MOISTURE ELIMINATING RAINSCREEN FOR PREMIUMSIDHWALL PROTECTION

Home Slicker " is the ans,wer for protecting wall systems from the damaging effects of moisture. Wind-driven rain from the outside, moisture vapor from the home's interior, and corrosive surFactants that leak from certain rypes of siding, usually remain trapped in beween siding and housewrap. Unvented moisture c:ln cause mold, destroy building paper and housewraps, and can even undermine the structural integrity of the wdl assembly. Home Slicker's unique t-hree-dimensiond nylon matrix providCI a continuou space for dryin& channels for drainage, and a thermal break for temperame and pressure eqrtalizetion, allowing moisnue to escape q"i.kly before it damages the sidewall materials. \7ood, fiber-cement and stucco systems, as well as brick and vinyl, are ideal for use with Home Slicker. '\?ith quick, easy installation, Home Slickerprovides long-term, maintenance-free protection for the home.

ALAN OAKES publisher ajoakes@ aol.com

What have you done for them lately?

Sales are the lifeblood of every company regardless of position in the sales channel. However, some sales and some customers are more important than others. Those are of your key accounts-any account that would hurt your business if you lost it. They may be a large manufacturer, wholesaler, dealer chain, or builder. This does not necessarily mean your largest revenue customers, but your most profitable customers.

As I wrote earlier this year, our industry is undergoing a radical change in customer loyalties. While a great pity, resting on the strength of past relationships may no longer cut it. as some have begun to find out. Whatever titles you put on these types of accounts-key, large, major, national-they need more nurturing than ever befbre. Taking them for granted can be a most expensive folly. One manulac- turer I spoke to recently told me that his company had lost 40Va of their revenue when one of the big boxes dropped them.

Key accounts today mean a complex sales process. It was so much easier in the good old days when one person made a decision on a handshake. Today, without management, planning, and understanding your customer's buying process and aligning it with your own company's sales process! key accounts can eat up resources and never meet true potential. Even your best customers can quickly become unprofitable customers, and unless you have the technology or means to track profitability as opposed to revenue, you may not know it.

My experience of managing sales forces large and small is that sales people often use valuable time running after the wrong accounts for the easy sale. Easy sales are easy for a reason. However, if you identify every current account for its potential (including prospect accounts), and develop action plans to achieve your goals, then you are on the path to higher margin and more profitable business. The key to key account management is aligning your business solutions with your customers' business drivers. Education about your industry, competition, the customers' current business strategy, and market position initiatives (which change almost annually and with every change of management both locally and nationally) is the start to strategically aligning the way your customer does business with the way you do business. Delivering perceived value is what it's all about, as in any business today; there is no free lunch anymore. Each company has to think about how best to maximize its best customers' potential, and with limited resources how best to manage them. ln a tough environment, where your customers change their way of doing business and now expect JITI (Just-In-TimeInventory) instead of holding inventory, then their score may change, and they may have more or less value depending on the way you are able to do business. In other words, your company has to continually evaluate a moving target and decide whether to move with your customer.

There is no easy way or formula to rank each customer, but it starts with reviewing each account in detail. Draw up a list of what is important to your company and develop a ranking system based on your business drivers. Come up with not only a point system, but a weighting system. Review recent business history, both from a relationship and product perspective, review your cost of sales and technical support and a host of intangibles that may be different for each account. Then put a value on the customer/vendor relationship, their strategy and way of doing business and how well that fits with the way you do business. If an account hammers on every price to the point of unprofitability, then they would rank low on that valuation compared to a customer who lets you earn a fair profit, but wants something else in exchange. Totaling points will value each customer and might surprise you. It will hopefully tell you not only strengths and weaknesses, but give you a roadmap on where to spend sales and management time and more importantly where not to.

Do not let key accounts take you for granted. Let them know and remind them what you are doing for them. Do not assume that they recognize what you do for them. Good service often no longer cuts it. At the end of the day, the bottom line fbr managing key accounts is building a relationship of a trusted consultant, solution provider, needs assessor, and performing as expected and better to help them achieve their business soals.

Leaner McCoy's Carves Out Niche

McCoy's Building Supply Centers, San Marcos, Tx., is completing store upgrades begun last October.

Founded in 1923 as a roofing company, McCoy's has found that surviving in the era of the big boxes means carefully defining your place in the marketplace.

McCoy's c.e.o. Brian McCoy says the company is a hybrid, occupying less space than a Home Depot or Lowe's, but more than a traditional lumberyard.

McCoy says his stores don't try to compete with nurseries or stores strong on lawn products. "In the major metropolitan markets, we've lost the occasional buyer, unless we'rejust very convenient," he said. "The regular buyers of building materials, such as d-i-yers and remodeling contractors, we're hanging on to them as hard as we can."

McCoy's operates yards in Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana, and to compete, has had to downsize in recent years. "Our stores weren't as modern," McCoy said. "They were missing the needs of customers. We had to close marginal stores that weren't profitable."

In 1995 there were I l0 stores with $442 million in sales. Last year McCoy's operated 87 stores with sales totaling $452 million.

Another f-eature of McCoy's is the absence of metal pushcarts in the parking lot. Employees load materials directly into customers' vehicles.

Although he f'eels pressure fiom the big boxes, McCoy recognizes his chain's strengths. "There's no doubt our competitors have an advantage on certain products," he said. "But on products we do the most volume on, we buy truckloads and there is no disadvantase."

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ers are offering distributors, dealers, builders and homeowners more product choices. From treated engineered wood and insulated vinyl to better looking product options such as deeper wood grains and richer colors, technology is providing siding with more options than ever.

All siding manufacturers confront the problem of perceived value or curbside appeal, durability and maintenance. Solid wood siding remains at the top of this list for curbside appeal, but its hold on the market is diminishing due to high cost, a reduction in quality and alternative sidings' advancements.

High quality cedar or redwood comes from older, bigger trees, which are increasingly scarce. The younger trees don't have as much of the natural chemicals that impart the decay and termite resistance. Thus, they don't last any longer than other forms of sidins and have a maintenance f2g1e1-