How to double your decking business in 12 months

AN sEHaI-r'on the North American \-fDeck and Rail Association, I recently presented a talk to a large group of independent lumberyards on how to double their decking business in 12 months. I used four case studies to illustrate the diverse thinking and actions that defined winning strategies in four very different dealer scenarios. Each one had seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Dealer I had a good location, but it was on a busy road and was hard to physically access. Exterior signage and displays are not permitted. The sales team was initially not focused on the category, and the store was not consumer friendly. Merchandising was uncoordinated, displays were not updated, and it seemed to be the repository of every deck and rail display in existence.

Dealer 2 shares a physical Parking lot with the nation's largest big box retailer of building materials. If that wasn't enough, both stores sold many of the same decking and railing products, and the big box had lower prices on several of those core products.

Dealer 3 was a small stand-alone decking retailer. It was visible from the interstate, but was a destination location and far off the actual access road. The store was surrounded by larger, stronger, multi-yard companies that invested heavily in advertising and had sales teams that were pretty good at selling decking.

Dealer 4 was located 20 miles outside the key population center. It had a remote location on a back road, with a small interior space and limited yard area.

In spite of the challenges, each dealer achieved success that dwarfed the topic of doubling their decking business. What did they do? How did they beat the odds? What were their strategies and tactics? Did they incur significant incremental costs? What synergies did they enjoy? What relationships did they leverage? And-the real question from the room-were their successes reproducible so other dealers could do the same?

In reviewing the success of the case studies-each so different from the other, the first and the third examples were the result of developing and executing well-formed plans. The success of the other two companies was the outcome of an evolutionary process, a modicum of luck, and a lot of hard work. At first glance, the onlY common thread was the category in which they competed and that they enjoyed enviable success. But, the different sir uations, the dissimilar circumstances, and the varied approaches did have common themes, and because of that they can be replicated.

Using the framework of the Consumer Relevancy Model explored in The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everything (Crawford and Mathews),

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the diverse paths to success in their dissimilar circumstances could be clearly seen, along with the patterns and competitive advantages upon which each built their successes. The Consumer Relevancy Model states that every commercial transaction has five defining attributes: price, access, product, experience and service.

The book refutes a widely held belief that great companies are or should try to be great at everything. The research exposes that greatness in all five attributes is confusing, illogical and unprofitable. The sweet spot of great companies, regardless of the industry, is that they dominate in one attribute, differentiate in a second attribute, and target industry par asthe goal of the other three. The Consumer Relevancy Model explains how subtle but defining differences in strategy between similar companies (e.g., Walmart and Target) result in unquestioned brand superiority within what seems like the same space.

None of the four case study companies were great at everything, but they did each dominate in one attribute, differentiate in a second, and were at industry par with the other three. Most importantly, each company stood for something. They knew what that was and they conveyed consistent messaging to internal and external customers. Their successes, whether the result of a carefully crafted plan or the outcome of evolutionary effort, clearly fit into the Consumer Relevancy Model.

Let's dig a bit deeper into the dealer that shares a physical parking lot with the large national retailer of building materials and what that dealer did to enjoy unprecedented success. If we were to summarize the strategy that resulted in success, in light ofThe Consumer Relevancy Model, it might look like this:

Dominate - Access Differentiate - Product Industry Par - Experience, Price, Service

The dealer dominates in access, differentiates in product, and operates at industry par in experience, price and service.

Access. Instead of thinking of the big box as stealing traffic, they viewed it as raining potential customers upon them. If the customer who traveled to the common parking lot could be enticed to visit them after leaving the big box, they would be leveraging a high volume of traffic that they could never afford to buy themselves. To do this, the dealer positioned a large, highly visible sign on the side of their building facing the competitor. It read, "The Deck and Railing Experts." The tactic is similar to the cartoon where a mega hardware store moves in next to the mom-and-pop store. The mega store sports a really huge "Sale" sign on its facade, so the mom-and-pop store places a large red arrow and, alongside it, the word "Entrance" above their door. The strategy worked well and traffic was strong.

Product. Both retailers stocked identical product lines. How did that provide an opportunity to differentiate? Rather than see this as an insurmountable obstacle, they saw this as a competitive opportunity.

Despite carrying the same product, the big box retailer was limited, competitively, in several ways. First, because of space, the big box could only offer one color in stock. Second, and importantly, because of aisle size and the fact that everything had to fit inside the store, it could only inventory decking in 8', l2', and 16' lengrhs. The big box did have a competitive price on the one color it had in stock. The 8' and 12' decking were loss leaders, which created an illusion of ultralow pricing. If you looked beyond the loss leaders you would find that the 16' decking in-stock was about the same in both stores, while the special order 20' decking, fascia, riser and railing materials were a lot higherpriced. The independent retailer also stocked two other colors that the big box had to special order and charge more for.

Experience. The dealer, with help from its suppliers, built attractive outdoor displays on an unusable sloped hill. Each display was well-appointed with railing, lighting and signage. They were attractively designed and inviting with furniture and fire pits. Consumers didn't have to imagine what products would look like, they could see completed projects.

