July 2nd is the mid-point of the year.  Whether business is BOOMING (see what we did there) or you're feeling the summer slump, we all need to look ahead to the rest of the year. When we're all back, relaxed and FOCUSED, we will dive into how to use your current situation to be more successful in the latter half of the year. In the meantime, enjoy your parties or picnics with family and friends. Have a safe and happy Fourth--without trips to the ER! Don't want to miss it? ...

Let’s face it, summer time is filled with distractions.  Our customers are distracted; they have vacations, kids playing Little League, golf leagues, cabins in the woods, lawns to mow and who knows what else.  This distraction is contagious.  Being people too, distributor folks get caught up in all the summer stuff.   Sometime around September 1 st , we snap out of our summer induced behavior and put our noses to the grindstone.  For the next week or so, we are going to talk about a few fall tune-ups for distributors.  Think summer end elixir for a better year end.  If ever you planned to institute a new habit, this is the time.  For the next four minutes, let’s think about selling time.  We’ll ask a few questions:  How much time do our salespeople spend selling?  What distracts them? How might we put the beauty back into the process? How much time do salespeople spend actually selling? Based on observations of hun...

In a recent conversation with a very progressive distributor, we touched on an age old topic: the activities of factory salespeople.   To give you a flavor for the call a bit about the distributor.     They are extremely qualified, technically competent and have demonstrated the ability to drive their business forward.  In a time when most distributors in their sector are struggling, their sales are still pushing upward; well ahead of the industry average.  At the highest levels, their supply-partners admire their work, but there is a strange disconnect at the local level.  The local factory sales guys don’t seem to get along with the distributor folks.  Things get complicated from here.  The distributor, being technically qualified, well trained and totally familiar with their supplier’s products doesn’t need a lot of support.  In a couple of instances, it turns out the distributor team is actually more savvy on the products and app...

"Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays" This is a funny line from a movie that often goes through the  heads of anyone who works in a traditional or corporate type office.  Sometimes you’re just not looking forward to getting back to the grind.  Other times, you need a vacation from your vacation.  But basically, the premise of waiting 5 more days until the weekend can be a bit daunting.   I just returned last night from a trip to Mexico City where relaxation was apparently not on the agenda.  Returning to the loads of email, stacks of mail, and a full voicemail, I can say I have a case of the Mondays…on Tuesday. But I have to wonder, since my fine readers are from all over the world and work in so many different fields, maybe your Mondays signify something different:  Maybe you’re the fresh new sales guy looking forward to your first sales call. Maybe you’re in Purchasing and you’ve debated all weekend ...

Part III: Key Topics to get the Planning Juices Flowing Joint Planning with Key Supply Partners Not all vendors are created equally. Some have the power to cause our business to accelerate; others don’t. We have proof that companies who plan with their supply partners grow faster than their competition. Lots of companies go through the motions of planning with their partners. If you would like to hear of our proof, give me a call. Major Marketing Activities These can be marketing activities, plans for customer presentations, open houses, trade shows and other such events. Often we observe distributors rushing into events they have known about for a very long time – just because they lacked planning. Major Technology Initiatives What major initiatives can fundamentally change the way you do business? Here we are referring to things like CRM System implementation, implementing pricing tools, rolling out a new software system or warehouse bar-coding projects. Produc...