Sales & Operations

Owners and managers who work day-in and day-out in their own businesses are almost always guilty of breathing too much of their own exhaust.

The most popular tactic salespeople use to get their foot in the door of a prospective account is to flash a few prices or to offer to do a detailed take off.

Better management of just about anything begins with doing a better job of measuring, so you will not be guessing the size of the problem.

There’s one thing that employees value— especially younger managers and salespeople—and that is education.

Believing in yourself and having confidence that you are in control of the direction of your sales call has a way of removing the butterflies from your stomach.

Negotiating is a skill. Some customers are experts at persuading salespeople to reduce the price they are authorized to quote.

Most of us who landed our first LBM sales job began quoting prospects and contractors who had been assigned to us long before we had any idea how they might respond to what we had to offer.

Ask the outside salespeople in the LBM industry what they think about their company’s sales meetings and nine out of 10 of them will tell you they are a waste of time.

What can the failure to properly train a salesperson cost your company? Unfortunately, this is a number that is extremely difficult to precisely determine, but based on my experience, it is substantial.

Regardless of the crisis your business may be suffering, nothing will have a more adverse effect on your company’s gross margin than failing to prepare your people to deal with the price objection.