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Frequent Flyers, Forgotten Value: A Pricing Wake-Up Call

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Frequent Flyers, Forgotten Value: A Pricing Wake-Up Call By Desiree Grace and Frank Hurtte Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is marketing-speak for the value of capturing a customer early in their buying journey and keeping that customer for life. Statistics show that it takes 5-7 times MORE money to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing customer. Treating your best customers better is key to customer retention and reducing customer churn. This should be a company-wide effort. Pricing strategy and execution should align with that strategy, and while typically part of Finance, they should not be excluded from company-wide coordination. Let’s review a real-world example from the airline industry. Recently, I had the experience of booking a three-legged journey with United. Due to a colleague changing schedules, I had to cancel one of the legs. As a Premier 1k and Global Services customer, I expected some sort of refund for the cancelled journey, since I was essentially buying ...
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Self-Control: Your Leadership Superpower

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Leadership Qualities: Keep Calm and Carry  Lead On. By Desiree Grace   “Control your emotions and actions,” said Chad Williams, a former Navy SEAL, while discussing the importance of self-control in leadership. I couldn't agree more. A leader sets the tone for their team, whether they choose to fight, flee, freeze, or, even worse, panic. There is tremendous value in emotional self-discipline and keeping calm, even in the most challenging circumstances. It’s not easy, but it is achievable. We’ve all seen this popular poster, created in 1939, to keep the British people motivated when under threat of air attacks. The situations we face are not quite as dire, but the point remains. Let’s talk about three ways you can keep calm and demonstrate self-control when dealing with challenging work situations. Imagine an important customer is involved in a tense negotiation, and the situation escalates, raises his voice, pounds his fist on the conference room table, and makes derog...
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Press, Prep, Protect: Why PR is a Non-Negotiable!

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PR- The Finishing Touch to Your Marketing Plan Desiree Grace Public Relations (PR) is an important tool in a Marketing Manager’s toolkit. While it may seem like a minor or decorative aspect of your company communications, similar to decorative light switches, don’t underestimate the importance of having a PR expert on your team. Just as you need a master plasterer to prepare your walls and finish your ceilings, it’s essential to manage your company’s image and oversee your corporate communications effectively. Let’s break it down. While PR is related to organizational image and is a close skill set to corporate advertising, it’s more than that. The audience for public relations is much broader than your current and prospective customers. It includes ALL stakeholders, people like current and potential employees, vendors, neighbors, the city and county where you work, even government officials, your industry at large, in addition to your customers. The objective with proactive pu...
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Grow Loyal Customers with White Swan Strategy

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White Swan Strategy: Increasing Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)—It’s NOT Magic! Desiree Grace   Some people think loyal customers are like magical unicorns—rare, and subject to luck, alignment of the planets, and other uncontrollable nonsense—the stuff of fairy tales. I would argue that loyal customers are WHITE SWANS. White Swans are highly predictable events that can be easily anticipated, and their size and importance can be easily estimated. You DO have control, if you know what to do. The choice is yours. Customer Lifetime Value defined Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is key to customer retention and long-term profitability.  You can measure this easily by multiplying customer annual revenue by customer lifespan. Then, subtract any acquisition costs for year one and retention or servicing costs, like rebates, from the annual number, and presto! You have customer lifetime value. Let’s walk through an example: Cobalt Electric buys $10,000 per month per year from St...
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Days of Our Distribution: Tariff Troubles & Supply Chain Scandals

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Tariff Troubles & Supply Chain Scandals By Desiree Grace & Frank Hurtte The plot twists are enough to give you vertigo. Your friends are now your enemies, or are they frenemies? Your cousin next door is persona non grata, and your old arch-nemesis is now your bestie. The pairings and couplings get stranger and stranger. No, we are not talking about daytime drama, aka Soap Operas. It’s “Tariff-Time!” What to do? You can’t change the channel. Eating popcorn and sitting on your couch isn’t advisable, either. Let’s break down some of the challenges and talk about how to cope. While the numbers and countries impacted change by the hour, directionally, we know that products and components sourced from the bid C, China, are most impacted. This impact will flood downstream from manufacturers to distributors and end-users, with potential impact on rep agents, too.  Major issues and concerns – Manufacturers: • Manufacturers are concerned that tariff prices will impact their market ...
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Tools of the Trade: When Promotion Beats Advertising

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Tools of the Trade: When Promotion Beats Advertising By Desiree Grace Sometimes you need a hammer, sometimes you need a mallet. Sometimes you need a crowbar, and other times a pry bar is the right tool for the job. This holds for the marketing trade. You need the right tools for the job. In the case of good marketing, sometimes Sales Promotion is the best tool. Sales Promotion is an incentive used to motivate action. Your target could be end-users, the channel, aka distribution, or it could be business buyers, like the MRO buyer or government procurement gal. Whichever target market you choose, Sales Promotion is gaining in popularity because it is easily measured and is a great way to stand out from the competition. It can also increase the perceived value of your products and services, as well as add value to your channel. I like Sales Promotion because you can put together a strategy and execute it quickly, as compared to traditional Advertising. Also, you can undermine a ...
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12 Ways to Win Distributor Mindshare (Even If You're the Smallest Vendor)

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12 Ways to Win Distributor Mindshare (Even If You're the Smallest Vendor)  By Desiree Grace You are number 47, and they’re now serving number three. The big idea: Experience dictates that the typical distributor manager has time to manage between 5-7 supplier-partner relationships effectively. These management duties typically involve such tasks as ensuring proper sales activities and engagement, continual oversight of sales volumes, promotional activities, and participation in supplier-partner initiatives.    Typically, the 5-7 lines receiving support are the largest suppliers to their organization.   This creates a daunting task for smaller manufacturers or those just launching in the market. Further, this situation is known and appreciated by most progressive distributors, however, the time constraints outweigh the concern. A few have assigned duties for championing the cause of new products/technologies to category managers, specialists, or, in some instances, s...
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