by Fronetics | Oct 13, 2015 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy
Imagine for a moment you’re entering an electronics retailer, ready to purchase a new television. You’ve been thinking about buying a new TV for a while, so you’ve done your homework. You know the difference between LCD and plasma. You’re certain that a 50 inch flat screen would look stellar hanging on the wall in your living room. Today’s the day. As you approach the salesman and begin to tell him the specifics of what you are looking to purchase, he looks at you and says, “Thanks for contacting me. I’ll be in touch within 24 to 48 hours.” It sounds silly, right? But that’s essentially what your company is telling prospects when it fails to respond quickly to online leads.
So how is “quickly” defined? Harvard Business Review (HBR) set out to measure how long on average it took for companies to respond to a web-generated lead. Auditing more than 2,200 businesses, they found an average first response time of 42 hours for businesses that responded to a lead within 30 days. Surprisingly, 23% of companies never responded. 
42 hours sure sounds like a long response time, but is it really? Turns out, it’s worse than you might think.
After reviewing the results of the HBR study, a research team at InsideSales.com examined three years of data across six companies that generate and response to web leads, from over fifteen thousand leads and over one hundred thousand call attempts. They focused on one question for this study: When should companies call web-generated leads for optimal contact and qualification ratios? Of this study a researcher wrote:
“…the odds of making a successful contact with a lead are 100 times greater when a contact attempt occurs within 5 minutes, compared to 30 minutes after the lead was submitted. Similarly, the odds of the lead entering the sales process, or becoming qualified, are 21 times greater when contacted within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes after the lead was submitted.”
Essentially, sales teams aren’t only missing opportunities to contact leads when they wait to respond, they’re also missing opportunities to qualify leads.
So where does the organizational problem lie? It could be that your sales team is hyper-focused on their own sales leads, ignoring signs from online leads that they’re nearing closer to purchase. It’s also possible there’s inherit incongruence in the distribution of online leads to members of your sales team. Could you improve response time if leads were distributed differently? Also culpable could be the frequency with which your sales team checks for new leads. Is your CRM pushing sales lead notifications to your sales team only once per day? Pushing out immediate notifications could positively affect your lead response time. Whatever the reason you identify, it’s important to address and rectify these issues as soon as possible.
With a white paper authored by Google and the Corporate Executive Board reporting that today’s B2B customers are nearly 60% through the sales process before engaging a sales rep, it is unsurprising that a reported 35% to 50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first. Is your sales team’s average response time faster than your competition?
![5 Tips Supply Chain Managers Need to Build Landing Pages That Convert [Infographic]](https://www.fronetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/landing-pages-that-convert.jpg)
by Fronetics | Sep 28, 2015 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain, Talent
Landing pages are a fundamental tool in converting website visitors into leads. They’re what convince your visitors that they absolutely must download your fabulous resource offer. Yet often times they’re treated as the annoying little sibling to high-value content pieces – tagging along almost as if an after-thought. In reality, landing pages have just as much, and possibly even more importance than the content offer. Besides, what good is your best resource if it’s landing page stinks?
Here are five tips supply chain managers need to build landing pages that are sure to convert visitors into leads.
by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 15, 2015 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy, Supply Chain
The sharing of tangible and intangible assets will increasingly become a fundamental feature of successful businesses.
Few developments of late are as intriguing as the rise and disruptive impact of the collaborative economy. In a very short time, services that we may have thought of as permanent fixtures of our business and personal lives have been rendered obsolete by the sudden sharing of tangible and intangible assets in the peer-to-peer, business to consumer (B2C), and business to business (B2B) spheres.
B&B and hostels, car rental, and DVD rental are giving way to peer-to-peer accommodations, car sharing, and music and video streaming. The Marriott Hotel chain used the online platform LiquidSpace to convert empty conference rooms into rentable work spaces for guests as well as outside visitors. Walgreens teamed up with TaskRabbit, an online marketplace for outsourcing errands, to deliver products during flu season. The list is endless.
