More “How I Did It” in Material Handling
The responses continue to roll in from MHEDA Members listed on manufacturer Top Dealers list. To add to my list from last week, here’s a couple more strategies from MHEDA members who were able to achieve some success in 2009, despite the down economy.
- “Our objective was to provide exceptional service and continue to build relationships with customers. Achieving that objective involved increasing our number of repeat customers, improving customer survey results, responding to customers’ needs during the initial contact, reducing the amount of required rework and overall improving processes.”
- “We directed our sales force to specific SICs and used the entire company to become regarded as a ‘valuable’ supplier for our customers. In short, we made it our business to understand our customers’ business and respond quickly to their demands. By doing so, we exceeded pre-set objectives for 2009.”
- “We began to look for industries that had severe pressure on them, such as building supplies and automotive, and tightened credit to those customers. It caused some angst, but it helped keep our bad debt expenses in line.”
As I mentioned last week, the July issue of The MHEDA Journal is chock-full of strategies from Top Dealers. I don’t want to leave anyone out, so if you won an award from your manufacturer, send me a message at editor@themhedajournal.org or leave a comment here to inform me!
Tags: economy, material handling, sales success
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:39 am
One secret is MHEDA services for those that are not aware or have not taken advantage of them. Every year our owner comes back from the MHEDA Convention energized and full of new ideas that we implement, and it only helps us grow and have more of an online presence. I had the opportunity to attend the 2009 Annual Convention and came back with new and inspiring ideas and solutions. Just a handful of the services/tools that MHEDA offers that we participate in:
Membership Directory
Annual Convention
Exhibitors Showcase
Books/CDs/Publications
Discount Partner Programs
The MHEDA Journal / Blog / Twitter
The MHEDA Connection
Webinars – Sales Tools – Etc.
MHEDA Edge / Blog / Twitter
WikiMHEDA
MHEDA-Net
Facebook
These have been a great tools and working with other members sharing ideas has been exceptional.
* Take some time to be creative. One often can’t offer a new solution unless he or she has the time to create one.
* Listen to what others are saying and doing and get involved.
* What you do today will affect what you do in the future.
* Promise on what you can deliver. Otherwise, how credible can you be to your clients as a provider of products and solutions?
* Have fun!
Just a few things that come to mind.