Ways to Eliminate Waste

One of the things I am looking forward to the most from the 38th annual NEMRA conference in February is to see what reps take away from the NEMRA Manufacturing Group’s (NMG) “Eliminating Wasteful Activities in the Representative and Manufacturer Sales and Marketing Cannel” study. There are a lot of good ideas and suggestions that have come out of extensive interviews and research and I suspect phase 3 (this year’s edition) will highlight the areas with the potential for the greatest impact.

Perhaps the January edition of Electrical Wholesaling provides a sneak peak on page 37 (available soon online “Ways to Eliminate Waste”). I couldn’t agree more that “CRM Programs” (among five others) is highlighted as a best practice where manufacturers and representatives have used the study to operate more efficiently. The only commentary I would add is that companies should not expect that deploying CRM will automatically make them more efficient. In fact it is this misunderstanding of CRM which could lead to its failure.

Companies should really develop goals towards greater efficiency (refer to the rest of the study here for ideas) and deploy CRM as a technology to enable strategies to achieve them. The study recommends actions like document imaging and storage, central databases for contacts and quotes, PDA’s for outside sales, communication and measurement of manufacturers goals with the sales staff and eliminating “one report at a time” monthly activity reporting. All of these goals would benefit and see a higher likelihood of success if facilitated by a good CRM application.

So go to the conference with an open mind and listen to the ideas being discussed. Many will be things you can do tomorrow to make your firm more efficient but implement them strategically for the best chances of success.