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| eChange (or Business in the 21st Century) by R. Patrick Gaughan President, Access Group, LLC |
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Unless we live in a cave or on a Tibetan mountaintop, we all know about the "new economy." Depending on whether it is March or April, Tuesday or Friday, the market loves or distrusts these high-technology-driven, dot com, "new economy" businesses and stock offerings. But we live right here in the Midwest, where the old values and personal relationships count; not to mention that we have to make a profit to stay in business. |
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| Let's take a quick look at how we get business done. First, only a few of us make or sell a product direct to the end consumer. We sell to other businesses. And that requires catalogs, data sheets, specifications and configuration, sales people, quotations, and LOTS of time. Rule number one of the new economy is that TIME matters more than money. Removing time from a transaction creates efficiency, lends flexibility, smoothes production, increases output, and provides opportunity for both greater revenue and profit. Think about it - what happens to your company's profits if orders, production or shipments slow by 10%? Now what would happen if they sped up by 10%? So now you call or write my company, interested in our products or capabilities - let's say aircraft fasteners. We send you a catalog or package of spec sheets. Then timing the arrival of the mail and giving a week or so to look it over, one of our salespeople calls you. After we spend more phone, fax or mail time clarifying your needs and specifications, we provide pricing or prepare a quote. We simultaneously begin the process of setting your company up as an account, checking your credit, and figuring out how and when we get paid. No problem, with a little luck within 2-6 weeks we should be able to process your first order for our fasteners. How much does this sound like your sales cycle? Can you see any opportunities to reduce time in this process? What about an online catalog or capabilities overview? What if your sales people could review and discuss your product specifications or capabilities the first time a customer calls, at the same time they review your online literature? Wouldn't it be faster for a new customer to submit account and credit information online? Once you have provided pricing or a quote, couldn't your customer or prospect notify you of an order online? Would any of the above make it easier or faster for a customer to do business with your company? The new economy is not just about books or videotapes sold by Amazon, auctions at eBay, or airline reservations made online. It is about the ways we manage time, and efficiency-driven changes in the ways business gets done by all of us. Boeing and the other big aerospace players with their Commerce One announcement, earlier initiatives by the international automotive companies, and a host of similar plans in business-to-business supply chain management sound an imminent death-knell for the old, slow way of doing business in those industries. Unless you have no competitors, the time to begin to plan for that change is NOW. |
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