Tom’s Tips – How Ready Are You To Make A Sale?

As I visit with flooring dealers around the country, I often hear the lament “Our business isn’t what it used to be.” Often, this statement is made in reference to sales volume. I often wonder, however, if this statement isn’t telling of a deeper problem that many existing businesses face: they simply aren’t functioning internally…

One of the common mistakes that managers make is assuming that their staff members know more than they actually do. Never presume since “we covered that during orientation” or “it’s in the employee handbook” that any given message was fully understood and absorbed by your personnel. The tendency is to barrage new staff with information…

All companies have trade secrets. It may be a list of customers, the best installers, future opportunities, warehousing techniques or similar information. To protect this important information, it must be kept confidential and limit access to those that need to know. A new federal law, Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”), now allows parties to bring…

A frequent sore spot between sales staff and sales management is caused by management’s desire for higher gross profits, and the sales rep’s wish for the ability to reduce prices to meet the competition. Basically, many employees think that owners are making a fortune, and that they have many perks that others in the company…

Many flooring dealers that I visit with state that “advertising just doesn’t seem to work very well for us. We run ads occasionally, but usually don’t see immediate results.” In most cases, the problem that I see is not the message itself, but rather the messenger. They forget that the products that we are offering…

One thing that I’ve learned over time is that it’s important to take a minute and celebrate a win before you move on to the next item on your to-do list. I was reminded of this point recently when reading an article on NASCAR’s Hendricks Racing Team. For those who may not know, this is…