In a surprising announcement, Frank Blake, the new CEO of Home Depot, says the company may shut down business operations with business contractors. Instead, Blake says the home improvement store giant will focus more on serving its retail customers.

Why change from the strategies championed by former CEO Bob Nardelli? Simple – it’s all about margin. Analysts say the Home Depot Supply Business offered such a low financial return for the company that it had become a distraction for its real bread and butter, the retail business. Home Depot’s wholesale distribution woes appear to have two causes. In the short run, there’s a slowed-down housing market and in the long term, strong competition from Lowe’s has kept prices too low to be profitable.

Basic business courses have long taught that if you lower prices you can make it up in volume. However, successful businesses have discovered that it’s not a game of volume; it’s a game of margin. Home Depot’s margins (profits) are in retail not in wholesale distribution, and Frank Blake’s strategic move, while appearing strange to some, may just be what the company needs to stay number one in the marketplace.

And by the way, don’t feel too bad for Home Depot if they do sell off its wholesale distribution business. Estimates of its worth range from $5 to $7.5 billion.

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The Tuesday’s Sales Truths are taken from Bill Brooks’ Book Entitled: Universal Sales Truths

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My answer is a simple, straightforward, yes! Le me ask you this…did you get up out of bed this morning? Turn on your computer and get to this blog posting? Click the right buttons to get here? You achieved 3 goals today, didn’t you?

The problem is not the goals – it is, perhaps, having the right goals. Some people stay in bed all day (their goal), don’t turn on any digital tool (their goal) and don’t want to learn anything (their goal).

So here’s the deal – if you are, by biological design, a goal seeker (still don’t believe me?…Try holding your breath for five minutes – you’ll probably find yourself sucking in precious air real fast), how about having some worthwhile goals?

What might they be? The sky is the limit. However, one of the first steps is to divide them into those areas of your life that matter most to you – family, professional, personal, spiritual, health and financial are great starters. Now, let your mind wander. What do you really (I mean, really, really) want?

• Restored health?
• A positive family unit?
• Career success?
• Financial security?
• A spiritual life?

It looks easy. But it’s not. YOU need to really step back and really start with a vision as to whom you want to be. Years ago, Lily Tomlin stared in a Broadway play. In that play she said, “All my life I wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.” How about you – should you start being more specific?

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Time is life. In fact, it is perhaps, the only inventory of anything that any of us have. Productivity is simply this: The amount of output per hour of work. Sounds simple doesn’t it?
But let me ask you 5 simple questions. In an hour:

• How often do you check your email?
• How often are you interrupted by drop-in visitors or unnecessary phone calls?
• How frequently does your attention wander?
• How much face-to-face selling time do you get (or client time, or patient time, or editing time – based on what your job is)?
• At the end of the day, each and every day, what have you really accomplished?

Here’s the problem. Time is elusive, intangible, invisible and finite. It is our most valuable resource. One day will be your last, won’t it? Someone once said that time is the space between eternities. Maybe they were right.

Time, to be managed, requires you to “invert your thinking.” To think from forward, back. Most people think from today, forward. Perhaps that is why so many people lead what Thoreau called, “lives of quiet desperation.”

To be more productive, realize that we’re talking about “work product” whether it is an idea, a strategy, a document, a sale, a widget or anything else. How “many” of “what you do” are you able to produce minute-by-minute or day-by-day.

That’s the bottom line. The next Productivity Pointer will be all about the secrets to better planning. Look for it.

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After reading about the recent JetBlue incident and the passengers who were stuck on the tarmac for 8 hours, I got to thinking about all the hours I’ve spent on airplanes.

When you build a national or international business over a 25 year period, you travel a lot. Millions of frequent flyer miles, thousands of flights, hundreds of lost bags and endless hours of delays are part of the story – and your life.

But the bright side of that experience for me was sitting beside such well-known people as Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, John Unitas, Mickey Mantle, Muhammad Ali, professional wrestlers, bull riders and everything in between. Music, film and other related celebrities were there too – Paul Newman, Red Buttons, Loretta Swit, Rod Steiger, Dave Robertson, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Patti LaBelle – the list goes on and on.

What did I learn? People are people – no matter who they are. The best way to have someone be interested in you is for you to be interested in them. Period.

The real lesson? If you do something often enough (like fly), you’ll see lots and lots of things if you keep your eyes open. Here’s the real story. Stay the course and build a business requiring travel you need to have:

• Physical stamina
• An understanding spouse or significant other
• Resiliency to rebound from setbacks, delays and problems
• Patience to deal with travel problems
• A tactical mind that enables you to switch plans, planes and priorities on a dime
• The capacity to deal with stress (and time zones)

Plus…the ability to identify the rich and famous without bothering them. It’s kind of like dealing with high level prospects, isn’t it?

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