Stop Selling and Start Auditing

Stop trying to grow your revenues. 

Most CEOs I speak with have a "Revenue-First" bias. When margins shrink, their instinct is to call the VP of Sales and demand more volume.

This is a mistake. In many cases, it is a fatal one.

If your business is operationally inefficient, growth doesn't scale your profits—it scales your waste. 

I recently was involved in a case involving a $50M+ manufacturer in Texas. On the surface, they were "busy." Under the hood, they were bleeding. Their EBITDA was -5%.

The leadership team wanted to chase a massive new contract to "bridge the gap." I advised them to do the opposite: Stop selling and start auditing.

To fix a business in this position, you have to distinguish between symptoms and root causes.

A -5% EBITDA is a symptom. The root causes were found in three specific areas:

- Supply Chain "Margin Leaks": They weren't tracking landed costs accurately. They were paying premium shipping for low-margin goods, effectively paying for the privilege of serving their customers.

-Product Mix Complexity: They fell into the trap of being "everything to everyone." We identified the "busy" products that consumed 80% of the labor but provided 0% of the profit. We cut them.

-Asset Mismanagement: Their fleet replacement policy was non-existent. They were spending more to maintain aging trucks than it cost to lease new ones.

Seven months later, their EBITDA swung from -5% to +10%. Notice what didn’t happen: They didn't hire a single new sales rep. They didn't increase their marketing spend. They simply stopped doing things that didn't make sense.

In the consulting world, we say "Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity." If you want to take your business to the next level, you must have the courage to stop chasing the next big contract and start fixing the operational waste you’ve learned to tolerate.

What is the "hidden cost" in your business that you’ve been ignoring because you’re too busy selling?