Values Sell

values sell THE SOCIAL VENTURE NETWORK SERIES values sell TRANSFORMING PURPOSE INTO PROFIT THROUGH CREATIVE SALES AND DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES Nadine A. Thompson Angela E. Soper BK Berrett –Koehler Publishers, Inc. SanFrancisco Values Sell Copyright © 2007 by Nadine A. Thompson and Angela E. Soper. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below. 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First Edition Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-57675-421-4 PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-57675-520-4 2007-1 Cover design: Leslie Waltzer, Crowfoot Design Interior design and production: Beverly Butterfield, Girl of the West Productions Editing: PeopleSpeak For all the women and men who have an idea and pursue it with passion—and who have the courage to keep going with bold determination when told their idea will never work This page intentionally left blank Contents Letter from the Editor of the Social Venture Network Series Preface Acknowledgments 1 Establishing a Clear and Profitable Vision 2 Defining Your Market 3 Building Strong Distribution Channels 4 Empowering Your Way to Success 5 Educating Your Partners 6 Creating Valuable Strategic Alliances 7 Celebrating Achievements 8 Do Values Really Sell? Notes Resources Suggested Reading Index About Social Venture Network About the Authors ix xi xvii 1 21 41 63 85 101 117 133 139 147 151 153 159 161 vii This page intentionally left blank Letter from the Editor of the Social Venture Network Series Every year more than one million new businesses form in the United States. Most of them fail within a few years. Conventional wisdom has it that the principal reason for such widespread failure is a lack of capital, but after reading Values Sell, I’m not so sure. Consider the advice you’re likely to get from the average business consultant, banker, accountant, or business school professor: “Keep your costs low, keep your eye on the cash, and keep your customers happy.” You may walk away with the tragically misguided impression that building a successful business is a lot like baking a cake, simply combining a teaspoon of this, a pinch of that, and a dash of something else—all readily available ingredients, easy to find on the shelf. Anyone with any practical business experience knows that’s bunk. As Nadine Thompson and Angela Soper make abundantly clear in this inspired little volume, a successful small business requires a whole lot more than a competitive product or service, tight cash management, and good customer relations—or any combination of readily identifiable ingredients. In fact, as you’ll learn in the following pages, success in business depends far more on intangible factors such as vision, commitment, and passion than on any of the more familiar building blocks of commerce. By focusing tightly on the critical question of sales and distribution, Thompson and Soper show how clarity of vision, consistency of values, a collaborative spirit, a passion to teach all who will listen, enduring strategic alliances, and ix a willingness to empower those around you will compensate for shortages of some of the more traditional ingredients. Values Sell is jam-packed with colorful and inspiring vignettes from some of America’s most enterprising small companies. In these pages, your eyes will be opened and your spirits lifted through the experiences of dynamic enterprises such as Birkenstock USA, Tweezerman, Mountain Equipment Co-op, French Meadow Bakery & Cafe, Tom’s of Maine, Earthbound Farm, and Putumayo World Music. Each of these and the approximately two dozen other outstanding small companies profiled in Values Sell has prospered by building sales and distribution strategies that embody the uniqueness of its vision and the depth of its values. Thompson and Soper will help you understand how the roots of your own approach to sales and distribution can be found within the values you bring to your work and not in any formula or any textbook. If you’re running a small or midsized business, or just thinking about starting one, you’ll close the covers of this book with a far deeper appreciation of some of the biggest challenges of business today and how you can surmount them. And one more thing: you’ll enjoy reading this delightful little book, and I predict you’ll want to pass it along to a friend. It’s that good. Mal Warwick Berkeley, California February 2007 x Values Sell Preface Songwriters and romance novelists may say it is love that makes the world go round, but we venture to say it is innovation. When i