by Art Waskey | Mar 26, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Your Contact List is your lifeline. Managing it well is essential to your success. Let’s look at the skills required for an effective automated phone number and address system.
Sharing updates
Whether you operate in Microsoft Outlook, Google Contacts, or Apple Address Book, the great benefit of the habit of updating your contacts is the ability to share those updates with your network. As a past member of an executive team and now a consultant, I am constantly sharing and adding contacts.
Contact list features
Contact list software offers many valuable features such as the ability to identify and screen callers. Consider the time wasted on interruptions from answering meaningless calls.
The searchability of contact software allows you to access email addresses and phone numbers quickly. All smartphones and computers use the standard contact nomenclature.
You also can set up groups in your contacts. This allows you to reach several people at once, rather than sending multiple emails or texts. Group emails save time and the potential embarrassment of forgetting a key player for an important decision-making session. Finally, contact software is available for scanning calling cards. When starting a meeting with new people, scan their calling cards. This practice will increase your advocacy with your personnel, vendors, and clients.
Set up folders
The standard Contact folder isn’t for just storage — it can be used to transfer contacts into other named folders. Moving contacts into specified group folders on the sidebar of your screen makes it easier to remember and locate a new or seldom seen acquaintance. For example, if you can’t remember a contact’s name but you know he is one of your competitors, you can look in your folder named “competitors.” Listing other pertinent information in a contact’s notes also broadens your search capabilities.
Maximize list utility
Maximize the utility of your contact list program by keeping it up-to-date, taking advantage of its many features, and setting up a robust folder system. A carefully managed contact list is critical to business success.
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by Art Waskey | Mar 13, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Many purchasing decision makers are now digital natives and that number continues to grow. This makes the excellence of your digital capabilities critical to sales success in 2024. Here are some key technologies that your team needs to operate effectively in the digital marketplace.
Streamline with ERP
Enterprise selling requires a centralized software system known as an Enterprise Resource Program (ERP). This program helps streamline your company’s essential processes, such as inventory control, asset and rental management, customer sales records, accounting, and business intelligence. Integrating ERP data with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system unifies your internal processes. It also enables your customers to make purchases, review orders, search inventory, check delivery status, and review accounts payable online. As a result, field salespeople can focus on relationship building and value-added selling instead of the traditional tasks of quoting, pricing, and chasing backorders and deliveries.
The convenience of E-commerce
E-commerce software offers consumers the ability to order 24/7. It integrates your ERP with your website and mobile apps. Additionally, ongoing innovations in multichannel marketplaces allow your customers the convenience of purchasing from third parties through your website.
E-commerce also offers the opportunity to develop deeper relationships with customers as it tracks their purchasing behavior over time. In fact, that data leads you to a better understanding of your customer’s needs and requirements and helps project future demand.
Artificial Intelligence transforms business
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly infiltrating the sales cycle and offers exciting possibilities for transforming how business is done. Moreover, distributors collect a myriad of valuable internal, customer, and vendor information in the process of doing business. AI can generate outputs based on that data.
Furthermore, AI outputs are only as good as the data you input. It must be properly managed. In a recent Forbes article on this topic, Simon Jelley points out that only 23% of your collected data will probably be “good” data. According to Jelley, there is a lot of data to clean to get to the good stuff. Also, make sure your team does this.
Sales reps bring knowledge and experience to the deal. With the right AI applications, your best salespeople become even better. AI is most effective in sales when it’s treated like an aid, as opposed to a replacement for key human practices.
Get Capable
Lastly, be sure your sales team has the digital capabilities they need to succeed. Use ERP, E-commerce, and AI applications to build a robust digital platform for your business.
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by Art Waskey | Feb 27, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Independent distributors succeed based on the added value they bring to the customer relationship. In 2024, strengthening customer personalization will be critical to your success.
Here are three key areas to focus on.
- Vendor Managed Inventory — According to a report in Modern Distribution Management, business for one of our industry’s largest distributors is good. Fastenal posted a 2023 net profit of $1.16 billion, up 6.3% compared with 2022.
