Every Product Line Has a Donation (Here's How to Find Yours)
Somewhere in your line is a product that doesn't make you money. You probably already know which one. Here's how to prove it, and why you never kill it.
Somewhere in your line there's a product that doesn't make you money.
You probably already suspect which one. Most owners do. What they usually can't do is prove it. And what they almost never do is actually kill it.
There are real reasons for that. Sometimes it's a product you designed yourself, which makes it hard to look at straight. Sometimes a good customer likes it. Sometimes a rep swears it opens doors, which might even be true, though almost nobody has ever tested it. And sometimes discontinuing it just feels like admitting something.
Why Lines Get Bloated
Here's the thing about a product line. It doesn't stay the size you chose.
It grows by accretion. A colorway here. A variant for one buyer there. A holiday item that ties up cash for eleven months of the year. Each addition felt free at the time. None of them were.
Someone whose whole job is working out product costs for sellers said that once you have more than a few SKUs, true product cost gets confusing. If it's confusing to him, it's not a personal failing when it's confusing to you.
Every product you carry costs you something even when it just sits there. It takes a minimum order you have to fund. It takes space. It takes a slot in your catalog. And it takes attention away from the products that actually pay.
The One-Hour Exercise
This takes about an hour. It's worth ten.
List every product. Next to each one, write two numbers: units sold last year, and what one unit keeps after everything comes off. Then sort the list by the second number times the first.
Now look at the bottom third.
You're not going to kill all of them. Some are there for a reason that's genuinely worth the money. But you should be able to say what that reason is, out loud, for each one.
"It opens doors" is only a reason if you can name a door it actually opened.
The Question Most Owners Never Get Asked
If you had to cut half your line tomorrow, where would you start?
Most owners have never been asked that. It's a better question than it sounds, because the answer is usually right and usually ignored. You already know which products are quietly dragging. You just haven't given yourself permission to act on it.
Cutting a weak product does more than stop a small bleed. It frees the cash locked in that stock. It frees the space. It frees a catalog slot for something that pays. And it frees your attention, which is worth more than any of it.
You don't have to swing an axe through the whole line. Start with one. The one you'd kill if somebody made you. You already know its name.
If your line has grown past what you can clearly see, book a call here: https://thriveworks360.com/pre-book-a-call
We'll find the products quietly costing you money and figure out what's safe to cut. Often that's where the fastest cash is hiding.
Not ready to talk? Join our free community here: https://thriveworks360.app.clientclub.net/communities/groups/thrive-growth-community-free/home
for more on building a product line that actually pays.
Nathan
