Ship Shape
Sam Sigholz, Sales Associate, uShip
Career history: Nearly eight years at Hoover’s Inc.
Current responsibilities: Helping to build a B2B sales team to expand uShip’s domestic and international operations.
About uShip: Founded in 2004, uShip connects people looking to ship unusual freight – motorcycles, golf clubs, pianos, etc. – with transport companies that place competing bids to win a customer’s business.
Company stats: uShip has helped broker more than $140 million in shipping contracts and currently has more than one million site list-ings. Profits earned in 2009 were between $5 million and $7 million, double the previous year’s earnings.
On uShip’s shipping list: Stephen Col-bert’s desk, from The Colbert Report and auc-tioned for charity on eBay for $14,800, to be shipped from New York City to Lawrence, KS, via uShip’s own charitable delivery program, Highway to Help.
How Sigholz got hired: “I read an article about uShip in our local paper and became very interested in it. For a year [the company and I] ex-changed emails about establishing a sales team.”
Why he made the switch: “I really like the challenge of something new and to look back and say I was responsible for the growth of a team. When I started at Hoover’s, we had fewer than twenty salespeople. When I left, we had about two hundred reps. At some point, [working with Hoover’s] got too comfortable. I was ready for a new challenge.”
Selling challenge: “It’s a challenge to get our mostly blue-collar transporters to think about going online and using a com-puter. One big area of our sales is heavy equipment, like cranes, and so many of those people are used to being wined and dined by a sole service provider.”
Selling benefits: “Once people hear about our service and start to use it, they love it.”
Company culture: “It’s a great, start-up atmosphere. We have a chef who prepares healthy meals and snacks, and every first Friday of the month we go out or do a team-builder, like paintball, as a company. We’ll also do volunteer work, like with Habitat for Humanity. And I’ve actually been assigned a mentor by one of the senior leaders to guide my profes-sional development. I’m extreme-ly excited to be here.”
Future career plans: “If we’re successful getting this two-man [sales] team going, then ideally we’ll hire some more reps, and hopefully I can take the next step to manager and progress from there. There’s lots of opportunity for growth.”Check out uShip’s blog, “Ship Happens,” at www.uship.com/blog.
– LISA GSCHWANDTNER
See the article in Selling Power Magazine (May/June Issue, pg. 10)
