As we start our tale, we find ourselves in the 130 year old cottage which serves as the office of River Heights Consulting.   Frank Hurtte, the organization’s founder, seems totally absorbed in his work.   Glancing around the office, we see several mementos of Hurtte’s long association with Kris Kringle and the Santa Organization.   There’s a picture of Kringle carrying his legendary bag.   The likeness of Kris keeling in front of an ancient manger is prominently displayed near a time worn photo of a much younger Frank seated on Kris’ lap.   The phone rings; the answer is a seasonal combination of Christmas Cheer and morning routine.  But in a flash, we see Hurtte spew some of his coffee and snap to attention.  The conversation goes like this: FH:   River Heights Consulting, Frank Hurtte speaking. Elf:   Frank, this is Elf Alabaster Snowball.  You don’t know me, but I know all about you, including that pouting incident back ...

Kris called a meeting with his top elves. These were the folks, assuming elves count as folks, who have had centuries of experience filling Santa Enterprises’ magic bags to the brim for all the nice girls and boys. And, as Kris thought back, this team had never missed a single Christmas. Through massive snow storms, candy cane shortages and even the great reindeer food shortage of 1954, they always came through; never, ever missing a single good little boy or girl. Even though he was madder than a wet reindeer, Kris sent a politely worded invitation to the new elfin expert down in procurement, a certain Elf Pricedrop. Please be aware Santa Enterprises hadn’t held a meeting in December for eons. Kris believed in Santa. Under his magically jolly leadership style, the top elf in every workshop was empowered to make their own decisions. These elves believed in Santa too. This is the busiest of seasons, so no one was taking this gathering of top elves lightly. The meeting was...

'Tis the season. When my daughter was young, I loved telling her stories. After a while, I got tired of the classic princes kisses frog and lives happily ever after kind of tale. If I had to make them up, why not make the sales guy the hero. For the next several years, my daughter heard a collection of tales where bad guys in business suits were fed to hungry dragons and purchasing types turned into frogs. This year we are determined to spin such a tale. Trust me, there will be a happy ending. Talk about seasonal surges, Santa’s North Pole Enterprises experiences the largest single seasonal surge in any venture, anywhere. It calls for dedication, it demands expertise and it demands for some really fancy footwork during the last days of December. As President and CEO, Kris Kringle has seen some changes. Quoting him directly: “Back in the old days, most of the goodies we delivered to the good boys and girls were made of wood. We simply chopped down a few trees, brought ...

Okay, so I’m not the kind of person who generally talks a lot about the soft and mushy side of life.  But, I assure you a couple of micros below this battle-hardened exterior of kryptonite lays a mushy guy who is touched by the tearjerker movies on the Hallmark Channel. And even though we celebrated Thanksgiving last week, we continue to be in a season of giving thanks.  We’re supposed to stop our daily chores and thank our Creator for all that is good in our world.  I have an endless list of blessings; health, home, family, friends, and so much more.  But I wanted to give you just a quick list of four things we distributors should also be thankful for today: Only a Knowledge-based Distributor can provide proactive recommendations to our customers. Not Amazon.  Not the internet. Only a Knowledge-based Distributor can gather information from multiple sources within the customer and develop conclusion that extend in to the future. Only a Knowledge-base...