Newsletter for 4Q00

"I only have two minutes for you"... what to do

What should you say when someone says: "I only have two minutes for you". My suggestion is to say: "I am sorry that you are so busy. Can I come back another time, because it will take more time for me to understand your needs."

If the customer is telling the truth, why would you want to take his vital two minutes.

If the customer does not want to see you, why would you further aggravate him by taking his two minutes.

If the customer is meaning "make it short", why not make a bigger impression by suggesting that there is no hurry and that you care about his time and his needs.

2001 Class Schedule

We have established our 2001 class schedule for "Relationship Selling"; "Inside Sales Excellence" and Sales Force Automation".  Please click here to view the new schedule.

Databases On The Web

We have developed a bunch of databases and put them on the Internet.  These are examples of how web visitors can search, view, change and add/delete information anytime, anywhere on the Internet. Please click here to view the web databases.  

Please page down to see past newsletters.

Helpful Web Site

There is a helpful web site that you can use to get AIRPORT STATUS INFORMATION 
Provided by the FAA's Air Traffic Control System Command Center. It will tell you delays coming and going for all USA airports. The address is http://www.fly.faa.gov

Virus Alert

We just got an email virus. It was an email from a friend with no words in the email, only an attachment that said "Very Funny1.vbs. When I clicked on the email to view it, the attachment ran a visual basic script which replaced crucial files on my computer. I could hear the hard drive working as soon as I clicked on the email so I immediately figured it was a virus and hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and shut down each application one by one by clicking on the "End Task" button. Mike tells me that I would have done more damage if I had just turned off the PC because on re-boot it could have attacked our server. The virus infects your computer and spreads through email JUST BY OPENING THE EMAIL ! We recommend that you look at emails in the "preview" mode without double clicking on them and delete them if they look suspicious or you are not expecting them. Symantec (Norton Antivirus) has lists and cures for most, if not all, viruses.

Newsletter for 3Q00

Toner Cheap!

We have found that "Costco Toner and Ink Program" is the lowest price around for copier and printer toner. They can be contacted at 888-320-3277.

Great URL

We just reserved "DrillsAndReamers.com" for one of our clients that makes special drills and reamers. We could not believe that the name was still available. Reserving a URL costs about $100 bucks to set up a IP address and about $35 per year to register the name.

   
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New Sales Manager

We are happy to announce the appointment of David Walters to the position of Sales Manager. David comes to us with a ton of sales and management experience.  Additionally, he plays the drums!

David Walters

Newsletter for 2Q00

Golf Program - Free!

We have just written a Microsoft Access program that determines skins winners based on handicaps.  It also puts foursomes together and schedules them over several days of play eliminating repeat pairings. It is a great program for anyone going to Myrtle Beach for 5 days of golf with the guys. The program is free to our customers that have read our newsletter. Please send us an email noting that you read our newsletter and that you want the free copy of the program.  You can check it out on our site from our menu bar in the "More For You" section or by clicking here. Golf Program check out. Our email is john@mitchellsell.com

What Email Application Are You Using?

We are sending out our Newsletters by email to our customers that want them.  If you are interested in receiving our newsletter please send us your request along with your email address, your name, title, company, address, phone, fax and the name and version of your email application. 

Please page down to see past newsletters.

Digital Photo Converter

We have written the code that takes a directory with a bunch of digital photos in it, automatically sizes the photos and inserts them into a PowerPoint presentation for annotating and viewing. All you need is a digital camera that connects to a PC and Microsoft's PowerPoint program.  First, you take the pictures on your digital camera.  Then, you move them into a directory on your PC.  Next, you click on our Icon and simply follow the on-screen directions.  The application is wonderful for those times when you have taken hundreds of pictures and you want to view them immediately.  We will send it to you for free just for reading our newsletter.  Please send us an email noting that you read our newsletter and that you want the free copy of the PowerPoint macro. Our email is john@mitchellsell.com

Newsletter for 1Q00

Happy New Year!

We want to wish all of our visitors the most prosperous new year ever.  We thank you very much for your support and look forward to serving you in the future.

E-Commerce

We have added E-commerce to our web site complete with secure socket layer connections and credit card payments.  You can check it out by clicking on our Shopping Cart.  We would love to do add the same kind of shopping cart to your site as well.  And we can do it more economically than any other company.

New Office Manager

We are delighted to welcome Judy Preston to our company and wish her the the best of luck putting up with all of us as she takes on her duties as Office Manager.  Judy brings a wealth of knowledge and a cool head to our company and we hope you will all give her your support.

LCD Projector

We just bought a Toshiba LCD projector model TLP-651 and we love it.  It comes with a built-in video camera so that we can use it as an overhead projector.  The camera allows us to put virtually anything on the table and project it onto the screen.  The unit cost us $5865 and we purchased it from  International Audio Video on the Internet at www.iavi.com and they are located in Florida. 

