There are times where I seriously feel like I'm just winging it with this business and wonder how things would be done in a real corporate environment. My latest example is that yesterday I received a new products questionaire from a catalog company that might be interested in carrying a new product. There were stock questions on there that I didn't know how to answer and I had to do things like pull out the measuring tape and start taking down dimensions to give them the information they needed. Certainly not so hard it couldn't be done, but sometimes I realize how a$$-backwards I do things. Corporations I'm sure already know all of that information so they can quickly fill out the questionaire when they get it. Then again, in big corporations there's so much red tape the questionaire - even if quickly answered - probably has to be ok'd by 101 managers and, of course, Legal so perhaps I'm actually getting back to them quicker?
And while I'm here - let's chat for a minute about selling yourself short. One of the questions on the questionaire was regarding minimum quantity amounts. Since this is a new product I wasn't sure what I should tell them so based it off of what fits nicely and securely in my shipping boxes. However the amount was 60 units and I fretted (and continue to fret) that it's too high a number for them since the product is untested in their marketplace. My better half kept telling me to put down 60 and if they didn't like that number they'd come back and tell me so. But I hestitated nonetheless. Then he rightly told me to stop selling myself short. And oh man am I guilty of that. I'm probably my own worst enemy in that regard and consistently undersell myself. This happens especially with new accounts where I want so badly to get the business I may undervalue what I bring to the table. It's something I need to work on. So I did put down 60 units - though my heart clenched slightly when I emailed that number back to them.
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In a real corporate environment, at least the ones I know well, someone would probably be pulling out a ruler. Actually, in my current corporate environment, there'd be a 3-day search for a ruler, because they've made it nearly impossible for anyone to get office supplies (our new overlords are public, they're cutting costs because revenues are falling short and they have targets to meet).
Or, someone would THINK they knew the specs of the product and put those measurements down, and it would turn out that in actual manufacturing the specs were slightly different.
I know there are some CPG companies that probably have their crap together better than this (I don't work in CPG), but trust me, it'd be worse in a corporate environment.
Then PR would insist on writing the response, even though they have no idea what the product specs are, and then they'd misspell words and use "it's" when they should be using "its," and Product would get all grumpy when they try to correct PR only to be told that the PR people have degrees in communications from the local college, so it's not Product's place to correct their spelling.
Once that was all done, it'd sit in Compliance for three weeks, and in the end Compliance would have no comment.
It's one of those weeks around here...sorry if I'm venting. But the grass is definitely not greener on the corporate side.
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