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Customer Manufacturing Update )
Creating Competitive Advantage Through Marketing/Sales Process Improvement

October 2008
in this issue
  • Teaming Inside & Outside Sales
  • Trade Show Measurement Tool
  • How good is Microsoft?
  • It's all about focus
  • Closing Thoughts
  • Dear Mitchell,

    Here is your October Customer Manufacturing Update. Most companies are looking to increase sales even in a down economy. The recurring question is how to optimize marketing and sales investments in any economy. How do you improve the probability that your investments move from "gamble" to "payback." This month's white paper looks at proven methods to help you do just that.

    If you have friends or colleagues who would appreciate receiving this Update, feel free to forward a copy to them using the "Forward e-mail" link at the bottom of the page.



    Teaming Inside & Outside Sales

    As more companies understand the value of inside sales people, more inside sales teams are deployed. If your company uses outside sales people, you can increase their effectiveness by teaming them with inside sales people.

    The value of that teaming and the keys to doing it well are the subject of this month's white paper, Teaming Inside & Outside Sales.

    Trade Show Measurement Tool

    An article in the September 29, 2008 issue of Forbes Magazine talks about Alliance Tech and their intelligent use of RFID technology to track trade show visitors and their booth visits. Now an exhibitor can know who visited their booth, how long they were their, how often they came back, and with multiple scanners in a large booth, what products within the booth attracted their attention. Wow, just like website visit tracking

    Of course there's the issue of privacy, but, according to the company, opt out rates are around 1% of trade show attendees. The more we are pushed for accountability the more we can find new ways to try to actually understand what our prospective customers are doing ... and not just on the Web.

    How good is Microsoft?

    The San Jose Mercury conducted an interview with Steve Ballmer regarding Microsoft's position in consumer electronics. The article states: "In less than 10 years, Microsoft has become a major player in video games, mobile phones, set-top boxes and Internet search and advertising."

    "But the company is nowhere near as dominant in consumer electronics as it is in operating systems. It has spent billions of dollars establishing its various electronics businesses with only limited success."

    The article makes these salient points: Its Xbox 360 has lost its lead to Nintendo's Wii and is losing ground to Sony's PlayStation 3, despite debuting a year earlier than either. Smart-phones such as Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone are stealing share from Windows Mobile devices. Microsoft's Zune MP3 players are an afterthought in a market dominated by Apple's iPods.

    Ballmer started off the interview with an acknowledgement of the real issue when he said: "Consumer products are as much about the way they're marketed as the way they're built. And we have some work to do, I'd say, on the marketing side."

    That is an understatement, but at least he seemed to get it. But then the Mercury reporter asked... "If you look at what they've done in the last year or two, do you view any of your consumer products as unqualified successes?"

    "I certainly would say the work that we've done around Xbox is an unqualified success. No question about that. The product is selling very well. The Xbox is an absolute home run." But sales of the Xbox have slowed markedly. It's been overtaken by the Wii. The PS3 is starting to catch up. What else would you say has been an unqualified success of late? "I'd also refer to Vista as an unqualified success"

    Now here's where Ballmer goes off the rails or is just spouting the party line. My, albeit limited, survey data shows virtually no one likes or wants Vista and that it single-handedly may cause more Apple converts from PCs than anything Apple has ever done. The fact that Microsoft can force its PC partners to bundle Vista and not XP has juiced Vista sales, but at what cost?

    By the time you finish reading the interview you begin to wonder if Ballmer understands that his operating system monopoly (created by his predecessors) is what provides his current apparent dominance, not the wonderfulness of his products, or his company's understanding of the consumer.

    Once upon a time Ford had more cars on the road than any other car company. But Henry Ford attempted to dictate to the consumer what they should want in a car. Alfred Sloan took that opening to lead General Motors to market dominance. And through skill and excellent management by his successors, General Motors has steadily lost market share and is apparently on financially difficult ground.

    Is Steve Ballmer delusional or just wrong ... don't know, but the results are likely to be the same either way.

    It's all about focus

    As we have been preaching, one area where companies do themselves in is lack of focus. In an effort to "spread their risk" or not "put all their eggs in one basket," too many companies diversify into mediocrity. As our friend Ted Steinberg likes to say, "They confuse showing up for business with going out for business." To which I would add that if you want to make money in any market, you have to stand out in the crowd, and you are unlikely to be able to do that in as many places as you think you can.

    We were reminded of this again reading an article in USA Today. They were profiling a 50 year old BBQ restaurant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Dreamland BBQ has the same menu today as it did 50 years ago (ok the prices are higher): ribs, sauce, bread, potato chips, Pepsi, iced tea and beer, and eight locations. Reminds me of the single minded focus on California-based In-n-Out Burger, a fast food money machine for over 50 years.

    Between the NY Times proclaiming that the sky is falling for almost a year and the idiots on Wall Street playing games with the credit market, we are clearly in a down-cycle. Focus, as counter-intuitive as that may seem, is the light at the end of the tunnel. (As a reminder, you can listen to my brief interview on this subject on BBC Radio Ulster).

    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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