If your business is any more complex than a lemonade stand, it’s likely that you do not need (and should not have) a unified, organization-wide workflow. But what you should have are unified inboxes within each department.
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This article was first published on Thomasnet.com. You can read the original here. Your salespeople are NOT short of leads! If you hear a crazy idea often enough, there’s a danger that you’ll come to passively accept it — particularly if it’s on the periphery of your primary interest area. Some of these ideas (think, astrology)… “Fuelling Growth: The abundance of leads in industrial sales”
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This article was first published on Thomasnet.com. You can read the original here. If you make revenue the responsibility of your sales department, you will handicap the growth of your organization. If you want your organization to grow, operations should be responsible for revenue and your sales department should focus exclusively on new business. Before… “Revenue Should Always Be the Responsibility of Operations, Never Sales”
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Late last night I was in conference with a potential client in South Africa (I’m in Australia, right now). Towards the end of our conversation, he asked if I thought much market intelligence could be gleaned from customer surveys. I answered (almost instinctively), data, yes; but, intelligence, no. When pressured for a more coherent answer,… “Customer surveys: data, yes; intelligence, no”
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From time to time, I come across managers who battle valiantly and unflinchingly to accomplish what appears to be downright impossible. To their credit, these noble individuals manage to notch up occasional successes! I even see entire businesses that owe their existence to the belief that, with enough passion, determination and brute force, miracles can… “On pushing string uphill”
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“If only we could get distribution … we’d have it made.” I hear this anxious declaration regularly. Particularly from manufacturers and software vendors. I’ve even heard it from a number of musicians! Manufacturers want representation from agents or retailers. Software vendors want to establish relationships with resellers. And musicians want representation from a record label.… “Why resellers don’t sell, and why you should be glad they don’t!”
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Now here’s a tough one … What would you do if you were providing a service that appeared to be identical to the service offered by your competitors – in spite of the fact that yours was clearly the superior offering? That was the problem faced by a large commercial cleaning contractor with whom I… “How clean is clean: lessons from a monopolist”
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