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

By Walter J. McDonald Cash Flow is ranked as the number one issue of concern to Machinery Dealer Principals in a recent industry survey.  Everyone knows that “cash is king.”  But, how do you build the systems infrastructure to optimize dealer cash flow?   The amount of money flowing through a dealership makes cash control critical.… Continue reading Death by 10,000 Cuts Or, How to Improve Dealer Cash Flow

by Guest Contributor, Tim J. Murphy I attended a sales / product training meeting several years ago where customers using competitive equipment were part of a panel taking questions from our sales team.  One question posed was, “how often should a sales rep call on you?”  The response was classic and one that hit home.… Continue reading Participation Rate and Market Share