Customer Manufacturing Update
Helping You Increase Your Sales In A Competitive Market	May 11, 2004

In This Issue Abbott and Costello The 10 Biggest Trade Show Mistakes Teaching Sales People To Negotiate The Power of Focus Closing Thoughts Abbott and Costello Most of you are probably familiar with the famous Abbott and Costello routine "Who's On First?" We are often teased about this routine because of our use of Who, What and How to describe Marketing/Sales roles. We recently received a copy of a clever update to Abbott and Costello's famous routine for the 21st Century.The author is unknown, but we think you will enjoy it anyway. ABBOTT: Super Duper Computer Store... Can I help you? COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den, and I'm thinking about buying a computer. ABBOTT: Mac? COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou ABBOTT: Your computer? COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one. ABBOTT: Mac? COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou ABBOTT: What about Windows? COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here? ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows? COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look in the Windows? ABBOTT: Wallpaper. COSTELLO: Never mind the Windows. I need a computer and software. ABBOTT: Software for Windows? COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What have you got? ABBOTT: Office. COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything? ABBOTT: I just did. COSTELLO: You just did what? ABBOTT: Recommend something. COSTELLO: You recommended something? ABBOTT: Yes. COSTELLO: For my office? ABBOTT: Yes COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office? ABBOTT: Office. COSTELLO: Yes, for my office! ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows. COSTELLO: I already have an office and it has windows! OK, let's just say, I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need? ABBOTT: Word. COSTELLO: What word? ABBOTT: Word in Office. COSTELLO: The only word in office is office. ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows. COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows? ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue W. COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue w if you don't start with some straight answers. OK, forget that. Can I watch movies on the Internet? ABBOTT: Yes, you want RealOne. COSTELLO: Maybe a real one, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of your business. Just tell me what I need! ABBOTT: RealOne. COSTELLO: If it's a long movie I also want to see reel 2,3 & 4. Can I watch them? ABBOTT: Of course. COSTELLO: Great, with what? ABBOTT: RealOne. COSTELLO: OK, I'm at my computer and I want to watch a movie. What do I do? ABBOTT: You click the blue 1. COSTELLO: I click the blue one what? ABBOTT: The blue 1. COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue w? ABBOTT: The blue 1 is Realone and the blue w is Word. COSTELLO: What word? ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows. COSTELLO: But there's three words in office for windows! ABBOTT: No, just one. but it's the most popular word in the world. COSTELLO: It is? ABBOTT: Yes, but to be fair, there aren't many other words left. It pretty much wiped out all the other words out there. COSTELLO: And that word is real one? ABBOTT: Realone has nothing to do with Word. Realone isn't even part of Office. COSTELLO: Stop! Don't start that again. What about financial bookkeeping you have anything I can track my money with? ABBOTT: Money. COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have? ABBOTT: Money. COSTELLO: I need money to track my money? ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer. COSTELLO: What's bundled to my computer? ABBOTT: Money COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer? ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge. COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much? ABBOTT: One copy COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money? ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money. COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money? ABBOTT: Why not, they own it.

Dear Mitchell, Welcome to the May 2004 Customer Manufacturing Update. This month's white paper focus is on trade show effectiveness. Tradeshows are a source of constant frustration for many and also absorb a large portion of the marketing budget. How can you increase the effectiveness and results of your tradeshows without spending more money? We believe you may be able to actually spend less! To learn more about our view on creating a more effective trade show experience and to gain a competitive advantage, be sure to read this month's white paper. If you have friends or colleagues who would appreciate receiving this e-zine, feel free to forward a copy to them using the "Forward email" link at the bottom of the e-zine. The 10 Biggest Trade Show Mistakes    Numerous studies of tradeshow effectiveness over several years have found that your exhibit (booth) staff has a larger impact on trade show results than any other aspect of your trade show participation. Bigger than the size of the booth, bigger than the freebies you give away to attract attention, bigger than the pre-show publicity you use to try to attract attendees to your booth, and bigger than the impact of the new products or services you announce. Despite this knowledge, most companies still send under-trained staffers to work the trade show booth. People are under-trained because the sales people who staff the booth don't think they need exhibit staff training (It's just selling for goodness sake, and they do that all the time. Oh, if it were just that simple.). And the rest of the staff just doesn't get trained because there's no time or budget. Whatever training they might get is usually last minute, as an after-thought coaching, minutes before the opening of the show. As a result of this neglect, trade show results are less than they could be. You can improve your trade show results by understanding that there are 10 critical mistakes most exhibit staff make (including experienced sales people). Learn to avoid them by reading this month's white paper. Your trade show results will improve. Download this month's white paper... Teaching Sales People To Negotiate    Many of our readers and clients are concerned about the commoditization that has been occuring in their markets, and the resultant price pressures. Despite an improved ability to differentiate products or services, they find buyers are still driving for lower prices. Beyond improved understanding of your real value proposition, how can you hold or increase prices in today's price-driven market? The answer is to do a better job at negotiating ... including price negotiations. The truth is that most buyers are better trained negotiators than are most sales people. Sending untrained sales people in to negotiate with a buyer is like sending an unarmed and untrained person into a gun fight. The results are predictable. Have you stopped to consider what a 1% price increase (or halting a 1% price erosion) could mean to your bottom line? Teaching your sales people to be better negotiators can get those results and more. We have been teaching negotiating skills to sales people and buyers for over 10 years. (One of the world's largest electronics companies has used our negotiating program for all of their buyers for many years with very profitable results.) Our negotiating programs (like all of our training programs) are tailored for your company (or two-three companies that want to share the program). We offer programs at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels, and we can offer you a Certificate in Negotiating from Santa Clara University, if you would like a university certificated program. To learn more about our real world, get results now, negotiating programs, click the link below. Learn more about making your sales people better negotiators... The Power of Focus    As the economy continues to improve, many companies will naturally look to expanding their offerings to increase sales. While this may be an appropriate and profitable approach for some companies, we are again reminded of the power of staying focused by a brief story in the May, 2004 issue of Fast Company. This article described a company in Boone, NC named Hospitality Mints. Hospitality Mints is in the business of producing individually wrapped mints provided by hotels, restaurants and other businesses to their customers. This includes real estate agents, car dealers, etc. Each buttermint is consistently shaped and wrapped in a logo'd wrapper. They even do case-lots for weddings and Almightly Mints for Christian groups. The key to Hospitality Mints' success is staying focused on something that is not easy to do (consistently providing individually wrapped mints to specific customers as needed, with their custom logo on the wrapper). They have been growing 6%-11% per year, even in the down-turn of the last few years. Why don't they try to enter the broad consumer mint market? They recognize that they can continue to grow for many years in their current niche and are likely to make more net profits from this smaller market, where they have a differentiation, than they could in the larger market where their value proposition is less compelling. Before you rush off to expand your offering in the marketplace (either by adding products/services or customers), ask yourself the key question: What can the customer buy from our new offering (or What can the new customer buy from us) they can't buy (or don't think they can buy) from anyone else? If you don't have a really good answer to that question, the probabilty is that you will suffer profit erosion from such an expansion. Closing Thoughts    We appreciate any feedback you can provide to help us make sure these Updates give you value each month. Feel free to respond to this e-mail with any comments or suggestions for future topics or ways we can make these Customer Manufacturing Updates more valuable to you. Thank you for your interest, and if we can provide any additional assistance in sales, marketing, strategy, or innovation to help you increase your sales, let us know. Our mission is to help you improve the performance of your System to Manufacture Customers®.

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