In addition, Fastenal transformed its company from a distributor-dependent-on-its-branch-network to one that prioritizes integrated supply and self-service at the customer location using vendor-managed inventory (VMI). This created significant savings in transportation, reduction in inventory, and ease of operation for both Fastenal and the customer. Introducing this ease of operation and personalized attention allowed Fastenal to gain market share within the customer base.
Additionally, Fastenal’s continuous growth of in-location personalized sales is a wake-up call to the independent distributor. Distributors need to build VMI manufacturer partnerships and start installing units. Fastener’s goal for 2024 is to add 400 additional onsite customer locations. Also, they added 326 in 2023. These gains will come from the traditional distribution network!
- Robotics — As a vice president of sales for an independent distributor from 1985 to 2018, I watched robotic equipment costs decrease and product efficiencies increase. This enabled our company to increase sales of this equipment each year. Today, the cost of selling a Cobot is less than $100k. The ease of training customers on this product is negligible, particularly for the computer-savvy operator under age 30. To be successful in 2024, your reps must be selling robotics.
- Warehouse automation – One of the biggest issues a distributor faces is warehousing errors. As a sales executive, I spent countless hours working to resolve warehouse-related problems. Today, logistics software can streamline your warehouse operations and save your company time, money, and customers. Moreover, a typical logistic warehouse automation center uses less space than a traditional warehouse and can receive and retrieve stock quickly while eliminating shipping errors. Automated warehouse logistics includes the management of networking operations, information, transportation, inventory, warehousing materials, and handling and packaging. Lastly, having an automated warehouse enables an outside salesperson to take inventory correction responsibility off their customer support list.
Increased customer personalization
In conclusion, for your sales team to represent the company with increased customer personalization in 2024, distributors must pay attention to the changing dynamics in vendor-managed inventory, robotics, and automation.
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by Art Waskey | Feb 22, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
The traditional marketing landscape is changing rapidly as Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are introduced. AI is disrupting the usual sales processes that distributors have depended on for success. To stay competitive, businesses need to adopt new marketing approaches.
A Sea-change
Furthermore, AI is changing how marketing is done at a fundamental level. A recent article in Fortune describes how Wharton School professor Ethan Mollick experimented with how much AI could do for him on a single, 30 minute project. AI, “did market research, created a positioning document, wrote an email campaign, created a website, created a logo and a ‘hero shot’ graphic, made a social media campaign for multiple platforms, and scripted and created a video”. Professor Mollick’s experiment results represent a sea-change in how marketing can be done with AI.
Cultural shift
AI represents more than just a change in business processes. It is a cultural shift. For that reason, you need to be sure your C-level team members are on board with AI applications and that employees don’t feel devalued by them.
You will always need salespeople to add value to the customer relationship. Moreover, they bring knowledge and experience to the deal. With the right AI applications, your best salespeople become even better. AI is most effective in sales when it’s treated like an aid instead of a replacement for key human practices.
More effective customer experiences
AI is a script. Use data generated with AI to make your sales reps better prepared to create a more effective customer experience. Salespeople can benefit from AI when it provides the right product for each customer. AI also can be used to help your customers create business efficiencies through their dealings with you. AI can analyze consumers’ shopping habits, preferences, and behaviors, providing reps with customized client recommendations.
Adopt new approaches
In conclusion, being competitive in today’s market will require that you adopt AI applications in your marketing approach. These changes can be difficult to accept and may leave reps out of the process. Ease reps into new sales approaches by focusing on the success of AI applications in terms of increased sales. Once implemented, AI will keep you on track for success in 2024.
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by Art Waskey | Feb 14, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Looking Back
As I start the New Year, I like to make observations about the previous year. Looking back, 2023 was a year replete with some big challenges for business. Stubborn inflation affected pricing. China’s post-COVID chaos continued exacerbating supply chain issues and accelerated attempts to restore manufacturing. Labor shortages plagued many business sectors. The third-worst year of global economic growth this century (behind 2009 and 2020) slowed sales and geopolitical tensions made us all uneasy. And finally, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) accelerated the pace of change in how business is conducted.
