As the year 2012 starts out, dealers are taking advantage of the uncommon lull and assessing the past year and how their business performed. While the sales season approaches, it's necessary to take note of your strengths and weaknesses in 2011 and make changes to set yourself up for a better year ahead.
In his column, Bob Clements gives direction for seeing how your service department measures up. Paying close attention to the records of the service manager and sales writer, and pushing for more billable hours and add-on repairs, can lead to a strong and profitable year for the service department in 2012.
Evaluating the different areas of the business and how they contribute to your successes and failures is important. It helps to revisit the showroom and the product lines you carry. How do they meet customer demands? How do the different lines round out your offering?
You may be weak in a certain product segment, or decide a new line could revamp the show floor and pique customer interests. Maybe a partnership with a manufacturer isn’t what it used to be, or the quality of the product has begun to suffer. Whatever the reason, this is assess-your-products season!
That's why we have decided to make our first issue of the year our Spring Product Guide. This is the best time to evaluate partnerships and products, as you plan for the spring sales season. Go into it with products you trust and manufacturers that will back you up.
Having confidence in the equipment and your relationships will translate to a better experience for your customer. Would you want to sit down for a meal in a small independent restaurant, ask the waitress to recommend something and hear them say, "I'd avoid the chicken, it's dry"?
Offer only products you can speak confidently about to your customers. You should be certain of their quality and the manufacturer's readiness to right any kind of wrong with the product. Why would you back a manufacturer you didn’t think was ready to back you?
Additionally, simplify your "menu" of product options, giving customers a few quality products from each category to choose from. Many restaurants pick a few things to be really good at and focus on really delivering a quality meal to the customer.
Having too many options can mean not only a tougher decision for the customer, but an unsatisfying experience when the staff is not expert on that product. And much like a restaurant that overstocks food for a large menu of items, then tosses much of that stock when it goes bad, you could end up with a showroom full of equipment at the end of the season.
What are you good at? What do you customers look for? What manufacturers do you want to partner with? Remind customers why they choose you over the big box store down the street. They want a focused product offering and a knowledgeable staff, not rows and rows of product and no one to educate and assist them in their purchase.
