Friends,
Find below a fun, insightful and right-on body of advice from Bill Wade. Bill is a career consultant, operator and writer for (most narrowly) the heavy-duty-truck parts and automotive parts channels. Known him for years. (Personal bias alert.) He is an excellent value-added editor of my stuff and others.
We are all in for tough times, but your competitors will really suffer if not disappear, IF you execute on Bill’s advice.
Onward!
Bruce
C-19 disruptions are all-consuming for CEOs. All are working long, stressful hours doing whack-a-mole heroics with empathy for the most-hard-hit.
But, the working-from-home crowd including – many of our customers’ buyers; our sales reps; and cautious seniors – are enjoying new-to-them, digital experiences.
Besides the C-19 crisis, what is your digital transformation plan for 2023? Amazon, Home Depot, etc. are investing massively to digitally disrupt traditional B2B distribution channels. How can both brands and distributors change their models at three levels – channel, business and selling – to both survive C-19 and have the wherewithal to win at Cloud eCommerce ’23?
What won’t work? Cutting costs across the board and pursuing old-beliefs harder.
Most distributors (and all major drug manufacturers) have asked field reps not to make regular field sales calls. Instead: “use the phone and interactive e-tools to serve your accounts”.
Continue reading 191. FIELD REPS! ARE YOU WASTING THIS C-19 CRISIS?
“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen.” Vladimir Lenin
My guess: society (or a vertical/channel ecosystem) can remain stable on the surface for a long time. But, forces for change build – like tectonic plates pushing against each other – then boom – a big, fast – earthquake, political order or business model shift – happens.
As I write, C-19 fallout keep increasing. An oil price war is raging. Global financial markets are melting. And, politicians and central banks are pondering more money-printing, can-kicking tactics to stay in power.
What to do? “Stay calm and carry on.”
But, only if you (also) have the right analytical and digital strategy that will win in the Cloud eCommerce world of 2023.