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Rader's Edge: Are You Focused on What Matters?
Today's LBM market faces such tough obstacles as sliding sales, sliding margins, difficulty in controlling expenses, swings in commodity prices, and customer extinction. All need to be confronted and conquered. But before you launch willy-nilly into battle, I recommend you take several steps back and adjust your focus. What you see from that perspective could change what you do when you resume the fight.

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Editor's Notes: Sea Change
PROSALES Magazine (August 12, 2010)

Rader's Edge: Why You Need a Windowman
Every LBM operation ought to have a person responsible for looking outside the office walls
PROSALES Information Service (July 27, 2010)

Rader's Edge: Why Your LBM Operation Needs a Doorman
Chris Rader says there's profit to be made in having someone on staff who greets customers by name
PROSALES Information Service (July 15, 2010)

The Mills Were Far from Evil
The final leg of the OSB price spike was fueled by dealers who were short the OSB market and were squeezed the hardest.
PROSALES Information Service (July 12, 2010)

When Your Ship Comes In, Will You Miss the Boat?
Do some thinking now about how to get the high-margin jobs when the market turns.
PROSALES Information Service (July 09, 2010)

Leaden Talk
Builder, inspector and certifier Todd Russell questions whether trade groups' fight against the EPA's lead rule might be hurting contractors.
PROSALES Information Service (June 29, 2010)

Top 10 Signs Your Business May Be Closing
Don Magruder tells how to avoid being caught unawares when the padlocks get put on the front doors
PROSALES Information Service (June 24, 2010)

Lead Rule Delayed? Not So Fast.
An attorney looks more closely at the EPA's recent lead rule memo and comes away troubled.
PROSALES Information Service (June 22, 2010)

Editor's Notes: Better Never Stops
PROSALES Magazine (June 16, 2010)

Pricing by OSB Mills Is Opportunistic
Greed and sinister pricing techniques have jacked up the price of OSB, making it even tougher for dealers to recover in a tough market, Wally Roderick says.
PROSALES Information Service (June 08, 2010)

6 Guides for Buying CRM Software
Use this checklist to help make sure you get full value on your investment in a customer relationship management system
PROSALES Information Service (May 14, 2010)

Buyer Challenges Forecast That Lumber Prices Will Fall
Allied Building Products exec questions underlying assumptions in timber economist's prediction
PROSALES Information Service (April 29, 2010)

Time for a New Playbook
Veteran LBM manager Don Magruder says the old ways of low-balling prices haven't ever worked. Try his playbook instead.
PROSALES Information Service (April 29, 2010)

Editor's Notes: All About/Not About You
PROSALES Magazine (April 26, 2010)

How To Buy Lumber Today
The lumber market has changed, but that doesn't mean you should change your buying style, Wally Roderick says.
PROSALES Information Service (April 09, 2010)

Rader's Edge: Three Options Equals Three Points
How to boost Profits? Boost customers' choices.
PROSALES Information Service (April 07, 2010)

Eve of Destruction
Capital shortages and the supply chain's slow disintegration make it likely even more dealers will die, Don Magruder believes
PROSALES Information Service (April 01, 2010)

Dispatch: Ground Zero
Consultant Jim Enter believes the best way to build the Perfect LBM Dealer is to think small – really small.
PROSALES Magazine (March 16, 2010)

Editor's Notes: Tool Time
PROSALES Magazine (March 16, 2010)

Rader's Edge: Entertain Your Way To Profits
Take price off the table by getting you and the builder away from a work setting, Chris Rader suggests.
PROSALES Information Service (March 10, 2010)

Can Anyone Get Decking Right?
A vendor of tropical hardwoods argues for more sales of his products
PROSALES Information Service (March 09, 2010)

Why Your Operation Needs the Margin Police
Every facility needs an enforcer who makes sure staffers abide by your yard's rules on pricing margins, Don Magruder says.
PROSALES Information Service (March 09, 2010)

Why Guaranteeing Fixed Prices Is Dumb
Groceries don't promise to hold prices for a year, Don Magruder notes. Why should you?
PROSALES Information Service (February 24, 2010)

Editor's Notes: Wistful Thinking
PROSALES Magazine (February 01, 2010)

Rader's Edge: How a Pink Unicorn Can Help You Profit
Sometimes your best management tips can come from traveling to the mall with a 6-year-old
PROSALES Information Service (January 26, 2010)

Is That Key Worker a Superstar or Tyrant? How To Spot the Difference
LBM finance expert Chris Cook thought he had a star on his team back when he coached a high school basketball team. He quickly learned otherwise. You might be facing the same situation at your lumberyard.
PROSALES Information Service (January 12, 2010)

Rader's Edge: 10 Ways To Win in 2010
Ideas, strategies, and common sense designed to boost profits and enthuse your customers
PROSALES Information Service (January 12, 2010)

Editor's Notes: Any Port in a Storm
PROSALES Magazine (January 11, 2010)

ProSales' Top 10s
Our most-viewed opinion columns, articles, and news stories in 2009
PROSALES Information Service (December 30, 2009)

Low Margin vs. Market Share
Big dealers that try to win over a market through cut-rate pricing don't succeed, Don Magruder says.
PROSALES Information Service (December 21, 2009)

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