Published Articles

Published: Dscoop Quarterly (A Cooperative of Indigo Users and HP) - Vol 4/Issue 2 - April 2010

"You've exceeded what you promised, saved us cash flow beyond what we thought possible, increased our revenues and customer base, and allowed us to increase the number of marketing promotions, with lower required break even points. And what won't show on the income statement is that you've radically changed how we work with our marketing folks."

Published: Graphic Impressions - April/May 2010

(And It's Not Always About Price)

The following anecdotal story is true, though you may find it difficult to believe, or accept.

I was listening to a client tell me that he has taken the initiative to fire his delivery person. As background, you should know that his delivery person was mentioned repeatedly in their previous Customer Survey - as the most memorable and helpful person on the supplier's customer contact team - some even said the delivery person was the primary reason they were doing business with the supplier - which are relatively rare volunteered comments in a Customer Survey for delivery people to receive.

Published: IPA Bulletin - March/April 2010

To some degree, too many organizations in our great industry appear to have lost their way. We need to keep focused on the correct answers to: Why are we here and what's our mission?

I was reviewing with the sales representative his most recent dozen or so quotations. They appeared on the surface to be your typical specification-driven quotations, including customer and supplier quote numbers, when quote was needed, specifications, and pricing for several quantities.

Published: Graphic Impressions - February/March 2010

INTRODUCTION

Almost every client I've worked with over twenty-three years has what I'll call "House Accounts." Those are accounts that tend to buy something over the course of a year.

However, when I ask, "Who's responsible for developing revenues and improved margins in these accounts?" And individually, "Is this all the printing this customer buys?" The answers too often are something that sounds like, "All of us sort of take care of them when they call us."

Published: IPA Bulletin - January/February 2010

There's a new, contemporary definition for abuse. It's called neglect and it relates to customers. The only way we will improve is to perform according to what makes a meaningful contribution to each customer's needs.

I had part of the sales team around me as I made calls to targeted customers with whom the sales team had not been able to get appointments or whom they were hesitate to call. On this particular call to a nonprofit, fundraising organization, the executive director was chewing me out:

Published: IPA Bulletin - November/December 2009

If you watch and listen to the wrong targets, you'll usually be late. And if you listen to folks who watch and report on the wrong targets, you can count on being late.

Too many association reports smother us with information about lower customer demand, fewer shipments, and what's new in technology and equipment. However, our industry's future is not just about us. Rather, ultimately, our industry's future is about what we can do with our resources to improve our customer's economic well being.

Published: IPA Bulletin - Sept/Oct 2009

Your Business Development Team's success will be grounded in "unique contributions" to target customers' business performance -
and making sure they know what you're contributing.

We're caught in a vortex of environmental change. The unabridged dictionary behind my desk defines vortex as a whirling mass of water forming a vacuum at its center, into which anything caught in the motion is drawn; a whirlpool; a whirl of powerful eddy of air; a whirlwind.

Sometimes I see and feel the painful frustrations from clients and friends that, in effect, say to me, "Someone changed the rules - seems to keep changing the rules - and hasn't asked our permission. When will this nightmare end?"

Published: IPA Bulletin - July/August 2009

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." - Charles Darwin

It was a revelation of sorts. Here was a traditional graphic arts supplier who did not have much cutting edge technology, was experiencing fierce pricing pressures, and was on a short lifeline while at the bank. Important to note is that key personnel were anxious and publicly willing to do whatever would keep current customers and their jobs as well as encourage two sales reps to bring in new business, which was urgently needed.

Published: IPA Bulletin - May/June 2009

It is customers who ultimately determine who stays in business - and even what technologies will dominate.

And then what? I've observed Warren Buffett more than once ask this question of different news journalists who were suggesting a course of action for either a company or our government. The journalist poses a provocative question or statement; and then Warren, with that boyish giggle and great sense of humor, politely asks, "And then what?"

Published in: IPA Bulletin, March/April 2009

But when will industry leaders get it? Only if and when they do will our industry's economic performance become viable long-term.