As you relax comfortably reading this article, vampires are plotting a diabolical simple strategy.   Their evil aim: suck the precious life’s blood from your unsuspecting business.   Like a hungry swarm of vampire bats menacing overhead, they’re everywhere.   And, based on the latest “as seen on TV vampirology”, they can feed for years before they finally finish you off. Before you start stringing up garlic necklaces for your staff and reading through ancient and musty lore of Transylvanian past, let me say these aren’t physical forms.  Rather, they come in the way of old time myths disguised as modern business practices.  So join me as we talk our way through the vampires in the Industrial Supply Business. The evil deeds of dastardly fellow, known as Count Purchasing, are legendary.  You could probably add a few anecdotal stories of your own.  But in our world, the greatest disaster to innocents with salesperson business cards comes w...

"Locking in" business without knowing more about your customer looks more like this. Let’s think about quantity discounts.  For many folks the idea of “locking in” business by offering up a special discount seems to make sense when future potential is involved.  Here’s how it works.  Acme Manufacturing has yet to purchase your new product but based on your knowledge of the Acme’s size and an intuition that Acme could buy lots of your product, you provide a discount.  Our analysis of many first time sales situations, indicates a couple of key points:   First, the discounts are provided unilaterally, with no probing of the customer’s current purchase price.  What’s worse, we see this tactic used with new, emerging technologies and products never before introduced to the customer.  Sometimes, the seller offhandedly informs the customer, “The normal price for this product is $1,000, but I am going to knock off a hundred dollars so your...