Drive your business forward with an ERP

by Art Waskey | Mar 7, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured

Take advantage of your data

Due to a proven track record of delivering products, small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) enjoy working relationships built on trust. In order for SMBs to succeed, they need to know the advantages they have with their customers. Additionally, the digital copies that are stored in most businesses purchase history. computers which store digital copies of their purchase histories. To take advantage of this data, a company must incorporate an Enterprise Resource Plan (ERP).

An Enterprise Resource plan can tie together all of your work processes including customer service (ordering, pricing, and product knowledge); operations (order tracking and warehouse inventory control); administration (order processing and bill paying); sales (prospecting, customer products, history, and purchases); and marketing (website, advertising, merchandising, social media, research, and training).

ERPs are vital to the success of small and medium-sized businesses, so it pays to hire an expert who can consolidate business data at a price that works for you. ERP’s can protect your company as well as unify commerce and enable you to compete head-on in the digital world and drive the business forward.

Key Values

To compete with bigger companies, SMBs need to offer added value. Using an ERP can bring three key benefits to distributors:

• Low TCO (total cost of ownership) — This will enhance the return on investment and the digital initiatives you are putting in place.
• Increased sales and margins — As stated before, ERPs can streamline processes and save time. In addition, this will increase the opportunity for sales representatives to cross-sell and up-sell.
• Increased business process agility — Unified commerce companies can make a store more productive or open a new branch more quickly.  It also presents additional channels for customers to interact with the organization.

Drive business forward

By helping customers, distributors can also help themselves. Mark Dancer explains: “Customers need to evolve for the digital age, but like distributors, many customers are uncertain about the future. By developing expertise around how customers will do business and helping them transform, distributors will drive their businesses forward.”

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Outside Sales Is Switching Positions

by Art Waskey | Feb 22, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured

I was fortunate to be part of the glory days of an outside distributor sales team. We built strong customer relationships. Using our technical skills, metric reviews, planned vendor calls, and product training, we quarterbacked our sales goals. As a result, we grew sales an average of 8% per year for 30 plus years. Today’s digital landscape, however, has changed the way the game is played. It’s put the outside sales rep into more of a scouting position.

Change in responsibilities

As a result of the pandemic, we have seen a digital transformation in the way we buy and sell. While some smaller markets may still support the old model of selling. Eventually, they too will be affected by digitization.

Technology has changed the advising role and responsibilities of the outside sales rep in many ways. For example, the outside sales rep was once responsible for controlling the flow of ideas, taking orders, checking stocks, chasing backorders, and correcting pricing errors. With the arrival of Automated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), many of these responsibilities are no longer part of the job. Furthermore, tied into mobile devices like smartphones, ERP makes sales transactions are faster, more accurate, and more direct. Consequently, this has changed the role of the outside rep to the middle man in multiple sales processes.  

From quarterback to scout

In a recent podcast, Larry Davis, CEO of AgoNow, discussed the salesperson’s customer relationship journey in digital times. Davis described the salesperson as a football quarterback, a planner, or an executor of plays between the customer and distributor. Correspondingly, the outside rep of today/tomorrow needs to be a scout. “Their job is to scout out opportunities and look for ways to add value through conversations or walking through the customer’s facilities.”

Create strong partnerships

As customers continue to migrate to digital procurement alternatives, the salesperson must be trained in the role of collaborator. To compete, we must be able to coordinate a customer/distributor partnership. That kind of coordination requires access to talent outside the distributor’s four walls. As Davis suggests, the position of an outside salesperson today is that of a scout. He must be able to organize strong partnerships with suppliers, technology integrators, consultants, and information providers.

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Success or Failure, the Choice is Yours

by Art Waskey | Feb 15, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured

A choice- crisis as opportunity

There was a time in my life when many people around me didn’t think I had the necessary knowledge and ability to be a successful salesman. In fact, at one point, a corporate vice president wrote to my sales manager suggesting that I be terminated.  My self-worth was battered. But I had a choice to make — success or failure, using my crisis as an opportunity. Fortunately, my sales manager believed in me and put his energy into building my confidence. I chose to succeed, followed his advice, and rose through the ranks. The complaining VP wrote a letter to the sales manager apologizing for his earlier criticism and praising my work. I still have a copy of that letter 50 years later!

