Sales Skills

Learn to Sweat the
Keep track of the pennies and the dollars will follow.

Plan Your Week, Execute Your Plan
How to use time management to become a high-performance salesperson.

Beware the Lowball
Are we behaving like a suicidal industry? 

Fundamentals of Receiving
Accurate inventory management is critical to a successful operation. It all begins with successful receiving management. Here’s how to do it right.

Selling Installed: Part I
How do you sell decks installed, and yet not compete with your contractor customers?

Communication Keys
Listening is a critical skill—for business and life. Take this test to see how your listening skills stack up.

Strategic Thinking in a Housing Depression

Selling in a Tough Market
Price, value, and flexibility are key.

Fresh Options for Strange Times
Driving down expenses is a reality for many dealers.

Before You Give Up, Make One More Call

How to Fine-Tune Your Sales and Marketing Efforts
Ranking accounts by category helps define your customer focus.

How to Prep for the Busy Season
Take advantage of slower times to make sure that everything in your store—including your employees— is ready to make the sale.

Company Action Form
When it comes to knowledge, you either use it or lose it. Here are 5 tips to maximize your training investment.

Managers with Skill and Will Can Show a Profit in 2009

Maximize Your Sales
Deck accessories offer terrific margins, and can be even more profitable if you customize your product.

Where is the Light at the End of the Tunnel?

The Lean, Green, Building Machine
While going green does require learning, it also means acting on what you already know.

Now is an Ideal Time to Prospect for New business
Four proven strategies to put to work today.

Looking For The Light
Custom Homebuilders Offer a Bright Spot In a Dim Market.

Remodelers and Credit
A careful credit plan will help you earn the business.

Treat the Water
Involve your employees in the success of your business.

A Personal Marketing Plan for Better Sales
Know the information your customers need.

Pinpoint Responsibility to Raise Productivity
“You expect me to do what…?”

The Origin of Teamwork
Building a standout team starts the day you hire.

Start at the Top
Selling to remodelers requires commitment from the owner and top management.

Teach Your Contractors How to Sell
If their phone keeps ringing during the slowdown, your business benefits, too.

Offense or Defense?
What's your game plan for 2008?

Building Mold-Resistant Bathrooms
Correct installation and customer education can help prevent moisture problems.

Understanding Rigid Flashing
Proper flashing relies on a few simple rules.

Finding Diamonds in the Rough
Even small-time remodelers can be nurtured into a growth spot for your business.

Selecting Vendors
Good product is always key-but a good vendor relationship is critical, too.

When Worms are Scarce, Chickens Don't Quit Scratching
A soft market is the ideal time to ramp up your marketing.

Build Profits from Replacement Windows
This lucrative niche offers opportunity.

Hold On To Great Employees
Tips to help you keep the best and brightest in your company.

It’s About Time
Business is booming and your top salespeople are out prospecting more than ever. What are your underperformers doing?

Will Think for Food
Make your meetings count with good planning, careful execution—and plenty of good food.

The Avis Approach
Sometimes being number two yields its own winning strategy.

Categorize Your Customers
Not all customers are created equal. Are you matching your level of service to their value to you?

Prepared to Compete
If a savvy competitor were to invade your domain, would you be ready?

Personal Best
The way to beat the boxes is one customer at a time.

8 Tips for Boosting Referrals
So the housing industry has slumped. It’s time to exalt and amplify your sales techniques.

Your Vendor Service Partner
Good communication is the first step in improving your vendors’ service to you.

Mission Possible
Dust off that mission statement so that you and your team know where you’re going.

Safety Saves Money
If you don’t have a training program, start one. You’ll decrease workman’s compensation claims, save money on downtime and increase the productivity of your work force.

Don’t Kid Yourself About Your Business
Beware of copouts that stifle profits.

Crash Course
What’s in a word? Could be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Selling Smarter: Millwork
Waterproof Windows and Doors

Make a List, Check it Twice
To head off potential problems in a softening market, review your customers’ needs—and make sure you’re fulfilling them.

