FATAL SALES FAIL

Loss or Opportunity?

[Karan]:  I've had an interesting couple of days in which I have experienced two completely different attitudes towards exactly the same problem, and I'm now ruminating about the likely outcome of each.

We have been a customer of a local supplier, who I shall refer only to as Tired Incorporated, since we began trading in 1992; a very long time ago.  You might consider us a very loyal customer of Tired Inc after all these years, and we used to place quite a bit of business their way, as they were friendly, dynamic and helpful.  They might not always have been the cheapest supplier of their stuff, but they were pleasant to trade with and we always try to stay as local as we can.

On Tuesday I had a sales enquiry for a widget, and referred to Tired Incorporated's price list, which was still dated July 2007 despite repeated requests for the revised editions.  I thought I'd have another go and spoke directly with the new Sales Manager whose response was: "...every time we try to publish a new brochure, a manufacturer or two will change their stock and/or prices, rendering the brochure out-of-date and inaccurate, so we just [infrequently] email you the changes".  Hmmm, okay, fair enough point about the pricing etc, but what are the likes of IKD to do when trying to find the price and availablility of a widget?  The answer was: "...give us a call".   Hmmm, okay, but what if I need a price outside of your hours of business?  Well, we can all guess the answer to that, can't we?

On Wednesday Ian and I went to a trade exhibition, where we were introduced to a new supplier of  widgets, who now represent direct competition to Tired Incorporated. During our discussions, their Divisional Sales Director offered us a very large and heavy duty ring binder, full of professionally printed loose leaf pages, complete with all relevent stock, price and discount codes and product specifications etc.  It was explained to us that "...every time we try to publish a new brochure, a manufacturer or two will change their stock and/or prices, rendering the brochure out-of-date and inaccurate, so we created this in addition to offering you live online stock levels and a 24 hour online ordering facility".  Hmmm, now we're talking!  Obviously as stock, price and discount codes change in the future, Extraordinary Inc. will update the binder pages accordingly, but will also email us the changes as a fail safe catch all, ensuring that we are fully equipped with all of the latest developments to help us sell their products!

The online stock level checker and 24 hour ordering facility is just brilliant, and obviously affords us bang up-to-date information and greater ordering flexibility than ever before, from this section of the industry.  So who with me can now predict the future for poor old Tired Incorporated?  They've allowed themselves to be defeated by an easily surmountable problem; all it would take is a little ingenuity and willingness because, let's face it, a heavy duty ring binder with loose leaf pages is not rocket science, is it?  There may be costs incurred to activate this solution, but how much sales revenue are they loosing because they haven't - this is a false economy!

Tired Incorporated, and others I could mention who operate like them, would do well to remember that their customers, like IKD, are having to work extra hard in this climate to succeed, and are unlikely to work even harder than that, and unnecessarily so, when a better, faster, cheaper and more accurate alternative is available from their competitor(s).  My advice to Tired Incorporated is the same as it continues to be for ourselves, and something we are constantly mindful of: adapt or die, because if you're not growing your business, your business is shrinking - as a wise man (aka Nigel Botterill) once told me.

FOR THE FALLEN

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

By Laurence Binyon

PREMIUM DELUXE DADDY HEARING

[Karan]:  NOTE TO SELF: If you ever come back in the next life, be sure to order yourself the Premium Deluxe version of Daddy Hearing, which will enable you to sleep through almost everything, but particularly your young son having a restless night.  Premium Deluxe Daddy Hearing will almost always result in someone else getting up to tend to the infant, so that you may ping open your eyelids and scratch yourself in the morning, whilst feeling fresh as a daisy.

How do men do this?  I say men but only sleep with the one, but my friends all have the same experience with Daddy Hearing; which is how I feel qualified to use the term men, plural.  It's so bloody infuriating and exhausting.

On a primal level I can understand how hunter-gatherer man needed his sleep to go and kill a brace of wild boar for dinner, whilst stay-at-home woman could sleep when the baby did during the day (HAH! - this never happens by the way).  So if we assume all of that to be true (thousands of years later!), can someone please explain to me how Himself can sleep soundly through James' restless night, but will spring out of bed like a scalded cat should someone dare walk past the house and give the car a - silent - sideways glance?  What does this say to you?

All joking aside, Ian has actually slept through an earthquake.  Obviously we live in England so our experience of an earthquake is very different to those in parts of America or Japan etc, but they're still worth waking up for don't you think?  I'm not talking about tremors; even I'd sleep through one of those, I'm talking about the one a little while ago originating from Lincolnshire that shook the whole house.  And Himself slept on, thinking I was winding him up when I woke him especially.

Ian's defence for all of this is that he's tired, a point I don't dispute; but it sort of implies that I'm not.  So perhaps it's just a Mummy Thing, perhaps I'm just programmed to hear the baby so that Himself can go a hunting and a gathering at Wickes and Machine Mart.  Perhaps it's just another in the long, long list of Mummy-Only priviliges; like taking the direct hit when the little darlings vomit so as to protect the carpet, which you know you're only going to have to clean if you don't!  Having another shower, or showers, is always preferable at stupid O'clock.  Oh the joys.

This picture is not of Ian (or James) by the way and whilst tempted as I may be; if this rather lovely specimen of hunter-gatherer sleeps through crying babies too, there seems little point in me upgrading.

NOT A MOMENT TO LOSE!

[Karan]:  The 1st November already?!  Are you sure?  This time in a few short weeks we're going to be staring down the barrel of a New Year, and enjoying all of the wonderful opportunities it's going to afford us.

But what of 2010, have you achieved all that you had planned to achieve this year?  Well there's still time for you to finish strong - or stronger still - what are you waiting for?  There's not a moment to lose!

From my personal perspective, I cannot believe what Ian and I have achieved this year, so far - it's certainly more than we'd planned on 1st January that's for sure.  Earlier this year - April in fact - I wrote out a one year plan, detailing what I wanted to happen in each given month leading up to April 2011.  I reviewed this plan regularly to ensure we kept ourselves on track and, although some objectives were not completed exactly when I had anticipated them to be completed, they were nevertheless completed. 

I last reviewed this plan at the beginning of October, and was delighted to have found all of our objectives crossed off, but it wasn't until I was talking about this to a friend recently that I'd realised my cardinal sin: I hadn't replaced the list!  Where was my one year plan to October 2011?  Was I really going to be resting on my laurels from now on? 

We still have seven realistically productive weeks left of 2010, and so much can be achieved in that time, so this is me giving myself a massive - and very public! - kick up the arse for being complacent, whilst also setting myself new targets for the remainder of 2010, the New Year and to infinity  - and beyond!  Have definately been watching too many Toy Story movies!