1O U."keting Mistakes

(Conrinued.futm page 54 ) your business. For example, if you sell someone a cosmetic product on television, a back-end revenue would be to sign thcm up for a continuity program where you send them more of the product on a regular schedule and charge their credit card automatically. This type of program allows you to bring in additional revenue and maintain your customer relationships.

Mistake 1O - Not upselling the customer

Up-selling means taking advantage of the sales opportunity and incremental revenue by adding additional or related products to a customer's purchase. For example, adding fries to an order at a fast food restaurant or adding additional features, such as a sunroof on a car sale, are up-sells.

Marketing is critical to the success of every business. Unfortunately, many businesses discount the effect it can have, and they forego their marketing efforts for other activities. Or they make one or more of these mis- takes, and their marketing efforts become ineffective. Perhaps this is why nine out of l0 businesses end in failure.

But your business doesn't have to be one of the nine that doesn't succeed. When you avoid the ten biggest mistakes, you can market your business successfully and increase your bottom line as a result.

- Peter Koeppel is founder and president of Koeppel Direct, a leader in direct re.\ponse media buying, marketing, c.ampaign management, and creative strategies. For more information, visit www.koeppeldirect.com or call (972) 7326t10.

Leaders With "P.O.W.E.R."

(Continued from page 60) can identify it when they encounter it. So perhaps it's time to ask yourself: "Why" do I want to be a leader? "Who" are my coaches and mentors? "What" are my goals and objectives? "When" will I take the first steps'/ "Where" will I be in three years, in five years? "How" will I measure my effectiveness?

There are plenty of big jobs awair ing men and women who have the power to turn challenges into opportunities for success. If you want to be counted among them:

Make a habit of reading books and attending workshops on leadership and communication development.

' List the qualities of leadership that are important to you and make an effort to embody them.

Ask leaders you know and respect to spend time with you and help you navigate through the waters of greater responsibil ity.

Do the same for others.

And finally, ask yourself every day, "Do I do what good leaders do?" When your answer is "yes" on a regular basis, you will find yourself on the way to more exciting leadership roles and greater personal power.

- Jame:; Dawym i.t u munaging, purtner oJ ADI Performance, which develops and delivers progroms to improve business practit'es and organiz.ational t:ost efficiencies. He can be reached at (770) 640-0840.

Treaters Give Posts The Boot

Looking for value-added opportunities beyond the basic wooden post, pressure treaters, wholesalers and dealers have begun offering posts with their in-ground "rot zones" sealed in polyethylene.

This month Conrad Forest Products, Arbuckle, Ca., is installing the equipment to apply PostSaver polyethylene boots, is already taking orders, and should begin production by May l.

"The whole idea is not to replace pressure treated wood, but for a value add-on," explains Conrad's Don Bratcher. "We're looking at doubling or even tripling the in-service life of posts against rot and decay."

The system consists of a specially formulated polyethylene boot lined with an inner layer of a meltable bituminous sealant that protects the lumber across a wide range of operating temperatures and moisture contents over a long period of time.

PostSaver can be applied to treated wood or durable untreated species such as cedar and redwood.

The boot provides a double-barrier system to protect the post from the elements that cause decay and premature post failure. This requires that only the vulnerable, in-ground area of the post be "shrinkwrapped" with the boot. The heat-shrinking process liquefies the bitumen and drives it into the wood. This provides a secondary moisture-resistant layer while the polyethylene outer layer provides a tough physical barrier.

Bratcher doesn't blame pressure treated wood for its sometimes shorter lifespan. He says that with rot on treated wood, "95Vo of the time the post was installed improperly. PostSaver eliminates that."

Hal Bumby, Maine Wood Treaters, Mechanic Falls, Me., agrees: "I look at [PostSaver] as a treatment-you don't have a preservative. As a wood treater, my purpose is to increase the durability of wood using an exterior application. Whether it's ACQ or PostSaver. I don't have a conflict."

Environmental advantages are a major consideration for Bumby, whose territory includes a number of organic gardeners fearful of chemically treated wood.

"The pressure treated wood industry has and is losing market share to composites and alternative productsmaybe for the wrong reason," notes PostSaver's John Makuvek. "Lumber is a renewable resource. Lumber makes better sense. Here's a chance for the lumber industry to regain lost ground."

In doing so, the entire distribution chain can profit. Bumby estimates the new process "adds from 257o to 30Vo to the cost of wood, similar to pressure treating."

Adds Bratcher, "There are margin opportunities for the dealer. If a guy's working on a 207o mark-up, like they say , 20Vo of $ 1 0 is better than 2O7o of $6." Still, it's not a large enough difference to scare off the buyer. "From a consumer standpoint," he continues, "if they're replacing 100 feet of fence, it would add maybe $60 or $70 to the total cost-for a fence they'll probably never have to replace."

"The post and pole industry is a commodity-oriented business and adding value is a real challenge," Makuvek says. "Compare a dealer's sell prices to purchase prices of posts.

Dealers sell truckloads of posts, but the big profit comes from the accessories such as fasteners, non-structural composites, stain, etc. The PostSaver boot provides the dealer with a value added product to offer. It gives them the opportunity to sell a'long-life post system.' The end user's perception of the product is extremely high, and we see easy upsells every day."

EMAND A HIGHER LEVEL OF LUMBER'" GET A HIGHER LEVEL OF PROFIT.

demand a higher level of lumber'". www.canfor.com

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