The secret to success in 2023 was adaptability. The best distributors got creative in confronting the year’s biggest challenges. The most important consideration in finding the right path through the weeds was maintaining a focus on customer-centricity. Independent, privately owned businesses’ greatest advantage over alternative channels is their customer relationships.
Selling Then
In the 1970s and early ‘80s, I worked for an international company that distributed welding supplies and atmospheric gases. We sold primarily through independent, privately held businesses. Our field salesforce was comprised of both generalists and specialists. Additionally, the generalists, who were sales engineers, called on distributors in 8 to 10 local territories. The product specialists covered a larger geographic region. Both sales engineers and product specialists reported to regional offices.
The sales engineers were responsible for maintaining personal relationships with their distributors. They managed new product demonstrations, pricing, backorders, administrative issues, and all other corporate communications. The product specialists managed specific technical offerings. For our industry, this included cutting and welding products to identified industries such as railroads, large manufacturers, and other highly sophisticated end-users. As well as all product specialist accounts were assigned to sales engineers to ensure customer-centric relationships.
Selling Now
The sales model above changed radically with the introduction of the Internet. Consider today’s digital-driven Enterprise Sales approach. Account reps have the IoT (Internet of Things), which connects them to all advanced technology applications. Also, the Enterprise Sales rep is now a customer advocate. Communication is largely online and things like product demonstrations can be virtual.
Adapting to digital tools
In conclusion, Enterprise Selling in 2024 requires that sales reps be tech-savvy. To be adaptable to the rapid changes in the sales process make sure your team has the necessary digital tools. Lastly, these include ERP programs, E-commerce capabilities, and artificial intelligence applications, to name a few.
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by Art Waskey | Jan 29, 2024 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
One of the greatest advantages of deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications is the effective cost containments they yield. AI can help businesses be more efficient in several areas.
Inventory levels
In short, consider their effects as customers, distributors, and suppliers go through economic cycles. Disruptions can wreak havoc on inventory levels. In fact, predictive analytics like AI can make stocking levels a concern of the past. With AI, your trading partners can enjoy the continuous improvement (CI) of just-in-time (JIT) supply from manufacturer to end user.
Transportation costs
I worked in the welding and gas distribution industry where transportation expenses were a significant factor. In one project — pre-AI — we evaluated how to reduce rolling return stock on cylinder trucks. We estimated customer cylinder usage before the trucks left in the morning. Despite our best efforts, some trucks returned with 40% unused cylinders. Additionally, the cost of loading, unloading, and carrying these unused cylinders was staggering. Nowadays, vast amounts of data are generated through the use of telemetry systems, vendor-managed inventory (VMI), and order history. With this information, AI can be used to improve the proper frequency and loading quantities of products on trucks. In the welding and gas industry, this includes hard goods, gas cylinders, and bulk cryogenic gas deliveries.
Pricing optimization
As a vice president of sales for a distributorship, one of my chief responsibilities was customer pricing. We reviewed spreadsheets and printouts with each sales manager to determine annual price increases, tackling one territory at a time. Today, interactive AI can sort that data and determine the right price for each customer. Moreover, AI software providers boast that they can increase their distributor customers’ returns 10X to 30X with price optimization programming. Based on the results, we recommend that distributors prioritize implementing pricing optimization software in their ERP system.
Warehouse automation – One of the best ways distributors can realize cost improvement is by improving material handling processes in the warehouse. Above all, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is already revolutionizing warehouse labor costs and can improve working conditions. Additionally, robotic automation empowers artificial intelligence to enhance warehouse handling processes by utilizing data.
Cost containment
In conclusion, consider implementing AI in your business today. Also, enjoy the cost containments you can achieve in pricing, inventory, transportation, and warehouse operations.
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