Tom Gale, Author at Modern Distribution Management - Page 18 of 29

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Tom Gale

Tom Gale has been an MDM researcher and industry analyst for 30+ years on independent distribution channel trends, consolidation, technology and competitive landscape. He is a frequent speaker and moderator on these topics at company, marketing group and association meetings in North America and Europe.
Posts By Tom Gale
Sales & Marketing
Commentary: Make Disruptive Technology Work for You

I’m a history buff. The Sears Roebuck and Co. catalog from 1900 looks a little like a cartoon today, but it holds an important lesson for distribution in 2012. On the cover is a picture of a globe, a cornucopia horn with products spilling out, a banner proclaiming to be the “cheapest supply house on earth,” and two sentences with a very important message that goes like this:

THIS BOOK… tells just what your storekeeper at home pays for everything he buys and will prevent him from overcharging you on anything you buy from him.

I thought about that Sears catalog as I mulled over the impact of Amazon’s launch …

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Commentary: Better Questions, Simple Analytics

I got a lot of feedback after I wrote about big data in the last issue. My main point was how companies have to manage a transition from transactional to strategic when it comes to their data management.

A few readers thought I was making a bigger deal of it than necessary in the most promising business climate in five years: “We’re ahead of where we were before the recession, much earlier than expected… our problems, thankfully, are growth problems again. Our real challenge right now is service levels.” That’s great news on the growth part!

But I would also recommend considering …

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Commentary: What Mobility Means in 2012

Mobile technologies are exploding. Here are a few statistics, courtesy of the Pew Research Center’ Internet & American Life Project’s most recent survey at www.pewinternet.org:

Research & Analytics
Commentary: Distribution Wake-Up Call

At last week’s annual meeting of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), the mood was positive and attendance was up by a healthy margin.

Most of this you might expect given the shift in economic news in the past four to six weeks. In fact, the recent economic statistics released only validate what distributors are always the first to see on the front lines of our North American economy. When nearly one-third of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) transactions flows through wholesale distribution, it is …

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Sales & Marketing
Commentary: Customer Service Lessons: ‘Moments of Truth’

It has been a valuable lesson for my company in what longtime sales and marketing consultant Peg Fisher called a “moment of truth.” In one of her many articles in MDM, she outlined how customer service consists of a series of ‘moments of truth’ customers experience with your company. Every person has the ability to make a positive impact on customer relations. This includes the way the telephone is answered, the use of voicemail, email, error-free orders, accurate billings, realistic promises made and kept, the integrity of information provided, and extends to vendors who directly or indirectly touch the customer…..

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Commentary: The 2012 Winds of Change

The winds finally shifted this holiday season. There were promising signs in the last quarter, but the most positive economic news in years came with the New Year. Domestic auto sales are stronger, the Purchasing Managers Index turned around, and there are signs of hope for construction markets that have been bumping along the bottom for years.

Anecdotally, many distributors ended 2011 with …

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Management
Commentary: Business Analytics Have Become a Clear Differentiator

An article in the Dec. 10, 2011, issue by distribution consultant Bill McCleave expands on research Bill and I did 10 years ago on the key elements that define the customer’s total value perception of a distribution company. Bill does a great job of updating our research with some additional dimensions he has identified as critical to gaining competitive advantage in today’s markets.

At the risk of patting ourselves on the back, our research and the 10 case studies of innovative distributors we used to illustrate the concepts in our 2003 book, Stand Out From the Competition, have stood the test of time p

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