Computer Virus

We have seen several clients with the happy99.exe virus on their workstations.  This virus will format your hard drive causing you to lose all of your files.  Once the virus gets on your PC it goes to your email address book and sends itself out to all persons in your address book.  It does this,  automatically, without you having any idea that the damage has been done.  Norton and MacAfee have virus detection and elimination software to help you get rid of the virus.  PC's get infected by opening email they were not expecting.

Investment Advice

We suggest you buy stock in companies that have something to do with getting videos on corporate web sites.  As internet connection speed and bandwidth increases dramatically over the next few years more and more companies are going to want to have corporate videos and words from the boss added to their web sites.  We think this is an investment opportunity.

How To Take E-Payment

We just got into this with our recent web site upgrade.  To take E-payment you need to have a secure socket layer usually set up by a company such as VeriSign and they charge a setup fee and a monthly fee.  Then you have to an Internet Merchant account which can be gotten from CyberBanker and they have a setup fee, a monthly fee and and a transaction fee.  We have found a way to avoid a lot of this but you will have to call us to find out the tricks.  Please check out our Shopping Cart to see what you think.

E-Commerce Impact On Industrial Distributors � 2000 Mitchell Selling Dynamics, Inc.

1.      The buyer of clothes wants clothes that fit and look well on him.  He wants a �professional� opinion and often wants a little help in selecting a tie and/or shirt and maybe a belt or shoes and all these products are inter-related and operate as a system.  Further, he will be needing similar systems again  and again.  These kinds of products have not sold well on the internet so far.   

2.      Buying repetitive, industrial products that have inter-relationships will continue to require dealing with a �relationship� supplier in much the same way a purchaser buys clothes.  The buyer wants to get items that will work together as a system and he wants a little help and advice from a �professional� even if it is just to confirm his own opinion.  His business depends on the inter-related products working together now and in the future as well.  He will not try to squeeze the last dollar of savings out of his purchases.  He will not spend all the time necessary to surf the net to get the absolutely lowest price on each part of his system with the thought that it might not work when he gets all the parts.  

E-Commerce Impact (continued)

3.      “Relationship Selling” will continue to be the way orders for inter-related, repetitively purchased items  are earned but all the transactional stuff will be handled on the Internet.  In the 90’s Relationship Selling accounted for around 60% of all sales.  We may see this slip some but not to lower than 50% in the next 10 years.  Major customers will continue to want special treatment which requires sales person involvement but they will want totally automated transactions using the internet where possible. 

4.      Bulky, difficult to ship items or orders that involve a combination of inter-related products are not good internet items.

5.      Major users of commodity items that stand alone like standard valves, fittings, clamps and common hose will have special contract pricing with manufacturers and will want JIT delivery and may want a distributor to “administer” the contract because manufacturers do not want zillions of end users calling them with all kinds of special requests.

6.      Smaller users of stand alone commodity items will try to buy them on the internet but will always be interested in promotions from local suppliers.

7.      Manufacturers will not want huge, powerful global distributors to totally eliminate their local distribution nor will they want these huge distributors to dictate how it’s gonna be.  Rather manufacturers will want to protect their good distributors that provide value to end users.

8.      Bar code systems will be set up and installed on the end user’s premises by enterprising suppliers that will analyze who used what and how much is left and the information will automatically be emailed to the appropriate persons to take action.  The employees will have bar coded name tags or crib cards and everything in the crib storeroom will have a bar code card by it.  Card swipes will be error free and save companies processing time.

9.      Software and hardware developers such as Microsoft, Compaq, HP and Oracle are racing to simplify E-commerce set up.

10.    Shortly, every company that sells business-to-business will maintain an on-line way for their customers to get information, order stuff, check on existing orders and just do business.

11.    Customers will be able to enter their customer number and the prices they see will be based on their discount schedule and their open-order status and past orders will be listed.

12.    Customers will be able to make an offer on certain items like an auction but not as formal.

13.    The E-commerce server will eventually reside on site at the seller’s business.

14.    The E-commerce server will be connected, in some way, to the company’s enterprise software so paper invoices and e-invoices will share the same application.  The “some way” connection will take care of security concerns.

15.    Web site hot-links will exist between principal manufacturers’ sites and the sites of their distributors so that visitors to either a manufacturer or a distributor can move back and forth as required.  Buttons will pop-up to remind users to "go back now".

16.    Manufacturers will have “expert systems” on their sites to help users select the proper item.

17.    Microsoft will have all of their Office Professional products totally integrated into E-commerce software and there will be glitches galore for users of IBM Office suites that try to run with Microsoft applications.