Don’t miss your opportunity for the upcoming four webinars on Parts Management.
Tuesday and Wednesday two each day; TeleSelling, Basic Inventory Control, Pricing and Warehousing. Productive high content instructional webinars.
The time is now
Pricing – WP4
Your price is a marketing tool but most of you don’t use it that way. How often have we heard that “your price is too high” or “I can get it down the street for less”? How well customer contact personnel respond to these and other comments about your prices is critically important to your success. The price points you use should be a product of your need to make money and the competitive nature of your marketplace.
Over the years dealers have applied a methodology called “matrix pricing.” This approach started in the 1970’s and it still continues today, well beyond its useful life. We will explain how it works and we will also expose the “new” realities in price theory for the parts business. Looking into the new approach of applying a “array” of variables to develop a selling price; activity, price, competitiveness, and inventory risk. This four element array leads to several thousand mark ups designed to allow the dealer to attach a price that will be competitive while at the same time produce an overall gross profit that allows the Company to maintain the profit required to sustain itself.
Learning the impact of a discount on your business is a critical aspect of defending your price. See the impact on gross profit and net profit. Learning how to respond to price objections and overcome them is a principle that is important to understand and is discussed in this webinar. This webinar will be beneficial for anyone in the parts business that is touching customers with the responsibility for selling or customer service.
You can register at www.rjslee.com or www.aednet.org
Warehousing – WP3
That big area in your facility stuffed with parts can and should be a showcase for your dealership. A distribution center which has been designed and developed to be space effective, productive and safe is a wondrous thing. Not many equipment dealerships have such a warehouse. Do they? A warehouse stores parts, it requires that there are aisles for people and equipment to perform the order picking and receiving functions as well as the physical counts. It also has to have packing and shipping benches as well as staging areas for inbound and outbound shipments. And finally there are the shipping and receiving docks.
This webinar will present warehouse theory from what the location number should consist of to the sizing principals to use in determining the storage space required. It will expose different picking methods and the appropriate storage media and material handling equipment for each. The metrics of picking and packing, storage efficiency, shipping and receiving and dock handling will be developed.
The overall sizing theory of cubic and square foot requirements for each part number stored and systems to utilize that will tell you which location size should be used for which part and how many of each of these location sizes are required helps with the designs and layouts of your warehouse in a manner that can be used by everyone. This is a commonsense expose of a little understood area in a dealership: The warehouse.
Don’t forget to register at www.rjslee.com or www.aednet.org
Basic Inventory Control – WP2
Have we completed the transformation of the inventory from being managed by people to being controlled by systems? This webinar will reintroduce the fundamentals of Inventory Control so that everyone can understand why we have the parts we have and don’t have the parts we don’t have. In the market today customers and demanding more service from suppliers and suppliers are shrinking assets at the same time. That is quite a contradiction and one which is impossible to explain without knowledge of the subject. How do we expect the customer contact personnel to be able to serve customers without understanding Inventory Management? This webinar solves that problem.
The basics of order point and order quantity theory will be discussed and explained in a style that is simple yet clear. Lead times, order costs and carrying charges will be exposed and details given as to their content. The fundamental metrics to employ to maintain control of the performance from the inventory rules in the dealer business system will also be covered.
Finally the Backorder Analysis function will be described in detail such that the participants can proceed from the webinar to the operation and conduct this analysis and determine what it is that is causing backorders and what they should do about it. The program will provide you with the understanding and tools necessary to manage a parts inventory more effectively.
You can register at www.rjslee.com or www.aedorg.net
Tele-selling – WP1
A new reality is approaching, by now everyone has been affected by “telemarketing”. Customers and consumers are starting to resist it. That is clear from the laws that are being presented and passed. Customers want service, they want customer service calls. As a result the rules that are set for your telemarketing program should emphasize your wish to have an effective telemarketing program to provide your customer base with high quality customer service. It can be as simple as a word. That word is tele-selling.
Each person has an aura, a reputation in the company or in the market. This presence is a function of many things; knowledge, personality, the quality of voice, the intangibles of attitude. It is the feeling of trust that the customer has in the person on the other end of the telephone. This is a condition that is earned and achieved it is not something that can be mandated.
In telephone selling the customer either has called with the need or you are calling to see if there is a need. Yet now we confront the dilemma. Rarely, if ever, has anybody provided training on tele-selling. This program will provide you with an outline, an approach, to use when selling on the telephone. This program will provide you with a plan, a structure, and with this structure your tele-selling future can get off to a successful start.
You can register via www.rjslee.com or www.aednet.org
See you then
Once again I had the privilege of providing an educational session for the NTEA. The subject matter was Parts & Service Marketing: Making a Difference.
