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

How Accounts View Dealerships By Walter J. McDonald In our previous article on A/B Account Contact Frequency* we discussed the importance of building relationships with those top accounts that provide 80% of your business. An insightful way to measure progress in building those relationships is to determine how these A/B (and some C accounts) view your… Continue reading Relationship Hierarchy

How to Successfully Service All Machinery Customers By Steve Ross and Walter McDonald Structuring the Account Development Team The machinery dealer’s end-user customer is their most valuable asset. Yet, there is often minimal company-wide attention/coordination to maintain and develop this incredibly important relationship. Traditionally, the sole responsibility fell to the territory sales rep. However, today,… Continue reading Contact Strategy: Optimizing Market Share

Part 2:  DEAL Closure Rate skills by Walter J. McDonaldIn this second of our two-part Newsletter on Selling Skills, we will examine Essential Closure Rate Skills and introduce our guest contributor, Tom Paul, CEO of Pop Art, Inc., and his article on mobile apps as selling tools. As a review, two sets of selling skills are… Continue reading Essential Machinery Selling Skills

By Tom Paul, CEO of Pop Art. Inc., Guest Contributor Introduction In today’s fast-paced business environment, staying ahead in the competitive landscape requires sales teams to be equipped with the right tools and knowledge. Sales enablement, a strategic approach to provide resources and support to sales professionals, plays a crucial role in enhancing their productivity… Continue reading Empowering Equipment Distributors with Mobile Apps