A company survives and grows due to sales and the loyalty of customers and staff. Sales are based on price, value, dependability, integrity, availability and perception. The basis of perception is image, networking, and more recently, the transparency of the producer. Transparency is what the brand stands for, its authenticity, its identification with higher values, […]

Company culture has a direct bearing on sales, and the survival and growth of a company. We have mentioned it before but think it is such an important factor in company success that we want to expand upon it here in a three part series on the original Barefoot company culture that established the “DNA” […]

Everybody makes mistakes, so why not take advantage of them? If your company culture does not give permission to make mistakes, your staff will hide them. They’ll want to ‘fix’ it fast and hope you never find out. They may be the only ones who know how to fix it, and they, or someone else, […]

  In the previous post we examined some of the ways your well-meaning office, marketing, production and accounting staff may come up with “cost-saving” suggestions than can actually hurt sales.  When little things go missing or the package gets simplified in the name of production efficiency, you may hear “It hasn’t affected sales”…yet! Or, “Our […]

 Let’s start by realizing that there are really only two divisions in every company, Sales and Sales Support. Since Sales Support includes everyone not in Sales, Sales Support consists of Production, Accounting, Marketing, and so on. Without sales there is simply no money for Sales Support salaries. Still, Sales needs Sales Support to perform.  The […]

                     In the  previous three posts we have given just a few examples of the importance of Channel Distribution Management in product design. Here we will examine two of the most important factors in product distribution through conventional channels: 14. Stack it! It is great to get your product on the retail shelf, but getting it […]

When the producers of any product first go into business, they tend to think they are in the production business. In fact, if they are to succeed, they are in the Distribution Management business. Distribution Management trumps production because without it, your product may never make it to the shelf – no matter how good […]

The least glamorous but most essential part of making a sale is actually getting your product to your buyer. Many great products are rotting in warehouses somewhere because their designers didn’t take the realities of the distribution system into account. Here are additional questions product producers need to consider: 6. How will you stage your […]

Good ideas are like belly buttons – everyone has one – you have to push to get it going, then you have to run to keep up with it. It seems there is no shortage of great ideas. The real shortage is purchase orders. Many individuals and companies as well, focus on the product and […]

Ever since the beginning of Return Desks and 800 numbers, companies have become more directly accountable to their consumers for quality and value. Before their existence, customers would just buy another brand if they were dissatisfied. Today most companies have a department or person dedicated to “customer service”. Rather than merely a complaint center, see […]