The basics — the blocking and tackling — are the moving of products from manufacturers and vendors to contractors and end users. It sounds simple enough, but the logistics of accomplishing this task are in fact very complex. The process of keeping everything running smoothly takes a team dedicated professionals.

You can have salespeople who are the absolute best in converting leads to orders, but if the orders are not processed, filled, delivered, and billed in the right manner, your chance of receiving repeat sales will vanish. You need to be able to forecast the needs of not only your existing customers but also the customers you are hoping to bring on board. If you are projecting a 25% growth rate but only bring in enough stock to just satisfy your current customers, your growth rate will be doomed unless you have extremely quick access to additional stock.

The double-edged sword is that you cannot bring in too much stock that doesn’t turn. Few suppliers can afford to sit on a large amount of stock. The carry cost of stock is expensive and will draw down on your profit, so stocking and forecasting takes experience and skill.

A successful supply house must have a well-oiled warehouse staff that is able to receive products, returns, etc., as fast as they can deliver orders and complete transfers. A major part of the blocking and tackling is done in the warehouse and on the counters. A supply house is a transactional business with hundreds of thousands of orders taking place. You need a team of qualified folks who understand what the customers need and find a way to provide them with that.

The counter and warehouse are where the action is, and where business is won and lost. The real customer-facing part of your business is here.

Your truck driver could very well be the main face that your largest customer sees on a daily basis. How does your truck driver represent your business? Similarly, your counter staff needs to be well trained and armed with technology to quickly assist your customers. Hopefully your company has a robust website so customers can also place orders online, which will speed up ordering and allow them to place orders any time, day or night.

Your sales team is ultimately only as good as the blocking and tackling that have taken place. If you’re a football fan, you know how maddening it can be to have an elite quarterback who is never able to play to his potential because the line cannot block. If you can’t keep your QB from being sacked or hit every time he drops back, you will never win any games. The same is true of your sales staff: If the deliveries are missed or the product isn’t ordered in time, it doesn’t matter how well you can covert a customer, because if this is the service they are receiving, it is only a matter of time until they are purchasing from a competitor.

A good territory manager will realize when sales are overwhelming the staff or when the team is short-handed, and immediately will chip in to help out wherever they can. I spent a good amount of time one summer in a delivery truck making sure we made our jobsite deliveries on time. I made sure the warehouse manager and store manager knew to keep me in the loop if help was needed. We were trying to hire help, but we were growing at such a rapid rate that our training and hiring of staff fell behind the volume of new sales.

It is important to deliver on the great service that you promise to your new customers, so the big mistake would be to continue to try to bring in more business when you know service levels are already suffering due to amount of new business that has already been brought in.

I’m not going to lie and say I was happy to be doing deliveries, but it was what was needed at the time. We have a great team and they quickly brought in good people, and soon I was back on the road working to bring in more business. It is a salesperson’s business, as much as anyone’s, to make sure that your core business is receiving the highest level of service.

If your customers are complaining on a regular basis, then it is up to you to help figure out the right solution. Is it simply a matter of training, or have procedures been skipped? You need to work with your people to get back on track. It is the reason the NFL has offensive and defensive line coaches; they make sure the lineman do not miss assignments and everyone works as a cohesive unit.

You have to sometimes be the voice of your customers. Some customers are just too nice to complain, and they will just leave if the service stays bad long enough. You have plenty of customers who will be vocal and let their displeasure be known, but at the same you need to speak up for the customers you know who are also having services issues yet won’t complain that loudly.

It may seem at times that the only thing you are ever doing is the basics of blocking and tackling, but that is OK for a while. People must be trained, and the service bar should always be raised higher, so employees will have to adjust. The best way to grow any business is by word of mouth; that will not happen if you’re missing assignments.

The teams that win the Super Bowl have definitely mastered the art of blocking and tackling. You must do the same if you want to win the largest share of the market in which you compete.

Good luck and, as always, happy selling!