Published Articles

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.

Published: IPA Bulletin - January/February 2009

Your customer gets to decide who stays in business and that will not change.

There exists an increasingly discrete selection of where customers invest their precious dollars. Previous years' budgets are being rolled-back to zero, and re-examined for: "Is this really necessary?" and, "Why did we do this, and what did we get as a return?"

Published in: IPA Bulletin, November/December 2008

Initiating opportunities for the buyer to become more important
to the supplier in ways other than higher price.

We were known for being able to call major clients for work when we needed it. No one from the outside taught us to do that, and I personally had never read about sales or marketing types being able to do this, though I'm confident a few of the best could.

Published in: In-Plant Graphics, October 2008

An experienced in-plant consultant suggests 12 critical areas to examine when attempting to justify new equipment for your in-plant.

Published in: IPA Bulletin, Sept/Oct 2008

Don't settle for mediocrity. The road to mediocrity
is guaranteed to lead to financial ruin

A common complaint I experience from CEOs is not so much lack of business. In fact, many of them admit there's significant business available to be pursued. Their number one complaint, as I've experienced it, is lack of qualified, ambitious, business development personnel.