HVTDC Helps Elmsford Company Build
Foundation for the Future
“We have received a lot of positive feedback from our reps and 2002 was our best sales year yet. Orders were delivered on time, returns and errors were down, and we communicated better up and down the line. We have built a solid foundation for the future of this company.”
Andrea Genovese,
Sales Administrator
Game Sportswear
Enrico (Rico)
Genovese is a classic entrepreneur. In 1975 he founded GAME Sportswear,
now headquartered in Elmsford, N.Y., which manufactures, markets and sells
athletic outerwear throughout the United States. This family company has
grown steadily since its inception, and by 2001 had reached annual sales
well above $10 million.
At this point, Mr. Genovese took a step that many entrepreneurs are reluctant
to take: He realized that GAME had reached a critical point in its growth
path, and that he would have to solicit outside help if the company were
to continue to grow significantly.
Andrea Genovese, daughter of Rico, joined GAME as their Sales Administrator
about two years ago and says, “By 2001, the company had shown a
steady five-year growth rate, but my father wanted to feel more confident
that we were growing in the right direction. After several unsuccessful
interviews with independent consultants, he met with Ralph Brown, a consultant
for the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center, and things started
happening. The first thing Ralph set out to do was to spend time understanding
what we do, how we do it, and where we were falling short of the mark.”
Brown quickly realized that GAME had the capability to become a “force
in the industry.” “I started looking at how GAME could develop
and improve its operations. It was a successful company, but like many
entrepreneurial ventures, it had grown haphazardly, and without a definitive
plan. It did not have a formal organization structure, no one knew what
their job description was or what was expected of them, and they were
operating without a corporate policy and procedures manual. Simply put,
GAME did not have a clear blueprint of where it was going and how it was
going to keep ahead of its competition.”
Andrea notes, “Ralph evaluated all positions and met with every
key employee to determine whether or not the right person was doing each
job. If not, he recommended moving that person to something he or she
could do better, or we hired someone else with the right qualifications.”
Having fine-tuned the organizational structure, Brown turned his attention
to sales, marketing and customer service. Originally, there were eighteen
independent sales reps covering only 30 states. Brown surveyed most of
them. Their answers were hard-hitting and a critical, but honest appraisal
of how GAME was performing with their customers. The substance of their
comments: GAME was neither sales nor customer-driven, and specifically,
customer service needed to improve immediately.
In order to correct this situation, GAME doubled the number of independent
sales representatives in order to cover the entire United States. The
relationship among the customers, sales reps and customer service was
strengthened by the development of both a sales and customer service manual,
which became the inside and outside sales team’s guide. Together,
GAME Sportswear customer service managers and Ralph conducted weekly customer
training sessions to improve performance, and some staff members attended
seminars to improve their customer service skills.
It was at this time that Andrea was hired to work closely with the Sales
Vice President. They needed to keep field sales personnel informed of
all headquarter changes, new product introductions, policy and/or pricing
changes, as well as monitor field performance v. monthly forecasts. In
order to keep GAME on track, Brown and the management team put together
their first formal Sales and Marketing Plan for the year 2001. Since then,
the Plans for 2002 and 2003 have been written, and the 2004 Plan will
be completed by September 2003, prior to the peak season.
GAME is continually improving and fine-tuning its operation, staffing
needs are re-evaluated often, and changes and/or improvements are made.
As an example, GAME recognized that its corporate distribution center
in Elmsford, N.Y. was not operating in synch with its manufacturing division
in Port Chester. Therefore, Brown worked with Mr. Genovese to develop
and define the attributes and profile of a Warehouse Manager, and assisted
in the hiring and new employee orientation so that the manager was better
equipped to put the warehouse in lock step with the rest of the company.
Andrea notes, “We are a seasonal company with about 60 percent of
our business occurring October through January. We need a smooth functioning
team if we are going to serve our reps, which in turn serve their customers.
We have to know exactly what we’re doing. And now we do.
“Our sales and marketing plans are in place early in the year, and
we measure ourselves stringently against them. For the most part, we have
met our goals. But when we don’t, we’ll be able to immediately
remedy what went wrong and/or take corrective action.”
Andrea concludes, “We intend to continue to move up the scale and
meet or exceed our goals. So far, we’ve grown anywhere from 12 to
18 percent per year over the past three years. We have received a lot
of positive feedback from our reps and 2002 was our best sales year yet.
Orders were delivered on time, returns and errors were down, and we communicated
better up and down the line. We have built a solid foundation for the
future of this company.”
For additional information, call 845-896-6934.