Opportunity cloaked in crisis

Everyone responds to crisis in their own way. In The Go-Givers Sell More, authors Bob Burg and John Mann discuss the different ways people react to a crisis of confidence. They state: “For some, such an experience can lead to growth, wisdom, and great depth, while it leads others to become hardened and embittered.”  

Importantly, Burg and Mann believe crisis offers hidden opportunity. They write: “Crises in life are the greatest gifts that come to you from unexpected places and they rarely arrive neatly wrapped and clearly marked, like lottery winnings in the mailbox or a new car in the driveway.”  The secret to success is to find the gift and open the opportunity.

Get busy living

How do you dig your way out of a crisis? Andy Dufresne says in The Shawshank Redemption, “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.”  As an example, Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman in the World once contemplated suicide. He attributes his success as a best-selling writer today to his recovery from that crisis and those that helped him along the way.

The path to success

We will all face problems in our lives that require the support of others and belief in self. Viewing a crisis as an opportunity to improve your personal situation opens up choices that can lead you away from failure and toward success.

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The New Just In Time Strategy

by Art Waskey | Feb 8, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured

The pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of business. We all remember how long it took for some to accept automated attendants, email, and texting. That was because the progression wasn’t driven by an unexpected disruption. The pandemic forced us to move more rapidly into online virtual communications. As a result, we have had to adopt a whole new “Just in Time” (JIT) strategy to selling.

Influencers abound

Your customers’ view of face-to-face meetings has changed.  A sales rep is only one stop on the information highway now. I’m sure you have found that in some cases your customer knows more about the product than you do. Your sales strategy has to adjust to the new reality. As an account representative, you need to become better equipped to respond to the customer with unlimited access to the internet.  Brett Adamson advises: “The amount of product and service information available to B2B customers has become overwhelming. Analyst reports, corporate blogs, display advertising, email marketing, infographics, podcasts, white papers, word-of-mouth recommendations — all are competing for the opportunity to influence buyers.”

The delivery issue

Just In Time delivery has become more important than ever thanks to shipping competitors like Amazon. According to a recent study from Merkle there has been a sharp increase in the number of B2B buyers who complain about delivery times. Of the decision-makers polled, 44% agree that “it takes far too long to make a purchase from most of our B2B suppliers.” This was up 28% in 2020.

Ingredients of importance

Consider these six ingredients that are now of increased importance to your delivery operations:

• Consistent on-time and accurate deliveries
• Speed of response and adaptation to changing plans
• Customized products and services
• Expertise, information, and support
• Ability to teach new skills/knowledge
• A progressive approach to all company stakeholders (Executive, Operations, Finance, Administration, IT, Marketing and Sales)

Make adjustments

Today’s B2B, face-to-face seller, must focus on making adjustments to his process and delivery operations in accordance with the new Just In Time strategy.

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How to Attract and Retain Employees during a Labor Shortage

by Art Waskey | Jan 25, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured

Looking for fulfillment

With over 38 million people in the US leaving their jobs in 2021, the coronavirus pandemic has spawned what some are calling the Great Resignation. According to Business Insider, research shows that people want to pursue more fulfilling careers. Distributors were experiencing difficulty with staffing before the pandemic. Now they are looking for strategies to attract and retain employees during an acute labor shortage.  Offering people a fulfilling career within your company is more important than ever.

Special delivery

Hiring and keeping good drivers was difficult for distributors pre-pandemic. With Covid creating an explosion in demand for delivered goods, the driver shortage is more challenging than ever. To find and retain good drivers, it’s important to understand what keeps them interested in working for you.  According to Transport Topics, truck drivers report their top reasons to change carriers are: compensation (33.9%), home time consistency (21.6%), job frustration (11%), lack of communication (8.7%), relationship with driver manager (7.5%) and equipment quality (6.4%).

Understand the Reasons

Understanding why people leave your company is critical to employee retention.  From my research, here are the top reasons employees leave and my advice on how to offset them.

1. Unsatisfactory pay – According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov), 4.4 million US employees (3% of the workforce) quit their jobs in September of 2021. At the same time we saw the consumer price index rise. Salaries not keeping up with the cost of living is a major reason for employees to leave. Your base pay changes should reflect inflationary increases. In addition, bonuses and extra benefits are a good way to compensate for short term financial conditions.
2. Unhealthy work/life balance – Most people will put in extra effort if it produces other benefits. Consider offering your employees more time off, a chance to work from home, and/or flexible hours. These help create a better work/life balance.
3. Lack of a defined career pathway – When a person’s career doesn’t follow the expected trajectory, he may view his employer with skepticism and decreased trust. To avoid this, present clear paths for advancement within your company. Offer professional development opportunities and encourage feedback and transparency.
4. Flawed company culture – A flawed company culture repels talented employees. I work with several clients who want out of the corporate world. They are tired of its unfulfilled commitments. Broken promises are a sure way to demoralize your staff. Be sure you say what you mean, and do what you say.

