Healthcare Supply Chain Technology and Strategy

In the movie  Casablanca , there’s a famous scene where Captain Renault, the head of the French police, avoids investigating the murder of a Nazi officer by telling his people to “round up the usual suspects.” The implication, of course, is that everyone should look busy and professional, even if the routine doesn't really accomplish anything. Think of this objective when exploring the roles of sales and operations using technology. It always seems that managers respond to performance challenges by putting together a task force of the “usual suspects” to deal with the issue. These task force members usually end up with multiple specialty assignments piled on top of their regular duties. And because these few go-to people are spread so thin, they ultimately don’t accomplish all that much. Managers sometimes “round up the usual suspects” because they only trust a small number of people to handle key projects or initiatives. Every organization has its “glue people,” the ones who don’t...

The Sales Funnel is Now a Sieve The buying process has gotten messy for B2B marketers and salespeople. Because of easy access to information on the Internet and mobile devices, an active engaged customer can turn into disinterested one in the blink of an eye. Every new marketing channel puts a hole in your sales funnel and the proverbial bucket. Distributors who don't integrate new channels into their content marketing strategy will find they have a very leaky bucket. If you want to plug the holes, it's time to consider: Consistency of your Message Given that only  32% of businesses  consider their content marketing effective, they need to pay attention to what they're doing with the 17 tactics they use, on average. Forty-one percent are creating more content than they did last year but the question remains as to what it is and why they're creating it? Many of them don't have a well documented plan or the time to manage it consistently, which leaves me to wonder how...

Getting the most from your customers  “tail-end” spending The year end is a great time for sales where the final 20 per cent of spending, or the “tail-end” typically gets consolidated and aggregated in the sales cycle. But it remains a largely untapped opportunity for most companies. A larger number of suppliers, smaller spend volumes and a perceived lack of economies of scale mean that procurement or purchasing agents are harder and harder to get in front of. Knowing exactly where to focus your business attention to maximize sales is a daunting task. Therefore, it’s worth exploring ways to manage this challenge as the year end looms and purchasing agents have to effectively use their budgets to maximize resources. There are a number of reasons for the increase in sales at year end. By properly analyzing your customer spend data and looking at current inventory levels, you can leverage that spend and catch that tiger by the tail. 1.  Spend analytics . Perform in-depth analysi...