by Tom Piscitelli | Feb 24, 2017 | Customer Relationships, Management
Several years ago a contractor client was struggling with inventory management. I set up a meeting with their main supplier to discuss how the supplier could essentially take responsibility for all aspects of their inventory. We discussed seasonal planning, min-max...
by Tom Piscitelli | Nov 2, 2016 | Data & Analytics, Management, Sales
If you wait until January to begin planning on how you’re going to make your 2017 sales goals, it will be too late. It can take weeks and months to make things happen. When you miss your first-quarter targets you miss the entire year. Sound familiar? There are two...
by Tom Piscitelli | Aug 18, 2016 | Management
Finally, after completing an exhaustive process of interviewing, testing, checking references, re-interviewing, background checking, salary and compensation negotiating and more, you have hired what you hope to be your next sales superstar. Now what do you do? The...
by Tom Piscitelli | Aug 11, 2016 | Customer Relationships, Management, Sales
Your best account is interviewing an experienced technician who had replied to a help wanted ad they had placed on Craigslist. You know the company the technician had recently worked for and that owner had told you he let that technician go when had proven unreliable....
by Tom Piscitelli | Jul 28, 2016 | Customer Relationships, Data & Analytics, Management
As we discussed in the last article, gathering certain data about an account can be useful. Knowing the number of employees and total annual sales can provide a productivity ratio. The number of service trucks and the annual revenue per truck can help you determine...
by Tom Piscitelli | Jun 26, 2016 | Management, Sales
Most HVAC distributors have outside salespersons who are responsible for the business done with a specific group of contractors. Their “territory” can be geographic, segmented by customer type or simply a collection of accounts where they established relationships...