Merchants Fleet - Senior Sales Executive of the Year

Company: Merchants Fleet - Hooksett, NH
Company Description: Merchants Fleet offers flexible funding, fleet service, and fleet technology options for organizations that leverage vehicles to run their operations, serving as a single source for all vehicle needs. Our 3,000+ clients span across over 20 diverse industries, including logistics & last mile, industrials, energy, medical & pharmaceutical, government, and more.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Senior Sales Executive of the Year

Nomination Title: John Cail

Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):

John Cail serves as Senior Vice President of Mobility for Merchants Fleet, the nation’s fastest-growing fleet management company, which services businesses who leverage vehicles to run their operations. John oversees business development for the company’s fleet mobility segment.

John began his career in fleet in 1990 and has held several different roles during his tenure.From 1990 to 2004, John was General Manager of a Rent-a-Car business, which he grew to 24 locations and 2,800 units, making it the largest independent rent-a-car in New England.Beginning in 2004, John served as the leader of Merchants Short-Term rebranded to Merchants Mobility, leveraging his extensive experience to provide vision and leadership to the rapidly growing area of Fleet Mobility. Today, he is focused on driving innovative new mobility offerings, including Merchants short-term leasing, last mile, and pool management, and in the last 2 years, the growth of his business has achieved historic heights.

John has serviced thousands of clients, provided over 100,000 short-term leases to businesses, worked across 45 industries, and managed over 600 employees. He is a strategic leader and serves as the responsible executive sponsor for new verticals in the Merchants Fleet suite of products and services.

Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2019 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):

In 2020, as the world faced a pandemic, home delivery became critical. According to Forbes, retailers in the home goods, clothing, and athletic spaces saw a 65% increase in online sales from March to April. Ecommerce was booming and consumers wanted products to be delivered. On top of it, vehicle manufacturers were stopping production and delivery vehicles were hard to find. https: //www.forbes.com/sites/kaleighmoore/2020/04/17/retailers-selling-non-essentials-see-double--triple-digit-increases-in-online-sales-during-covid-19-crisis/#31c1e9f66431

John pivoted sales efforts to ensure delivery providers knew Merchants had delivery vehicles available and could fund them. Under John’s leadership, the mobility team stood up a sales team dedicated to services, rentals, and funding for logistics and last mile clients, getting them the vehicles they needed to fulfill deliveries. This suite of offerings included:

-Flexible monthly rental terms for cargo vans
-Increased vehicle inventory, including large-capacity cargo vans and box trucks
-Nationwide vehicle delivery, allowing companies to have vehicles brought to them and skip the rental counter
-Option to rent a vehicle and convert to a long-term lease later – an industry first
-Centralized fulfillment center so clients had one point of contact
-Suite of fleet services so clients could focus on delivery instead of administration
-Vehicles available immediately for delivery nationwide through the ReadyFleet program
-A Last Mile Delivery Program that combined leasing with fast vehicle access for companies launching or scaling delivery routes
-Partnerships with logistic providers to help drive down costs

Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):

At the end of 2018, John spearheaded Merchants Fleet’s entry into a new market—providing fleet vehicles & funding to last mile and home delivery businesses. On January 1, 2019, John’s team had fewer than 300 vehicles on the road for this market. Over the next 12 months, the business increased in size by nearly 2,000% in 2019 and by year end had 6,200 vehicles on the road. The rapid growth in this segment of the business led to over 479 new clients in 2019.

Thanks to John’s efforts, Merchants Fleet will have 15,000 delivery vehicles on the road by 2020’s peak season, a 142% growth year-over-year. Not only were these services critical for last mile businesses – they also kept the other businesses that were categorized as “essential” moving with vehicle options. Over 60% of Merchants Fleet’s clients were deemed to be in essential industries. During the pandemic, it was calculated that in 24 hours, over one million homes received essential goods delivered in a vehicle managed by Merchants. By the end of 2020, it’s expected that 2 million packages a day will be delivered in vehicles managed by Merchants.

Because of John’s quick efforts to make vehicles available to delivery businesses, more people had essential goods delivered to their homes at a time when they needed them most.