Marketing and Sales
Marketing includes “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.” Sales include “operations and activities involved in promoting and selling goods or services.” The two disciplines are clearly linked in a neverending search for the golden ticket. In order to be effective, Sales and Marketing professionals require a particular kind of talent.
- Impressions of Value in Exit Planning
 Business owners, advisors, and buyers frequently have widely different impressions of value when it comes to a business.
The Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Survey canvasses intermediaries who sell privately held Main Street and mid-market companies. One question is about the obstacles that prevented the sale of a business. The number one ... - Supply Chains and Labor Shortages
 Supply chains and labor shortages are the chief topics among the 40 or so business owners I currently work with. Their anecdotes are widespread and widely varied. I wanted to know why, so I did some research on behalf of you, my business-owner readers.
Supply Chains
A broken foot was diagnosed at ... - The Nimble Small Business
 Almost since time began, the nimble small business has been axiomatic. Large corporations are like big ships, the common knowledge goes. They take a long time to change direction.
That is a comforting thought to business owners who choose to see their one-person strategic planning team as a competitive advantage. Like the small ... - Exiting a “Time and Place” Business
 “The purpose of middlemen in the marketplace is to provide time and place utility.” I remember the light bulb going on in Economics 101 when my professor said that. Suddenly, I understood the concept of added value. Someone had to get the product to the customer.
“After all,” the professor continued, “The footwear ... - How Much Does that Gorilla Weigh?
 How much does that (fill in your preferred number here) pound gorilla weigh?
I always refer to an 800 pound gorilla, but I’ve heard others use everything from a 400 pound gorilla (which is pretty close to their real size) to a 1,000 pound, 1,200 pound, and even a 10,000 pound gorilla ... - Good Customers Can Be Bad
 When can good customers be bad? What could be wrong with a customer who buys a lot, pays promptly, and never has a service problem?
They might be buying too much. No matter how strong or comfortable a sales relationship is, it could end. You may be confident that the customer is yours for ... - The New Information Direction: Push Over Pull
 Ever since we started using computers in virtually every business, we’ve been putting data into them. Unfortunately, the issue has been getting information back out.
In the middle 1980’s I ran a manufacturing company together with a couple of Australians. They thought my insistence on putting our records into a computer amusing, since ... - Help Your Friends, Not Your Competitors’
 I hear it all too often. “A customer just called us for a quote. They have always done business with our competitor. We’re going to give them our best deal, and see if we can take their business.”
Before you do anything, the first thing to ask is why they are calling you. ... - Small Businesses Fantasies: Service
 As an evangelist for small business, I am the consumer equivalent of the locally-grown food movement. I spend as much of my discretionary income as possible with the owned-and-operated businesses in my area.
As a consultant and coach to owners, I also admittedly observe these businesses with a gimlet eye. I know how difficult it ... - Time to Grow Up
 Young industries no longer have the time to grow up.
The cycle of maturation has long been accepted as a fact of life when a new concept becomes a business. There are a few pioneers (defined here in Texas as the guys lying on the ground with arrows in their backs.) ...
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