…Was a beautiful princess of besieged Troy who enchanted Apollo. To win her charms, Apollo gave her the gift to foresee the future. But, when she reneged on romance, he compromised the gift so that no one would believe her predictions. She begged fellow Trojans to not take the Wooden Horse (left behind by the Greeks) into the city’s walls, but to no avail. Continue reading 120. Your Best Cloud-Commerce and the Mythical Cassandra
Many distributors mark-up goods to hopefully cover the costs of their “free services” that come with the product. These include service-costs like: outside and inside reps, fulfillment, delivery, free returns, and trade credit.
What happens when digital-buying millennials increasingly take over B2B buying, and they find lower prices for equal or better goods from online sellers (with zero outside and inside rep costs)? Continue reading 119. Will Commissioned Reps Be Un-Bundled?
Waypoint Analytics is the only cloud-service firm that offers distributors an array of tools based on a Line-Item, Cost-To-Serve (CTS) model, and a calculation engine. The firm has, over its 10-year existence, created CTS models for well over 100 distributors in over 50 different channels. The aggregate stats for this pool of progressive distributors are startling: Continue reading 118. Financial Blind-Spots of Most Distributors
Millennials are presently: 20-36 years old; involved in 85% of B2B purchases; the final buying authority 35% of the time, and will be growing past 50% by 2020. Their Amazon (AMZ) phone app is (statistically) their most valued and frequently used. They want their Amazon B2C buying experience at the office. AMZ owns your Next Generation Customers (NGCs)
Reps, Distributors, Master Wholesalers, Manufacturers: will you ally to be first with solutions for your NGCs needs? Continue reading 115. Selling Millennial – B2B, Self-Serve, Digital Buyers
Go to this link for an article on MSC Industrial and Crescent Electric:
Pay attention to the specific features, benefits and design guidelines that are reported. Consider doing the same for the reviews for: Essendant’s (8/9); Hajoca’s (8/28); Cardinal Health’s (8/31); Univar’s (7/30); and Blair Candy (7/25: small-firm story!) Continue reading 114. Reviews on Best Distributor Web Sites: MSC Industrial, Crescent Electric, Essendant, Hajoca, et. al.
The book Moneyball was published in 2003. At the time, Major League Baseball (MLB) managers despised it, because the book made them look like old-school ignoramuses. A highly-recommended new take published in July 2018 and titled Astroball, summarizes the league’s transition since 2003.
Here are a few key points from the book: Continue reading 113. It’s Human Nature to Resist Analytical Opportunities