George Ludwig, a nationally known keynote speaker, has more than 25 years of sales, sales management, and sales training experience, including five years of presenting his sales success seminar all over the country. As sales trainer, coach, and corporate consultant, Ludwig trains over 10,000 people per year from various corporations and associations. Yet even Ludwig says, “Selling is scary. If you doubt it, you’ve never stood before a dour-faced prospect, stomach churning and palms sweating, images from recent rejections swirling in your mind like some tornado of self-loathing.” Of course, he’s not talking about himself; he’s talking about you. But in his new book, Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code (Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2004, ISBN: 0-7931-8571-8, $19.95), Ludwig offers some tips to help “Supercharge Your Selling Skills” and overcome the fear that, he says, is all in your mind.

Okay, maybe it

Three reports recently released by Boston-based AMR Research address the emerging retail trends of 2005, as well as process and technology decisions that retailers will need to make to support their businesses. Collectively titled Decisions 2005, the reports cover store operations, demand intelligence, retail planning, RFID, retail supply chain, pricing and promotion management. According to Scott Langdoc, AMR’s VP of Research, “Key challenges for the industry include: mega-retailer dominance, the blurring of segments and channels, the effects of increasing online sales on brick-and-mortar retailers, the shifting focus of customer loyalty toward low cost, compliance driven visibility and controls issues, as well as increasing IT costs.”

AMR suggests these top priority decisions:

Nearly three out of four direct marketing companies plan to add to staff this winter, according to a quarterly employment survey conducted by Bernhart Associates Executive Search (Owatonna, MN). Among companies responding to the survey, 70% said they plan to increase headcount during the first quarter of 2005, up from 60% last quarter. Only 5% said they’ll be cutting staff, and the percentage of companies reporting a hiring freeze continued a steady decline, falling to 8%.

You’ve heard all about RFID: It’s scary; it’s friendly. It’s expensive; it’s affordable. What is the truth? Tom Dziersk, president & CEO of ClearOrbit Inc. (a Supply Chain Execution and Collaborative Supply Management software provider), is a widely published software and supply chain industry expert. Dziersk has compiled a list of five “myths” about RFID, and provided his explanations of the realities that counter those myths

A new report estimates the size of the U.S. commercial warehousing market at $25.7 billion. The report, “An Overview of Warehousing in North America,” is the second from Armstrong & Associates Inc., a Stoughton, WI-based supply chain management consulting firm specializing in market research, mergers and acquisitions and outsourcing, and also the publisher of Who’s Who In Logistics. This detailed report — significantly expanded from that issued last January — covers major service providers, prices and value-added services.

A key element to successfully reaping benefits by improving business process sourcing, is to analyze end-to-end business processes carefully and consider a range of possible sourcing options, before deciding if one or perhaps several implemented in combination will best serve the company’s needs. According to executives presenting at a one-day conference held by The Hackett Group, an Atlanta-based business advisory firm, it is important that companies understand core competencies and make sure they keep activities relating to their core business value in-house as they consider sourcing options.

Here’s a novel approach to meeting the need for hourly workers in your warehouse or distribution center: use the local fire department as a labor pool. That’s one of the creative ideas in the annual “Looking Ahead” report from industry newsletter Distribution Center Management.