To reinvent your selling value, look for ideas in the most advanced distribution channels. What are reps in those micro-worlds doing that you can borrow and adapt to yours?
A Technical Product Rep With 4 Customers
Channel reps tout their product expertise. But, my friend, Alex, is the real deal. He sells artificial joint-parts to orthopedic surgeons. His “territory” is four doctors. He assists them in ordering the right, best-fit parts for each patient’s joint and conditions. Then, he often dons surgical scrubs to advise the docs during surgeries. He is the expert when patients have odd joint issues (upon open inspection) or need newer-model or rarely-used parts.
Alex Tunes the Surgical-Centers’ Fulfillment Process, Too!
How does Alex insure that his docs always get the exact, right parts for each operation on-time, at hand, and properly sterilized? He audits, tunes and/or redesigns each surgical center’s (leading edge) fulfillment process. He starts with the Surgery Coordinator’s Checklist that orchestrates activities for all 15 surgical team members – before, during and after – an operation. From the step and time on the list at which the doctor needs the joint parts, Alex works backwards to the receiving dock for his inbound parts. He makes the total process failsafe, because the cost of any snag is prohibitive. And, he gets 100% share of what he can sell his clients.
What’s Your Supply-Chain Audit Value?
Your products may be unchanging commodities, but your customers will measurably vary on their replenishment process effectiveness for your goods. All customers want to reduce unnecessary, small-dollar buys and stock-out/downtime events. But, most don’t have:
- The information tools to pinpoint where these soft-cost-reduction opportunities are, or
- The time or inclination to re-tune a process that cuts across other departments.
Why not be like Alex and solve these needs for your customers?
What Do You Need to Boot: Your Value, Customer Profits, and Sales?
New tools within Line-Item-Profit Analytics (from Waypoint Analytics) rank accounts by their ordering effectiveness. Typical ranges are from 90%-effective to zero. Deep dive tools then reveal the specific, small-dollar-pick SKUs and orders that need to be re-tuned. When customers see their own inefficient, buying statistics at the SKU and source level, they say: “YES! Fix it for me!”
Learn more about “Customer Buying Effectiveness Rankings” at APIC Canada in Toronto on Sept. 22nd. Or, schedule a demo before your competitors do at www.waypointanalytics.net.