Cash (Flow) is King
It’s time for owners to say, “Show me the money.”

Plan a Successful Sale
If you sell decks on an installed basis, here are some tips to close the sale.

How to Respond to a Lost Customer
Losing a customer hurts, but careful courting and patience may bring him back into the fold. 

Closing the Deck Sale
Educate your customer in order to make the sale on the spot. 

Turnaround Artists
The downturn is real—and no amount of positive spin will change that.

The Next Level
Make your sales results match your sales ability with these simple tricks. 

How to Work a Home Show
Prepare, execute, and follow-up afterwards to turn a home show into a sales-lead bonanza.

Turn “Losers” into Winners
For successful salespeople, there’s no passing the buck.

How to Sell Deck Accessories
Selling the basic project is only the first step in the sales cycle. Successfully upselling decorative accessories is a case of “show and tell.”

The Bottom Line
How top performers take market share in a downturn.

Selling Smart to Deck Builders
Teach an old dog a new trick, and he’ll be loyal for life.

Fight Price Pressure– from the Sales Staff
Price is usually a bigger issue to salespeople than it is to builders.

Conquering Crown Moulding
There’s a lot more to selling mouldings than just lineal footage.

The Power of the Showroom
Want to sell more deck materials? Devote space to dynamic displays.

Leaving Money on the Table
Are your special-order sales doing all they can for your bottom line?

Old Lessons
Why some dealers are thriving in the downturn.

Do Your People Cost Too Much?
Operating expenses should be tied to gross profit—and a downturn is the time to examine that relationship.

Proactive Leadership Training
Managers need to learn the ropes from the pros.

Smackdown
As megabuilders tried to shake nickels and dimes out of the channel, independent production builders focused on real efficiencies.

Buy Low, Sell High
Turbulent times offer an opportunity to dig deep—and capture market share and new customers.

Your Nose is You...the Wall is Your Business
Step back from the day-to-day to examine your work habits. 

Selling Decks in 2008
Several trends bear watching as we enter a new year. 

Irrational Agony
“Deep, dark depression, excessive misery…If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all." 

Preparing for 2008
Face this pivotal year with well-planned goals and a central strategy.

Did You Plan to Make a Profit in 2008?
If you haven't adjusted for the market, it's not too late.

More Top Tools: 2008
The Festool Domino is a tool that makes job site work faster, cleaner, and more efficient.  

Bob Buck & Dave Klun On Selling to Remodelers
A new column that helps you make the most of these important customers.

Make a sku for Education
Customer education is a product that every yard should stock-and sell.

Conquering Credit Management
Learn the solutions to these four recurring problems.

Business Principles for Lumber Pricing
Determine your price, and then sell quality. 

How to Sell to Remodelers
Tap this lucrative category by understanding the challenges they face. 

How to Sell to Architects and Design/Builders
Hungry for a slice of the design/build pie? Need some practical ideas on how to go about it? Read on for some seriously useful information.

How to Sell Windows & Doors
An Open-and-Shut Case for Profitability.

Show Me the Money
Want to earn undying loyalty? Cut to the chase and give builders what they really want: a bigger bottom line.

How to Sell to Remodelers
The numbers are staggering: Last year, remodelers did $182 billion in business, up five percent from the previous record-setting year, and counting.

Callback Cures
How to diagnose, repair-and prevent-the most common construction defects

The ABCs of Engineered Floor Framing

How to Read The Flinch
...and other tools to give you the last word on price.

How to Sell to Remodelers
Remodeling Is A $280 Billion Business. Are You Getting Your Share?

Sell the Right Fasteners
Make sure your staff stays up-to-date on the new materials and techniques exploding into the market.

Building by the Numbers
For builders and material dealers, real profit always comes from proper preparation and improvement.

How To Sell To Big Builders
Production builders could greatly boost your volume. Do you have what it takes to help them help you?

How to Sell to Custom Homebuilders
Learn what custom builders want most from their dealers—after they’ve nailed down the best price.

Peak Performers
An Exclusive LBM Journal Report: The Results of our latest research into outside sales compensation.