The Kenya Flower Council (KFC) is on course to be an accredited body to provide certification for flowers meant for export. The European Union (EU) accreditation will give it powers to inspect and certify locally produced flowers as fit for the international market as early as next year.

If successful, the agreement will eliminate the need for flowers to undergo further inspection in vast markets where they are exported like the EU countries and Japan. It will also help reduce a number of bottlenecks that have been slowing exports.

KFC’s Chief Executive Officer, Jane Ngige, says the status will enable the council to enforce an internationally required code of practice that encourages farmers to take care of the environment by rehabilitating wetlands and adopting new technologies like containerised growing, where water is re-used.

“We are building internal capacity for self-regulation and the process is proceeding well. We hope to be an accredited body to provide certification for flowers,” says Ngige.

The move with potential to increase the volume of Kenya’s exports, is exhilarating, for local flower growers who are the leading exporters of cut flowers to Europe and Japan, providing about 36 and 19 per cent, respectively of stems sold in those regions.

It will also help mollify emerging markets like Japan, which of late has become one of the largest consumers of Kenyan flowers. According to Ngige, Japan is a lucrative destination, but is also full of challenges. “It is a difficult market because the authorities there want Kenya to fumigate its flowers before exporting. ”

“We are also planning to train our own inspectors to help create confidence in our ability,” says Ngige.

Kenya’s market share in Japan increased from 16 per cent in 2005 to 19 per cent by end of last year, earning the country Sh140 million. Last year, the country earned Sh32 billion from flower exports.

Flower growers will also be thrilled about the expected status because of its potential benefits considering the new ‘Open Skies Agreement’ between Kenya and the US that will allow for direct flights between the two countries. Currently, all flowers being exported to the US from Kenya have to pass through Europe before they are passed on to the final destination.

Direct flights between the two countries will reduce the cost of transporting flowers and also remove a bit of weight from the back of exporters currently weighed down by the carbon miles debate, among other changing standards.

The maiden flight operated by Delta Airlines will make its first journey to the US in December.

Anyone who is looking to acquire a recreational vehicle will want to have the best sales experience possible. RVs are used for vacationing and camping, as well as traveling, and many RV owners will tell you how much they just love using their own traveling homes. Imagine you and your family driving down the highway with everything that you need around you. So what if all of the motels are booked for that special event happening in the next state over; you have what you need in your RV, and will not have to worry about booking a room or a flight ahead of time to see the big show that you are traveling to.

Many people describe the feeling of owning an RV as “freeing.” Wouldn’t you like to be free and have the ability to pack up and drive away at a moment’s notice? Getting away for the weekend, or longer, has never been easier than when you own an RV.

For anyone looking to acquire an RV, there are considerations that can help make this experience special. While there is nothing wrong with shopping around, you want to make sure that you are shopping where you can get the right advice and best service possible.

Purchasing a recreational vehicle from a professional RV dealer is one of the best things that you can do to make sure that you are a satisfied buyer. First of all, dealers have a variety of models and sizes to ensure that you get just what you are looking for. Secondly, they know more about their products than anyone. Not only is it their job to know all about them, many RV dealers own one themselves. They can answer all of your questions, and by listening to what you want, place you in the vehicle of your dreams.

Why settle for an average sales experience when you can have the best? Make sure that you are shopping with a professional that can place you in the RV that you and your family are looking for. While you are looking at RVs, if in doubt, ask questions! A professional will be able to answer any question that you might have.

Taking a test drive or two will enhance your experience as well. There is nothing better than actually sitting behind the wheel on the road in your new RV to be. Don’t forget to take your family with you when you go shopping. You will want their input, and want them to be comfortable in an RV that fits everyone’s needs. Find out what they like or dislike about particular models that you are looking at. After all, you want that family vacation to be a great one.

As you can see, there are many things that can determine whether or not you have a top-notch RV sales experience. Heeding this advice will make the process better for you and your family, and get you in the RV that you have been dreaming of.

