By Greg Hilton
As I pass and continue to approach some age milestones, I am becoming much more reflective about life. From time to time, I realize how little I know and how much I wish that I had listened better in grade school and college. Maybe a little more study time would have enabled me to better answer some of the questions that I get asked.
Questions like:
1. Is Steven Tyler a better American Idol judge that Simon Cowell?
2. Where did Myspace.com go wrong and Facebook.com go right?
3. Is their life after working in the Foodservice industry?
4. Does anyone actually read my blog?
5. If I ask “Does anyone read my blog?” Does that make me egocentric or just insecure?
Yeah, pretty darn reflective huh?
Answers Systems is a 25-year old Software and Services firm specializing in helping Foodservice Companies understand their customer markets better. We believe firmly in our vision of providing the most critical data to the Foodservice industry with easy-to-use, easy-to-adopt solutions. In the almost 16 years that I have worked in this industry and with Answers Systems, I have been asked some great questions over the years. Our team wakes up every morning trying to anticipate the questions that you are asking and then spends the other waking hours building solutions to answer the questions.
Here are a few questions that our products and services answer for our customers:
1. Did my contract volume do what I expected?
2. How many contracts do I have SKU XYZ on, and what is my potential exposure?
3. How much of what I sold distributor ABC came from my trade dollars, and how much came from my contracted activity?
4. Is my foodservice team focused on manufacturing and selling my products or are they doing administrative claim entry work that is not part of our core competency?
5. My deduction balance is X. How can I lower it and should it even be lower?
Now, one question I have for you:
If you could answer these five questions above at any moment in your business day. . . and the answers did not disappoint you. . . would that be a good thing?
Want to embrace the issue, consider the solution and really improve your organization’s trade promotion management? Contact us. Answers Systems' ContractPro® and ValuTrak® solutions are software and outsourced services designed for the unique and specific needs of the foodservice industry.
Technorati tags: Foodservice, trade promotion management, Trade Spend