"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...

I’m a Salesperson, for crying out loud, why do I need an Annual Plan? Some will do just about anything before planning. It takes more than just adding it to the top of your "do do" list. Let me talk directly to my friends who fill the critically important role of Distributor Sales. First, I consider myself to be a member of your brotherhood.  I know it’s a tough job.  Day after day, you load in to your vehicle, had out to face down angry customers, smart-alecky purchasing guys, and unsavory reps from vendors.  You trudge through rain, sleep, snow and traffic that would wilt the heartiest of letter carriers.  If no one has said it recently, thanks for what you do.  Salespeople are the backbone of the Distribution Industry.  Now don’t you feel better?  But here comes the part where I explain precisely why you’ve got to make time for something many find distasteful.  Bear with me… I promise it will only take a moment. Regardless...

This month the fine folks at InTech Magazine were kind enough to ask me to write an editorial on the automation market.  My guess is they really wanted someone who was “long in the tooth” to comment on the cavalcade of changes in product technology – "a back in my day the PLCs ran on kerosene" sort of piece.   Being a distribution guy, I penned “ Selecting an Automation Distributor?  It’s about finding the right stuff ”.  In the automation world, over 89% of the customers buy from distributors.  Yet many are tossing dimes down the drain because they aren’t tapping into the right distributor services.  Catch us on Lulu.com In the article I charged customers with asking their distributors these questions: ·          What can your organization do to improve the uptime of my facility? ·          Do you have a plan to help us drive down our cost of doin...