Rachel Botsman, an innovation strategist who has spent the past four years studying 500 collaborative economy startups worldwide, concludes in Harvard Business Review:
The real power of the collaborative economy is that it can serve as a zoom lens, offering a transformative perspective on the social, environmental, and economic value that can be created from any of a number of assets in ways and on a scale that did not exist before. In that transformation lie threats—and great opportunities.
While consumer sharing may have received the most media attention, Robert Vaughan, an economist at PwC Strategy & Inc., argues the open sharing of resources among businesses may present an even larger opportunity. Although, on the surface, it seems like an unlikely marriage – businesses do compete, after all – a growing number of successful collaborations prove Vaughan is right.
He writes:
In just a few years of activity, it has become clear that the unfettered exchange of otherwise unused major assets, including physical space and industrial equipment, allows a sharing company to operate more efficiently than its non-sharing rivals. Companies that go further still, wholeheartedly embracing the sharing of less tangible assets, may benefit from a different sort of change, one involving their culture, that builds new types of connections with, and sensitivity to, the world outside.
One example of an interesting collaboration involves General Electric and Quirky, an online inventor community. GE and other market giants such as IBM and Samsung file thousands of patents every year, most of which never move beyond the drawing board. The collaboration gives Quirky open access to GE’s patents, allowing for products that normally would not have been put to productive use – such as a smartphone controlled window air conditioner – to be brought to market.
Sometimes a direct collaboration may not even be necessary. A company may choose to place an undeveloped product on an online technology exchange, thereby opening itself to the possibility of building a connection to another company with complimentary expertise.
In many respects, enterprise sharing is still in its infancy and is likely to evolve just like Airbnb, whose concept seemed “fringe” when it launched in 2008 (it was initially marketed as a service for people to stay the night on their air beds in strangers’ homes). Now the company has amassed more than 650,000 rooms in 192 countries and threatens to disrupt not only the hotel industry but the entire hospitality sector.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
by Fronetics | Jul 1, 2015 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy
How to increase prices and retain customers
Companies raise prices all the time. There are various reasons, explanations, and results. Sometimes companies disclose the changes, but sometimes customers and clients never even catch wind of a change. Let’s have a look at the causes, the perception, and the actions to take.
Why?
Usually there’s an impetus for a company to raise prices. Perhaps there’s a business model already in place to raise future prices, but often a price increase is tied to another event. Here are some typical reasons:
Spike in raw material prices used in manufacturing products
Is there dearth of raw materials used to make the products your company is producing? Perhaps there’s a lack of access to the materials due to stalled transportation from inclement weather, natural disaster, drought, etc. Perhaps resources are dwindling or other roadblocks in the supply chain are driving up prices.
Services or products have become incredibly popular (value-based pricing)
Perhaps you realize that your services or products weren’t appropriately priced early on, and you’re realizing your product’s value in the market. You may also need to reduce demand for some time by increasing prices.
Unexpected change in business or a new tact
Perhaps you’ve lost business recently or your business strategy has changed and you need to cover costs by increasing prices. These changes can come with the opening of a new branch or factory, or the launch of new services or products.
Inflation and market trends
It would be nice to keep prices where they started 5, 10, or 20 years ago, but most businesses aren’t sustainable that way. As all prices of other goods and services rise, so too must yours.
Perception
As detailed in an article about the power or perception, behavioral economist Richard Thaler ran an experiment in which some study members were asked how much money they would give a friend to go buy beer at a “run-down grocery store”. Some study members were asked to get the alcohol at a “fancy hotel”. According to the article, “the fancy resort’s median price was 71% higher than the run-down store’s price.”
This might suggest that considering the perception of your product or services could be key to your next price adjustment. Considering what your current branding is, who your competitors are, and where you want to see your company could help shift your own perception of your company, and that of others. Aligning the two could be critical to successfully stewarding a price shift.
How?
