Communication is key
This year has been unique in many ways, and one big change for us is that our sales staff has been working from home nearly all season. But what hasn’t changed is the need for constant communication between our sales staff and inventory managers. Inventory of plant material is unlike that of so many other types of products because it’s dynamic and constantly changing, and that makes good communication especially important for us.
Managing inventory of plant material comes down to so much more than simply counting how many trees, shrubs, or perennials we have in a location. We also need to determine projected ready dates and revise them as they change, continuously update the sizes of trees and shrubs, and constantly review the comments (Full, Budded, Blooming, etc.). Inventory management of plant material is also extremely subjective, so making judgement calls is fundamental when it comes to determining which plants are visible on our availabilities from week to week. This all makes sense of course, since plants are living things.
Because our inventory is not black and white, constant communication between our inventory managers and sales staff is essential. On the one hand, we have a proactive sales staff that is always asking questions like: Will the Hibiscus be flowering next week? When will our next crop of Annabelles be ready? Can you dig these boxwoods in time for tomorrow’s shuttle? The other half of this relationship is our proactive team of inventory managers that is constantly communicating when new crops become available, when we have inventory that is in its prime and needs to move fast, and those unfortunate times when we have crops that no longer look good and need to be taken off orders. Part of inventory management is also continuously reviewing orders and reaching out to our sales team to find out when an order is shipping so we can allocate plants to the most appropriate crop, to let a customer know that something on their order looks good and should ship soon, or to let a customer know that the variety they have on order may not be up to their standards and to offer a sub.
Sometimes I think there is a perception that inventory managers have “hidden” inventory, and this is true to a certain degree, depending on how you look at it. Since so much of inventory control is subjective, there are always crops or portions of a crop that we may have on the ground that we don’t feel are suitable to show as available in our open inventory, but that may be appropriate for certain landscapes or situations. For example, we have a lot of trees in the field and shrubs on the ground, but not all are listed as available in inventory. But Jonathan, Autumn, and Justin know that many of those trees and shrubs would be perfectly acceptable for certain applications. That is where the partnership between inventory managers, sales staff, and customers really comes into play. In order for us to be effective as a whole, we need a sales staff that consistently reaches out to our inventory managers to look beyond the paper availability, and an inventory team that is just as proactive and forms strong relationships with our customers.
Just as our inventory is not black and white, we also cannot draw a line between where the roles of our sales team and inventory managers begin and end. Both are equally important to our success. And when it comes to inventory management, it’s more than just counting the plants in a location; our inventory team is, in essence, an extension of our sales team.
