. Meet just a few of our operations team members from Central Indiana in the photo below.
Back Row (from left): Steve Thomas, Shawn Cullen, David Bash, Pat Kelley, Ed Clevenger, Dave Crawford, Dan Jenkins Front Row (from left): Christina Wright, Scott Dodson, Chris White, Travis Duffy, Rob Buckner, Tim Robison
Our operations team is nearly 50 people strong today, and it continues to grow. From our drivers who deliver your products, to our warehouse staff who pick your orders, load and unload trucks, and to our support folks who are responsible for order entry, product purchasing, managing inventory levels, and managing our fleet, the Advanced Turf operations team is working hard behind the scenes to help our sales team shine.
Joby Morrow
Operations Manager
Advanced Turf Solutions
