Join Ken's Gross Margin Mastery series, starting November 6, 2024!

Decades of applied Leadership in the Home Channel have led me to many core principles that, when present, assure pervasive brilliance in culture and in all aspects of operations. Top independent LBM, Hardware and Building Materials companies will be filled with bold, confident, curious supervisors, managers and executives who spend MOST of their time ensuring their systems and processes are continuously refined. These same leaders will be masterful at Teaching their team members how to succeed within those systems so that customers are deeply served. Such organizations will ALWAYS deliver the very best compensation to their employees, have pristine facilities and equipment, and are willing – even eager – to robustly invest in all such assets BEFORE their capacities to serve those customers get overtaxed and begin to fail. These companies are visionary, proactive, relentlessly optimistic, exuding a cultural tone championship level play each and every day. 

They should. Well led teams filled with highly talented people WILL have top tier performance. It cannot be avoided. It is the natural result of well-developed leaders doing what they are called to do. 

A prime marker of such dynamic organizations will be – without fail – brilliance in Gross Margin performance. Not satisfied with “average” results in any aspect of operations, top tier Home Channel companies truly understand mediocrity will not produce the profits required to fund brilliance in compensation packages and keep all facilities and fleets ahead of operational demand. Moreover, “sell your way to a fabulous bottom line” no longer works as it used to.

In fact, you can easily sell your way to the poor farm if you aren’t darned careful. 

Gross Margin performance WAY ABOVE industry averages is essential to get in the lead and to stay there. I am speaking of a Gross Margin purposely developed through a Strategic Leadership Effort and NOT just accidental from external factors. Brilliance is NEVER accidental. Never.

I have identified 8 elements that MUST be present and pervasive inside a purposely managed Gross Margin that will unfailingly deliver top tier margin results. In fact, when these are applied improved profitability simply cannot be avoided. WHO in their right mind wants to avoid improved profits? 

These 8 Elements of Gross Margin Mastery are fully explored within my Gross Mastery programs presented for individual dealers, in open enrollment workshops and in an On-line Journey. Here is a taste:

• Pricing Integrity is a must. Salespeople making up their pricing every day with their customers erodes Gross Margin every time. Margin Masters establish company wide pricing on all products and write the rules when exceptions to price levels are made. A Selling Price Free for All is NOT a business plan. It is endemic of NO BUSINESS plan and NO real Leadership. There is a better way. 
• Sales Management is KEY to top performance in Gross Margin. Pursuit of prime new customers, penetration into ALL product categories is THE GAME in sales. This GAME must be led and usually does not happen when salespeople are left to their own devices. The majority of independent LBM Owners and Leaders STILL work very hard at “tasks” related to sales, but rarely have a formal, fully formed Sales Management paradigm. Thus, their sales teams are on their own with no leadership unless trouble arises. We are great at solving urgent problems. We are not so good at management for the prevention of problems. Not at all. There is a better way.
• The Special and Custom Order aspect of independent LBM Dealers is typically COMPLETELY unmanaged. What a darned waste this is. Terrible in fact. NO APPLIED LEADERSHIP whatsoever on about half of a dealers’ sale volume. This can change so fast! Properly managed Special and Custom Order Sales delivers increased Gross Margin and bottom-line profits faster than any other Gross Margin Mastery element. There is a proven way to do this. 
• Operational Excellence that mitigates and eliminates Inventory Losses is a clear aspect of any Gross Margin Mastery. From Load Check to proper receiving your Ops Teams must have solid operational guidelines and must be Coached daily into championship level performance. It will not happen by accident I assure you.

While these and other elements of Gross Margin mastery are deeply explored in my workshops and On-line journey, one final principle is poignant:

You must be willing and able to depart from Legacy Practices and Culture to get a better result. Positive Change has never been realized by staying the same.

Therein lies the crux of the matter. Digesting new insights and ideas, then allowing yourself to shift in your Leadership, maybe with my help as your Executive Coach will deliver new results, better results IF you are willing to change your thinking and your habits even by a little bit. 

Sad to say, but seen over and again, MOST Owners and Leaders lack the self-actualization to depart from the “Way we have always done it” without help. Non-exclusive to our industry, this is so of all people. It is a small percentage of the total population that catalyzes positive change without guidance. Getting guidance, insight and coaching from a professional is smart, it is healthy, and it will make THE difference you need. 

Finally, you are going to need the added cash to stay ahead of all the new demands on your Gross Margin. The invitation to new levels of performance has already been extended. Not by me, but by the dynamic shifts in your business and in our society as a whole. Rise to that invitation with victory in mind, drop HOW you are leading your teams now for the sake of NEW ways of leading that deliver stunning results. 

Ken Wilbanks presents Top Level educational workshops to Independent Home Channel Dealers nationwide in the areas of Operations, Talent Recruitment and Development, Operational Excellence, Sales, Merchandising, Marketing and Gross Margin Mastery. Serving for decades as Executive Development Coach and Advisor to top performing companies Ken is a positive change catalyst for you and your organization. 

Ken’s Gross Margin Mastery Workshops unfailingly deliver results fast! Inquire today about a Gross Margin Mastery journey to turn your organization towards unprecedented performance through a principled, proven strategic and tactical initiative. 

There IS a way to improve Gross Margin ON PURPOSE. Begin a conversation with Ken today to map your way forward towards Gross Margin Mastery.

Ken Wilbanks
Advisor Educator Coach
Ken@KenWilbanks.com
(828) 776-6459