Our blog has a mix of articles written by our founder, Walter McDonald, and by other industry experts, business owners, and equipment dealer team members. Learn about everything from marketing ideas to tips for successful branch operations to how to retain customers—and everything in between!
By Walter J. McDonald
If you are facing a promotion or additional responsibilities as a Machinery Dealer Department or Branch Manager or even a Division Executive, congratulations! You are anxious to get started and do the best job you can. However, in many circumstances the challenges in this new position can be formidable. And, at first glance, the magnitude… Continue reading The Problem Solving Process
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By Walter J. McDonald
Market Share is like Mom’s apple pie, the bigger your slice the better! Market Share gains occur because we outsmart and outwit our competitors. But, to get a bigger slice, you must have the basics in place. A very surprising recent research study shows that 95% of equipment sales are to CURRENT customers, buying Parts… Continue reading 7 Tools to Build Market Share
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On Becoming a More Effective Dealer Manager
I — The Transaction Level Why do so many dealer sales and operations managers appear to be stuck at the transaction level? They may be caught up in a whirlwind of activities, chasing back orders, struggling with rework, running after sales or rental deals. They may be constantly reacting to emergencies, never getting ahead of… Continue reading Hierarchy of Dealer Knowledge
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By Walter McDonald
One of my most popular sales training sessions is on how to ask for and get sales referrals. Sometimes there is a little confusion between a “referral” and a “testimonial.” A testimonial is a statement from a satisfied customer about the excellent performance of your equipment, your dealership or your people. Testimonials can be extremely… Continue reading 6 Great Times to Get Sales Referrals
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By focusing on these 6 metrics
The key to maintaining the health of your business over the long term is retaining your current customers, expanding sales of all products and services to existing accounts, and maintaining a consistent lead flow to convert new prospects. In other words, the way to build your customer base is to consistently focus on retaining and… Continue reading Build Your Customer Base
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Maybe the largest lost source of Revenue/Profit/Customer Loyalty in Dealerships By Donald Green
What one additional action by dealerships could significantly reduce Unexpected Downtime for machinery customers, with the potential to increase business at minimal cost? A Dealer’s success story — While visiting a good friend and fishing buddy in Corpus Christi, Texas, he gave me an amazing market share statistic. He had over 60% market share with… Continue reading Preventing Unexpected Downtime!
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By Jim Wilson Principal Consultant, The McDonald Group, Inc.
The subject of succession planning has bubbled up to the top of many people’s list because of the emergence of a large group of baby boomers, and those five to ten years behind whose thought and planning have turned toward retirement. A relatively robust economy may help the multiples of EBITDA for which some business… Continue reading Succession Planning: Twists and Turns
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By Debbie Frakes, Winsby Inc.
Machinery dealers know it is far more expensive to find new customers than to keep the ones they have. Yet, relatively few have formal programs to KEEP THE CUSTOMER. The cornerstone to Customer Retention is a good service-level monitoring effort. Once the entire organization is focused on providing excellence in customer support, a program to… Continue reading Customer Retention by the Numbers
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WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPETE IN TODAY’S MACHINERY RETAIL BUSINESS? HERE ARE THE AREAS THAT ARE ESSENTIAL TO YOUR SUCCESS. Data Analytics for Sales and Marketing StrategyThe typical machinery dealer has only 10% of customer emails and less than 75% of customer phone numbers available for sales, service and marketing programs. And, overall,… Continue reading Guiding Principles
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by Walter J. McDonald, CMC
Equipment Dealer Principals tell me, “Successfully setting up and managing a profitable remote start-up branch service and parts operation is one of the most difficult aspects of the equipment distribution business.” What is the Overall Strategic Objective for a New Service and Parts Branch Operations? What does a highly successful start-up branch look like? What… Continue reading Successful Branch Operations: How to Make a New Start-up Service Center Profitable
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