Hello to all! We’re still in the aftermath of our August members meeting, having received many insights on “Tough Tactics for Fast Payback In Today’s Markets .”
Great presentation from Don Scheibenreif of WW Grainger, who spoke to how his firm works to serve the needs of their customers in special ways — bringing them total solutions even in a down market.
One of the things he discussed was emergency preparedness — and he mentioned that Grainger provided emergency preparedness services for their customers. He mentioned in passing that he had his own kit at home, and several people asked what was in it. He suggested going to the Red Cross website, www.redcross.org to get their sheet on this –good idea!
We’ll be summarizing our ISBM August Members meeting on our website soon, be on the lookout for it. Thanks to all who made it a robust meeting!
News from the ISBM 09 Members Meeting
A quick update to those of you who may be following this blog — sorry for the delay in getting a new post up.
Our ISBM members meeting for August 09 was last week, and I’m especially thankful for the 130 people who attended, and the speakers who shared so much insight with us.
Steve Ligouri from GE share insights on how GE is building stronger marketing process, building on their CECOR process to a stronger value driven marketing process.
Abbie Griffin and provided detail on how to do a better job on “Voice of the Customer”, and suggested that in these times a suite of tools rather than any one particular tool needs to be applied.
Don Scheibenreif from Granger shared insights on how to stay focused on a solution selling approach — while walking the “tightrope” of a market constantly shoving the MRO products and services Granger provides towards commoditization and pure price discussions.
Tom Nagle from the strategic pricing group gave us some very interesting hints — and specific suggestions — how to navigate price in today’s markets. In fact for anyone who would like one, he has provided us a paper summarizing his talk which we will be making broadly available — if anyone would like an advance copy just send me an e-mail.
Roger Best is at it again — producing tools to help us do our jobs better. His “Marketing Metrics Handbook” is available at an extra special price to all ISBM members, and enables you to create an interactive environment which can help firms take an immediate step toward building a dashboard for their marketing efforts.
Prabha Sinha from ZS Associates gave us some “down and dirty” approaches to connecting marketing and sales better through the current sorts of economic challenges we face.
Sue Sears from Kimberly-Clark — an inspiration — talked about how she is equipping preparing and motivating her team to get price, and continue to position their products in a unique way in today’s markets. She brought her “Marketing Rock Stars” with her, and we were very glad to have them here with us.
Peter Krieg, from Copernicus consulting, gave us insights on how to focus on “the pointy end of the funnel” in today’s markets, and apply analytics to find white space, and better reposition your offering.
Finally, Ed O’Boyle, of Gallup organization, discussed the impact of relationships in sustaining firms through tough times, and shared with us some downstream data — very valuable — on what’s going on in the economy, and what we can expect over the next few quarters.
Note that our ISBM members meeting will be summarized on our website — www.ISBM.org, soon. If anyone wants any additional insights — or needs them immediately, please feel free to contact me directly at ISBM.
On the road this week with very interesting visits to Lord Corporation, Wesco Distribution, and Kennametal.