Jason De Quadros

 I recently found out my 1st ever Marketing client passed away in May of 2020 . He was my 1st client while I was still doing my Marketing Undergraduate studies at UBC & Capilano University - in 2000 . Clearly a lot happened in 22 years . In 2000, he signed up with me on a 3 month contract . He had owned a construction company in North Vancouver . He wanted to expand his business - so he hired me to create a Strategic Marketing Plan - as well as to edit his existing Business Plan . The Marketing Fundamentals I focussed on were: a) Product b) Price c) Promotion d) Place e) People f) Process g) Physical Evidence I will share some of that Strategic Marketing Plan in a later blog post . RIP Dylan

  The Omicron Variant destroyed Christmas 2021 - much like the Delta Variant wrecked Summer 2020 The Omicron Variant is more transmissible - but less virulent than the Delta Variant We need to embrace Non Pharmaceutical Interventions - or NPIs NPIs include: rapid COVID-19 testing / wearing iso masks / staying home during major outbreaks / etc Once these NPIs are followed - we move on from a state of acute emergency to a state of transition to endemicity Endemicity means that immunity and infections will have reached a steady state Not enough people will be immune to deny the virus a host Not enough people will be vulnerable to spark widespread outbreaks Endemicity isn’t a promise of safety. - rather it’s a guarantee of having to be on guard all the time We can’t eradicate SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind Covid, because it has other hiding places in the world As long as another host for Covid exists, there is no hope of being safe from it forever Covid-19 herd immunit...

Of course there are no solutions in sight with regards to the Global Shipping Crisis - especially over the Christmas & New Year's Day holidays . The Global Shipping Crisis will continue well into 2022 Ships jam-packed with containers are stuck at ports Factories have had to limit production - in spite of increased online orders There are approximately 25 million containers on 5500 container ships worldwide Sadly the COVID-19 Pandemic (March 2020) led to lockdowns & inconsistent supply & demand - which have thrown global supply chains and transportation networks out of whack There is also a shortage of shipping & transportation industry workers The shipping crisis hit a benchmark moment when the Ever Given became stuck in the Suez Canal in March 2021 This blocked approximately 400 container ships for 1 week - and led to approximately $10B USD in tree losses Constant pressure to load and unload goods at shipping terminals has lead to hoarding of shipped goods Interest...

My Partial Opinion On The Supply Chain Crisis / Automotive Industry Micro-Chip Shortage o    I’ve worked in the Transportation industry for about 10 years part-time – so this is my partial opinion – lol ! o    The computer chip shortage is mostly affecting the Automotive industry o    After the WHO declared the COVID-19 Pandemic official on March 11, 2020 – the Computer industry’s sales increased as people started working from home (upgrading their IT) o    The Automotive industry paused their semiconductor orders & limited their forecasts §   They didn’t want any leftover inventory (unsold cars) – as everyday life & travel outside the home (as of Spring 2020) came with increased restrictions o    A key thing to note that chips in the Automotive industry – when compared with chips in the Computer industry – are considered “older tech” / older style chips o    The computer industry has far more modern ...

  Channel programs are big investments - with the potential for massive payoffs . A channel manager should always be watching out for the KPIs . Proper examination of your KPIs can help you determine if your channels are on the right path to generating recurring revenue. Active Pipeline Value It’s critical to track and calculate your active pipeline value: all of the revenue that’s being generated now just by your partners, but also the players leveraged to move value up the chain and into your hands . Opportunities Per Partner Active vs Pending vs InActive Partners If a partner is active and working on your behalf, you can invest resources to support and incentivize their growth. For pending partners, you can see where they’re stalled in the process and how you can get them up and generating revenue for you . For inactive partners, you can decide if you need to retool or jettison the relationship . Average Deal Size Percent Of Content Engaged

During the early 1990s - I worked at McDonald’s . Being in Grade 9 - I was invincible - and of course too cool to be working at Rotten Ronnie’s . Nonetheless it was a Part Time job - and I was earning $5.20 an hour . My store location was labelled as a “poor performer” - and based on the amount of store managers that rotated through there - it’s wasn’t hard to see why . One week-end I was introduced to Ming - the new store manager . He was apparently a great “organizer” - and was sent there by Head Office to turn around our store . It was a challenging weekend as 3 staff members called in sick - so Ming turned to me and said: “Jason - I need you to run a birthday party.” This sent shockwaves to my teenage brain . I was only there to earn enough money to buy Nike basketball shoes and Nintendo games . I told him I wasn’t trained - to which he replied: “What’s there to know ? It’s a birthday party - you take food orders at the beginning - deliver the food - and light candles on a birt...

  Everything you do for your distributors benefits you as well — your relationships deepen, and you gain more of their business, as turning to you continues to become more convenient and cost-effective.   Greater efficiency in working with distributors translates into lower costs of doing business and higher margins for you. Automated information helps drive add-ons, opportunities for cross-selling, and potentially broader product sets (because they’re more visible to distributors), as you and your distributors expand the market and revenue. Another key benefit is the usage data you’ll be able to gather. You’ll learn more about how your distributors work — where their interests (and those of their customers) lie — and be able to use that information to continually optimize distribution and sales. Best of all, it’s a win-win arrangement. Both you and your distributors are more successful — and with happier customers to boot!

