MBWA - An "Old" Idea That Still Makes Great Sense
It is so easy to get stale. You get a decent amount of sales flowing through, the income covers the bills, the pension plan and $10 left over at the end of the month. You are in some high cotton. For those under 35 years old, you've only been through one national recession '00/'01. The last one before that was short and light '91/'92. But local or personal recessions are always just around the corner. How do you stay fresh and alert so that you are prepared for the next soft spot? How do you stretch yourself to move up another whole notch? What does it take to move into the high flyer category.
Of course, there are many ingredients to that formula. We've touched on things like getting up early, mining your old customer lists, and reading the great motivation books. One that hit me across the head a few years back was contained in the best selling book, In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. It was dubbed MBWA or Management by Walking Around.
The concept was very simple. You have to stay out there where the action is in order to stay current. In the advertising specialty world it can become easy to stay behind the desk, or just meet with the buyers to keep the relationships strong. But how does that translate into being a great source of ideas?
Walking around means visiting various kinds of stores and organizations to see what they are doing as promotions, contests, fund raisers, or employee programs. Read the paper and magazines with an eye out for "free gift with" or what kind of prizes are being offered in contests. Hit the internet to find out what kind of inducements are being offered to get folks to sign up or renew.
Finally, there are the materials offered by your own trade. It may seem like a big time suck to read all those magazines, attend the trade shows, and really check out catalogs and web sites of your suppliers. But that kind of walking around begins to create an accumulation of knowledge that is broad, deep, and current. It is that kind of difference from the competition that will commonly get you in the door, or keep the other guy out.
Of course, there are many ingredients to that formula. We've touched on things like getting up early, mining your old customer lists, and reading the great motivation books. One that hit me across the head a few years back was contained in the best selling book, In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. It was dubbed MBWA or Management by Walking Around.
The concept was very simple. You have to stay out there where the action is in order to stay current. In the advertising specialty world it can become easy to stay behind the desk, or just meet with the buyers to keep the relationships strong. But how does that translate into being a great source of ideas?
Walking around means visiting various kinds of stores and organizations to see what they are doing as promotions, contests, fund raisers, or employee programs. Read the paper and magazines with an eye out for "free gift with" or what kind of prizes are being offered in contests. Hit the internet to find out what kind of inducements are being offered to get folks to sign up or renew.
Finally, there are the materials offered by your own trade. It may seem like a big time suck to read all those magazines, attend the trade shows, and really check out catalogs and web sites of your suppliers. But that kind of walking around begins to create an accumulation of knowledge that is broad, deep, and current. It is that kind of difference from the competition that will commonly get you in the door, or keep the other guy out.
posted by Randy W. Kirk at 4:41 PM
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