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Why a commitment to following up every quote is probably costing you money (and handicapping your growth)

Your salespeople have finite capacity, and we should probably assume that they are consistently busy. This means that if we ask them to perform an activity, it will be performed in place of another activity. If we consider the pool of possible transactions upstream from your organization, this pool can be divided into two categories:… “Why a commitment to following up every quote is probably costing you money (and handicapping your growth)”

Distributors claim that branch salespeople’s customer relationships are their key value driver.

This claim is not wrong. But it’s not helpful either! I’ve spent a week at the nation’s leading distributor conference, listening to executive after executive proclaiming the criticality of local customer relationships, maintained by branch salespeople. Now, on the final day of the conference, McKinsey is presenting survey results, suggesting that customers value availability, price,… “Distributors claim that branch salespeople’s customer relationships are their key value driver.”

An Introduction to the Speed-Based Operating System

A healthy business A healthy business has two value chains: Business as usual (generates operating profit) Growth (generates growth in operating profit) It should not be controversial to suggest that both chains should be optimized for speed. However, in most businesses, these two value chains do not exist in any meaningful sense. You have one… “An Introduction to the Speed-Based Operating System”

Why a focus on cost makes organizations weaker, less profitable, and less competitive

A viable alternative based on Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints Imagine you were to take over the management of a Formula One team, and rather than focusing on the car’s speed, you focused on reducing fuel consumption. That would be stupid, right? Idiotic, even! But this is the orthodox approach to business management. Not surprisingly, the… “Why a focus on cost makes organizations weaker, less profitable, and less competitive”

A breakthrough (?) approach to the management of dealers (and other reseller relationships)

When we work with those manufacturers that sell via resellers of various types, we often encounter an instance of the Drunkard’s Search problem within the sales department. This article describes the problem, as well as a solution we devised around 15 years ago—but abandoned because we believed it was too complex to be practical. Our… “A breakthrough (?) approach to the management of dealers (and other reseller relationships)”

The secret life of revenue within industrial organizations (and why salespeople don’t generate it)

I’m not joking. The following is precisely how most executives within industrial organizations conceptualize revenue. Q. Where does revenue come from? A. From salespeople. Q. How do salespeople generate revenue? A. Um. From relationships. This conception of revenue is not even vaguely correct. And, unfortunately, this fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of revenue leads to… “The secret life of revenue within industrial organizations (and why salespeople don’t generate it)”

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