Retain and Save

Recruiter Humantelligence estimates that every time you replace a salaried employee, it cost 6 to 9 months of that salary. You also lose productivity. To attract and retain employees during a labor shortage, be sure you understand what motivates them to work for you. Act on those factors. When turnover is low, employees feel valued and will stay.

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The Makings of an Effective Leader

by Art Waskey | Jan 11, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured

When I consult with the next generation of business owners and key executives, I am frequently asked what makes an effective leader. This is an important question. As John Maxwell notes in The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” He asks, “What makes people want to follow a leader?” And, “Why do people reluctantly comply with one leader while passionately following another to the ends of the earth?”

Key leadership principles

Here are four stated leadership principles from writers I admire that address these questions:

1.  Accountability – In The Oz Principle, the authors explain how we lead by resolving problems using these four steps to accountability: see it, own it, solve it, and do it.
2. Influence – In The Go-Giver, Burg and Mann show us that influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interest above your own.
3.  Trustworthiness – In The 8th Habit we learn from Steven Covey that 90% of all leadership failures are failures of character. He purports that an effective leader needs to be trustworthy and that trust is developed from strong character and competency.
4. Multipliers – In Multipliers the authors explain, “Multipliers are genius makers who bring out the intelligence in others. They build collective, viral intelligence in organizations. Diminishers are absorbed in their own intelligence, stifle others, and deplete the organization of crucial intelligence and capability.”  A leader needs to be a multiplier.

Today’s successful leader

Experience shows us that these four character qualities are foundational to the makings of a successful leader. To be an effective influencer in your organization, show accountability, put others first, be trustworthy, and use your ability to bring out the intelligence in those you lead.

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Boosting Inside Sales

by Art Waskey | Jan 4, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured

Tapping inside potential

Digitalization, combined with a worldwide pandemic, has caused significant disruption in distribution sales, especially inside sales. Advice on how to succeed on the new playing field, particularly in regard to servicing your 80/20 accounts (the 20% that generate 80% of your sales), is plentiful. I have written recently on the importance of using Enterprise Selling techniques to retain and gain customers in this digital age. However, there is also a wealth of information on another approach for distribution account retention — boosting sales from the inside.

Blending sales techniques

While each offers a different approach to sales, Enterprise Selling and Inside Sales Management, can work well together. By blending these two models, company assets can be coordinated to boost sales. Campaign coordinators and field specialists can offer support to the inside sales team. Project leaders can work with customer service and business development staff to improve results. In addition to supporting Enterprise accounts, this blended model puts resources into mid-size, high profit accounts and encourages more effective prospecting activity.

The inside sales team and digitization

While the pandemic temporarily closed the door to servicing customers in person, it opened wide another. Today, the level of communication between rep and customer can be far greater with virtual face-to-face call activity. Digitalization also provides better access to account information. To take advantage of new digital tools and boost sales, you need a well-developed team making outgoing calls.

Focus on customer interaction

The inside sales team should focus on these types of interactions:

1. Next tier territory accounts – Direct your sales team to work with outside sales territory managers to focus on building business in the group below the 80/20 accounts.
2. Attend to the In-store customer – Lead generation and midsize account development can originate from customers who regularly stop by a branch office. These clients may be picking up a purchase, renting equipment, or just visiting your showroom. The inside sales department needs to engage with the customer to see what additional products or services they might use.
3. Marketing department – Social Media is now a major means of marketing.  Make sure your social media team works in sync with the sales team to capture new business leads.
4. Business lists – Make a focused effort to have your inside sales team develop leads from vendors, SIC/NAICS coding, social media, website data, etc. To make these lists effective, have inside sales reps qualify listed leads before sending them to the outside sales team.

Be strategic

Be strategic with a blended sales model that works to retain existing customers and penetrate new accounts. Using Enterprise Selling and refining the efforts of your Inside Sales Team, you can boost sales and stop losing business to alternative channels.

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