HOME GENTER MERGHANT

SETTING: Office of the sales promotion manager of a regional home center chain. The two characters have never met. The salesman has waited 25 minutes beyond the scheduled appointment time. He enters. The man beyond the impressive-looking desk is speaking on the phone. The man motions to the chair. The salesman sits. The man is on the phone another five minutes.

The Man: (Hanging up) "Sony to keep you waiting, the manager's meeting ran a half hour over and I've had to put out some fires at the newspaper."

SaLesman: "I understand mav I call vou Bill?"

Bill: "Please do."

Salesman: "There sure is a lot of activity here."

Bill: "Yeh, we keep busy. Now explain to me again what you told me on the phone. What are you trying to sell me?"

We will prepare a full-color mailing piece offering your customers a brand name paint sprayer for its regular price, $49.95. Your customer just mails back the order form with his charge payment. The $49.95 gets charged to his account."

Bill: "Then?"

Salesman: "You send us the order and we drop ship the paint sprayer right to his home."

Bill: "O.K., now who gets what?"

Salesman: "There's 40Vo profit at $49.95. We take our expenses off the top for the sprayer, the production of the full-color statement stuffer, the handling, packaging, and shipping. Once our costs are covered we split the profits 50/50."

...Silence...

Salesman: "Here is a list of retailers we've worked with before. Ask them for a recommendation and remember you're not inserting anything with your statements now and you've nothing to lose and lots to gain. We've got a strong track record."

More silence

Bill: "Nope, it sounds like a good idea, but who needs you?"

"We have paint sprayers, and I can have my ad people prepare a mailing piece. And somehow we'll get the orders processed and shipped. There's nothing that you can do that we canl do."

Salesman: "You're right. There is nothing that we do that you can't do. Except! We'll do it. You will always find 101 other priorities that prevent you from completing the program."

That scene took place many years ago. I was the Bill. The salesman was right. One year later I had him on the phone and gave him the go ahead. We ran a very successful and profitable statement stuffer.

Today, I find myself taking on opposite roles. In my work as a consultant, there are programs I recommend to retailers that are historically successful and profitable. They should be implemented by my office or other outside service companies. But, too often the retailer reacts just the way I did many years ago. And too often the program never gets started. Sometimes it takes an experienced executive a while to recognize that the availability of talent on board is no guarantee that a project will ever get started or finished.

Any program stands a better chance to succeed when the ones responsible receive no benefit until it's completed.