Phone firm seeks more lines

Florida, and the Gulf Coast, is a major growth target for Cellular Sales, the largest independent Verizon Wireless dealer in the nation.

The Knoxville, Tenn.-based firm, with 518 authorized Verizon stores nationwide, already has a big concentration in the Sunshine State, where it has 100 stores. It has 32 Gulf Coast locations, a figure company officials say will grow by at least 25 stores over the next year. The firm opened 135 stores in total in the country last year, and will open at least that many in 2012.

“We are doing really well,” says James Thome, director of operations at Cellular Sales. “There has not been a lot of slow down.”

With nearly $500 million in annual revenues, Cellular Sales has been the obvious beneficiary of a smartphone boom. Indeed, Cheyenne Jenkins, director of the company's Central/West Florida region, says his competition isn't AT&T or Sprint, but “anyone else who sells electronics.”
Adds Jenkins: “The wireless industry is as lucrative as it's ever been.”

Thome and Jenkins also say Cellular Sales' recent success stems from a low-maintenance management model that essentially excludes managers. The sales personnel who fill the stores and go after business accounts work on commissions, which fosters an entrepreneurial mindset, Jenkins tells Coffee Talk. Jenkins visits all the stores in the region to check-in, but there are no high-paid managers day-to-day.

The challenge with the model, executives concede, is to hire and retain an upper-end sales force. The firm recently launched an internal division at the corporate office solely devoted to recruiting, says Thome, which has helped. The company also aims high, having recently hired pharmaceutical sales reps and Realtors to come sell iPhones and BlackBerry smartphones.

“We are not looking for order takers or clerks,” Thome says. “We are looking for a professional sales force.”