Shane's Blog - March 2017
Finding the Needle in the Haystack
Greetings and Salutations from Texas,
I am sure most are familiar with the expression of “searching for the needle in the haystack”. This installment of the blog is going to help you find that elusive needle. The needle I am alluding to is “more sales” and “more customers”. Sales and customers not only drive business, but keep business in the business of being in business.
RULE #1: Never ever forget that at the end of the day, a company without increasing sales and an expanding customer base is destined for the scrap pile. The number one goal of any business is to “stay in business”. The re-melt pile is littered with failed businesses that at one time were the behemoths and the captains of industry and were highly rated on stock exchanges; often basically so successful that they were printing money and shaking the trees to scoop up the windfall.
One other thing to remember is that companies that do not adapt to the changing market drivers will be in the scrap heap as well, think of video rental companies. On a daily basis, I encounter many metal casters that have not embraced technology and somehow manage to scrape by literally by pen-and-paper or a multitude of spreadsheets. The speed of market change is now much quicker due to technology, product life cycles can be very short.
Big data drives finding new business and increasing sales. Recently I procured a 2nd preowned automobile through a private sale and changed the ownership title at the local county office to my name. That is all I did, fill out a form, sign my name and pay a fee. In Texas, virtually any governmental information is of public record. Almost instantly, my postal box was overflowing with offers of automobile insurance, extended warranties, new tires, oil changes, and even someone locally that wanted to wash and wax my newly acquired vehicle. This avalanche of “snail mail” was not unexpected as the marketing departments of companies subscribe to database or information mining. Basically, the marketing department pays an intermediary for access to this type of information. Information is power.
However, some companies and their marketing departments take the searching for the needle to an entirely different level. For instance, the OEM manufacture of the automobile “knew” that I had acquired their model and year and not only postal mailed me a multitude of coupons for the local dealer, but also found my valid email address and mobile phone number. Thus, I started getting phone calls from the local dealer to bring the car in for a “free” inspection.
Beyond this, one company in particular took the finding of the needle to a whole new level, a level that shocked even me!
The global satellite radio service provider somehow someway knew that the vehicle I had procured had the necessary equipment in it. Taking this “connecting-the-dots” one step further, the provider knew that I had an existing account with them for my truck and thus knew all my vital contact information, including my credit card details.
Thus, I received a special “offer” of combining the vehicles under one account. When one really thinks about it, it is kind of spooky. Fortunately, the provider did not just take it upon themselves to debit my credit card and sign me up, as I have had that happen in the past!!!!
So, cutting to the chase, with the metal-casting specific all-module software in hand, you the metal-caster have a treasure trove of data at your beck-and-call. Correlating that data and finding the elusive needle is another thing.
Through advanced reporting techniques and the newly minted Business Relationship and Customer Relationship Management modules, the team at SYNCHRO ERP can help you find all the needles your business may need.
Please contact our top-shelf search team for more information.
Until next time, see you on down the road.
Shane Allen
SYNCHRO ERP Head of North American Operations
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