What your customers are doing for 2011

a survey from Modern Materials Handling Magazine:

2011 Warehouse/DC Operations Survey

Our 2011 findings reveal that inventory turns are not improving, more DCs are closing rather than opening, and many companies are remaining cautious with equipment investment.

Norm Saenz, senior vice president and principal of TranSystems, a supply chain consulting firm and our research partner for this survey, sums up this year’s findings in four words: “More done with less.”
 
“In fact, most companies are trying to do more with fewer people, fewer buildings and less automation investment,” he adds. As a result, they’re operating with a reduced staff, consolidating facilities, and taking the more conventional route in terms of storage and picking.

“Much of this stems from top management pressuring distribution to reduce costs,” notes Don Derewecki, senior business consultant with research partner TranSystems. “But this comes with a catch for warehouse and DC management. Top brass wants a reduction in costs without reducing service to customers in an effort to stay cost-competitive in the marketplace,” he adds.

 So what does this mean to you?  If your materials handling products/services help with improving warehouse processes, improving inventory control, reconfigures rack warehouse layout, reduces staff and improves information technology... it is good to know that your prospects and customers are looking to do this, especially when it comes to "doing more with less".

Although these tough economic times are challenging, it is when you can really demonstrate the true value of your materials handling products and services.  This is the very reason why you are in the Materials Handling Business --> to improve the warehouse/DC operations of your customers.

We are Khach Customers, and are here to reduce the time, money and resources required to develop qualified leads to fill your sales pipeline. With our marketing services (either "a la cart" or pay for performance program), you will enjoy "sales ready" leads and increase your business sales revenue and growth.

Please go to www.khachusa.com or call us at 714-476-2887 to learn how we can help your Materials Handling business grow.

5 Tips to get more out of your marketing

At Khach Customers we believe in simple and easy methods to get more out of your marketing.  Use the following as a GUIDE to ALL of your Marketing today and get better results!


1. Segment your target (pick your top 10 ideal customers)

 

2. List out their primary goals and think about "what keeps them up at night"

3. Illustrate how your products/services help your target reach their goals

4. Make a clear offer ("call me at 800-000-0000 for your free warehouse consultation")

5. Follow up on these 10 ideal customers (email, phone call, letter, CDs and etc.) and keep it up for the next 6 months.

It may seem that this list is common sense, but many times is it not common practice.

Print out this list and use it as a guide for all your marketing collateral (powerpoint presentations, brochures, flyers, letters, emails, website)... we promise you'll see results if you stick the this guide.

Khach Customers offers marketing services for the Materials Handling Industry.  We are more than an ad agency, SEO, SEM, internet, direct mail, telemarketing, direct sales and online marketing company.  We offer the entire marketing solution all at one place and are your “done for you” outsourced marketing company.  It’s easy, it’s effective, and it pays for itself every month with qualified leads, closed deals and repeat sales.  No wonder so many businesses are starting to KHACH on.

Interested in learning more?  Please go to www.khachusa.com or call us at 714-476-2887.

Why the Ideal Customer Criteria is Crucial

Crucial may be a strong word, but we at Khach Customers, believe that it is a pertinent starting point when doing business with a customer.  During these tough times you may think, “Who cares?  I just need to sell something now”.  While it is good to focus is on making money right now, not taking a look into your ideal customer criteria may cost you more than you think.  You could be throwing money away.

 Where most of your sales are coming from

If you take a moment to look at your existing customer list, chances are that that Pareto rule holds true; 80% of your business is coming from 20% of your customers.  Imagine if you can acquire more of these ideal customers… how much more sales revenue would you have?  Take a look at your warehouse and distribution center customers and think about what are the like.  To start, these ideal customers of your probably understand the value of your Material Handling products and services.  Additionally, they have other similar attributes that you can categorize them under.   These ideal warehouse and distribution customers probably appreciate the cost savings that your material handling products and services provide them.  They see the value of the material handling equipment/systems that allows them to be more efficient. 

Identifying your Ideal Customers 

By understanding who your best customers are and what makes them wonderful, you can take this information to further improve your business.  A list of your top distribution and warehouse customers will allow you to 1) better serve them, 2) upsell to them and 3) build a better marketing program to attract more of these types of customers.  

