Dane Scism

Cellular Sales, the largest authorized retailer of Verizon Wireless products and services, launched its new website, CellularSales.com on November 19 with a sales and customer service model that could revolutionize the cellular industry. The company is using "local mobile experts" to deliver phones to customers who order through the website and will even help them set up their new devices, usually the same day they place their order.

What if the customer doesn't know which cell phone or other communications device they want? No problem, according to Dane Scism. "Our local mobile experts will take phones and other devices to a customer who wants to a choice, and they'll teach customers how to operate all the functions on the device they select," Dane Scism explained. Dane Scism also said the mobile expert will transfer contact information from the customer's old phone to the new one, as well as assist with complicated functions like syncing their home and office emails with their new device.

"Customers want more service from us, not less. This is something we've been doing since the beginning, but not everyone knew that we want to come to a customer's home or office and bring the showroom to them," said Dane Scism, chief executive officer of Cellular Sales. "We're anticipating that this service could change the way people buy cell phones."

CellularSales.com launches in Knoxville in December and nationwide in January. The company, which has 210 locations and about 20 more under development, was founded in Knoxville. Dane Scism, who worked for the fledgling startup while he completed a University of Tennessee business degree, bought the company - three stores and their office equipment - with his last commission check of $17,000 in January 1993. This year, Cellular Sales is on track to do $180 million in revenue in an industry that even Scism admits is "one of the thinnest industries out there, one of the most competitive."

Dane Scism is Chief Executive Officer of Cellular Sales, a company that operates authorized retail stores for Verizon Wireless. Dane Scism grew the company from a handful of stores in the Knoxville, TN area to a company that now operates about 230 stores in 13 states.

"Everybody on the front lines is running their own business. They sign out inventory when they come in every day and they scan it back in at the end of the day," Dane Scism explained. "We do a low-price guarantee, but we can't know what the prices will be on equipment on any given time because the prices change so fast on the Internet. So we have a price that's the lowest or darn close to it, but the front-line staff have the ability to set their own pricing, if need be, at the point of sale. They're actually running their own business - when they sign in they own the inventory for the day."

"Right now, most of your customers look on the Internet for a cellular phone, but they don't buy it on the Internet because they're uncomfortable not touching it and because it's still a complicated enough product that they want to talk to somebody about a rate plan. So that's what the Web site is; it's Internet shopping with the more personal touch that people need with cellular phones," Dane Scism said.

The Cellular Sales company recently launched CellularSales.com, that touts the unique service of "bringing the store to your door," meaning that Cellular Sales mobile experts will actually bring a phone or multiple phones to a customer's house or office and even show the customer how to use their new device. This is a service that Dane Scism believes could revolutionize the way that people buy mobile phones.

"We believe strongly that the cellular carriers would love nothing more than to sell phones out of vending machines. They would love to cut us and all front-line people out of it if it could possibly be done. But it can't," Dane Scism said.

It is that kind of commitment to customer satisfaction that Dane Scism credits for the company's success and growth. And in the rapidly evolving cellular sales market, he is confident that the business model of combining unparalleled customer service with online sales and building a professional employee base will enable the company to continue to grow despite market fluctuations and tight margins.