Putting Your Customers' Needs First

Armed with the above information in a spreadsheet, you can easily determine how well your web content covers your item master file; you can then focus on those areas where you need to develop additional web content for the coming year. This spreadsheet analysis also serves as a good way to identify future items that should be considered for stock versus MTO.

Everyone depends upon your

web catalog for deciding what product(s) to buy. Your sales team, your direct customer, the end user of your products. This area should always be of utmost importance in prioritizing resources to support your customers. Likewise, selecting or developing a good catalog software package is critical to the success of your endeavor. In addition, you should focus on developing product configurators, 3-D Models, product selector guides, cross reference materials and other support materials that will aid your end users in selecting and using your products in their intended applications…End User Toolkit.

• CRM – C ustomer R elationship M anagement was first launched at T&B in August 2007. My T&B Marketplace evolved from an open source CRM package called SugarCRM TM . While the account structure and the contact and lead databases were the core foundation of this CRM system…the real value of the CRM system was our ability to qualify projects, and identify business opportunities that could be converted into sales!

Stop trying to maximize your company’s return on investment for a few minutes and instead begin thinking of how you can help YOUR direct customers as well as THEIR end customers (if applicable) jobs easier! You may soon realize that when you make your customers’ experiences easier in dealing with your company or organization that “surprisingly” your business or organization will begin to prosper in more ways than you had ever imagined!