Tammi's World

Easy Off

Things have been a bit crazy at work the last bit. Oh, not being on the road it's not EXHAUSTING, just crazy.

Between end of the year and moving our entire operation, well, there's just a hell of a lot to do.

The moving part is actually great. I'm getting a chance to clear out everything in my space that just doens't matter anymore. Personally speaking, after 3 years I really don't care what was pitched to a customer. Especially if they didn't buy anything. So I'm shredding like a crazy woman. It's a great stress reliever.

Getting my Reps to understand that there just isn't much that can happen next month has become a challenge. I swear to Pete I feel like the teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoons. WaWaWaWaWa. Oh well. I've emailed and called and told them over and over again. If they don't pay attention there is nothing I can do.

End of the year is a whole 'nother story. First we have to set our sales goals, or budgets as it were. A real challenge for me, as it's my first year and I'm not real experienced in this market. And, me being Tammi, I don't just look at top line numbers I inisist on looking at the bottom line. Profitability.

You see, I have this thing about my accounts actually being profitable. Silly, I know, but there you have it. And it's a bigger challenge than you would think.

Seems my accounts on the west coast are all losers. Serious losers. Oh, they are priced to show gross profits, but when you scroll down to that very bottom line, we're losing money. I really have an issue with that.

So, my task is to figure out how to NOT raise prices but still make money. Oh, and I can't cut commissions. Not all that easy.

So I tore everything apart. And realized what the problem was/is. Freight. We are losing our ass shipping product to this customer. And we have for years.

I figured that was pretty obvious, especially if I discovered it that quickly. Guess what? No one realized this was the problem. Something that easy, but that huge and no one saw.

So, I'm putting together a plan to reduce freight costs, reduce our processes costs and I may end up being able to offer the customer a lower price and we'll STILL turn a profit for the first time with these guys.

Yeah, I'm feeling pretty damned good about that. THAT makes for a very good day. Of course it's not like seeing something like THIS on the internet after a hard day, but I'll take it.

But I'm still just so surprised it was that easy.

Posted by Tammi at November 29, 2006 07:03 AM | TrackBack