It’s important thoroughly think through a price adjustment. Considering your own worth is important, but understanding that some clients and customers won’t be convinced can be a hard pill to swallow. To make the change more palatable, or even attractive, you should consider these options:
Consider the tactic (good-value pricing, value-added pricing)
Are you planning on going to offer any promotions or price discounts in the future? Are you going to attach value-added features and services to support the higher prices? Are you considering doing bundles packages? It’s important to answer theses questions so that you can communicate to clients and customers.
Consider timing
Have you recently increased prices? Does it feel too soon to do it again? You could risk loyalty from consumers and clients if price increases come back to back. However some believe that small increases frequently are better than large increases infrequently.
Are you implementing new, improved services or bundling new packages? An announcement tied to value increase or product change can be more comfortable for consumers and clients.
Make a solid announcement
Most people feel it is best to announce an increase, especially to current customers and channel partners, rather than try to hide the increase. People don’t want to feel fooled or ignored. They want transparency.
Understand that wording is critical
Being direct and confident in expressing the increase is the best tact. Remember that if you value your product and services, your customers and clients are more likely to as well.
Although you’re briefly sharing the reason for the increase, don’t feel the need to disclose sensitive financial information.
Lastly, provide clear timing on the changes and be sure that changes don’t violate any pre-existing agreements.
Although some customers and clients may bristle at an increase of prices, if you’ve been playing fairly and providing solid products and services, many loyal customers will come along for the ride. If you value yourself, and others value you, you can survive a price increase. You may even thrive from one.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
by Fronetics | Jun 1, 2015 | Blog, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
Don Firth discusses women in the supply chain
The supply chain needs women and women could benefit from the many, interesting, well-paying jobs in the field. However, the number of women working in the field is lower than ever. To dig deeper into the current state of women in logistics, Fronetics turned to industry expert, Don Firth, CEO of job boards including: Jobsinlogistics.com, JobsInManufacturing.com, JobsInTrucks.com and other influential niche job boards. Firth has over forty years’ experience in the field, including positions as SVP Logistics for Pathmark Supermarkets, and Partner of the logistics consulting practice of Deloitte, among others. He was the editor and chief author of the bestselling book, Profitable Logistics Management.
Firth provides history, context, and suggestions for women in the supply chain.
You’ve had a long, successful career in business. Can you talk a bit about this history, and your view of women working in the supply chain, or in business in general?
The profitability of an entire company relies on the supply chain. It’s a huge and often a neglected opportunity for companies.
As far as who chooses a career in the supply chain— it’s not a profession like medicine or law. Not many women think, “I must be in logistics, or in the supply chain.” It’s not a career most women think of, and it’s not a career men think of either.
Traditionally, most people in the supply chain started from the bottom and worked their way up. They may have gotten an entry job as a selector or forklift driver and worked their way up to supervisor, warehouse manager and then executive positions within logistics. But all that is changing. Many colleges are offering degrees in supply chain management or including logistics and supply chain courses in their curriculum, more and more men and women are choosing this as a career choice.
One barrier, for some women, is that many jobs in distribution centers require candidates to have the ability to lift 50 lbs. For example, in the food industry there are very large, bulky cases. Some women are very strong so they might apply. If you’re lifting 50lb cases multiple times an hour, that’s a lot. Some women could do it, but some women can’t. Some men can do it, and some men can’t.
Women make up 38% of the visitors to Firth’s website Jobsinlogistics.com and 32% of the visitors on his website Jobsintrucks.com. These numbers seem high compared to the amount of women in the field, perhaps because some spouses use the websites to find jobs for their husbands.
If I had to guess how many women were in logistics, I would say 20% to 30%. Whereas women working in warehouses may be as low as 10%, other positions such as business development, administrative, freight agents, dispatchers, inventory management, purchasing and supply chain analysts are significantly higher. These help women with lots of talent rise to the top.
So can we correlate that one reason why there might not be a lot of women in the supply chain is because women might not apply for lower level positions, and therefore don’t get an opportunity to rise up through the ranks to middle-management or upper- management?
