a,

have as many as 20,0m SKU's priced. There is no pricing structure change to any one product item that can begin to come close to effecting profit as much as a delivery policy sfucture change can make.

If your competiton are charging for "small deliveries" and you don't know it and don't do it also, you ar€ missing a golden profit opportunity. If you make 100 deliveries a month and 4O9o are small (under $30) and youcan recover$25 a day fordelivery, that is $6,375 per year from a five day week for 52 weeks. Ask yourself, how much do I have to sell to make $6,375 in pre-til( profit?

(9) h you know, or have records, to show where you made deliveries to your best customers, and in what amount?

Seldom does anyone answer this question with anything but a "No." Everyone knows who their big ctrstomers are, but how big and how much it costs to serve them is unknown.

Most of us wi[ agree that some customers take ddivery of a whole house in three or four deliveries, and other customers require 40 ddiveries for the same house. Some cltstomers are within a few miles of the @mpany and others arc many miles away. ln total, about Nlo of your "ddivery customers" will buy 8090 of your de livered sales.

Ifuowing where and how much is critical decision making information in the management of profitabh de livered sales. If not managed, the cost of delivery to anyone of the "top Z)" ould devastate profits.

(10) Does your company have a pub lished delivery policy that yor employees follow to insure that your customers are servioed in an effective and understood mcrhod?

No, no, no! What good would a policy do when we've got to malce the ddivery, policy, or no policy? This prwalent ansver is the reason why the indu*ry is plagued with under utilizd equipment and overtime. A lack of defined ddivery param€ters generates "reactionitis" aad high 6pst.

Simply $atod, a delivery policy tells your custom€rs how long after they place an order they can €xpoct to receive it. It tdls your people how long they have to €nter, pro6s and $age, preload and deliver the order. Your customer can plan and your p€ople can plan.

(214)

843-5538

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It does not diminate spocial handling or exoepions, it jus makcs the "yard job" 35 inches of routine and I inch of spocial handling. Shouldn't you measrre up?

As many will have perceived, the tlryical answer to the l0 questions in the Delivery Practices Questionnaire was "No." The thre participants in the NLBMDA study had "No" answers for all the questions. They were alike in other ways as wdl. They eactr were: family owned corporations; buying group members; oonsum€rcontractor oriented; NLBMDA members; consistently profitable.

The results of the study among the three companies, ainong other things, identified savings per company that averaged over $90,000 ayear. Each of the yards were in a different volume classification. One has total sales under $2,000,000 annually, a second has sales between $2,000,000 and $5,000,000 annually and the third operation has sales of over $5,000,000 annually.

If you answered mostly "No," fall into one of the volume classifications and are like the participants in the frve listed ways, chances are very good that a copy of the manual Management Surveys the Blqck Hole of Delivery tw.:dl be of substantive help to your profits. It is published by the NLBMDA and available through them, or the

The issue is not whether to buy or not to buy the manual, but whether or not the delivery practices of your company identify it as one which could substantially benefit from improved delivery management and performance. Even if the NLBMDA studies are only half applicable to your operation, $45,000 to $50,000 in net profit a year should generate introspection from even the proudest operation.

Telephones

(Continued from page 9) video and telephone programs," Giovingo said.

Due to the ever-increasing demand for d-i-y parts in these two product categories, manufacturers are constantly turning out new items and updating their lines. Backed by a supplier who can offer product availability and a merchandising system that helps consumers understand telephone and video installation, building supply and d-i-y retail outlets can tap these fast-growing markets for attractive sales and profits.

One manufacturer that has aggressively responded to these challenges is GC Electronics, Rockford, Il., a division of Household International.

They offer a complete line of plugs, jacks, adaptors, cords and wire for basic telephone projects. Their line also includes special accessories to increase the options available to the consumer.

GC's video accessories line includes over 100 items for do-it-yourself installation and maintenance: switches, plugs, cables, separators, kits, etc. With all these products available for a professionalquality job, the doit-yourselfer wants to know exactly which products are needed and just how to proceed. To answer that need, GC has compiled literature for telephone and video do-it-yourself projects. Used in conjunction with merchandising display programs, this provides instant help to all the do-it-yourselfers.

Retailers who decide to take a crack at this new electronic market will find ready customers and suppliers prepared to back them up with extensive merchandise and ways to make purchases easy for both the buyer and seller.