Bring Our Salesmen Home 

A Simple Way to Increase Profits, Sustainability and Human Impact 
 

David Stein 
8th November, 2018   

 
 

Table of Contents 
 
Executive Summary……………………...………………………………………………...2 

Problem and Necessity…………………………….……..……………………………....3 

Project Description..…………………………………………………..…...………..…....4 

Cost Analysis……………………………………………………………………………….....5 

Assessment.………………………………………………………………………...………....6 

Conclusion..…………………………………………………………………………..………...7 

Appendix……………………………………………………………………………….…….....8 

   

1 
 

Executive Summary  
This proposal serves to convey an idea to change the structure of 
WeVideo’s sales trips in order to reduce costs and carbon emissions- all while 
bettering the lives that WeVideo is in contact with. This report will cover trips taken 
by the sales team across the United States. These trips are largely taken during 
the academic school year and this suggestion may be pivotal in this year’s sales 
operations.  

Currently, sales trips are done in groups, in great frequency and to far away 
states. These two factors cause large uses of fossil fuels and company funds. 
Sales trips generate monetary costs from travel expenses, housing fees, shipping 
expenses, food purchases, payment for employee overtime and weekend labor. 
Sales trips generate carbon emissions from airplane use, car trips and shipping 
materials to and from other states.  

This proposal will show how shifting half of in person sales trips to 
web-based presentations will save company money and the earth. Web-based 
presentation can suffice in demonstrating and administering WeVideo in a 
classroom setting, all while costing and polluting less. WeVideo will be able to 
both retain $50,488 and lower emissions by 94.5 tons of CO2 every year.  

With reduced costs and pollution, WeVideo will be able to ramp up the 
amount of the web-based presentations as a whole. An increase in presentations 
will in total expand WeVideo’s reach and influence in schools. This will allow 
WeVideo to acquire more customers and will also allow WeVideo to convey more 
information to students. A greater amount of students will be able to experience 
technical teachings professionals to both their benefit and to our own benefit.  

In order to begin reducing costs and carbon emissions in the sales division, 
implementation of the ideas in this proposal should begin by the end of 
November. Training and preparation for a shift in our sales structure will take some 
time, but will be up and running in at most a month.  

2 
 

Problem and Necessity 

32 annual trips taken by members of the WeVideo sales team increase both 
spending of company funds and emissions from fuel consumption. An average 
sales trip will require three sales members, gear that is not simply carried onto the 
plane, plane tickets for each member (both ways), pay for non-regular hours and 
expenses for food and land travel. By relying solely on in-person school visits, our 
sales team generates large fees - both environmentally and monetarily. A change 
needs to be implemented for the longevity and success of the company. 

The Proposal and “Six principles of Sticky Ideas” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath 

Simple 

● This plan will slightly change the format of presentations done by the sales 
team. Non-essential costs and emissions will be reduced with a simple cut. 
This plan provides efficiency by removing unnecessary components. 

Concrete 

● Costs are costs. By keeping salesmen in the office more often, they will not 
be flying and will not be working irregular hours. Salesmen that do not fly 
are not participating in airline flights. They are reducing the carbon footprint 
attributed by WeVideo.  

Credible 

● All cuts are coming from expenses that have been realized in the past. As 
the sales system continues to experiment, it becomes clear which expenses 
come at an unnecessary toll. WeVideo is able to make a reasonable cut in 
this situation and will benefit from that choice.  

3 
 

Project Description 
The project is designed to cut costs and emissions in order to redirect funds 
and time. Money, effort and emissions will be conserved and instead used on 
more frequent web-based presentation. Members of the sales team will deliver 
the same presentation that they had delivered in person - except through online 
video services. This will allow sales members to stay in the comfort of the office 
and to limit their costliness and general carbon emissions. I suggest shifting only 
half of the sales trips to such a process for now. The trips left untouched should be 
focused on the biggest districts and classes - where our investment matters the 
most. This course of action will allow us to maintain a good standing with the most 
important potential clients while also being able to 
magnify our reach to new schools. With this method, we 
will be able to contact more school than ever before. 

