Top Stories — The Business Journal of West Central Ohio

How good at sales are you? Look at your report card!

By Jeffrey Gitomer

Every salesperson, you included, gets a report card – every day.
Most salespeople, you included, ignore it.
Every time a customer gives you an order, they’re grading you for your quality, your value, and how you compare against what else is out there in the market. You get an “A” – or should I say, you get an “O” for outstanding job, and order.
The rest of the report card you get from customers and prospects requires listening and understanding, thinking and observing — discerning is the word. It means to perceive or recognize something barely visible to others.

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When times get tough, the tough gets focused

Business strategy consultant recommends companies go through a process of identifying their key success factors.
Recessions leave no room for wasted expenses and diverse organizational effort. In time of economic downturn, all energies must be applied to those few activities which matter most.
“To survive and thrive in difficult times you have to zero in on what matters most.”
That’s the advice of Bill Birnbaum, veteran business strategy consultant and author of the book, Strategic Thinking: A Four Piece Puzzle.
“Whether you are a startup or are struggling to survive in the face of economic challenges, you and your management team must identify and focus on the few key factors which produce reliable success. Those key factors must be specific to your industry, your market, and your organization.”

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What do customers WANT to buy?

The B2B “Bad Economy” Cure: Five Reasons Why Now Is the Time to Embrace New Product Blueprinting
Dan Adams says the only way to win in tough times is through organic growth. Companies must consistently come up with differentiated new products customers want to buy—and that means finding clarity in the “fuzzy front end” of the process.
Cuyahoga Falls, OH (September 2008)—Economically speaking, (and with apologies to Thomas Paine), these are the times that try men’s souls. This is especially true when those men (and, obviously, women too) are business leaders. If you’re one of them, you have a tough row to hoe. Keeping the customers you already have can be difficult enough in an age of consumer anxiety, vise-tight budgets, and suddenly-Scrooge-like bankers. But actually growing your company in the way it needs to be grown in order to thrive long-term—well, it can feel like an impossible feat.
Don’t despair. Dan Adams has two words for you: organic growth.
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AIP celebrates 25th Anniversary

Doing it right the first time and being service-oriented are two major ingredients for success for this 25-year old logistics company.
AIP, known as American Industrial Partners and started by Charles Kantner in 1983, has grown in floor space from 30,000 sq.ft in 1983 to more than 450,000 sq.ft today.

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Passion drives manager at Sidney Warehouse

What does working at Bob Evans restaurant in Dayton area for 9 years have in common managing a regional warehousing/logistics company?
Everything. If you’re Ed Angel.
His passion for the business he manages and his customer service attitude is evident in every facet of the operation at Sidney Warehouseing Inc.,Sidney, Ohio.
“We’re customer-service oriented,” explained Angel.

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City of Lima ‘Going Green’

News and issues concerning a healthy environment, global warming and “going green” are topics reported by virtually all media.
We either read about them or hear about their importance almost daily
Questions are often raised concerning different initiatives undertaken by business and government.
The City of Lima’s “Green Initiatives” were started years ago, according to Lima mayor, David Berger.
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Eagle Print hopes to add more jobs

By MIKE FORD
The Delphos Herald

DELPHOS — Keeping up with any respective industry’s trends can be especially difficult when an economy is in recession. Despite tight financial waistbelts, one local company is adding technology it hopes will translate into expansion and bring more jobs to the community.
Eagle Print recently spent more than $1 million to replace a printing press with a larger one that updates the organization’s technological capabilities.
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Specializing in fiber moving equipment for 50 years

Krendl Machine Company, celebrating 50 years in business, was honored at a State Luncheon for Exporting Excellence.

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Gartner: iPhone 2.0 cuts business mustard

Apple’s iPhone 3G is fit for business use, according to analyst house Gartner.
But interested parties should approach adoption slowly, with Gartner warning that there are various “inconveniences” to consider, such as the iPhone’s relatively poor battery performance–and the thorny issue of dealing with iTunes in the enterprise.
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Innovation: It’s all in how you see it

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–”Innovation” has been thrown around so often in technology circles that to some, it’s a four-letter word.
At one tech company, innovation can mean bringing a dazzling new product to store shelves. At another, it can translate to a tiny new button on a Web site. That’s why, executives say, the word itself has been overused and devalued.
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The future of meetings

Rising gas prices, airline cutbacks, canceled and delayed flights, and skyrocketing travel costs are just a few of the challenges facing businesses today. As a result, more and more companies are looking for ways to eliminate, or at least greatly reduce, travel expenses and they’re re-examining how they’ll conduct meetings in the future.
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Private Nonresidential Construction Reaches All-Time High in June

Private nonresidential construction reached another record high in June, according to the Aug. 1 construction spending report by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Spending hit $408.1 billion, a 0.8 percent increase from May, on a monthly, seasonally-adjusted basis.

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