Frank Hurtte
Salespeople, Understand your Value — The Golden Goose Fairy Tale
Golden Goose Flambé A Recipe for Roasting the Goose that lays the Golden Eggs Ok, boys and girls out there in sales land, it's story time again. Join me as we skip down the yellow-brick road – the one winding through the enchanted forests and…
Customer Ranking – A Roadside Revelation
The history of mankind is populated with roadside revelations. Moses had one on the road from Midian, Paul had one just outside Damascus and Caesar had his marching the Apian Way. Clearly there is something mystical about the lonesome solitude of journey...
Distribution after the Recession – Funded Sales Resources
Think about the Great Ice Age – before the great sheets of ice enveloped much of Europe and North America, great Dinosaurs roamed the planet. After the ice cleared away a new breed of highly adaptive animal took over – the mammal. ...
Distributor – Where have our Supply Partner Sales People Gone?
Have you tried to call the office of some of your suppliers lately? A few weeks ago we were asked to do a mini-research project for a major distributor. We phoned the local sales offices of their major suppliers. We got all varieties of automated...
The Distributor’s Mid-Recession Checklist
Believe it or not, we had an early forecast of the impending recession in late 2006 – yeah, back when business was good. Some of us were prepared – most were not. The economic forecasters tell us this recession will end in...
Sales Managers May Cry, But I Like a Recession
Call me weird, sick, strange and demented, but I am perhaps the sole person on the planet that finds good in a recession. No, regardless of what you're thinking, I'm not some Hannibal Lector-type psychopath scribbling this from the comfort and security of my...
The Changing Perception of Value during a Recession
Join me as we journey back in time to our high school English Lit class. We are reading William Shakespeare's Richard the Third. It seems as though good King Richard was in a tough spot. Consequently, his perception of value had...
Holy Cripes: I’m the New Sales Manager – and There’s a Recession Going on...
Anecdotal evidence pouring in from all over distributor-land points toward a growing trend to re-evaluate sales leadership. The reasons for this are varied and complex - the result of a cost cutting measure, because things "just weren't working out" or some miscellaneous realignment....
Why Are So Many Wholesale Distributors Adding Product Specialists?
A recent survey of Wholesale Distributors indicates that over 80% either have Product Specialists or plan to add Specialists in the next 12 months. The Queswtion becomes why? Wholesale Distributors find Product Specialists perform an important role in their sales playbook. This is...
Driving Distributor Sales With a Product Specialist
All across "Distributor Land" wholesalers are discovering four important issues: Products are more technical. Electrical distributors find themselves responsible for complex Automation devices. Plumbing wholesalers sell microprocessor-based instant on hot water systems. Industrial MRO distributors line up to sell gauging equipment. ...