My wife loves to shop at Costco. You probably have a warehouse club where you shop. When my wife sees the abundance of product creatively packaged in bulk she perceives she is getting a great deal. Never mind we have a year supply. Her philosophy is we will eventually need the item so why not stock up. A case in point is when she buys Bandages.
Now I am not sure why we needed 1000 bandages in all different shapes and sizes, yet we are now the proud owners or a big box. That big box of bandages got me thinking. We may not need them now but when does a person need a bandage? When one is bleeding. I don’t plan on bleeding all at once however if I do need one I will be aptly prepared.
How prepared are your customers for the needs that will surely arise at some point in their business day. Are you providing value to them by suggesting they be prepared for the eventual emergency situation? Here’s a case in point.
In the floral business where I spent many years as a road salesman, a consumer will order a type or color of a flower for a special occasion, say a wedding. The consumer request is for blue hydrangea for their event.
The retailer will order it from their wholesale distributor. The distributor places their order with their sources of supply whether they are domestic of international growers. The product is shipped out, yet it is damaged in transit. Or it is the wrong color. Or worse yet the weather is bad before the crop is harvested and the product just isn’t what it should be. Now, what does the retailer do to give the Consumer what they ordered?
They could call the consumer back and ask for a substitution or they could work with their existing white flower inventory and spray it with a fast drying, spray dye that I sell. The dilemma now is do they have this color spray in stock. As the sales person of this retailer I would want to make sure that my customer was prepared for this eventual emergency. Here’s what I would have done prior to the event.
I would have made a check list of basic supplies or a check list of supplies by occasion. These check lists could be reviewed several times throughout the year via phone or a sales call. Each time an order was placed by the retailer I would mention the checklist and suggest the retailer review it so when an emergency does arise they are prepared with a “Plan B.” Hence, the bandage analogy makes perfect sense. I know I will eventually need a bandage. Hopefully you can help your customer be prepared as well.
Ouch, I just cut myself. Where are those darn bandages?
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Friday, December 8, 2006
First blog
Listen To Color
Hello out there in web-land. This is my first official post on my blog.
What is listen to color? It’s a play on words. Of course you don’t hear color, you see it. Although I have known musicians who swear they can hear colors. My purpose is not to create a dialog about sounds even though I love music, as much as I want to create a dialog about color, business, management, information, flowers, crafts, being creative, selling, listening and sharing ideas in cyberspace.
I have been in the color business for twenty three years. I started out working as a “road dog” selling floral and craft supplies for my Father’s company, the Larry Beck Company. I did this for fifteen years. We were independent manufacture’s representatives for several top floral and craft supply manufactures. We sold our goods primarily on the west coast from San Diego to Vancouver, BC, from El Paso, Texas to Edmonton, Canada.
About eight years ago one of these companies, Design Master color tool, inc. a international spray color company, asked me to come “in house” with them. Prior to this I was affectionately known as being “outhouse”. A crappy position to be in at times. I was on the road seven months a year. I was living in hotel rooms. I was always eating in restaurants. It was tough on marriages as well.
At first I was National Accounts Manager for the company, then became National Sales Manager. For eight years I have been fortunate enough to be based in Boulder, Colorado where our home office is located. I travel a bit less. I have learned a tremendous amount about business, selling, dealing with people, customers and the change which is constant.
My goal is to post an idea a week and see where it takes me. Hopefully, there will be some good opportunities to share, listen and learn.
Thanks,
LTC - Brad
Hello out there in web-land. This is my first official post on my blog.
What is listen to color? It’s a play on words. Of course you don’t hear color, you see it. Although I have known musicians who swear they can hear colors. My purpose is not to create a dialog about sounds even though I love music, as much as I want to create a dialog about color, business, management, information, flowers, crafts, being creative, selling, listening and sharing ideas in cyberspace.
I have been in the color business for twenty three years. I started out working as a “road dog” selling floral and craft supplies for my Father’s company, the Larry Beck Company. I did this for fifteen years. We were independent manufacture’s representatives for several top floral and craft supply manufactures. We sold our goods primarily on the west coast from San Diego to Vancouver, BC, from El Paso, Texas to Edmonton, Canada.
About eight years ago one of these companies, Design Master color tool, inc. a international spray color company, asked me to come “in house” with them. Prior to this I was affectionately known as being “outhouse”. A crappy position to be in at times. I was on the road seven months a year. I was living in hotel rooms. I was always eating in restaurants. It was tough on marriages as well.
At first I was National Accounts Manager for the company, then became National Sales Manager. For eight years I have been fortunate enough to be based in Boulder, Colorado where our home office is located. I travel a bit less. I have learned a tremendous amount about business, selling, dealing with people, customers and the change which is constant.
My goal is to post an idea a week and see where it takes me. Hopefully, there will be some good opportunities to share, listen and learn.
Thanks,
LTC - Brad
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)