In the world of sales, there are often no right answers. What would you do in this tough sales situation? Make the call below, and see instantly how your judgment compares. Final results will appear in LBM Journal. Be sure to check back next month for a fresh Tough Call.

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Tough Call - Inertia and the Sacred Cow

Do enough of the right things every single day, and you will be successful.” That’s just one of the nuggets of wisdom that your dad repeated ad nauseum when you helped out in the family hardware store as a kid. It just happens to be one of the nuggets of wisdom that you find yourself repeating in your professional life. Now in your mid- 40s, you’ve established something of a reputation as a turnaround specialist for lumberyards. In fact, your current job as general manager of Inertia Lumber, a respected three-location chain is a direct result of the turnaround you engineered at a small yard in another market.

You’ll never forget the interview with Bob Inertia, Jr., the president: “Boy, we’ve seen how you took a failing yard and make it into a profitable market leader. With the economy down, we need someone with fresh ideas to come in here and breathe some new life into our company.” You’d studied the company, and were confident that you could boost their sales and margins— provided you were given the freedom to make serious changes. Bob didn’t flinch: “If you can repeat some of the magic you’ve done at other yards, you’ll have free rein to make it happen here.”

There’s nothing magic about running a business successfully. As your dad said, it requires doing enough of the right things every day. So you started with the fundamentals. Following the advice of Tom Fife in your favorite trade journal, you put new systems in place for receiving, inventory management, pickups from jobsites and delivery scheduling, as well as back office operations (accounting, HR, etc.). Next, you looked at your budgets, and were surprised to learn that there was no money set aside for sales training, but there was a line item for golf tournaments. In your mind, this was a no-brainer, so you eliminated the golf budget, and moved that $2,000 into your newly created training budget.

When Bob Inertia called you into his office, you learned that “golf” is another word for “sacred cow.” “I know I told you to change things, but our builders look forward to our annual golf tournament. And on the golf course is where business gets done. And we’ve got the best salespeople in the state. They don’t need more training—they need time with customers on the golf course. Besides,” he said, “we sent two guys to a seminar a few years ago and it cost more than $2,000 for travel, hotel, meals and registration. This is not negotiable. Now go grow our sales.”

You enjoy a day on the golf course as much as the next guy, but from a business standpoint, you’d trade that for a welltrained sales force in a heartbeat. And thanks to distance learning via the Internet, you know that you can provide training for the entire staff for less than $1,000. The other $1,000 you planned to spend hosting a lunch-n-learn for local remodelers, working with the local NARI chapter. You’re confident that your plan will help push Inertia Lumber forward, but there’s a sacred cow blocking your path.

What would you do?

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