“We performed exceptionally in the months of July, August and September…”
We performed exceptionally in the months of July, August and September, achieving strong revenue growth, making serious progress refining in-house fulfillment systems and processes, and delivering great results to our customers. This report is the story of a company characterized by continuing adaptability, focus and grit. It is also the story of what comes with that sustained effort: Rapid company revenue growth, individual successes, and full team accomplishment. With our third quarter recently finished and the last and most exciting three months of 2020 ahead of us, it makes sense to take a minute to look back on the months of July, August and September, and then, to set ambitious goals for October, November and December.
We are now clearly at the beginning of an incredible period of growth in our business. Our total sales climbed every month this quarter – with August exceeding July and with September exceeding August, and with all three months beating the same month of 2019 by significant margins. September’s monthly sales performance was particularly striking. Overall, September was the largest month of sales that we’ve achieved in four years, an accomplishment driven by the best month of new OPTIMA™ client acquisitions ever, and the strongest OPTIMA™ renewal rates in company history. We’re not taking this trajectory for granted. We’re building on it, making promotions, and we’re hiring up. We are surrounded by untapped opportunities to grow.
The third quarter was also a period of intensive work on systems and product development in DeKalb and our outlying client services offices. After months of planning, preparation and development work, we cut over live to a new system to facilitate listings presence management and visibility fulfillment services. I compare an important system conversion while the company is operating and serving customers to swapping out the engines of an airliner while it is in flight! For everyone using the new system and orienting themselves around new workflows, reports, and a thousand small intricacies that simply can’t be known until the deployment date, it must have felt just about as fun, nerve-wracking, and frustration-inducing as that in-flight aircraft engine swap out! We had some harrowing moments, days, and weeks and we truly measured up to this challenge. It says something about us that we executed a full systems conversion during the middle of AMP’s biggest month of sales in four years and in the milled of our largest OPTIMA™ sales month ever. That’s the picture of an ambitious group of people building a business that stands to become dramatically better and larger over the months and years ahead.
As I look at the turning leaves and begin to feel the cool nights of early October, I feel fortunate, thankful, humble… and to be clear about it, I feel very ambitious. At AMP, we have the good fortune of being completely in control of our own destiny during an economic period that is going to be filled with uncertainty for many other companies in the months to come. We own all of our assets, debt free. We’re growing. We are our industry’s low-cost, high service leader. The advertising solutions that we offer businesses are practical, understandable, affordable, and needed by small businesses nearly universally. I work alongside really good people, incredibly hard-working individuals who care, who make the extra effort, who finish strong each day, who get the details right, and who give great service to the family owned businesses who are our clients. We should and we will amplify and multiply these great company characteristics. It feels great to have made month over month sales increases and year over year growth a central part of our culture.
As we start the fourth quarter and look to 2021, we should recognize that we are playing for a lot – personally achievable financial goals, new responsibilities and new roles, a significant increase in the size of the company and the number of markets we serve, and a broadening of the products we offer.
This is a great time to take a minute for thoughtful appreciation and conscious gratitude, and a great time to size up the big opportunities in front of us. We’re set to finish this year with fantastic results.
