Category Archives: Distribution Industry Sales

123. Teach Customers To Be Better, Win-Win Buyers

Big Data, Concierge Customer Service, Cost-to-Serve Math, Distribution Industry Sales, Distribution Strategy, Index, WayPoint Analytics

Customers Aren’t Equally Effective Buyers

Customer profitability analytics reveals a wide range of buyer effectiveness. And, SKU profitability analytics measurably pinpoints the root causes for their variances in hidden, unnecessary buying activity and servicing costs.

Customers also vary in their openness to changing how they buy to achieve: Continue reading 123. Teach Customers To Be Better, Win-Win Buyers →

122. Amazon News; Uberization of Local Deliveries?

AmazonBusiness, Concierge Customer Service, Distribution Industry Sales, Distribution Strategy, Index, Profit Analytics, Service Value Innovation Guidelines, Supply Chain Partners, WayPoint Analytics

“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.” – William Gibson

AMAZON’S LAST MILE, LOGISTICS NEWS

    1. (Oct. 10) “The USPS seeks a 12.3% price increase” on the 40% of AMZ’s packages that it delivers. AMZ suggests that the projected $1B cost increase won’t matter in 2019. (?)
    2. (10/17) Hiring “Seasonal Delivery Associates” (for $17.25/hour). Doesn’t this compete with AMZ’s new “Delivery Partners” (6/28)? The Partner start-ups will use the 20K (initially 4.5K) of leased Mercedes Sprinter Vans. Perhaps: a) shipments are growing faster than total delivery capacity. Or, b) AMZ believes it can innovate lower last-mile costs than the USPS, etc.
    3. (11/5/18) Free holiday shipping for all (matches Target’s promotion). AMZ will win any battle of fulfillment-cost attrition because: a) It has best customer clickstream advertising income and b) most efficient warehouse costs.

Continue reading 122. Amazon News; Uberization of Local Deliveries? →

120. Your Best Cloud-Commerce and the Mythical Cassandra

2020 Companies, AmazonBusiness, Core Renewal, Distribution Industry Sales, Distribution Strategy, Index, Service Value Innovation Guidelines, Supply Chain Partners, WayPoint Analytics

THE MYTHICAL CASSANDRA

…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 →

119. Will Commissioned Reps Be Un-Bundled?

Big Data, Concierge Customer Service, Cost-to-Serve Math, Distribution Industry Sales, Distribution Strategy, Index, Service Value Innovation Guidelines, WayPoint Analytics

Traditional-Markup, Service Bundles

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? →

118. Financial Blind-Spots of Most Distributors

Big Data, Cost-to-Serve Math, Distribution Industry Sales, Index, Line Item Profit Analytics, LIPA, Profit Analytics, WayPoint Analytics

What Do Line-Item Profit Analytics Reveal?

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 →

115. Selling Millennial – B2B, Self-Serve, Digital Buyers

AmazonBusiness, Big Data, Concierge Customer Service, Distribution Industry Sales, Distribution Strategy, Index, Line Item Profit Analytics, LIPA, Profit Analytics, WayPoint Analytics

Millennials? Digital-Buying Preferences?

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 →