How Do You Keep The Excitement Going?

When you are dealing with a Sales force, it is important to keep everyone energized and excited about what they do. All successful salespersons already possess a strong measure of self-motivation, however, everyone needs some outside recognition every now and then to help keep them animated. This includes all the support personnel, who tirelessly do their jobs each day but don’t receive the personal satisfaction of ‘closing a sale’. How do you keep the fire burning in your sales force?

At New England Machinery we installed a ship’s bell. This is an original heavy brass bell that has a short pull string attached to a round brass clacker. Its ring can be easily heard throughout the entire building. When a Salesperson receives a Purchase Order above a pre-ordained amount (or, for our Parts sales department, their aggregate sales for an entire day reaches the specified amount), they are allowed to ring the bell. Everyone in the office stops what they are doing and applauds, whistles and cheers for the ‘bell ringer’. It is a simple idea that really lights up everyone’s day and puts smiles on everyone’s faces, not just the bell ringer. It is amazing how this simple idea has energized everyone in the office. It has solidified a sense of team-work, enhanced camaraderie, and made everyone feel like a winner. We all now share in the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that previously was only experienced by the individual Salespersons.

If your office has a practice for energizing its workforce, send us your ideas. We would love to hear about more ways to Keep The Excitement Going!

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at http://www.neminc.com/.

PMMI Economic Forecast for the Packaging Industry

PMMI recently released its Quarterly Economic Outlook, 3rd Quarter 2010 Report. Their findings conclude that they project Accelerating Growth for our industry. To that end, they are recommending companies to set the following objectives:

1. Accelerate training

2. Check the process flow for possible future bottlenecks

3. Continue to build inventory

4. Increase prices

5. Consider outside manufacturing sources if internal pressure become tight

6. Find the answer to “What next?”

7. Open distribution centers

8. Use improved cash flow to improve corporate governance

9. Use cash to create new competitive advantages

10. Watch your debt-to-equity ratio and ROI

11. Maintain/pursue quality: don’t let complacency set in

While I agree with PMMI on many of their suggestions, I read their indicators slightly differently and recommend caution for the short term. Looking at the growth charts in their report, I believe we still have some downward trending to go in machinery shipments before the recovery starts back up. On the positive side, I believe we will see some immediate growth in machinery exports.

My personal recommendations would be to follow their objectives numbered 1, 2, 5, 9, 10, and 11. I recommend caution on numbers 3, 4, 7 and 8 and I find number 6 amusing. If any of us had the ‘crystal ball’ to know the answer to ‘what next’, we would be the future Bill Gates. However, we should try to determine what that will be as the future health of our companies depend on our staying on top (if not ahead) of the direction the industry is headed.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at http://www.neminc.com/.

New Ideas

Every company needs to stay contemporary. Some call it ‘re-inventing’ yourself, but that is not really the same thing and can be dangerous. When Coke‘re-invented’ its formula with ‘New Coke’ it nearly sunk the company. A company does not want to change its core values and the underlying product and/or discovery that made it successful. What a company does need to do is keep up with changing tastes and needs while staying true to itself. Coke has subsequently been successful in bringing to market new products that allow consumers to choose something different occasionally without going to the competition.


The same is true for all other companies and industries. The packaging industry needs to stay on top of the latest in packaging products, designs, trends and needs. The core products should offer the latest in technology, but still effectively do the jobs they were invented to do. Adding new electronic components to the original unscrambler or capper is staying contemporary without ‘re-inventing’. Adding a new line of products that compliment the original line is staying contemporary without ‘re-inventing’.

Let’s leave ‘re-inventing’ to the celebrities and focus on staying contemporary with our packaging machinery. If a new product comes on the market that requires a new machine to process or package it, design a new machine as a compliment, instead of changing an already good design to try and make it something more. The ‘something more’ may turn out to make the original machine ‘something less’, especially if it makes it more complicated, harder to use, more expensive, and have capabilities that are not always needed by the purchaser. Ten years ago I attended a PMMI meeting with end users. They all agreed that they were looking for machinery that would run faster, allow for quicker changeover, and be easy to use and maintain. Customers today are still asking for the same things.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at http://www.neminc.com/.

The Many Faces of Orienting

There are probably as many different types, shapes, colors and sizes of plastic containers on the market as there are people in the world. New ones are being designed every day in the hope that the new ‘different’ design will make a product stand out on the store shelf enough to first catch the consumers’ attention, and second convince them they need to purchase the product in the container. With all these different containers there comes a need in packaging to orient them properly. Many containers need to be oriented after unscrambling or coming out of chillers, turntables, accumulation tables and other machines that cause them to lose orientation.


As there are so many types of containers, there can’t be just one way to orient them. In answer to that need New England Machinery has designed various types of orienters. Each machine is designed for a different orienting need. They offer in-line orienters such as the SO-3, SO-4 and SO-6, and they offer rotary orienting with their model NERO. The capability of having such a large variety of machines to choose from allows NEM to offer the very best solution to their customers’ specific needs.

The company’s orienting capabilities include numerous methods of inspecting the containers and determining when and how to orient them properly. These include photo eyes, vision systems, and mechanical methods. If proper orientation is important to your production line, call the experts at New England Machinery, Inc. to get the best method for your project.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at http://www.neminc.com/.

Are Your Salespersons Passionate?

