by Art Waskey | Apr 12, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
A mentor’s objective is to identify your needs and expectations and offer creative solutions that move your business forward. In today’s distribution business there are a growing number of experienced seniors. If you believe your team would benefit from a seasoned coach, consider enlisting a mentor.
5 Steps to Take
Executive mentors can help guide your business to growth. Here are some steps you can take with a coach.
Step 1: Understand the issues
A mind map should be created to summarize all the current growth issues. The goal of a mind map is to record key ideas and look for connections between them as projects. In many cases, unrecorded projects go unnoticed because they are never brought into focus. A mentor can guide you through the mapping process so that you do not waste precious time and energy.
In “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey suggests you can start the mapping process by putting first things first — his Habit #3. He recommends listing projects under two categories — Important and Urgent, and, Important but not Urgent.
Step 2: Prioritize the Projects
An experienced mentor can be invaluable for prioritizing and evaluating projects. Each week, they can ask your team to list, in order of urgency, the top five projects that need to be moved forward.
Step 3: Create Next Steps
Each Top 5 Project will likely require many actions. Use a mentor to help you plan each incremental step. Having seen/solved many issues before, your mentor can help you with the chronology of actionable steps.
Step 4: Implement Solutions
A mentor comes with a network of suppliers, equipment, and software providers he has engaged with in the past. Tapping into that network can help a distributor move more efficiently through project steps. For example, a distributor in the gas and welding industry may already have bulk CO2, and now wants to produce dry ice. If your mentor was once a manufacturer of dry ice, he will know several suppliers who can provide the best equipment, installation, and cost. This expedites your start-up.
Step 5: Track Completed Projects
There is no better motivation than visualization of past accomplishments. When a project is completed it should be dated and listed on a mind map. Moreover, I suggest recording them under the corporate divisions: Executive, Operations, Sales, and Administration.
Objectives achieved
Lastly, if you are a successful distributor on the move, but need help, consider enlisting a mentor. Tapping into a trusted source with years of experience, is one of the most effective ways to move a business forward. Mentors help you achieve your objectives efficiently.
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by Art Waskey | Mar 28, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Successful salespeople are constantly looking for ways to thrive in a marketplace loaded with alternative business channels. They ask, “How do I maintain or regain a sales standard at a time when products are so easy to purchase online? Is it possible to compete with the alternatives?” In other words, the answer is yes – employ digital capabilities.
Changing roles
Previously, I explained in an earlier article, competing against alternative channels starts with a realization that the digital transformation is changing the role of the salesperson. Its role is changing from quarterback to scout. Above all, as the quarterback, a salesperson had a large responsibility to control the flow of ideas, take orders, check stocks, chase backorders, and correct pricing errors. Furthermore, with the arrival of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, many of these responsibilities are now automated.
Additionally, the outside representative of today and tomorrow must be more of a scout. In other words, the job now requires that you look for ways to add value and draw in new customers. For example, one way to beat out the alternatives is to make sure your website engages customers.
Digital capabilities
In his recent article for Distributors’ Digital Doom Loop, Ian Heller summarizes these capabilities that drives customers to engage digitally:
- Customers get more value from your digital tools than those of your competitors
- Your customers prefer using your digital tools because they are fast and intuitive
- The digital tools you provide make the customer’s job easier
Heller goes on to explain: “Every distributor should conduct its own customer research to develop and prioritize its capabilities. The list of digital capabilities businesses value is exhaustive. Heller suggests you start with these:
- A portal which allows customers to manage their accounts
- Product training
- Uploaded technical drawings for quotes/prototyping
- The ability to schedule a service (i.e., safety audit)
- RFQ Form or Cart
- An equipment rental option
- The ability to schedule a repair
- A product return function
- A managing bin or vending replenishment option
- Access to technical support
- The ability to track deliveries
- Contacts for sales rep
- A customer service Chat option
- The ability to schedule or change a delivery
- A look up for repair parts
- The ability to trigger a blanket PO release
Act now
And lastly, in order to retain or recapture sales of simple standard products and beat the alternatives you need to act now. Be sure your distribution channel and ERP have the digital capabilities that will enable you to compete in today’s market.
by Art Waskey | Mar 14, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the wolf at the distributor’s door. It enables alternative channels to directly compete with your offerings.
As an example, I recently needed to replace a pair of faucets as part of a home renovation project. I went to the website of the local supplier recommended by my contractor. When I typed in the stock number on that site, I received a drop down from a national supplier. That company offered a 20% price reduction on the item plus 10-day free delivery and a 10% discount for a first time customer. By merely entering a stock number on a company’s website, its competitive suppliers had access to the request! This kind of access is enabled by AI and the adoption of this technology is moving rapidly.
Be strategic
Distributors need to have a strategic plan to offset the AI challenge. Look for new ways to innovate rather than just relying on the tried and true. For example, in the past, distributors have focused on best practices to remain competitive. While this remains important, in a recent article, Mark Dancer, CEO of Network for Business Innovation, cautions that best practices are not implementable, proven solutions but merely ways of catching up with what others are doing. Similarly, continuous improvement is about getting really, really good at what you already do. Combined, best practices and continual improvement do more to lock existing business models in place than to help companies leap forward with game-changing innovations.
Start with the fundamentals
I am working with a small distributor that is taking its first steps toward digitization. The company is giving all employees mobile computers. Depending on their roles, some may receive barcode scanners, radio frequency identification (RFID readers) and mobile printers. Amanda Honig, Regional Portfolio Manager for Zebra in North America, explains in a recent issue of Industrial Distribution, “This [mobile devices] is the fundamental ‘digital’ toolset in today’s distribution and warehousing environment. They can quickly locate, pick, and pack parts and equipment, report findings of visual quality inspections, and notify stakeholders when things are on the move to the next destination – whether that’s a shelf bin’ packaging line, loading dock, or customer.”
Deploy simple digitization
To deal with the AI wolf at the door, SMBs need to start by deploying simple digitalization of their data and workflow. Focus on core processes such as inventory management, receiving, picking, packaging, and shipping. Train your workers with dependable, mobile computers that improve daily activities. These steps will help you better compete in a world running on AI.
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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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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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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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