Media Coverage

Problem Solved
Profit Magazine (November 2003)

Every entrepreneur runs into roadblocks. Here’s some education and inspiration from one of our Top 100 Women who overcame hers.

You know those salespeople at airport kiosks who try to sign you up for long-distance phone plans? The firm behind most of them is SPP Marketing Services (No. 53 among this year's Top 100 and No. 7 in Growth Leaders with 380% revenue growth over a three-year period).

Originally a promotional staffing agency, SPP began outsourcing staff for face-to-face sales in 1995. Within one year, its annual revenue had grown from $300,000 to $1.5 million, all due to a single client: AT&T Canada.

But unbeknownst to Elen Steinberg, SPP’s president and CEO, the firm was about to crash. The day of reckoning came in 1997, when federally owned airports privatized. The new owners “removed everything that wasn’t an essential airport operation,” recalls Steinberg. That included retail kiosks, effectively ending SPP’s relationship with AT&T. Steinberg laid off her sales force, and revenue dropped to $100,000.

She pleaded her case to the airports’ leasing agencies, but was rejected. Undeterred, she contacted every airport authority in the country. Turns out they had specific demands. “They wanted to be sure we’d be responsive to them,” says Steinberg. In fact, the new airports’ owners had caught wind of some of the challenges the federally owned airports had experienced in working with kiosk operators.

For example, if the airport had a problem – say, it deemed the salespeople too loud – it called the leasing agency, which called AT&T, which called SPP; the complaint might not be resolved for weeks. Steinberg listened to their needs, promised to follow the rules and even offered some of them her home telephone number for emergencies.

The strategy worked. She managed to snag leases at the Halifax and Edmonton airports and began recruiting new staff. “We had to rebuild from the ground up,” says Steinberg. “What I learned” says Steinberg, “was never put all your eggs in one basket and that control over your destiny is a good thing.”

More Media Coverage...