Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112and requires a lot of work to correct the situation. There may be some opportunity on the pricing side with these accounts. However, most of the effort must be devoted to the issue of the cost to serve. This inevitably gets back to the reality of too many small orders, too many emer- gency orders and too many returns. The key is to get customers to plan ahead and ultimately place fewer orders. Alas, customers place the number of orders they want to place. Time and effort must be spent to educate custom- ers about the cost savings on their side of the profitability equation if they were to order less frequently. It requires both an analytical effort and a sales effort.The profit impact, though, justifies the effort. Moving Forward A lot of firms are aware that some cus- tomers are unprofitable to them. What is needed is a more precise analysis of the nature of the challenge. Once the analysis is conducted that analysis must lead to action. Dr. Albert D. Bates is founder and president of Profit Planning Group. His recent book, Breaking Down the Profit Barriers in Distribution is the basis for this report. It is a book every manager and key operating employee should read. It is available in trade-paper format from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. ©2015 Profit Planning Group. CTDA has unlimited duplication rights for this manuscript. Further, members may duplicate this report for their internal use in any way desired. Duplication by any other organization in any manner is strictly prohibited. BUSINESS TIP –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– CTDA is always looking for ways to improve the benefits of membership. CTDA offers many benefits to members including: • Education via a variety of pro- grams that focus on training new employees, educating cus- tomers on tile shade variation, webinars on industry issues and more. • Connecting with the industry through annual events like Total Solutions Plus and Coverings, and networking opportuni- ties through CTDA committee involvement. • National exposure for products and services for distributors, manufacturers and allied mem- bers. • Controlling costs through dis- counts on a wide range of ser- vices from shipping to collec- tion services, telephone charg- es, auto rentals and more. • Staying informed on association and industry news and issues through a variety of commu- nication vehicles and social media outreach. • Managing opportunity through “snapshots” of the association and industry gleaned through regular surveys of vital business activities. For more information, contact CTDA at info@ctdahome.org or by call 630-545-9415. 30 TileLetter | July 2016