Analytics helps the distributor focus on where the best sales opportunities lie.
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Analytics tools are playing an increasingly important role in distribution. But many distributors recognize that they lack the capabilities to implement an effective analytic strategy in their businesses.
This article includes:
- Dealing with ERP system problems
- Hiring people with the right analytics skills
- Considering software-as-a-service providers
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Not a subscriber? Subscribe below or learn more. Subscribers also have access to the following related articles:
- Grainger Tackles the Data Challenge
- Use & Abuse of Customer Profitability Analytics
- MDM Interview: Creating a Culture of Innovation
In a previous blog, I shared that the first best step to data analysis is classifying your CRM and ERP data by end-market. In this blog, I provide the next steps to data analysis.
Over the past 20 years, companies have strived to gain a larger market share, often differentiating based on price and service. But in recent years, changes in technology have pushed companies to stand out from the competition by developing new ways of reaching customers.
Adjusting sales structure to better meet customer needs can improve profitability.
This month's data snapshot looks at the estimated size of the power tools market, which includes air and electric power tools.
Improved market access can drive long-term growth in both a distributors profitability and its market share. But it requires an analytical look at customers and opportunities. This article is the final installment in our series on customer profitability analytics.
This article includes:
- Customer segmentation
- Growth and profit opportunities
- Aligning services with customer needs
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Not a subscriber? Subscribe below or learn more. Subscribers also have access to the following related articles:
- Grainger Tackles the Data Challenge
- Tackling the Profitability Yo-Yo
- 3 Margin Levers of Customer Profitability Analytics
“It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.” When it comes to market analytics, the philosophy behind this statement usually attributed to economist John Maynard Keynes must be applied.
Gale Media announces publication of new book.
Salespeople need data to understand where a company does and doesn't make money.
Customer profitability analytics are an effective way to drive improvements in gross and net margins. This article looks at how distributors can apply the information they have uncovered to improving profitability. Part 1 of this series covered the basic concepts behind customer and transactional cost analysis and presented some key limitations.
This article includes:
- Profit Improvement Plans
- Pricing Optimization
- Services and Channel Alignment
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Not a subscriber? Subscribe below or learn more. Subscribers also have access to the following related articles:
- Use & Abuse of Customer Profitability Analytics
- Tackling the Profitability Yo-Yo
- Commentary: Analyzing Analytics
Use market data to help you clearly define all aspects of new growth opportunities.
Distributors face issues that can make every day feel like a struggle. The first step to overcoming these issues is to define them. Here are four common problems that can be prevented.
This month's Data Snapshot looks at the estimated size of the cutting tools market, which includes carbide and high speed cutting tools.
Distributors are increasingly aware of the need to understand customer profitability, and more tools are available than ever before to help with this process. This article examines how to deploy profitability tools and how to avoid making critical business mistakes in the process.This is the first article in a three-part series on customer profitability analytics.
This article includes:
- Explanation of activity-based costing
- Sources of material inaccuracy
- Accurately measuring selling costs
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Not a subscriber? Subscribe below or learn more. Subscribers also have access to the following related articles:
- MDM Interview: Redefining Competitive Advantage
- Tackling the Profitability Yo-Yo
- Commentary: Analyzing Analytics
Analytics has evolved rapidly in wholesale distribution channels, fueled in part by the explosion of technology innovation over the past several years, but also as a part of the industrys natural lifecycle. Companies that keep building their analytic capability are staying ahead of the wave.
This month's Data Snapshot looks at the estimated size of the abrasives market, which includes product categories coated abrasives, bonded abrasives, grain grit shot abrasives and super abrasives.
2015 will be the year of the breach. Is your company protected?
Your CRM and ERP systems are full of data that can be used to make meaningful observations about the way your business works and how to improve it. Unfortunately, data wont come to any conclusions by itself, and it is sometimes difficult to know where to start your data analysis.
