Sakaduski Marketing Blog

The June issue of Sales & Marketing Management included information on a study conducted by Steven Rogelberg and published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.  According to the study, the perceived quality of meetings is the biggest single indicator of people’s attitudes toward their jobs. In a survey of 980 employees (not specifically from the dental industry), perceived meeting effectiveness accounts for 27% of job-related enthusiasm.  Effective meetings also account for 19% of job satisfaction–higher than any other factor in the survey.

To hold effective meetings, here are some tips:

1. Make sure the meeting is necessary–if the discussions and decisions involve only two or three people, try accomplishing them with e-mail or telephone calls.  If no discussions or decisions are necessary (i.e. a company announcement), use e-mail or another form of communication.

2. Invite anyone who has a direct stake or responsibility in the project or issue being discussed, but don’t invite everybody.  If the number gets beyond 6-8, consider breaking it up into smaller meetings.

3. Send out the agenda and any other preparation material ahead of time to allow participants to come prepared.

4. Require punctuality.  If it is well known that your meetings start 15 minutes late, people will arrive 15 minutes late.

5. If discussions go off track or extend beyond a reasonable time, don’t be afraid to move the meeting along (you may want to set time limits on each topic in advance).

6. As the discussion on each topic ends, determine one or more agreed-upon actions, due dates, and responsible parties.

7. At the end of the meeting, recap the decisions reached and actions to be taken (including who is responsible).  If necessary, set a time and date for the next meeting.

8. After the meeting, send out meeting notes that list actions to be taken, the due dates, and who is responsible.  This shows attendees what was accomplished, eliminates the possibility of misunderstanding, reinforces that responsible parties will be held to their commitments, and helps ensure progress will result.

The industry consolidation continues. One more dealer is gone, and that probably is not the the end of the acquisitions. If you a company with a good history, can you survive. With fewer customers should you be looking at cashing out. One of our industry leaders once said, “You can either be the diner, or the dinner.” Think about who you are, look out a year from now, and imagine where you will be in the scheme of things. If you don’t like the picture, maybe you shouldn’t be in it. There is no harm in doing an evaluation to see if now is the time to sell.

And, it’s simpler than you think.

If you want to know which gas stations have the best prices, check out gasbuddy.com.  This website allows you to select a state and city or use a zip code to bring up the locations of gas stations offering the lowest prices:  www.gasbuddy.com.

With more dealer consolidation occurring, and more likely to happen, what’s a manufacturer to do? The customer base is continually shrinking, and once reliable outlets have disappeared. Dealing with much larger customers is more complicated than dealing with smaller ones, especially when it comes to the the logistics of moving your product through the supply chain. The human contact, however, doesn’t change. Someone still has to make a decision to proceed with a promotion or the addition of a new product. Get to know that person, and cultivate a relationship that will build trust in your company and products. Follow a few simple ground rules: be sure your pricing is fair to all customers, make the promotions achievable to all who participate, never mess with a dealer rep’s customer and never welsh on a deal. We operate in a small universe. The person you just met with is the same one you are likely to run into on the floor of the Hinman Meeting.

And remember, in the dental business, a person’s word still counts for something.

Looking for a way to improve communications, increase accountability, and enhance productivity?  Try The Morning Meeting.  At the same time every day, gather your top executives and key managers around a table.  Going around the table, give each person a turn to raise an issue for discussion.  Anyone can comment on any issue, but after the discussion is finished, the CEO determines whether he will make the decision, accept the consensus of the group, or allow another individual or subgroup to make it.  Meetings can be as short as 15 minutes or as long as 2 hours, but the idea is to resolve issues, take action, and make decisions on a daily basis.  Read the details here:  http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=5388&t=organizations

According to Dental Products & Materials, a study by The Freedonia Group forecasts the U.S. demand for dental supplies, excluding equipment, to rise 5.5% per year to $22.5 billion in 2010.  They point to favorable economic conditions, population trends, and strong interest in cosmetic dentistry.

If you are a dental company executive who travels a lot, here’s a website that helps you identify superior and substandard seats, offers detailed seat map graphics, in-depth remarks and observations, a color-coded system and icons to denote amenities such as laptop power and audio/video entertainment. This blend of features conveys highly specific seat information such as extra legroom, limited recline, decreased width and obstructed movie screen viewing. SeatGuru covers 29 airlines and a variety of airlines.  http://www.seatguru.com.  Optimized for handheld:  http://mobile.seatguru.com.

When it comes to creating productive teams, how many is too many?  Some recent articles have suggested that just as a basketball team with 12 or 14 people will be less effective than one with 5, business teams should be limited to a core group.  What is the ideal number?  An article in Fortune magazine pinned the number at 4.6 (I think I may know that 0.6 guy).  Wharton favors 5 or 6.  Some say the number can be higher with proper planning and coordination.  The bottom line is it depends on the task and the skills provided by those present, but take a look at your business teams to make sure they are not overstaffed and underproductive.  Read more here:  http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1501.cfm

We can all follow what is going on with the economy and interest rates. Although it may be good for the economy in the long run, it makes for nervous buyers now. Even if equipment, or technology may become more expensive, the benefits far outway the increased costs. Better diagnosis, more comfortable patients and more ergonomic operator and assistant positioning will be the results. Using websites to compare features and benefits will help facilitate the purchasing decision. Everyone from the manufacturer, dealer and end-user need to stay involved to be sure that the purchase decision is made with all of the facts at hand. In this type of environment everyone has to work a little harder to be successful. We like to think of the dental industry as “recession proof”, but I would not take that to the bank.

According to a new study, more than three quarters of manufacturers say they will increase their spending online this year, looking to take advantage of new technologies and draw better ROI out of marketing spending.  “This study confirms that online marketing should be an essential component of a manufacturer’s overall marketing mix,” says Bob DeStefano, president of SVM E-Business Solutions, the firm that conducts an annual study of industrial marketing executives. “Industrial marketers who hesitate to embrace online marketing will miss a critical opportunity to increase sales, grow market share, and strengthen relationships with customers.” 

We are seeing this in the dental industry as well.  Marketing budgets are starting to shift from traditional media to online. More money is being put into company websites, commercial websites such as dentalcompare.com, and e-mail blasts, while firms are beginning to cut back on trade ads, conventions, and direct mail.  Web sites are becoming more critical, even for companies that sell through distribution, as dentists and staff members increasing gather decision-making information online.  Web-based marketing is also a way of obtaining leads and building customer relationships.