Small Business Metrics

John, I had not answered this that you requested… . “a list of sales by territory by rep by item for each month of the last three years” so you can guide me to the secret weapon for develop a sales plan…. I am attaching the information that I was able to prepare... ... What do you think?..how would we come up with a sales plan from this information? Regards! AA

Yikes!  That is scary...  I can see why you sold $2 mil and lost money.....

so you establish metrics...  

Say you have (or want) a 5 mil a year biz...  then...

100% mark-up...

that would be maybe 500 SKUs

then, each item must support at least $10,000 in sales to make it into the line...

How does it get into the line?

It starts as a sample at a trade show that must get enough orders from customers to co ver the suppliers minimum order requirement in a workable amount of time, profitably.  if not, it is either redesigned to do so, or it is dumped...

If it gets to $10,000 in sales within a year, it stays....

Until it begins to drop...  the it is redesigned based on feedback or dropped...  about 20% of your items are dropped each year, and 20% new items added....  when you want stasis at say 5 mil/yr...

Your report looks as though you said yes to a lot of customers when "no" should be your most common reply to any request by buyers......  real buyers need a "no" before they can buy...

There is more, but this is the outline...

John

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