Getting people to your distributor website is a challenge in and of itself. Getting them to take action and convert to a prospect is a whole other story. But there are ways to increase the number of enquiries coming from your website from the traffic you are currently getting…
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There’s More Than One Way to Skin a Cat
Many years ago, I was in an appointment with a new prospective customer. I gave my spiel. She told me some of the challenges the company was having, and asked what solutions we could offer. My response: “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” She politely told me that the sales call was over and I needed to leave…
Read MoreThe Easiest (and Most Accurate) Way to Calculate Sales Tax on QuickBooks
QuickBooks Online (QBO) is one of several options from QuickBooks. It is very different from QB Premier or Enterprise, which are more robust and better suit our industry. For instance, QBO does not have customer sales orders, which are pivotal in QB Premier and Enterprise. That being said…
Read MorePromo Customers Are Demanding More From Technology
For years, the primary promo industry client technology solution was a simple website where buyers could search for product and request a sample or quote. But now, due to technology advances in other industries, companies are demanding more from their promotional vendors…
Read MoreGet Busy Living
I love the movie “The Shawshank Redemption.” In that movie, there’s a famous line, “Get busy living or get busy dying,” where the lead character, Andy Dufresne, is focused on getting out of prison and living the life of his dreams. Truth is that many of us have been in a “prison” of sorts just…
Read MoreNavigating Sales Tax on QuickBooks Desktop
Ask the Accountant… Question: I need to charge my customers 7.5% in sales tax, but 6% is for the state and 1.5% is for my county. How do I handle that in QB Desktop so I can file with the state, but just show the 7.5% to my customer? Answer: Sales tax is complicated, and…
Read MoreWhy Perform a Mid-Year Review (and How to Do It)
A mid-year business review isn’t always convenient or fun, but the benefits are crystal clear. It can help bring incomplete marketing projects to life, ditch activities that don’t work and improve internal processes. If you want to perform such review for your company, here are the six steps we follow…
Read MoreNewton Was Right
You’ve heard of Sir Isaac Newton. As the story goes, he discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head while he was sitting under an apple tree. He also discovered a famous law of physics: “An object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest.”…
Read MoreKeeping Track of Orders in Progress with Suppliers
Ask the Accountant… Question: What report will tell me what orders are in progress with suppliers? Answer: Open purchase orders in QB Premier are orders that have been submitted to suppliers and are in production. Once you receive the invoice from the supplier, you adjust the purchase order to match the supplier invoice exactly, and…
Read MoreI Hit $500K in Sales and Have Reached My Ceiling! Now What?
Throughout the years, I have seen talented salespeople enter this industry with an eye on becoming a million-dollar producer. They work hard early on, have some customer wins, and see their sales increase. By years two and three, they become much smarter regarding the nuances of this industry. They see sales continue to progressively grow,…
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