Randy Ziegenhorn owns and manages an Illinois wholesale seed business. Prior to purchasing Business Insight, he was quite skeptical, stating "I have a lot of 'unused' software lying around on my shelf. I don't need another one!" After using Business Insight, Mr. Ziegenhorn says, "This should be a required piece of software for any small business owner. This is definitely not one of those 'shelf' software products. The only negative I have found is that now I'm spending all my time correcting the weaknesses that Business Insight has pointed out!"
Later Mr. Ziegenhorn was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, resulting in an article, written by William M. Bulkeley. The following are some excerpts from the article.
Can a floppy diskette make up for two years at Stanford Business School? Probably not. But some business people say they have found wisdom in software.
"I'm trying not to sound too effusive, but this software is really different. Any small-business person could gain insights from it." says Randy Ziegenhorn, a New Boston, Illinois wholesale seed dealer who uses the $795 program called Business Insight made by Business Resource Software, Inc., Austin, Texas. He credits the program for leading him to better marketing strategies. As a result, he says he sold more oat seeds in March than he had in the previous two years.
Mr. Ziegenhorn says that neither his college degree in English literature nor his career as a farmer " lends itself to strategic business thinking." But, when he answered the program's questions about his business, the program asked whether he could tailor his marketing efforts to particular customers rather than treating them all the same. "I said, 'Yes, there's a lot of difference'" among retailers, the store chains and the co-ops that buy oat seeds. Then he crafted the techniques that led to the sales gains.