Perhaps. This may be so for positions such as warehouse associates, maintenance workers, mechanics and drivers. These have traditionally been considered a “man’s world.” For these positions there may even be a bias, a reluctance to hire too many women because most of the people working in the field are men. It will take some time to change. But the times they are a changing for these traditional roles. I just returned from New York on a plane where the pilot was female. We are seeing a growing number of women getting their Class A driver licenses and we have many husband and wife teams registered on JobsInTrucks.com
Are there specific things you feel women can bring to the logistics field?
I have met many women who hold higher level positions in the supply chain. The one key factor they all have is the desire to succeed. They are able to look at the bigger picture of the supply chain and analyze the trade-offs related to different strategies. Those that are on the business development side of the business have great client relationship and social networking skills.
Is there a specific way you currently promote women, or could do so on your websites?
We want to encourage more women to enter the supply chain profession. We send out logistics bulletins to our registered passive and active candidates to provide them with information on how best to find their next career move. We encourage women to participate on our Facebook pages. For JobsInLogistics.com, 40% of the ‘likes’ come from women, yet only 17% on JobsInTrucks.com.
At the recent Mid-American Trucking Show, we were pleased to see significantly more women drivers visiting the JobsInTrucks.com booth. We list 28,000 open driver positions on our website Jobsintrucks.com. Everyone is looking for drivers.
This can be a taxing career role for women, especially on long haul routes, where drivers can be away from home for two to six weeks at a time. Often we see women drivers as part of a husband and wife team. Once people have children this profession can be hard. Family life impacts women and men, both, in this field. Single, young men see trucking as an adventure at age 21, but once they reach age 29 and have children, they want to spend more time with their families, thus contributing to a shortage of drivers.
There was a lawsuit in 1964, Weeks vs. Southern Bell, in which a female employee was suing because she was told she couldn’t apply for a higher paying job within the company. Mrs. Weeks was told the job went to men only because it required heavy lifting and women weren’t allowed to lift more than 30 lbs on the job. Do you see similar things happening in the logistics field, even today?
Wow that was over 50 years ago. Well, the laws have changed but I think the bias is still there. However it still falls back on the physical ability of both men and women to work on jobs that require heavy lifting or strenuous activity.
Do you still see a lot of prejudice against women in logistics?
Many companies are advertising for women in all areas. They’re being careful about hiring processes because of discrimination laws. In reality, I’m sure there is some bias for the heavy-lifting jobs. If people are looking at resumes and they see a female applying and a male applying for a heavy-lifting position, unfortunately I think they’ll interview the man first. On the supervisory level, it doesn’t matter if you can lift things or not. For other positions, I believe it’s a level playing field.
National statistics report that “in 2013, women who worked full time in wage and salary jobs had median usual weekly earnings of $706, which represented 82% of men’s median weekly earnings ($860),” which is in line with what is happening in logistics management. According to the Logistics Management report, “women still lag behind – earning a median salary of $86,370, while men with similar job descriptions pull in more than $100,000.” What do you think it will take to equalize the gender gap?
I don’t know what to think of the accuracy of these statistics, because there can be many factors that skew statistics, such as which companies are being compared, what type of jobs, where are the jobs located, what’s the career history, etc. However, I know that someone should not be looking at a woman with the same skillset as a man and say, “Ok I’m going to pay her less because she’s a woman.” Whereas I’m sure it happens, it’s just wrong.
What do you think about the future of women in the supply chain?
I think there’s going to be slow growth on the manufacturing floor, warehouse operations and in transportation. But I think the high level positions are very open for women. It requires a very analytical mind. Women are especially good at thinking through the many complex pieces of the supply chain. One of the best things about this work is that it’s not repetitive. Things change every day. I think people, men and women alike, will get hooked on logistics! Opportunities are there.
Females should be looking at the business schools that have supply chain courses. Once you have that degree you’re going to be starting at a managerial level. This can lead to salaries anywhere from $85k to $150k for leading supply chain professionals, with some earning more than $225k. Supply Chain salaries are going up tremendously because companies are realizing that supply chain is the key to profitability.
