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Informationen zum Autor Nadine A. Thompson and Angela E. Soper Klappentext Sales and distribution are the lifeblood of any business. But how can a values-driven, socially responsible business compete with those for whom the bottom line is the only measure of success? The answer: get creative! In this practical and inspiring guide, Nadine Thompson and Angela Soper draw on real-world examples--from Tom's of Maine, Seventh Generation, Honest Tea, and many other innovative companies--to detail concrete steps for designing sales and distribution strategies that fit the needs, interests, and habits of your target customers. They show how to turn your stakeholders into enthusiastic partners by ensuring that all of your relationships--with your salespeople as well as other employees, your customers, and your suppliers--are beneficial and fulfilling on more than just an economic level. Leseprobe THE CREATIVE CHALLENGE: Using your vision to solve problems and develop new strategies for increasing sales Seventh Generation, maker of nontoxic and environmentally safe household products, was faced with a dilemma regarding its values versus its sales when a large grocery chain that carried the company’s products experienced a labor strike. As a company that strives to be a positive force in society, Seventh Generation had to decide whether to sell to the grocer since the strike involved health benefits. The company chose to continue to do business with the grocery chain during the strike but to donate all profits from those sales to the workers’ strike fund. This action helped Seventh Generation maintain a good relationship with the grocer’s employees, its customers, and the grocer itself, all of which contributed to future sales. Vision. It’s a simple word with huge connotations in the business world. Surely for anyone who has awakened in the middle of the night with a new business idea glowing like a 100-watt bulb in her head, the vision is sparkling clear, illuminating every fiber in her body. Most of us have had such “visionary” moments in our lives. Maybe it wasn’t a new business idea but a new way to 2solve a problem or enhance your life or someone else’s: an abrupt awareness of that nagging reason you couldn’t balance the checkbook, a sudden insight into why your teenager has been giving you nasty glares for three days, the perfect way to celebrate your parents’ wedding anniversary. There’s no discounting such moments of blinding insight when it comes to proposing a new idea. And of course, there’s also plenty of room for those who start with a kernel of an idea, work laboriously and painstakingly to nurture it, and allow it to germinate fully before putting it into action. However it is reached and ultimately presented, a vision can be a critical component of creating sales and distribution strategies that move a business forward. In fact, it is often the foundation for many other aspects of a business that can play a role in promoting healthy sales and distribution: marketing, customer service, personnel issues, community outreach, public relations. In a values-driven business, or socially responsible business, the vision is the torchbearer that leads his or her team proudly over the challenging terrain of business ups and downs. Occasionally this vision may alter its route, adjust for changes in the environment or climate, or even reconfigure the long-term strategy, but it will always maintain a steady course toward the goal at hand. Vision is looking to the horizon and imagining what could be. Vision is daring to head toward that horizon with a true sense of purpose and a plan of action. In this chapter we will give you examples of business leaders who have established clear and profitable visions as they formulated their companies and then used their visions as strategic allies in selling their products or services. These visions encompassed a...
