Our blog has a mix of articles written by our founder, Walter McDonald, and by other industry experts, business owners, and equipment dealer team members. Learn about everything from marketing ideas to tips for successful branch operations to how to retain customers—and everything in between!
By Walter J. McDonald
A dealer VP of Aftermarket recently purchased my new 600-page Service Management—Machinery Dealer Manager’s Handbook. In my discussion with him, he stated his three priority issues were: Here are the recommendations I provided on how to address his three priority topics. Step one is to identify quantitative performance benchmarks of highly successful dealers for each of… Continue reading Utilizing Service Management Tools
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By Walter J. McDonald
It wasn’t long ago: Parts “managers” were super parts countermen, chasing down parts, answering phones, scrambling to help impatient technicians, servicing even more impatient counter customers, and trying to respond to their manager who wanted to know why the UPS shipments from last week had not been put away yet. Fortunately, today most dealer owners… Continue reading Parts Management: Accelerating Performance
By Walter J. McDonald
Participation Rate is the key to market share growth for a machinery dealer. However, there are two machinery distributor deal participation rates. And, the opportunity for one occurs much more frequently than the other. Each Participation Rate reflects purchase activity between an end user and the machinery dealership. The Primary Participation Rate is the customer’s… Continue reading Participation Rates and Market Share
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By Walter J. McDonald
The most successful machinery dealership rental operations are under the close control of a Rental Bus Driver. This Revenue Center Manager is responsible for the overall profitable operations of the department. To be successful, your rental business management process must include qualitative insights together with quantitative performance metrics that are reviewed weekly. Today’s rental market… Continue reading Building a Wildly Successful Machinery Rental Business
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By Debbie Frakes
People visit your website, because they are interested in your products and services. But if you don’t know who they are and when they visit, you may never have the opportunity to welcome them as a customer. More than 90% to 95% of purchasers (customers and prospects) will investigate a dealer by visiting their website… Continue reading Who’s visiting your website?
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By Walter McDonald
The absolute number representing “Recovery Rate” is interesting but not a call to action. It only indicates your current position relative to the target score of 100% Absorption Rate. Managers look at it and say WOW with little insight into how to make any improvements. Fixed Operating Expenses are those dealer expenses that do not… Continue reading What Impacts Dealer Absorption Rate?
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By Walter J. McDonald
The two big CASH TRAPS in machinery dealerships are: Old un-sold used trade-in units Obsolete parts inventory. Dealers who launch serious Operations Improvement efforts for the first time often find they have as much as 35-40% of parts inventory value in dead/obsolete stock. This article discusses reasonable and practical approaches to eliminate parts inventory line… Continue reading Eliminating Obsolete Inventory
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By Walter J. McDonald
There are three types of Inventory. These definitions will help in your efforts to manage inventory and optimize profitability: A-B-C-D Inventory Control Still Works The old approach to classifying inventory by the way items are sold still works. However, we recommend 13 classes instead of 4 because this aids in determining stocking levels. With your… Continue reading Parts Inventory Control and Re-Order Optimization
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By Walter J. McDonald
The wise and skillful Parts Manager learns how to satisfy, simultaneously, the conflicting interests of his two primary constituents: dealer ownership and dealer customers. Customers demand high off-shelf fill rates which tend to increase inventory investment. Dealer Ownership demands high asset productivity. The challenge is to do both extremely well. The figure below illustrates how… Continue reading Value of Effective Parts Management
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By Walter J. McDonald
By now everyone on the planet is feeling the impact of supply chain disruptions. And, for the machinery dealer, this becomes both a problem as well as an opportunity. But, to survive, the dealer needs to strategically work around these challenges. The problem with manufacturers extending lead times from weeks to months, makes timely end-of-lifecycle… Continue reading Surviving the Supply Chain Crisis
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