Use the Recession to Drive Change

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In a recent article by Jack Keough, Industrial Distribution Magazine reported the results of a reader survey which indicates most industrial distributors are battening down the hatches for a long recession. They are cutting travel, clearing inventory and instituting hiring freezes. In a recession, preserving cash is important, but distributors can also put the recession to good use. Now is the time to drive change in your organization.

When it comes to implementing new processes, such as Account Targeting, Planning or CRM reporting, Distributor Sales Managers always find their “old-hand journeyman sellers” to be the most resistant. The new guys are compliant, but the very people who could have the largest impact drag their feet and think of a million reasons to not follow procedures. Often, because of their relationships and skill sets they still manage to perform, but this does not take away from the significance of their inflexibility. These kinds of headlines cause even the most hard-nosed skeptics to think about new things.

Read the rest here http://www.inddist.com/article/CA6629427.html

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