The acquisition trend will continue. The Direct Mail firms are acquiring direct mail companies and the document software companies are buying web assets while these web assets are on sale, buy one, get one free.

I know of at least a half a dozen in the due diligence stage as I write this. Growth by acquisition will indeed continue for the companies that are well managed, or just plain have the cash.

There is indeed a shake out for the companies that haven’t managed resources well. A lot of the DM/Database firms that are closing their doors lost "THE" big customer that was 80% of their business. That can prove to be a fatal error.

For the software/hardware firms, yes, there is indeed a slow down in technology spending, but in speaking to the top salesmen with many of these firms, I’ve learned they still have some VERY big deals in the pipeline. And as we all know, one REALLY big deal can turn a company or quarter around very quickly.

And that is what this year is boiling down to. Who has the best salespeople! Great salespeople still make money in any climate. They know where to probe to find out what the customer needs. And more importantly, they will work HARDER to find the business. They are driven.

In this climate, your best strategy is to find a way to recruit the TOP salespeople from your competitors. Doing this will not only bring you the revenue you need to survive and profit, but it will also reduce the losses you suffer when the prospect buys the competitor not because the product was superior, but simply because that salesperson was better.

Besides, getting more salespeople on the street will help because after all, sales is still a numbers game.

Despite hiring freezes, there is still a ton of hiring going on across the country. For the most part it is strategic hiring, rather than growth. For July, we are on target to record our best month EVER.

For example we are putting the finishing touches on a 5 position Retained search designed to allow the client company to move in a more strategic manner, as well as beef up the sales force with heavy hitters.

Yes, the volume of orders has decreased from last year, but most of that decrease has come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 companies that are to busy putting out fires to think about the future.

The industry leaders are using this strategic opportunity to hire some very good talent. Why? Because they have not lost sight of the fact that this pull back in the economy will pass, just as the bubble of the roaring 90’s passed. As we all said in 1999, what goes up, must go down. And now we must recognize that what goes down, must go up.

Ironically, one of the first things a company cuts in a downturn is training and education. Strange, isn’t it. At the very time when your employees can use productive time to better themselves with education and training, the budget for this resource disappears.

In the past 12 months, our little company has doubled in size from 4 to 8 people. Even as things seemed to be slowing down we beefed up our training and education.

For example, last month I brought Bob McDevitt, EDP into town for two days to train my people on the intricacies of the Electronic Document Industry. Not only were there expenses associated with bringing him in, but I took my people off of production for two days. Did we lose productivity? Or is the knowledge they now possess more valuable to you as the client?

Think about that when you are determining whether or not to send your people to the Xplor Global Conference in Orlando this year. Yes, budgets are tight, but the knowledge they bring back will be more valuable to you and your clients.

Ken’s P

I have been producing this EPN since 1997. Never, and I mean never, have I received as much feedback and so many responses to any article or item as I did with the EDP series. Over 200 notes of congratulations alone came in after I learned I was honored with the distinction.

And as I read those notes I realized how privileged I was to have this medium to share the process and its outcome. The fact is there were 24 others in my class and because they did not happen to produce a monthly newsletter, their accomplishment had not been noted.

So I pinged Amber Bristow at the Xplor headquarters and explained how I felt. She gladly provided me the names of these 24 people below who will be needing to order new business cards. Though Xplor International, at the Grand Dinner in Orlando, awards the "Official" designation, we have been permitted to list these exceptional people who will be forever noted as the EDP Class of 2001. Congratulations!!!!

Tim Maggiore, Don Maxwell, Donna Melli, Harold Thomas, Kandyce Santiago, Rudiger Siemens, Doris Shepherd, David Staal, Bernd Steglich, Howard Turetzky, Ludolf van der Veen, Martin Visser, José Guilherme, De Souza and Riddock Walter.