sales

  • How Can You Increase Revenue Without Increasing Orders?

    • January 20, 2021
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Management, Measurement, Productivity
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    Photo of a man measuring a piece of equipment

    Your orders have leveled off and hit a plateau, but your operating costs are on the rise, which is cutting into your profitability. How can you increase revenue even while your average number of orders processed and units moved are remaining flat? One of the ways you can do that is just by increasing your

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  • Building Relationships and Partnerships are More Important Than a Transaction

    • November 11, 2020
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business, Management
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    A handshake. Relationships are more important than transactions. Don't ruin a good relationship over a few dollars.

    An email from my friend, Richard Croyner, reminded me about some advice I had given about how building relationships and partnerships are more important than transactions. He said, “I have spent 35 years in the transportation and supply chain industry and so many people look at this segment of business as a transaction — you

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  • Sometimes You Need to Fire Your Customers

    • November 4, 2020
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Management, Measurement
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    Measurements will tell you if it's ever necessary to fire your customers.

    I found an old email from a friend, Richard Coyner, who said: “I cannot tell you how many times I have said over my career ‘Don’t bother measuring something if you are not going to manage it.’” There’s an old saying that you can’t manage anything unless you do measure it, but it will take

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  • How I Saw Leadership and Commitment Modeled (Guest Post by Jack Floyd)

    • June 6, 2018
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Leadership
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    Letter cubes on a desk that spell Leadership

    I recently had a chance to ask some of my old friends and reps to contribute a guest article to my blog. “What do you want us to write about?” they asked. “How about something you’ve learned in our years working together?” I said. In all my years working with David, I learned the importance

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  • The Power of Three: How We Owned Three Brands and Ran Three Sales Forces

    • December 13, 2017
    • Posted by: David Marshall
    • Category: Business
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    A numeral three. The Power of Three is an RFP policy that requires at least 3 competitive bids for any project.

    When you’re a manufacturer with a national reach, you’ll often work with manufacturers reps as well as your own sales force. In fact, your sales force will often call on the manufacturers reps as part of their territory. Manufacturers reps often have access to projects and clients that you might not otherwise get because they

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