Bring our Salesmen Home and the Triple Bottom Line 

Profit  

● No airfare or transportation costs 

● No material shipping costs 
● Office wages - no overtime or weekend wages  

Planet 

● No airplane emissions 
● No car transportation emissions  
● No wasteful shipping materials (styrofoam, packaging and plastics)  

People 

● More students and schools can be reached with one call 

● Time that was once spent on traveling can now be spent on students 
● Students from areas can be reached - not just big potential buyers  

4 
 

Cost Analysis 
Item Cost for One Trip Cost for 16 Trips
Wages at 1.5x Rate 1080 17280
Shipping 113 1808
Flight Expense 759 12144
Housing for 3 462 7392
Food & Petty Expenses 675 10800
Auto Transportation 64 1024
Total Direct Costs $3153 $50448

Emissions for One Trip (Metric Emissions for 16 Trips (Metric

Item Tons) Tons)
Airplane for Personnel 2.7 43.2
Airplane for Shipping 3.2 51.2
Car Emissions 0.00907185 0.1451496
Total Indirect Costs 5.90907185 94.5451496

One Trip Total: $3153 and 5.91 Metric Tons of CO2 

One Year of Trips Total: $50,448 and 94.5 Metric Tons of CO2 

Required Resources  
● 8 Hours training in office or 720 dollars.  
Direct Costs 
● 3153 dollars per trip or 50,488 dollars for a year of trips. 
Indirect Costs ($10 per ton of CO2 Offsets) 
● 591 dollars per trip or 945 dollars for a year of trips 

Return on Investment  

● 49768 dollars directly or 50713 dollars indirectly 

5 
 

Assessment 
The intended outcomes of the changes proposed by this plan would be savings 
on travel expenses- without a significant cost to sales. While certain negative 
effects may prevail, this plan should hold 
well enough to greatly outweigh any 
negative outcomes. Sales will be 
compared to previous years in order to 
see any changes in sales trends. If no 
noticeable drop in sales occurs, then the 
cuts and adjustments made to the sales 
system as a result of this plan will be 
marked as effective.  

Immediate Outcome 

● 3153 dollars and 5.91 metric tons of CO2 will be spared in the first 
month of implementation.  
● Employees will be retrained and will begin delegating additional time 
to schools 

Long Term Outcome 

● 50448 dollars and 94.5 metrics tons of CO2 will be spared every year 
once the implementation of this proposal is fully in place. 
● More schools will be affected and reached by the work of the sales 
team.  

Success of the program will be easily monitored as time continues. Sales 

have always grown year to year at WeVideo. With better allocation of resources, 
we should be able to see sales continue to grow, but at an increased rate.  

   
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Conclusion 
To summarize, the plan outlined in this proposal is meant to benefit 
WeVideo in three main ways. Profits are assisted with reduced overall spending. 
This will be internally beneficial in making WeVideo a leaner startup. The planet is 
assisted by lowered carbon emissions. This will help WeVideo in its sustainability 
goals and image. Lastly, people will benefit from this plan as they receive greater 
outreach and schooling from WeVideo. 

Bringing our Salesmen Home is a simple solution with big benefits. Proper 
implementation of this proposal will allow us to reach further in the world while 
being much closer to home.  

   

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Appendix 
TO: John Kline, Vice President, Education Sales and Customer Success
FROM: David Stein
DATE: November 8, 2018
SUBJECT:

Dear John and Sales Team,

I am both humbled and ecstatic that we are moving ahead with Bring our Salesmen Home.
Implementation of the project will begin first with training followed by reductions in total trips.
Below I will outline the changes proposed, potential values and why the sales team will find the
adjustments to be to their advantage.

Changes Proposed
Two points broadly summarize what I had proposed. First, sales team trips to other states
should be done at half the frequency and should target the largest potential schools. Second,
web-based presentations should be delivered in place of the removed sales trips. In order for
these two items to function properly, a total of eight hours of training will be needed.

Potential Values
By eliminating half of our in person sales trips, we will be saving 3,153 dollars every trip and
50,448 dollars every year. Our carbon footprint will also benefit. We will eliminate 5.9 tons of
CO2 emission every trip and 94.5 tons of CO2 emissions per year. Lastly, time will also be saved
in the absence of travelling for sales trips.

Advantages for Salesmen

Even with fewer trips, the sales team as a whole should see a greater inflow of customers. The
team will have more time to spend with more clients. Salesmen will have the ability to reach
more schools and more commision opportunities. Overall, the sales division will become more
efficient in terms of sales, carbon emissions and outreach.

Thank you for communicating your thoughts in the next few days. In the case that we would like
to adjust a part of the implementation, we will need to take further steps within the next two
weeks. If no adjustments are needed, training should begin next week.

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