Price. They chose to not compete on a per lineal foot basis, which would force them to explain the competitor's loss leader strategy. The dealer conveyed their pricing on a per square foot basis, using a 20'-by-20'deck as their model. They showed both stores' material lists and retail pricing, side by side. This merchandising of pricing positioned the independent as competitive to lower on decks that used 20' decking and did not use 8' decking.

Service. The independent retailer's sales staff was well trained on deck products and deck design. They invested with manufacturers in semiannual training events for staff and builders. Local building inspectors were invited to teach code basics, permitting process, etc., to the sales team. They were equipped to demystify the process, they could help a d-i-yer successfully navigate the entire process or put a homeowner in contact with a professional deck builder who could execute the entire process.

They leveraged both the strengths and the weaknesses of their competition in their own favor. This was an evolutionary process for the dealer, but in retrospect, the reason for its success is clear. The independent sells

20 times more decking, railing and accessories than the big box store. Talk about being given lemons and making lemonade-this dealer owned it. Each of the other case studies is as creative in thinking, but pragmatic in execution-and equally successful.

So, how would you go about doubling your decking business in 12 months? It requires, first, a deep selfevaluation. Ask yourself how committed you are to success. If You think you are 110% committed, then the lessons of toward,to and through will make sense. They were taught to me by Jesse, my son. That I learned those lessons playing disc golf is not important; ball golfers have learned these same lessons.

Toward. Toward lacks focus. It attempts, but it is not committed. Its efforts are merely in the general direction of a goal, but has no defined goal, and relies as much on good fortune as skill. This is the effort of the masses.

To.To is focused. The vision is clearly upon achieving the goal, and it depends on skill, not luck. It strives for success, but it is not fully committed and too often falls just short at the very moment of success.

Through. Through accepts the risk of overshooting, but will not risk falling short of the goal. Through never falls short. Through is the effort of winners.

If you are not I107, committed, find another area in the business where you can apply that degree of commitment.

What separates you from Your competition and far greater success than you are currently enjoying? MY experience suggests it's much less than you think. I am reminded of the difference when the temperature of water increases from 2ll" to 212" .lt flashes from liquid to gas and increases 1,600 fold in volume. One single degree makes all the difference. There is a tipping point. To double Your decking (insert any category) business, you must fully commit to winning and seeing it through. You must shoot through your goal.

What's the first steP? DeePlY evaluate the marketplace in which You compete. Why deeply? Because it's too easy to fool yourself and find the answers you already believe are the truth. Deep, honest evaluation asks you to assume nothing as a given, but to ask the hard questions and to listen, to understand and see with new eyes.

Who are your current customers? How strong are your relationshiPs? Really, how do you know? Who isn't your customer today that you want to have buying from you? How strong are they with their current supplier? Why aren't they buying from You? Do you know what they really think about your business? Who are the comPetitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How do they see You? Where are you weak and strong? Do you have the right products? Are You confusing customers? Are you buying the best way? The list goes on...

Are you able to ask and listen to the hard truths of why they are not doing business with you? Are you able to elicit, receive and welcome criticism? Will you allow yourself to see yourself through the customer's eyes?

A deep market analysis is followed by a willingness to see things as they are in the eyes of others, then to get in front of the right people, ask the right questions, and listen for the truths (opportunities) in their answers. This can be time consuming if you are deep in the fray, but it can be done.

There are numerous Professional resources to help You develoP Your plan. Some are free. Manufacturers can be a good resource for free local market information. Informal customer councils can Provide great information. Look to NADRA as a resource for higher level data. There are market intelligence resources available through a number of resources like Principia and Freedonia. Increasingly, there are third party experts like Lanies LBM Solutions and others that have taken this exact topic as the l00Ea focus of their company's mission. This full presentation, including the case study, is available upon request via GoToMeeting.

I'11 finish with a story about LarrY Walters, one of my personal heroes. Larry was a truck driver living in California who always dreamed of flying. On July 2,1982,LanY finallY did what he dreamed of for so long-he was flying. We first found out about him when a plane flying to LAX reported seeing something flying in the approach corridor that was not supposed to be there. A rePort from the crew of a second plane had the FAA scramble aircraft to investigate. It was Larry Walters. He had attached 43 helium-filled weather balloons to his aluminum lawn chair. He was also equipped with a BB gun, a CB radio with which he maintained ground contact, a couple of Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a six pack of beer, and a parachute. He heard all the reasons why he couldn't fly and ignored them, completed extensive planning, and, with unconventional execution. accomplished his dreams.

Upon landing (and as he was being handcuffed), reporters asked him if he was afraid. He replied, "Yes, wonderfully so!" When asked if he would do it again, he answered, "No!" And when asked why he did it, he rePlied, "You can only dream about something so long. Eventually you have to decide to do something about it."

I invite you to share Your stories with me. Good selling.

- Bill Ross is vp. of sales for Fiberon, New London, N.C., and president of the North American Deck & Rail Association. Reach him at billr@fiberon.com.