  When pitching to a distributor - it’s important to always ask yourself : “How is my brand / product / service going to improve their portfolio ?” A Handy Checklist To Consider (Prior To The Sales Pitch) : Am I willing to let a distributor autonomously represent my brand for me ? Do I have enough resources to support the distributor with time, money, and product / inventory to help generate sales ? Am I able to identify my brand and have I listed its key competitive advantage assets ? Do I have an actionable / actioned strategic marketing strategy ? Do I have a complete range of products / services ready for commercial sale ? Do I have the volumes of products/ services available for consistent, uninterrupted supply ? Does my company have the capacity to product products / services of consistent /improving quality - production run after production run ? Are my product’s / service’s priced appropriately for their target market - factoring in the distributor’s margin ? H...

  Common Problems: In some cases distributors didn’t know how to grow their market, and they didn’t invest in business growth. Ideal Distributor Market: A market with many small customers and where the level of sales service required is high. Some Key Points In Managing Distributors: 1.    Make sure to ask your distributors for detailed market & financial performance data. 2.    Always treat your distributors as long-tern – not short-term partners. 3.    Support your distributors by committing proven marketing plans to help them sell more. a.    Educate your distributors about your products. 4.    Try and find distributors who are capable of developing new markets. a.    Distributors who specialize in a narrow field sometimes tend to be the most successful.

One thing that has always helped me gain killer sales at all my sales jobs was the creation of a “scratch sheet”. Essentially it’s just a huge Word document (or a plain document using your word processor of choice) where you type ALL your daily notes as you work. Seems simple - but it’s something few people remember to do. Imagine a day where you answer incoming sales calls, make outbound sales calls, and process customer service calls - but track all your discussions down as you type. One key benefit of this is that you gain the ability to “search” anything from your past discussions. You also gain the ability to “copy” and “paste” anything from a past discussion into a current discussion. EXAMPLE 1: RFQ / IN GUTTER INSTALL / MR BOB SMITH / SMITH CONSTRUCTION / SITE: 1234 CHERRYTREE LANE / WVAN / 604-123-4567 / bob@smithconstruction.ca OK - given the example above - you installed gutters for Bob Smith - at one of his sites - a year ago. Fast forward to 2021 - and one of the homeowners...

  Inside Sales Reps Sending Out RFQs (REQUEST FOR QUOTE) To Outside Sales Reps: THE RFQ is sent to the sales rep via EMAIL . The text is added directly to the subject line - and inside the body of the email . EXAMPLE 1: RFQ / IN GUTTER CLEAN / MR JOHN SMITH / 1234 CHERRY TREE LANE / NVAN / 604-123-4567 /  johnsmith@google.ca In the above example - the customer called in looking for a gutter clean . Fairly straight forward - it was a single homeowner looking for some work done on their house . A small job like this could be closed by the inside sales rep . If the inside sales rep emailed it to the outside sales rep - it should look like : From: Inside Sales Rep <insidesalesrep@guttersareus.ca> To: outsidesales rep <outsidesalesrep@guttersareus.ca> Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2021, 08:39:00 PM PDT Subject:  RFQ / IN GUTTER CLEAN / MR JOHN SMITH / 1234 CHERRY TREE LANE / NVAN / 604-123-4567 / johnsmith@google.ca RFQ / IN GUTTER CLEAN / MR JOHN SMITH / 1234 CHE...

The first time I ever saw a Sony Walkman, my entire understanding of what “portable music” meant changed in an instant. I was at my cousin’s house, and he had just won a Sony Sports model — the legendary F5 — in some contest. I remember the moment vividly: the bright yellow casing, the matching headphones that looked impossibly cool, the rugged, water‑resistant body that felt like it could survive a fall off a cliff. The buttons were right on the front, bold and tactile, and the clamshell door snapped shut with this satisfying plastic click that made the whole thing feel indestructible. After that day, I *had* to have one. Fortunately, I had a paper route back then, so after about a month and a half of saving every dollar, I bought my own Sony Sports Walkman — the WM‑F63. It felt like a spaceship in my hands. AM/FM radio. Auto‑reverse. Dolby B noise reduction. Features that, at the time, felt like the height of audio engineering. The coolest part wasn’t even the tech — it was the free...

Full disclosure: I’m a writing addict. I didn’t realize it for most of my life — not until one quiet afternoon when I started counting the number of Moleskine journals I’d filled over the years. They were everywhere. On shelves. In drawers. In bags I hadn’t used in years. A small army of black notebooks, each one holding a version of me I’d forgotten about. You know the ones I mean: the iconic matte‑black covers, the elastic band that eventually loosens with age, the ribbon bookmark that frays just enough to feel lived‑in. And of course, the little paper pocket in the back — the one that always ends up holding ticket stubs, receipts, and scraps of ideas that never made it to the page. Every new Moleskine comes with that tiny booklet tucked inside, the one that whispers: *Hemingway used notebooks like this. Chatwin used notebooks like this. Picasso used notebooks like this.* It’s pure marketing, but it works. When I open a fresh Moleskine, I feel like I’m tapping into a lineage — as i...