by tradespeopleinsights | Nov 15, 2010 | Marketing Trends
I just returned from the 34th Annual Specialty Tools and Fasteners Distributors Association (STAFDA) convention and trade show. Attendance was up and so were the spirits of all who attended. Georgia Foley and the team once again put on a great event.
Their keynote speaker this year was Sarah Palin who delighted the audience and shared her vision on several issues that affect the STAFDA membership.
I spoke to several folks during the show including distributors, reps and manufacturers, and pretty much across the board they were all optimistic for 2011. Most noted that there are pockets of business out there, you just have to look for them.
I’ve assembled some “on the floor interviews” from several manufacturers that I’d like to share with you here.
by tradespeopleinsights | Nov 11, 2010 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
GlobalSpec is an internationally known portal used by engineers, technical and manufacturing professionals. They recently released a new study: Trends in Industrial Marketing 2010.
Of the 464 respondents, 70% hold management positions in sales or marketing. These companies had marketing budgets from 50,000 to over a million dollars.
Here are some highlights:
• 70% of companies anticipate an increase in sales compared to 2009.
• Marketing budgets are recovering after a down year in 2009, with 31% reporting an increase in their marketing budget this year.
• The top three marketing challenges in 2010 are having too few resources, not enough quality leads and a need to improve marketing ROI.
• Three of the top four sources of leads are online channels, including the company website, e-mail marketing and search engine optimization.
• 68% of companies plan to increase spending on social media in 2010. LinkedIn and Facebook are the most popular social media applications currently being used.
• 47% will spend more than one-third of their marketing budget online, and the majority (51%) will invest more in online marketing in 2010 than they did in 2009.
How do you stack up with these trends?
by tradespeopleinsights | Nov 10, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
When was the last time you and your IT department willingly collaborated on a project? The truth is, probably never.
The reality is in today’s environment, the customer is taking control of the engagement, and marketing’s challenge is how to get to the customer faster and more efficiently (customer-centric). Customers are turning away from companies who can’t provide the experience, channel of engagement and immediate service they need.
The CMO Council recently did a study sponsored by Accenture called Driving Revenue Through Customer Relevance, that outlines ways CMOs and CIOs can achieve Agile Intelligent Marketing together.
Now marketers may not be known to be the sharpest pencil in the box, but we do have a good sense of what the customer’s needs are (and all needs are not the same), while IT is usually all B/W.
According to the report,”CMOs must take a greater ownership of the customer experience and assume a leadership role in embracing digital marketing practices, data-driven strategies and new marketing process integration platforms across their organizations.” Technology now underpins and shapes the entire customer experience. IT departments need to take strides to be a stategic enabler rather than an operational cog.
The reality is working with or without IT, marketers are doing tactical things with e-mails,website analytics, lead generation, etc. with the ever-increasing pressure of ROI on marketing dollars no matter where they are spent. Beyond the spend, you need to look at what’s really the end game? It’s to get a new customer or make an existing one happy.
The moral of the story is for Marketing and IT to play nice. Remember, your pay checks come from the same account and together you can make a better impact for the company.
by tradespeopleinsights | Nov 9, 2010 | Marketing Trends, Traditional Marketing
Everyone is talking about ROI especially when it deals with social media. What I would like to know is what/how are you currently dealing with what I call Traditional leads from ads (print and electronic), trade shows and websites?
Can you take a few minutes to answer our survey? Click here to take the survey. We’ll be happy to share the results.
by tradespeopleinsights | Nov 4, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Uncategorized
Social media is about engaging with other people. In order for it to be successful, we need to move that engagement beyond the posts of Facebook or your blog. Yes, it’s understood that there are people behind the words, but unless you just want to be pen pals, you need to nurture them.
Once someone knows, likes and trusts you, you can go from engagement to a relationship. I know it may sound silly, but you’d be surprised how many social media folks would be happy to sit in front of a computer screen all day and engage people on social but are afraid to take it to the next level. A relationship by definition is an emotional or other connection between people.
Here are some suggestions to help you take that relationship to the next level (I sound like a dating coach):
- If someone responds to you and you start going back and forth with them, suggest an offline phone call to discuss in more detail.
