Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from the line of Jerry Herman – Stifel Nicolaus.
Jerry Herman – Stifel Nicolaus
Can we start with the sales and marketing line? You guys did a really good job there of controlling costs, and I am wondering if maybe you can shed some additional color on some of those expense reductions you mentioned, in particular if you mind giving us an update on the quantity of mailings or some volume discussion in terms of mailings and also headcount.
Nicholas Schacht
I can do both of those for you, although you know it’s not our practice to actually disclose the absolute quantity of catalogs that we mail. Suffice it to say that we’ve continued our efforts to very carefully analyze the response rates from the various segments of our marketing database, and we’ve continued to mail our catalogs and e-mail and market heavily to those segments of our database that are giving us good response, but at the same time, cutting back significantly the marketing to the areas of our database where we’re not getting a substantial response. In terms of our headcount, in sales, currently we have approximately 435 total employees worldwide. Of that, approximately 174 of those are salespeople and support people, and of the 174, approximately 107 are commissioned salespeople.
Jerry Herman – Stifel Nicolaus
And that group includes the telemarketers as well, correct?
Nicholas Schacht
Yes, it does. That’s correct.
Jerry Herman – Stifel Nicolaus
On a go-forward basis, will these efficiencies continue to be achieved? What I’m asking is you’ve cut costs in reaction to a weak market, but also is there a structural change in sales and marketing that will continue?
Nicholas Schacht
Certainly we will continue to manage our investment in sales and marketing consistent with what we see happening in the market, so that said, as we see a strengthening demand and when we see a strengthening in demand emerging, I would expect that we would respond by continuing to spend an appropriate amount in sales and marketing. Of time, our long-term model has consistently been that roughly 25-26% of our revenues is an appropriate spend for sales and marketing. We’re a little bit under that now, but we think that appropriate for the current market. We haven’t really adjusted the overall structure or process of our sales and marketing, so as our volumes increase, I would expect to see an increase in the expenditure for sales and marketing as well.
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