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Each issue of The PEI Journal features a question and answer
column. The Board of Directors share their knowledge and expertise
by responding to questions posed by distributor members. Asked and
Answered has collected these questions and their responses into
a convenient index allowing you to revisit questions based on their
topic.
To view a particular question and its response, simply scoll down
the index to the topic of interest and click on the question you
wish to view. To return to this index, click the back button at
the bottom of the article chosen.
| MANAGEMENT |
| Meetings |
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How often, when and how does
your management team get together? Regular meetings or seat-of-the-pants? |
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OPERATIONS
Budgeting For Technology |
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We are a general lines distributorship selling mainly storage & handling equipment. It seems that the cost just to maintain our technology infrastructure (server, network maintenance, software updates, GPS, etc.) has been escalating every year. Is there a budgetary percentage of total sales that you would expect to spend on technology each year? |
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| De-emphasizing Retail Petroleum |
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Do you see your company de-emphasizing retail petroleum? If so, what's your new emphasis? Where are you going to take it? |
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| Fuel Costs |
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Fuel costs have varied greatly over the past year or so. How are you dealing with fuel costs for service trips, delivery, installations, etc.? |
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| PERSONNEL |
| Employee
Recognition Programs |
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What
recognition programs are distributors using to complement their
employee compensation packages? |
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| Inside
Sales Support |
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Is
there a rule of thumb on how many outside salespeople it takes
to support an inside salesperson? Should the inside salesperson
support the outside people with quoting, order entry and order
follow-up? Or are those activities better handled by outside
people? |
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| Loyalty |
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Given
the expense that an employer has to recruit, hire, train and
develop a salesperson, what do you look for when trying to decide
if a potential salesperson will be loyal? Where do you look
to find the best candidates? |
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| TECHNOLOGY |
| Computer Expertise, Networks |
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How do small PEI member companies handle the sourcing of your computer expertise? How are your networks set up? |
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| Web Site Benefits |
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What is the biggest benefit your company derives from its Web site? |
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| How to Ask the PEI
Board a Question |
| If you have a question to submit for
the next issue, please call Carole J. at (315) 445-2347, or
fax your question to (315) 445-9336. You can also e-mail your
question to Carole J. at editor@thepeijournal.org.
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