- If you belong to a group or association and you plan on going to a trade show or a local meeting, let your audience know your plans, and maybe you could hook up. (People buy from people.)
- Social Sites – instead of using your logo, put up a team photo. On the about us pages, include the names of employees representing your brand. Put up profiles of team members.
- Encourage networking – if you have all this info about employees on your sites, then suggest that they promote the brand on their Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
These are some of my ideas. I’d like to hear what you’re doing to make it more “human.”
by tradespeopleinsights | Nov 3, 2010 | Uncategorized
A friend of mine, Abe WalkingBear, developer of a copyrighted profit system that focuses on improving cash flow, has agreed to share some of his insights (some are truly unique) on how manufacturers can help distributors. He’s written books, is an international speaker and co-authored STAFDA’s Foundations of Business 2007.
Old military funny money finds new life in business. During this time of slow sales and extended delays in business credit customers’ payments, an old idea is reborn.
During the Vietnam War, U.S troops and sailors in Asia were paid in funny money, i.e. MPC (military payment certificate). This funny money, which was also called “monopoly money” or “script,” was in use up until 1973. Members of the American military could convert MPCs to US dollars upon leaving a designated MPC zone, but while in these zones, all you could do with it was go to the Post Exchange (PX) or the Ship’s store and convert it to the local currency. MPC in Vietnam had pictures of movie stars on it and I can’t remember for sure, but I think that Marilyn Monroe was on the $20 bill.
Interesting, but what does this have to do with improved cash flow and more sales?
Distributors sometimes offer their business credit customers a 2-10-N30 payment term. i.e. the customer can take a 2% discount off the invoice amount if they pay it within 10 days, otherwise the full invoice amount is due in 30 days.
The idea behind the early pay discount being to spur cash flow.
Any business customer not taking advantage of a 2-10-N30 early pay discount fails to do so for one of two reasons:
1) they don’t have the financial ability to do so…no money
2) the sales and credit guys failed to explain that a 2-10-N30 is worth a 37.24% Annual Rate of Return…where else can you get 37.24% return with no risk?
Formula:
The Problem:
There are several problems with early pay discounts:
First, business customers sometimes will issue a check for payment on an invoice, less the 2%, on the the 10th day, but will not release the check until the 30th day or the 60th day thus defeating the very reason why the discount was offered in the first place.
Second, the taking of “unauthorized discounts” by the business customer by failing to pay within the 10 days creates additional work and cost for both the distributor and the business customer in the pursuit of the unearned discount. And this in turn can actually lead to the loss of customer good will and of future Sales.
I’ve never liked 2-10-N30 terms for these reasons.
The Best of MPCs and Early Pay Discounts
There is a way to use an early pay discount to improve cash flow and also bring business customers back to buy again thus gaining the most profitable sale, the repeat sale.
Instead of offering a 2-10-N30 term, a distributor can send out, along with an invoice, a VCDC; A Valued Customer Discount Certificate for 2% of the invoice amount…and they can put the selling company’s CEO’s picture or the selling salesperson’s picture on the certificate…or Marilyn Monroe’s picture.
Each VCDC would carry the same # as the invoice it applies to and thus would be easy to track.
The VCDC would clearly state that if the invoice that the VCDC applies to must be paid within 10 days of the invoice date for the customer to use the VCDC on their next purchase.
If a business customer pays within 15 days..they should be cut some slack and the VCDC accepted…on that next and most profitable purchase, the repeat.
The end result: Improved cash flow and repeat sales.
All too often in business we walk a mental rut, we do the same thing over and over again in the same way, until the rut becomes a mental trench and then we think we can see the horizon for oncoming danger or new business opportunities when in effect all we really see is a wall. And that’s not to say that a trench can’t be comfortable and easy to navigate, but God help you if things change and the walls give way.
During this time of slow sales and extended delays in business credit customers’ payments, manufacturers can add value to their distributors by sharing with them an old idea reborn anew on how to gain a competitve advantage while improving cash flow and repeat sales.
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I just returned from the 34th Annual Specialty Tools and Fasteners Distributors Association (STAFDA) convention and trade show. Attendance was up and so were the spirits of all who attended. Georgia Foley and the team once again put on a great event.
