ETD: 856 Staying in touch; Vacations (holidays) &
productivity; Business Know-How
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Tue Feb 1 12:28:42 GMT 2005
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0856 February 1, 2005
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Staying in touch
[3] Vacations (holidays) & productivity
[4] Business Know-How
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
Remember that old client I mentioned in last issue? Well I went to our
archives and did find the file on the work that we did in 1997 (we don't
throw anything out). It was interesting and should give us a leg up on
what we encountered before. The company did less than $7 million when we
first met; in 1997 they did $18 million; last year $43 million. Now they
want help growing to $80 million within the next 2-5 years. It could be
very exciting.
We have some more input on keeping in touch from our list
members. Excellent tips that they use. How about you? What do you do?
We have a profile on Janet Attard's business: Business Know-How. Janet is
a frequent contributor to E-Tailer's Digest and has a unique niche.
Tell us about your business, which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?" site. This is a courtesy to our members who
contribute to our forum, and not merely a way to advertise for
free. Anything to do with the retail world, i.e., supplier, retailer,
consulting, etc. http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And
we have a form there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first
proposed this idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we
often don't know anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and
what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Staying in touch
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I find that I have to REALLY keep in touch. I bring over bagels and coffee
to my accounts about every 2 weeks, with calls in between to set up more
appointments. Even though I have been to these clients time after time,
they still are amazed to hear the same things that I told them the first
time we met; i.e., "we deliver for free," "open on Saturdays" etc.
I feel that by "blitzing" the accounts, I can achieve the ramp-up to
becoming their default supplier a lot quicker. After I get to a certain
level, I can afford to cut back a bit on the frequency -- not to relax but
to build other clients.
I have one office that has been slamming the door in my face for 2 years.
Finally they got unhappy with their supplier and I got lucky (2 years of
work helped). We are now the exclusive supplier for that office. Similar
stories at other offices where I just wore them down, or they had a change
in staff that was more willing to accept a new supplier.
Messages - be persistent but not annoying, be professional, timing is
important, make your own luck, keep delivering your message.
Joe Dweck
Success Meds, LLC
+++ [Next Post] +++
Good topic, George!
In addition to sending my top clients, vendors and referral sources a
monthly postcard, I keep in touch by:
1. Using my e-mail and snail-mail to send items of interest to people I
would like to do business with. These items may be newspaper clippings,
useful websites, or especially interesting issues of e-mail discussion
groups like this one. The idea behind this effort is to stay "top of mind"
with these people.
2. Going to lunch with key clients, prospects and referral sources.
3. Not just sitting on my you-know-what and sending postcards. Within a
week of a card mailing, I take my mailing list, highlight the names of
those I'd like to cultivate further, then I get on the phone and/or on the
e-mail.
Hope this helps!
Martha Retallick
http://www.PassionatePostcarder.com
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[3] Vacations (holidays) & productivity
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There is a new TV commercial and Website preaching the need for vacations,
especially for those of us in the U.S. It's interesting to see the average
annual vacation days in various countries:
Italy - 42
France - 37
Germany - 35
Brazil - 34
Great Britain - 28
Canada -26
Japan - 25
U.S. - 13
That got me to question whether or not there was any correlation between
time off and productivity. The measurement to determine productivity is
"real output per labor hours worked." So, I researched productivity and
learned that the output per hour in varied countries are:
Italy - 1.0
France - 1.9
Germany - 2.6
Great Britain - 5.5
Canada - 1.2
Japan - 4.5
U.S. - 6.8
Is there a correlation between time off and output? It doesn't appear to
be so. Great Britain gets 28 days and 5.5 units of output per
hour. What's wrong with that?
So, why don't we take more time off in the U.S. Maybe we can recharge our
batteries by taking another week, and improve productivity even more, eh?
What do you think? Do you take enough time off? Do you require that your
staff does?
Here are some resources...
http://iwantmyvacation.com/
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/prod4.nr0.htm
George
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[4] Business Know-How
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At Business Know-How we sell labor law posters, employment applications
forms, employee handbook templates, workplace safety posters, and various
products to help market your business.
These products enable you to avoid fines by having the up-to-date labor law
postings, improve workplace safety by reminding employees of safety
practices, comply with other laws, and grow your business with the
marketing products.
We offer hundreds of free articles with practical ideas for marketing,
managing employees and growing your business. Our workplace posters are
up-to-date, reasonably priced, laminated and colorful.
Business Know-How has been in existence since 1988. We started the
business to help small businesses succeed. We market the business via word
of mouth, email newseltter (our own), online ppc advertising, offline
direct mail
Labor law posters and safety posters are at
http://www.businessknowhow.net/posters
Free newsletter subscription with links to our free articles is at
http://www.businessknowhow.com/newsletter/subscribe.htm
Janet Attard,
President
Business Know-How
2364 Middle Country Rd
Centereach, NY 11720
Phone: 631-467-8883
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