The dramatic changes that have taken place over the past ten years, and those ahead, demand a more professional, productive and profitable Product Support Operation. To support the realization of this Parts and Service Opportunity we have designed this program aimed at those charged with the responsibility of managing this segment of the business. Parts & Service Marketing – Making a Difference consists of 6 elements presented during this learning session.
The Customer Service Focus
Why this is no longer a fad but deadly serious business. We explore the various aspects of customer service – what they are and how can we learn to be better at them.
Defining Customers
The “customer” has become a generic description of who we serve. We need to segment the markets that we serve and define the customer more precisely using a broad array of categories that allow us to more completely define customers with similar needs and wants.
Customer Relations
Expectations must be understood and shaped – when, why and how can they be changed in order to provide systems, procedures, methods, tools and training that will meet the expectations. Satisfaction of customer expectations requires us to have internal excellence in everything we do.
Designing Customer Service Excellence
Understanding who your customer is and what they require is critical in designing service excellence. People perform service, create expectations, satisfy expectations and create the perception of a difference.
Customer Loyalty
Strong Products or Services are central to customer loyalty and loyalty must be a company wide commitment. Everything should be aimed at creating and maintaining this loyalty. We discuss the tools and methods to create, develop, and maintain loyalty.
Measuring and Managing Success
Long term behavior is critical in understanding the return on investment from Parts & Service Marketing initiatives. Clear goals, measurement criteria and profit targets must be constantly reviewed and adjusted to adapt programs to changing customer needs and expectations.
We had a good turnout and some good dialogue. Thanks to all.
Check out the link below and register early so you don’t miss out on these comprehensive high value learning experiences.
https://www.aednet.org/aed_foundation/articles/index_full_story.cfm?id=10930616
We have just completed the Unit I classes for Parts Management and Service Management in Dallas. It was a lively four days of debate and discussion.
I have enjoyed the time and I feel confident that the attendees will have success implementing many of the things they learned.
One thing is clear. To succeed in anything there needs to be three distinct elements.
We all have to UNDERSTAND what it is we are trying to do. Then we need to engage in vigorous debate on whether that UNDERSTANDING is the right thing to do. Only with this debate can we come to ACCEPTANCE of the validity of the UNDERTANDING and only with UNDERSTANDING and ACCEPTANCE will we be able to obtain the COMMITMENT of all team members to accomplish the goals and objectives set forward.
The time is now.
Please note the below.
https://www.aednet.org is the proper domain for the AED regarding the registration for Parts Management Quest training.
Don’t miss your opportunity to attend the most comprehensive management training available for parts management and supervision in the Equipment Industry. In Dallas February 17th and 18th. You can register either at www.rjslee.com under the learning tab or at www.aednet.com . I look forward to seeing you there.
The time is now
The “New” Quest Parts Management – Unit I
What it looks like when it is Right
A more professional, productive and profitable Parts Operation is necessary for the distributors in the Capitals Goods Industries to be successful. To assist in the development of this Parts Management team we have designed a new series of training courses aimed at enhancing the skills of those charged with this responsibility. The “New Quest Parts Management Unit I” consists of 4 elements presented during a two day seminar.
The Basic Principles of Management – what we call the Pursuit of Performance: Planning, Organizing and Control; Job Descriptions and Responsibilities, Performance Standards and Targets – what it looks like when it is right; Employee counseling with praise and constructive criticism in Personnel Management; Time Management to set yourself free; The Business of Change and how to overcome resistance to change; How to survive in spite of ourselves.
Understand Financial Statements from the Parts Department Perspective. Clear and understandable definitions of the main financial terminology a supervisor/manager must have. Learn the Dealership Financial Fitness Model; and Profitability Pyramid. Asset Management and the value of Return On Assets. Pricing and Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) Discover new truths about the famous “Discount” and the consequences of it on the customer and the business.
Balancing Inventory Requirements with Customer Service: The impossible made understandable. Order Points and Order Quantities; Lead Times and the EOQ; Order Cost and Carrying Cost. Unleash your true power of knowledge by learning the theory of Inventory Control in all its glory. In physical distribution – the job everyone thinks they can do is easy but no one wants to do: Storage systems, transportation logistics; Shipping & Receiving; Parts Office, Sales Counter and In store Merchandising Design and Layout that makes sense.
Satisfying everyone’s requirements and developing relationships: “Up Selling”, Product knowledge, Features & Benefits selling, and effective telephone techniques. How you should use price as a marketing tool. In store displays and merchandising; Value added selling; and the value of Customer Retention. Surveys to develop satisfied customers for life: Customer Profiles and all the background required to make customers your apostles.
This “New Quest Parts Management Unit I” provides a broad base introduction to Parts Management for the 21st Century. It is intended for Parts Lead hands, In store Sales Lead hands, Supervisors, Managers and Executives. The material covers all of the management and operational disciplines required of a Professional Parts Manager.
