Issues 15: Liars, damned liars!
LIARS, DAMNED LIARS!
THEY TOLD US, not so long ago, that computers and robots would, before long,
do all the humdrum jobs for us and we'd sit around with nothing to do. We are
all, if they were telling the truth, supposed to be sitting on a beach, slurping
tequila sunrises. Well, it ain't happened in this office! Far from it. What's
happened instead is that all the jobs that used to take two or three people
two or three weeks are now done at one keyboard in a morning. So the rest of
us have to be able to react pretty damned quick, or we're going to get left
behind. Maybe you've got it cracked and you're sitting on the terrace at Reid's
but somehow I doubt it. More likely you haven't got time to read this because
there's so much to do. Well, just pause for a couple of minutes and think about
this...
WHAT HAPPENED?
IF YOU'VE GOT A CRYSTAL BALL, you won't be reading this. If, like the rest
of us, you're always looking for bright ideas - ideas to increase sales, productivity
and profitability, you'll be dependant on a computer, one way or another. Maybe
you don't use one yourself but, if you don't, you employ someone who does. Fifteen
years ago, it was only the big companies that invested in computers. Now that
they're ten-a-penny, everyone uses them. The question is: do we use them enough?
When we're stuck in our own offices, we don't always fancy the idea of a computer
taking over what we do. So don't. What's wrong with keeping the power in your
own hands, and taking over what computers do for the company? Look at it this
way...
DECADES OF GETTING AHEAD
VERY FEW OF US have a crystal ball, most of us can see the direction things
are going. Looking back over the last fifty years, it's amazing how times have
changed. Back in the 1950s, salesmen actually lugged their sample cases around
by train. In the 1960s, employers saw the benefits of supplying the sales force
with cars. They got there before their competitors, and grew as a result. It's
hard to say when computers really started to make an impact but, by the 1980s,
they were very definitely here to stay. Plenty of companies managed without
them. And where are they now? Hello? Telex was another wonder - but overtaken
by the fax in the 1980s. Email could make the fax almost redundant before long.
Car phones were costly and unreliable, but along came mobiles that are dirt
cheap and, by now, pretty efficient. Jokes about reps standing on station platforms,
saying "you're breaking up" are long gone. Could we exist in business without
the mobile phone today?
FAXES AND MOBILES are two of today's vital sales tools, for the improvements
they bring in efficiency. We can, for the first time ever, be in two places
at once. Email is now proving its worth. Computers again. Where's it all going
to end? Who knows? Nobody's getting ahead, that's for sure. We're all running
like crazy to stay on the pace. Problem: the pace is hotting up. What was a
cute novelty ten years ago is vital today. If you can't return your prospect's
call, wherever you are, there and then, there's a good chance you've lost a
sale. And that means it's vital! What we do know, because it's obvious, is that
sales tools like these are the hidden factors in a company's success. What's
extravagant, unnecessary or of dubious benefit in one decade becomes commonplace
in the next. They're seen - not by people with crystal balls - as essential
in gaining a competitive edge. Nobody's sitting back. We're all running like
the clappers, trying to create, keep and hone that competitive edge. "Vital"
means life-and-death, literally, but lifestyle-and-mortgage fits the bill for
most of us.
SIMPLY THE WORST?
WELL, NOT EXACTLY, but you don't have to be the best. You could be the quickest
or the cheapest, or even the friendliest. Once upon a time, the secret of success
was having a good product but, if that always held true, we'd all be watching
Betamax videos and driving Aston Martins. Price and availability rule the equation.
Marketing has grown far more sophisticated. Find the niche and supply to it.
Just because your product isn't as good as some others doesn't mean it won't
sell better. Far from it! Invest in good communications and you can clean up
the market. People actually bought lots of Morris 1100s! And how are you supposed
to know what customers want if you don't analyse data? These days, we analyse
data on computers that cost 1,000th of what they did thirty years ago. Today's
laptops have more power than the average mainframe had ten years ago. What they
need is something to do. Computers, as today's market leaders gladly tell us,
must be made to work hard for a living and, to do that, they need lots of numbers
to crunch. One way or another, they need databases.
NAILS WITHOUT HAMMERS
WHAT'S THE POINT of nails, without a hammer? Not a lot. What's the point of
having a computer, without making the best use of it? If you think your computer
runs on Windows 98, you need to ask around, because your office probably runs
on Access or Excel or Word. Or, most likely, all three. The single most important
sales tool, these days, is the database. More than any other it has liberated
firms and unleashed huge increases in sales productivity. The benefits are obvious.
Why spend vast sums of money sending your sales team off with an out-of-date
and incomplete list? Why send them off to find 'new' fabricators, installers
or housing specifiers when, for the cost of a salesman's travel alone, you can
get a comprehensive database, with full contact details, of all firms (including
those 'new' ones) to mail, Email, phone, fax or visit? When you can search your
Windowbase database, and print out a list of those to call within two to three
minutes, why spend months of hard, expensive labour re-inventing the wheel?
The whole point about a vital sales tool is that it lets your sales people get
on with what's vital, what you are paying them to do ? Sell.
YOURS IS BIGGER THAN MINE
IF YOU DON'T KEEP IN TOUCH with your customers, they'll be wooed away by another
supplier. That's how it goes. That's how they go. That's why databases tell
you so much about what your customers want, how and when they want it. If you
don't stay in touch with your future customers, you aren't going to have a chance
of winning them over. There's only so many of them (and they're getting fewer
and fewer every day) to go round, and they're in the same boat as you. They're
always looking for that little bit more for just that little bit less. Do you
know what your prospects need? Do you know who they are? Windowbase does. Do
you know what they're doing? Windowbase can tell you. For a really small, select
band of companies in the industry, look in Yellow Pages under Window Frame &
Accessory Manufacturers. The odds are you'll find about a dozen names. Look
under Double Glazing Installers and you'll find two dozen pages.
DON'T LAUGH
YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS - dozens of companies actually rely on phone books
for lists of fabricators, by looking under Installers. So, the next time they
want a doctor, maybe they should try Undertakers. What they often get are phone
numbers that are now fax numbers, wrong numbers, dead firms, some in the wrong
section, and plenty who should be there that aren't. It's annoying and a waste
of time (up to 23% of your time, actually) when you could be hitting hard targets
like fabricators. With Windowbase data, you can home in on commercial fabricators
with more than ten employees by region and profile system, if that's what you
want. Users of Windowbase data already know. That's because Windowbase runs
the country's most comprehensive database on the window industry and, if you
have your own database of companies, the odds are yours has far more names on
it than ours. That's something we're rather proud of. You see, lots of people
believe a big list is better than a short one (something to do with stamp collections,
probably) when it should be a case of: an accurate list is better - because
it doesn't waste your time or cost you money. Dave Moody's been dead over two
years but he still gets a lot of mail, so somebody loves him. You know the sort
of people - insurance companies, banks - companies with money to burn. Then
there's all the other things you need, vital things like a contact name, fax
number, correct address including postcode, oh and lots, lots more. We can't
do the job for you but we can certainly give you the tools. Pay us a visit,
on www.winbase.co.uk or Email us on sales@winbase.co.uk - or, if you're still
using phones, try Mike Davis on 01706 644308.
IF YOU NEED THE NAMES OF 1500 SPECIFIERS, 8,500 WINDOW INSTALLERS OR 2,800
PVC FABRICATORS . . . YOU NEED WINDOWBASE - NOT A CRYSTAL BALL!
