Consumer confidence, despite a very slight rise from a low point in July, is
still low at 68.9 reported this morning. And other economic indicators are not promising, either. Jobless claims have jumped and stock prices fell sharply in the last two weeks.
Despite what VPOTUS Joe Biden says, we all know in our gut that we're not really in a recovery, or much of one.
The jobless GDP growth was revised downward yesterday to 1.6% instead of
2.4. Existing Home sales plunged 27.2 percent from June and 25% from
July 2009, which was not so hot itself. Durable goods orders were just a
little bit up after two months of a little bit down. Consumer
confidence....
So what does a distributor do now? Realize this....
The Economy Isn't Going to Supply All Your Growth
So here’s what a
successful growing distributor will look like in the future, then.
They will create their own
growth by using their investigative and development skills to reach into different demand pools, not rely on the
economy to lift their current narrow vertical niche.
They will work on the productivity of every
business process in the company to create a low cost, scalable core business
that satisfies customers better than any competitor. It will also send more gross profit to the bottom line instead of unnecessary payroll which is destined to be taxed even more in the future. This involves becoming a power user of your business system and harnessing the power of technology to change how you work.
They
will have a growth plan that executes growth initiatives in six major
strategies, not just one or two as they have in the past
They
will think like outsourced logistics managers for customers, not just companies
that buy, store, sell and ship products in one vertical niche.
They
will exhibit the humility, drive and inquisitiveness to find out how to compete
in new product, service, geographical, technological, value chain positions
that leverage their core business and add customer value (i.e. as installer, dealer, manufacturer, customer total logistics manager)
Their
business systems will integrate with customers, affording customers backward
and forward visibility in their supply chains, or at least real time access to
critical supply information.
Is there
anything on this list that you want to learn or learn to do better?
We Thought So.
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