Another Vendor meeting behind us.

Spent the last couple of days with our key vendors. We had a great meeting discussing 2009 and 2010. It was definitely a trend that these vendors were seeing revenue from partners like us down from 14% to 25%. That is the bad news. The good news is that September was a good month almost across the board.

We are looking forward to 2010. Are you planning for 2010 or just letting it happen.

Confirming Meetings

Do people not confirm meetings any more? Somtimes when I make meetings with out of town people coming to see me, I do it months in advance. It amazes me that no one would call just to confirm the time and date the week or days before. Some of these people trave 1000 plus miles with not even a call. This seems like it would burn them. That being people forgetting to be there, maybe they were fired? Just so many things that could change. Why not invest in a 1 min call to verify the details.

My next issue is not having a plan. If you are meeting with people and you set up the meeting, shouldn't they know what to expect? What resources should the bring, who should attend, what is the purpose other than the basics. Maybe it is just me.

A good sales meeting should have;

1. A call prior to the meeting to confirm. (Especially when travel is required)
2. An agenda. No matter what. That way people know why you are there and you do not forget something.
3. Expectations
4. The priorities during and after the meeting
5. Follow up, thank you and such.

A little bit of technical wow.

So I have been working on PCs since the RadioShack days when I sold my first 8086. For those of you that means little to, it was one of the first PCs that RadioShack sold beyond the TRS. So it would be before Windows and was about $3000 for no hard drive and minimal ram. 5 and 1/4 drive.

So back to my story. We used to upgrade the early 486 machines with ram, Sound card and CD drive. That way it would run an encyclopedia. Yes it even had videos.. WHOO HOO.

When we did the upgrades, we had to have grounding straps to keep the static electricity from destroying the components.

Well this weekend I was upgrading the ram on one of the PCs here in the house. I put the ram in my pocket to carry something else. (Not a great idea) then I forgot about it. So after it came out of the washing machine, Jenifer then did not see it and it went through the dryer.

After speaking to Loren he suggested I give it a try. Guess what. It worked...

Jenifer did a great job cleaning out the ram on that PC:)

Less value same cost.

So the local paper (most likely a industry out of business they just don't know it yet) is delivering even less value than before. Probably to save cost. They cannot deliver the Sunday paper in the morning. It will come sometime in the afternoon. So lets go into the value they have now.

1. Paper comes through out the week after work. You know, when you have already heard what is in it via the radio, TV or Internet.
2. No Sat. paper at all.
3. Now Sun paper comes when it is too late. Great.


So why do I still pay for it? Jenifer wants the obituaries, and hey the comics are OK. Not a great investment.

He saw a cowboy!

I was with some out of town vendors this week. They were from the West Coast. I will try and keep the state nameless to not incriminate. ILL INFORM YA about that state later. Anyway I had to get some gas and there he was. Cowboy hat, Wrangler jeans and boots with spurs. You would have thought my guest had seen John Wayne himself. In fact he introduced himself to the cowboy. After a bit of a chuckle the cowboy let the "guest" understand that he was a cowboy and actually was rounding up cattle that day. After explaining what that was, my guest was almost like he had just survived the OK corral.

It was entertaining on my part, nobody was shot and my guest learned quite a bit. I am sure that it will be a story for some time.

I have not said it yet this year.

The NFL is the best!

Go 49ers

Cash for Clunkers

Is now everywhere. Appliances, Computers, windows, siding and more. Great idea for marketing but a little too late. If you came out with the idea a month or so ago people would have listened. Now it is just too little too late.

Many times, marketing is being first to the idea, making it unique and getting people's attention. It is all about ideas and continuously investing in the future.