Benchmarking can be used throughout your organization to answer questions about the effectiveness of new initiatives. If youโre skeptical of how benchmarking can deliver results, consider these two questions and how benchmarking can provide answers. Once youโve tried these tactics, youโll find that benchmarking elsewhere within your company can provide consistent strategies for achieving growth and profitability. Will better service increase customer value? Choose 2,000 of your best customers and separate them with an AB split. Flag the A customers in your order management system as โplatinum.โ At every contact point these names should be identified as your best customers. Customer service reps (CSRs)
Management
Courage is perhaps the most critical leadership trait, but itโs something youโre more likely to associate with four-star generals than with managers. But courage can be developed and nurtured, and courageous leadership can become an automatic response. The path to courageous leadership can be summed up by the acronym ATTACK. Accept your circumstances. Most leaders either overestimate or underestimate their current cultureโs health. As a leader, you need to look reality in the face and accept it. This doesnโt mean you should settle, but accepting that you have a less-than-ideal corporate culture is the first step toward changing it for the better. Ask yourself,โWhat
Selling a catalog business can be an emotional decision. Owners often have an inflated view of what their businesses are worth. So arriving at a realistic price tag can be difficult. The old adage โFor every seller thereโs a buyerโ certainly holds true. But finding the right buyer for your business โ someone willing to pay your asking price โ isnโt always easy. While we at Lett Direct arenโt investment bankers or business brokers, Iโll share with you what weโve learned during the years from working with catalog business owners wanting to sell their companies. Timing is Everything Knowing when to sell
ยฉ Profile of Success, Catalog Success magazine, January 2006 Catalog Success: When was the catalog established? Paal Gisholt: The catalog was established in April of 2002. Prior to that, we were a dot-com company that started in June of 2000. CS: How do you describe your primary merchandise? PG: We have a core product offering, which is custom-packed equine nutritional supplements in daily-dose packs. Weโve used that as a platform from which we sell all different types of products that are useful to people who ride horses. Those are things like horse clothing, barn and stable equipment, rider gear, pharmaceuticals for horses, etc. And
These days, every C-level executive expects efficient use of corporate resources. Gary Hennerberg, direct marketing consultant and author of the new book โDirect Marketing Quantified: The Knowledge is in the Numbersโ (published by Target Marketing magazine, a sister publication of Catalog Success), offers these three tips to help you expertly allocate your marketing spend: 1. โIf you mail to both your customer file and rented lists, separate the costs by list, so list rental is not charged to customer costs,โ writes Hennerberg. 2. Evaluate the performance of small test quantities based on projected rollout costs. Writes Hennerberg, โIf youโre testing a quantity of 50,000 and expect
Holiday sales are expected to grow by just 5 percent this year, down from the 6.7 percent growth recorded in 2004, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). And a recent survey of about 8,000 consumers conducted by BIGResearch found that 34.7 percent of respondents plan to spend less on gifts this holiday than they did in 2004. The study also found that 60.2 percent of respondents said theyโre driving less. Indeed, high energy costs are one of the main factors behind the expected slowdown in holiday spending this year, according to NRF officials. In this age of high petroleum prices, consumers may be
Your direct selling expense ratio is as important to track as your cost-of-goods ratio and other key metrics on your income statement. Indeed, controlling your direct selling expense ratio plays a major role in helping to improve your catalog companyโs profitability. This month, Iโll focus on ways you can reduce your direct selling expense ratio. But first, letโs look at what normally comprises direct selling expenses: - catalog creative costs; - printing and paper; - ink-jet addressing and mailing expenses; - bind-in order forms and envelopes; - postage; - outside list expenses; and - merge/purge costs. Direct selling expenses
Are your contact center reps treating your customers in a way that best represents your brand? Are they staying within the confines of applicable laws when making upsell and cross-sell offers, especially those for third parties? Are you sure? Hereโs why I ask: I ordered a home product from a catalog in July. I had previously ordered from this company with no problems. After taking my order, the contact center rep launched into a rambling, barely decipherable cross-sell offer of joining some third-party shopping club in which I could get discounts on other products not related to the catalog. I
โGive me a place to stand and rest my lever on, and I can move the earth.โ โArchimedes No doubt youโve heard the phrase โstarry-eyed,โ but have you ever seen it? I did, in a young married couple Iโll call Mary and Joe. They dreamed of owning a catalog, and when they came to see me about a launch, their eyes sparkled in anticipation. โWeโve done lots of research. Weโve built a business plan and sales projections. And weโve saved enough for the initial investment.โ A good start, I thought. These folks have a realistic plan. Theyโve got a chance for the stars
What youโll learn from this article: - how to find companies to ally with; and - types of programs you can develop together. Want to reduce your catalog costs while increasing your new customer acquisitions? One way to do it: Develop strategic marketing through reciprocal partnerships and exchange relationships. Creating reciprocal alliances takes a bit of initiative and a willingness to explore communications directly with noncompetitive mail-order companies. First, Iโll explore how to find companies to ally with, and then Iโll outline some programs you can develop together. Identify Other Mailers in Your Niche Many mail-order companies donโt have their customer lists on the