Sometimes blind-shooted emails from marketing companies are useful. Two days back I received such an email to my personal ID. It was sent by a multi-brand laptop dealer in chennai. I was about to trash it, but just wanted to see the price list of the models. One of the model (a HP laptop) was tagged with Rs.27 K price tag. Since I was planning to buy a laptop for my wife, I decided to dig more. A quick search in HP’s website revealed that the laptop was priced around Rs.41 K. So I replied the dealer asking for the correct price.

Then later that evening, I received a reply saying the correct price is Rs.37K. There was no mentioning, whether if the price includes tax or not . So I asked them to send the complete laptop specification and a formal price quote. Today morning I received only the laptop speicification,sans the price quote. Boy! that was “awesome”. I wish I had not replied to that mail two days back. I lost interest in the HP laptop and this dealer. My next choice would be Fujitsu or Dell.

A good pre-sales experience ensures a guaranteed sale. If you do not execute that part well, you are sure to lose a customer, eventually lose your business too. Today, time is money. If you delay or take long time to respond, assume that your sales opportunity is slipping away.To turn a lead into sale, make sure you attend them properly. Find out what they want, offer your options that would suit their requirement, and be QUICK!!.  Throw some offers if possible,  to ensure the lead to turn into a sale. HP lost a sale because of their dealer’s in-adequate response.

Remember, good pre-sales  experience is one important factor that increases the chances of turning a lead into a sale. And a good after-sales experience is another factor to maintain a loyalty-base and return customers. Both are important for a product/brand to survive. If you screw one, you are lost.

South Africa’s tractor sales climbed 53 percent in the year to July to 4,119 units as farmers in Africa’s biggest maize producer prepared to harvest a bumper summer maize crop, officials said on August 7.Sales rose further as farmers replaced old equipment, the South African Agricultural Machinery Association (SAAMA) said.

South Africa is expecting a bumper maize crop for the 2007/08 season of around 11.60 million tonnes.
Tractor sales rose by 48 percent year-on-year to 657 in July alone, SAAMA said in a statement.

“The main contributor is the large summer grain crop of which the largest portion is maize and together with that the higher current grain prices,” said SAAMA chairperson, Charles van Niekerk. “If you look at the maize crop produced in South Africa, the expected maize crop is just under 12 million tonnes.”

I have been car shopping ALL weekend (which is why I haven’t updated that much this weekend). Its been pretty much horrible. I am not your average car buyer. I sold cars way back when and I come from a sales family. You cant sell a salesperson. Its just annoying. When I go to the car dealership, I usually know what I want, what I want to pay, and that’s about all I want to know. I expect some sales, but dont jerk me around. Give me a price, then let me go look it up and make sure your not screwing me. If your honest, Ill be back, right? Right.

So yesterday we go out at 10am. We don’t get him till after 9pm. We drive a Hyundai, Mazda6, Mercedes C320, VW Jetta, Honda Accord, Honda Civic, and about 5 Infiniti G35s.  We are up at a dealership last night, thats about an hour from our house, that had a bunch of cars I was interested in. But its at night and I really want to see a car in the daylight to see about dings, condition, etc. and we tell the sales guy we would be back today. He doesn’t work today, but we promise him if we do buy, we will call him. He lives about an hour away from his job, so we are not going to waste his Sunday coming out when we were still unsure.

Now, we go back out to the dealership. We just want to testdrive a car we didnt test drive last night. We get a salesguy, we tell him upfront that we have a salesperson but we told him not to come out just for us to testdrive a car. The new salesguy is irritated. “Oh, you have a salesperson? Lets get him”. No, he doesn’t live around here, we told him to NOT come in over for this (he is an old guy, we didnt want to keep him from church or whatever, and he lives an hour away), we just want to DRIVE the car. I am not making someone come over here to DRIVE this car. The new salesguy continues on… “We work on commission” Me: I understand that, but we just want to TESTDRIVE the car. If you don’t want to let us test drive this car, get someone that will. The guy again” I’m just trying to explain that we work on commission and……” Me, cutting him off: Your paycheck is NOT my concern. I want to DRIVE this car. He starts up again. Its like back and forth for about 30 seconds. Me: I don’t want this car anymore. Lets go back.

