Category Archives: Profit Analytics

107. Friends, Your Input Please. One-Day Fall Seminar Series

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

THE VISION

I will start conducting one-day seminars in larger cities in North America this fall. The working title: “Analytics for Defending Against, Partnering, and Out-Niching Amazon”.

The content is radical. Download the seminar summary for the full story, including:

  1. An “Overview”
  2. Who should attend and what you’ll learn and (hopefully) act on
  3. How your distributor affiliation groups, trade associations, buying groups, ERP vendors – can become co-sponsors to earn their constituents a discount from an already affordable fee
  4. A summary of my AMZ-oriented blogs to spark team discussions
Get the summary here:
Grand Summary of Fall Seminar Series

THE CITIES

Already booked due to local co-sponsor support:

  1. St. Louis on 10/16 with St. Louis University’s Center for Supply Chain Management as a co-sponsor and host for the presentation.
  2. Montreal on 11/5
  3. Toronto on 11/7

Other Prospective Cities: Chicago, Boston, NYC/N. NJ, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, LA, San Francisco, Seattle/Tacoma. And, wherever else enough bottom-up interest may arise.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

  1. Email me your interest. On a 1 to 5 scale: 1 is “No Way. AMZ is a fad.”; 3 “Maybe” and 5 “Will be there”.
  2. If not a “5”, any changes to boost interest to assure your attendance?
  3. Alert your affiliation group about being a co-sponsor. I will be contacting many directly too.
  4. If you are in one of the target cities, can you suggest a best logistical place to run an 8am to 4pm seminar?
  5. If you would like the seminar to run in your unlisted city (or sponsor your own private seminar), be in touch to brainstorm on making that possible.
  6. I’m also amenable to doing one-hour, highlights, free webinars for affiliation groups.

The St. Louis University (SLU) Model In Other Cities?

From previous experiments at SLU, the Supply Chain Center discovered that by hosting this seminar:

  1. Their MBA students can attend all or part of the seminar for free and network with distributors for consulting/employment opportunities.
  2. Attending companies get exposed to the Center’s offerings.
  3. The Center can invite their own community supporters for a 50% discount (as a co-sponsor): a good outreach benefit.

If any readers have a hometown MBA/Supply Chain, university connection that could be a co-sponsor like SLU, please request an e-introduction of your SC Head to SLU’s Center Head: Cindy Mebruer.

Here’s hoping I’ll see you this fall and into next year for a provocative educational experience!

Sincerely,

Bruce Merrifield

bruce@merrifield.com

103. Use Insider Information to Get Rich, Then Innovate

Big Data, Distribution Strategy, Index, Line Item Profit Analytics, LIPA, Profit Analytics, WayPoint Analytics

For 140 years fortunes have been made on Wall Street by exploiting insider information. While this tactic is illegal on Wall Street, there is a way to use information your competitors don’t have ethically and with enthusiastic front-line employee engagement. How?

Get line-item profit analytics to generate both customer and SKU/vendor profitability rankings. No competitor has your same internal rankings. Nor, do they have your underlying capabilities that have co-evolved with your history of capturing and keeping your profit winners. Continue reading 103. Use Insider Information to Get Rich, Then Innovate →

102. High-Margin Counter Sales Aren’t Profitable!

Concierge Customer Service, Core Renewal, Cost-to-Serve Math, Distribution Industry Sales, Distribution Strategy, Index, Profit Analytics, Service Value Innovation Guidelines, WayPoint Analytics

This is one of the first insights that distributors who subscribe to Line-Item Profit Analytics are shocked to find out. Analytics reveal that:

  • Naturally high-margin percent SKUs and customers are mostly net-profit dollar losers
  • Gross profit dollars on small-dollar lines and orders are less than their cost-to-serve dollars

You can’t ignore small transaction size, or the variable service-people costs for customers with bill-me-later, paper-based trade credit. Continue reading 102. High-Margin Counter Sales Aren’t Profitable! →

101. Case Study: Customer Names Price, OptiQuote Calculator Sets Terms

Big Data, Cost-to-Serve Math, Distribution Strategy, Index, Profit Analytics, WayPoint Analytics

The Scenario

An industrial buyer asks a distributor CEO a question.

BUYER: “Can you beat my last year spend on 20 MRO SKUs? The grand total was $35K.”

CEO: “Well, it depends upon the average dollar size of your orders. We can do simulations with my OptiQuote calculator. The general rule is that prices drop with fewer, bigger orders. We pass the reduction in our line and order fulfillment activity costs on to you. And, on any given order prices will drop at both the line-item level and order-total level as the dollar totals increase. As a best-theoretical case, we could enter the annual SKU totals on one big order.” Continue reading 101. Case Study: Customer Names Price, OptiQuote Calculator Sets Terms →

100. Distributors: Upgrade “Strategic Pricing”

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

The first step to ensuring your strategic pricing initiatives are successful is to understand what you’re doing. Here are a few questions to ask of yourself, as a business owner, and of your top management.

  • What is “strategic pricing”?
  • What is our Pricing Analyst’s job? (scope, objectives and success metrics)
  • What assumptions underlie these answers and is there data to back them up?
  • What additional analytics would improve pricing effectiveness?

If you find wildly varying answers, or confusion, from your management team it’s time to upgrade your approach to strategic pricing. Continue reading 100. Distributors: Upgrade “Strategic Pricing” →

99. Why Don’t Folks Use New Analytics?

Big Data, Index, Line Item Profit Analytics, LIPA, Profit Analytics, WayPoint Analytics

The Problem: Informational Blindness and Paralysis

Human brains have evolved to make fast either/or decisions. Reflex thinking includes a type of informational blindness that fools many on this riddle:

A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. What does the ball cost?*

New analytical insights can also be overwhelming. The quick decision becomes whether you should figure out the problem now or put it aside and do it later. Then there is no later, and paralysis sets in. We are too busy doing what we habitually do, with fine tunings. Continue reading 99. Why Don’t Folks Use New Analytics? →