Meet with your sales team and account managers to categorize your ideal customer off the following criteria:

1.       You are their preferred material handling supplier and they do regular business with you
2.       They have personal relationships with you and your materials handling team
3.       They pay their bills on time
4.       They don’t mind paying more to have better service (profit margins are higher than average)

Understand why they buy from you

The next step to selling more to your ideal customers is to understand why they purchased from you.  Example, they may buy from your Materials Handling business because you offer the best customer service in the region, your service technicians are always on time, you provide quality products, you provide great training to optimize their warehouse efficiencies.  Whatever it may be, based on this information, you can go back and put together a more effective marketing message to caputuring ideal leads, filling your sales pipeline with quality deals and closing more deals that are likely to allow your materials handling business to thrive.

Let us Khach and Keep you more Customers

We are more than an ad agency, SEO, SEM, internet, direct mail, telemarketing, direct sales and online marketing company.  We offer the entire marketing solution all at one place and do it only for the Materials Handling Industry.  Khách is a “done for you” outsourced marketing company.  It’s easy, it’s effective, and it pays for itself every month with qualified leads, closed deals and repeat sales.  No wonder so many businesses are starting to KHACH on.

We will reduce the time, money and resources required to develop qualified leads to fill your sales pipeline. With our marketing services (either "a la cart" or pay for performance program), you will enjoy "sales ready" leads and increase your business sales revenue and growth.

Interested in learning more?  Please go to www.khachusa.com or call us at 714-476-2887.

Money in the Database

How much money is there in your database?  

At Khach we strongly believe in database marketing.  We understand, database marketing is one of the least glamorous elements of marketing, however it is a must.  If you truly want to make more money for your material handling business, you need to start with a strong database. 

Without a good, clean, and accurate list of ideal warehousing and distribution customers, you may be wasting all your marketing efforts.  Who you market to, whether it is via email, directmail, telemarketing and etc., you must maximize all marketing campaigns.  There could be a goldmine in your database.  Imagine the deals that are waiting to be had if you sold to 10-25% of your list!  With proper organization of your list, marketing and sales efforts can be relevant to build interest, open up more opportunities and close more sales.

Mining your database can lead to much more money in your sales pipeline.

 

How do you make the most of your database?

1. Define your ideal customers - Make a list of your top customers based on their type of business, their demographic and psycho-graphic qualities.  Demographics: type of business, SIC code, size of revenue, location and etc.  Psychographics: their management style, their attitude towards change, how they value their warehouse workers, how they feel about new technology and etc. 

2. Put your ideal customers in buckets - Your database should profile the type of customer you are selling to.  It is best practices to set a "type" for your customers in your database so that you can send relevant information based on their business needs.  As a material handling business, your products and services may change from time to time (example: new warehouse software, warehouse systems and new technology), therefore it is best to categorize your customers by type of business; "cold store/freezer" vs. a "pharmaceutical" warehouse.   

3. Scrub your warehousing and distribution list - Take the time to categorize make sure that the contact information is correct.  I once read a story about a big Chief Marketing Executive that came into a large fortune 500 company that did an amazing marketing campaign.  They sent out expensive scooters with a great message to their customers, but they didn't check on the integrity of the database... so what happened?  About a million dollars worth of marketing expenses went down the tube.  The costs of the scooters, shipment and marketing research and efforts all wasted simply because most of the list was BAD.  Bad names, and addresses.  Take the time to put together a good list of customers and ideal customers for your materials handling business to maximize every marketing dollar.

  


4.Test out your list - Implement a marketing campaign and see the % of bounces you get back from emails, names, titles, addresses and such.  This will give you an idea of what kind of work you are facing to get things in order.  Remember that is is an on going project.  I am part of Kaiser Permanente and I kid you not, every time I call them, they are verifying my home address and phone number.  Every single time.  They value their database and constantly send me great marketing material, calls and messages.  You should do the same with your customer list and your ideal customer list for your material handling business.

Khách Customers’ marketing services include helping your materials handling business build its database to maximize the returns on all marketing efforts.  We have been in the materials handling industry for the past 45 years and have successfully sold and marketed to the food, freezer, cold store, pharmaceutical, food service, food manufacturing, beverage and similar industry.

We are here to help you Khach and Keep more Customers with focus on more sales revenue, growth and profits to your business.

If you are interested in learning more about Khach's marketing service or our pay for performance program, please contact us at 714-476-2887 or go to www.khachusa.com.

Pay for Performance Marketing Services

A brief on Khach Customers

We provide innovative custom designed marketing and sales solutions dedicated to increase your Material Handling business’ sales, market share, and growth.  We specialize in marketing and selling to the warehouse and distribution industry and have been doing it successfully over the last 45 years.

