As the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses are closed. Operations and production are stalled. Customer orders cancelled or postponed. Sales and profit are in decline. While unfortunate, this is the time to be proactive and set the stage for success. No one could have predicted the current situation on your business today, but you can have direct influence of what your business will become—right now! First Strategy Start planting seeds by creating a prospect pipeline. There are many companies that are still operating as a result of being classified an essential business. Eve ..read more

The trend continues as consumers seek and demand high-value from products and services at the lowest possible price. The advancements in digital technologies and mobile apps will continue to shape consumers’ preferences and expectations in all markets and industries. They want personalized products that fit their lifestyles. They want services that change as they change. They want conveniences that contribute to a higher quality-of-life. As consumers’ appetite and attitude toward digital technologies are in constant change and readiness, how can manufacturers respond? As social media platform ..read more

Good is good enough. That is what I hear from many businesses—the economy is fine, my business is fine, so why should I improve or change? As evidence points to the real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 1.9 percent in the third quarter of 2019, according to the advance estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2.0 percent. It’s unfortunate that many business leaders have this attitude, because it stifles employee performance and productivity—the mindset does not challenge the workforce to excel beyond today’s issues—leaders set the ba ..read more

There are many articles and blog posts about the traits of, good leader verses bad leader or good boss verses bad boss. While most content is relevant, there is a universal tone that filtrates throughout the World that people want be treated a certain way by a boss. With all this information on leadership, you would think people in supervisory roles would know employees hate an authoritarian environment. Providing psychological and moral support is one of the basic dimensions of great leadership—it is also a ‘sine qua non’ of organizational quality-of-work-life. Some organizational leaders se ..read more

The buying behaviors of consumers are shifting at a rapid pace and there are no signs of slowing. The old store hours of 9:00 am to midnight are now open 24/7 as products and services are easily accessible anywhere, anytime, online. Businesses that do not change to this trend will risk losing market share. For example, as more consumers shop online, retail companies may be challenged with reduction of impulse buys at checkout-aisles, such as candy and drinks. As a result, they are creating tactics to optimize impulse buys in the e-commerce world. Another example is an engineering design and m ..read more

In environments of increasingly fierce competition, manufacturers are looking to capture new ways in which to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. They recognize the goal of operations strategy is to position and differentiate itself more effectively by providing increased flexibility—well-designed business models that move and keep the manufacturer ahead of its competitors—through market intelligence and periodic invention and reinvention of process, talent, and culture. Total Value-Chain These manufactures continuously review and dissect the total value-chain in which they parti ..read more

In B2B selling and marketing, the sales funnel model is quickly being replaced with the sales journey model. Today, buyers enter into a sales journey (or the sales funnel) with a completely different mind-set of preparation. Rather than relying on a sales rep, they are now equipped with tools to identify problems within their organization. Buyers then turn to the Internet and research solution alternatives. This ‘buyer self-education’ is disrupting the selling techniques that sales reps honed to perfection. It is no joke, considering that: 72% of buyers turn to Google during awareness stage r ..read more

Sales are at the center of any business, without it, there would be no business. Strategy is the driver for sales; yet, very few organizations understand the importance of a measurable strategy. Matt, a sales manager, is frustrated over the lack of clarity and direction at the end of corporate meetings. With a tone of sadness, he says, “We all talk on how we need to ‘reduce this’ and ‘increase that’, but when the meeting ends, I can sense that we all feel disconnected—I’m not really sure who is doing what and when.” Shirley is in the same boat. As a production manager, she knows the top prior ..read more

Improving performance across the sales organization is highly challenging in our ever-changing, hyper-competitive marketplace. Sales executives and managers are expected to pursue and achieve shorter buying cycles—to move the customer through the funnel quicker. This focus on ‘velocity’ puts pressure on the sales team to seek different selling tactics to ‘win over the customer’ for the long-term—to feed the organization with predictable and consistent streams of revenue. Perception The sales function has always been something of a mystery on the organizational chart. Functional department man ..read more

Companies are beginning to realize that the flow of information can be a competitive advantage. In B2B environments, the foundation for any sales opportunity involve exceptional skills in customer management and communications, and for any project, there are budgets, stages, and timelines from conception-to-completion. When projects miss delivery targets, it is usually the result of information delay from the customer. It is difficult to move a project forward when information is missing from the BOMs or from engineering specifications. Conflicting information between supplier and customer is ..read more