Santa Speaks his Mind and Talks about a Strange Gift
Hey everyone, Santa here. Remember me? I’m the stout guy with the big beard and dapper red suit.
If you can get away from your Zoom calls and COVID concerns for just four minutes, I want to give you a seasonal update.
You think you have problems, let me clue you into things at the North Pole. Things are not great up here. How about keeping 300 elves in social distancing mode? Their perpetual diet of cookies leaves crumbs everywhere and every time they rummage around inside the cookie jar it makes me wince. No hand sanitizer, no plastic gloves, just bare-handed grabs; there is no telling where Sneezy’s filthy little paws have been. Mrs. Claus is on the warpath too. These elves seem to be eating toilet paper. Her snide comments about the world-wide shortage of toilet paper are anything but festive. Top that off with tens of thousands of kids sending me handwritten cards and letters. Exactly when did they stop teaching handwriting in the first grade? Nowadays, your jolly old pal, Santa, has twelve reindeer and a habitual headache. Fear not, dear readers, this is not a message of gloom.
Your man Santa is about to present you with a strange and wonderful gift; a gift tied perfectly to the season and the coming New Year. While the new-fangled vaccine is a gift and a wonderful thing for mankind, I have a different gift in mind. Remembering back to your childhood, some of the best presents came in rather strand wrappers – maybe like that toy from Aunt Sally that came wrapped in a somewhat soiled shopping sack. This one comes bundled in a disturbing package; a grim and scary package. But a gift is a gift. This one comes to the world of distribution.
We will call it the gift of Pandemic. Before you rev up your Humbugs and grab onto your Grinch Hat, allow old Santa to explain.
I am old, 1750 years old according to the folks at Google. During this time, I have seen a lot of ups and downs. I am darned good at keeping track of things, check out the Naughty and Nice list where I have details on my pal, Frank Hurtte. I can tell you tales about his escapades, but instead, let’s talk economic storms – just like this COVID stuff.
Economic storms, recessions, downturns, and even global pandemics accelerate change. Business trends that started slowly, long before the storm, somehow become mainstream. Out of dark cloud comes a bright and shiny silver lining. Many distributor types long for the day when things go back to normal. Santa believes it will be a new normal. Improvements thought of as temporary will remain. The habits learned over the past nine months will become new strengths. The elves and I have whipped up a few examples for you to ponder some time over a hot chocolate.
Newly developed strength – Outbound phone selling
Santa has been watching and noticed there are a lot more outgoing calls to customers these days. We at the North Pole have shifted several of you over to the Nice side of the list based on the preparation and planning which has gone into making these calls valuable. You started off slow, weather reports and coronavirus updates have slowly morphed into meaningful questions and solution suggestions.
You got good with Zoom, MS Teams, and a bunch of other
Customers are seeing presentations on demand. They are even calling you asking for information and you are delivering catalog pages, PowerPoints, and other visual aids instantly. Nice job! Santa and the elves approve.
What’s more, a few of you have started probing non-traditional customer contacts. Contacting (and impressing) people like safety managers, production superintendents, and even plant managers is growing more commonplace.
During his annual brown nose and beg for presents visit with Santa at the mall, Frank Hurtte, the reigning Olympic Champion of Naughty, tells me several distributors are setting up outbound sales specialists. This is a byproduct of the gift of Pandemic.
Distributors are getting serious about webstores
Santa is tuned into the whole webstore thing in a big way. The kids are using it to pick out their presents and their parents putting it to work buying everything from groceries to the products you sell. The elves continue to call the move in your business to my attention.
According to a bit of research done by River Heights Consulting, some of your customers have all but ditched their dusty catalog collection. If they aren’t actually pushing the button to close the purchase, they are using webstores as a source of product information. Those in the OEM and special machine builder categories also say online inventory data and stock levels are particularly important as well. Thankfully, many distributors have risen to the occasion.
Inside Sales has taken on a new meaning
Santa already said this, but 1750-year-old elves have an excuse for repeating. Distributors are making outbound calls. Sometimes, these are coming from the inside sales group. Santa likes this. Better still are the technical resources being added. Customers can get technical questions answered as quickly as you can say, Saint Nick.
This all ties nicely to new buying habits our customers are developing. The appreciation for “milk-route” sellers just dropping by every Tuesday is about the same as little Jimmy’s joy of receiving a sock full of coal. Customers are using the internet to gather product information, but when they have a specific question, they value a person on the other end of the phone.
Distributors have discovered video
We are not just talking about the Zoom meetings all of you seem so fond of. Instead, we are talking about the ability of a distributor to record and send out set-up instructions with a video. Everybody is using them, even your pal Santa consults with videos to make repairs to the sleigh. If you lack the belief in me that you should have, here is one I found extremely useful. Many of you have put together videos just like this for your customers. That pleases Santa more than a frosted gingerbread man and a cup of hot chocolate.
Distributors are finally charging for services
Recently, our friend and all-around “Nice” guy, Ian Heller, did a detailed study of the services provided by distributors. It spells out the importance of services to distribution today and into the future. You can join Rudolf in watching an archived version of his presentation right here.
Time to load up the big sleigh and head down a chimney or two, or maybe 300 million
Count your blessings. The last year has not been high on Santa’s list and probably not on yours either. We are still alive, still in business, and probably poised for a better future than before this massive mess. Let’s count our blessings and accept the “gift” we have been given.
Now back to another meeting with the elves. I hope Sneezy remembers his mask this time.
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year from the North Pole!
line "in the trenches" experience with over 13 years of service to knowledge-based distributors and their manufacturer partners.
He and the elves at River Heights Consulting are ready to help you through these times of COVID-selling!
Email or call today to make the gift of Pandemic work for you.
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