If you’ve ever sat and watched a TV infomercial for more than five minutes you have to admit that, even if you don’t need the item they are selling, you are tempted to consider buying it. What makes them so persuasive? Aside from the fact that they have everything staged to perfection to make the product look easy to use with amazing results, it is the main actor’s passion about the product that really sells it. Some individuals are better than others at ‘selling’ the product. Oftentimes, it is the inventor himself or herself that is describing the product. Their own pride and belief in the product they created clearly comes through and is ‘contagious’ to those viewing the segment. It is this passion about the product that moves the listener to feel that they need to have it.


True passion cannot be faked, but it can be more fully developed. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing several salespersons that were passionate about the products they sold. They were all very successful. They were truly convinced that the products they were selling were far superior to the competition and that positive attitude was reflected in their selling techniques. Their customers bought from them, because they wanted to buy the best product available and they made it clear that their product was it.

If you want successful salepersons, you need to educate them about your product until they understand it well enough to be passionate about it. They need to truly believe that they are selling the best product available and know what makes it the best. Passion is contagious, spread it around your sales team.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at http://www.neminc.com/.

How Do You Track Success?

Most companies prepare a growth plan to chart their future success. After determining the goals and setting the clear path on how to reach those goals, the next most important step is to track the steps along that path. If we don’t track whether we follow the steps and how successful we are in taking each step along the way, we are in danger of having one or more missteps take us in the wrong direction and never reaching those goals.

For sales it is important to remember not to just track how much or how many sales the team brings in, but to track each individuals’ efforts. How many customers did they call, e-mail, and visit each month? How many quotations did they prepare? What products are they quoting most frequently? What percentage of those quotes are they winning? The individual sales persons should have monthly target amounts for each of these areas and they should be tracked to see if they are reaching, surpassing, or falling short on the targets. It is much easier to re-direct a sales person who has ‘fallen off course’ in the short term, than to look back at the end of the year and try to determine what went wrong when it's too late to recover.

We all need some direction in order to know where we are headed and when we plan to get there. Without direction, we find ourselves wandering aimlessly, or headed in the wrong direction without even know it. It’s like leaving home by car to a new location without the benefit of a map or directions. We may eventually find our way, but we will have wasted a lot of time and resources trying to get there. Make sure you have a clear set of directions for your sales department as well as the rest of your company.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

US Industry is Reporting Growth

The following information was taken from an e-mail sent out by Thomas.net. “ThomasNet's latest Industry Market Barometer Survey shows that the economic recovery for the United States industrial sector is outpacing the national economy.


27% of the survey respondents report their businesses grew during the second half of 2009. That's up from the 17% that reported growth during the first half of the year. The difference represents a 59% rate of growth. Comparatively, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at 5.6% in the fourth quarter, and just 2.2% in the third.

What is the secret to success for those companies reporting growth? Companies are using the Internet to reinvent themselves in a number of ways:

• Having an Online Strategy (71%)

• Selling into New Industries (36%)

• Introducing New Products and Services (33%)

1,176 industrial professionals responded to the survey. The majority of respondents represent small businesses. 71% are at companies with fewer than 50 employees, and about 79% report revenue of under $10 million. There were also respondents from global manufacturers.”

In a previous blog I mentioned how the packaging industry has continued to grow even in the current economic downturn. While the industry as a whole is not immune to the recession, it has ‘weathered the storm’ much better than other industries. According to the above information, the US industrial sector is now regaining strength faster than other sectors of the economy. Let’s all hope this trend continues and gains momentum for the foreseeable future.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at http://www.neminc.com/.

What is the Packaging Industry’s Economic Outlook?

The following information comes from the PMMI.org website: “According to PMMI’s Quarterly Economic Outlook, the U.S. is in the early stages of a mild recovery. The Industrial Production Index reached a low point in October, ending its worst economic downturn since 1946. Most industries are showing increasing activity and the rate of decline is slowing in others. The same holds true for the markets that impact the packaging and processing industries.” Other highlights of the site include:
• While 2009 was a year of recession, 2010 is bringing signs of recovery. Markets with positive outlooks include: Pharmaceutical & Medical Devices Production; Personal Care Products Production; Beverages, Coffee & Tea Production; Chemical and Cleaning & Finishing Products, Household and Industrial; Consumer/Commercial Industrial Durables, Hardgoods, Components and Parts; Food and Foods Preparation Production.

• The US Leading Indicator Index has posted its 10th straight month of rise, taking it to a record high. The year-over-year reading is above 0 and the rise in the index supports the outlook for increasing activity in the US economy in 2010.

• The ISM Purchasing Managers Index reached a five-year peak of 58.4 in January and has grown to 59.6 in March (Wall Street Journal), a positive signal for the overall economy in 2010. January was the indicator’s sixth consecutive month above 50, indicating six months of manufacturing sector expansion.

• Retail Sales (not including automobiles) are showing signs of stabilizing. Although sales dropped 3.0 percent overall in 2009, holiday spending saw its first year-over-year increase (0.4 percent) since 2006. A mild November to December rise shows that the retail sector is still weak, but that the worst of the decline is probably over.

So, PMMI’s research seems to indicate that our industry is now headed in a more positive direction. Let’s hope this is true, so we can all concentrate on doing what we do best – making great packaging machinery!

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at http://www.neminc.com/.

MANATEE — At New England Machinery, business is good.

The Manatee manufacturer provides packaging for products such as food, beverages and pharmaceuticals and has “tremendous potential to grow,” says Marge Bonura, director of sales and marketing.


“The packaging industry is one of the few in this economy that has continued to grow,” Bonura said. “As long as the world population grows, people are going to continue to need anything that’s packaged. Our industry will continue to grow.”
Read more: http://www.bradenton.com/2010/06/29/2396810/let-the-hiring-begin-several-manatee.html#ixzz0sR3lG974