Amazon Declares - Best Ever Season???

The Death of Print, may be a little premature...

Until you see that Amazon's best season, has little to do with books.

AMAZON called its 2008 holiday shopping season "the best ever," despite a series of predictions that even online sales would weaken as US consumers cut back amid the recession.

Amazon said that on its peak day, December 15, it received more than 6.3 million orders, at a record pace of 72.9 items per second.

This is a surprise of sorts, when viewed through the prism of "recession".

Amazon said top-sellers from November 15 through December 19 included Nintendo's Wii, which dominated the videogame category.

According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, Australia:

"...Among toys, the best-sellers included Jakks Pacific's Eyeclops night-vision goggles. In the electronics category, Samsung Electronics’ 52-inch LCD High-Definition television and Apple's 8-gigabyte iPod Touch led the gains.

Also a strong seller was Acer's Aspire One 8.9-inch netbook. The devices, which have little processing power, screens between nine and 12 inches wide diagonally and typically cost less than $US500 ($729), have been rising in popularity, according to technology-research firm iSupply.

Among DVDs, Amazon said Wall-E, The Dark Knight for Blu-ray and The Dark Knight sold well. Top sellers in books included The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling, and two works by Stephenie Meyer, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.

Amazon didn't comment on its selling prices or margins for the 2008 holiday season..."

Not a mention of books or the Kindle.

Damn The Torpedoes, Fire Your Customers!

2008

Well, just the customers who are wrong, and will not take your advice..

I hope good Admiral Farragut is not spinning in his grave over my adulteration of his famous quote - it just seems fitting, especially when sailing through today's torpedo filled, economic seas.

Ken Stewart has a great post, The Customer Is NOT Always Right! where he expresses the need to steer clear of certain customers and sometimes make a few walk the plank.

But that is just the surface subject of his post.

I read the underlying message as "Know thyself, to thy own self, be true..." - yes, I know, I just mixed The Oracle at Delphi and Shakespeare, but you get the point, hopefully.

In order to steer clear bad customers and to fire clients, we must posses a level of confidence gained after knowing what it is that we do best and who we like to "hang around".

Life is short. Why not surround yourself with clients(or friends, or family members)that have the same ideas and ideals as you?

Makes sense, don't it?

Now, Damn The Torpedoes, march into your Sales Manager's office and tell him you are firing the three most irritating customers you have...er...well...ok, wait...before doing that, update your resume...

Check These Out:

The Death of The Copier Sales Person

The New SalesPerson - Death of the "Close"

A Return to Selling

The Single Most Important Tool In Managed Print Services

Bill's Pay Millions for Xerox Multifunction Printers

Buffalo Bills like Xerox


Although the team is off until the beginning of next season, at least the print production segment is being handled.

The Buffalo Bills have renewed a multimillion-dollar, 60 month long contract naming Xerox Corp. the team's preferred print services provider.

The big "X" has been with the Bills for 20 years.

According to Xerox, the Bills use the company's color multifunction printers, including the WorkCenter 7665.

In addition, the renewal includes short term rentals of Xerox's WorkCentre MFPs and Xerox's Phaser colour printers used during summer training camps at St John Fisher College in Rochester, USA.

The team's print production area will output playbooks and half-time reports in short time with digital production presses such as the DocuColor 7000AP Digital Press.

According to reports, an on-site Xerox document adviser insures the print unit is operational at all times.