The VirTra "Sales Organization" is mostly a "Phone Answering" department. Nothing more, nothing less. Ferris has no idea how to best sell VirTra products and he has no desire to set up a Sales Organization to sell product. If he wanted to do it, it would have already happened a decade ago. Yes, VirTra has some Regional Sales Managers but they are not empowered in any way, they are barely incentivized in any way. My guess is that if a RSM sells $10mil of product in 6 months his/her compensation is no different than if he sold $2mil. And the key to understanding all of this is this: THIS IS HOW FERRIS WANTS IT.
Ferris believes "if we build it, they will come." He believes if our product is better than competition then all buyers will come to us. He places zero value on a good salesperson. He cannot understand that the MOST VALUABLE ASSET any company has is a great salesperson. He will never ever let any sales person earn more money than an average engineer. He believes it is unfair for the rank and file employees to make 10x less than an exceptional salesperson. He does not understand that at MANY companies, the top sales people earn more than the CEO. So, guess what, VirTra will never have a great salesperson with Ferris as CEO.
How do I know all the above?
1. Look at the CEO contentment with YOY 10% growth.
2. Look at the major efforts Ferris did make over the last decade to improve sales. All were focused on establishing a work-free way to generate sales. First was the Gander Mtn disaster, Second was the Modern Round disaster, Third is in progress right now that I refer to as the Military disaster. Ferris wants orders to flow in without any effort from salespeople. A noble goal I admit, but it will never happen with products and systems costing $200,000.
3. Several years ago when I sat at a conf rm table in Tempe with Ferris and Mulcahy, Ferris made it clear what he thought of sales people earning alot of money. He looked at me like I was a moron as I explained to him the sort of hand holding buddy buddy stuff a good salesperson does over months to years to lay the groundwork for an order of $300,000 to $1,000,000+. He more or less told me that the way other companies sell $300,000 systems does not apply to VirTra. I proposed a variety of things he could have easily done to "test" what I was telling him. Seems to me it fell on deaf ears.
And all of the above pales in comparison to the current problem. What were the Q4 numbers? What were the Q1 numbers? How is Q2 progressing? Silence.
Yet the BOD sits idly by......
