LP Gas, March 2014

COLUMNIST VINNY MULLINEAUX Taking action Winters end is only the beginning for marketers implementing change W illiam Shakespeare once wrote Now is the winter of our discontent I for one couldnt blame you should you feel similarly about this particular season Weve had our challenges as an industry and most likely those challenges have extended to your operation directly over the past five months The big question is What now Not necessarily as an industry although thats very relevant but in your universe Fleets often gather annually in the second half of March regardless of the weather to discuss and review the past five months This review is a brutal selfassessment of what went right what went wrong and everything in between It would be naïve to think in operations such as these that the hot topics havent already been discussed so there are very few if any surprises Thats good because identifying the problem s is only part of the answer Why do fleets do this Because they realize in this marketplace there really is no offseason and in order to implement change a running start is much better than none at all Sir Isaac Newtons first of three laws of motion definitely applies here Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it Another cogent reason is that the frustrations of the season are fresh in peoples mind Given enough time weve all fallen victim to the perception that something wasnt as bad as it was in the moment Its easy to dismiss the status quo as not so bad when the alternative is change Unfortunately like so many other things in life if youre not getting better youre getting worse Especially in this marketplace where your competitors are very likely looking for every advantage they can get Having been in this industry for 13 years its hard not to notice a few patterns develop Trust me I get it For many of you whove just fought the Urgency vs Geography battle at ground level for the past six months the idea of reviewing and perhaps taking action is not something you look forward to However I can assure you from my time in this industry that the most successful deployments are the ones that have plenty of time to breathe By that I mean the ability to implement change without the additional stress of next season looming large It allows for your employees and your vendor to do their best work We all know change can be stressful But the traditional timeline of waiting to come up for air in mid to late April go to a few trade shows and ultimately decide a path in June doesnt leave much room for error The notion of continuing strategic conversations year round with vendors is real and progressive fleets arent cloistering themselves from November to April anymore The other very real consideration is that the vendors you select need to allocate the proper resources to their new deployments Every year one of our biggest challenges is working with our sales team in forecasting when prospects are likely to partner with us Every vendors goal is to make every deployment as smooth as possible Decisions made in March April and May make life easier on all parties This in turn not only greatly increases the chances of your projects success but also greatly diminishes the stress of everyone involved I will quote Shakespeare once more when he wrote I wasted time and now doth time wasted me I believe I speak for all of the quality vendors who support our terrific industry in encouraging you to head into this offseason with a plan and hit the ground running to implement that plan It may take a tad more effort on the front end but it will reap enormous rewards down the road Wishing you all a safe exit from this quite extraordinary winter LPG Vinny Mullineaux is the CEO of Vertrax a provider of back office and mobile technology He can be reached at vmull@ vertrax com or 203 952 7666 Every vendors goal is to make every deployment as smooth as possible 82 LPGas March 2014 www LPGasmagazine com