The world has been changing for distributors, but the world has always been shifting and changing for businesses. Here's one example of past disruption and change, and how it impacted business, and how to sometimes see the "opportunity of change." Baron Rothschild, scion of the renowned banking family, gave the famously-macabre admonition to “buy when [...]
Does Any of This Sound Like Your Company? You’re feeling margin pressures, You’re suffering under escalating personnel costs, You’re watching your best customers defect to competitors whom you know aren’t as good as your company is, You feel your business model isn’t as relevant to the market as it was 10-20 years ago, or Your [...]
The nature of sales has changed. Face-to-face sales in distribution are not as common as they once were. We’re finding that more and more these days, those kinds of direct transactions are no longer a dominant means of selling a product or service. When there once was a time when a sales team was the [...]
Gaining An Advantage Through Content: Marketing is not just about letting people know your company exists, or what your latest products or services are. It is a key component to building and maintaining a lasting relationship between your business and your customers. In the past, most businesses’ primary point of contact between themselves and their [...]
Interaction and communication with customers today is difficult. While today's technology is incredibly beneficial in so many ways, it's also made finding or creating an opportunity to engage with a customer – to spend time with them –more difficult than it's ever been. Bluntly, your customers don't want to waste their time on you. They're not [...]
Social media is important in today’s world, but it seems to be a daunting task for most distribution companies. It can seem downright overwhelming to come up with topics to post about on a regular basis. Most businesses feel this way – not just distributors. Watch the following video to get started on the right [...]
In a recent discussion with Randy MacLean of WayPoint Analytics, we examined the changing realities of messaging and marketing, and how things are changing so quickly. In the distribution industry, the need to communicate with your market hasn't changed, but the avenues of communication and the audience have changed, giving rise to a lot of us [...]
In this interview with Randy MacLean of WayPoint Analytics, I explain to Randy how using a two-pronged strategy or approach to concierge-level customer service will easily result in an increase in profitability. The first step to creating the strategy is to determine the true profitability of each customer. With this data on profitability, a two-pronged customer [...]