Congratulations! You just spent some real money on a new press. You’ve upgraded your capabilities with better technology and a stronger value proposition, much better than you had three years ago. That’s all good in an environment that static, but that’s not the...
Debt load or the age of your equipment isn’t always your biggest problem – the concern should be the percentage of your sales that’s sitting in the top two or three accounts. So, here’s what usually happens. You land that great account and before you know it,...
Your CRM and management information system know more about your customers than you do. Face it, the data is already there. The question now is whether you’re doing anything with it. Using this data combined with the personal and business relationships with your...
Here’s what I think. He probably would not be asking about your presses, or whether you hit your production targets. He wouldn’t ask if you’ve won any industry awards. He probably would ask why your customers keep coming back. I believe that question is as relevant to...
Every week brings a pile of decisions with real money and real consequences to your desk. Do you invest in a new press? Upgrade the space, or bring on that new hire you’ve talked about for months or, add that software that the vendor keeps pitching? All of this sits...
“I should’ve seen this coming,” he told me. “I just kept hoping it wouldn’t really happen.” That phone call still haunts me. This isn’t a story about a bad businessperson. This is a story about having the warning signs, the leading indicators, and not doing...