Vendavo recently held our annual sales kickoff, and our Business Consultants got together to share their top advice for tackling 2024 and beyond. Watch this video and read the following transcript for insights from experts Dan Cakora, Robert Irwin, Dave Anderson, Mike Slavin, Chris Kennedy-Sloane, Paul Sansom, Kalle Aerikkala, and Israel Rodrigo.
Hi, everyone. This is Dan Cakora, and I have just returned from our sales kickoff 2024. It was a tremendous event.
While I was there, I saw my colleagues on the Business Consulting team. I decided to ask them for their top tip, trick, trend, or pricing-related topic that they’re thinking about in 2024 and received some really helpful insights.
So, without further ado, here is actual advice from real experts.
Robert Irwin
Senior Vice President of Business Consulting at Vendavo
Based in: Dusseldorf, Germany
“This is the beginning of 2024, and I think this is a year where people will start to finally understand the benefits of rebates, as opposed to poor decisions around upfront discounting. Hold your customers accountable for volume commitments, pay them for delivered results. Find capabilities and solutions that will help you manage this complexity. Manage the complexity that your sales team wants to use in their commercial processes. Have a good year.”
Dave Anderson
Vice President of Business Consulting at Vendavo
Based in: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
“I’ve worked in pricing for almost 20 years now. My top pricing tip for 2024 is probably not different than my top pricing tip in any year, which is don’t get lost in the latest and greatest buzz of trends you might hear of in the press. Really just focus on the basics. All the most successful customers I work with get most of their value really just from the basics, focusing on organizational decisions you’re making – and those things don’t really require a whole lot in terms of sophistication to make progress.”
Mike Slavin
Business Consultant at Vendavo
Based in: Portland, Maine, USA
“In 2024, I think there’s going to be a continuation of uncertainty. I think that some companies, depending on the industry, are going to be doing well. Others are not. I think when it comes to pricing, some industries will be able to get away with price increases, others will not. So, I think in general, the key is going to be able to be agile and be able to react to changing conditions as things change.”
Chris Kennedy-Sloane
Business Consultant at Vendavo
Based in: London, England
“My top pricing tip for 2024 is to look for necessities. Where we’re seeing a supply-demand curve inversion, the things that consumers and businesses still need to buy, be where pricing power remains the strongest.”
Paul Sansom
Business Consultant at Vendavo
Based in: Denver, Colorado, USA
“My top trend for 2024 sounds a lot like my same top trend for 2023, which is high volatility to energy costs and freight and shipping logistics. But this year, surprisingly, it’s a whole new set of geopolitical pressures that’s causing that, mainly dealing with the Middle East. We’ve seen shipping costs double from Shanghai to New York in the last month. So, I don’t know if they’re going to go up and I don’t know if they’re going to go down, but I imagine they’re going to do both and it’s going to be pretty wild swings.”
Kalle Aerikkala
Business Consultant at Vendavo
Based in: Turku, Finland
“My pricing tip and prediction for 2024 is a little bit European-focused. Here I see that one of the leading markets in Germany seems to be heading for a recession this year. But on the other hand, I see a very good chance that customs duties will go up at the end of this year or the next year. So, for that reason my pricing tip for this year is to make sure that your pricing processes are in really good shape, and you can adapt to rapidly changing market conditions – either down or up – in a good manner, in a controlled manner, and to make sure that you are hitting your necessary requirements.”
Israel Rodrigo
Business Consultant at Vendavo
Based in: Seattle, Washington, USA
“I think that my guess for 2024 and going into 2025 is there’s going to be an increase in say loyalty programs, how to ensure that customers really deliver and commit to the promise that they do to you when they’re actually planning to buy or you’re actually quoting with them. So, I think that being able to make your solutions and offerings very sticky is going to be fundamental after we have gone through all this process of inflationary pressures and supply chain disruption. So, I think that channel incentives, rebate management, and loyalty programs are going to be huge in the B2B space.”
Dan Cakora
Business Consultant at Vendavo
Based in: Chicago, Illinois, USA
“The trend I’m watching this year is inflation. It’s heading back to normal Federal Reserve targets of about 2%. And what that means is we can’t have across the board price increases anymore. We need to be targeted and strategic in what we’re doing. So, 2024 look for pockets of profit.”
So, there you have it. Eight experts with eight great pieces of advice and I think they boil down to these three themes.
- Number one, focus on the fundamentals and the necessities. Get your processes right so you can do the basic blocking and tackling.
- Number two, channel incentives are increasingly important, but you need more than a strategy. You need a way to operationalize that strategy and I suspect it is not just in Excel.
- And finally, number three, change happens. It might come in the form of volatile energy prices, or freight, or recession in Germany, or custom tariffs increasing, or even inflationary pressures or the lack thereof.
Regardless, you need to invest in flexibility so you can react. To continue this conversation, navigate over to Vendavo.com and request a meeting. Thank you for your time and we hope to speak with you soon!
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