By Walter J. McDonald Why not discount parts and service sales to internal operations? (Rental fleet repairs, used equipment reconditioning and new equipment “pre-delivery” work). The three most frequently heard reasons given for discounting internal work include: Unfortunately, all three of these reasons are misleading. Here are the true facts. Here is an actual dealer… Continue reading The Case AGAINST Internal Discounts for Parts and Service Sales

By Walter J. McDonald What works and what doesn’t will depend a lot on your specific products and services, your business community, your competition, and your skills in how you promote your equipment business. Remember, the least expensive technique to generate good prospects is word of mouth. Foster good relationships with all people—employees, customers and friends—by treating them… Continue reading 45 Low-Cost Promotional Ideas for Your Equipment Dealership

Strategy is from Greek and means “Generalship.” Strategic Questions? What is this management challenge called Strategy? Strategy represents where and how “the general” positions scarce and costly resources. 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… Continue reading 6 Strategic Questions to Help Ensure Success

By Walter J. McDonald If your machinery dealer management team were to focus on only three activities to strengthen your competitive position, dramatically increase sales and vastly improve customer service what would they be? This year’s results are in. Here are the top three plus one: Plus one… We have high confidence in these recommendations… Continue reading Big Guns Get Big Results

By Walter J. McDonald High-performance Service and Parts Operations ultimately drive success in all areas of the machinery dealer business. Excellence in Service and Parts is just the ticket to play in today’s highly competitive market. If your Service and Parts performance is deficient, so is your Customer Service. And, this low-performing image casts a… Continue reading Accelerate Operations Improvement

OEM Dealer Sales Training focuses on developing product knowledge. OEMs routinely pass on responsibility for selling skills training to their Machinery Dealers. The Dealer Principal then passes selling skills training responsibility to their Sales Manager, if they have one.  And, finally, the Sales Manager often expects their machinery Sales Reps to develop selling skills on their… Continue reading Delivering Dynamite Sales Training

By Walter J. McDonald POSITION OPEN:  Machinery Dealer Service Manager Requirements:  Successful candidate must be a Superhero and a Magician. So, you have just been promoted from Service Technician to Service Manager. Holy #@&%!  What do you do now? No, you don’t have to be a Superhero or Magician to be successful. What do you… Continue reading Secrets of Successful Service Management

By Walter J. McDonald Over the next several issues of this Newsletter, we will take a deep dive into the Best Practices of Customer Service and Retention. First, we will look inward. What are the essential steps to build the Company Retention Team? Then, we look outward. What are the most powerful ways to build… Continue reading What are the Drivers of Customer Retention?

By Walter J. McDonald Executive Summary Absorption Rate is one of the most important performance ratios equipment dealerships should measure. The really big, profitable dealers demonstrate the significance of what improving Absorption Rate can do for the health and success of the dealership. The absolute number representing “Recovery Rate” is interesting, but not a call… Continue reading How to Develop Financial Competence In Your Management Team