He then gets out of the car and lets me drive. I like the car. But not more then I like the exact same car next door, in a different color. Now it comes down to two dealerships next door to eachother, same car, equivilent miles, who has the better deal is going to get us really. So my DH goes to one dealership and I go to the other to see the numbers. They make him wait FORTY FIVE MINUTES before bringing him the numbers on the car. They have our car keys from the trade, so he cant even leave.

I had seen the numbers at the other dealership and had eaten an icecream before I walked back to find out nothing had been done at all yet. SO i walked in to the office and said ” Can I have my car keys?” very pointedly.  They give me the car keys, then they get the hint and come out. In the mean time, we had walked outside, found a preying mantis and had taken him over to the bushes. LOL. We were seriously bored. We go inside and they show us the numbers. Do you know they jacked up the price an entire GRAND from last night on the same car and what was on their website, so they could look like they were giving us a “deal”.

We called them out on it. They change it down, but wouldnt give us what we wanted. So my DH says “Can you do X or should we just leave?” and the guy said that he couldn’t, so I stood up and said ok, thanks, bye…and the guy was like, wait a minute, cant we have a conversation? I said, my husband just asked you if you can do that and you said no, so I am leaving. I picked up my keys, took my trade next door, and started working that deal.

In the mean time, the guy comes down to the number we wanted, but I was gone already. My Dh comes over and this new dealership is working out the deal. We hit them with what we wanted, they gave it to us, we bought it. While we are there working out our numbers, the dealership from before calls us THREE TIMES on my husbands work cell. They called once to tell us they could beat the deal we were working, then they called again and we ignored the call, so they called on a DIFFERENT number to trick us into answering, and tell us that they now NEED the car we are trading in.

It was sales tactic, after dirty tactic. I was so pissed. Even my DH was getting mad, and he is the most patient person in the world.

Anyway, this is the car we ended up with, and i love it. We have had our Mazda 626 since Dec 2000 and my wonderful DH has faithfully driven it so we did not have to have two car payments. But now he does so much traveling, I was constantly worried about a car with 97K miles on that is 10 years old.

Isn’t it weird how you feel guilty about trading in a car though? I felt guilty about leaving my old reliable car for a new one, but here we go………..introducing, the new family car:

The July 2008 month-end trend data for distributors and manufacturers of power transmission/motion control (PT/MC) products compiled by the Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) retracted slightly in July 2008.

U.S. distributors’ overall sales of PT/MC products fell 1.1% in July 2008 compared to June 2008. When matched up against sales in the same month last year, sales in July 2008 were up 10.2%. Accounts receivable collection days increased 2.6% since June 2008. The confidence index of U.S. distributors for July dropped 0.2 points to 5.4 on a 10-point scale.

Canadian distributors were the only category reporting a gain in sales in July 2008, posting a 2.0% increase over June 2008. Sales over the same period last year were up 6.4%. Accounts receivable collection days dropped dramatically, by 19.3% compared to June 2008. In July 2008, the confidence level of Canadian distributors was held constant for the sixth consecutive month at 5.7 on a 10-point scale.

U.S. manufacturers’ sales dropped 3.9% in July 2008 when compared to June 2008. Sales in July 2008 climbed 14.4% compared to the same period last year. Orders in July 2008 were down 2.7% over June 2008. The confidence level of U.S. manufacturers rose 0.1 points to 5.4 on a 10-point scale.

Canadian manufacturer’s sales decreased 3.5% in July 2008 compared to June 2008. Sales were down 0.9% when compared to the same period last year. The confidence level of Canadian manufacturers increased 0.1 to 5.0 on a 10-point scale from June to July 2008.

Product-by-product sales between June 2008 and July 2008 reflect the overall decline in sales experienced by U.S. and Canadian manufacturers. Only three of nine product categories for U.S. manufacturers — shaft couplings, variable speed drives and gear products — posted increases in sales. For Canadian manufacturers, four product categories posted double-digit gains — mounted bearings, clutches and brakes, shaft couplings and gear products.