An equipment sale can be like a fruit tree that bears future fruit (parts and service) for several years until the customer purchases their next piece of equipment. Your service sales also support the parts department, so making sure you maximize service sales is important to the long-term health of your business. Ensuring that your parts… Read more »
UTILIZING DASHBOARD REPORTS FOR SUCCESS Smart, profitable equipment dealers measure their businesses on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. These metrics guide decision-making that impact financial well-being. Get familiar with how to use a dealership management system dashboard to get an at-a-glance look at where your business stands at any given time and plot… Read more »
A SUPPLIER PRICE INCREASE: FRIEND OR FOE? Don’t let the initial response of emotional panic to price increases detract from the joys of what can be a financially rewarding outcome! A dealers’ typical response to supplier price increases is generally one of loss of control over the pricing process. This is geneally followed by a… Read more »
RECORD RETENTION – HOW LONG? Many business owners ponder about how long to hold on to certain documents or records. A very helpful list of documents and the recommended time to retain them was recently published in the Iowa-Nebraska Association’s March Retailer newlsetter. For many documents, the recommended time to be kept is seven years…. Read more »
11 Acronyms You Need To Know Are you tracking your P&S with a DMS? Adhering to your SOPs using your CRM? Love them or loathe them, acronyms are everywhere, and these are important ones that savvy equipment dealers should be familiar with. These 11 acronyms were reviewed in a special workshop session presented by ChannelMasters’… Read more »
CUSTOMER DATA & PRIVACY: WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL FOR DEALERS? Privacy policies and information security programs are no longer just for big retail chains! Attorney Lance Formwalt, of Seigreid Bingham, P.C. advises dealers that they need to be paying attention as well, and by taking steps now can reduce potential liability. “In many cases, you also have… Read more »
THE IMPORTANCE OF MANAGING SEQUENTIAL TASKS IN A DEALERSHIP In many dealerships, the sequence of tasks related to receiving and shelving inventory is dictated by the attitude that “we’ve always done it that way.” Ken Ackerman, logistics and warehousing expert shares his ideas on how changing the sequence in which work is performed can significantly… Read more »
WHAT AREAS CAN YOU IMPROVE TO INCREASE PARTS SALES? To get a better idea of where the industry is when it comes to its parts operations, Farm Equipment Magazine surveyed dealership parts managers and general managers in mid-December and asked industry expert George Russell of Currie Management Consultants for his perspective on the results. In… Read more »
DEALERS EMPOWERED BY ASSOCIATION DEALER MEETINGS While there were several blizzards in the Northeast, the real flurry is that of Northeast Equipment Dealer Association members returning to their dealerships to implement ideas they learned at the NEDA Regional Meetings held in February. “Our early February 2015 Annual/Regional Meetings were well received by all the dealers and… Read more »
ARE YOU TRACKING YOUR DEALERSHIP’S BUSINESS IN “REAL-TIME”? In a world where we’ve gotten quite used to knowing about and responding to an event almost immediately as it occurs, it only makes sense to use the same approach when tracking and responding to information related to your business. For example, in the same way that… Read more »