June 2008 Entries
"The law of unintended consequences pushes us ceaselessly through the years, permitting no pause for perspective." --- RichardSchickel
Looking back over my 35 years in the industry, I recently realized that this past decade has given us a ride like no other. A technology boom that looked like it might last forever, followed by a bursting bubble, exacerbated by a horrible terrorist attack that changed us all forever; the long, slow economic rise in the mid-90’s, followed just recently by the current credit crunch and debilitating “stagflation” changing our business and personal economics yet again.
As business leaders, our stakeholders expect us to...
This is just a short note to my dedicated readers to recommend the newsletter from Franklin Foodservice, called Foodservice Marketing Insights. Dave DeWalt writes and compiles it monthly. Visit www.Franklin-Foodservice.com to review his web postings, back issues, and to subscribe to his newsletter.
This month, for example, he has reprinted an important study by Merrifield Consulting on Distributor Consolidation; a commentary from Dave on the Broker-Manufacturer Dilemma; and a post script about the current “menu pricing” from the airlines.
If you are interested in distribution and sales issues in the channel, this newsletter will provide insight and “ponderables” that will make you go hmmmmmmmmmm.
For...
With the untimely passing of George Carlin earlier this week, there has been a lot of press about his infamous "Seven Words You Can't Say on Radio or Television" routine. It triggered something in my head…
An odd trigger, but a trigger nevertheless, bringing me to the realization that there are seven TPM words that the industry pays tribute to in TPM, and yet has done little to fully address in Trade Promotion Management:
1. Standardization: Who of us can claim to have a bulletproof contract management program and process?
2. Communication: Are our communications with our trading partners complete and automatic?
3. ...
Marketing and sales teams are both are responsible for generating company revenue, represented by the equation: Opportunities in pipeline X estimated deal revenue X closure rate DIVIDED BY the “sales cycle time.” The answer to this calculation can be multiplied by the number of salespeople in your organization to project your revenue for the period calculated.
Take a look at this equation again, and note that even a SMALL INCREASE in one or more of these factors can make a HUGE difference. And the better marketing and sales are aligned, the more likely each of these components can be improved.
I...
I subscribe to the Microsoft-At-Work RSS feed (even though I often get quite frustrated with the evil empire as wrought by Bill Gates). Regardless, today’s “feed” by Christopher Elliott (source article linked at the end of this post), outlines eight tips for handling email to and from a wireless device. Since SmartPhones are so ubiquitous, I excerpted the key messages below:
If you’re sending to someone on a wireless device
Consider sending the message later, when the recipient is at PC. Seriously. Your message to a wireless device is likely to be glossed over or even overlooked completely. If you...
This entry has nothing to do with TPM, but BLOGS are sometimes for venting, and I got somma that to do…
I run the Foodservice University system on the Microsoft VISTA platform. Yeah, yeah…I know. It’s notoriously unstable and fraught with bugs. Regardless, that’s how we roll.
This morning when I logged on, I was prompted that there were “updates from Microsoft.” A frequent occurrence, so I launched the update. It stated the ‘SP1” would be loading and asked if “I approved”. How was I to know? Why would Microsoft ask me to do anything that it really didn’t want me to...
Always on the lookout for new sales productivity tools, I recently discovered some really amazing ones in David Pogue’s column in the NY Times. In it he outlined some new cellular phone features that will not only save you time, but $$$ as well, since they are all FREE!
You don’t have to download anything, or connect with servers…all of these services work thru voice recognition (yes, I know…we’ve all heard “I’m sorry…I didn’t get that…” prompting you to repeat your listing at an ever-increasing volume. These services seem to use a better recognition system that actually works.) And since they...
I hear a lot of you out there in manufacturer-land unfairly maligning your field managers. It’s true that there are Regional Managers who are ineffective, improperly trained, and are living examples of the Peter Principle (“A person rises to the level of his own incompetence.”). But whose fault is that? Are you ready to continue to “point the finger” or are you ready to “pull the thumb”?
Your Regional Managers should be the “glue” that holds your field sales group together, bridging the gap between your top management team, and your sales agencies and/or sales reps. They implement strategy and...
Mike Shields column in a recent issue of MediaWeek struck a major chord with me. And I thought I was the only one...
He admits he’s confused with exactly what to do with Facebook. He states that he is a “…34-year old…” who feels “…like an embarrassingly clueless old man whenever I visit the site. I'm the guy who showed up at spring break a few years too many after graduation.” Dude, I get it…your column I mean!
I originally established my Facebook account last year to “connect” with a few young people I met at a networking event. Since...