Low Risk Marketing Services

We offer a unique marketing service called "Pay for Performance". With over 45 years of marketing and selling experience in the Materials Handling businesses, we've built a marketing system to help you increase your sales, market share, and growth.  Instead of having you manage the multiple programs and contacts related to marketing (from web marketing to telemarketing), Khach helps you focus on closing more deals, so your Materials Handling business can grow that much faster.

What is Pay for Performance Marketing?
At Khach we specialize in marketing and selling to the warehouse and distribution industry.  In fact, we have been doing it successfully over the last 45 years.  With our unique “pay for performance” program, you gain a commission based marketing company.  That's right, you risk very little working with us, because the majority of our income is tied to the results we get you.  With a small monthly retainer, we will start working on marketing your business, then when you make your sales, we will earn most of our revenue from earning X% of the sales.
Its easy.  Instead of paying for marketing specialists just to do a few different marketing campaigns at a high rate with little promise of return in sales, you work with Khach on a small monthly retainer allowing us to put together truly results focused marketing campaigns.  You can only WIN with Khach.  You gain expert marketing services and more sales!

How will Khach increase your company’s leads, sales and growth?

Khách Customers is a professional material handling marketing company like no other.  We provide innovative custom designed marketing and sales solutions dedicated to develop your business through account acquisition.  The following are a few of the marketing systems that we will put together for the pay for performance marketing program: 

1.    Lead Generation
          i.     Marketing Programs/ Software setup
          ii.    Promotional Emails
          iii.   E-newsletters to Customers & Partners
          iv.   Press relations
          v.    Direct mail
          vi.   Social Media
          vii.  Blogs
          viii. Collateral (PPT presentations, brochures, flyers and etc.)
          ix.   Press relations
          x.    Videos
          xi.   Website Design and SEO
          xii.  SEM
          xiii. Advertisements in trade magazines (*only ad design)
          xiv. Copywriting
          xv.  Lead generation tools (email, CRM and programs)
2.    Lead Nurturing
          i.    Lead nurturing process development
          ii.   Lead tracking in CRM and marketing programs/software

How does pay for performance marketing work?
How much will I have to invest to get started?

This program is developed for true partnership between Khách and our clients.  Every business is different, and depending on the situation we can work with you at a small monthly retainer +pay for performance basis.
With most of our clients, the most popular program is the low monthly retainer option + pay for performance on each Materials Handling System sold.  Bottom-line, there is less upfront investment in marketing for your business (less than $50,000/yr + benefits for marketing personnel), while there is vested interest for Khach to work harder and smarter to generate you more leads, sales and business growth.

Is Khach’s pay performance program ideal for my business?

When considering the pay for performance model, both Khach and the client will review if the partnership is an ideal fit.  Successful partnerships usually require that your products and/ or services are of high quality and there is opportunity for substantial growth for your business.

Khách Customers’ Pay for Performance program is unfortunately not available for all businesses.  Since this program involves a lot of resources (time, money and effort) put upfront by Khách, we must ensure that we work with clients that are willing to share a true partnership relationship with us. With a vested interest in developing our client's business, the pay for performance program pushes Khách to maximize all marketing efforts to bring more sales revenue, growth and profits to our client.

If you are interested in learning more about the pay for performance program, please contact us at 714-476-2887 or go to www.khachusa.com.

Introducing Khach Customers

Khách Customers is a professional marketing company like no other.  We provide innovative custom designed marketing and sales solutions dedicated to increase your Material Handling business’ sales, market share, and growth.

With more than 45 years of successful experience marketing and selling to the Warehouse and Distribution Industry, you gain access to a professional marketing team that will develop your business.   Our experience has allowed us to dramatically increase the sales, revenue and profits of many businesses selling to the warehousing and distribution industry (food, cold store, freezer, pharmaceutical and beverage industry).

The following are a few key points differentiating Khách company:

• Unique marketing services that are a hybrid of “a la cart” and pay for performance based.
• Expertise in marketing premium, innovative and advanced designed MH products.
• 45 years of successful marketing and selling experience in the Material Handling Industry.
• We truly know your ideal customers and still have personal contact with them.
• Our network of friends and colleagues include distribution centers in food, beverage, cold store, health care and pharmaceutical.

Khách Customers reduces the time, money and resources required develop qualified leads to fill your sales pipeline. With our pay for performance program, you enjoy "sales ready" leads and pay for the results.  Let us Khách and Keep you more Customers

Interested in learning more?  Please go to www.khachusa.com or call us at 714-476-2887.