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 Jim Wilson Principal Consultant, The McDonald Group, Inc.
The subject of succession planning has bubbled up to the top of many people’s list because of the emergence of a large group of baby boomers, and those five to ten years behind whose thought and planning have turned toward retirement. A relatively robust economy may help the multiples of EBITDA for which some business… Continue reading Succession Planning: Twists and Turns
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By Debbie Frakes, Winsby Inc.
Machinery dealers know it is far more expensive to find new customers than to keep the ones they have. Yet, relatively few have formal programs to KEEP THE CUSTOMER. The cornerstone to Customer Retention is a good service-level monitoring effort. Once the entire organization is focused on providing excellence in customer support, a program to… Continue reading Customer Retention by the Numbers
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WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPETE IN TODAY’S MACHINERY RETAIL BUSINESS? HERE ARE THE AREAS THAT ARE ESSENTIAL TO YOUR SUCCESS. Data Analytics for Sales and Marketing StrategyThe typical machinery dealer has only 10% of customer emails and less than 75% of customer phone numbers available for sales, service and marketing programs. And, overall,… Continue reading Guiding Principles
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by Walter J. McDonald, CMC
Equipment Dealer Principals tell me, “Successfully setting up and managing a profitable remote start-up branch service and parts operation is one of the most difficult aspects of the equipment distribution business.” What is the Overall Strategic Objective for a New Service and Parts Branch Operations? What does a highly successful start-up branch look like? What… Continue reading Successful Branch Operations: How to Make a New Start-up Service Center Profitable
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By Dr. Nick McGaughey, C.P.A.
Digital Transformation Digital transformation has become a popular business term and activity. These changes require a willingness to unlearn the old ways and learn the new ways of doing business in a ‘being digital’ world. Dealerships usually adopt digital to do the things they already do, only better, faster, easier, and cheaper. Thereby, digitization increases… Continue reading Returns on Digital Investments
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By Walter J. McDonald
Machinery dealers today focus on improving profitability, cash flow, market share, andcustomer service and retention. Because machinery distribution is such a complex business, this can be a daunting challenge. A machinery dealership is really five or six very different businesses, often loosely connected by an information system. So, what is the best way to look… Continue reading How Do We?
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By Walter J. McDonald
What Does It Take to Successfully Compete in Today’s Machinery Distribution Business? Here Are Four Areas That Are Essential to Your Success. Data Analytics for Sales and Marketing Strategy Over the past decade there has been extensive research conducted on machinery business end- user customer relationships. A key finding was the discovery of which aspects… Continue reading Guiding Principles
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By Walter J. McDonald
STRATEGY answers the question where and how does “the general” (dealer ownership) position their scarce and costly resources? Your overall Strategy includes the fundamental set of decisions that must be made and made properly for the dealership to survive and prosper. A Proper Strategy enables the Dealer to achieve business objectives with greatest efficiency at… Continue reading Strategic Thinking for Dealers
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By Walter J. McDonald
Where are your equipment sales going to come from next year? Today, there are exciting NEW tools that help you identify a very large percentage of these potential sales way before they happen. The machinery and equipment industries have changed significantly since we were given a price book, shown how the machine worked and were… Continue reading Dynamite Tools to Build Deal Visibility
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By Walter J. McDonald
In my 7-volume Master’s Program book set, and in these Newsletters, we have been discussing useful and highly effective tools to build machinery market share. In this article, we summarize and prioritize essential market share building tools to help you achieve a dynamite 2021. Gaining equipment market share requires a lot more than just having… Continue reading Building Machinery Dealer Market Share:20 Essential Components of Success
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